Terror Train: Madrid attack reminds the world there’s a war out there — everywhere.

National Review ^ | March 12, 2004, 9:16 a.m | Arnold Beichman

[Eurotwit]

If you're wondering how the Islamist terrorists got enough explosives to kill 190 Spaniards and wound 1200 more, many maimed for life, here's a dispatch from the daily news report of Radio Free Europe which may be an answer.

According to the Czech Republic news agency, CTK, Czech police seized "hundreds of tons of imported, military-grade plastic explosives and detained two men on weapon-trafficking charges on March 10." The police, no doubt sensitive to protocol, failed to identify the country from which the shipments originated but a Czech newspaper spilled the beans: The country is Sweden and the shipment was 328 tons of explosives. 328 tons! Might have blown up all of Madrid for all I know.

The Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, further reported that the suspected seller was supposed to have destroyed the explosives but instead exported them — but to whom? Who needs 328 tons of plastic explosives? The newspaper doesn't say. It adds that the alleged buyers of the 328 tons of plastic explosives "were two Czech businessmen who intended to reprocess the explosives for resale." But to whom? Al Qaeda, or intermediaries? We know who the buyers are, I assume, but who were the end users? And more, who in Sweden is making plastic explosive and how could 328 tons get loaded onto to a vessel unobserved, without anyone asking questions?

Anyway, not to worry. The "businessmen" now under arrest are going to be tried under Czech law as well as under the 1991 Montreal Treaty prohibiting weapons trafficking. Have a good day.

[HEY4QDEMS]

The terror threat exaggerated!! /sarcasm

[Piquaboy]

It is too bad that the Damolrat party will not listen. The only thing they worry about is getting back in power with that sorry piece of human debris Kerry in the white house,

[Kenny Bunk]

Sad Scandinavian factoids:

Because the Scandinavian-Americans one meets in the United States are usually and uniformly such good, solid, practical, hard-working people, there is a tendency for Americans to think those left in the homelands are the uniformly the same.

This feeling does not have a firm factual foundation. Scandinavia, Norway and Sweden in particular, are inhabited (Thank Luther, not totally) by a profoundly leftist, anti-capitalist, anti-American, anti-Israel power elite that delights in championing Third World maniacs and minorities. The darker-complected and the worst-behaved, the better.

It is not at all hard to imagine Swedish "businessmen" of this mindset (and there are many!) involved in supplying explosives to al-Qaida. It's an incredibly sophisticated country, and the elites are well-versed in international business. If they want to use it to support world terror which supports their world view, they will. Sweden officially welcomes the rastiest Islamics they can find, including Palestinians wanted for terror crimes, they fund the settlement of bloodthirsty tribes whose habits would not be countenanced anywhere else in the world, and they are absolutely fanatical in this perverse pursuit of the potentially murderous.

The Swedish government bureaucrats are ignoring the huge police problems their new "neighbors" cause and shell out a fortune in benefits to them. It is 10 times worse than the official encouragement we give to illegals in California.

It's called "Third Worldism" by its critics in Scandinavia. It is nothing less than some sort of idiotic nordic version of the Rousseau Cult of the Noble Savage combined with an urge toward national suicide.

For an American version of this self-destructive phenomenon, check out the upper echelons of the Democrat party. For a lower-class version, check out the faculty at your local junior college or high school.

It is exactly the feeling that drives this Lindbauer moron to support Iraq at the expense of the US.

[Indie]

with that sorry piece of human debris Kerry in the white house,

If this loser wins, we should IMMEDIATELY dismantle all security barriers to the White House, remove ALL SAM missiles from the DC area, and remove the fence from around the White House since "The threat of terrorism has been overstated." [There are not words vile enough to appropriately describe the obscene vanity and arrogance of this purely political and amoral creature named EfnKerry]

[JimSEA]

There are concievable industrial / mining uses for this. in the wake of OKC bombing a demand was for identifying markers in all explosives and fertilizers. What happened to that. If they are there, why isn't the information made public after each bombing? The public should know just where this stuff is coming from.

[Eurotwit]

The big chemical firms and explosive manufacturers have totally refused to cooperate regarding identifying markers.

In these days of terror, I actually belive the government should force their hands.

[JimSEA]

Thanks for the info. I guess that doesn't suprise me but it does depress me. It is understandable that small producers in Muslim countries would refuse but American and EU companies should have their refusal publicised. It would also serve to pressure developing countries that want to do business.

[Eurotwit]

The NRA is one of the lobbying groups that are fighting against identifying markers. They seem to equal it with gun registration and gun control.

[hosepipe]

Why Madrid of all places ?... Because an attack in New York would almost surely get BUSH elected and NOT KERRY.. At least the "EVIL" forces have some unity...

[JimSEA]

How does that fit under the Second Amendment? I can see where having your marker come up at a terror site would be very embarassing to a company (to say the least), but I don't see it as violating any rights. Knowing how terrorists operate is necessary to preventing repeats of 9/11, its's as simple and obvious as that.

[Wolfstar]

The only thing they worry about is getting back in power with that sorry piece of human debris Kerry in the White House.

Not even all of us on the right side of the political spectrum seem to get it. Yet it's going to take all of us working together very hard to defeat the Left's machine this time around. If we don't, this time it could very well mean your life, or mine, or those of our loved ones. This time it's very, very personal.

[Eurotwit]

I think their opposition is mainly related to black poweder or something like that. Their opposition is based on the fact that black powder ammo with markers doesn't work too well, or is unsafe or something like that.

I thought of this issue today when a reporter on Sky News says how much easier it would be for investigators in Madrid if the marker system was in place, but that the big firms had refused to cooperate because adding these markers were deemed too costly.

If I remember correctly, it was Clinton who tried to get marker legislation through, but it was blocked by the GOP in the 90's. Not totally sure of that though.

[Piquaboy]

I did not think it possible for someone to dislike Kerry as much as I do but you did it.

[Piquaboy]

When we find country's that have supplied the explosives to commit terror and kill innocents, we should drop the same amount of it back on them so they know how it feels.

[ChadGore]

Bush is right.

[struwwelpeter]

Because the Scandinavian-Americans one meets in the United States are usually and uniformly such good, solid, practical, hard-working people...

If it wasn't for the Germans in SW Minnesota, the whole state would vote to join Canada.

[McGavin999]

Sweden? That supposedly "peaceful" country who produced Hans Blix? The world is full of hypocrites