Félix Sanz Roldán’s appearance before the congressional commission of inquiry into the Barcelona attacks had a tense moment when the former director of the National Intelligence Center responded to the first question from Junts spokesperson Pilar Calvo. “To imagine, simply to imagine, that we could have prevented the deaths of 16 citizens and we did not do so is infamy, it is evil and it is despicable,” the retired general said.
Previously, MP Junts regretted that the Government had not declassified the documents subject to the secrecy which governs the actions of the CNI and declared: “When it is Catlunya which suffers from terrorism, the State does not recognize its right to know the truth. “To Sanz Roldán’s statement, the deputy responded that he was putting words in her mouth that she had not spoken.
Sanz Roldán is the first to appear in a commission of inquiry promoted by the independence parties on the basis of a conspiracy theory disseminated at the time by a media, according to which the imam of Ripoll, Abdelbaki Es Satty, was a “confidant” of the CNI and that the Spanish secret services could have been aware of the preparation of the attacks and not acted.
But no one in the session dared to repeat this thesis and the motivation that the CNI could have had. Until the deputy of Vox, Carina Mejías, presented the thesis of certain pro-independence sectors, according to which the motivation of the CNI for allowing the attacks was to “dissuade the putschists from continuing their attitude”, in relation to the two months of 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 separatists, ERC and Junts, on the other. “I cannot forget the victims of the terrorist attacks of August 17. “I can’t take them off,” the Junts spokesperson began her intervention.
PP spokesperson Santiago Rodríguez Serra later said that there was nothing worse for the victims than “fueling 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 supported his defense of the CNI’s actions in a statement by Mossos d’Esquadra Major Josep Lluis Trapero in an interview with La Vanguardia: “The most effective response, with better knowledge of the data, the most profound and honest has was the response of the CNI. »
During this appearance, the PSOE found itself confronted with the apparent contradiction of not assuming the conspiracy theory on the attacks, nor even a negligent action of the CNI, and the fact of having supported the commission and the appearance of Sanz Roldán for his pacts with Junts. .
Socialist deputy David Serrada alluded to the publication of an alleged CNI report, apocryphal, and distributed by the newspaper ‘Público’ as part of this conspiracy theory to give Sanz Roldán the opportunity to explain himself. “There is no better method to honor a lie than to say that its origin is in the CNI,” replied the retired general, who led the secret services for ten years.
During Sanz Roldán’s appearance, the generic CIA alert appeared regarding an attack on Las Ramblas, reported by El Periódico de Catalunya. The general told MPs that relations with foreign secret services are a secret matter and he cannot answer, but he questioned why all Spanish intelligence services would have received this alert and why they “all had acted so lazily.”
He also referred to the accusation by Commissioner Villarejo – whose appearance is also approved – that the CNI was behind the attacks and that Sanz Roldán had spent years destroying it. “I would be very worried if Commissioner Villarejo spoke well of me. As long as it continues like this, things will not go bad,” declared the former director of the CNI.
