Spain Vows Tighter Security

Spain's next leader vowed Wednesday to better coordinate Spain's police agencies, who failed to prevent the Madrid terror attacks despite knowing the whereabouts and potential danger of a top suspect and his links with al Qaeda.

Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero tried to reassure the nation in a radio interview that his government would relentlessly hunt down terrorists.

"They will not have a moment of rest," Zapatero told Onda Cero radio, adding that he would have a single director for both the Civil Guard and the National Police, which currently answer to two chiefs.

Zapatero also said he intends to stick by its pledge to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq by June 30, even though some world leaders have asked it to reconsider.

Also Wednesday, an Algerian man, Ali Amrous, who allegedly threatened mass bloodshed in Madrid, was brought under tight security to court to determine if he had foreknowledge of the attack.

When Amrous, who apparently is an indigent, was first arrested in January in the northern city of San Sebastian after a neighborhood disturbance, police said he shouted at officers: "We will fill Madrid with the dead."

Spain's law enforcement agencies had been aware at least since 2001 of Moroccan suspect Jamal Zougam's alleged links with al Qaeda and had searched his apartment that year.

Moroccan authorities, who considered Zougam a "very active terrorist," warned Spanish police in June 2003 that Zougam was returning to Spain, the Barcelona daily El Periodico reported Wednesday.

Zougam was arrested on Saturday, along with two other Moroccans and two Indians two days after the March 11 bomb attacks on Madrid trains killed 201 people and wounded 1,600, along with two other Moroccans and two Indian men.

Police reportedly suspect at least six Moroccans took direct part in the Madrid train bombings, with five remaining at large. Only one of those six, Zougam, is under arrest.

With signs that the bombings were carried out by Islamic extremists who operate and have confederates in several countries, FBI agents are helping Spanish police in using fingerprints and names to seek a full picture of Zougam and the four other suspects in custody, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said in Washington.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "it's increasingly likely Islamic extremists were involved in these attacks. In terms of assigning responsibility, it isn't clear."

Authorities have been tracking Islamic extremist activity in Spain since the mid-1990s and say it was an important staging ground, along with Germany, for the Sept. 11 attacks.

A suspected link between the Madrid bombings and suicide bomb attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, last year grew stronger Tuesday when French private investigator Jean-Charles Brisard described a phone tap in which Zougam said he had met with Mohamed Fizazi, the spiritual leader of Salafia Jihadia, a Moroccan Islamic extremist group.

Salafia Jihadia is suspected of involvement in the Casablanca attack, which killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers, and has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. Fizazi was among 87 people sentenced in Morocco in August in a trial that centered on the Casablanca attacks.

Zougam has already been identified by Spanish anti-terror Judge Baltasar Garzon as a follower of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al Qaeda cell who is jailed on suspicion he helped plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

As the investigation unfolded, there were widespread political ramifications from last week's bombings, especially in countries that, like Spain, have troops in Iraq.

In an hour-long interview on radio Onda Cero, Zapatero said "the occupation is … a fiasco."

Others may urge Spain to keep its 1,300 peacekeeping troops in the Middle East nation, but the winner of Sunday's election's said his response is: "fighting terrorism with bombs … with Tomahawk missiles, isn't the way to defeat terrorism."

In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was "hopelessly naive" to think that giving up in Iraq would lessen the threat from Islamic extremists.

"The fact is that these people will continue. It is a war. It is a war on our way of life, it is a war on our democracy, it is war on our freedom," Blair told the House of Commons.

President Bush told reporters, "I think terrorists will kill innocent life in order to try to get the world to cower."

"They'll never shake the will of the United States," Mr. Bush said.

South Korea's acting leader called a meeting of senior officials to review anti-terrorism efforts, saying the country is a possible terrorist target following last week's deadly bombings.

Meanwhile, the Australian government went into damage control Wednesday after one of its ministers accused the national police chief of falling for al Qaeda propaganda by suggesting that terrorists might now target Australia for its support for the U.S.-led war.

"With Western Europe threatened by al Qaeda, the Bush Administration may have to turn to the United Nations to smooth over past differences regarding Iraq," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk.