The armed Basque separatist organization ETA said Tuesday that the "permanent cease-fire" it announced last March was still in effect, even as it formally claimed responsibility for the deadly bomb attack on Madrid's main airport terminal a week and a half ago. ETA made its dual-pronged declaration in a statement sent to Gara, the pro- independence Basque-language newspaper that is often used as a vehicle for ETA communiqués. "ETA affirms that the permanent cease-fire started on March 24, 2006, still stands," ETA said in a long statement that was summarized by Gara. "It claims responsibility for the attack at Barajas," the name of the Madrid airport.I guess that makes sense. Not a lot of sense. But sense. In a Basque sorta way. If you look at it right...
After the bombing, the Socialist government of Spain said it had called an end to the peace process started with ETA following the cease-fire, maintaining that ETA had miscalculated and that violence was incompatible with negotiation. The view that there could be no truce with violence was reiterated on Tuesday by Judge Baltasar Garzón, the country's most prominent investigative magistrate, who has spent nearly two decades investigating and building criminal cases against terrorist networks in Spain. "ETA gambled that if there were a terrorist attack, it would strike fear in the government and win concessions," Garzón said in an interview. "We would never give into that kind of blackmail. ETA terrorists don't seem to understand that. They do not yet accept that they are criminals."