AL QAEDA, AND THEY WIN?:

Spanish police arrest five Muslims as crowds accuse Aznar of cover-up: Furious protesters chant: ‘Our dead, your war’ (Neil Mackay, Marion McKeone, and James Cusick, 3/13/04, Sunday Herald)

THREE Moroccans and two Indians have been arrested in Spain for the Madrid train bombings on Thursday. All five are thought to be linked to two militant Islamic groups which were named as the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group and Salafia Jihadi.

The arrests came as 5000 angry demonstrators picketed the offices of the ruling Popular Party shouting “lies” and other slogans claiming that Prime Minister José María Aznar had covered up the truth about the atrocity by blaming the Basque separatist group ETA ahead of today’s general election.

The arrests were confirmed by the interior minister, Angel Acebes, who said the five were arrested in connection with pay-as-you-go mobile phone cards found in a “backpack bomb” that the police recovered from one of the bombed trains. Acebes, who had blamed ETA within hours of the atrocity, said last night: “Sixty hours after the brutal attack, we now have five detentions.”

American intelligence agencies believed all along that al-Qaeda was behind the Madrid bombings but deferred to the Spanish government’s claims that ETA was responsible, pending the general election. Both FBI and CIA agents are in Madrid assisting the authorities.

Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) is also said to be “99% certain” that Muslim extremists and not ETA were responsible for the attacks, according to a left-wing Spanish radio station. Aznar’s party faces an angry backlash today with many voters now convinced he lied about al-Qaeda’s involvement fearing that the Spanish public would blame him for the loss of life. Nearly 90% of all Spaniards had been against Aznar supporting the war in Iraq and many now see the Madrid bombings as pay-back.

Aznar is seen in the Arab world as the third most significant player in the so-called “coalition of the willing”. Spain has sent 1300 troops to Iraq.

'It Has To Be Al Qaeda': An expert on Basque history and culture discusses his doubts about whether ETA could have been behind Thursday’s train attacks—and why any involvement would mean the end of the separatist group (Brian Braiker, 3/13/04, Newsweek)

Today many Basques support the idea of independence, but ETA remains a fringe group that wins headlines—but little sympathy—with every strike, says Joseba Zulaika, director of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada in Reno. Despite enjoying a good deal of autonomy within Spain, Basque separatists have attempted to assassinate Spain's King Juan Carlos as well as Jose Maria Aznar, then leader of the conservative Popular Party, now Spain's outgoing prime minister. On September 16, 1998, ETA declared a "unilateral and indefinite" cease-fire, and engaged in the first direct talks with the Spanish government in 10 years. The talks quickly failed, however, and the ceasefire was called off a year later. Violence once again became their means of negotiation.

Zulaika spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Brian Braiker about Thursday’s tragic bombing. Himself a native of Spain’s Basque country, Zulaika says he harbors no sympathy for the ETA. But, he adds, this week’s attack was on a scale so unprecedented even in the ETA’s own blood-soaked history that he is not convinced the group is responsible. But if they are in any way connected to this week’s terrorist attack, he predicts the “death” of the fringe nationalist group.

NEWSWEEK: Based on what you’ve seen do you think that this is the work of the ETA?

Joseba Zulaika: Well, I am split. On the one hand this is like nothing ETA has done in the past for several reasons. When they have [placed] a bomb, they use that essentially to make news and to let everyone know, “We are a threat.” But then they would call the police and the media so people would know and people would empty the place. Except in Barcelona [where a Basque bomb killed 21 in a supermarket in 1987], where they alleged they called the police who did not transmit that message to the media. They apologized profusely for that. That was a black eye for ETA, something that their own public did not approve.

What is the response of the general Basque community to this?

Their own leader, Arnold Otegi said yesterday they are totally opposed to this. ETA could not have done this. In a way it goes against the grain of ETA. If ETA has done this, it is ETA’s death among their own supporters. Obviously there is my own wish that this not ETA—it would be so shameful and so infamous for every Basque. Yet you cannot rule out that in that kind of organization: They are like cornered animals where they are constantly pursued, they feel relentlessly beaten by the Spanish police. I don’t know, maybe a group of them went to this extreme. I want to believe that it’s not the case, but you never know. [...]

And if Al Qaeda is responsible?

If it is Al Qaeda, it is a totally different story. More than 90 percent of the Spaniards were opposed to the war on Iraq. Still, Aznar, who had a political upper hand and absolute majority, just went with Bush. He didn’t care about public opinion. This will be a reminder to all of those 90 percent who didn’t want [war in] Iraq who will say, “Look, here is one more offshoot of that war that we didn’t have to fight.” So that would be negative for the government in this election.

If you bomb America you get chased into a hole in the ground. If you bomb Europe they chase their leaders from power? Memo to tourists: stay away from London just before their next election...

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2004 7:10 PM