The appearance of Félix Sanz Roldán before the investigative commission in Congress into the Barcelona attacks experienced a moment of tension when the former director of the National Intelligence Center responded to the first question from Junts spokesperson, Pilar Calvo. “To imagine, just to imagine, that we could have prevented the death of 16 citizens and that we did not do so is infamy, it is evil and it is vile,” stated the retired general.
Previously, the Junts deputy had regretted that the Government had not declassified documents subject to the secrecy that governs the actions of the CNI and stated: “When it is Catlunya that suffers from terrorism, the State does not recognize its right to know the truth.” To Sanz Roldán’s statement, the deputy replied that he was putting words in her mouth that she had not uttered.
Sanz Roldán is the first to appear in an investigative commission promoted by the pro-independence parties based on a conspiracy theory aired at the time by a media outlet, according to which the imam of Ripoll, Abdelbaki Es Satty, was a “confidant” of the CNI and that the Spanish secret service could have known about the preparation of the attacks and not acted.
No one in the session has dared to repeat, however, that thesis and the motivation that the CNI could have had. Until the Vox deputy Carina Mejías has presented the thesis of some pro-independence sectors, according to which, the CNI’s motivation for allowing the attacks was to “dissuade the coup plotters from continuing with their attitude,” in relation to the two-month celebration. after the independence referendum.
The commission and its representatives are the result of a parliamentary agreement between the Government parties, PSOE and Sumar, on the one hand, and the independentists, ERC and Junts, on the other. “I can’t get the victims of the terrorist attacks of August 17 out of my mind. “I can’t take them off,” the Junts spokesperson began her intervention.
The PP spokesperson, Santiago Rodríguez Serra, later said that there was nothing worse for the victims than “feeding a conspiracy theory seven years later” when there is already a final ruling from the Supreme Court, which among other aspects rules out the conspiracy theory.
Sanz Roldán has supported his defense of the CNI’s actions in a statement by Mossos d’Esquadra major Josep Lluis Trapero in an interview in La Vanguardia: “The most effective response, with more knowledge of data, the most profound and honest was the of the CNI.”
In this appearance, the PSOE was faced with the apparent contradiction of not assuming the conspiracy theory about the attacks, not even a negligent action by the CNI, and the fact of having supported the commission and the appearance of Sanz Roldán for his pacts with Junts.
The socialist deputy David Serrada alluded to the publication of an alleged CNI report, apocryphal, and disseminated by the newspaper ‘Público’ in the context of that conspiracy theory to give Sanz Roldán the opportunity to explain himself. “There is no better method to dignify a lie than to say that its origin is in the CNI,” responded the retired general, who headed the secret service for ten years.
During Sanz Roldán’s appearance, the CIA’s generic alert about an attack on Las Ramblas, which was reported by El Periódico de Catalunya, appeared. The general told the deputies that relations with foreign secret services are a secret matter and that he cannot respond, but he wondered why all the Spanish information services would have received that alert and why they all “acted so indolently.”
He has also referred to the accusation by Commissioner Villarejo – whose appearance is also approved – that the CNI was behind the attacks and that Sanz Roldán dedicated years to destroying him. “I would be very concerned if Commissioner Villarejo spoke well of me. As long as things continue like this, they are not going bad,” said the former director of the CNI.
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