173 People Killed in Madrid Explosions
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| Thu, 03-11-2004 - 9:17am |
Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said there were indications the armed Basque separatist group ETA was to blame. "Right now we have to wait until we have an official statement. We don't have this official statement, so we just can say there are some hints and indications that point toward ETA," Palacio told the BBC. Earlier, other politicians and media widely blamed ETA.
A top Basque politician denied the separatists responsibility and blamed "Arab resistance." Many al-Qaida linked terrorists were captured in, or believed to have operated out of, Spain. Arnold Otegi, leader of Batasuna, an outlawed Basque party linked to the armed separatist group, denied it was behind the blasts and suggested "Arab resistance" elements were responsible, suggesting al-Qaida.
Otegi told Radio Popular in San Sebastian that ETA always phones in warnings before it attacks. The interior minister said there was no warning before Thursday's attack. "The modus operandi, the high number of victims and the way it was carried out make me think, and I have a hypothesis in mind, that yes it may have been an operative cell from the Arab resistance," Otegi said. Otegi noted that Spain's government backed the Iraq war.
More at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&e=1&u=/ap/20040311/ap_on_re_eu/spain_explosion

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Same sentiments here nwtreehugger... each word I type gets deleted in the same breath.....really had and have to force myself to post my thoughts about this so deeply cowardice deed...
Hope your friend has heard from her friends by now !?
Jesmccoy
Hope your friend has heard from her friends by now !?
Yes, they didn't go into Madrid that day...so they are safe.
Jesmccoy, just this morning I heard on the radio that someone calculated that 911 days have passed between 9/11/01 and 3/11/04...I don't have time to check it.
Yes that's correct. 365 X 2 = 730
No Bush.
Leaders gather for Madrid funeral.
>" World leaders, including 14 prime ministers, are in Madrid for a state funeral for the victims of the March 11 terrorist bombings.
Many of the leaders are also meeting with incoming Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero, who says he intends to pull Spain's troops from Iraq if the U.N. does not take a central role.
Spain's royal family, headed by King Juan Carlos, will lead mourners at Wednesday's service, which begins with midday Mass at Almudena Cathedral. "<
>" "To kill your own kind, to kill a brother, is to attack God himself," Rouco Varela said in a memorial service last week at Almudena Cathedral, a 19th-century granite structure next to the Royal Palace in Madrid's old quarter.
It will be the first state funeral for people outside the royal family in the history of Spain's new democracy, restored after former dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975.
In attendance will be British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who arrived in the Spanish capital Tuesday, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Blair and Zapatero met for 55 minutes ahead of the funeral. "<
Quotes from..........
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/24/spain.funeral/index.html
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