Jihadist boilerplate, courtesy the New York Times : “We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 2.5 years after the attacks on New York and Washington. It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies. “This is a response to the crimes that you have caused in the […]
Tape Claims al-Qaida Tied to Spain Blasts
And now a videotape. From AP: Spain’s interior minister said Sunday a videotape has been discovered claiming al-Qaida carried out the Madrid terrorist attacks and threatening more, but that he could not verify the veracity of the claim. Interior Minister Angel Acebes said a man identifying himself as the military spokesman of Al-Qaida in Europe […]
Spain Announces Five Arrests in Bombings
From AP: Spain’s interior minister Saturday announced the arrest of five suspects in the Madrid bombings, including three Moroccans. The other two are Spaniards of “Hindu” origin, minister Angel Acebes said. The five were arrested in connection with a cell phone inside an explosives-packed gym bag found on one of the bombed commuter trains. The […]
Spanish Intelligence Reportedly Blames Muslims for Bombs
From Reuters: Spain’s intelligence service is “99 percent certain” Muslim not Basque militants perpetrated the Madrid train bombings that killed 200 people, a Spanish radio station reported on Saturday. The report by private radio SER, whose owners have links to the opposition Socialists, flew in the face of government assertions armed group ETA was the […]
Al-Qaeda fear runs through Europe
Madrid 3/11 Remember that unilateral action by Bush the cowboy? Nobody was mentioning that Spain was involved (as well as other countries), but the radical Muslims seem to have noticed. From the New York Post: Even if it turns out that Basque separatists are responsible for the blood on the tracks in Madrid, European security […]
Maybe it was ETA and Al-Qaeda
Mohamed Ibn Guadi has kindly forwarded me a link to an interesting October 1, 2001 article by one Paolo Pontoniere: “In Spain: ETA and Al-Qaeda Forge New Anti-EU Alliance.” The Basque terrorist organization ETA and bin Laden’s al-Qaeda cells have joined forces. Their shared goal: to organize and carry out an attack on the EU […]
ETA denies role in Madrid blasts, and bombs aren’t the type they use
From SABCNews: ETA denies responsibility. From the Spanish-language El Pais: “The scientific police conclude that the explosives and detonators are not the ones habitually used by the ETA.” (Thanks to LGF.) Maybe it really was Al-Qaeda, Mr. Carmon. Or some other radical Muslim group.
MEMRI: Al-Qaeda claim of responsibility for Madrid bombings not authentic
A caution against a rush to judgment. Al-Qaeda, after all, claimed responsibility for the Summer 2003 blackouts in the U.S. I don’t think this analysis is conclusive, as so much of it is based on how the message claiming credit differs linguistically from other Al-Qaeda messages. That could be explained simply by a difference of […]
Spain’s 9/11
Now that Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the bombings in Madrid yesterday (thanks to Susan for the link), Walid Phares provides an insightful analysis at FrontPage: On September 11, 2001, America was attacked in two of its major cities. On March 11, 2004, Spain’s major city was attacked. Terror reigned in both capitals, bloodshed was […]
Madrid: Qur’an tape found in van with detonators
From the Guardian, with thanks to Susan: Police probing the Madrid terrorist attacks have found a van with detonators and an Arabic-language tape with Koranic verses – and officials don’t rule out any line of investigation, Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes has said. The van was found in the town of Alcala de Henares outside […]