Catalan & Spanish Authorities knew about Imam to masterminded the Barcelona attack

obertscloud
Aug 27, 2017 · 6 min read

Recently news sources are reporting about Catalan police knowing about the ISIS attack before it was attacked.

A total of 16 people died after terrorists drove a van through Las Ramblas, Barcelona on August 17, less than a day after a house exploded killing suspected ring leader Abdelbaki Es Satty

A cell of 12 jihadists has been blamed for the attacks. Eight are dead, while four have appeared in court in Madrid.

Hospitals in Catalonia and Zaragoza are treating 24 other people for injuries, the Catalan health department says:

  • The condition of five of those hurt in the Barcelona attack is critical; three are in a serious condition and 12 are in a less serious state
  • One of those hurt in the Cambrils attack is in a serious condition, with three others in a less serious condition

According to the Sunday Times, the Catalan police failed to co-ordinate with the national security services in Madrid.

However the political system is trying to place all the blame on the Catalan government. However the truth is that the Guardia Civil and National Police (Spanish Authorities) were also tipped off by Belgium and other EU intelligence agencies.

On the eve of the Catalan independence vote, the Spanish goverment is admitting to Spaniards that it did nothing to protect it’s own citizens and also as worse, the tourists and children who died in vain.

The Los Mossos d’Esquadra police force received information that Es Satty was responsible for radicalising young Muslims behind the terrorist attacks. They failed to act on the intelligence which could have possibly prevented the atrocity.

No one questioned how that the Spanish authorities caught up with the 2nd cell that was going to bomb another place, it was not just from the explosion. They knew where they lived and did not even have them under surveillance.

Both goverments ignored intelligence from Belgium warning about Es Satty’s extremist links.

One source said the house explosion where Es Satty is believed to have died 24 hours before the Barcelona attack should have been a warning. A source said: ‘If the first explosion had been investigated, the conclusion that a terrorist attack was being prepared should have been reached.’

The Spanish government tried to throw Abdelbaki Es Satty, 42, out of the country in 2014 after he served a sentence for drug smuggling.

But a judge said two EU directives gave Es Satty the right to stay in the country — because he did not pose a ‘serious threat’.

After the failed attempt to deport him, Es Satty went on to brainwash members of the cell who carried out two terror attacks in Barcelona and nearby Cambrils earlier this month.

A written judgment reveals judge Pablo de la Rubia blocked Es Satty’s deportation because of EU laws.

The judge highlighted two EU Council Directives — numbers 2003/109/EC and 2001/40/EC — which prevented the Madrid government from booting him out.

The EU directives say member states can only deport non-EU nationals who pose a ‘serious and present threat to public order or national security and safety’.

The judge ruled Es Satty was not a threat — because he had only been convicted of one offence and because he was making attempts to ‘integrate’ into Spanish society.

Es Satty was arrested in January 2010 on a ferry to Spain from north Africa, with 121 kilos of cannabis resin worth POUNDS 162,000 packed into a van.

He was jailed for four years and a month and served two thirds of his sentence in a prison in Castellon, north east Spain. It is believed he became radicalised while behind bars.

When he was released in 2014 the Spanish government issued a deportation order, expelling him from the country for five years.

Spanish law permits the government to deport foreign criminals who have been jailed for a year or more once they have served their sentence.

Senior government official David Barelles wrote on the order that Es Satty posed ‘a real threat which is sufficiently serious to justify his expulsion’.

But Es Satty appealed — insisting he had a right to stay in Spain despite his conviction.

His won his case at the Contentious-Administrative Court Number 2 in Castellon in April 2015.

Citing the two EU directives, judge De la Rubia wrote: ‘Although the conduct of the accused is serious, there is only one offence, which is old, and it is claimed he has laid down employment roots in Spain, which demonstrate his efforts at integration into Spanish society.’

The judge added that it would be ‘disproportionate’ to deport the Moroccan.

After leaving prison, Es Satty became the Iman of the mosque in Ripoll, a small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, 65 miles north of Barcelona.

He radicalised local youths, mostly Moroccan immigrants aged 17 to 34, and is thought to have been the leader of the 12-man cell who brought mayhem to the region last month.

The gang plotted a terrorist ‘spectacular’ using vans packed with bombs made from butane-gas bottles and the explosive TATP — nicknamed the Mother of Satan.

They planned to blow up targets including the famous Sagrada Familia basilica.

But the plot was foiled when their bomb factory in Alcazar, 125 miles south west of Barcelona, exploded — killing Es Satty and another member of the cell.

Police initially thought the explosion was caused by a gas leak. They later found a book in the rubble linking the house, and specifically Es Satty, to ISIS.

After the explosion foiled their original plan, the gang carried out a less sophisticated attack on August 17.

Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, drove a van down Las Ramblas, killing 14 pedestrians including seven-year-old Brit Julian Cadman, and injuring more than 100.

Abouyaaqoub fled on foot and then carjacked Spaniard Pau Perez, 35, stabbing him to death and stealing his Ford Focus.

Later that night five other members of the gang ploughed into pedestrians in the seaside town of Cambrils before going on the rampage with an axe and large knives, stabbing one person to death.

Four were shot dead by a patrolling police officer, who happened to be a former elite soldier. The fifth was shot by another officer.

Abouyaaqoub, the Barcelona van driver, was later cornered and shot dead by police last Monday.

Last week it emerged Belgian authorities asked Spanish police in 2016 if Es Satty was linked to Islamic terrorism.

Es Satty lived in Vilvoorde, then a hotbed of extremism on the outskirts of Brussels, in early 2016.

Locals warned police that he was preaching hatred among the muslim population. And a Belgian police officer emailed counterparts in Spain saying: ‘The more information you can share about this individual the better.’

On March 8, 2016 the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, replied that Es Satty was not known to be linked to terrorism.

But last week it was reported that police obtained a warrant to tap the Iman’s phone calls in 2005 as he was suspected of being linked to al-Qaeda. Despite these suspicions he was never arrested for terrorism offences.

However both the Spanish and Catalan Governments knew of his links and were warned. But they failed to warn the people of Spain, or do anything about it.

This is causing an outrage and outcry among Spaniards and the families and loved ones who were killed in the attacks.

If more news breaks on this story, there will be riots and protests in Spain against both governments.

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