Astonishingly, only days before the attack, several members of the
terror cell visited Paris, a center of intelligence monitoring of
Islamist activity in Europe. They were under surveillance, and French
officials informed Spanish officials after they were spotted in France,
driving the Audi A3 car that they used to plough into pedestrians in the
seaside resort of Cambrils, killing one woman. The car was flashed by a
speed camera in France.
BFM-TV reported, “Two members of the jihadist cell that attacked
Barcelona and Cambrils, including Younes Abouyaaqoub, the suspected
driver in the attack on Las Ramblas, made an ‘express’ round-trip to
Paris” on August 11-12. The Audi was photographed at 1 p.m. on August 11
at the Lestelle toll booths in the Pyrénées traveling north, before
being flashed by a speed camera for speeding. The two cell members
reportedly spent the night in a budget hotel in the Paris suburb of
Malakoff and visited a mall before returning to Spain.
By Kumaran Ira – wsws.org: A
spate of news reports last week raised questions about US and European
government foreknowledge of the August 17 terror attacks in Barcelona
and Cambrils that killed 15 people and wounded more than 100, and how
this attack was allowed to proceed. It is ever clearer that the Islamic
State (IS) terror cell was under close surveillance by multiple
intelligence services of NATO powers, including France, the United
States, and Belgium.
