ETA and bombings.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3520071.stm>

Very recently Spanish authorities have intercepted ETA terrorists with large amounts of explosives, including attempts to bomb trains.

This is for the people who think ETA wouldn't do this, and immediately point fingers in the direction of the Middle East.

and they usually give a warning AHEAD of it...

This morning, ETA said they were not involved, and no warning was given. Plus, multiple bombs are typical Al Qaeda.

Was someone from ETA involved? Probably. But I really do believe Al Qaeda is behind these attacks.

ETA have been at it for decades, why would they deny responsibility? if your theory is "blow people up till they do what we want" then how does denying responsibility help you??

it wouldn't make any sense... this has Al Qaeda's fingerprints all over. Perhaps someone from ETA helped them out, I wouldn't be surprised. But ETA as an organization probably was not involved.

This was a far larger attack than anything that Spain experienced before. This is Spain's 9/11. If they take responsibility, they are toast.

It takes many days, often weeks for their "confirmation" - usually in "their" newspaper.

Besides, in ETA's last "big" bloody attack (in the Hipercor supermarket in Barcelona, in the 80s) they have steadfastly denied responsibility until years after, by means of an "admission of mistake" because it turned out to be a in effect a non-consensus strike, that later was disavowed.

It's non impossible to be a "rogue" ETA faction.

In this case, it is possible that a faction split off from ETA - not unlike the case of the R-IRA which split off when voices within IRA started pondering a negotiated solution.

Also, it's not impossible that the group that carried this monstrosity had "help" in a coordinated attack.

And ETA has been hit hard over the past year; dozens of members have been detained, and several "big" operations have been averted, such as the "Christmas" attack last year on 12/24 and the recent one on 2/29 (those foiled attempts included planned attacks on train stations, among which Chamartin in the North of Madrid and Atocha in the South, that was struck today)

What I mean is that targeting places where large numbers of people go by everyday isn't "out of the ordinary" for ETA. What is different here is, essentially, a complete lack of forewarning (not even a few minutes) and the obviously well-planned scale of the operation: 13 bombs in 4 trains hitting 3 stations - and the 2 in Atocha were clearly planned to explode together (but "failed" due to a 2-minute delay of one of the trains) which, if they had, would likely have caused the whole station (it's huge) to collapse, multiplying the devastation.

At this moment, it's still unclear whether the perpetrators fled before the bombs went off (which would suggest ETA or a split-off faction) or that they blew themselves up (which would suggest an Al Q'aida type operation.)

But, returning to the issue of "confirmation" or claiming responsibility: in the case of Al-Q'aida, they tend to take weeks too.

Right now, all leads are pursued, as they should be. And it'll take days, if not weeks, before the first conclusive bits of forensic evidence are known.

Meanwhile, tomorrow there'll be a huge protest act; expect millions of Spaniards on the street.

My full analysis: http://www.taxloss.blogspot.com

ROME (Reuters) - The simultaneous bomb blasts that ripped through commuter trains in Madrid on Thursday did not bear the hallmarks of Basque separatist group ETA, the head of the European Union (news - web sites)'s police agency said.

"It could have been ETA... But we're dealing with an attack that doesn't correspond to the 'modus operandi' they have adopted up to now," said Europol director Juergen Storbeck, who was in Rome to talk to an Italian parliamentary committee.

"In the past ETA has always attacked individuals, and if they saw any danger for the public they gave a warning... It's not yet clear they were the authors," Italian news agency Ansa quoted him as saying.

http://story1.news.vip.dcn.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20040311/wl_nm/spain_explosions_europol_dc