MADRID (AFP)--Email exchanges intercepted by the U.S. National Security Agency helped lead to the capture in France of the suspected military chief of the Basque separatist group ETA, a Spanish newspaper reported Tuesday.
The NSA, which intercepts and analyzes foreign communications, tipped off the Spanish authorities to two email addresses used by Miguel de Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known as "Txeroki", who was captured by French police early Monday along with a suspected female accomplice, El Mundo said.
The NSA, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Defense, gave the information to Spain's CNI intelligence service, which forwarded it to the police, said the paper, which didn't identify its sources.
"Nobody is unaware that ETA uses cybercafes," Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a news conference Monday.
He said intelligence services "almost always" participate in investigations into the arrest of ETA members.
Txeroki was captured in Cauterets, a ski resort in the Pyrenees near the border with Spain's autonomous Basque region, which ETA wants to see independent.
Rubalcaba said Txeroki "was responsible for all the commandos and he coordinated all the attacks."
ETA is blamed for the deaths of 824 people in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque homeland.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 18, 2008 07:52 ET (12:52 GMT)

Publié le 18 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones