Posted on 12/12/2004 1:23:31 PM PST by livius
Santiago Bernabeu Stadium (Madrid) Evacuated for Bomb Threat
Security agents of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium have ordered the evacuation of the stadium, host to the game between the Real Madrid and the Real Sociedad [Spanish soccer teams], because of an alleged bomb threat. A call to the newspaper Gara de San Sebastian [in the Basque region] announced the placement of an explosive device in the Madrid stadium. The caller claimed that it would explode at 9:00 p.m. The approximately 75,000 spectators present were told over the PA system to leave the premises, although they were not informed of the reason, and were permitted to exit onto the field, which they did in a calm and orderly manner. The press officer of the Real Madrid, Antonio Garcia Ferrera, announced that the National Security Agencies had examined the warning before deciding to evacuate the stadium. As of now, the fans have left the stadium and there is a massive traffic jam on La Castellana [6 lane street that passes the stadium]. Despite the fact that the bomb threat came through the usual channels, it should be remembered that only a few days ago, the PP [conservative party] headquarters in Madrid’s Calle Genova also had a false bomb threat.
"Please leave the stadium immediately for no particular reason."
I think the Spainish take bomb threats a little more seriously these days.
The ETA Basques have been terrorists for longer than the Muslims. What to do, what to do?
This is one of I don't know how many threats and even small bombings in the last couple of weeks. ETA is probably behind this, as they were behind the others.
These things are warnings. ETA has obviously ganged up with AQ (since the extreme left loves Islamic loonies). There have been hearings going on in Madrid relating to the March 11 bombings, and it keeps emerging that there was a strong connection between ETA and AQ, mostly because they both hated Spain and had jail-house contacts.
The police informer who told the police in Asturias (northern Spain, near the Basque region) as early as 2001 that AQ was asking ETA to supply dynamite or other explosives, as well as ETA's famed cell-phone detonator techonology (used in the March 11 bombing), is now being protected. However, his girlfriend, who knew a lot and had also been subjected to threats, drowned herself off of Gijón (city in Asturias)last week - remaining in the water for 40 minutes, while the police refused to save her or let anybody else bring her in.
Guess those who wanted to vote for Zapatero got what they wanted, and the other fools who voted for him because the press scared them into it are probably less than happy right now. But it's too late. Forget about Holland - Spain may be the first Muslim European country of this century.
They're one and the same now. ETA and AQ, perfect together.
Everybody outta the pool!
PJ Crowley turned himself into a pretzle on Fox&Friends the other day trying to say that the March 11 bombings had NOT emboldened ETA. Jed Babbin struggled to not call Crowley a hopeless moron.
Prairie
I'm almost certain that the article said that the threat was coming from Islamic sources.
Your post seems to indicate an ETA attack, though.
Bernabeau is a big stadium. I want to say in the 80-100,000 range.
This doesn't seem to fit the ETA, style. First of all, they have their own team in the league, Bilbao; secondly, their MO seems to be more along the lines of damaging government infrastructure rather than killing a lot of innocent civilians.
Blowing up a large stadium filled with people is more in line with Islamic terrorism, IMHO.
longjack
ETA is famous for calling in threats, and there is usually some bomb out there that goes off and takes out a couple of people. They are timed so that the police who come to investigate the first one are usually killed by the second one.
ETA has always worried that massive bombings would turn Spaniards against it. This was the reason that ETA worked with AQ in carrying out the March 11 bombing, because AQ was the public face on the attack.
The initial suspicion of the [Spanish] Government was that it was ETA. This was because AQ had "licensed" ETA's special cell-phone technology, and an ETA member had been caught [because of his falsified license plate] trying to transport nearly a ton of the same type of explosives to Madrid only a couple of weeks before the attack. A Moroccan, one of the 3/11 bombers, was also stopped because of his falsified license plate - but they didn't search his van, so he was able to continue on and bring his shipment of explosives to a place in Guadalajara, where they were then parcelled out and used as the explosives for the train bombing.
I don't know.
One can make a solid case that the muslims have been at it on and off for over 1300 years.
That's because they were almost dead when Aznar left office. But they've revved up in the last few months, because ZP has shown every sign of weakness. However, they don't want the fact that they collaborated with AQ in the train bombing to come out (it won't, because the press is both pro-ETA and pro-AQ), so they've been going slowly.
Bombings have increased throughout the fall. They set off a large number of small bombs last weekend (a big holiday weekend in Spain, sort of like the 4th of July), which are thought to be a warning. They know that with the election of ZP, they were home free, and they're going to press this advantage now.
They're just paranoid.
After all they appeased the terrorists and shunned the fight to eliminate them, so they are safe from terrorist actions.
It's the likes of the USA who need to worry for we are defying the wishes of the terrorists and in turn our lack of compassion for their concerns is making us a focus for further attack.
Spain, you have it made with your appeasing attitude, just look what WE are going through because of our unwillingness to appease.
How did the police explain their inaction?
What is the Guardia Nacional doing? Drinking cafe?
Very interesting. See my other posts. I think ETA and AQ are working together, and have been for at least a few years (possibly since 2001). I follow this regularly in the Spanish press, particularly the conservative press, which actually prints the entire text of hearings, etc.
It appears that they began to work together seriously starting in 2000, and by 2001, jailed ETA and AQ members were consciously planning for the future.
Aznar did a lot to crush ETA, but one of the major problems was that the Socialist-allied intelligence services were thoroughly arrayed against him. He reformed them in his second term, completely reconstructing the agencies. But there were many civil service positions he could not change, and these people were enormously damaging. (Sound familiar?)
That said, I think we're going to see lots of domestic terrorist/AQ work in the future, particularly in Spain, where the current government's response to ETA has been quite feeble (Socialist government, Marxist ETA, what more do I need to say?). IMHO, we've already had it here with OKC.
Sweet of Babbin, but Crowley was a moron.
ETA is going about this carefully, because they fear a backlash - which is actually the only thing that has ever kept them under control. They will blow up a certain number of passing civilians, knowing they can get away with it; they'll kill a certain number of politicians, knowing that the press will cover for them. Most of the politicians were PP [conservative party], and those who were PSOE [socialist party] were at the conservative end of that line, so the press hated them anyway.
The press will defend ETA as long as possible, and they will also defend their latest hero, AQ. In the recent hearings in Madrid, families of the victims of the March 11 attacks turned up screaming "Aznar asesino" [Aznar, killer]. Forget about AQ. The press loved it.
Believe it or not, the police said that they were afraid they would get hypothermia if they went into the water. So they stood around leaning on the railing over the beach, smoking. One ordinary citizen went out to try to save her, but he couldn't hold her up long enough, and nobody else dared to help.
I know this sounds like a joke, but it's not.
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