Posted on 03/11/2004 9:25:51 AM PST by nickcarraway
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.
The denial, said ETA expert Professor Paul Heywood, was unusual. ETA has nearly always claimed responsibility in 35 years of attacks, which claimed 800 lives altogether. If ETA were proved to have pulled off the Madrid spectacular, it would be assured undreamt-of publicity.
The Basque blame for "Arabs" blew a chill wind threw European chancelleries. But, some leading British security analysts said there was a risk of terrorist groups using al-Qaeda and Islamist resistance as a fig leaf for their actions.
Even so, some of the world’s leading experts on ETA admitted they are puzzled by the unprecedented scale of the attacks.
The modus operandi too, with unannounced coordinated multiple blasts perfectly timed for the rush hour and maximum human suffering were unusual, said a leading authority on ETA, Paddy Woodworth in Dublin.
With worrying candour, Professor Paul Wilkinson, a leading terrorism expert at St Andrews University, said al-Qaeda's handiwork or not, the attacks may underline the al-Qaeda effect on global terrorism.
"Terrorist groups learn from each other", he said.
Late on Thursday, Tony Blair said the attacks underlined the worldwide terrorist threat. The president of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, said it was "a declaration of war on democracy".
Spain’s wannabe prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, who heads the governing Popular Party, said it was a "massive assassination which has plunged democracy into mourning".
Well, it figures. And I suspect they will dismiss it as Spain's problem. Spain staunchly stood by us, defying the European dismissal of 9-11 as somehow deserved. I'm waiting for the first loser to make that connection. And the UK was with us, at least Tony Blair and his supporters. I really doubt Europe gets it yet. What a sad day for Spain and the world. I've heard what Britain and Spain had to say, in denouncing this cowardly act of terrorism, but what of the rest of Europe, the EU? Prayer bump to the victims and survivors and their families.
There is a bit of evidence coming in now. Certainly there is no proof yet, but there is more than wishful thinking.
Al Queda wants a war with the West not peace, they are asking for a united front in Europe to go to war with Islamics... that is the goal;
Al Queda wants a war with the West not peace, they are asking for a united front in Europe to go to war with Islamics... that is the goal;
From: http://slate.msn.com/id/1008411/ - by Chris Suellentrop, Slate Magazine
"What's it have to do with Spain? Virginia Postrel proposes a "Bin Laden Doctrine": "that no Muslim territory should ever become non-Muslim." Bin Laden opened his videotaped statement with this sentence: "Let the whole world know that we shall never accept that the tragedy of Andalusia would be repeated in Palestine. We cannot accept that Palestine will become Jewish." The "tragedy of Andalusia" refers to the conquering in 1492 of the Muslim Kingdom of Granada by the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. It was a central moment in the Islamic empire's quest for political and military power: Muslim expansion was not just checked; it was reversed. If Bin Laden truly wants to restore the original geographic dimensions of the caliphate, he may eventually look toward Spain. Of course, it's possible that Bin Laden's goals are more modest (modest being a relative word).
Bin Laden's two-front war? After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bin Laden dropped the Russians as "Public Enemy No. 1" and focused on the United States. [Slate's] Explainer doesn't want to make too much of this World War I theory, but it's possible that Bin Laden thinks he defeated the Soviet Union. If the end of World War I is the central historical moment to Bin Laden, it's important to note that more than Britain and France were involved. After World War I, the Soviet Union occupied Muslim countries in Central Asia that had once been part of the caliphate. Bin Laden may figure he's already halfway on his way to completing his God-ordained mission. Now that he's almost done with the eastern front, it's time to focus on the western one."
(B) We do not know who did this yet. I'm sitting at work and haven't had a chance to read all of the news, but I don't think that the Spanish government has said "AL QAEDA did this." Have they?
(C) We don't live in a static world. A typical modus operandi doesn't mean you stop investigating or close your mind down. People change. Tactics change.
"... we weep with the families. We stand strongly with the people of Spain. I appreciate so very much the Spanish government’s fight against terror, their resolute stand against terrorist organizations, like ETA. The United States stand with them. Today we ask God’s blessing on those who suffer in the great country of Spain.”
--U.S. President Bush
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