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| Europe |
| 3/11 shocks Spain into security action |
| 2005-03-10 |
| A quiet revolution has overtaken Spain's security forces since al-Qaeda detonated four bombs on packed commuter trains in Madrid a year ago tomorrow. The police, defence ministry, paramilitary civil guard and National Intelligence Centre (CNI) now exchange notes once a week. A year ago they barely communicated at all. Clashing data bases and incompatible computer programmes are being integrated. The civil guard, which controls borders, and national police are keeping separate investigative units, but are aiming for one common DNA analysis system finally to allow quick cross-checking of each unit's suspects, an important flaw highlighted after March 11. Arabic-speaking officers are being redeployed to intelligence operations. There are demands for more personnel, better cross-border co-operation, specialised training in Islamic fundamentalism and more resources to profile possible trouble-makers before they enter Spain. Al-Qaeda has replaced Eta, the Basque separatist group, as the focus of anti-terrorist activity in Spain. More than 20 people - mainly Moroccans - are in prison awaiting trial in connection with the bombings. Six men implicated in the Madrid case blew themselves up weeks after the attack as police cornered them in a flat in Madrid. At least four subsequent alleged bomb plots - including one targeting the court building where terrorist-related investigations are based - have been foiled, according to police. Officers admit there is still work to be done - professional jealousies and cultural and regional differences still impede the flow of information between the various security bodies. However, according to José Manuel Sänchez, secretary-general of Spain's umbrella police trade union, a lesson has been learned. "We'd been watching and profiling suspected Islamic activists for years," he says, "but we never thought they would strike in Spain . . . now for every 50 or so planned attacks, maybe one will be carried out." In many respects, the police are lucky. The clamour for answers and justice forced them quickly to overcome feelings of guilt for failing to thwart the Madrid bombers and get on with tackling the newly identified threat to national security. By contrast, many argue that Spain's civilian population have not been allowed to begin the healing process. The reason, according to critics, is the worst kind of party politics. Despite a four-year-old pact to keep politics out of the war on terrorism, a parliamentary commission set up in July to draw security lessons from the attack has often been reduced to an arena for point-scoring and blame-apportioning. José MarÃÂa Aznar, the prime minister when al-Qaeda struck, used his appearance before the commission to insist that Eta was behind the outrage. His reluctance to admit that early evidence pointed to Islamic extremists cost his party a certain third term in office, in an election defeat three days after the bombings. Nor is Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero, who benefited from the public clamour for the truth, innocent of using the commission for political gain, say some. "Mr Zapatero is still trying to legitimise his electoral victory," says Eduardo Nolla, politics lecturer at the Universidad San Pablo-CEU in Madrid. "So in many senses, the electoral campaign is still going on, at the cost of the victims and the whole of Spain." This was not lost on Pilar Manjón, who in December addressed the inquiry on behalf of the 192 victims and their families. Millions of Spaniards tuned in to a discourse - broadcast live on radio - in which she accused the parties of "appropriating the commission for playground politics". She said: "You all know, although it is unpleasant to hear, they you have turned [the victims] into loose change for a political game." Ms Manjón, like many observers, suggests the commission should have been non-partisan. In any case, many point to the Senate hearings after the September 11 2001 attacks in the US as proof of what can be achieved when ideological differences are buried in the greater national interest. The commission tomorrow is expected to deliver its preliminary findings and recommend 136 measures to tighten security in Spain, upgrade international intelligence-gathering and improve support networks for all victims of terrorism. Police and security forces are already busy implementing the most urgent reforms. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "Mr Zapatero is still trying to legitimise his electoral victory," says Eduardo Nolla, politics lecturer at the Universidad San Pablo-CEU in Madrid. "So in many senses, the electoral campaign is still going on, at the cost of the victims and the whole of Spain." That is why the back stabbers in Spain can rot. They have taknbe up with "Le Worm" A pox on them and their posterity. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-03-10 6:10:29 AM |