This Wednesday marks five years since jihadist attacks in August in Barcelona Y Cambrils. The official memorial service for the victims was interrupted by a group separatists which loudly linked the Spanish state to the attacks.
1. CNI
This conspiracy theory emerged in the summer of 2018 with accusations to the National Intelligence Center (CNI) to be associated with Abdelbaki is Sati, Ripole magnet (Girona) and ideologue of 17-A.
A year later, in July 2019, in Public (property of the nationalist businessman James Roors) published that Es Sati was a confidant of the CNI and that Spanish intelligence was Most knowledgeable of terrorist activity, but who decided don’t stop preparing of the attacks.
[Los proconspiración revientan el acto del 17A en Las Ramblas]
In doing so, he lit the fuse for a fire that would be fueled by members of the Catalan government itself and leaders of the separatist movement. Through your social networks, Quim Torahthen president of the generalship, described as “very serious” this information and assured that the “highest responsibilities” would be demanded.
This is a serious scandal. We demand explanations from the Spanish government and that they take the highest responsibilities. The silence imposat pels partits on 155 is intolerable. Two years after the trial, the victims and all citizens deserve respect and any information. https://t.co/gRVKiKRjnR
– Quim Torra i Pla (@QuimTorraiPla) July 16, 2019
Similarly, Joaquim Forneformer Minister of the Interior, indicated the need to “require a thorough investigationclearing political responsibilities”, including “media that spread the theses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs without opposition”.
New evidence is emerging of the link between Ripoll’s imam and the CNI.
Cal insist on background investigations, clearing of political responsibilities, and also in the media, which uncontrastly disseminate the theses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. https://t.co/hTjMve6ENM– Joaquim Forn (@quimforn) July 16, 2019
Prior to the publication of this information, Parliament drew up a commission of inquiry. Its results they exonerated the CNI, at the same time concluded that “from the status of Imam Es Sati’s trustee accredited by the commission, it cannot be inferred that the said the intelligence service knew the Imam’s intention to promote or carry out the attacks’.
[Trapero liquida la conspiranoia ‘indepe’ del 17A: “El CNI ayudó mucho”]
Similarly, on National audience turned offboth in the sentence of the assaults and in the appeal thereto, of state binding in the attacks and rejected all conspiracy theories spread by pro-independence groups.
Josep Luis Traperoolder than Mossos d’Esquadra during the attacks, he assured in an interview for The vanguard that the most effective response, with more data knowledge, deeper and more loyal” was that of CNI. Similarly, Trapero maintains that the CNI “helped a lot in the investigation‘, and that there is ‘no indication of a conspiracy theory’.
2. “Fear for Catalonia”
Despite the fact that no objective data lends credence to the theories blaming the CNI for the attacks, they have not ceased to be relevant in the separatist account of 17-A. What’s more, they are enjoying new popularity thanks to Jose Manuel Villarejo.
[Villarejo atribuye el atentado del 17A al CNI y aviva las teorías conspirativas independentistas]
The former commissioner assured in January 2022 that the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils were the result of “fatal mistake” on Felix Sanz Roldan, former director of CNI. According to Villarejo, Roldan “misjudged the consequences of giving him a bit of a scare for Catalonia“.
3. “War” against independence
The ex-policeman’s statements fit perfectly with another of the nationalists’ major accusations against Spain’s government. And it is that according to the independent attacks of August 17 and 18 are a battle within “State war against Catalan democracy”, in the words of the former councilor of Esquerra Republicana Joseph Huge.
For this reason, the Catalan government asked last January to activate Article 54 of the Congress of Deputies to find out if, as they defend, the jihadist attack was conspiracy against the sovereignist movement Catalan.
4. The information
The criticisms are not limited to the 2017 attack, but extend to information management which the government has done in the last five years.
Already in the summer of 2019, Republican Defense Committees (CDR) gathered for a protest demanding “answers” and accusing the government of “victim abandonment“. On the banners, the CDRs asked “why not investigate the relations of the terrorists with the power of the state?”
[El separatismo consigue que la teoría de la conspiración se apropie del aniversario del 17-A]
Thus, the leaders of the nationalist movement are against the information on 17-A being classified as a state secretsince, according to Elsa Artadinumber two of Together for Catalonia“citizens and families have a right to know.”
That is why at the beginning of this year the Catalan executive requested reform of the Official Secrets Act because it believed the rule served “competent authority” by withholding information related to the attacks.
This Wednesday, the five-year anniversary of the attack, the networks gathered the requests of “transparency” in the hands of politicians like Carme Forcadel or Joaquim Forne.
Avui, 17A, a sad and sad day for Catalonia. Shame on you for not knowing the truth 5 years later. I demand it. All support and respect to the victims, relatives and victims.
— Carme Forcadell (@ForcadellCarme) August 17, 2022
Similarly, JxCat released a statement condemning “passivity by some political and police institutions from Spain”. He further states that “there are still unknowns to solve” because “CNI’s relationship with the imam of Ripoll” was not investigated “with the transparency and rigor that something so serious requires”.