Respect For The Victims

Next weekend sees the 8th anniversary of the Madrid bombings. In many respects it will be a normal Sunday. Football matches will of course be played, many restaurants will be open, theatres and cinemas too. It's really business as usual, you could argue about whether that's a good or a bad thing - but that's the reality. There will also be the institutional ceremonies to mark the anniversary. And there will be the habitual attempts by sections of the right-wing press and the Partido Popular to use the bombings as a political weapon against their opponents, and if possible to earn a bit of money from it in the process. 

This latter tradition has already begun, with a noisy campaign launched against the decision by Spain's trade unions to hold fresh protests against the government's labour market reform on March 11th. Government ministers and the Delegada del Gobierno in Madrid have claimed that the decision to hold the protests on this day shows a "lack of respect" for the victims. But surely, you'll be thinking, such a fuss is being made because it's not normal for demonstrations with a high political content to be held around the time of the anniversary of the bombings? Ah well, that seems not to be the case. It all depends who is doing the organizing. Did you spot the future prime minister?

All the talk about respecting the victims, coming from these people, is just a bit too much to take after 8 years of fabricated conspiracy theories. The largest association of 11M victims has already publicly disassociated itself from these pathetic attempts to use the victims of the bombings as a battering ram against the trade unions. But for those in the PP who like to claim to speak on behalf of the victims these people simply don't exist. The same victims association refused to swallow any of the conspiranoico nonsense that we have had to put up with for so long, with the result that they were denied public funding by those governing Madrid. 

Perhaps it was their refusal to use such public funds to organise fraudulent demonstrations against Zapatero's government that has always counted against them, as they preferred to use their resources to assist their members. It's as if they don't exist. Alongside all of those victims who still carry shrapnel in their bodies as a reminder of that fateful day in 2004. The conspiracy theorists insist that no shrapnel was used in the bombs that exploded, so that's a another group of victims whose very existence must be denied. With the greatest possible respect, you understand. 

Now I've never been a huge fan of those who have claimed that the Spanish right is somehow different from its European counterparts. Largely because such claims usually involve exaggerating the democratic credentials of the right in other countries to make the point. However, in the case of 11M it is the absolute absence of any kind of ethical baseline that does seem to mark a difference. I'll try to be fair, there are a few (far too few) on the Spanish right who find this repugnant exploitation of 11M to be too much and some have said so. The problem is that they are like voices in the wilderness, almost unheard. 

You look for some sign of someone saying "perhaps we've gone a bit too far this time" but it's just not there. The 'todo vale' ruthless cynicism that we see suggests that life in a moral vacuum doesn't seem to affect the health of those who live in it at all. Just their judgement. It's sad and tiresome. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I'm still writing posts like this one after so many years of the same cynical, manipulative shit from these people. Then the new conservative attorney general throws a meaty bone to the hungry hounds by opening a formal investigation based on another piece of pseudo journalism from Libertad Digital. There will always be a few more bloodstained eurillos to be squeezed from inventing fake news stories, and a few more petty political points to be scored from Spain's worst ever terrorist attack. All because the subsequent election didn't turn out the way they wanted. That, you see, is what they call respect for the victims.

Living A Lie

It's nice, for once, to be able to blog about a fine judicial decision. Yesterday saw the conclusion of the bizarre "boric acid trial", in which four senior police officers were accused of having falsified a forensic report in order to eliminate references linking ETA to the Madrid train bombings. I won't write more here about the details of the trial, I have already posted about it on my other blog. Suffice to say that those behind this trial, the promoters of the conspiracy theories about the train bombings, are having some difficulty digesting the verdict. This trial was almost their last hope, with the conviction of these officers they could have kept alive the great conspiracy.

El Mundo today has resorted to a blatant falsification of its own in its headline about the case. This paper is in quality freefall, I can imagine that there would be journalists in the worst of the British tabloids who might have issues about working in such an ethics free environment. The problem is that the methodology they have used in their appalling, manipulative, coverage of the train bombings now infects almost everything they publish about political events in Spain. This is not just because of its politics, right wing media such as ABC are still capable of maintaining basic standards for all the political bias behind their reporting - ABC probably carried some of the best Spanish reporting on the Madrid bombings trial. El Mundo has now made manipulation of the news its core activity.

Tough Times For Losantos

Continuing to delve into the very murky and slimy waters around Libertad Digital, it’s worth taking a look at the slight legal difficulties facing LD’s propagandist in chief, Federico Jiménez Losantos. Last week saw the final hearing in the case brought against him by Alberto Ruiz Gallardón concerning claims by Losantos that the Mayor of Madrid was not interested in knowing what happened with the Madrid train bombings. This case is awaiting sentence but it did not go well at all for Losantos, who claimed that his remarks about Gallardón were covered by freedom of expression. What really went wrong in the case for the defence was that the star witnesses did more to sink Losantos than to help him. Esperanza Aguirre, Ángel Acebes and Eduardo Zaplana were called as witnesses for the defence, but their party loyalty prevailed as they spurned the public invitation to damage Gallardón. Leaving Losantos to fight his own corner with the assistance of his good friend Pedro J Ramirez, director of El Mundo.

Much as I detest Losantos, I don’t really like cases such as this one, based as they are on laws to defend the powerful. Such laws almost always end up being used against genuinely fair comment too and politicians like Gallardón are big enough to look after themselves. The insults that Losantos dedicated to Pilar Manjon, who heads the main victims association for the Madrid bombings, were much worse than anything he said about Gallardón yet that case was not even allowed to proceed. The real significance of the apparent betrayal by witnesses such as Aguirre or Acebes is in what it represents for the conspiracy theories around the Madrid bombings. Their refusal to back Losantos sent the signal that they have now jumped off the conspiracy bandwagon, and that the PP is no longer interested in using the bombings as an instrument of political opposition. This was always going to happen, the interests behind the conspiracy theories were a mixture of the commercial and the political; the political aim being to shore up the PP following the shock of their election defeat in the aftermath of the bombings. The general election in March this year finally brought home to the least deranged sectors of this movement what had long been apparent to everyone else. The removal from power of the PP in 2004 was not a coup d’etat resulting from an evil alliance of ETA, Zapatero and foreign powers, it was simply a result of the number of votes cast and sections of the PP finally seem willing to accept that.

The Gallardón case is far from being the end of the legal troubles facing Losantos. Due to start last week, but postponed, was the case brought against him by one of the police trade unions concerning the allegations made by Losantos against their members. I’m not generally the number one defender of the police, but I recognise that when people have risked their lives deactivating unexploded bombs or have worked long shifts dealing with the awful carnage caused by the bombings there is something terribly wrong in them being accused of fabricating evidence and conspiring to hide the “truth” about the bombings. In some ways this case could be much more revealing than the Gallardón one, Losantos should be required to justify the lies and inventions behind the conspiracy theories. Probably he will go for the “I was just repeating what I read in El Mundo” defence, he’s not usually as brave in court as he is on the radio.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, coming up on the horizon will be the case brought against Losantos and other colleagues on the COPE radio station concerning their accusations that Luis Montes and other doctors in the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganés deliberately killed terminally ill patients. Another case that he thoroughly deserves to lose, if it gets to trial. Funnily enough today sees the beginning of the boric acid trial, that most absurd of all possible monuments to the conspiracy theorists and judicial timewasting; and proof that legal outcomes depend more than anything on getting your case into the hands of the right judge.

Acebes In His Own Words

Angel Acebes has decided to leave the post of Secretary General in the Partido Popular, thus providing a solution to one of the many problems facing PP leader Mariano Rajoy. We can assume for the moment that he will probably follow the example of his party comrade Eduardo Zaplana. I want to post some time in the next couple of days on the consequences of his decision for the PP, in the meantime I think it's worth reminding ourselves why he should really have resigned from politics four years ago.

Via 3 días de marzo

Themes That Can Change An Election....The Madrid Bombings Trial

By tomorrow lunchtime we should know the verdict in the trial of those accused of perpetrating the Madrid train bombings on March 11th 2004. We don't know what is going to happen to the 28 people still accused of participating in the bombings, but the betting is that all but one of those being held in preventative prison can expect to receive a sentence in excess of the full time they have served awaiting trial. Otherwise, the normal procedure would have been to release them. I will be examining the verdict and its consequences in much more detail in the next few days on a blog not too far away from this one. For the moment I just want to look at the potential political impact of the trial.

According to an opinion poll today in Público, one third of Partido Popular (PP) voters still believe that ETA was involved in the massacre, which given the hammering such a belief took during the trial is either a depressing homage to the power of the media to influence opinion, or perhaps an equally distressing revelation of how difficult it is to persuade some people to face reality when they don't want to. How the figure compares to those who believe Elvis is still alive has not been revealed.

The campaign run over the last few years by El Mundo and the COPE radio station, with the PP leadership playing the part of backing chorus, is something that personally I find goes well beyond what could be considered the normal "rough and tumble" of political life. Perhaps they won't receive any punishment for this cynical manipulation of such tragic events, but they certainly deserve to regardless of whether the motives behind it were personal, political or commercial. The conspiracy theorists are already preparing themselves for the possibility of an adverse result. The PP leadership has firmly denied ever having promoted conspiracy theories about the bombings. Fortunately, we have Internet archives to hand to demonstrate just how very untrue this affirmation is. El Mundo is also publishing highly selective comparisons between its coverage and that of El País. Should Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras be convicted of having supplied the explosives used in the bombs, then it is a fairly safe bet that El Mundo will not choose to reprint their extensive interview with him in which they presented him as an innocent choirboy-like victim of a conspiracy.

Despite publicly stating that they will respect the decision of the trial, I expect El Mundo and the PP to continue their efforts to at least confuse the issue. A clear verdict of Islamist responsibility for the bombings carries a political charge. This charge has been made even greater by the mountain of lies constructed to try and cover the original attempt to manipulate the bombings by Aznar’s government. We will hear much about how their efforts have helped to clarify unknown facts about the bombings, together with denials that they ever suggested collusion between the current government and ETA. If the judgement casts even the slightest doubt about any of the key evidence in the case, then expect such doubts to be magnified to the maximum possible extent.

The date of the next election must also take into account the Madrid bombings. Until someone breaks the electoral cycle, and it doesn't look like happening this time, then general elections in Spain will continue to fall close to the anniversary of the train bombings. It will be a factor in the date to be chosen for that election; calling a poll either just before, or shortly after the anniversary will inevitably remind people of the events that took place 4 years before. Very tight security has surrounded the verdict, undoubtedly the judges on the court are as aware as anyone else of the impact of their decisions.

March 11th....My Other Blog Shouldn’t Need To Exist

Today the trial of those accused of perpetrating the Madrid train bombings in 2004 has begun, almost three years after the events that are to be examined. It is going to be a long trial, expected to last several months. Already the conspiracy theorists grouped around El Mundo and the Partido Popular are intensifying their efforts to cast doubt on the judicial investigation; with their determination to try and suggest that a different, unidentified, explosive was used in the train bombs.

I want to write extensively on the trial, I believe it is an important event both because of the gravity of what happened on March 11th 2004, but also because of the ongoing political consequences. However, I do not want to turn this blog into a chronicle of that trial, nor do I want to write exclusively about this issue. So I have decided that from now on everything I write about the Madrid bombings will be posted on a separate blog, where my aim will be to cover the significant issues raised by the trial, and to provide a brief record in English of its progress. So, as they say in all the best cookery programmes, here is one that I prepared earlier: Playing Chess With The Dead.

March 11th....Let The Trial Begin

It is now confirmed that the trial of those accused of committing the Madrid train bombings in 2004 will begin on February 15th, almost 3 years after the attack. The trial could last for 7 or 8 months with approximately 600 witnesses set to appear.

El Mundo and the conspiracy theorists around the Peones Negros were surprisingly happy with the announcement; given the efforts they have made to bring down the whole process. The main reason for their happiness was the decision by the tribunal to permit the appearance of 3 members of ETA as witnesses. There was also some glee over an order to repeat the explosives analysis on the samples recovered from the different sites where either bombs exploded, or where quantities of unexploded explosive were recovered.

In reality, it is not very likely that their dreams are likely to be realised. The 3 ETA members who will appear were all in prison at the time of the bombings, two of them were arrested shortly before the 11th March attack as they transported a van load of explosives to Madrid. The other ETA member has been in prison much longer and is being summoned because his name was found on a piece of paper in possession of an Islamist linked to one of the accused. There is no evidence that connects them in any way with the Madrid bombings.

What has happened is that the defence of one of the accused seems to have decided to adopt the arguments of the conspiracy theorists, and has called for the appearance of the ETA members presumably to try and link ETA to the attack. It seems unlikely that any of the ETA witnesses will stand in the witness box and say “After we made the bombs we gave them to Zapatero to place on the trains”. Nor does it seem likely that they have anything to say that will help the accused, claiming that you think someone else was involved is not much of a defence if you can’t produce any facts to back it up.

This is why the conspiracy theorists should not necessarily be so happy, the mixture of fantasies, insinuations and speculation that they have floated with so much energy has not been designed to withstand the detailed examination it is likely to receive if someone accused of multiple murder adopts it as his defence. Ask a conspiracy theorist to give you some hard facts to back up the allegations they make, and prepare to be disappointed by the answer. Also, the fact that the trial date has been set means that the judges who will preside over the trial have accepted the instruction of the case as being valid.

The explosives issue is also interesting, because the conspiracy theorists have always claimed there was an attempt to cover up the type of explosive that was really used. The fresh tests have to be carried out before the trial begins, and will be carried out in the presence of experts from all sides, with the whole testing process being filmed. It seems an excellent idea, designed to dispel any doubts about the outcome, although you can almost bet that if the tests confirm the analysis carried out in the aftermath of the bombings then the conspiracy theorists will start claiming that the samples have been manipulated.

The trial is an important event, and not just because of the magnitude of the Madrid bombings. The accused are on trial, and so to some extent is a judicial system that has shown itself to be too prone to political manipulation. The thorough examination of the evidence should still take place, despite the predictable attempts of some to convert the trial into a political circus. A guilty verdict for those accused will not mean that the campaign to implicate ETA and the government in the bombings will disappear, but it will almost certainly be the start of the downward slope for those who have so shamelessly exploited the bombings in an attempt to get political revenge for the result of the elections that followed. I will write extensively on the trial, either here or on a nearby blog - I think the significance of the event merits the effort.

March 11th....Two For The Road

A conspiracy theories double whammy before I disappear for my winter break. The promoters of these theories about the Madrid bombings have created fresh headlines in Spain recently, after the quiet period we had enjoyed while the “Boric acid” case bounced from judge to judge. That particular case is still going on, although the judge in charge made a procedural error in her instruction of the case and has had to repeat part of the process.

There are two stories which have recently been floated by El Mundo as part of their continuing and determined attempt to undermine the judicial investigation and pending trial of those accused of the bombings. The first of these “exclusives” took a very dramatic turn which has resulted in several people being imprisoned pending further investigation of their activities.

The story concerned an ongoing investigation into police corruption involving drug trafficking and attempts to traffic explosives. The case first emerged in August this year with the discovery near Madrid of some stolen explosives. The case ended up in the hands of the same investigating magistrate who handled the train bombings investigation, Juan del Olmo. Something about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the explosive didn’t convince the investigating team, and their suspicions focused on a couple of the police officers involved in the case. So they decided to monitor the activities of the officers involved, including tapping their phones.

For reasons which will become clear below, El Mundo heard about the case and decided that given the right interpretation they could situate the story within their conspiracy theories about March 11th. There were two key elements to their story; the stolen explosive was GOMA 2 ECO (the same as that used in the train bombings), and at least one of the police officers under investigation had been stationed in the Vallecas police station where they discovered the device from the trains that did not explode, and which gave the police their first leads. There is not much there, the stolen explosive was not from the same batch or place as that used in the train bombings, and the events under investigation took place over two years later.

That, of course, is not how El Mundo presented the story and you need to switch into conspiracy theorist mode to see their angle. The conspiracy theorists maintain that the unexploded bomb found in Vallecas was planted by the true authors of the bombings, and was therefore never on the trains. They also claim that there is no proof that the explosive found in this bomb, GOMA 2 ECO, was the same as that used in the bombs that did explode. Then to give the story a final twist, they claimed that the latest discovery of stolen dynamite was only 2 minutes by car from the flat in Leganés where several members of the group accused of the bombings committed suicide after being surrounded by the police. That’s a very crafty description because it wrongly suggests that the discovery was made very close to the flat, and the Leganés suicide is also seen as a setup by those who want us to see a grand conspiracy behind it all.

Anyway, as a result of El Mundo printing this story the case under investigation had to be swiftly concluded, because the newspaper had blown the undercover operation. Here came the surprise, because those arrested did not just include those accused of corruption and trafficking; two other police officers were arrested under suspicion of revealing secrets, i.e. feeding information about the case to El Mundo. Judge del Olmo included, in his summary of the accusation, details from phone conversations between these officers and the El Mundo journalist. These conversations revealed how the El Mundo journalist promised the officers feeding him the information that the story would be front page news and would make a lot of noise. Another telling detail from the recorded calls was that El Mundo deliberately delayed publication of the story so that it wouldn't overshadow the anti-government demonstration called by the Association for Victims of Terrorism.

El Mundo have protested about the arrests claiming that "talking to a journalist" was a perfectly innocent activity for the police officers involved. Angel Acebes of the Partido Popular was quick to echo this claim, lightly skipping over the fact that El Mundo had knowingly disrupted an active investigation into police corruption just so that they could publish a story on the Madrid bombings. The boric acid case raised serious questions about whether the newspaper had crossed the line and begun to interfere directly with the judicial process; this case confirms that this has happened. The difference is that this time they have been found out, and in the process have probably lost a key informant inside the police force.

Undeterred, El Mundo returned to the attack a few days ago by claiming that former Socialist minister Rafael Vera gathered information from his contacts in the days immediately after the bombings and fed this to his party colleagues. He is alleged to have done this from an office ceded to him for this purpose by the regional president of Extremadura. Now Vera has form, literally. He has been in prison for his role in the GAL, the group (set up in the 1980's when Felipe Gonzalez was Prime Minister) which set about eliminating Basque activists related to ETA as part of a dirty war.

This is where the personal and the political start to mix, because Pedro J Ramirez (director of El Mundo) and Vera are sworn enemies. Both Vera and the outgoing president of Extremadura's government have denied the claims, and El Mundo have not produced a single fact to prove them, not much change in their behaviour there. Mixing Vera into the story allows the conspiracy theorists to pursue another of their favourite themes, that the Madrid bombings were the product of what would have to be a very bizarre alliance between the GAL and ETA! Conspiracy theorist in chief Luis del Pino was not slow to suggest, naturally with absolutely no evidence, that Vera was really coordinating the actions of the conspirators as they planted their faked evidence pointing to Islamist authorship of the bombings.

So it goes on, the completely shameless abuse of the Madrid bombings and its victims for political, commercial and probably personal motives. If only El Mundo, del Pino, Losantos and their friends could have found a more harmless way of seeking their revenge.

March 11th....The Wrong Kind Of Victims, The Right Kind Of Judge

800,000 euros. According to El País on Saturday, that is the amount of money which the regional government of Madrid, led by Partido Popular hardliner Esperanza Aguirre, has budgeted for assistance to victims of terrorism in the year 2007. Now, here is today's big question. How much of this money will go to the Asociación 11-m, Afectados por Terrorismo; the association which represents the largest number, if not the majority, of affiliated victims of the Madrid train bombings?

The answer to the above question is zero....not a cent....nothing. There is plenty of money for other associations representing terrorist victims (such as the AVT), so what could the difference be? Well, perhaps it is because the Asociación 11-M doesn't use its money to organise political demonstrations against the government, nor does it use it on lawyers fees for the prosecution of rock groups over the content of their lyrics. Perhaps even more importantly, this association does not support the conspiracy theories which attempt to attribute the authorship of the bombings to an alliance between ETA and the Spanish government. Instead, it devotes it's time and resources to representing the victims of the worst terrorist attack in the country's history, an activity which Madrid's government clearly does not believe to be sufficiently worthy of financial support.

The scales are tipping to the right...

Meanwhile, the bizarre case of the "boric acid report" supposedly linking ETA to the Madrid bombings is moving towards an ever more absurd conclusion. The Madrid judge Gemma Gallego has overturned all of the conclusions in the case that were reached by fellow judge Baltasar Garzón, who accused the original authors of the report of committing an act of falsification of official documents. Gallego has cleared the three police officers who prepared the original report, explaining their curious decision to reissue their report 16 months after the original was rejected by saying that they had noticed the original was no longer in its envelope. We are offered no further explanation of their actions and no mention is made of the fact that all copies of the report almost immediately made it into the hands of El Mundo following this decision to reissue.

On top of this, Gallego has prepared the way for almost the entire chain of command of these officers to be prosecuted for the offence of falsification; no fewer than four senior officers are facing the possibility of being charged. All of this because an entirely speculative paragraph relating the discovery of boric acid, a common household substance, in the home of one of those accused for the Madrid bombings to the same substance being found in the safe house in of an ETA commando, was removed from the final version of the report. There is no connection between the two discoveries, there is no suggestion that boric acid was used in either case for anything relating to terrorist activities, and there is no record of boric acid ever having been used in such activities in Spain. The decision to delete the reference to ETA in what is supposed to be a report based on scientific analysis is entirely justified.

Perhaps Gallego has strong legal reasons for the conclusions she has reached, but her handling of the case has been far less transparent or comprehensive than that carried out by Garzón, who explained his reasons in detail. El Mundo is already running with the issue as if those accused have been convicted, should that actually happen the conspiracy theorists can be expected to go into overdrive with their allegations that connections between ETA and the bombings have been suppressed as a result of political pressure from the government. Wait a minute, did I forget to mention something? Oh yes, judge Gallego is a candidate of the conservative judges association for election to the Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial. This body is supposed to play an important part in the running of the judicial system, but it has recently become discredited because the current conservative majority has acted as a partisan bloc adopting decisions with evident political intentions. Given the behaviour of the current Consejo, it is unlikely anyone is nominated for the conservative association without being a loyal follower of the party line; Gallego should feel at home if she is chosen.

I have no idea whether the courts in Madrid have a statue of the Scales of Justice, but if they do I suggest the best thing to do would be to place it in a dark corner and cover it with a sack, because justice has recently become a rare and precious commodity in these parts.

March 11th....Luis del Pino Comes Clean

We have been having a bit of a lull on the conspiracy theories about the Madrid bombings, largely because it appears that El Mundo and their associates are waiting to see what happens with the famous boric acid report before deciding their next move. This delay in new "revelations” means that the promoters of the theories have more time to write about other things, and in the process are revealing a little more about their motives.

For example, Luis del Pino, leading light of the Peones Negros (Black Pawns) sect, dedicated his blog post on Tuesday to a discourse on the Partido Popular (PP) and why he thinks that the supporters of the sect should be backing this party. Del Pino acknowledges that the PP has not done as much as he would like to push the conspiracy theories, and he also takes a swipe at those prominent PP members, such as Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, who do not believe the issue brings the party any benefits. His most interesting point is linked to his rejection of those who presume to hold more centrist views in the PP:

El PP no necesita que ningún electorado de centro le de la victoria: al PP le basta con conservar su electorado movilizado y conseguir, con una oposición feroz, que ese electorado que dio la victoria a Zapatero gracias a las 10 bombas del 11-M vuelva a refugiarse en la abstención. Y la manera de conseguir eso es presentar claramente el desastre en que Zapatero está sumiendo a un país que hace menos de tres años estaba en el pelotón de cabeza de las naciones.

My translation.

The PP does not need any votes from the centre to give it victory; it is sufficient for the PP to maintain its electorate mobilized and to achieve, with ferocious opposition, that the electorate which gave Zapatero victory thanks to the 10 bombs of the 11th March, takes refuge again in abstention. The way to achieve this is to clearly present the disaster into which Zapatero is plunging a country that less than three years ago was in the leading group of nations.

There we have the thesis of the hard right in the PP – do enough to convince voters on the left to stay at home and a radicalised PP can return to power without making any political concessions. There is nothing here about “wanting to know the truth” about the bombings, the political objectives of del Pino’s campaign are clear and the claim that the Peones Negros have no political stance looks even thinner than it ever did. The conspiracy theories about the Madrid bombings form a central part of that aggressive campaign to try and demoralize the pro-government electorate.

March 11th....Even Terrorists Have Cockroaches

The last couple of weeks have demonstrated why it can be useful sometimes to let events develop a bit before writing about them. This is certainly the case with the recent story that emerged from the newspaper El Mundo continuing with its quest to link ETA to the Madrid train bombings.

The exclusive this time was that a police report linking ETA to those accused of perpetrating the attacks had been falsified on government orders to remove the references to ETA. The original report, a description which has to be used with some care in this case, was said to have been written in March 2005. It concerned the discovery of boric acid during the search of a property in Lanzarote where one of those accused for the bombings, Hasan Haski, was living.

The report was produced by three members of the scientific police. Unsure of what to make of the presence of this substance in the property that had been searched, they checked for previous cases where it had been found, and sure enough found that it had also been discovered in an ETA safe house in Madrid in 2001. They also mentioned a case where it was found in the residence of an individual who has subsequently been identified as "anti-system". Our experts speculated in their report on the possibility that there may be some relation between the discovery in ETA's safe house and the events of the 11th March, although no evidence of any kind was produced to establish such a relationship.

The key point of El Mundo's story was that this speculative connection based on the common possession of boric acid was removed from the final report presented to the investigating judge. So El Mundo used this difference to accuse the government and senior police officers of having manipulated an official report, and a legal accusation of falsifying documentation was duly presented. All of this happened on the 21st September.

Naturally it was a cause of great excitement for campaigners on behalf of the conspiracy theories, proof that the government was determined to conceal the role of ETA in the Madrid bombings. The government responded to the accusation by saying that the first report prepared was not the official version, but merely a draft which was revised by a senior officer who decided that the speculative references to a relationship with ETA should be removed.

For anyone who has not followed the link above to the Wikipedia article on boric acid, and who is unsure what it might be, let me help. The main uses of boric acid appear to be as an antiseptic, an insecticide or a flame retardant. In other words, it is a completely legal product and can be bought over the counter at any chemist in Spain. Many commenters on blogs over the last couple of weeks have assured that it is very useful for treating foot odour. More seriously, there are no known cases of it being used in terrorist activities, it appears to have some uses in the fireworks industry but is not recognised for its explosive potential.

The fact that it is so widespread means that there could potentially be hundreds of thousands of homes around Spain where boric acid could be found, quite legally. All of this makes the suggestion in the supposedly suppressed report seem all the more speculative, if you cannot show that the substance is related to terrorist activity then what sense does it make to relate different cases on the basis of it's presence. It's not hard to understand why such speculation was removed from what is supposed to be a scientific report.

The argument raged over the two versions of the report, and then at the end of last week events took an unexpected and quite dramatic turn. The case had fallen onto the desk of judge Baltasar Garzon, who rapidly called in the three police scientists to declare on the accusations made by El Mundo. Then came the bombshell, Garzon issued a judicial summary alleging that it was the three specialists who were potentially guilty of a crime of falsifying official documentation. It turned out that their initial version of the report was indeed rewritten by their senior officer, after they had refused to do it themselves. Then, strangely enough, in July this year (16 months after issuing the initial report), the three specialists decided to reissue it as if it was an official version, even passing a copy to another senior officer who was invited to give it his seal of approval. The amended, but official version, of this report had of course already been in possession of the investigating judge for some time.

What motivated this odd move to reissue a rejected version of the report is still awaiting clarification, although the publication by El Mundo of this version came very shortly after claims by a former senior police officer , and now member of the European Parliament for the Partido Popular, that he knew of a report that linked ETA to the bombings. Whether this report is the one he was referring to is still not clear, if that was the case it would certainly be a report that would never have reached his desk when he was still in the service. Yet again, questions are being raised about the extent to which El Mundo is starting to interfere in the judicial process, rather than simply report on it.

The drama is not finished yet, and in the process the highly politicised nature of the Spanish judicial system is being revealed. Today a court has declared that Garzon is not the competent judge to deal with the case, and that it should go to the local courts of Madrid; which is what the conspiracy theorists were hoping for in the belief (possibly justified) that the judge who takes the case will be sympathetic to them. Judge Garzon has already been included as part of the great conspiracy for his refusal to swallow the manoeuvre, and the supervisory judicial institutions have refused to defend him from attack, split as they are between conservative and non-conservative wings.

The idea that the result of the case simply depends on the judge who takes it is a little worrying, perhaps even more worrying are the accounts of the testimony that our three police specialists presented to Garzon. It is reported that the specialists, one of whom apparently specialises in car paint, admitted having obtained much of the information they offered in the hearing from Internet. Scientific rigour at its best, and this story is far from over. El Mundo, as always so concerned about the highest ethical standards of journalism, referred to the report this morning as the document which relates Hasan Haski to ETA. As always with the conspiracy theorists, once the lie is in circulation it continues to do the rounds.

March 11th....The Song Remains The Same

The combined effort by the Partido Popular (PP), the COPE radio station, and El Mundo newspaper to convert the investigation of the 11th March bombings into the main political issue of the autumn continued yesterday with the PP presenting a motion in Parliament on the subject. The motion was rejected by all other parties with representation, who jointly approved an amendment which was passed easily with only the PP voting against.

Given that the conspiracy theorists have been predicting ground shaking revelations on the subject for the whole summer, the results so far must be a little disappointing even for them. A combination of allegations of ETA involvement by one of the accused, who has changed his testimony several times already, and another person who has entered into a commercial arrangement to publish a book on his allegations, have failed to produce any serious evidence that the attack was not carried out by those accused. The latest El Mundo exclusive is to tell us that evidence has been found that “other people”, not members of the group accused of the bombings, were present at some point in the rented house where it is said the group carried out their preparations for the attack. Most people will look at a story like this, shrug their shoulders and move on to something else. But a good conspiracy theorist knows that this story can only mean one thing – these other people would have to be members of ETA! Any more innocent explanation is discarded, presumably on the grounds of being too boring.

One other result of the decision by ABC and El País to break their silence over El Mundo’s campaign has been to put the spotlight on what many see as the commercial side of the operation. The pressure on ABC that is coming from El Mundo, the COPE and Libertad Digital is seen as an open attempt by these media groups to try and grab the loyalty of at least part of ABC’s natural constituency, the most conservative sections of the Spanish newspaper reading public. Whether this is the prelude to the launching of a new combined right-wing media group is still unclear, but alignment with one side or the other inside the PP currently seems to match with those who are either for or against the promotion of the conspiracy theories.

Related Links:

The Right Divides
The Temperature Starts To Rise
El Mundo Goes Backpacking
El Mundo And Their Experts
Playing With Dynamite
Faulty Connections

March 11th....The Right Divides

"Una derecha que entregue al 11-M el protagonismo de su oposición al PSOE está abocada al fracaso electoral, pero también al fracaso ideológico, porque las convicciones democráticas no son compatibles con actitudes propias de extremistas antisistema."

My translation:

"A right which gives the 11th March the lead role in its opposition to the PSOE is destined for electoral failure, and also for ideological failure; because democratic convictions are not compatible with attitudes more suited to anti-system extremists"

Not my words, it's part of the editorial today from ABC, bastion of Spanish conservatism. Without further comment.

Related Links:

The Temperature Starts To Rise
El Mundo Goes Backpacking

El Mundo And Their Experts

Playing With Dynamite

Faulty Connections

March 11th....The Temperature Starts To Rise

We can expect an interesting day on issues affecting the Madrid train bombings. After weeks of new “revelations” from El Mundo, the other major newspapers in Spain have today finally joined the fray. El País has today printed a substantial article on the conspiracy theories promoted by El Mundo and their friends, and their report has been echoed by ABC, traditionally the most conservative of the major newspapers here.

Last week El Mundo printed an interview with José Emilio Suárez Trashorras, the man accused of stealing and selling the stolen explosive that was used in the bombings. Whilst respecting the presumption of innocence, it has to be said that the paper went completely overboard in their attempts to portray Trashorras as an innocent choirboy victim of the evil machinations behind the bombings. Trashorras, in turn, delivered his side of the bargain by duly pointing the finger at a combination of ETA and members of the security forces, although without producing any concrete evidence of their involvement. El Mundo has followed up this week with the serialisation of a book about another person involved with those accused of the explosives theft, the book has been written by Fernando Múgica who works for, wait for it…..El Mundo.

Well today El País has responded with the transcript of a conversation between Trashorras and his parents, recorded in prison. In the report, Trashorras is quoted as saying “While the newspaper El Mundo pays, if I am outside, I will tell them the story of the Spanish Civil War”. Clearly the transcript has been leaked to the paper as part of an attempt to strike back at El Mundo. One effect of this is to put the spotlight on the question of whether El Mundo’s involvement in the case has reached the stage where they are making financial deals with people involved in the bombings. The publication of the book certainly suggests that to be the case, but if it turns out that Trashorras has received any money from them then that would be much more serious.

All of this on the day that the Partido Popular are going to raise El Mundo’s conspiracy accusations in Parliament. The outside temperature might be falling, but it doesn’t feel cold.

Related Links:

El Mundo Goes Backpacking

El Mundo And Their Experts
Playing With Dynamite
Faulty Connections

March 11th....El Mundo Goes Backpacking

There was a certain amount of expectation as we entered September – what story would the newspaper El Mundo choose to lead the charge once again on the issue of the Madrid train bombings in 2004, and the allegation that there is a hidden conspiracy behind the attack? Expectation was highest amongst the Peones Negros (Black Pawns), the sect-like movement that has been created to propagate this absurd campaign. The high priest of this sect is Luis Del Pino, who has been at the forefront of promoting conspiracy theories about the bombings and who formulated the phrase “the socialisation of doubt” to summarise the objectives of the campaign. The Peones Negros had been predicting for weeks that September was going to be a hot month – we are not talking here about weather forecasts – and that El Mundo could be about to deliver a fatal blow to the case against those accused.


So last Friday, the 1st September, duly arrived and there was a front page story in El Mundo about the “Vallecas bag”, the rucksack containing an unexploded bomb which was recovered from one of the trains. This bag is a key piece of evidence in the case being presented for trial, after all it contained the telephones (used as timers in the bombs) that led to the first arrests, and of course was packed with the Goma-2 ECO explosive which the accused are alleged to have used in all the bombs that did explode. It is not the only key piece of evidence but has been the focus of all attempts by the conspiracy theorists to suggest that the bombings were not really carried out by Islamist terrorists. It is called the “Vallecas bag” after the police station in this area of Madrid where it was eventually discovered the night after the bombings. The bag had been removed from the trains along with all other personal effects that were recovered in the aftermath of the explosions.

Friday’s story was based around a police report on an unidentified DNA profile that had been detected on the Vallecas bag. Clearly, the lack of identification of the profile means that the police are unable to say how this person came into contact with the bag. In a speculative attempt to offer a solution the report suggested that the bag “could” have been “manipulated” before it was discovered to be a bomb, and having been transported with other personal effects recovered from the trains to the IFEMA exhibition hall which was being used as an emergency centre following the bombings. The quoted words are the most important thing here, the conspiracy theorists have been keen to show that the bag was not under constant vigilance, and of course what they really try to suggest is that it was planted by persons unknown involved in the conspiracy. The use of the word “manipulated” in the report can of course just be a reference to someone having touched or lifted the bag, but manipulation can also have a sufficiently sinister interpretation to make any conspiracy theorist get excited. As with other El Mundo stories on the subject (see the links at the end), the reader is invited to make connections that are not actually supported by any evidence:

- no evidence of any kind is provided to show that anyone at all touched this bag in IFEMA.
- no evidence is provided that the chain of custody of the bag was ever breached.
- not even the tiniest scrap of evidence exists to show that the Vallecas bag is a planted fake.



The Peones Negros, however, are driven by faith rather than reason. They got the message that El Mundo wanted to transmit and soon the message was out on Internet that the Vallecas bag had been manipulated and was therefore no longer valid as evidence in the case. For Del Pino and his followers it is always the other side that has to prove things, they see no obligation to provide evidence for anything that they allege. In true sect fashion, they have discussions on their blogs about how to spread the word, and recruit new followers. The peones are told how to introduce the topic into casual conversations at work or when with friends. They are now starting to speculate on these blogs with ill-concealed relish about the political instability that could potentially follow a collapse of the trial, and how it will be revealed that the alliance between ETA and the governing Socialist Party was behind the bombings. El Mundo itself has now more or less openly declared that the bombings were a coup d’etat organised to achieve a change of government. They are now very close to the line where they will have to put forward names for this vast conspiracy that is being alleged, the stakes are getting ever higher.

This is not a situation where a newspaper reveals the results of an investigation as they emerge; rather it is a calculated drip-feed of stories aiming to bring down the case against those accused, and time is running out. Anyone with a little bit of knowledge about the bombings and the subsequent investigation can find flaws with these stories on a single reading, the deliberate mixing of fact and speculation together with the open invitation to draw conclusions not supported by any of the evidence provided in the article means that the stories do not stand up. It is extraordinary that the second largest newspaper in the country should lend itself to what is nothing more than a campaign for political revenge – in the process trampling the memory of all those who died in the most serious terrorist attack that Spain has ever known. The lack of any sort of democratic ethic on the right-wing of Spanish politics has probably not been so evident since the death of Franco over 30 years ago. The links listed below deal with just some of the other stories that El Mundo has printed in its attempts to promote the conspiracy theories about the bombings. For any student of journalism who seeks a demonstration of the difference between genuine, honest investigative reporting, and the politically motivated manipulation of data, El Mundo has provided the most perfect example imaginable – of the latter.

Related Links:

El Mundo And Their Experts
Playing With Dynamite
Faulty Connections

March 11th....El Mundo And Their "Experts"

Even though I'm away from home at the moment I couldn't resist an entry about this one - already a few days old. The newspaper El Mundo presented its readers last Sunday morning with the opinions of some important experts on the question of whether it was possible to recover traces of explosives from the trains that were hit in the Madrid bombings. Naturally the experts were of the opinion that this should have been perfectly possible - thus supporting El Mundo's theme that we have not been told the truth about the explosive used in the bombings.

Unfortunately for their story it seems that El Mundo neglected to inform their readership of a few pertinent details about these "experts". One of them, Teresa De Lara, has been a professional politician since 1987 and is currently a member of parliament for, surprise surprise, the Partido Popular. She is a chemistry graduate, but unless she has some very unusual hobbies it is unlikely that she has participated in anything resembling explosives analysis in the last 20 years; given that she worked for Hertz before beginning her political career, we should probably extend that 20 year minimum.

Another "expert", Enrique de la Morena, is presented as an independent consultant; it appears that one of Enrique's consultancy jobs is to present the "Whats wrong with me doctor?" section on La Mañana, the programme on the COPE radio station presented by the rabidly right wing Federico Jiménez Losantos.

For five bonus points, what does El Mundo's choice of "experts" tell us about the solvency of their story?

Thanks to escolar.net for the information.

March 11th….Playing With Dynamite

I wasn’t really planning to return to this topic so soon, but it seems that this week the conspiracy theorists have been busy again. Perhaps also being labelled as a “supporter of ETA” and member of the “communist herd” has inspired me to revisit the issue. In this week’s episode we have El Mundo leading the charge yet again with another of its stories seeking to show that there has been a cover-up over March 11th. This time the accusation is that the explosives used in the train bombs were not the same as those stolen from a mine in Asturias and sold to those accused of carrying out the bombings.

This story takes us back to April 2004 when a senior officer from the bomb disposal squad made a declaration before the parliamentary commission of enquiry into the bombings. This officer declared that his team found traces of nitroglycerine in several of the train coaches where the bombs exploded, and he stated that this is a component of all kinds of dynamite. Well, it turns out that it is probably not a component of Goma-2 Eco, the explosive that was found in the unexploded bomb recovered from one of the trains. I say probably because it depends what source you read on the topic, and because my knowledge of explosive substances is (thankfully) more or less confined to what I have had to read for the purposes of writing this piece.

This statement made to the commission has led El Mundo to make its confident declaration that the explosives in the train bombs had to be different. Of course we already know where this is leading; it means that somebody else would have to be involved in committing the attack. We also know that El Mundo and their associated conspiracy theorists would really like us to believe that this “somebody” was ETA. In case anyone is having difficulty reaching that conclusion El Mundo is helpfully there to point out that Titadine, an explosive favoured by ETA, does contain nitroglycerine. One loyal follower of the cause got the hint and moved quickly to change the Wikipedia entry on Titadine to suggest that this was the explosive used in the bombings, an assertion not supported by even the tiniest scrap of evidence. The principle that the presence of one thing is not proof of the absence of another is clearly something that takes time for these people to learn.

In the judicial summary that has been prepared for the forthcoming trial, it seems there is no mention of nitroglycerine traces being found on the trains, and the Interior Ministry has released a statement saying that the declaration made by the bomb disposal officer to the commission was mistaken. The really curious thing about the El Mundo story is that there is nothing new in it; it is all based on a public declaration made more than two years ago. However, hours after the publication of the story the Partido Popular (PP) announced a barrage of parliamentary questions and claimed that failure to clarify the issue of the explosives would mean that the whole case would collapse. This, of course, is exactly what they would like to happen and they are fast running out of time because the case is now set for trial and expected to start sometime early in 2007. You might think that the trial is of course the correct place for the evidence to be tested, but for the PP and their supporters this carries the tremendous risk that a successful prosecution of Islamist terrorists means a permanent condemnation of their handling of the bombings and its immediate aftermath.

This time at least I was spared having to listen to La Mañana to hear what Federico Jiménez Losantos and Pedro J Ramirez had to say on the subject – but I am sure the Rush Limbaugh of Spanish radio had plenty to say on yet another amazing “revelation”. Me, I’m off to the beach again.

March 11th....Faulty Connections

Yesterday I had a new, and not particularly pleasant, experience – for research purposes I had to listen to part of the radio show “La Mañana”, which is presented by Federico Jiménez Losantos. Federico’s show, which is broadcast on the COPE (owned by the Catholic Church), is required listening for the right wing in Spain these days. More neo-Goebbels than neo-con in his style, with insistent repetition of the same anti-government themes, the programme acts as a sort of comfort blanket for those who have found no solace since the change of government in 2004. Everything to do with the government is bad; everything that was done by the adored Jose Maria Aznar was good – even the “soft” right as represented by Madrid’s mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon has come under fire.

When it comes to the 11th March 2004 bombings in Madrid, Federico makes it absolutely clear where he stands; what he describes as the “official version” is nothing more than a pack of lies designed to cover up the role of those who really carried out the bombings – a list which of course includes ETA. I listened to some of Tuesday’s programme, and Federico was very excited because his good friend Pedro J Ramirez, director of the newspaper El Mundo, had something important to tell us about the 11th March. Pedro J informed us that his newspaper had uncovered more crucial evidence of ETA’s involvement in the attacks; a search of the home of one of the accused had produced a timer, of type “ST”, which could be used to trigger the detonation of a bomb. This timer, Pedro J went on to tell listeners, is “designed” by ETA – so the discovery could only mean one thing, that there were direct contacts between ETA and those accused of carrying out the bombings and that these contacts included the supply of materials.

So there it is, a smoking gun which points to ETA involvement in planning the attacks - Federico was convinced by this overwhelming evidence and before long various blogs were reporting on the important discovery. However, looking at the article published on the El Mundo website things start to become less clear. The article makes no reference to ETA having designed the timer, all it says is that it is of a type that has been used by ETA, and that some were found when an ETA commando was detained in Madrid in 2002. The article also makes reference to a confirmation by the government in reply to a parliamentary question, that “ST” is just one of several types of timer used, but not made, by ETA. Checking the actual reply on the Parliament web page it appears that the timer in question is produced industrially – which may help to explain the model description (ST 17 MEC 24 H INT/160).

So now we have the real story, a timer was found that is of the same type as other timers that have, on occasions, been used by ETA. The timer in question was not used in the March 11th bombings, the bombs on that day were triggered using mobile phone alarms. This doesn’t prove any connection between March 11th and ETA, despite the attempts in the article to imply it – by not revealing the origin of the timer in question. It doesn’t even show that the timer was acquired with intent to use it in a bomb. This of course won’t do for Federico and Pedro J, who need to show that connection to ETA – so the original story gets embellished, broadcast, circulated on Internet: and the conspiracy theorists have another myth to add to their collection. If the facts don’t fit, then change them until they do.

It’s been a painful experience, South of Watford is off to the beach for the weekend to recover.

Peace Is Not Breaking Out

As predicted, not exclusively, on this blog, the Partido Popular (PP) has now broken any possible consensus with the government over the next steps following the ceasefire by ETA. The reason given for the break was the announcement that the Basque section of the Spanish Socialist Party was going to begin contacts with the political wing of ETA, Batasuna. In reality it was always going to be a question of when, rather than if, the break would come. Ever since the ceasefire was announced the PP has been steadily chipping away at public confidence in the validity of the process, the difference is that now they have opted for frontal confrontation on the issue.

The break with the government also follows a disappointing performance by PP leader Mariano Rajoy in the “State of the Nation” debate last week, in the latest opinion poll only 14% of those interviewed think he won the debate. The peace process was not debated, more or less by agreement between both major parties, but then at the very last minute the PP put forward a motion which they knew would be rejected, because its approval would have made any serious negotiation with ETA or Batasuna impossible. The decision is also timed to coincide this weekend with a demonstration called by the Asociación de Victimas de Terrorismo (AVT), a terrorist victims organisation whose leadership works very closely together with the PP. They are marching against any negotiations of any kind with ETA, and combine this with a demand to be ‘told the truth’ over the train bombings on March 11th 2004. Despite the name, the AVT is far from being the only grouping to work with victims of terrorism, nor it does it make even the slightest effort to represent the diversity of opinions that exist amongst the victims.

The idea that the truth has not been told over March 11th is the product of a two year campaign by the right wing in Spain to try and justify the actions of the then governing PP in the three days between the bombings and the elections that removed them from office. The PP attempted to focus all attention on ETA as being responsible, even when the evidence of Islamist involvement was becoming overwhelming. Since losing power they have snatched at even the tiniest hint of an ETA connection to try and suggest that somehow they must have been involved, and an elaborate conspiracy theory has been constructed around this objective. It is now relatively easy to find web pages where it is seriously suggested that the bombings were the result of pro-Socialist police officers working in collaboration with ETA and Islamist terrorists, with some also involving the French or the Moroccan secret services in the mixture of conspirators. All of these combining, of course, to overthrow the government of Jose Maria Aznar. There is no serious evidence for any of these theories; usually they rely solely on the absence of evidence that disproves them – as all good conspiracy theories should. The judicial investigation has concluded, and none of these imaginative theories of ETA involvement have been taken on board by the investigating judge; nevertheless the campaign continues because it is enough for those who believe in it simply to sow doubt and absolve “their” government.

Fortunately, there are people who are prepared to defend the memory of those who died in what was Spain’s deadliest terrorist attack, and who are prepared to devote time to refuting the conspiracy theorists. I have included links on this site to two blogs which take on this task, “Desiertos Lejanos” and “3 Días en Marzo”. Both are in Spanish although the latter has a web translation function. The name “Desiertos Lejanos” (faraway deserts) comes from a notorious Jose Maria Aznar quote, that the perpetrators of the train attacks were not going to be found in “faraway deserts or remote mountains” – attempting to suggest that they came from close to Bilbao. There is an awful lot more that could be written about this, to be continued.....