Madrid Bombings Show No al-Qaida Ties

[Roland99]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060309/ap_on_re_eu/spain_homegrown_terror

MADRID, Spain - A two-year probe into the Madrid train bombings concludes the Islamic terrorists who carried out the blasts were homegrown radicals acting on their own rather than at the behest of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, two senior intelligence officials said.

Spain still remains home to a web of radical Algerian, Moroccan and Syrian groups bent on carrying out attacks — and aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq — the Spanish intelligence chief and a Western official intimately involved in counterterrorism measures in Spain told The Associated Press.

The intelligence chief said there were no phone calls between the Madrid bombers and al-Qaida and no money transfers. The Western official said the plotters had links to other Islamic radicals in Western Europe, but the plan was hatched and organized in Spain. "This was not an al-Qaida operation," he said. "It was homegrown."

Both men spoke on condition of anonymity, the first because Spanish security officials are not allowed to discuss details of an ongoing investigation and the second due to the sensitive nature of his job.

You mean the big bad Al Qaeda boogeyman is a farce? That Al Qaeda isn't a highly organized worldwide terror group with cells in every country managed by bin Laden and Zawahiri?

Ya don't say?

Never woulda thunk it.



Perhaps this *will* wake gov'ts up to internal threats and to stop focusing on some neocon nightmare called Al Qaeda.

[MnFats]

1. In any case it was NOT ETA, which the Spanish govt. tried to peddle..

in the days following the attacks. The spanish govt. lied its ass off, and got thrown out of office for its deception.
Americans could take a lesson from Spain....which has dealt with terror and bombings a lot longer than we have.

[ceile]

2. I wonder if Aznar(?) was still in power....

would the findings have been different?

[Tempest]

8. The findings would not have been any different

The opposition party in Spain received the same intelligence as the ruling party did which proved Islamic radicals were behind the attack and not the ETA. Anzar wasn't going to release the information and continued to blame ETA.

The opposition party told Anzar that if he didn't going to come clean to the people, they would release the intelligence immediately. Because of this, Anzar was forced to admit he lied on the eve of the election and the people responded by voting overwhelmingly to throw him out of office.

It seems the Spanish people have morals, values and integrity most Americans don't have.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Score another for the "Power of Nightmares"

the danger of "Al Quaeda" is not the network, which is blown out of all proportion to its probable size and strength by Bush-Blair-et al. for political terrorism reasons. (That is, terrorizing Americans and Britons into blind obedience). The danger of Al Quaeda is the idea, not just of terrorism as an act of protest against the West, but the legend of a united, vast and powerful underground terror organization, which is spread and glamorized by none other than the men who claim to be able to save us from it.
The potential dangers of building up the myth of Al-Quaeda includes inspiring copycats (like London bombers and the Madrid) and ranges all the way up to conjuring into actual existence something that has the shape and size of the Enemy as seen in Anglo-American propaganda. If they build up the legend enough, angry people will begin to gravitate towards it, and even create it where it doesn't exist, so that in time the legend will no longer just be a legend.

[Roland99]

6. That's the 1st thing that hit my mind, too.

Jason Burke seemed to hit the nail on the head.

[0rganism]

13. Right -- it becomes a "stand-alone complex" built from pure exaggeration

Strangely enough, international terrorism owes at least as much of its recent success to W and his croneys as it does to Osama bin Laden.

(stand-alone complex := copies without an original, or from an imaginary original)

[bluestateguy]

4. The thought that it might be AQ helped Zapatero and the Socialists win

Aznar's people tried to blame it on the Basque terrorists. In this case, the Al Qaeda scare actually benefitted the left of center party.

[librechik]

5. hannity's gonna headline with this, right?

This is great news! Al Qaeda is less of a threat than we thought!

:sarcasm:

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. Their wrong, the whole cha cha is orchestrated from a cave

someplace.

[oblivious]

9. This will be totally ignored. The shills and the ignorant will carry on...

...using the Madrid bombings as an example of Al-qaeda's global reach to show no one is safe from the devilishly intelligent criminal masterminds who render the massive Western intelligence complex totally helpless, blah blah.

[MnFats]

10. do you remember the insults heaped on Spain when it withdrew from Iraq?

Rep.: Henry Hyde: "This is a great victory for Al Queda."

yeah, right. Shut the f*** up, you asshole.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

11. for that matter, what "proof" do they have against AQ

for 911?

[oblivious]

12. None that would hold up in a court of law.

[ConcernedCanuk]

14. possibly just a pronunciation thing - 'twass - "CIA, - DUHH"

.
.
.

[oblivious]

15. Bump for this propaganda buster.