Just what was S-11 commander doing in Spain?

Spanish security services are still trying to establish just exactly what Mohammed Atta who led the attacks against the Twin Towers and the Pentagon was doing in Spain just eight weeks before embarking on the suicide mission. Investigations by the Spanish police have taken them across the country and extensive enquiries were also made in Majorca, where a man arrested on suspicion of being Al Qaeda's accountant lived for many years in a flat on the Paseo Maritimo. Algerian Ahmed Brahim, 57, was arrested in Barcelona in April this year. Authorities suspect that he was involved in the 1998 financing of the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, blamed on the Al Qaeda network. Brahim, who is married and has a daughter, lived on the Paseo Maritimo for fifteen years before moving to Barcelona. Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, an alleged founding member of Al Qaeda, presently awaiting trial in the United States on conspiracy charges in the embassy bombings, visited Brahim in Palma. Brahim's lawyer, who is presently appealing his client's imprisonment to the High Court in Madrid, says that this visit is the only piece of evidence the Spanish authorities have against the Algerian 57-year-old. Brahim, who retired after leaving Majorca, had a successful yacht rental business. He even made enquiries about the possibility of shipping yachts to the United States, according to some sources consulted by the Bulletin. Police allege that Brahim, at his Palma flat which he sold, had an extremely sophisticated communications network. Shortly after September 11 he travelled to Saudi Arabia to help restore the library at the Medina Mosque. He was also in the process of compiling a website on Islam for children. He worshiped at the Barcelona Mosque. Just days after Brahim's arrest police in Madrid arrested another alleged Al Qaeda accountant, Syrian born Spaniard Muhammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi. Since the detentions of these two police are said to be closer to understanding what Atta was doing in Spain in July 2001. He checked into a hotel in the Barcelona area. It is unclear who he met. One of the theories put forward is that he was in Spain to collect money for the attacks. He travelled to the island from his home in Germany. Zouaydi ran a real estate company that allegedly provided funds for Al Qaeda in at least eight countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and China. Spain has arrested at least sixteen suspected members of Al Qaeda over the last two years including a man allegedly to be Bin Laden's security officer in Marbella. All are awaiting trial. Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon has said that he wants all of them to be tried in Spain rather than extradited to the United States where they could face the death penalty.