Today's Wall Street Journal has a (subscription) article titled Burying the Truth which heavily criticizes the official investigation into the 3/11 Madrid bombing. (h/t Barcepundit)
And yet, nearly a year after the attacks, the picture is now somewhat clearer, The prompt identification and arrest of the bombers was due partly to diligence and good police work and partly to the fact that some of the terrorists had been, for months, under intermittent surveillance by police and intelligence forces.In all, 57 Islamic radical suspects were arrested in Spain between Sept. 11, 2001 and March 11, 2004. That's more than in any other non-Arab country and proof that Islamic terrorism was a serious worry for the police forces in Spain long before the Iraq war. It must be recalled too that the Spanish Cultural Center in Casablanca, Morocco, was bombed on May 16, 2003, killing 45 people, including four Spaniards. The early arrests of radical Islamic terrorist suspects were not taken seriously by the opposition parties and the media.
Between March 11 and Dec. 31 last year, there were a further 129 detentions, including the arrest last October of the members of a terrorist cell that had plans to blow up several buildings in Madrid, including the Real Madrid football stadium.
These arrests and the long-running presence of Islamic terrorists makes it clear that the Iraq war, while a perfect excuse, was in no way the real reason behind the March 11 bombing, contrary to many claims in Spain and abroad. It also means that the Spanish military withdrawal from Iraq is no guarantee against further strikes.
Today Reuters also reports that the Madrid bombers had plans to blow up Grand Central Station in NY, too. More Morrocan terror. There's a pattern here .....
As im sure many of our critical friends would be happy to remind us, arrests do not automatically equal progress in busting terrorists.
Indeed. They are a sign of activity and concern, however.
I took the WSJ author to be frustrated that neither political party in Spain seems to be really acknowledging the breadth of the Islamacist threat there, or the deep roots that go well beyond (pre- and post-) Aznar's participation in the Iraq coalition.
3/11 was more about running an experiment than it was about any love on al-Qaeda's part for Zapatero. As far as the 3/11 crowd being involved in plots against NYC, look who their pen pals were and things start to become a lot clearer.
The whole Islamic extremist/Moroccan terrorist shtick is running increasingly thin; these groups are just a lot more inter-connected than a lot of analysts want to admit.
Both France and Spain have been following Islamic terrorism since the 1990s. In Spain's case this is because of the two territories it keeps in Morrocco. Ceuta and Mellina (sorry about the spelling) are often mentioned by radical preachers. Not to mention Bin-Laden's desire to re-take el-Andaluse.
When the Spanish read they only started worrying about Islamic terrorism since Iraq they are understandably confused. Just as the French are when they are accused as soft on terrorism. The French might be many things, but, for example, their anti-terror laws are far more dranconian than the Patriot Act.
wsam
Mark (#1). True in this case, but for other reasons: those detentions have been a propaganda issue. Some were released in just a few hours.
Robin (#2): I can recall that a restaurant near USAF Torrejon base (Madrid) was bombed in the 1980's, killing several people; followed by an attack to El Al (Israel Airlines) at Barajas airport, incidentally only a few miles away. In the early 1990's, some GIA (Argelian terrorist group) members were arrested as they planned attacks in France... islamic terrorism is not a new issue for Spaniards.
Said that, now your comment:
neither political party in Spain seems to be really acknowledging the breadth of the Islamacist threat there, or the deep roots that go well beyond (pre- and post-) Aznar's participation in the Iraq coalition.
OK, right, that is the point. Let's use now the most powerful weapon in our arsenal: the question WHY
Why do both Spanish parties seem to not acknowledge the threat? Why?
Should they? Who sold the explosives for 3/11?
I strees the words of witness Lavandera: calmly, as if they were supported by powerful people.
The answer to the question is pretty simple: because 3/11 was not organized by islamic militants. Robin, most of the Spaniards (not only right wing) acknowledge pretty well the breadth and the deep roots of what happened that morning.
Dan (#3). True, a psychosociologic experiment. I would say that this is the second time it is performed in Spain, but it's too much for a single post.
It seems to me that it is a mistake to think that those Moroccoans formed a terrorist organization as we define it. In my opinion they are radicals that emigration had spread around Europe. They are some kind of muslim style Skin Heads or Neonazis (or White supremacists) that now have a global background. Their coordination structures are clearly not very secret and their capability to inflict damage is limited unless someone gives them powerful explosives and fuses.
When a islamist is arrested in Spain, it seems to me that Americans are prone to think of him as a Mohamed Atta ready to board the plane. Some of the 3/11 terrorists could barely read.
Wsam (#4): Ceuta and Melilla. Al-Andalus.
I must insist that I love this site and I agree with its aim, it is very important to keep people aware against the islamic extremism threat, but above all of that I believe that things have to be called as they are, otherwise problems arise in the long term.
Joe A, if you are right about the Moroccan Islamists behind the Madrid bombing, it is a more serious problem in many ways than if it were an organized network.
Networks can be dismantled, disrupted, tracked. A large number of unassimilated, alienated and violent young men throughout the society is a different and in many ways more difficult problem to deal with.
20 years ago the only muslims in Spain were oil-sheiks, lived in the Spanish Morocco or were on transit between Northern Europe and the Magreb. So native muslim terrorisme is new to Spain and native terrorisme is much more dangerous than foreign terrorists.
Robin (#6), it is a serious problem indeed and it is strongly worsened by the European (continental, not UK) political system, its welfare state and its economic stagnation that hinders integration: the murdered of Theo van Gogh was a second generation Moroccoan, born an educated in the Netherlands.
A (#7), there were also college students, now well-known professionals.