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Al-Qaeda 'behind Madrid blasts' (Unconfirmed reports say a suicide bomber in Madrid.)
The Australian ^ | 3/12/04

Posted on 03/11/2004 6:43:33 PM PST by empirekin768

Al-Qaeda 'behind Madrid blasts' By staff writers and wires March 12, 2004 A GROUP linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network has claimed responsibility for yesterday's bombs in Spain that killed more than 190 and injured 1400.

The group, calling itself The Brigade of Abu Hafs Al-Masri, said it was acting in the name of al-Qaeda in a letter to a London Arabic-language newspaper.

It said one of its "death squads" had penetrated "one of the pillars of the crusade alliance, Spain".

A total of 13 bombs were planted in three railway stations yesterday in the worst terrorist attack ever on Spanish soil. The bombs killed at least 192 and injured 1400 people when they exploded at 7.30am local time (5.30pm AEDT).

It was Europe's worst terror attack since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.

Unconfirmed reports say a suicide bomber was on at least one of the four trains struck in the co-ordinated attacks.

Spanish investigators believe the country is a hub of European activity for Islamic extremist terror groups, led by al-Qaeda. Lead September 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta visited Spain twice ahead of the operation to finalise details of the 2001 plot, anti-terror investigators say.(Full story: al-Qaeda's Spanish connections)

News of al-Qaeda's involvement sent shock waves through American markets, with the US dollar quickly sliding in value. At 11.30am AEDT it was trading at 0.7347c against the Australian dollar, down from an opening price of 73.81c.

Authorities initially suspected Basque separatist group ETA but are now following several lines of inquiry after a van full of detonators and audio tapes reciting verses from the Koran was found east of the Spanish capital.

After an emergency Cabinet meeting, a sombre Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar vowed to hunt down the attackers.

"This is mass murder," he said.

After the blasts, commuters panicked, trampling one another, abandoning their shoes and bags, as the bombs turned commuter trains into twisted wrecks and left platforms strewn with bodies. Cellphones rang unanswered on corpses.

Distraught student Isabel Vega said: "It was horrible. After the explosion people hurled themselves to the floor. There were dead and injured lying all around."

In all, 10 devices exploded. The remaining three were defused by Spanish bomb squads.

World leaders condemned the atrocity, three days before Spain's general election, as an attack on democracy and urged a joint stand against terrorism.

People took to the streets of Madrid in anti-ETA protests, though it now appears the Basque group may not have been behind the atrocity / AFP Prime Minister John Howard said it was "a dreadful atrocity without any justification".

"I express on behalf of the Australian people our sorrow and our outrage and our sense of support and concern for the people of Spain," Mr Howard said.

The letter to London's Al-Quds Al-Arabi from the terror group said; "The death squad (of the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades) succeeded in penetrating the crusader European depths and striking one of the pillars of the crusader alliance - Spain - with a painful blow."

It was signed "Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades/Al-Qaeda" and dated March 11.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was a fervent ally in the 2003 US-led war in Iraq to oust former leader Saddam Hussein and Madrid still deploys 1300 troops as part of a multinational force in the war-torn country.

ETA emphatically denied any link to the atrocity. The Basque group's usual practice is to issue bomb warnings and quickly claim responsibility for its actions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the attack saying it highlighted the threat posed by terrorism worldwide.

"The terrible attack underlines the threat that we all continue to face from terrorism in many countries, and why we all must work together internationally to safeguard our peoples against such attacks and defeat terrorism," he said.

US President George W. Bush rang Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to send "his condolences over the viciousness" of the attack, said National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack.

with AP & AFP


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 31104; alqaeda; jihadineurope; madridbombing; madridmassacre; religionofpieces; spain; terrorism
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To: Lawgvr1955
To the libs the people fighting terror are more despicable than the terrorists.

"Anti-antiterrorism," a worthy sequel to rock-ribbed liberal anti-anticommunism.

41 posted on 03/11/2004 7:57:17 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Brian_Baldwin
no , i think you are wrong.

consider this: due to demographic
shifts, there will be more hispanics in many
of the major states, and without either
their vote or the African vote, republicans
will soon be unable win national elections,
leaving the door open to liberal elements
of the democratic party (excluding moderates like
lieberman) who will pander to them for votes.

The result will be much worse than if george bush
and the republicans make a few concessions now and
maintain enough of the votes to keep voting trends
approximately even


I dont like it any more than you, and i'm sorry to be the
one to give you bad news, but we better start getting
used to it, because that is our future.

oh and did i mention that there are a bunch of muslim fanatics who want us all dead?

42 posted on 03/11/2004 8:05:21 PM PST by vp_cal
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To: marshmallow
Aznar has the historical inspiration of Rodrigo Diáz de Vivar "El Cid" to suggest a future couse of action if this turns out to have been Islamist.
43 posted on 03/11/2004 8:14:25 PM PST by JimSEA ( "More Bush, Less Taxes.")
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To: Iberian
Is that right? have not done the math yet.

C:\>irb
irb(main):001:0> (Time.gm(2004, 3, 11, 6, 45) - Time.gm(2001, 9, 11, 12, 45)) / 86400
=> 911.75
There you have it. New York was GMT-4, and Madrid is GMT + 1. (Calculation in Ruby).
44 posted on 03/11/2004 8:17:18 PM PST by cynwoody
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To: JimSEA
what was his 'solution'?
45 posted on 03/11/2004 8:17:30 PM PST by vp_cal
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To: vp_cal
My God, you missed the whole point. We have no borders. And this is the reason why. Stop this crap. Stop it. Stop it, or it will be here sooner than you ever thought.

Stop this crap, this sad sack crap, the Republican VOTE is more important to you than our BORDERS? My God!

What you saw in Madrid. It's comin' here, sucker.

And it's comin' over the MEXICAN BORDER.

I think, very soon, a lot of us Americans will know - exactly - what it feels like to be a Jew. Like a Jew in Israel. Because, we are all Jews now.

WE ARE ALL JEWS NOW.

And the terrorists, the Palestinian Terrorists, our friends the Saudi's, those who cry "Palestinian State", we all know what they want. They would sell their Palestinian State to hell, to hell, just so long as it meant all the Jews were drowned in the sea. They would sell their Palestinian State to the fire of hell, and burn even their own children, all of them ... just so long as it meant that all the Jews were gassed.

And you see? When they say "Jew", they mean us, too.

We are all Jews now. Jews riding on trains. Jews riding in buses. Jews riding in subways. Jews riding on the BART train going into San Francisco.

We are all Jews now. And we have no borders.

And it will happen. Just like that.

And as for all the nice Hispanics comin'? They are America's next Palestinian terrorists. Who will not become Americans. They will be just like the Palestinians. In the end. Demanding. And then, throwing bombs.

There WON'T be TWO languages. Because, they WON'T LET US or anyone else, speak ENGLISH.

YOU. That is why Madrid is coming HERE.

46 posted on 03/11/2004 8:22:31 PM PST by Brian_Baldwin
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To: vp_cal
My God, you missed the whole point. We have no borders. And this is the reason why. Stop this crap. Stop it. Stop it, or it will be here sooner than you ever thought.

Stop this crap, this sad sack crap, the Republican VOTE is more important to you than our BORDERS? My God!

What you saw in Madrid. It's comin' here, sucker.

And it's comin' over the MEXICAN BORDER.

I think, very soon, a lot of us Americans will know - exactly - what it feels like to be a Jew. Like a Jew in Israel. Because, we are all Jews now.

WE ARE ALL JEWS NOW.

And the terrorists, the Palestinian Terrorists, our friends the Saudi's, those who cry "Palestinian State", we all know what they want. They would sell their Palestinian State to hell, to hell, just so long as it meant all the Jews were drowned in the sea. They would sell their Palestinian State to the fire of hell, and burn even their own children, all of them ... just so long as it meant that all the Jews were gassed.

And you see? When they say "Jew", they mean us, too.

We are all Jews now. Jews riding on trains. Jews riding in buses. Jews riding in subways. Jews riding on the BART train going into San Francisco.

We are all Jews now. And we have no borders.

And it will happen. Just like that.

And as for all the nice Hispanics comin'? They are America's next Palestinian terrorists. Who will not become Americans. They will be just like the Palestinians. In the end. Demanding. And then, throwing bombs.

There WON'T be TWO languages. Because, they WON'T LET US or anyone else, speak ENGLISH.

YOU. That is why Madrid is coming HERE.

47 posted on 03/11/2004 8:22:31 PM PST by Brian_Baldwin
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To: vp_cal
He drove the Moors (Islam) from Spain. I believe the first Mosque since then in Spain was just OK'ed by the Aznar government. As I recall, in the last battle, El Cid lead the Spaniards even though he was dead and only tied to his horse. Something like undying hatred or love or whatever. :)
48 posted on 03/11/2004 8:30:56 PM PST by JimSEA ( "More Bush, Less Taxes.")
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To: empirekin768
The group, calling itself The Brigade of Abu Hafs Al-Masri

Is it this guy alias Al-Masri (Egyptian)? http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/terabdullah.htm

49 posted on 03/11/2004 8:35:50 PM PST by Selene
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To: Brian_Baldwin
I'd have beer with you just to crack you in the piehole.
50 posted on 03/11/2004 8:43:59 PM PST by Iberian
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To: Brian_Baldwin
We need to get EMT training. But this has all been done before and the target might be the EmT's firemen (a tear wells up in me old eye).Multiple-type attacks and here again an irony and complete rejection of any tenet of faith.In which,in midst of horror they perform they also target the saviors of the muslim traveler.Totally insane misdirected rage.
51 posted on 03/11/2004 8:44:42 PM PST by noodler
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To: cynwoody
Damm, it sounds good. I am still working it out on the free calculator.
52 posted on 03/11/2004 8:46:09 PM PST by Iberian
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To: empirekin768
"Cellphones rang unanswered on corpses."

This should be a worldwide wake up call exposing the horrors of Islam. Meantime, leaders around the world are voicing outrage and sorrow. Still no word from Mecca though.

If Mecca can't reign in the terrorists they have produced, and obviously it either can't or has no desire to do so. Then the house which gave rise to these demonic heathens must pay.
53 posted on 03/11/2004 8:50:02 PM PST by takenoprisoner (illegally posting on an expired tag)
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To: takenoprisoner
Power misdrected is no power.I'm not Chinese but maybe have a little of the old thinking which cleverly applies nuscience to another.When these murderers find out they've been played all hell will break.I don't want one Chinese person to suffer this yet there is a responsibility which if addressed will live through time as extraordinary.
54 posted on 03/11/2004 8:59:59 PM PST by noodler
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To: noodler
I haven't a clue what you are talking about. Are you blaming the Chinese?
55 posted on 03/11/2004 9:11:36 PM PST by takenoprisoner (illegally posting on an expired tag)
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To: Lawgvr1955
"...that the threat of terrorism is overblown."

Overblown? Good one, LG.

56 posted on 03/11/2004 9:20:33 PM PST by Bonaparte
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To: Tinhatter
Well,

         9/11/01
+365     9/11/02
+365     9/11/03
+ 30    10/11/03
+ 31    11/11/03
+ 30    12/11/03
+ 31     1/11/04
+ 31     2/11/04
+ 29     3/11/04
_____
 912

Right?

57 posted on 03/11/2004 10:06:41 PM PST by dr_lew
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To: Brian_Baldwin
You really need to calm down. Hysteria helps nothing.
58 posted on 03/11/2004 11:17:01 PM PST by texasflower (in the event of the rapture.......the Bush White House will be unmanned)
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To: empirekin768
Cross-link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095682/posts
Terror Strike! Madrid-
various FR links | 03-11-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
59 posted on 03/11/2004 11:53:23 PM PST by backhoe (Just an old Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the TrackBall into the Sunset...)
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To: livius
I think the suicuide bomber report came from the AFP, who quoted a Spanish radio station which in turn quoted an source in the Spanish intelligence apparatus....
60 posted on 03/12/2004 3:36:07 AM PST by Eurotwit
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