Global Research

According to IntelNews.org quoting Catalonia’s daily El Periodico, the CIA had warned the Spanish authorities that the Islamic State was planning to attack Barcelona, they even mentioned that it could take place in Las Ramblas. 

In the hours following the attack, several observers noted that Barcelona was always an obvious target for the Islamic State, given that the group had already perpetrated terrorist attacks in Berlin, London, Paris and Brussels. They also raised questions about the low level of police presence and the absence of anti-vehicle barrier systems in Barcelona —one of Europe’s busiest tourist destinations. Late on Thursday, the Catalan newspaper El Periódico reported that, two months ago, the CIA alerted the Mossos d’Esquadra, the autonomous police and security service of Catalonia, of a possible terrorist attack by the Islamic State. According to the Barcelona-based daily, the CIA even mentioned La Rambla as the main target of Islamist militants.

Even before the CIA issued its warning, the Islamic State had directed several threats against Spain since 2014, when the group first appeared in Syria. As El Periódico said, the group’s followers “consider themselves obligated to re-establish Islam” in areas that were ruled by Muslim leaders in the past.

For much of the medieval period, Spain and Portugal were known as Al-Andalus, and were ruled by a succession of Muslim caliphs. The Spanish daily also reported that a Twitter account associated with the Islamic State issued several warnings against Spain two weeks ago. Specifically, on July 30, the account twitted a series of messages that read: “We will implement the caliphate in Spain and will recover our land. Impending attack on Al-Andalus, God willing”. Similar threats had been issued a year ago on social media, but were later disregarded after they failed to materialize, said El Periódico. (IntelNews.org

This news report is in large part propaganda. It’s disinformation.

It portrays the CIA as “going after” the terrorists, i.e. as a major actor in the “war on terrorism” advising Catalonia’s police of an imminent danger. “CIA alerted the Mossos d’Esquadra, the autonomous police and security service of Catalonia, of a possible terrorist attack by the Islamic State.”

The CIA is said to have warned the authorities as part of the US-led counterterrorism campaign.

El Periodico, August 17, 2017

Translation of byline: The CIA two months ago advised the Mossos (Catalan Police) of the risk of an attack in Barcelona,

The US intelligence agency  warned the autonomous (Catalan) police that the Ramblas could be a target.

The report tacitly places the blame on the Catalan police force for not having heeded to the advice and authority of US intelligence.

The unspoken truth (amply documented) is that the CIA has always been behind the terrorists. The CIA is the architect of Al Qaeda going back to the outset of the Soviet Afghan war in 1979.

All Al Qaeda affiliates are “intelligence assets” covertly supported by US intelligence in liaison with Pakistan’s ISI, Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency (GIP); (رئاسة الاستخبارات العامة‎‎ ) not to mention Britain’s MI6 and Israel’s Mossad.

The ISIS has a certain degree of independence in relation to its State sponsors. That is the nature of what is called an “intelligence asset”.  But an “intelligence asset” is always on the radar of the intelligence services.

ISIS-Daesh has from the very outset in 2014 been supported and financed by the western military alliance, with direct funding provided by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States in consultation and liaison with Washington.

The US-led counterterrorism operation initiated by Obama in 2014 was not meant to go after the ISIS. Quite the opposite: the coalition was killing civilians while providing covert support including weapons to the ISIS. Of significance Spain was not part of the 14 countries US-led coalition.

The claim that the Islamic State wanted to restore the caliphate in Spain which prevailed in medieval Spain borders on the absurd. It’s a lie. It is nonsensical. It is intended to reinforce the wave of Islamophobia.

Barcelona, Manchester, London, Nice ….

The Islamic State prior to changing its label in 2014 was an affiliate of al Qaeda, namely Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). It then  took on the name of  The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) (Arabic al-Dawlah al-Islāmiyyah fī al-ʿIrāq wa al-Shām, Daesh), also designated as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) 

A leaked Pentagon document confirms that the US and its allies are supportive of ISIS. And that’s the terrorist entity which –according to European press reports– is  behind the terrorist attacks in Barcelona, Manchester, London, Brussels, Nice, Berlin…

Read carefully. What the DoD document intimates is that the Islamic State is “on our side” in support of “our” endeavor to topple the Bashar al-Assad government.

According to the DoD document, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State are “the major forces driving the insurgency”, and that insurgency is supported by US-NATO.

The document refers to AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq), which is the acronym of the Islamic State before it took on its new name and identity of ISIS-Daesh.

AQI [renamed ISIS in 2014] “supported the opposition” and fought the regime of Bashar al Assad. And US-NATO and their Gulf States allies have persistenly supported AQI.

A  7-page Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document dated August of 2012, points to US complicity in supporting the creation of the  Islamic State. (Excerpt below) 

The Pentagon Document is crystal clear: The Islamic State is calling upon “the Sunnis in Iraq to wage war against the Syrian Regime”, which happens to coincide with US foreign policy.  That means “they support us and we support them”.

The Western media conveys the illusion that the Islamic State ordered the Barcelona/ Cambrils attacks as an act of retribution (revenge) against the US led coalition’s alleged bombings of ISIS facilities in Iraq and Syria.

[The Spanish] authorities have labelled both incidents as terrorism, and ISIS has claimed responsibility, saying the attack in Barcelona was carried out by “soldiers of the Islamic State” in response to the extremist group’s calls for followers to target countries participating in the coalition trying to drive it from Syria and Iraq” (CBC, August 18, 2017).

This is an absurd proposition which is refuted by the DoD document above.

Read the DoD document and then decide who is telling the truth.

ISIS has been fighting Syrian and Iraqi government forces on behalf of US-NATO.  It was the Syrian government SAA forces with the support of Russia and Iran which drove the ISIS rebels out of Syria.

The DoD document says that “China, Russia and Iran support the Regime”. Yet neither China nor Russia have been the target of acts of retribution led by ISIS.

Moreover, there is another fallacy in the statement issued by the Spanish authorities: Spain is not officially part of the 14 countries’ US led combined joint (“counterterrorism”) task force entitled Operation Inherent Resolve against the ISIS, which was launched to protect rather than “go after” the Islamic State.

The governments of  EU countries –whose citizens are the victims of terror attacks– have been supporting ISIS-Daesh through their military and intelligence services.

That is the truth as confirmed by the leaked DoD report above. There are mountains of evidence which confirm that US-NATO, Israel and the Gulf States are directly or indirectly supporting the Islamic State (including financing, the delivery of weapons, training, recruitment).  

And those governments want their citizens to believe that the ISIS is the “outside enemy” responsible for terror attacks in major urban areas, when in fact the ISIS is supported by the US and its coalition allies. 

How will Spain define its position in the wake of the Barcelona attacks?