RASHMEE Z. AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2004 08:38:50 PM ]
LONDON: As four powerful bombs bloodied the Spanish capital Madrid killing 173, in Europe’s deadliest act of terror after the Lockerbie bombings, major European capitals have begun to wonder if 3/11 - the 11th day of the third month – is meant to be the Old World’s 9/11?
As news filtered in that 13 bombs were meant to go off together in one of Europe’s most historic and vibrant capitals, Britain significantly declared it to be "an assault on the very principle of European democracy".
Spain goes to the polls on Sunday.
Some of Europe’s leading terrorism experts agreed the bombs ahead of ballots could be as significant an assault on Western democracy as 9/11's crumbling twin towers attacked the symbol of Western capitalism.
So could it have been al-Qaeda, hooking up for the very first time with a largely secular European nationalist grouping?
Could the world’s most feared, faceless and fabulously inventive Islamist terrorist group really be wreaking revenge for Spain's controversial participation in the US-led, UK-backed militaristic coalition against terror?
And if so, is Britain, America’s closest ally in the war on terror, next?
Officially, Spain does not think it is al-Qaeda. With European capitals shuddering at the thought that al-Qaeda might have left its calling card right at the heart of Europe, Spain’s interior minister Angel Acebes blamed the homegrown ETA. ETA is fighting a violent separatist campaign to free the Basque region.
But in a deepening mystery, a leader of ETA’s banned political wing, Herri Batasuna, said "Arab resistance", not ETA, was not to blame.