Madrid Suspect's Possible 9/11 Tie

After winning an upset election victory in the wake of a devastating terrorist attack, Spain's new prime minister pledged to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq by the end of June.

As the death toll in last week's series of train bombings rose, there were indications Spanish authorities had eyed one of the bombing suspects for months. There were also possible ties between one of the suspects and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

France on Monday called for an urgent meeting of European Union foreign ministers, saying it was crucial for the EU to react to the attacks against Madrid with vigilance and unity.

"It is essential that we regroup and that we coordinate, and that is what Europe must do," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told RTL radio.

The surprise win by the Socialists over Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's favored Popular Party Sunday came amid charges that Aznar made Spain a target for terrorist by supporting the Iraq war.

Spain's incoming prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has pledged to bring home the 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq when their tour of duty ends in July.

Zapatero fell short of a majority in Parliament and will need help to form a government. But it was still a spectacular — and bittersweet — triumph that capped four tumultuous days beginning with Thursday's terror attacks in Madrid. Critics of the government said it had provoked the attacks by backing the Iraq war.

Authorities now say last week's attacks killed 201 people and wounded 1,500.

Next came millions-strong, nationwide street rallies against the railway bombings, smaller ones against the increasingly beleaguered government of Aznar, the arrest of five suspects in the bombings, including three Moroccans, and a reported al Qaeda claim of responsibility in a videotape.

The tape raised the possibility that terrorists aligned with Osama bin Laden had changed the course of a national election. Spain's government has insisted its prime suspect in Thursday's rail bombings was the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

Months before the bombings, authorities had suspicions about Jamal Zougam — a Moroccan being questioned in the worst terrorist attack in Europe since World War II.

Investigators suspected that Zougam had ties to an al Qaeda cell leader and found a video of mujaheddin fighters during a search of his home, according to an indictment reviewed Sunday.

The 700-page indictment names Zougam — one of three Moroccans arrested Saturday in connection with the train bombings — as a follower of Imad Yarkas, who was jailed by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Zougam was not indicted by Garzon, but the indictment, dated Sept. 17, 2003, clearly showed police were keeping an eye on him. His home was searched at least once, turning up a video of mujaheddin fighters in Dagestan, Russia, and telephone numbers of three members of the Madrid al Qaeda cell allegedly led by Yarkas.

In Morocco, a high-ranking official said Zougam, 30, had been under surveillance for months on suspicion of having ties to international terror groups, but faced no formal accusations in Morocco.

The other two arrested Moroccans, Mohamed Bekkali, 31, and Mohamed Chaoui, 34, have no police record in Morocco, said the Moroccan official.

Intelligence agencies, meanwhile, worked Sunday to verify another possible link between the Madrid attack and al Qaeda.

Early Sunday, Spain's Interior Ministry said police had recovered a videotape near a Madrid mosque in which a purported al Qaeda operative claimed that the terror group bombed trains in Madrid to punish Spain's backing of the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

The tape was discovered in a trash bin after a man speaking with an Arabic accent called a Madrid TV station to say the tape was there, the ministry said.

In the video, a man, who wore Arab dress and spoke Arabic with a Moroccan accent, said the taped claim of responsibility came from "the military spokesman for al Qaeda in Europe, Abu Dujan al Afghani."

Intelligence agents were trying to verify his claims.

"Our reservations about the credibility remain," Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Sunday.

In addition to the three Moroccans, Spanish police have arrested two Indians. Two Spaniards of Indian origin have also been detained for questioning.

The five were arrested after a cell phone and prepaid phone card were found in an explosives-filled gym bag on one of the bombed trains.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, the Socialists soared from 125 seats to 164 in the outgoing 350-seat legislature. The ruling Popular Party fell from 183 to 148. It cannot try to form a coalition because it has no virtually no allies in the legislature, where it had enjoyed a majority and was often accused of riding roughshod over opponents.

In one fell swoop, voters ousted Aznar, whose party was favored to win just days ago, even though he brought Spain eight straight years of economic growth, made it a founding member of the euro single currency, cut unemployment in half and brought a degree of prominence to a long-ignored country.

Rodriguez Zapatero started his victory speech by remembering those killed in the railway bombings. "At this moment I think of the lives that were broken by terror on Thursday," he said, then asked the crowd to join him in a minute of silence.

Outside Socialist party headquarters 1,000 jubilant supporters cheered and waved the party's red flag.

"The defeat of the Popular Party in Spain is evidently attributable to both the perception that the government mishandled the information about the terrorist attacks and because of the hostility to their strong alliance with the U.S.," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk.