You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Europe
ETA's gone underground since 3/11
2005-01-16
Last year's train bombings in Madrid left Spain in a state of shock. But the country is now waking up to an unintended consequence of al-Qaeda's first strike in Europe: the apparent demise of Eta, the violent Basque separatist group. According to police, politicians and security analysts, the events of last year have effectively ended Eta's 37-year insurgency. The March 11 2004 train bombings, initially blamed on Eta, left 192 people dead and injured thousands. In the Basque country in northern Spain, police say the tragedy marked a turning point in their fight against Eta, which had been viewed until then as Spain's biggest security threat. "The massacre provoked such revulsion that Eta has not dared stage a big attack since then," says Roberto Seijo, a leader of the Basque police trade union Erne. "Eta cannot match al-Qaeda's scale of terror. Even among Eta's own supporters, there is no stomach for the continued use of terror as a political instrument."
Posted by:Dan Darling

#9  Mike - what's up? You've actually posted good articles and contributed good posts. Are you feeling Ok? Trying to suck up? What gives?
Posted by: 2b   2005-01-16 6:32:30 PM  

#8  You caught me, Shipman ;-) Although its more likely to be brownies, or chocolate chip cookies. But we can't expect less of people who claim to be analysts, right?
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-16 6:14:13 PM  

#7  Have some pudding Mike.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-01-16 4:48:30 PM  

#6  Much better, Mike. This kind of thoughtful contribution is valuable. Please do this instead of the other.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-16 2:40:11 PM  

#5  
Tough anti-terrorist laws, implemented in 2002 ... allow the police to arrest anyone connected to the outlawed organisation. Joint raids by French and Spanish police have netted hundreds of Eta suspects in recent years and busted many of the group’s hideouts in southern France. .... There are now about 700 Eta prisoners in Spanish and French jails, compared with police estimates of fewer than 70 active members at large

These are the main reasons there are fewer ETA attacks.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester   2005-01-16 12:22:15 PM  

#4  Not the ETA proper, not people like Jose Ignacio de Jauna Chaos who told how happy he is when he sees images of people weeping for murdered relatives, not the ETA inmates who, in the days after 11/3 were having a party with islamist inmates and rejoicing with them.

But in the hours after 11/3's bombingq when everyone thought it was ETA, militants of Herri Batasuna (ETA's political arm) were seeing crying: they thought it was ETA and were ashamed of it. But that doesn't apply to ETA's people proper or to the high ranks of Herri Batasuna who, even in these hours, were whitewashing ETA.
Posted by: JFM   2005-01-16 8:08:08 AM  

#3  Darn it, JFM! I was so enjoying the thought that the murderous idiots had rejoined humanity.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-16 6:29:53 AM  

#2  This is BS. The only reasons for ETA not trying a large scale atack are a) because after the bad cop (ETA) it is the hour of the good cop (PNV) who is busy with a project who would mark the end of Spain as a state and b) because they think Zapaterto will give up everyting because he is bound by his alliances with the most nutso Catalanist party who has pacts with ETA.

But about ETA not having the stomach, they tried to put a truck bomb in the ferry between Valencia and the Balear Islands. 1400 potential victims.
They tried to blow Madrid's largest skyscrapper: 5000 potential victims. They tried to blow the Atocha railway station: thousands of potential victims. Each time they failed but it was not their cosncience who prevcented a masscre ogf 9/11 proportions, it was bad luck or police action.

And ETA has said: "The day we will negotiate we will put 299 dead on the negotiation table".
Posted by: JFM   2005-01-16 4:02:16 AM  

#1  How nice. The ETA and their supporters finally realize that the "boys will be boys" approach is inappropriate, when there are people (and I use the term for lack of a better one in my limited vocabulary) who really mean it when they go to blow up innocents. About bloody time they stopped romanticizing themselves!
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-16 1:11:59 AM  

00:00