What really happened in the Spanish elections on March 14th 2004?
All that you ever wanted to know about the now famous Spanish elections of March 14th, 2004 and never had the courage to ask!!!
Some say the Spanish were cowards, some say the Spanish were not stupid enough to swallow their previous government's lies, I say whatever the reason was, nothing can hide anymore the astonishing bag of lies that the Spanish government dispatched upon the unprepared but sharp Spanish public!
If you don't believe me, read for yourself (see the end of the post for a full list of references):
Thursday 11th March
7:30 - Several bombs explode, one of which at Atocha station at 07:30 while the train was arriving at the Terminal, while other blasts went off on a train as it was passing Tellez street just outside the terminal.(1)
10:00 - The first government official to make a public statement, two hours after the attack, was Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu, head of government in the Basque Country), blaming ETA and saying "those who commit these atrocities are not Basque" and "ETA writes its own ending with terrible actions". In another early public appearance, Interior Minister Acebes pointed in unambiguous terms to ETA, although by the end of the day he was forced to retract and admit that "no possibilities have been discarded" (26, 29).
13:30 - The Head of Government, José Maria Aznar, call the directors of the most important newspapers to assure them that ETA was the author of the bombings (31, in spanish).
13:32 - The interior Minister Ángel Acebes informs in a press conference: "I have no doubt" that ETA was behind the bombing of the trains. A journalist asks Acebes about the posibility that Al Qaeda would be behind the attacks, Acebes' answer is categorical "I have no doubt That ETA is responsible. We are witnessing a process of intoxication that Mr. Otegi [leader of the banned radical political party Batasuna] started to take attention away from ETA" (29, 31, 33).
10:00 - 14:00 - Spain was at the time serving a two-year term on the Security Council, and just hours after the blasts its 15 members unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the bombings "perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA." But as evidence mounted that Islamic extremists with links to al-Qaida were behind the bomb blasts, the Security Council was left in the embarrassing position of blaming the Basque separatists (25).
14:00 - Official press release by the President of the Spanish government, where Aznar does not attirubte direct responsiblity for the bombings and where ETA is not mentioned (31).
15:09 - Ángel Acebes appears again to assure the media that ETA is behind the attacks (29).
17:25 - A letter signed by the Foreign Minister (Ana Palacio) advises all ambassadors that they should, when contacted by the press and officials of other countries, defend the theory of the responsibility of ETA for the bombings in Madrid. The letter went further and accused an unnamed "political force" of trying to mislead public opinion about who was behind the bombings (31).
20:00 - Ángel Acebes appears in a press conference to inform that a van had been found in one the departure stations for one of the affected trains (Alcalá de Henares) containing a tape in Arabic with verses from the Koran. Still he does not discount ETA as the author of the bombings, he further states that previous hints "show ETA's intention to execute a large attack" (29, 31).
20:45 - Aznar calls again the directors of the most important written press to insist that despite the new information the bombings have been executed by ETA (31).
21:13 - The Arab daily in London "Al-Quds Al-Arabi" publishes an alleged letter from Al Qaeda where that organization claims responsibility for the bombings in Madrid (29).
00:00 - A spokesman for the Spanish government states in an interview with the state-owned television TVE that "everything points to ETA being the author of the bombings" (31).
Friday 12th March
11:00 - Aznar insists: "Anyone with any brain in Spain, after 30 years of terrorism must in all logic and reason think that ETA is responsible for the bombings". "What was ETA trying to do last week when it tried to smuggle 500 Kilos of explosives to Madrid" (31).
20:00 - Acebes, the interior minister reiterates "ETA is the main line of investigation" and that "at the moment there is not reason to think otherwise". In the meanwhile ETA published a press-release refusing any responsibility for the bombings. To this the interior minister stated: "we don't believe" (31).
Time unknown - During this day the Foreign Minister Ana Palacio re-stated the government's stance, saying: "Everything appears to indicate that this terrible carnage is the work of Eta." (6)
Time unknown - The Spanish ambassador to the United States, Javier Ruperez, who said he believes ETA was responsible, said "in a way it is" Spain's September 11, referring to the 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington (10).
Saturday 13th March
"El Mundo" morning edition - In an interview Mariano Rajoy, the government's party candidate says "I have the moral conviction that it was ETA!" (31)
14:00 - By this time it was already know that the bombs were in a rucksack and remotely detonated by mobile phone, which are not hallmarks of ETA's previous bombings (31). The interior minister however insits "No spanish person can find abnormal the priority since the terrorist organization [ETA] has acted for 30 years and caused almost 900 deaths". When the press conference ends Cadena SER a nation-wide private radio informs for the first time that the CNI is investigating 99% the Islamic connection (31)
15:00 - Minutes after Cadena SER's news the state-owned national news agency EFE director forces, against the protests of the newsroom journalists, the publishing of a news-item with the title "Leads show that ETA is responsible and not Al Qaeda" (31).
20:00 - Ángel Acebes confirms the detention of five suspects, three morrocans and two indians. He adds that "a very good line of investigation was found and being followed, but no other has been discarded" (31).
Time unknown during Saturday night - Ángel Acebes states in a press conference that the Spokesman for Al Qaeda in Europe has claimed responsibility for the bombings. (31)
Sunday 14th March
hours before the polls opened - Hours before the polls opened, people were already on the streets protesting against the government. Thousands gathered outside the headquarters of the ruling Popular Party shouting "liars, liars" and "we want the truth".(8)
Unknown time - The Norwegian government's Norwegian Defence Research Establishment said documents found on an Arabic-language Web site last year suggest Spain as a possible terror target because the country had been part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
Wednesday 17th March
Time unknown (18, 19) - The head of one Catalan newspaper said Aznar had personally called editors to implicate ETA even when clues emerged suggesting Islamist involvement.
"The day of the massacre, Aznar told me personally, and the directors of other dailies, that ETA was the perpetrator without the slightest shred of doubt," Antonio Franco of the newspaper El Periodico said on the website of his publication.
Franco quoted Aznar as telling him: "It was ETA, there is not the slightest doubt."
Journalists at the state run news agency EFE have also demanded the resignation of their news director for swallowing the government line that ETA was behind Thursday's attacks on four commuter trains which left 200 people dead.
The association of foreign journalists also issued a formal protest that the government had deliberately misled them into thinking that the bombings had been carried out by the Basque separatist organisation ETA.
"On the evening of Thursday, March 11, some officially accredited correspondents received an appeal from the ministry of communication asking us to say explicitly in our articles that ETA was the author of the attacks," said the protest, signed by the association's president, Steven Adolf.
A statement from representatives of the journalists working at EFE said they were demanding news director Miguel Platon step down because he "imposed ... a regime of manipulation and censorship" aimed at helping Aznar's party in the elections.
Time unknown (28) - A group representing reporters and editors at Spain's state-run news agency, EFE, says the agency knew about evidence pointing to involvement by Islamic terrorists in the Mar. 11 train bombings in Madrid that very morning, but kept it under wraps due to pressure from the government of Prime Minister José María Aznar.
Time unknown (20) - The association of employees (APM) of the Madrid public TV station also complained of "outright manipulation", "censorship", "falsification of news", and the "concealing" of information.
Time unknown (23) - Spanish authorities intentionally withheld information and misled German officials into believing the Basque separatists ETA were responsible for the Madrid bombings, according to Germany's federal criminal bureau.
It wasn't until Monday, a day after Spain's conservative government suffered a surprising loss in the general election, that officials in Madrid admitted Goma 2 explosives were not a type previously used by the Basque separatists.
An unnamed high-ranking security official told ARD that such blatantly false information from an allied intelligence service was "beyond his imagination." For the German authorities, whose task it was to evaluate their own country's risk in the days following the attacks, the evidence about the explosives was the main reason why the BKA assumed ETA was behind the bombings.
German Interior Minister Otto Schily (photo) had already hinted on Sunday that Berlin was unhappy with Spain's lack of cooperation and withholding of information following the attacks.
There was a lot of discussion about the way the previous Spanish government lost the elections of March 14th 2004.
There was no shortage of speculation by the right-wing pundits in all countries about the "cowardness" of the Spanish people. However a different picture has emerged since.
Even though not one single reason can be pointed as the reason for the results of the election, some conclusions can be drawn from the way the events unfolded between March 11th (the Madrid bombing day) and the election day, March 14th.
If you don't believe me, read for yourself (see the end of the email for a full list of references):
References:
(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3502218.stm
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_11,_2004_Madrid_attacks
(3) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3522184.stm
(4) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3503676.stm
(5) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3512748.stm
(6) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3501364.stm
(7) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3511886.stm
(8) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3509426.stm
(9) http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/12/spain.blasts.alqaeda/
(10) http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/11/spain.blasts/
(11) http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1433_A_1139213,00.html
(12) http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11209340.htm
(13) http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2004/03/14/381892.html
(14) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1069629.htm
(15) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040312/SPAINETA12/TPInternational/Europe
(16) http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A52538-2004Mar12¬Found=true
(17) http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=474912§ion=news
(18) http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8991769%255E1702,00.html
(19) http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/850D8B3F-8C5C-4F46-BB18-A82188D9637C.htm
(20) http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18237
(21) http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?type=topNews&locale=es_ES&storyID=4572333
(22) http://www.bolivia.com/noticias/AutoNoticias/DetalleNoticia19365.asp
(23) http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1433_A_1145108_1_A,00.html
(24) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64804-2004Mar16.html
(25) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64689-2004Mar16.html
(26) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_11,_2004_Madrid_attacks
(27) http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8022.doc.htm
(28) http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0318-10.htm
(29) http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2004/03/11/espana/1079010638.html
(30) http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2004/03/17/enespecial/1079544681.html
(31) http://www.cadenaser.com/articulo.html?xref=20040313csrcsrnac_16&type=Tes&anchor=
(32) http://acp.sindominio.net/article.pl?sid=04/03/24/1523208&mode=thread&threshold=0
(33) http://acp.sindominio.net/article.pl?sid=04/03/24/1348242&mode=thread
(34) http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/11/spain.blasts/
See you soon,
Your news-digest-subversive
