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Europe
Car Bomb Explodes in Madrid
2005-02-09
A powerful car bomb exploded on Wednesday in Madrid after a telephone warning from a caller claiming to represent the armed Basque separatist group ETA. At least 10 people were injured. The blast came a week after Parliament overwhelmingly rejected a proposal from the Basque legislature to give the troubled region autonomy bordering on independence. The Interior Ministry said the bomb went off around 9:30 a.m. near Ifema, a convention center where King Juan Carlos was to attend the opening of an art show later in the day. Television footage showed smoke rising from the site, outside a building housing the French computer manufacturer Bull.
Posted by:Fred

#10  Jame Retief

You are woefully informed. ETA tried to sink a ferry with 1400 persons on board, to fell the skyscrapper "Torre Espana" 5,000 persons on baoard, too destroy one of Madrid railways stations (several thousand potential victims). It was not moderation but bad luck (for them) and police action who prevented major massacres.
Posted by: JFM   2005-02-09 2:05:21 PM  

#9  Remember that France has part of the homeland, as well. This was also a message to France, where several ETA terrs have been arrested in the last year after being ignored for decades.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2005-02-09 12:02:11 PM  

#8  Be it ETA or AQ setting off the bombs in Spain, the message to the gov't and the people of Spain is this: We're still here, so don't get out of line.
Posted by: Mark Z.   2005-02-09 11:13:47 AM  

#7  They had to of helped al-Queda on the Madrid Bombings. Now I'm sure al-Queda is helping them. They can harm the West and not even get blamed for it.
Posted by: plainslow   2005-02-09 9:10:03 AM  

#6  Ptah - Whoa, I dunno. I follow your logic, but that's really a tough one... ;-)
Posted by: .com   2005-02-09 7:55:59 AM  

#5  Television footage showed smoke rising from the site, outside a building housing the French computer manufacturer Bull.

Hmm. How appropriate, at so many levels. Still, if I was granted the wish of seeing the French vanish off the face of the planet, or ETA, I'd choose ETA: France's sins are those of omission, while ETA's are those of comission.
Posted by: Ptah   2005-02-09 7:52:13 AM  

#4  ETA has always been fairly careful about not getting too many people killed. Their called in warnings are pretty good about getting in before the bombs go off and the areas are pretty clear when it goes boom.

Of course, IIRC, Spain's current government said that they had ETA under their thumb . . . but ETA is not stupid enough to go and get the King Killed.
Posted by: Jame Retief   2005-02-09 6:52:47 AM  

#3  Because they're not Joos.
Posted by: gromgorru   2005-02-09 6:46:43 AM  

#2  hell if the israelis have to cave in the to arabs in the disputed terrorities why shouldn't the world be crapping in its pants over Spain occupying basque areas
Posted by: legolas   2005-02-09 6:25:32 AM  

#1  I've been meaning to comment on this for a while. The Madrid train bombings upped the terrorism stakes in Spain. It made ETA look like a bunch of woosies. Not real terrorists. So they were faced with either getting out the game or proving they were 'real' terrorists.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-02-09 6:20:44 AM  

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