11M: The Hebrew Lead. Why was Judge Cillán committed to a psychiatric ward?

Josep Arimany Manso, director of the Catalan Institute of Legal Medicine, offered Carmen Baladía twenty airline seats to deploy forensic experts to Madrid on the morning of March 11. Baladía rejected the aid, but Arimany showed up at IFEMA regardless.

On March 11, 2004, while Madrid counted its dead, a silent battle raged over control of the autopsies. Carmen Baladía, responsible for coordinating body identification, received an early call. On the other end was Josep Arimany Manso, offering twenty flight seats to bring forensics to the capital. Baladía thanked him and declined, needing to keep operations under control with her existing competent team. However, Arimany arrived at IFEMA with the tickets. This scene is recorded in the minutes of the Congressional investigation committee.

## Who is Josep Arimany Manso and why does his name appear in the 11M case?

Arimany was not a stranger. A forensic physician and dermatologist, he founded and directed the Catalan Institute of Legal Medicine between 2002 and 2006. In December 2003, just three months before the attacks, he created the Major Catastrophes Commission within the institute, a team dedicated to developing protocols for emergencies involving multiple victims. The institute's 2004 report notes its collaboration regarding the March 11 attack.

His offer to Baladía was not an isolated gesture. According to her testimony before the parliamentary commission, Arimany informed her that morning that he had reserved twenty seats on the air bridge to come "as soon as needed." Baladía declined, arguing that uncoordinated volunteers could disrupt the operation. Arimany insisted and appeared at IFEMA. The head of the improvised morgue again rejected his help.

This episode, documented in Congressional session records, has fueled suspicions among those questioning the official account of the attacks. The lingering question is why a high-ranking Catalan forensic official insisted on participating in autopsies that had been denied to him twice. Arimany has maintained a discreet public profile on this matter. He currently combines his professional activity with the role of councilor at the Vic City Council.

## The Israeli team that never reached Madrid

While Arimany managed his travel, another delegation of forensics awaited clearance from Tel Aviv. Israel's National Institute of Forensic Medicine, led by Yehuda Hiss, had offered the Spanish government the dispatch of three Spanish-speaking experts specialized in identifying suicide bombing victims. Israeli Health Minister Dan Naveh had given his approval. The group would have been headed by Ricardo Nachman, an Argentine-born pathologist.

The administration of José María Aznar rejected the offer. The news was reported by the Jerusalem Post and reproduced by Spanish media such as El Mundo and Diario Córdoba. Hiss stated that his team was only waiting for the signal from Madrid to board the plane. It never came. The refusal was surprising because Israel possessed unique experience in identifying bodies disfigured by explosions. "Unfortunately, Israel leads countries with the most experience in this field," Nachman told El Mundo.

The rejection of Israeli aid added to the refusal of US collaboration. Aznar, who maintained close ties with the George W. Bush administration, opted not to accept foreign teams at the IFEMA morgue. This decision has been interpreted in opposing ways. Some see it as distrust toward Israeli authorities; others, as a way to preserve Spanish judicial sovereignty over autopsies soon to be under international scrutiny.

## Yehuda Hiss and organ harvesting without consent

Yehuda Hiss's name soon acquired a dark shadow. The director of the Abu Kabir Institute, Israel's forensic medicine center, admitted in a 2000 interview with American anthropologist Nancy Shepard Hughes that corneas and skin were harvested from Palestinian corpses during the nineties without family authorization. The recording was not made public until more than a decade later, when broadcast by Israeli Channel 2.

Hiss was investigated twice for these acts but never charged. In his statements, he acknowledged the extractions occurred without permission and expressed the intention of Israeli authorities to return remaining parts. The Palestinian agency Maan disseminated his declarations. Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published a report in 2009 suggesting Israeli soldiers' involvement in large-scale organ trafficking from deceased Palestinians. The Israeli government labeled the report an antisemitic fabrication.

The link between Hiss and the 11M is not direct. What connects both names is Ricardo Nachman, the pathologist who was to lead the Israeli delegation rejected by Madrid. Nachman worked at the institute directed by Hiss. Years later, in 2013, he participated alongside Josep Arimany in conferences on major catastrophe management and corpse identification held in Barcelona. Both had previously collaborated on identifying victims of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami. Arimany attended as the Spanish representative; Nachman as the Israeli expert.

This subsequent professional collaboration has served critics to weave a hypothesis: that there was coordinated interest in participating in the 11M autopsies. There is no documentary proof backing this coordination. What is proven is that Arimany offered twenty flight seats, Baladía rejected them, he still appeared at IFEMA, and the Spanish government declined Israeli aid. The rest are conjectures.

## Three layers of underwear and unidentified sources

Amidst that chaos, someone anticipated that Baladía and Aznar would eventually yield. That person was Iñaki Gabilondo, who in his newscast on the morning of March 11 assured, citing three counter-terrorism sources, that some corpses had three layers of underwear. The detail, typical of suicide terrorist rituals, pointed directly to the Sarracinist lead. Eighteen years have passed, and Gabilondo has never revealed the identity of those three sources.

The underwear anecdote has become a symbol of the rush to close the authorship before autopsies ended. The Congressional investigation committee devoted entire sessions to determining who leaked what and when. Minutes record contradictory testimonies. Baladía insisted no one gave her political instructions. Arimany, for his part, never explained why he insisted on participating in autopsies denied to him twice.

The 11M documentary produced by Terra Ignota has revived interest in these episodes. The film compiles audiovisual documents from the time and contextualizes decisions taken during those hours. It does not resolve questions; it leaves them on the table. The fundamental question remains the same asked by contemporaries: why did so many external forensics want to enter IFEMA, and why were they shut out?

Speculations about what those teams might have found and never did find lack evidentiary support. The judicial investigation of the 11M concluded with final sentences in 2007. The convicted serve or have served their sentences. Alternative theories on authorship have not prospered in courts. Any statement regarding the mental health or personal situation of those involved requires caution and, if referring to a specific case, consulting a professional is advisable.