Judge Accuses Suspected al Qaeda Members

ByABC News
November 19, 2001, 9:06 PM

M A D R I D, Spain, Nov. 19 -- Police in Spain believe they have made some of the mostsignificant arrests yet inconnection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

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A judge in Spain this weekend filed formal charges against eight alleged members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network, which is suspected of being behind the suicide hijacking raids.

Investigators believe the group's leader was Imad Eddin BarakatYarkas, aka Abu Dahdah. They say Dahdah and the seven other suspects formed a cell in Spain that had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks and were planning their own their own strikes on U.S.interests across Europe.

The suspects "were directly linked to the preparation andcarrying out of the attacks perpetrated by 'suicide pilots' onSept. 11, 2001," Judge Baltasar Garzon said in his order Sunday.

The move followed more than 12 hours of questioning by thejudge, who will prepare a case against the men and present it to acourt for trial. Court officials said the process could takeseveral years.

Garzon formally charged the men with membership in a terroristorganization al Qaeda and with document falsification, robberyand weapons possession.

He said they were guilty of "as many terrorism crimes as therewere victims on Sept. 11." The men denied the charges.

Garzon said the accusations were based in part on telephoneconversations intercepted before and after the attacks.

Authorities said today that a telephone tap in Spain picked up a coded telephone conversation in August about the impending Sept. 11 attacks.

At one end of the line in Madrid was a man known as Dahdah, whose phone was tapped. The man believed to have been on the other end goes by the name "Shakur." Police believe "Shakur" is a name used by one of suspected hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta's former roommates in Germany. Authorities say Shakur was in on the attack planning, and described it in code on the call.

According to transcripts of the calls, Shakur says: "I have cut all communications and I am a lot more tranquil. I am taking classes and we're on the subject of aviation course and we have even cut the neck of the bird."

Vince Cannistraro, former head of counterterrorism for the CIA, believes "the bird" discussed in the call may be the United States.

Entries in a diary found in Germany also linked Dahdah to Atta, Garzon said.

Seven of the eight suspects originally came from Muslimcountries. Most were Spanish citizens, but police said they wereinvestigating the authenticity of their citizenship papers.