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Spain: Al Qaeda suspect filmed WTC

Three men have been arrested

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Three suspected members of al Qaeda were arrested Tuesday in Spain, including one who videotaped New York's World Trade Center towers during a trip in 1997, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Tuesday.

The three "belonged to al Qaeda and had important connections to its leaders, based on the documents seized," Acebes told a news conference in Madrid.

The Interior Ministry identified the three suspects as Ghasoub Al-Abrash Ghalyoun and Abdalrahman Alarnaot Abu-Aljer, who were arrested in Madrid and who have Spanish citizenship, and Mohamed Khair Al Saqq, who was arrested in the eastern province of Castellon. All three are of Syrian origin, it said.

The arrests came in a series of morning raids, the ministry said in a written statement

Ghalyoun was briefly detained in April in an earlier al Qaeda roundup, but was released, the statement said. At the same time, it said, police seized videos in his possession that included shots taken during a 1997 trip to the United States.

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He recorded "installations and monuments that are considered to be emblematic symbols of the life and culture" of the United States and "which have been or are terrorist objectives of al Qaeda," the Interior Ministry said.

"Two of the tapes are made exclusively, from various angles and distances, of the Twin Towers in New York," the statement said.

"The same occurs with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, whose support pillars get great attention in the videos. Similar cases are the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and interior and exteriors of a New York airport, as well as the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Disneyland and Universal Studio theme parks in California."

Law enforcement officials told CNN Ghalyoun had been kept under police surveillance since his release in April.

The Interior Ministry statement said Abu-Aljer received training in Bosnia with other Islamic fighters during the Bosnian war. He is also linked to Mohamed Setmarian Nasar, who ran a training camp in Afghanistan and who is wanted internationally as a leader of al Qaeda.

The third suspect, Al Saqq, left Syria because of his links to an organization called Muslim Brothers, the statement said. "He is implicated in the financial activities" of al Qaeda in Spain.

Only four months after the 1997 visit to the United States of Ghalyoun, Al Saqq received a visit from Mohamed Bahaiah, a well-known messenger/courier for Bin Laden, operating between Europe and Afghanistan.

A law enforcement official told CNN the arrest in Castellon was significant because officials are investigating whether a pre-September 11 summit may have occurred there.

U.S. and Spanish authorities previously disclosed that Mohammed Atta, considered a ringleader of the September 11 attacks, had visited eastern Spain not far from Castellon in July 2001, two months before the attacks.

Authorities have said several other alleged conspirators also visited eastern Spain about the same time as Atta, and there have been unconfirmed reports that two or more conspirators may have met there.

With the latest arrests, Spain has taken 20 suspected Islamic terrorists into custody since September 11. Most of them are suspected al Qaeda members, and authorities say half of them have been linked to the September 11 attacks.