A US intelligence organisation noted suspicious behaviour from the driver behind last Thursday's attack in Barcelona, Younes Abouyaaqoub, days before the attacks took place. The agency, called Exeintel, claims to have records of a conversation with the driver of the van that attacked the Rambla, in which he reveals his wish to carry out terrorist attacks. Exeintel says it shared this information with European and US authorities.
The conversation between Abouyaaqoub and the Exeintel operative took place on 31st July, according to the agency. In the exchange, Abouyaaqoub declares his intention to attack multiple targets, reveals personal details and shows his level of preparation for a terrorist attack.
The conversation
During the first contact, Abouyaaqoub says that he lives in Spain. He then says that his "emir" or leader is the person who "helps [us] to liberate our land", which could mean Spain.
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He says he knows the response times of the police and that he wants to attack "several points" to make the police "doubt and [have] fear" so they can "get them to submit to us". He then says they are five "brothers" and that he has further contacts in the USA.
On the subject of the police, he even says that he knows "their routes and when they are more [sic] vulnerable". He goes on to explain his intentions: "We must attack several small towns, when all the police come to us to move to another place and to attack it [sic]." This expression rang alarm bells for Exeintel, who say they notified authorities in Europe and the US of the conversation.
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The person alleged to be Abouyaaqoub says that he can offer an email address for a contact in the YPG, the Kurdish militia fighting Daesh in Syria, "so you can spy". Before giving even more information, however, he says he must "talk to the other brothers" because he "can't take risks".
What is Exeintel?
Exeintel Group Intelligence Service (EGIS) is a online tracking team at a global scale. It counts upon specialists of several sectors, like cybersecurity, private investigators and professionals coming from military intelligence. It's the security intelligence division of Counter Global Defense a business based in Texas which specialises in various sectors of security and which works with governments and private businesses to, for example, give them advice how to protect their information from cyberattacks.
Exeintel themselves are "ISIS hunters", in the cant of the intelligence world. These are private companies often created by victims of jihad according to a US specialist on the subject that contacted Exeintel this Friday morning.
Some of these companies are effective at locating Islamist militants and official intelligence services help them and accept their information. Others are simply bounty hunters, charging for each identification or as mercenaries. Exeintel fits more into this second type according to the aforementioned specialist.
Exeintel is headquartered in Washington DC. El Nacional tried to contact the organisation by phone and email with no response. Shortly after the email was sent, this Friday afternoon, Exeintel closed for a few hours the page where they had posted the information about Younes Abouyaaqoub, the only page that had so far been openly published on their website.