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Europe
Mysteries about the Madrid bombings (Part1)
2007-02-22
AoS note: this is JFM's summary and translation of the cited work. He promised us this yesterday and we're very pleased to have it here on the Burg.
On the next days I will be publishing a summary of a series of thirty two articles published on the web site of the COPE the spanish catholic broadcast network.

Their theme is about the Madrid bombings, the many uncomprehensible errors in the investigation, the unnumerable details who don't fit in the official thesis, the troublig coincidences and the attempts from the socialist governement to hinder the discoverty process.

Notice that I have not crosschecked the allegations of the journalist with original sources. All of it could be invented. However an ever growing number of Spaniards disbelieve the official version and the pro-socialist press has been increasingly shrill into silencing those who express doubts about the official version and its denegations are contradictory or simply not believable.
Posted by:JFM

#6  Keep up the good work, JFM. I also look forward to the rest of it.
Posted by: DanNY   2007-02-22 17:29  

#5  Adb

Eta does not a track of successful attempts at mass terrorism. They tried to sink a ferry-boat (1400 persons on baord), to destroy the tallest building in Madrid through a bombing and to cause a multi-thousand victim bombing in Madrid's railway station.

Now because in every one of thse cases they were twatheted by the police it could be that ETA would have warned in advance and thus there would have been no massacre.

Also in late years, ETA has become increasingly rtadical, there have been contacts between ETA and Islamists and de Juana Chaos has lauded the methods of the islamists telling: those guys would eject the Spaniards from Basqeue country in less than six months.

Also you are making two fundamental mistakes: first base ETA's behaviour on their past one: ETA has evolved and there is a world betwen first "honorable" ETA (who explicitly told people they were not forced to give it money if they didn't share its objectives) and presnt one.

The second one is taht ETA would not do under its own colors (because 99% of their supporters would turn against them), they could do as subcontracters or in cooperation with the islamists (ie without political backslash).

Now one of ETA's leaders has told well before Madrid bombings: "the day we sit to negotiate we need to be able to put 200 dead on the table".

Finally, we have the context: ETA is on the ropes. If Rajoy wins the police will get the time to finish job. Zapatero's victory meaned: police action being called off, concessions both to ETA and to all the independentisms in Spain, the repelling of the sanitary wall around ETA, instead now socialist startegy is to isloate the Popular Party.

Now, the series is less about who did it but about the "curious" facts in the investigation, about clues appearing in places who had alreaday been searched and found empty, about elementary procedures (ie analyzing teh explosive not being done). We will trade hypothesis about authorships and about teh attempts to hinderr the investigation once we are fartehr in teh series.
Posted by: JFM   2007-02-22 14:52  

#4  Hi,
I personally have doubts about the ETA link;
ETA is a Spanish home grown organization that doesnÂ’t have a history of simultaneous attacks against civilians. Apart from an attack in a supermarket that caused a lot of civilian deaths & widespread revulsion amongst non violent supporters of its political aims, ETA has since steered clear of mass murder of civilians. They generally give a warning before their Bombs explode.
The Madrid train attacks were classic Muslim extremist tactics, Mass murders of innocent civilians in separate simultaneous actions.
The political repercussions of the attacks held no political profit for ETA but for the Muslim Extremists there was an immediate & profitable result from the attacks. The General elections were held a few days later & the left were unexpectedly swept into power as the Spanish public blamed the Governing Parties implication in the war on terror as the cause of the attacks. The Socialists had been promising a return of all soldiers from IRAQ in case of victory.

This has an important lesson, & that is that a Country had better think twice before going to war if the main political parties are not backing the action. Division will be exploited by the enemy.
Posted by: adb   2007-02-22 13:56  

#3  JFM: Thank you for all your work on this. I'm looking forward to the upcoming installments.
Posted by: Mike   2007-02-22 12:01  

#2  A few things I forgot to include:

first teh URLS of

Second chapter

and

Third chapter

Also the judiciary dossier about the investigation is available online. Google for "sumario" "11-M".


Finally when I talked about contradictions from the partisdans of the official thesis I refer to facts like that for two years we were being told that police quitely surrounded the Leganes appartment (where a number of terrorists blew themselves off) and in the summer 2006 the public prosecutor (in Spain it is appointed by the minister of justice) told us that in fact there had been a pursuit in the streets of Madrid with sirens blaring, trafic lights ignored, old ladys nearly overrun.

When I told about shrilliness I tell about calls to close the COPE and El Mundo (one of Spain's main newspapers who happens to be critical of the investigation), about a try, to effectiely close the COPE in Catalonia and about threats uttered by teh leader of apolice union against the peoiple whop pointed about the funny things in the investigation. I agree that these by themselves are not proofs: smeaed people can alspo have treactions of exasperation.
Posted by: JFM   2007-02-22 11:45  

#1  Strangely enough, Ferdinand and Isabella felt no need for a criminal investigation process before addressing the same problems centuries ago. Such is progress.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-02-22 09:36  

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