Madrid train bombing network

Jose A. Rodriguez of the University of Barcelona created a network of the individuals involved in the bombing of commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004. Rodriguez used press accounts in the two major Spanish daily newspapers (El Pais and El Mundo) to reconstruct the terrorist network. The names included were of those people suspected of having participated and their relatives. Rodriguez specified 4 kinds of ties linking the individuals involved:

• Trust-friendship (contact, kinship, links in the telephone center).
• Ties to Al Qaeda and to Osama Bin Laden.
• Co-participation in training camps or wars.
• Co-participation in previous terrorist attacks (Sept 11, Casablanca).

These four were added together providing a strength of connection index that ranges from 1 to 4.

Dataset

• A CSV with names of terrorists
• A CSV with connections and strength of connection among terrorists

Data challenges

1. Use k-connected components to find the cohesive groups of terrorists. Highlight the cohesive groups in the graph
2. Apply different node removal strategies to stress the resilience of the network