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AFP - Two suspected ETA militants arrested in France earlier this week have been charged with conspiracy to collaborate with a terrorist organisation, a legal official said Saturday. Police apprehended 30-year-old Aitor Elizaran in a car park at the wheel of a stolen car in the Brittany seaside town of Carnac on October 19, along with a woman suspect, 32-year-old Oihana Sanvicente. Both were carrying loaded weapons at the time and have also been charged with firearms offences, possession of false documents, and car theft, the official said. The pair had been renting a studio at the holiday resort where...

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AFP) – Police in Spain's northern Basque Country arrested an ex-leader of Batasuna, the banned political wing of the armed separatist group ETA, and eight other militants accused of seeking to rebuild the party, judicial and police sources said. Former Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi was held in the city of San Sebastian along with a top union leader and three other Basque militants suspected of having tried to "reform the leadership of Batasuna on the instructions of ETA," a judicial source said. The interior ministry said later that four other "leaders of the independentist left" had been...

French police have arrested three suspected Basque separatist militants in an Alpine ski resort, officials say. The men were reportedly armed and had false identity papers. Police arrested them in a raid on an apartment in Le Corbier Villarembert on Wednesday. One suspect, named as Alberto Machain Beraza, is thought to be linked to recent Eta bombings, including an attack in Majorca, Spanish media say. Eta has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during its separatist campaign. Eta claimed responsibility for the bombings in Spain in July, carried out just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the group's founding....

BURGOS, Spain — A powerful car bomb exploded early Wednesday outside a barracks housing police officers and their families in this northern Spanish city, slightly injuring 46 people and causing major damage in the area. The attack was blamed on Basque separatist group ETA. Most of the injuries from the blast were from flying glass, and 38 of the wounded were treated in hospitals, regional ministry representative Miguel Alejo said. Many of the injured were Civil Guard police officers and family members. The bomb detonated around 4:00 a.m. (0200 GMT, 10 p.m. EDT Tuesday) and left a crater that had...

"Europol Report Describes Afghanistan-Pakistan Connection to Trends in European Terrorism" Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 12 May 8, 2009 04:03 PM By: Thomas Renard SNIPPET: "Terrorist activities within the European Union (EU) declined in 2008 as compared to the previous year, according to the annual report published by Europol, the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency. [1] The report lists 515 failed, foiled or successful attacks reported by EU member states, a decrease from 583 attacks in 2007 but still higher than the 2006 total. The decline in terrorist activities was also observed geographically, with only seven member states reporting...

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan ...Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities. The maps date back to the country's feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the "burakumin," ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death,...

MADRID (AFP) – Security forces in France on Saturday arrested the suspected military chief of ETA, the third top leader of the Basque separatist organisation to be captured in the last six months, Spanish national radio said. Jurdan Martitegi was detained along with two other ETA suspects in the vicinity of the southern French city of Perpignan in an operation carried out in cooperation with Spanish security forces, the radio said, quoting anti-terrorist sources. The French interior ministry said three ETA suspects were arrested in the village of Montauriol, but it did not identify them. Spanish news reports said Martitegi...

A car bomb has exploded in a business district of Madrid, following a telephone warning claiming to be from ETA, the Basque armed separatist group. No one was hurt in the blast, which destroyed about 30 cars and blew out windows at nearby offices, leaving a crater in the ground about one metre deep. The Spanish Red Cross received the warning call 90 minutes prior to the blast, allowing police to cordon off the area before the device exploded at around 0900 local time (0800 GMT). The incident came a day after Spain's supreme court banned Democracia 3 Millones and...

A car bomb exploded in Spain’s Basque country near the headquarters of a local television station in the town of Bilbao on Wednesday without causing any injuries, a police spokesman said. Police said emergency services had evacuated television station ETB, which broadcasts in Basque and Spanish, and surrounding buildings following a bomb warning in the name of separatist group ETA. The explosion shattered the windows of the round, glass walled building. Emergency services had found a suspicious vehicle after closing off the area and discovered the owner of the vehicle tied to a tree on a nearby mountain, police said....

In a statement the bishops condemned “this action against life and freedom,” and recalled that “terrorism is a radical No to the law of God and to the most basic aspect of the dignity of the human person.”

MADRID, Spain (AP) - French and Spanish police arrested the reputed leader of ETA's commando units on Monday—dealing a devastating blow to the armed Basque separatist group. Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, 35, is suspected of taking part in several killings, including the December shooting deaths of two Spanish guardsmen in France, according to French and Spanish officials. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Aspiazu Rubina—known by the alias "Txeroki" (pronounced cher-OH-kee)—has been the operational chief of ETA's hit squads and bombing units for several years.

Devolution has been good for Spain, but it may have gone too far THE hardest problem for the authors of Spain’s democratic constitution was to strike a balance between the central government and the claims of Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia for home rule. The formula they came up with was known as café para todos, or coffee for all: Spain was divided into 17 “autonomous communities” (plus the enclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the Moroccan coast), each with its own elected parliament and government. This estado de las autonomías seemed a neat solution. Over the past...

Pamplona, Oct 30, 2008 / 12:40 pm (CNA).- The University of Navarra, a Catholic school in Pamplona, Spain was bombed by the Basque separatist group ETA on Thursday morning. Initial estimates indicate that 21 people have been injured.  At around 11:00 a.m. a car-bomb exploded at a parking lot located between the main building and the Library of Humanities, injuring 21 people and destroying 20 vehicles. "There were other small explosions after the fire set off by the fuel tanks in the parked cars nearby," Bernardino Leon, a University of Navarra professor, told the Antena 3 TV channel. The bombing...

He also reveals that The Tunisian talked to UCIE agents.Cartagena Identifies the Police Officer that Asked Him to Go into the Leganés Apartment in the Morning of April 3rd.The testimony as protected witness, asked by the State Attorney Olga Sánchez, of the Police informer nicknamed Cartagena has left a lot of question that might change drastically the trial. Some details had been already revealed by EL MUNDO, as the pressure from the Police to avoid mentioning ETA. According to his testimony, The Tunisian was also linked to UCIE Police Officers. Asked by the Accusation Attorney, he gave names: “Enrique, Rubio,...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

A car bomb has exploded in Spain after a warning from the Basque separatist group ETA. The blast happened outside a police station in the northern town of Calahorra. The bomb went off in an area that had been filled with people attending a Good Friday religious procession. The Civil Guard station targeted in the attack and surrounding buildings were evacuated before the blast in the Rioja region. One officer suffered a mild injury in the neck. The phone call was made at 12.20pm (GMT) and the blast happened about 40 minutes later. ETA had issued a warning stating the...

The Prince and Princess of Asturias, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia, held five minutes of silence at noon today in Barcelona in memory of the assassination of the Socialist ex-counselor of Arrasate, Isaías Carrasco. The Prince and Princess of Asturias together called a meeting of the council of municipalities and other institutions to condemn the assassination by ETA of Isaías Carrasco this last Friday and to offer solidarity with his family, for whom they interrupted their visit to the Council of Municipalities, which they had inaugurated today in the Catalan capital. Meeting with the Prince and Princess were the Minister...

MADRID, Spain - Spain's Socialist prime minister won re-election Sunday, as voters dismissed worries about a slumping economy, immigration and resurgent Basque militants to hand him a second term. ADVERTISEMENT The results were a clear endorsement of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's record, which includes reforms such as legalizing gay marriage and granting on-demand divorce, once thought unthinkable in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. Zapatero also withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq and launched a drive to cede more power to Spain's semiautonomous regions. "The Spanish people have spoken clearly and decided to start a new era," Zapatero told euphoric...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

Spain calls off election campaign after attack blamed on ETA by Denholm Barnetson Fri Mar 7, 3:52 PM ET Spain ended its election campaign early after a former politician from the ruling Socialist Party was shot and killed Friday in the northern Basque region in an attack blamed on the separatist group ETA. Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, tipped to win a second mandate in Sunday's vote, immediately accused ETA of seeking to upset the electoral process. "The terrorists wanted to interfere today in the peaceful manifestation of the will of the people at the ballot box," he...

Isaías Carrasco, 42, former Socialist councilor, has been murdered half an hour ago in the Basque region, before his wife and daughter. Spain will hold next Sunday the first National elections after 3/11.

5 January 2008 The Basque separatist group ETA will base its calls for independence on the example set by Kosovo, says local daily Gara. ETA, which the EU considers a terrorist organization, stresses that its fight “is not utopia� and cites the examples of Kosovo and Scotland, it is written on the daily’s website, which has announced interviews with some of the organization’s members. It was not possible to get any details of the interview from the paper’s editors, nor were the names of any of the group’s members mentioned. ETA uses Gara, among other papers, to send messages or...

From Luis del Pino's blog: Assessment of the Sentence (IX): Dragging the Mistakes The court that has judged the 3/11 case has made the second public writ of clarification of the sentence, where answers to diverse questions related to the compensations to the victims are provided, some allegations to the defence attorneys are responded and... certain aspects denounced by the independent media are corrected. For example, the court could not help rectifying the part of the sentence in which it was affirmed, as Libertad Digital had denounced, that the suicides of Leganés had said goodbye to their families through a...

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Members of the Basque group ETA have shot dead a Spanish civil guard and seriously wounded another in southern France, Spanish officials said. It is the first fatality blamed on ETA in nearly a year. The separatist group claimed responsibility for a December 30, 2006, car bomb at a Madrid airport that killed two men and destroyed a parking garage. The two plainsclothes civil guard officers were in Capbreton, France, to meet with French police about joint operations against ETA, which traditionally uses France as a base for its attacks in Spain, CNN's partner station CNN...

A Civil Guard Dies After Being Shot in Southern FranceA Spanish Civil Guard has died after being shot in the head and another one is in critical condition due to an ETA attack in the Southern French city of Capbreton. Both agents were participating in an operation against the terror organization ETA. According to sources of the investigation, the terrorists approached them as they went out of a supermarket, and opened fire. The Civil Guards were carrying out an operation along the French Security corps, which inform that the terrorists have run away.

ETA car bomb fails to detonate in Logroño SUR Security forces investigating the attack believe the perpetrators are not terrorists known to the police The 61 kilos of explosives in the car failed to go off Last Sunday night terrorists belonging to the Basque organisation ETA parked a car packed with 61 kilos of explosives outside Ministry of Defence buildings in Logroño (La Rioja). Fortunately the bomb failed to explode due to a fault in the detonating fuse, explained the Secretary of State for Security, Antonio Camacho. The security forces are investigating whether the terrorists who planted the bomb form...

ETA suspects arrested at "bomb factory" Police arrested four suspected Basque separatist guerrillas in southern France in what they have described as a "bomb factory" where a car bomb was apparently being prepared. At least two of those detained - three men and a woman - are said to be leading ETA militants. Special forces raided the house near the French town of Cahors after a joint intelligence operation between Paris and Madrid. Police say all four people arrested were armed but surrendered immediately. The Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said one of the group was one of ETA's...

A car bomb has exploded in the city of Durango in Spain's Basque country, lightly wounding two policemen. No-one has admitted carrying out the attack, but officials have blamed the Basque separatist group Eta which called off a ceasefire in June. The bomb exploded in a car parked outside a police barracks in Durango, about 40km (25 miles) south of Bilbao, at 0330 (0130 GMT). A second car bomb exploded in nearby Amorebieta about one hour later. Police said the second car was used by the bombers to flee the scene of the first bombing. There were no injuries or...

Miguel Angel Blanco, local right wing politician in the Spanish Basque region's town of Ermua, was kidnapped by ETA on July 10th, 2007 and shot twice in the head two days later. He was 29. His crime was being an honest man. This attack came as a response to the liberation of Jose Antonio Ortega-Lara, a prison guard, by a team of the Civil Guard. He was kidnapped by ETA and held during 532 days, in a hole digged under heavy machinery in the basement of an industrial plant. His crime was being an honest man. Miguel Angel Blanco's kidnapping...

'Eta plot to bomb Plymouth ferry foiled' By Edward Owen in Madrid Last Updated: 2:17am BST 12/07/2007 Spanish police have foiled a plot by Eta terrorists to blow up a ferry carrying thousands of British tourists, officials said yesterday. The Pont-Aven ferry carries up to 2,400 passengers and 183 crew between Plymouth and Santander They said the Pont-Aven, which sails twice a week between Plymouth and the northern Spanish port of Santander, was one of three possible targets. If the bomb had exploded at sea a major disaster could have occurred on the vessel which carries up to 2,400 passengers...

A device exploded today at 2:00 PM local time in the airport of the Mediterranean touristical enclave of Ibiza, in Spain. Two calls in name of ETA warned previously that a bomb was planted. ETA and the Spanish Socialists had been in conversations since two years before 3/11, when the latter were still in the oposition. The conversations progressed even after the bombing of Barajas airport in Madrid, but were officially broken days after the Socialists lost the local and regional elections of May 27th, 2007. However, the Socialist government has refused to completely ban ETA's political wing from Spanish...

The Basque terrorist group ETA has announced today that “they will act in all fronts” beginning midnight June 6th, central European time, thus officially ending a “cease fire”, the facto broken last December with the killing of two men from Ecuador in the Barajas airport parking bombing. Since 3/11, ETA has enjoyed a privileged treatment by the Zapatero government, foreign ones and the media, in which it was called the “peace process”, even though extortion, street terrorism and rearming continued. Among those privileges were leaks from the Spanish police that thwarted an operation to arrest its leaders, carried by French...

Things of late are not going the way of Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. After having relatively little trouble ramming through Parliament a series of controversial projects, Zapatero’s golden touch may be fading. Not only did his Socialist party lose out in the recent regional elections, but now his partners-in-peace have the gall to call him a fascist – and issue a return to arms.

But by far the most controversial decision Zapatero has made since taking office was to convert the prison sentence of Iñaki de Juana Chaos, a high-profile member of ETA, to house arrest. Whatever the rationale behind Zapatero's decision to free de Juana, it has dramatically divided Spain in a way not seen since the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War. And that, say critics, is precisely the problem. Because when Spain is divided, terrorists are strengthened. Indeed, in Zapatero's Spain, the terrorists seem to have more influence than the government. And like Spain's post-modern bullfighters, Zapatero has been conquered by his own...

BILBAO - A married couple who are deputies with the Popular Party announced they will give up politics after years of threats from ETA. Ramón Gómez and Vanessa Vélez said they are to work in the private sector and look after their 10-month-old daughter, the Spanish daily El Mundo reported on Friday. They said their decision was motivated after discovering ETA intended to kill them if Spain's most notorious terrorist Iñaki de Juana Chaos died while on hunger strike. Amid widespread controversy, De Juana Chaos, who was convicted of killing 25 people, gave up the hunger strike after he was...

Spaniards hold largest protest in yearsYIELDING TO TERRORISTS: Citizens accused the Spanish government of giving in to the Basque separatist group's terror tactics by being too lenient on a convicted memberAP, MADRID Monday, Mar 12, 2007, Page 6 Thousands of people took part in rallies organized by the right-wing opposition through the streets of Madrid, Spain, on Saturday. The demonstrations were held to protest the Socialists government's decision to allow a hunger-striking Basque separatist to serve out his jail term under house arrest.PHOTO: AP Hundreds of thousands of chanting, flag-waving Spaniards clogged the streets of Madrid on Saturday to protest...

Opposition protest accuses Spain of ETA surrenderBy Ben Harding MADRID (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protested at an opposition rally in Madrid on Saturday to vent their rage at what they say is the Spanish government's "surrender" to Basque separatists ETA. Angry at a government decision to grant house arrest to a multiple killer from ETA after he fell dangerously ill on hunger strike, protesters waved red and yellow Spanish flags as they marched up Madrid's main 12-lane avenue, shouting for Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to resign. "This is the last straw. We're fed up...

Fighting Jihad: Strategic Thinking Needed -Full Story- The United States of America has some of the smartest leaders in government, military, and business in the world. Yet the American government has failed to collectively use this formidable brain-power 5+ years after the attack by Jihadists on the American homeland to develop a truly strategic plan to fight the global threat of Jihad and Islamist extremism. In one of the most complex wars in American history, rather than starting with holistic, big-picture thinking towards the challenges and prioritizing resources and actions accordingly, America has spent much of the past five...

Spain: the European Iran (The First Domino Falls) By Ignacio Russell Cano FrontPageMagazine.com | January 29, 2007 January 25, 2007 joins the annals of history as the first time a part of Europe adopted Ahmadinejad's customs officially. Those studying the transformation of Europe in Eurabia will surely see the case of Ciempozuelos (Madrid) as the first warning of the Islamification of Spain. However, the picture is slightly different. Ciempozuelos is a village near Madrid. Excluding punctual scandals – like the major’s recent resignation under charges of corruption – for the 12,768 inhabitants of Ciempozuelos, life is good – and progressive....

The Ministry of Interior reports on the explosives two weeks later.ETA Used Amonal or Amosal Mixed with Hexogen to Increase the Destructive Power in the Attack at T-4 [Barajas Airport Terminal #4] The attack at the parking of the T-4 terminal in the Barajas airport, that perpetrated ETA the last December 30th, was carried out with a mix of explosives, one of inorganic nature, with a nitrate base, like amonal or amosal [or ANFO], and the second, hexogen, as a multiplier of the detonating effect with the objective of increasing the destructive power, according to the information provided this Saturday...

The Basque terrorist organization, ETA, claimed Tuesday afternoon responsibility for the recent bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport that claimed the lives of two Ecuadoreans. At the same time, ETA in its statement published in the Basque language newspaper Gara, said that its so-called truce with the Spanish government remains in place, while at the same time warning that there could be further terrorist acts as a response to what it claims are "aggressions againt Euskal Herria," or the Basque Country.

Madrid blast 'ends Eta ceasefire' The government says Eta has ended the ceasefire Basque separatist group Eta have carried out a car bomb attack at a Madrid airport ending a ceasefire, the Spanish government has announced.At least four people were injured in the blast in the car park of terminal four at Barajas Airport. "It is an attack which breaks nine months without violent actions by Eta," said Spain's interior minister. He said the prime minister would stress later that "violence and dialogue are incompatible in democracy". Officials said Eta had made a call to claim the attack -...

Strong explosion in Madrid airport...

Three people have been injured by the explosion of a car bomb in the parking of the T-4 [Terminal #4] of Barajas Airport in Madrid around 9:00 AM this Saturday. They are agents of the National Police corps. The Madrid regional government has activated alert level 2 in the region and the SAMUR has set up a portable hospital next to the way out of the terminal. The news agency Vasco press attribute to ETA a call around 8:00 AM to the road assistance asociation DYA in Guipuzcoa [Basque Country] warning of the planting of a bomb in a Renault...

One of the most high-profile leaders of Basque separatist group Eta has been handed to the Spanish authorities after serving a jail term in France. Jose Javier Arizcuren Ruiz, known by the nickname Kantauri, is accused of involvement in 15 killings, and plotting an attack on the Spanish king. He was arrested in France in 1999 and jailed for links to a terrorist group. During his prison term, he was handed temporarily to Spain, where he was sentenced to 72 years in jail. He is now expected to remain in prison in Spain to serve that sentence. Spanish police...

New links between ETA and Islamic terrorismETA provided false identifications to the Islamic terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center in 1993Madrid. Javier Oyarzábal (Information Services of CITY FM) – Eusebio Arzalluz aka “Paticorto” [short leggy], a member of today’s Executive Committee of ETA and one of the most trusted men by ETA leader “Txeroki” [pronounced Cherokee], provided false documents to the Islamic Terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center in 1993. On May 23rd of that year, a series of explosions shook a workshop for vehicle reparation in the Santa Rosa quarter, next to Managua [Nicaragua]. The outcome was:...

Islamic Radicalism in Mexico: The Threat from South of the Border By Chris Zambelis The ongoing controversy surrounding the debate over illegal immigration and border security issues in the United States, specifically as it applies to the porous U.S.-Mexico frontier and the status of millions of undocumented workers and other migrants that enter the country each year from Mexico, continues to dominate headlines. Although the overwhelming majority of those entering the United States from Mexico each day are in search of opportunity, many observers worry that it is only a matter of time before al-Qaeda exploits this vulnerability for its...

VITORIA, Spain - The Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire Wednesday, ending a decades-long campaign of violence and closing the door on one of Western Europe's last active armed separatist movements. The news prompted quiet jubilation in Spain, which has endured more than 800 deaths and $15.5 billion in economic damage since the 1960s as part of the group's campaign to carve out an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France. In a video statement, ETA said it "has decided to declare a permanent cease fire as of March 24, 2006."