unclebuck

Al-Qaeda or ETA?

In many ways it doesn't fit ETA's profile. In others it does. Perhaps they are working together?

Thoughts??

UB

Markus

Doubt they would work together, I can't think of any two separate terrorist groups that have carried out attacks together.

I'd say it's ETA though. So Osama made threats against countries that helped in the war, have we seen attacks in that many other countries? hmm, not sure but I don't think so, and why spain? why not attack a bigger player like the UK? it'd make more sense.

Seems these days, any terror attack that occurs everyone immedatly says "ooooh it's Al-Qaeda!"

workshy_fopp

Who knows? Spain did support the latest oil war. Though ETA have been bombing the **** out of Castillian Spain for years, I hope they're very happy
It just shows you can't deal with terrorism whether it's internal, like Northern Irleland is/was for decades, or whether it's from further abroad. Did the BBC report if any Britons were injured

unclebuck

Do they? Not here, and not in Spain, well not at first.

Security? Maybe Madrid was a far softer target than London. Again, another cowardly hallmark of Al-Qaeda. And the 'shock and awe' scale of the attack and no warnings, much more like them than ETA.

Either way it's a 'wake up call' to use a rather cheesy cliche.

UB

Markus

Security, quite possibly. However, it'd be pretty easy to blow the crap out of the underground, not like they have metal detectors in stations or anything.

Maybe ETA has decided to take a stronger approach than it has in the past, ie; taking a leaf out of Al-Qeada's books? who knows.

Regardless, it's a tragic loss of life, and let's hope the purportrators are brought to justice.

Diesel

Al Qaeda doesnt even have a country ; the Basques did, once...

workshy_fopp

**** me Al-Q have just claimed this attrocity as their own! It was just on the telly. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fast bloke

synchronised attacks have been a hallmark for Al Quaeda for as long as they have been around. ETA cannot make whatever sort of twisted gains they hope for by organising something this big and then denying it. My money goes on MI5 trying to blame CIA who are supped to think it is Mossad pining the blame on Arrafat..... mostly

Funkii Munkii

Horrific all the same, I was up with my 7 month old daughter as the news broke and its grown and grown all day, it was horrific when i saw the 1st pictures and thats been compounded by what ive seen on the news when i came in from work.

"My money goes on MI5 trying to blame CIA who are supped to think it is Mossad pining the blame on Arrafat..... mostly"

nice use of words.

Leslie

There has been positive evidence found to point at either organisation, so no one can say who did it yet!

Les

Tentenths

What about the IRA working with the Libyans?

Tentenths

Sorry, misread Markus's post! Whilst the IRA and Libyans are known to have worked together, I'm not sure whether there are known cases of them carrying out joint attacks.

Jye

Shouldnt this be in CWE's

Markus

Nah, no point putting in in CWE, it's gonna be closed down soon lol

Good point about the IRA. I believe they have been known to do a bit of "managment consultancy" for other "organisations" when they need a bit of extra cash flow, but I don't think it covers joint operations.

And the above could be what has happened here, a bit of consultation from Al-Queda to help out ETA. then again, it could be that AQ are using the same type of explosives that ETA uses, to mask that it was them and make everyone think it was ETA? who knows?

fatherpierre

Let's hope that if it was ETA that carried out this disgusting act(s) that it has the same effect the Omagh bombing had on the IRA.

MJW

ETA, being a 'considerate' and 'caring' terrorist organisation usually telephone their intentions prior to murdering innocent people, but there was no such warning in this instance. However it would be of great political advantage to the Spanish administration to point the finger at ETA given the upcoming elections, as it would serve to discredit them in the eyes of the public and give credence to the administration's hard line on domestic terrorists. If the finger of blame is pointed to Al'Qaida it puts strain on the Spanish government's decision to back the war against Iraq, and will possibly turn voters away.

I've read that police have recovered a vehicle containing detonators and a cassette tape with readings from the Koran on it. There has also been a letter sent to a London Islamic newspaper claiming that Al'Qaida was responsible for the attacks, and that another, much larger attack against the USA is '90% ready'. Whether or not these two bits of information point blame to Al'Qaida remains to be seen ..

lloydie15

Not sure if this is true, just over heard someone talking about. The bombs in Madrid come 911 days after the twin towers (trade centre USA 9/11).

Tentenths

... nearly but not quite - 912 days according to
http://www.calendarhome.com/date.shtml

Rather uncanny nonetheless.

douglasb

ETA have now denied responsibility. They sent statements to a Basque TV and radio station just before 1800 today.

unclebuck

Too much of a coincidence I'm afraid. They just forgot to take the leap year into account.

Just heard on the news that the means of detonation (mobile phone) is that favoured by Al-Qaeda also the type of detonator (Brass not Alloy) is also an Al-Qaeda hallmark. A further unexploded bomb found on the tracks contained a detonator of the type found in the van with the Islamic tapes in.

It's worryingly looking more and more like their work.

UB

*blue eyed boy*

Payback for all the bulls IMHO