1. Good morning all. Late last night, I got a call from a source briefed on the Barcelona inquiry. What I learned: https://t.co/rR0WCUB2Tu— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
2. There were 3 related events: 1. An explosion in a house in Alcanar on Wed, the van attack in Barcelona Thurs and car attack in Cambrils— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
3. According to my source, police learned from rental car company that attackers had tried to rent a large truck. See ISIS' instructions: pic.twitter.com/T1V2S2dj94— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
4. Source briefed on investigation says they were foiled when the driver failed to produce the necessary permit to drive the large vehicle.— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
5. At that point, they decided to rent 2 smaller vans. Investigators then tied men to building in Alcanar that blew up Wed. Check out damage pic.twitter.com/iTdvJha5bV— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
6. That explosion had initially been dismissed as a gas leak. When they went back, they found house had been stocked with gas bottles— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
7. Investigators believe the attackers had a Plan A, a plan B and a Plan C.— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
8. Plan A was to load the large truck with explosives & ram it causing a catastrophic explosion. That failed bc they couldn't rent big truck— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
9. Plan B was to load 2 smaller vans with explosives. That failed too. They didn't know how to prep the explosive & blew up house instead pic.twitter.com/YjI0nruAAK— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
10. That brought them to Plan C which was to use 2 smaller cars to ram people, first on the Ramblas, and later in the town of Cambril— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
11. What I also learned came from the erudite Lorenzo Vidino of @gwupoe, who spent part of 2012 studying Salafists in Catalan— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
12. Lorenzo Vidino explained to me that the town of Cambrils where the attack happened is next to Salou. Both play a role in the 9/11 attack pic.twitter.com/i0HAmEmSIA— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
13. It was in Salou that Mohamed Atta, the pilot of 1st plane to fly into the World Trade Center, had a key meeting with an al-Qaeda figure: pic.twitter.com/GRmhZZehM6— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
14. Here's the 2002 reporting of colleague Doug Frantz who traveled to the coastal villages to piece together 9/11: https://t.co/s0zlhhNthE— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
15. Larger point that Lorenzo Vidino made to me is that coastal area south of Barcelona (Tarragona, Cambrils, Salou) is a hotbed of Salafism pic.twitter.com/r1Q6pj7J0j— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
16. Another connection: 1 of the worst losses Italy faced in Iraq was the 2003 bombing which killed 19 Italians: https://t.co/VOMfF6iLjU— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
17. The suicide bomber was a foreign fighter who hailed from Vilanova i la Geltru, another little town in same area: https://t.co/aPIhsGSxBH— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 18, 2017
6 comments:
In that top picture, the man standing and bending over, is that a muskrat on the top of his head?
We may never know their motive.
This is the first I have read of Spain being such a breeding ground for these savages.
Anywhere there is a mosque, there is a breeding ground.
Thank goodness it apparently takes a certain amount of competency to kill a large amount of people.
Remember that bomb that fizzled in Times Square. If the bomber had simply rented a van and driven it on the sidewalk, the attack would have been a success. If I can think this, so can a terrorist. It doesn't take an enormous amount of ingenuity to kill people, and, in fact, too much ingenuity can backfire......I don't know if they'll ever surpass 9/11 for mass murder, but nine hundred more random attacks will produce a similar body count. We must redouble our efforts to lay teddy bears and flowers at the scenes of these attacks.
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