Free Republic

AFTER A terrorist attack by al-Qaida that left hundreds of their fellow countrymen dead, Spanish voters immediately voted to give the terrorists what they want -- a Socialist government that opposes America's war on terrorism. Al-Qaida has changed a government. Until the bombings last week, the center-right Popular Party of outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar had been sailing to victory. But then the al-Qaida bombs went off and Spaniards turned out in droves to vote against the government that had been a staunch Bush ally in the war on terrorism. (I guess it's OK for a Spanish Socialist to...

GLOBAL JIHADUK Muslim clericstied to Spain attack Probe sees 'definite link' to Palestinian regarded as important al-Qaida figure Posted: March 19, 20045:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Counter-terrorist police probing the massive attack in Madrid one week ago see a "definite link" to Muslim extremists in Britain, according to a senior British law enforcement official. Detained Palestinian cleric Abu Qatada, regarded by British and Spanish authorities as a key al-Qaida figure in Europe, likely will be questioned, reported the Independent newspaper of London. "We believe there is a London link with what happened in Madrid," said metropolitan police commissioner Sir John Stevens....

Lebanon Daily News Al-Qaida gets a victory in Spain By Dan Sernoffsky Thursday, March 18, 2004 - Daily News Sportswriter On Friday, a series of explosions rocked a number of commuter trains in Spain. At least 200 died and another 1,600 or so were injured. Two days later, Spain's electorate ousted prime minister Jose Aznar, an unabashed supporter of the United States and its war against terror. Replacing him was Jose Zapatero and Spain's Socialist Party. Zapatero had campaigned on a platform of pulling Spanish troops, about 1,300, out of Iraq, and aligning himself with Germany and France in...

LONDON – Western intelligence analysts doubt the credibility of a purported Al Qaida group that has threatened new attacks in Europe. Yigal Carmon, president of the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute and counter-terrorism adviser to three prime ministers, said the Abu Hafs statement does not represent Al Qaida. "The text of this statement includes linguistic usages and concepts that are incompatible with or alien to authentic Al Qaida writings by Osama Bin Laden, Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri, and others," Carmon wrote in an analysis. The analysts said the Abu Hafs Al Masri Brigade appears to be a fictitiou organization...

As it becomes increasingly clear that al Qaeda was responsible for the horrific attacks in Madrid, one question keeps popping up: If there's no link between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, why did al Qaeda blow up those trains? Critics of the Iraq war have been saying for more than two years that there was never any al Qaeda-Saddam link. After all, they'd say, Saddam is secular and bin Laden is a religious fanatic. When Howard Dean was trotted out for last Sunday's Meet the Press to square off against Condoleezza Rice, the former Vermont governor rehashed the familiar...

<p>It may take weeks before the identity of those responsible for the 3/11 bombings in Madrid is established, and by then a new government, led by the Socialists, will be in power in Spain. But one thing is already certain: Europe has not yet taken the full measure of the terrorist threat to its way of life, indeed its existence as a zone of peace and prosperity in an unstable world.</p>

The other day one of the JYB's top operatives speculated that al Qaeda could cook up a brilliant move in the wake of Spain's turn from the war. Basically, what the terrorists could do is announce a truce with Spain, state that they are pulling out all operatives and vowing not to harm Spanish interests around the world. The move would plant in Spanish voters' minds the belief that they made the right choice in kicking out the pro-US Popular Party. It would tell other fence-sitters that the quickest way out of the war is to become hostile to the...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A group claiming to have links with al Qaeda said Wednesday it was calling a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new government would withdraw its troops from Iraq (news - web sites), a pan-Arab newspaper said. In a statement sent Wednesday to the Arabic language daily al-Hayat, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings that killed 201 people, also urged its European units to stop all operations. "Because of this decision, the leadership has decided to stop all operations within the Spanish territories... until we know the intentions...

MADRID.- About 2000 or 3000 PP supporters have demonstrated in front of the party headquarter at Calle de Genova in Madrid, saying "Viva Aznar", "Gracias, Aznar" or "Zapatero Presidente de Al Qaeda".

MADRID, March 16 — In the aftermath of its national election, Spain, along with the rest of the world, is struggling to answer a harrowing question: who really won on Sunday, the Socialists or the terrorists? For the departing foreign minister, Ana Palacio, whose center-right government staunchly supported the American-led war in Iraq and lost the election, the answer is clear. "We are giving birth to a new world, and it is sad and dangerous and sick," Mrs. Palacio said in an interview. "We are giving a signal to terrorists that they can have their way because we have given...

<p>MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A document published months before national elections reveals al Qaeda planned to separate Spain from its allies by carrying out terror attacks.</p> <p>A December posting on a Internet message board used by al Qaeda and its sympathizers and obtained by CNN, spells out a plan to topple the pro-U.S. government.</p>

<p>MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish authorities believe they have the names of at least six and perhaps as many as eight Moroccans who carried bombs onto Spanish commuter trains last Thursday, killing 201 people.</p> <p>In addition, Basque police in northern Spain have detained an Algerian man, Ali Amrous, in San Sebastian in connection with the bombings, an official with the interior department of the Basque regional government said Tuesday.</p>

MADRID, Spain - Police identified five new Moroccan suspects in the Madrid train bombings, a newspaper reported Tuesday, and the death toll rose to 201. A French investigator told The Associated Press, meanwhile, that he had found a direct link between prime suspect Jamal Zougam and the spiritual leader of a clandestine extremist group believed involved in last May's deadly attacks in Casablanca, Morocco. Police believe the five new Moroccan suspects took part in the bombings, the newspaper El Pais reported, without identifying them by name. Interior Ministry spokesman Juan de Dios Colmenero said he could not confirm the report....

Al-Qaida planned to carry out attacks to sever Madrid from the U.S. and its other allies in the war on terror, according to a document published months before Spain's national elections. CNN said it obtained a copy of the document, posted in December on an Internet message board used by al-Qaida and its sympathizers. "We think the Spanish government will not stand more than two blows, or three at the most, before it will be forced to withdraw because of the public pressure on it," the al-Qaida document says, according to CNN. "If its forces remain after these blows, the...

LONDON (Reuters) - Islamic militants will see the defeat of Spain's Popular Party and the country's planned withdrawal from Iraq as a victory for their cause, encouraging more attacks aimed at political ends, security experts say. If, as evidence suggests, al Qaeda or its sympathisers were behind last week's blasts in Madrid, the election upset in Spain will be seen as the first time Islamic militants have toppled a Western government by killing civilians. "They will be thinking they've achieved something absolutely extraordinary," said David Claridge, managing director of Janusian Security Risk Management, a London-based consultancy that analyses security risk...

<p>The terrorist attack that massacred 200 of your countrymen, and injured over a thousand, was a horrific act. The world grieves with you. We all know it could have happened to our people in our countries just as easily as it happened in Madrid last Thursday.</p>

It's a spectacular result for Islamist terrorism, and a chilling portent of Europe's future. A close election campaign, with Aznar's party slightly ahead, ended with the Popular Party's defeat and the socialist opposition winning. It might be argued that the Aznar government's dogged refusal to admit the obvious quickly enough led people to blame it for a cover-up. But why did they seek to delay assigning the blame on al Qaeda? Because they knew that if al Qaeda were seen to be responsible, the Spanish public would blame Aznar not bin Laden! But there's the real ironic twist: if the...

Is Al-Qaeda trying to knock off American-allied governments? The victory of Socialist PSOE in the parliamentary elections, and the subsequent announcement that its leader and President-elect José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will pull out the Spanish troops in Iraq may say so. I think AQ is planning to hit allied countries in electoral times, so their leftist groups can hold their governments responsible for the attacks on the tune they supported the US in Afghanistan and/or Iraq (this may not apply in Britain, since Tony Blair is an honest lefty). Could be Italy, Poland or Denmark next? Even Britain? AQ wants...

Contrary to initial announcements by the Spanish government that the terrorist bombings of commuter trains in Madrid which killed about 200 and injured about 1,500 were the work of Basque separatists, it now seems almost certain that they were the work of Al-Qaida, launched in retaliation for Spain's deployment of troops in Iraq. Spain has 1,300 peacekeepers in Iraq. Last February, seven Spanish intelligence operatives were killed when their convoy was ambushed on an Iraqi highway, and now Spain has fallen victim to a domestic tragedy as well. As a nation that will soon deploy 3,000 troops to Iraq, we...

<p>March 15, 2004 -- ROUSTING us violently from our false sense of security, the vicious attacks last week in Spain, which killed 200 and wounded 1,500, reminded us that the War on Terror is far from over. In fact, the terrorist cancer isn't only still with us - it's spreading. And Europe is the War on Terror's newest front.</p>