The Hidden Assassins

by Robert Wilson

  ‘If he was preaching radical Islam to younger people,’ said Ramírez, ‘do you think you would know about it?’

  ‘In a neighbourhood like this it wouldn’t be possible to keep it secret.’

  Apart from these two men who delivered the sugar and mint, have you ever seen the Imam with any other strangers? I mean people from out of town, or from abroad?’

  ‘I saw him with Spanish people. He was very aware of the image of Islam in the light of what has been happening in the last few years. He made efforts to communicate with Catholic priests and spoke at their meetings to reassure them that not all North Africans were terrorists.’

  ‘Do you know anything about his history?’

  ‘He’s Algerian originally. He arrived here from Tunis. He must have spent some time in Egypt, because he talked about it a lot and he’s mentioned studying in Khartoum.’

  ‘How did he learn Spanish?’ asked Falcón. ‘The countries you mention have either French, or English, as the alternative to Arabic.’

  ‘He learnt it here. The converts taught him,’ said Harrouch. ‘He was a good linguist, he spoke quite a few—’

  ‘What other languages?’ asked Ramírez.

  ‘German. He spoke German,’ said Harrouch, who’d gone back on the defensive.

  ‘Does that mean he’d spent time in Germany?’ asked Ramírez.

  ‘I suppose he did, but that doesn’t have to mean anything,’ said Harrouch. ‘Just because the 9/11 bombers came from Hamburg, it doesn’t mean that any Muslim who’s been to Germany is also a radical. I hope you’re not forgetting that it was the mosque that was bombed and there were more than ten people in it, and most of them were older men, with wives and children, and not young, radical, extreme bombmakers. I would say that we were the target of an attack…’

  ‘All right, Sr Harrouch,’ said Falcón, calming him. ‘You should know that we’re looking at all the possibilities. You mentioned VOMIT. Are you aware of any other anti-Muslim groups who you think would go to such extremes?’

  ‘There were some very unpleasant demonstrations against the building of our mosque in Los Bermejales,’ said Harrouch. ‘Maybe you don’t remember—they slaughtered a pig on the proposed site of the mosque back in May last year. There’s a very vociferous protest group.’

  ‘We know about them,’ said Ramírez. ‘We’ll be taking a close look at their activities.’

  ‘Did you ever feel that you were being watched, or under some kind of surveillance?’ asked Falcón. ‘Has anybody joined the mosque recently, who you didn’t know or who, in your opinion, behaved strangely?’

  ‘People are suspicious of us, but I don’t think anybody was watching us.’

  Ramírez checked the descriptions of the two men from the Peugeot Partner with the men Harrouch had seen bringing boxes into the mosque. Harrouch answered with his mind elsewhere. They got up to leave.

  ‘Now I remember, there was something else that happened last week,’ said Harrouch. ‘Someone told me that the mosque had been inspected by the council. Because we’re technically a public building, we have to conform to certain rules about fire and safety, and two men came round last week, without any warning, and went through everything—drains, plumbing, electrics—the lot.’

  13

  Seville—Tuesday, 6th June 2006, 16.55 hrs

  ‘What did you make of him?’ Falcón asked Ramírez as they made their way back to the pre-school for a meeting with Comisario Elvira and Juez Calderón.

  ‘The difficulty with these people is not disentangling the truth from the lies. I don’t think Sr Harrouch is a liar. He’s been an immigrant for sixteen years and he’s developed the knack for telling you the story which will give him the least amount of trouble, and makes his people appear in the best possible light,’ said Ramírez. ‘He says the Imam has never preached a radical word in his life, but he faltered over the Imam’s linguistic ability. Why wasn’t he happy about revealing the languages the Imam could speak? Because it was German. Not only the Hamburg connection, but it also means he’s moved around Europe. It’s making the Imam look more suspicious.’

  ‘He was straight about the two young guys turning up with their cardboard boxes.’

  ‘Of sugar,’ said Ramírez. ‘He was very emphatic about that. He was reluctant to reveal anything more about them, though. He wanted to be able to say he knew them, but he couldn’t. He wanted to be able to stand up for them in some way. But if they’re just shifting sugar around, what’s the problem? Why does he feel the need to protect them?’

  ‘Loyalty to other Muslims,’ said Falcón.

  ‘Or repercussions?’ said Ramírez.

  ‘Even if they don’t know each other, there’s a sense of allegiance,’ said Falcón. ‘Sr Harrouch is a decent, hardworking man and he’d like us to think that all his people are the same. When something like this bombing happens they feel embattled, and the instinct is to put up the defences all around, even if he ends up defending the sort of people he may abhor.’

  Elvira and Calderón had been joined by Gregorio from the CNI.

  ‘There have been some developments in Madrid,’ said Elvira. ‘Gregorio will explain.’

  ‘We’ve been working on the notes found in the margins of the copy of the Koran, from the Peugeot Partner,’ said Gregorio. ‘In the meantime, copies of the notes were faxed up to Madrid and they made comparisons with the handwriting of the van’s owner, Mohammed Soumaya, and his nephew Trabelsi Amar. They don’t match.’

  ‘Do the notes reveal anything?’ asked Calderón. ‘Are there any extremist views?’

  ‘Our expert on the Koran says that the owner of this book has made interesting, rather than radical, interpretations of the text,’ said Gregorio.

  ‘Have you found Trabelsi Amar yet?’ asked Ramírez.

  ‘He was still in Madrid,’ said Gregorio, nodding. ‘He was just keeping out of the way of his uncle until he got the van back, which was supposed to be this evening. When he heard about the bomb he went into hiding, which was obviously not part of the plan, because the best hiding place he could think of was a friend’s house, not some prearranged safe house. The local police picked him up a couple of hours ago.’

  ‘Has he identified the people he lent the van to?’ asked Ramírez.

  ‘Yes. He’s very scared,’ said Gregorio. ‘The CGI’s antiterrorist squad in Madrid say he hasn’t been behaving like a terrorist at all. He’s been happy to tell them the whole story.’

  ‘Let’s start with the names,’ said Ramírez.

  ‘The shaven-headed guy is Djamel Hammad, thirtyone years old, born in Tlemcen in Algeria. His friend is Smail Saoudi, thirty years old, born Tiaret in Algeria. Both were resident in Morocco and still should be.’

  ‘What sort of records have they got?’

  ‘Those are their original names. They’ve operated under a lot of pseudonyms. They were medium—to high-risk terror suspects, by which I mean they were not likely to actually carry out attacks, but they have been suspected of document forgery, recce and logistical work. They both have relatives who have been active in the GIA—the Armed Islamic Group.’

  ‘And how did Trabelsi Amar get to know them?’

  ‘They’re all illegal immigrants. They came across the straits together, on the same shipment. Hammad and Saoudi made him their friend. They got him to Madrid and helped him with his documents. Then they called in the favour.’

  ‘Didn’t he find their slickness…suspicious?’ asked Calderón.

  ‘It was convenient for him not to,’ said Gregorio. ‘Trabelsi Amar is not very bright.’

  ‘What’s the story with the van?’ asked Ramírez.

  ‘Amar has been working for his uncle making deliveries. He also did a few things on the side, to make himself some extra cash. He ran errands, some of them were for Hammad and Saoudi. Then they asked to borrow the van; the first time for an afternoon, the second time for a whole day. It all happened gradually, so that when they asked to borrow the v
an to go to Seville for three days and said they’d give him €250, Trabelsi Amar just saw the money.’

  ‘How did he explain that to his Uncle Mohammed?’ asked Ramírez.

  ‘He rented the van from him for € 30 a day,’ said Gregorio. ‘He might not be bright, but he could still work out that he didn’t have to do anything and he’d be €160 up on the deal.’

  ‘So presumably he knows where Hammad and Saoudi live.’

  ‘They’re searching the apartment as we speak.’

  ‘When exactly did Amar go into hiding?’ asked Ramírez. ‘When he heard about the bomb, or once it was reported that the Peugeot Partner had been found?’

  ‘As soon as he heard about the bomb,’ said Gregorio.

  ‘So he’d probably worked out already that his new friends weren’t just ordinary guys.’

  ‘What about their relationship with the Imam Abdelkrim Benaboura,’ asked Falcón, ‘apart from the fact that they were all Algerians?’

  ‘The only connection we can see at the moment was that Benaboura was born in Tlemcen, which doesn’t mean much.’

  ‘We’ve found out more about the Imam from a member of the mosque than we have from the CNI and the CGI put together,’ said Falcón.

  ‘We still don’t have the authority to access any more information,’ said Gregorio. ‘And that includes Juan, who, as you’ve probably gathered, is a very senior officer.’

  ‘The Imam is a player of some sort,’ said Ramírez. ‘I’m sure of it.’

  ‘What about this group, the MILA, who, according to the television news, have claimed responsibility for the blast?’ asked Falcón.

  ‘It’s not a group we’ve ever heard of having an active terrorist dimension,’ said Gregorio. ‘We’ve heard about their intention to “liberate” Andalucía, but we’ve never taken it seriously. With the current military set-up in this country it’s just not possible for anyone but a major power to secure a region of Spain for themselves. The Basques haven’t achieved it and they don’t even have to invade.’

  ‘And what did the CGI in Madrid know about Hammad and Saoudi being in Spain?’ asked Calderón.

  ‘They didn’t,’ said Gregorio. ‘It’s not as easy as it sounds to trace unknown radicals in a huge, constantly changing immigrant population, some of whom are legal and others who’ve been smuggled across the straits. We know, for instance, that some of these people come over, perform two or three tasks in this country and then move on, to be replaced by others from France, Germany or the Netherlands. Quite often they have no idea of the purpose of what they’re doing. They deliver a package, drive a person somewhere, raise some money from stolen bank cards, travel on a train at certain times to report on passenger numbers and time spent at how many stations, or they’re asked to look at a building and report on its security situation. Even if we catch them and extract their task from them, which is not easy, all we end up with is a little strip of footage that could be one of a hundred operations that might make up a major attack, or might just be something that ends up on the cutting-room floor.’

  ‘Does anyone have any opinion about what Hammad and Saoudi might have been doing?’ asked Falcón.

  ‘We don’t know enough. We hope to know more after we’ve searched their apartment,’ said Gregorio.

  ‘What about the hood and the Islamic sash?’ said Ramírez. ‘Isn’t that what operatives wear when they videotape themselves before a suicide mission?’

  ‘No comment from the CGI on that,’ said Gregorio. ‘Based on the interview with Trabelsi Amar, they think the guys were logistical and nothing more.’

  Ramírez gave a report on the deliveries to the mosque, the council visit last week, the power cut on Saturday night and the electricians’ repair work performed on Monday morning. Falcón held back on disclosing his findings from the interview with Diego Torres of Informáticalidad until they had more information from interviews with the sales reps.

  ‘Do we know anything more about the explosive used?’ asked Calderón.

  ‘The bomb squad have given me this report,’ said Elvira. ‘Based on their preliminary investigation of the site, the distance from the epicentre to the furthest flung pieces of debris, and the extent of the destruction of the first three floors of the building, their conservative estimate is that three times the quantity of hexogen was exploded than was necessary, if the intention was to destroy the apartment block.’

  ‘Do they deduce anything from that?’ asked Calderón. ‘Or is that left up to our, inexpert, assuming?’

  ‘That’s what they’re prepared to put in writing at the moment,’ said Elvira. ‘Verbally, they tell me that to destroy a building of this size, with demolition knowledge easily found on the internet, they would need as little as twenty kilos of hexogen. They say that hexogen is commonly used in demolition work, but primarily to shear through solid steel girders. Twenty kilos expertly positioned in an ordinary reinforced concrete building would wreck the whole block, not just the section that was actually destroyed. They deduce from this that the explosive was located in one place in the basement of the building, more towards the back than the front, hence the damage done to the pre-school. They thought that it could have been as much as one hundred kilos of hexogen that exploded.’

  ‘Well, that sounds like enough to start a serious bombing campaign in Seville,’ said Calderón. ‘And if this is a group with plans to liberate the whole of Andalucía…’

  ‘You probably haven’t seen the latest news,’ said Elvira, ‘but we’re on red alert all over the region. They’ve evacuated the cathedral in Cordoba, and the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada. There are now special patrols going through the tourist resorts on the Costa del Sol, and there are more than twenty roadblocks along the N340. The Navy are off the coast and there are Air Force fighters on all major airstrips. More than forty helicopters are running up and down the main arterial routes through Andalucía. Zapatero is taking this threat very seriously indeed.’

  ‘Well, he has the demise of his predecessor’s political ambitions as an example,’ said Calderón. ‘And nobody wants to be the Prime Minister who lost Andalucía to the Muslims after more than five hundred years of Spanish rule.’

  They weren’t quite ready to laugh at Calderón’s cynicism. The sense of all that activity described by Elvira was too powerful, and, as if to reinforce his words, a helicopter passed rapidly overhead, like the latest despatch to a new crisis point. Falcón broke the silence.

  ‘The CGI antiterrorist squad in Madrid think that Hammad and Saoudi were providing logistical support for an unknown cell that was going to carry out an attack, or series of attacks. Clearly, a delivery of some sort was made on Monday 5th June. A single hood and sash were found in the delivery vehicle, possibly indicating that either Hammad or Saoudi might become operatives. It also might indicate that one of them was going to return the van to Madrid, so that Trabelsi Amar had his van back as arranged.

  ‘What history can show us is that, prior to the March 11th attacks in Madrid, two cell members went up to Avilés to pick up explosives on the 28th and 29th February. They allowed themselves a full ten days to prepare for the attacks. In our scenario, here, we are being asked to believe that the hexogen in raw, powder form was delivered on Monday, and that on the same night they started preparing bombs so that they were all ready to go on Tuesday morning. Then at approximately 8.30 a.m. there was an accident and the explosion occurred. I realize that this is not impossible, and in the history of terrorism there probably exists an incidence of delivery, preparation and attack being carried out within twenty-four hours, but if you’re a group planning the liberation of Andalucía this doesn’t seem very likely.’

  ‘What’s the scenario you envisage?’ asked Gregorio.

  ‘I don’t. I’m just picking holes. I was trying to find a line of logic, but there were too many breaks. I don’t want our investigation to go down a single path within the first twelve hours of the incident,’ said Falcón. ‘We’re probabl
y going to have to wait two or three days to get forensic information from the mosque, and until that time I think we should keep both possibilities open: that there was an accident in the bomb-making procedure, or that this was an attack on the mosque.’

  ‘Why would someone want to attack the mosque?’ asked Calderón.

  ‘Revenge, extreme xenophobia, political or business motivation, or perhaps a combination of all four,’ said Falcón. ‘Terror is just a tool to bring about change. Look at the havoc wreaked by this bomb. Terror focuses people’s attention and creates opportunities for powerful people. The population of this city is already fleeing. With that sort of panic, unimaginable things become possible.’

  ‘The only way to contain panic,’ said Comisario Elvira, ‘is to show people that we are in control.’

  ‘Even if we aren’t,’ said Juez Calderón. ‘Even if we don’t have the first idea where to look.’

  ‘Whoever is behind this, whether it’s Islamic militants or “other forces”, they’ve planned their media assault,’ said Falcón. ‘The ABC received the Abdullah Azzam text in a letter with a Seville stamp. TVE tells us that the MILA have called to claim responsibility.’

  ‘Would they be claiming responsibility for blowing up a mosque and killing their own people?’ asked Calderón.

  ‘That’s an everyday occurrence in Baghdad,’ said Elvira.

  ‘If you send something like Azzam’s text to the ABC then you’re expecting to launch an attack imminently…not even within twenty-four hours,’ said Gregorio. ‘As far as I know, Islamic militants have never advertised their exact intentions; all the big ones have come out of the blue, with the intention of killing and maiming as many people as possible.’

  Gregorio took a call on his mobile and asked to leave.

  ‘We’ve had this preliminary report from the bomb squad about the explosion,’ said Falcón, ‘but what about the explosive? Where does it come from and what are all these different names for it?’

  ‘Hexogen is the German name, cyclonite is American, RDX is British and I think the Italians call it T4,’ said Elvira. ‘They might each have signatures, which enables them to identify the origin, but they’re not going to tell us.’