Thursday, March 11, 2004
A Theory
One last thought on the perpetrator of the bombings, while an investigation of them yields conflicting clues. All this speculation is probably useless until more evidence is released, but I'm trying to make sense of this somehow.
Sectors of the Spanish government are convinced it was ETA. Maybe this is from habit. Or maybe it's because they see some telltale signs - the type of dynamite was apparently the same as prior ETA actions and ETA was known to be targeting Madrid rails.
If ETA wanted to stage a major attack that would damage the government and if they didn't want their fingerprints on it, it would not be a hard thing to mask it as an Al Qaeda attack. Plant a van with Arabic-language materials in it? No problemo. Heck, it would be easy to hire a North African immigrant to drive it. Mimic the Al Qaeda style of large simultaneous explosions? Again, no problem. It's only a style and it sure isn't copyrighted. If you have adequate resources to do this, it's only a change of method. Send an anonymous e-mail claiming responsibility as an Islamist group? Easy as Hotmail.
The argument has been made that ETA would be hesitant to kill so many working class people. Yes, but that only works if ETA is blamed for it. Attacking an atypical target is yet another way to mask it.
To do this, ETA would have needed significant resources, and they have been under pressure for a while. But maybe they were capable of it logistically. They certainly were capable of it ideologically. Until more information is on the table, they should remain a strong suspect.
One last thought on the perpetrator of the bombings, while an investigation of them yields conflicting clues. All this speculation is probably useless until more evidence is released, but I'm trying to make sense of this somehow.
Sectors of the Spanish government are convinced it was ETA. Maybe this is from habit. Or maybe it's because they see some telltale signs - the type of dynamite was apparently the same as prior ETA actions and ETA was known to be targeting Madrid rails.
If ETA wanted to stage a major attack that would damage the government and if they didn't want their fingerprints on it, it would not be a hard thing to mask it as an Al Qaeda attack. Plant a van with Arabic-language materials in it? No problemo. Heck, it would be easy to hire a North African immigrant to drive it. Mimic the Al Qaeda style of large simultaneous explosions? Again, no problem. It's only a style and it sure isn't copyrighted. If you have adequate resources to do this, it's only a change of method. Send an anonymous e-mail claiming responsibility as an Islamist group? Easy as Hotmail.
The argument has been made that ETA would be hesitant to kill so many working class people. Yes, but that only works if ETA is blamed for it. Attacking an atypical target is yet another way to mask it.
To do this, ETA would have needed significant resources, and they have been under pressure for a while. But maybe they were capable of it logistically. They certainly were capable of it ideologically. Until more information is on the table, they should remain a strong suspect.
