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Europe
The scandal of the Spanish elections (link in Spanish)
2004-04-19
According to the (right wing) Spanish newpapers: "El Mundo" and "Libertad Digital" there is a major scandal cooking about the chain of events who led to Socialist’s victory in the Spanish elections. It looks like the Spanish government was deliberately fed wrong information during the investigation. That false information made it appear as lying to the electorate. It also looks like a possible framing of a group of islamists.
1) For instance the governement was told the explosives were Titadyne (pointing to ETA) instead of Goma 2 (ETA hasn’t used for years). According to the article no explosives expert can make the mistake since they smell completely different.

2) Bags who failed to explode were destroyed (and the proofs with them ) by the police alleging they had no disarming experts in place. However the Guardia Civil (a part of the Spanish Armed Forces acting as police for rural zones) had experts at hand but its offers of collaboration were dismissed

3) There was one bag who was not distroyed and in that bag they found the mobile phone who led to first arrests.

4) Someone phoned to the police about a suspicious white van near the Alcala de Henares railway station. It was searched and arabic tapes and explosives were found under one of the seats. Funny thing is that the tapes contained material for elementary learning of Koran, when your average islamist has memorized it. Second funny thing is that van had already been searched by a sniffing dog who found nothing. Third funny thing: the van was supposed to have travelled to Asturias to pick the explosives. But the mileage doesn’t add: it has run for 200 km since it was stolen while the round trip is over 700 km.

5) Once the rest of the ring was located and the GEOS (equivalent of Swat people) were sent to arrest them there was no attempt to negotiate, soften them, deprive them from sleep, before trying to capture them and later make them speak. Instead an immediate assault was ordered on the unsoftened islamists, result was they blew themselves, killing one of the Geos and destroying any hope of getting more info from them. Note: This night the corpse of the GEO has been profaned and then burnt with gasoline.

6) The composition of the terrorist ring is unusual for Al Quaida who never uses criminals with a police record and never uses non-muslims. The modus operandi of the ring is also unusual for half competent terrorists: NO compartimentalization and they kept in contact after the attacks.
If you read Spanish you can look here for the reaction of Aznar’s successor.
Posted by:JFM

#5  I am from Portugal. El Mundo is one of the 3 big spanish newspapers first is El Pais, La Vanguardia and El Mundo.
Posted by: Anonymous4075   2004-04-19 6:25:56 PM  

#4  Perhaps I wasn't clear: on one side the government was being fed information suggesting it was ETA (the Titadyne explosive). On another side there was a series of "miracles" who led the police to arrest some Muslims involved in petty crime but presented as belonging to Al Quaida. This was aired by radios linked to the socialists making the government appear as if was hiding about the Islamist track and as if bombings were due to Spain's presence in Iraq.

Then another series of "miracles" leading to another group of Muslims but then the police commits a series of blunders (like setting a HIGHLY visible watch by plain clothes agents who kept weapons in hand leading to the alleged islamists discovering them) ending in the suicide of the muslims who now cannot talk. BTW none of the Moroccans arrested in the first batch has confessed.
Posted by: JFM   2004-04-19 4:46:14 PM  

#3  The two theses seem to be mutually exclusive. I.e., if they deliberately falsified evidence that suggested it was ETA, how is it that they, at the same time, framed Islamist groups. Did the police frame both groups? I think thesis A is more plausible than thesis B.
Posted by: Sawt al-Shebaab   2004-04-19 1:48:47 PM  

#2  Paging Mr. Stone, Mr. Oliver Stone! Your script is ready.
Posted by: Steve   2004-04-19 12:39:47 PM  

#1  For those of you who can read Spanish there are more juicy details at:

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2004/04/19/enespecial/1082356558.html

Diclaimer: I am not familiar with "El Mundo" so I don't know if how serious it is. Style is quite sensationalistic like in the tabloid press.

About Libertad Digital incites me to think it is a serious site but their articles are based on the allegations of "El Mundo" and they are very right wing (ie likely to believe the worst about the socialists).

Rajoy (Aznar's succesor) has reacted about the allegations of "El Mundo" and this makes me think El Mundo has some credibility in the Spanish public (ie not a paper known for telling bin Laden is an lien of another planet).
Posted by: JFM   2004-04-19 12:35:00 PM  

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