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ETA or al-Qaeda? Both?

Listening to and reading the news reports on the awful terrorist attacks in Madrid, I have been reminded eerily of the first day or two following the Oklahoma City bombing. News reports immediately assumed Middle Eastern terrorists were behind the attack, Arab passengers on airlines were pulled out of their seats and detained by the FBI for questioning, and then, oh...it's a white boy. But we all know Tim McVeigh by now. He's long dead and buried.

So the Spanish government has quickly fingered its old nemesis the Basque separatist group, ETA, whom a few of us had wondered about in the early days after President Bush declared his "War on Terror." What about the IRA? we asked. What about the Basques? Will they be treated like al-Qaeda? Back then few would have suspected that the "War on Terror" would be so widespread (though there were warnings—but they were america-hating fringe crackpots, so what did they know?).

For it's part, the BushAdmin is pushing forward the idea that al-Qaeda might be behind the bombings in retaliation for Spain's support of the war in Iraq. Scripps-Howard News Service reports that al-Qaeda has established deep roots in Spain, and the tactics employed in the bombings differ from tactics typically used by the ETA, so the BushAdmin might be on the money this time. Yet Scripps-Howard makes it clear, citing the findings of the Council on Foreign Relations, that the possibility that these bombings are an al-Qaeda/ETA joint venture is a long shot:

While ETA in the past had collaborated with the Irish Republican Army and has had links with militant Marxist groups, it has never been known as an ally of al Qaeda.

"ETA's secular nationalist agenda has nothing to do with the Islamist fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, and there is no credible evidence of any systematic cooperation between ETA and al Qaeda," the Council on Foreign Relations concluded in a recent report on ETA.

Credible evidence? Did the Bushies need "credible evidence" to purport links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda? Color me cynical, but expect to see the Spanish and American governments to blur the distinctions in a transatlantic quid-pro-quo.

For more on the debate over responsibility for the attacks, check out the Information Warfare Site (what a name). And if you can stomach it, The Guardian's image gallery brings the cruelty of the devastation home—and the human solidarity of the Spanish people against such violence, regardless of who is responsible.

Posted by kevinmoore at March 11, 2004 04:18 PM | TrackBack