I would vote on Al Queda.
They know ETA exists and that the Spanish government would have a political and emotional interest in blaming ETA. So they create physical, political and emotional chaos with one bombing. The more confusion the better. Plus the media helps by having pundits debating the issue.
The media is more of a terrorist than the terrorists.
Dal Timgar
It would be out of character for Al Qaeda to try and blame others for their attacks, though. They don’t make phone calls to take credit, but they’re trying to start a jihad here. They do want the credit. Come to think of it, if you’re a terrorist in general it doesn’t help if people don’t know who you are and why you’re bombing them.
Three Moroccans and two “Spaniards of Hindi origin” have just been arrested in connection with the attacks.
No further details as yet.
I suppose I’m about 80/20 in favor of AQ now, though. I think it says a lot about AQ though. Why would they attack Spain? The 9/11 attacks were certainly horrible, but at least there was an attempt to justify it. Terrorism is such an easy thing to do, however. It would be just as easy to make such attacks in NYC. All they would need is some guy who is still in the US to do is just walk in to the middle of a crowded area, put his backpack down and then walk away and detonate it. There is no way to prevent that at all. France seems like a likely target considering the headscarf ban.
It really makes you wonder if AQ has the ability to attack “better” targets like the US, UK, France or Germany. Spain didn’t have such a big role. On the other hand maybe its because of Spain’s involvement in detaining many terrorists that happened to be there at some point.
Does anyone here that this may drive down sympathy for AQ in those who would be sympathetic to them? For instance I know that AQ is kind of popular in Saudi Arabia and probably a good deal of people. Do you think these people would believe that AQ has gone to far in persecuting Spain for a very minimal role?
The way I see it is that if AQ were to terrorise continental Europe and the UK with such attacks then Europe would have a serious change in mind of what needs to be done about the terror situation. AQ can’t want that to happen, because in the end they’ll lose.
When I saw 9/11 and new that Bin Ladin did it, I pretty much knew why he did it. The US was a superpower and it seemed that it was designed to be divisive. But honestly bombings all over the place are just going to unite people.
I just heard that… I can’t imagine Hindus and Moslems working together, I can only imagine that something got lost in translation.
It’d be nice, but I’m not going to trust in the kindness and sensitivity of fanatics. Spain was quite vocal in supporting America and the Iraq war, and I’m sure that’s more than enough to earn the ire of these people.
If I was European, I might find this insulting because it seems to imply that Europe doesn’t oppose terrorism.
“Hindu origin” is kind of ambiguous. Hindus and Muslims from the subcontinent don’t look any different from each other in my experience. CNN’s story identifies the two men as “Indian.”
I’ve just heard on the radio they’ve been described as Indians.
In the UK, having a sizeable population from the Indian subcontinent, we are probably more aware of the dfferent religions/cultures within it.
Didn’t mean it like that. I think that Europe’s position on terror now is fine. I meant that if such unpreventable attacks like these became commonplace in continental Europe THEN they would have to change their mind. I am not trying to bash their current position at all. If terrorism began to ruin everyone’s chance to live a normal life for the majority of the world then I think we would have to change our outlook.
To what, though? I’m not sure I understand where you’re going with it.
I can only speak for myself, but I’m of the opinion that the majority of British share my view:
We are as stubborn as fuck; the more you try to push us around, the more we dig our heels in. I suspect the Spanish are the same.
I wouldn’t dignify it with a strategic purpose. If it was AQ, it was revenge for the Spanish (government) support for the war.
According to RTÉ News just now, the Moroccans are “ordinary criminals” and were arrested in connection with a mobile phone theft ring. So it may be a bit too soon to start drawing conclusions just yet.
However, it’s clear that the Spanish people are angry at what looks like a Government insistence on portraying ETA as responsible regardless of the facts, and are beginning to demand the truth. Somehow I don’t think the PP are going to do very well tomorrow.
The Spain/islamic warware stuff goes wayyyyy back, from the islamic invasion and then fighting it off over centuries. Their claim letter said this was ‘payback’ for a 500 year old score basically.
Once islamics take a land, that land is forever islamic to them. There is nothing left.
“Islamics”?
Can you back up your assertion, or is it something you just made up? Is Greece, for example, forever Islamic to “them”? Can you give an example of any muslim people who regard Spain as “forever Islamic”? And what exactly do you mean “there is nothing left”?
Another interesting data point: a comparative analysis on the self-proclaimed AQ London fax letter claiming responsibility for the bombings by the “infamous” MEMRI, concluding that they don’t believe it to be from an actual/official AQ source.
Well i certainly hope that invading other countries will be off the agenda, although i doubt it.
So the current position is fine, but a change of mind will be required…hmmm.
Look on the bright side, you wont be able to move without an iris scan soon, i hope it makes you feel much safer.
It is really something how so many people can suddenly think that “terrorism” has just been invented, and that we absolutly must do something, anything, right this minute, or “they” will kill us all, the damn brown (invisible) islamic nasties.
all this bloody talk, all these damn cliches, which basically say “<sharp intake of breath> we are all gonna have to accept a few more security measures to beat those terrorists”, said as if the bbc/cnn/fox blah blah instructed average joe is some expert on (capital T) Terrorism TM, and they really believe it.
America (and im meaning the govt. although im quite sure they aren’t that naive) and terrorism is like a teeneger who just discovered sex; everybody has been aware of it for years, but this new guy is now a world expert and all the older folks simply must take his advice.
/senseless rant
Very likely. In many Spanish newspaper style-sheets people from the nation of India are referred to generically (and misleadingly) as Hindúes due to centuries of confusion with American “Indians” and with Indianos, Spaniard descendants who returned from the Americas to the Peninsula.
The Aznar government is getting into one serious mess with a perception that they’re just being obstinate in insisting it had to be ETA. And I think I may have to take back a prediction I made – from the TVE feeds it looks like if the Al-Q link is demonstrated, there will be more than enough public opinion support for a policy of disengagement from any US-led efforts outside Spanish soil.
Wait a minute–the Spanish people might respond to the terrorism by doing exactly what bin Laden wants, and letting Islamic terrorists go unresisted by Spain at all? Doesn’t make sense to me.
Possibly.
How do you resist something that you can’t see, hear or get a grasp of?
“homeland security” acts, guns, bombs and ID cards aren’t always the best solutions.