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Europe

Spain's Supreme Court Clears 4 in Madrid Train Bombing Case

2008-07-18

Spain's supreme court has overturned the convictions of four of the 21 people found guilty of involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people. The four men had been convicted of charges ranging from membership of a terrorist group to supplying explosives.

The court also upheld a lower court's acquittal of one of the alleged masterminds of the al-Qaida inspired attacks, Rabei Ousmane Sayed Ahmed, also known as Mohammed the Egyptian. The Supreme court said Thursday there was not enough evidence to condemn him as an organizer of the attack.

"Yeah. Da witnesses is all dead!"

The early morning bombing of four packed commuter trains was the deadliest terror attack in the west since the September 11 attacks in the US in 2001.

Posted by:Fred

#17 Anon5089

My belief is based on a tenuou ground: the planting of evidence and its coverup were far too botched up and amateur-like to have been preplanned. It looks like everything was organized "on the march".

But there is another fact: the bombs exploded at about ethe moment were they could cause the lesser number of victims. A bit later and the trains would have acquired speed, a bit earlier they would have been in railways stations, wait a bit more and they would have been in Madrid's central station and the number of victims would have been in the thousands.

Now the police is telling us that bombs were detonated not with timers but with cellphones. If perpetrators were not interested in election's outcome they simply gone for kiling as many infidels as possible. If they were interested in it then too many victims would have caused the postponement of teh elctions. Now look at my hypothesis: if perpetrators were intesrested in the election's outciome then either they had a really good knowledge of Spanish politics and of the Spanish police (I simply cannot envision our French socialists trying to use the bombings like the Spanish did and our police helping them) or they were working with the socialists (who were the only ones who could perform the agitprop part of the plot).

Posted by: JFM 2008-07-18 17:08

#16 Everywhere politically motivated judges are acquitting terrorists, in protest of the anti terrorism laws. The current government of Spain was only elected after the 3-11 massacre. The previous government was a supporter of the GWOT. The current goofs endorse the "fraternity of civilizations" fraud.

Posted by: Snerelet Untervehr4255 2008-07-18 16:25

#15 Ok, I misread Jfm (I read too fast), I thought he was hinted the PSOE was complicit in the actual bombing, while in fact, it's me who is the most conspiratorial here, sorry!

Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-07-18 16:17

#14 Jfm, you've hinted several times at making an article about this; I know this is time-consuming, and you've got a life, but I think it would be useful you put on your thoughts on this in an extented form; like France, Spain has had a dark underbelly of "parallal polices" (see the links between the socialists and the GAL), I'm not sure I would be as comfortable about the 1) hypothesis (bombing its own citizens is something I accept for putin, but would seem way too criminal for a western pol, this is NOT what they're expected to do)... but a nexus between the eta, the islamists and moles from the politicized intelligence agencies sure is a distinct possiblity (that is, the socialists could know it was going to happen due to some moles in the eta, again, see the GAL, and took plans to piggyback it to power).
In any regards, there most probably WAS a manipulation to get the PSOE in power, this has been discuted elsewhere by other people(media camaign by msm groups closely affiliated to the socialists, crowd manipulation & obsfucation police), and it jibes with your ideas about that. So, having you elaborate about it would be interesting IMHO.

Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-07-18 16:14

#13 The last sentence of my previous post was wrong uncomplete. Here it is

I tend to believe it was hypothesis 1: PSOE leraning of the bombings when they were perpetrated and making a quick plan to having evidence planted in order to win the elections: if they had had time for planning even a third rate policeman or spook would have done a better would have done a better job at planting evidence so it didn't look too suspicious and at scapegoating more credible suspects (as I said none of them had links with Islamists and most/all of them were pôlice confidents).

Posted by: JFM 2008-07-18 16:05

#12 Now le's make some guessing but first agains ome facts.

The first there we are sure beacuse theyw ere made openly;

First; In the very moring a fter the bombings Zapatero was hinting to teh media its waqsn't ETA.

Second: It wasn't the bombings who upturned the result of the elections it was the combination of bombings and an agitprop propaganda made by the socualusts and Grupo Prisa the mots, by far, powerful MSM group in Spain who has and had had many, many things to thank to teh Socialists.

Third: he impact of teh agitprop campaign was multiplied hundedfold by the fact that government seemd to be lying was telling that every clue pointed to ETA while Prisa radios and TVs were reporting of clues being dicovered pointing to ilsmaists (BTW some of Prisa's allegations were white lies). Thus governement looked to be lying in order to win the elections.

The fourth one we don't know for sure since these were internal communications between governement and police but it seemd that polica was giving informations to governement with a delay of severl hours. Now reread point three.

And now le's go to the hypothesis.

1) Bombings were perpetrated by islamists and it was coincidence it was so close to the elections. Their goal was merely to kill infidels, specially the hated Spaniards who had had the insolence to liberate their land from Islam, athing who still hurst in places like Saudi Arabia. When learning of bombings some people in the socilist party mounted a conspiration to upturn the result of the elections. Notice that in this case it was not important to arrest the perpetrators, the important thing was to "discover" pieces of evidence, to arrest some Arabs and o it just in the right moment (BTW when the suespcts was arrested it was just in the day before the elctuions when the law severly retricted governmen's speak.)

2) THe choice of the date was not a coincidence. It really aimed to overthrow the governemnt. But as I said thisz wouldn't have worked without the agitprop made by socialists and Prisa and it wouldn't have worked without the discovery just at the right time, never an hour too late or too soon of pieces of evidence (who weren't there just an hour soooner) and arrests who were also made just at the right moment.

So either the perpetrators had a such thorough knowledge of Spain's political life and of the leadership of Spanish police tha they could predict their reactions or...., or whetver the perpetrators (ETA, Al Quaida, God know what) they were working hand in hand with some high ranking socialists and doing it before the elections.

I tend to believe it was hypothesis 1: PSOE using the bombings and having evidence planted: if they had had time for planning even a third artae policeman or spook would have done a better job.

Posted by: JFM 2008-07-18 15:53

#11 Well, JFM, I think most of us got the feeling from the git go (American vernacular) that there was something "strange" about the way this case was handled by the Spanish authorities and the way the bombing seemed to have helped Zapatero (sp) get elected in the name of paz. Perhaps my comment about the law schools was aimed more at certain judges in the USA than in Spain.

Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2008-07-18 15:16

#10 Mr Carville and others

I read fluent (fluent as a native spaker) Spanish and since I grew in Spain and it was West's first defat in the WOT I have studied the thing with passion.

So

1) Muach/all the evidence apperas to have been planted

2) There have been many, many bizaree things in teh investigation. Do you know that NO analysis of teh xplosives was performed, do you know that the wagons were sent to sacrpyard and destroyed the day after of the explosions thus amking forensics impossible? Do you think this is normal proceudre?

3) None of the suspects had links with the Islamist movement in fact a few of them to be silent apostates. One of the suspects was arrested just because a cell phone had been sold in his shop, the others were mere petty criminals.

4) All of them were confidents of the pôlice.

These are facts.

Nowask yourself: what if it waqs really done by other people? Who benefitted from the crime?

Posted by: JFM 2008-07-18 14:47

#9 Do we have any sort of a rating for the degree of hospitality a country has for terrorists? A poor ranking on that would translate into many tourist dollars lost.

Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-07-18 14:04

#8 Just another example why it's impossible to fight an unconventional war in the courts. These people only know how to deal with ordinary criminals. Terrorists are NOT "ordinary" criminals, but the most dangerous kind of rot any free nation could imagine. Shoot to kill, and accept the loss of intelligence value. At least you won't have to capture the same idiots over and over.

Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-07-18 11:59

#7 Hey!

Posted by: Frank G 2008-07-18 11:47

#6 What the F#(@&! do they teach in law school these days?

That political agendas are more important than the law.

Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2008-07-18 11:42

#5 Drop their asses from a high bridge in low repair. Dis known as Frankoism.

Posted by: .5MT 2008-07-18 11:38

#4 What the F#(@&! do they teach in law school these days?

That the beauty or cleverness of the argument takes precedence over common sense...

Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-07-18 11:24

#3 Poetic justice would be for these four "model citizens" to blow up the Spanish Supreme Court

Wasn't there a terrorist attack on the Spanish Supreme Court several years ago?

Morons. What the F#(@&! do they teach in law school these days?

Posted by: James Carville 2008-07-18 10:54

#2 Now they are living among you, plotting their squalid little deeds again.

Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-07-18 08:11

#1 Spain's Supreme Court Clears 4 in Madrid Train Bombing Case

Oh well...

Posted by: Red Dawg 2008-07-18 03:36

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