Spanish Elections

[Nakharar]

Bombers turn Spanish poll upside down

 

From David Sharrock in Madrid

 

• Socialists sweep in as furious voters exact revenge over Iraq war

 

 

SPAIN’S opposition Socialists snatched a sensational victory in last night’s general election after the conservative Government’s hopes of a easy victory were dashed by an eleventh-hour claim that al-Qaeda was responsible for last week’s Madrid massacre.

In a dramatic reversal of fortune triggered by the bombings last Thursday, the Socialist Party won 163 seats — compared with 125 seats at the last election — and the ruling Popular Party (PP) only 148, compared with 183 before.

 

 

The victory was achieved by a margin of 5 percentage points in the poll, with the Socialists winning 42.6 per cent of votes.

 

It was the first time a government that backed the Iraq war has been voted out of office, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s new Prime Minister, has pledged to bring home his country’s 1,300 troops in Iraq when their tour of duty ends in July.

 

“This is a victory for democracy,” Señor Zapatero declared in a victory speech that began with a minute’s silence for the 200 civilians killed in the attacks. He promised that combating terrorism would be his top priority.

 

The PP had appeared to be coasting to victory, with a 6 per cent lead before those attacks. What sealed its defeat was the discovery late on Saturday — just hours before the polling stations opened — of a videotape claiming that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks.

 

For three days the Government had insisted that Eta, the Basque terrorist group, was responsible, but the tape played into the hands of its opponents, who argued that José María Aznar, the Prime Minister, had put his country in al-Qaeda’s firing line by backing the Iraq war despite overwhelming public opposition.

 

The bombings were “a response to your co-operation with the criminals Bush and his allies”, said the voice on the tape, which has yet to be authenticated. It was a “response to the crimes that you have caused in the world and, more concretely, in Iraq and in Afghanistan”.

 

Spaniards woke to newspaper headlines suggesting that their Government had deceived them and, as they voted in huge numbers to demonstrate their defiance of terrorism, many angrily accused the Government of manipulating the events of last week for electoral advantage.

 

Mariano Rajoy, Señor Aznar’s successor as PP leader, was barracked as he turned up to vote, with protesters shouting “Liar!” and “Get our troops out of Iraq!”

 

The Government’s insistence that Eta was responsible had been undermined on Saturday, when five men were arrested in connection with the bombings. Three were Moroccans, and last night it emerged that one of them — Jamal Zougham — had ties with an al-Qaeda cell leader named Imad Yarkas charged with helping to plan the September 11 attacks in the US.

 

Before last Thursday the PP had been widely expected to win a third term on the back of eight successive years of strong economic growth and Señor Aznar’s success in making Spain a player on the international stage.

 

Conceding defeat last night, Señor Rajoy said that the PP was leaving office with a clear conscience. Señor Aznar stood beside him, visibly dejected, and said nothing.

 

The PP’s defeat is a serious blow to Tony Blair, who had formed a close alliance with Señor Aznar not only over Iraq, but also in their efforts to reform the European Union.

 

Señor Zapatero, who opposed Spanish support for the Iraq war, has said Spanish troops will only remain in Iraq under the mandate of the United Nations. On EU matters he is likely to side with the French and Germans.

 

A remarkable 76 per cent of the electorate exercised their right to vote in order to express their defiance of the terrorists. Many wore black ribbons to commemorate the 200 victims of the bombings, and polling booths were draped in black.

 

“I’ve come to show that everything carries on, that we cannot stand idle,” said Cayetano Abad, one of the victims of ten bombs that ripped through rush-hour commuter trains and plunged Spain into three days of national mourning.

 

“There are others who couldn’t make it here today,” said Señor Abad, who arrived to vote in an ambulance, bandaged around the head and wearing a neck brace.

 

Many who had planned to stay away said the attacks prompted them to vote in defiance of the bombers. Grey banners with children’s white handprints decorated the entrance to polling booths in the Santa Eugenia district of the capital. A sign reading “We want peace” hung overhead.

 

'YOU LOVE LIFE, WE LOVE DEATH'

 

“We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 2½ years after the attacks on New York and Washington. It is a response for your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies. This is how to respond to the crimes you have caused in the world and specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan and there will be more, God willing.

 

“You love life and we love death, which is an example of what the Prophet Muhammad said. If you don’t stop your injustice, more blood will flow and these attacks are small compared with what will happen with what you call terrorism. This is a warning from the military spokesman of al-Qaeda in Europe.”

 

Abu Dujan al-Afghani

 

© The Times

[Nakharar]

Election blow to Bush's war on terror

By Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid

(Filed: 15/03/2004)

 

 

Spain's socialists defeated the conservative government in the general election last night, delivering a serious blow to the American-led war on terror.

 

The government was swept from power amid public disenchantment with its policy on Iraq and its conduct following the Madrid train bombings, in which 200 people were killed and 1,400 injured. It persisted in blaming the Basque extremist group Eta.

 

Now there are growing indications that al-Qa'eda bombers carried out the Madrid massacre in an attempt to influence the election result.

 

The government conceded defeat as the Socialist Workers' Party and its radical allies easily won a majority of seats in the 350-member Cortes.

 

With 99.4 per cent of the votes counted, the Socialists led the ruling People's Party by 42.6 per cent to 37.7 per cent. This would give them 164 seats to 148 for the PP. Turnout was 77 per cent.

 

Prime minister Jose Maria Aznar's party had been well ahead in opinion polls.

 

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Socialist leader, said: "My most immediate priority is to beat all forms of terrorism," after asking for a minute's silence for the victims.

 

The Socialists have promised to withdraw 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq.

 

That would break the unity of the coalition policing Iraq and would be portrayed in the Arab world as a victory for al-Qa'eda.

 

Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, one of the leading Socialist Party figures, told the Telegraph yesterday that it would put withdrawal from Iraq at the top of its agenda.

 

"One of the first decisions will be to bring the troops back home," he said. "We have said that we would pull them out by June 30.

 

"We have always believed it has not been a legitimate occupation of a foreign land and has no constitutional basis."

 

Mr Lopez Aguilar denied that this could be seen as a victory for the terrorists. "It is not intended to send any message to al-Qa'eda. It is a political commitment," he said.

 

Evidence of Islamist involvement has grown steadily. Yesterday's El Pais reported that an Arabic document found on the internet suggested that al-Qa'eda was planning an attack before the elections.

 

Spain was identified as "a weak link" in the US-led coalition in Iraq as the document noted that a majority of Spaniards was against the war.

 

"For the maximum effect" it suggested an attack just before the elections. "Spain could not tolerate more than two or three attacks without having to withdraw its troops from Iraq."

 

A video statement claiming to be from al-Qa'eda which was broadcast on the eve of the election appeared designed as an appeal to Spanish voters.

 

It described the Madrid massacre as "a response for your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies".

 

Demanding an end to "crimes" in Iraq and Afghanistan, the speaker issued an appeal to Spaniards to change their ways. He warned: "If you don't stop your injustices there will be more."

 

Al-Qa'eda has previously sought to cause the maximum injury to civilians and has rarely made short-term political demands. Knocking out a prominent member of the Iraq peacekeeping force might have proved a tempting target.

 

Along with Britain, Jose Maria Aznar's Spanish government became one of the Bush administration's staunchest allies in the war on terror despite massive domestic opposition.

 

About 90 per cent of Spaniards opposed Mr Aznar's support for the war in Iraq and the deployment of Spanish soldiers. Huge demonstrations against the war were held in Madrid and other cities.

 

"It will be a great victory for the terrorists if they manage to be perceived as having influenced the elections," said Charles Powell, an Anglo-Spanish political analyst and former Aznar aide. "From their point of view it looks as if they saw Spain as the weakest link in the coalition against terror."

 

A day after the arrest of three Moroccans and two Indians who were traced to mobile phones used by the bombers, newspapers and television urged voters to go out and vote.

 

The unprecedented circumstances of the election were highlighted by television images showing a wounded survivor of the bombings, Cayetano Abad, being carried from hospital to a polling booth to cast his vote. But there were also angry scenes as Mr Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, his successor as party leader, went to vote.

 

Protesters shouted "Manipulator" and "You fascists are the terrorists". Others yelled "Liar" and "Get our troops out of Iraq".

 

Mr Aznar, who is stepping down after two terms in office, told the crowd: "Whoever they are, wherever they come from, we will not let terrorists and fanatics cow Spanish society, divide it or destroy its freedom."

 

Yesterday, more than 100,000 police officers were on the streets to ensure the safety of the 35 million voters and the 24,000 polling booths.

 

But the political climate had turned extremely sour, with both main parties accusing the other of undermining Spain's fledgling democracy.

 

The Socialists accused the government of trying to influence the outcome of the elections by withholding information on the identity of the Madrid train attackers.

 

The PP countered that the Socialists had stirred up a fragile elections eve by organising a demonstration outside PP headquarters which had ended in violence.

 

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004

[Nakharar]

Euro isolationism is triumphant

(Filed: 15/03/2004)

 

 

The thumping defeat inflicted upon the Right-wing Popular Party in yesterday's Spanish elections was a blow for the war on terrorism. Jose Maria Aznar, the outgoing prime minister, took big risks to back the United States after September 11, and most especially to send troops to Iraq. Even his decision to take on his home-grown insurgency in the Basque country went against the grain of much elite opinion. He may well have mishandled last week's terrorist atrocities in Madrid. But whoever was responsible - whether al-Qaeda or ETA - will be pleased to have intervened so successfully in a democratic ballot. Spaniards died in industrial quantities, and the first instinct of many voters was to take it out on their government. If terrorism has succeeded there, where will be next?

 

The election will be remembered as heralding the rise of ‘‘euro isolationism''. Large numbers of Spanish voters succumbed to the delusion that if Mr Aznar, had not lent support to the Anglo-American coalition, then their homeland would be safer. The credibility of the government was affected, as in this country, by the apparent failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This, in turn, impacted upon the public trust placed in their interpretation of who was responsible for last week's atrocities. It also appears that elements in the Spanish security forces were angered by what they considered to be their government's opportunism in initially blaming the more obviously unpopular target of Eta (rather than al-Qa'eda) and went over the heads of the Interior Ministry to speak to the opposition Socialists and to the press. They seem to have based their reasoning upon the need to alert Europe as a whole to the Islamist threat, but the effect appears to have been to hand victory for the Socialists who have taken a far less robust view of the war on terror.

 

Why do such wide swathes of Spanish - and, indeed, British opinion - take a "nothing to do with us, Guv'' view of international terrorism? Partly, it has been a failure of communication, not least of American public diplomacy. The European Left, no less than Islamist polemicists, has for years been besmirching the United States as the ‘‘Great Satan''; and, in the face of that, most American missions have for much of the time emitted little more than a pip-squeak. Above all, the Americans and sympathetic European governments have not managed to convey the idea that there is no policy shift which they might undertake that would appreciably alter Islamist behaviour. The idea abounds that if the West somehow withdrew from Iraq or transferred more wealth to the mases of the Maghreb that all of this would stop. De-ideologised, post-modern man is particularly bad at grasping the ideological nature of its foes. The fact that many Islamists believe in reversing the reconquista of the Iberian peninsula appears to have made little difference to millions of Spaniards. The desire not to take our enemies at face value, in word and deed, is the hallmark of much of contemporary Europe.

 

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004

[Nakharar]

Let us pray by all means, and then pass the ammunition

By Barbara Amiel

(Filed: 15/03/2004)

 

 

Last Friday millions of Spaniards marched against terror and demanded vengeance for the atrocity in Madrid. On Saturday, after the arrest of some Moroccans and Indians that pointed to an Islamist connection, some thousands marched in the streets once again. This time they were protesting against government policies that had allied Spain with America in the war in Iraq and, in their view, invited the terrible act of retribution.

 

Each of these rallies made for a news item in its own right. One can't blame the media for doing their work but perhaps commentators might have made the point that Spain has always had people opposed to the war just as most other countries have - including America. You can always find some, even many, with the view that we should not provoke the Islamic world and anything we do to protect ourselves from it will be provocative. Appeasement is nothing new and its futility seems lost in one of those great fogs that befuddle human minds.

 

Perhaps it was Osama bin Laden behind the Madrid bombings, perhaps not. The tape in London claiming responsibility for al-Qa'eda has none of the rather high-flowing rhetoric he sometimes reaches. But ever since the bomb explosion in Oklahoma City in 1995, it's been a mug's game trying to decide who is behind such monstrous attacks - until you know. The immediate betting on that 1995 atrocity, with 68 dead and more than 1,000 injured, was Islamic terrorists, which made perfect sense at the time.

 

But early sense was wrong. The Oklahoma bombing was the work of one Timothy McVeigh, a home-grown terrorist with a deep hatred of the federal government. He was a God fearin' white American boy, from a blue-collar Bruce Springsteen sort of place.

 

Take your pick of the usual - and unusual - suspects for Madrid. In France today, the authorities are confronted with the ACZ terrorists. They have threatened to blow up the high-speed trains in France unless they receive $5 million. Who are they? Blackmail doesn't look like the modus operandi of Eta or al-Qa'eda but the group blew up a portion of railway track just to prove they, too, mean business.

 

ACZ, Eta, Hezbollah and their many lookalikes have one thing in common. They all partake of the satanic nature of the terrorist culture. They inhabit a different moral universe from us. This is not the Satan of the Old Testament who under God's strict watch goes on earth to test the goodness of men. This Satan is the revelation of the New Testament, a Satan that is evil incarnate, who can seize men's souls and turn them into his subordinates on earth.

 

"What are the causes (of the Madrid bombing)?" James Naughtie asked Spain's Foreign Minister Ana Palacio on the Today programme, as if it were a perfectly rational question. Showing admirable restraint, Palacio merely replied: "Terrorism cannot claim any cause." Naughtie might as well have asked what the causes of evil are. Perhaps next time.

 

Whether it is the IRA, Chechens in a Moscow theatre, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the suicide bombers of Arafat's al Aqsa Martyrs, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or the now-defunct Irgun and Stern gangs, makes no difference. These groups deliberately target non-combatants, with the aim of killing and maiming them: they are terrorists. A bus mistakenly bombed by Nato in Serbia is not the same as a bus deliberately blown up in Jerusalem or a Shining Path car bomb in Lima. Such actions are not the tragic collateral damage of war but murder and damnation, even if the BBC won't say so. What astonishes is that the terrorist war against the West has been going on for more than 35 years now, and still the majority of Western countries are in denial.

 

Like many things in life, these inhabitants of Beelzebub's universe exist on a continuum. All evil is not equal. Dante's Hell has different circles with different inhabitants and some are more damned than others. Some aspire to world domination, a bizarre notion that seems more suitable to a "red robot" blog site.

 

The Nazis and the Communists came out of that bottle but, as we now see, even their cultural assumptions were just a little less distant from ours than those of today's terrorists.

 

As distorted, evil, and inhuman as Hitler and Stalin were, even their followers had the occasional flash of light. SS Captain Wilm Hosenfeld knew two verities: music and his Church. Both led him to help the terrified Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman survive in the ruins of Warsaw. In fact, certain moral notions such as loyalty, conscience, support of the downtrodden or the innocence of the young, were never entirely dead even in that part of Satan's empire. The Soviets tried not to harm children or old women. The Nazis rarely raped, at least in the West.

 

Such pinpricks in the darkness are missing from today's Satanists. No compunction mitigates or limits their murder. Only our actions on earth can stop them but their deeds are so transcendentally satanic that it genuinely leads to the invocation "deliver us from evil". One feels impelled to invoke the moral force of a deity against them.

 

Among terrorists, the Islamists represent the most formidable challenge. Theirs is a culture from another era - and not a good one. Danny Kaye, in his film of Franz Werfel's Jacobowsky and the Colonel gave us a benign view of such a clash when he told the inflexible, down-on-his-luck European nobleman that "you have the finest mind of the 12th century". Madrid is what happens when the worst minds of the darkest ages confront modern times.

 

It is possible that Spain would not have had the explosions at this time if it had stayed on the sidelines in the war against Saddam. Their innocent people, now dead or wounded, blinded and crippled, might have been spared till next month or next year as the acolytes of bin Laden concentrated first on the more visible allies of the Great Satan America. Or not, for Islamists have a special issue with Spain. One should remember the words of bin Laden, who in October 2001 spoke of the "tragedy in Andalusia", a reference to the final ending of the great Muslim advance in the Iberian peninsula by the Moors.

 

By their own mad statements, the Islamists will not be content until all the lands they believe belong to the Muslim world are free of the infidel and the "humiliation of 80 years ago" is reversed, meaning the reversal of the end of the Ottoman Empire. Given their rather bloody interpretation of the command of the Koran to spread the word to all infidels, unless we pull ourselves together we shall find ourselves spread all over streets and railway lines. In the fight against Satan, it is traditional to have a deity onside. Let's pray by all means - and then pass the ammunition.

 

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004

[Nakharar]

Bombs backlash seals Socialist win

By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid

15 March 2004

 

 

Spain's Socialists won a sensational victory in yesterday's general elections, in a vote that confounded the polls and inflicted a huge punishment on the Popular Party government for supporting the war in Iraq.

 

Voters believed that José Maria Aznar's support for President George Bush had put Spain in the front line as a target for Islamist radicals, and directly produced the devastating terrorist attacks in Madrid on Thursday. Additional discontent was caused by the strong suspicion that Mr Aznar's government was hiding information pointing to al-Qaida's possible involvement, through fear that it would rebound against it in the poll.

 

José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who will become Spain's new Prime Minister, won 43 per cent of the vote, which gives him 164 seats in the 350-seat chamber. He can count on the support of other left-wing or regional parties, enabling him to form a government without holding a majority of seats.

 

He said last night: "Today Spaniards have spoken with a massive voice. They have said they want a government of change. Thank you for this confidence."

 

One of the main planks of Mr Zapatero's platform was his promise to bring home the 1,300 Spanish troops now serving with the coalition in Iraq. This is a position supported by all the other parties in opposition to the Popular Party.

 

After acknowledging his victory, Mr Zapatero called for a minute's silence, reflecting the grief and shock that overwhelmed the nation after the bomb attacks. "I think of all those lives broken by terror," he said. He was flanked by the scarlet and gold Spanish flag, draped with the black ribbon of mourning, and the starred blue EU flag, presenting an image that elegantly marked a distance from the previous government's fervent pro-Americanism.

 

The street outside the Socialists' headquarters in Madrid was awash scarlet and white flags. "Za-pa-tero Pre-si-dente!" ecstatic supporters chanted. Cars drove around the capital with their horns honking in triumph until the early hours.

 

Mr Zapatero was conciliatory to his opponent, Mariano Rajoy, whom he described as a "worthy rival". The incoming Prime Minister said that the result was "a victory for us all".

 

Mr Rajoy was equally well-mannered. "I've just called Mr Zapatero to congratulate him on his victory. The results show he's won the confidence of the majority of Spaniards, inexorably marked by the tragic consequence of the last few days," said the People's Party leader. An ashen-faced Mr Aznar was by his side.

 

The terror attacks that killed 200 people and injured 1,500 in Madrid last Thursday produced a dramatic mobilisation of the electorate. Turnout reached 74 per cent ­ 9 percentage points more than in the last election in 2000, which produced an absolute majority for the Popular Party.

 

The electorate was swelled by some 2 million first-time voters. They are thought to have flocked to the Socialist cause. In addition, Socialists who were widely thought to have stayed at home last time came rolling back in their determination to teach the government a lesson.

 

Last night's vote is a crushing defeat for the combative and remote political style of Mr Aznar, who had hoped to hand over power seamlessly to his handpicked successor. Mr Aznar tried to wrench Spain away from its loyalty to Europe and pledge it instead to the Atlantic alliance that took it to war, and ­ in the eyes of the voters ­ to Thursday's tragedy.

 

The lesson will not be lost on Tony Blair. Mr Blair has lost his most reliable pro-Bush European ally. Now isolated in Europe but for the mercurial Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, Mr Blair must be contemplating the prospect that his absolute majority may, like Mr Aznar's, melt away.

 

Mr Zapatero benefited from the power of a socialist-led coalition in Catalonia, which was elected last December. That coalition includes the pro-independence Republican Left party, which won eight seats last night; previously it had none. It seems that a secret meeting of its leader, Lluis Carod Rovira, with Eta separatist leaders did the party no electoral harm. When the meeting was revealed, in January, the Popular Party called on Mr Carod, and the Catalan Socialist leader Pascual Maragall to resign, and even threatened criminal proceedings against Mr Carod.

 

Mr Zapatero pledged himself to be just as determined in the fight against terrorism as Mr Aznar. He said he wanted the "maximum unity of all political forces to pursue that struggle". His style was not triumphalist, not demagogic; for someone renowned for his oratory, remarkably low key. He said he wanted a "tranquil change" and promised, as if in an afterthought, "that power will not change me".

 

• British Muslims are deserting Labour over war in Iraq, according to a new ICM poll for The Guardian. The proportion of Muslims supporting Labour has fallen from 75 per cent in 2001 to just 38 per cent today.

 

Eighty per cent say they are opposed to the Iraq war, and while the majority (73 per cent) are opposed to terrorist groups such as al-Qa'ida, around one in eight (13 per cent) believe further attacks would be justified.

 

© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

[joseph parikian]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39889000/jpg/_39889660_supporters_ap203.jpg

 

 

Socialist win stuns press

 

 

 

Spain may withdraw Iraq troops

Spain's Socialist Party prime minister-elect says he will pull troops out of Iraq - unless the UN takes charge.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said: "The war in Iraq was a disaster, the occupation of Iraq is a disaster."

 

He called for a grand international alliance against terror and an end to "unilateral wars".

 

The Socialists won a shock poll victory after voters appeared to turn on the government over its handling of the Madrid bombings that killed 200 people.

 

 

Spain, with more than 1,300 troops in Iraq, supported the US-led war on Iraq despite much domestic opposition.

 

Police are quizzing five men over the Madrid bombings, amid reports that one of them has links to a group blamed for attacks in Casablanca last May that killed 45 people.

 

Iraq pull-out

 

At a news conference in Madrid, Mr Zapatero said his priority will be a "systematic fight against terrorism of all kinds".

 

He again reiterated his opposition to the US-led war in Iraq, but said his government would maintain what he described as "cordial relations" with Washington.

 

However Mr Zapatero said President Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair needed to "engage in some self-criticism" over their decision to invade Iraq.

 

He made clear that he would withdraw Spanish troops in Iraq if the United Nations did not take charge of running the country.

 

 

 

SPANISH ELECTION RESULT

IU - United Left (pro-communist)

PSOE - Socialist Party

PP - Popular Party

CiU - Convergence and Union (moderate Catalan nationalists)

ERC - Republican Left of Catalonia

PNV - Basque Nationalist Party

He said the soldiers would be pulled out if there was no change in Iraq by the 30 June deadline for transfer of sovereignty.

 

"Wars such as those which have occurred in Iraq only allow hatred, violence and terror to proliferate," Mr Zapatero said earlier on Monday.

 

Our world affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds, says that the situation in Iraq may well have changed by 30 June, but whether that influences the new government remains to be seen.

 

By then the US and UK hope that the Security Council will have given UN approval to the handover plan.

 

In addition the interim Iraqi government will be asking foreign troops to stay as part of a UN-approved multinational force.

 

Outsider

 

Socialists won 42% of the vote, while the centre-right Popular Party won 38% in Sunday's general election, held in the wake of the Madrid train bomb attacks that killed 200 people.

 

 

The Socialist win means a change of political direction for Spain

 

The BBC's Chris Morris, in Madrid, says the bombings did more than shock Spain to the core; they proved to be the decisive factor in the general election that ousted the government.

 

Mr Zapatero was - until Thursday's bombings - considered an outsider for Spain's top job.

 

Despite his party's victory, however, there is expected to be much political horse-trading because the Socialists did not win an absolute majority.

 

While Mr Zapatero said his first priority was to tackle terrorism "in all its forms", he is thought likely to do it in a very different way than the outgoing government.

 

A larger than expected 77% of the electorate turned out to vote in the wake of last Thursday's attacks.

 

Our correspondent says the late swing to the Socialists raises one disturbing thought - if al-Qaeda was responsible for Thursday's attacks, it appears to have had significant influence in changing the government of a leading Western democracy.

 

 

Investigations are continuing into who was behind the bombings.

 

 

A videotaped claim of responsibility by a man identifying himself as al-Qaeda's military spokesman in Europe forced the government to change its stance on the most likely suspects.

 

The tape - claiming revenge for Spain's "collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies" - was found in a litter bin on Saturday following a tip-off to a TV station.

 

'Suspect has al-Qaeda link'

 

Three Moroccans and two Indians are being held in connection with the attacks.

 

The three Moroccans being held have been named as Jamal Zougam, 30, Mohamed Bekkali, 31, and Mohamed Chaoui, 34.

 

 

The two Indians arrested were named as Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar.

 

Spain's El Pais newspaper reported that investigators had found links between Jamal Zougam and the Salafia Jihadia group held responsible for attacks in Casablanca last May in which more than 40 people died.

 

One of the targets of the Moroccan attacks was a Spanish cultural centre, where four Spaniards were among the dead.

 

Reports also linked Jamal Zougam to a Spanish cell of al-Qaeda which was headed by Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, also known as "Abu Dahdah".

 

Abu Dahdah has been indicted by the Spanish anti-terrorist prosecutor Baltasar Garzon on charges relating to the preparation of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.

 

El Pais said Jamal Zougam was cited at two points in judge Garzon's indictment, but was not charged.

 

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/worl...ope/3512144.stm

 

Published: 2004/03/15 14:01:29 GMT

 

© BBC MMIV

Edited March 15, 2004 by joseph parikian

[bellthecat]

The first dogs to loose their heads are the miniature poodles (Aznar, and hopefully, his equivalents in Poland and Japan), then the time of reckoning will come for the full-size poodles (Blair) then maybe the poodlemaster himself (Bush) can be disposed of.

[Sasun]

This comes to show that, unfortunately, terrorism is a working and successful tool to promote goals in the international arena. It is not much different from conventional military force, on the contrary it has advantages. If it is not rooted out seriously there will be a mess in the world when people can't be sure that they will not be blown up for no reason any given day at any spot on the planet. Certainly the scum like Bush and Co. aren't the ones to root out this evil as they are part and parcel of it. What is the difference between bin Laden and Bush? In essence not much really.

[bellthecat]

Certainly the scum like Bush and Co. aren't the ones to root out this evil as they are part and parcel of it. What is the difference between bin Laden and Bush? In essence not much really.

The both need each other equally. The one could not survive without the other. And probably they know it - why else would America have invaded Iraq if not to increase world terrorism by allowing Bin-Laden and co into that country and giving them a specific cause to fight for. Bush and Blair will probably pay the ultimate political price for their activities (just as Aznar has) but they will retire with their riches and live happy for the rest of their lives. And those that made billions from the whole thing will keep their billions (and probably make billions more).

 

Steve

[Nakharar]

I never thought of it as a symbiosis before, but life without Bin Laden would be meaningless for Bush. He would be even worse off without his sycophants Blair, Berlusconi, Aznar, Howard around. He has already started cornering Syria and I wouldn't be too surprised if Iran is on the list. Bush winning the reelection is a nightmare scenario but not too unlikely.

[Accelerated]

The US Army got a cold reception in Iraq, they will think twice before having a go at Syria or Iran....

[bellthecat]

The US Army got a cold reception in Iraq, they will think twice before having a go at Syria or Iran....

True, even if the US army had the physical capabilities of doing it (which it probably doesn't as long as it is so many commitments in so many other countries), their reception in Iraq makes any further large-scale foreign adventures by America seem unlikely. It sounds brutal and insensitive to say it, but it is true - as long as Bush is in power every additional dead American in Iraq is a victory for peace in the wider world since it is restraining US actions elsewhere.