The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known as 3/11) trial shows that the Spanish government headed then by conservative José María Aznar neither lied nor concealed information from the public. On the contrary, what it does show is a political move of intoxication and propaganda by Spanish Socialists and their mass media partners.

 

The trial of the 3/11 attacks held in recent weeks has shed light on the difficult days that immediately followed the bombings, and also on the conduct of the Aznar Administration, the Spanish Socialists and their media outlets. Although the trial is not yet over, the proceedings have disclosed some of the events that occurred between March 11 and 14. It has also provided the Spanish public with information about some of the events that happened between those days.

 

The details presented during the trial resolve many of the doubts about those days, and also point to a disturbing conclusion: It was not the Aznar Administration that misled the public in those days. Instead, media groups and politicians aligned with the Spanish Left fabricated information and fomented lies in an effort to harass the conservative Administration and to heckle it into losing the March 14 elections.

 

That is how it happened, and the massive material superiority of the Left, in political and media terms, turned a false truth into an official truth that was echoed by numerous and prestigious media outlets worldwide. Let’s see how the events unfolded.

 

 

In July 2000, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was elected as Secretary General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE in Spanish). At that time, the Popular Party (PP) of José María Aznar had already been in power for four years (since 1996), after winning the elections to Felipe González, the former PSOE candidate whose government had been involved in serious cases of corruption – and even in state crimes. Aznar won the elections, with a qualified minority at first (1996), and four years later with an outright majority (2004).

 

Rodríguez Zapatero, immediately after being elected to his new role as leader of the PSOE, insisted on the need to open social democracy to the rest of Spain’s leftist groups (El Mundo, July 8, 2001). That is to say, open it to a great coalition of the Left, including secessionists (ERC) and Spanish Communists (IU). Today, media investigations show that Rodríguez Zapatero also entered into negotiations with the extreme-left terrorist group ETA.

 

Whereas José Maria Aznar’s domestic counter-terrorism policy was premised on a determined and full-fledged showdown, the PSOE Administration tried to defeat the terrorists by using state crime – carried out by the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación a.k.a GAL that murdered scores of people – and later on they tried to achieve it through negotiation.

 

Between 1996 and 2004, regarding foreign policy, Aznar decided to fulfill all commitments with Europe and the United States and pursued the defense of Spain’s interests above all. In return, that would lead to an excellent bilateral relationship with the United States, strengthened after 9/11.

 

 

It is 2001. Al-Qaeda attacks Washington and New York; US President George W. Bush declares the war on terror. The Aznar Administration shows full solidarity with the United States and support for the measures taken by Bush. He does it for at least two reasons. First, the fact that Spain knows all too well that the only way to defeat terrorism is with firm resolve. Second, the fact that the Aznar Administration believes it is imperative to fulfill all commitments with its allies.  Consequently, Spain supports the United States in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

By contrast, the Spanish Left interprets 9/11 in a solidly leftist way; Jihadism is the Arab world’s answer to American arrogance during past decades. On September 12, while the fires were devastating New York and no one knew about the thousands of victims, the most important Spanish leftist newspaper, El País, had the following headline: “The world waiting in suspense for America’s response.” The Spanish Left was not interested in the death of thousands of Americans in the World Trade Center. The leftists were worried about what America would do in the aftermath…. 

 

Sometime later, the Iraq war awakes a European Left baffled after the fall of the Berlin Wall; the image of quartering American Marines getting ready to invade Iraq revives the old anti-American protests seen back in the 60’s and 80’s. In Spain, the Socialists do not hesitate; they are in the front row leading all the protests against American foreign policy. Rodríguez Zapatero takes to the streets together with the Communists against Aznar and Bush. During 2003, they are supported by filmmakers, actors and singers. Among them, it is worth highlighting the role played by Pedro Almodóvar in Spain participating in the anti-American protests, but who has no qualms about going to Hollywood to pick up Academy Awards.

 

For the Left, the Iraq war is immoral, because every war – except the anti-capitalist revolutionary war – is immoral. From the beginning, the Socialist Party denounces it as a war for oil, due to Bush’s religious follies, because of the Jewish lobby or thanks to neocon lies. In the Socialist protest marches against the war, they call Bush, Aznar and Blair “murderers”. Even today they are trying to take them to court by accusing them of war crimes.

 

Besides, they think the war is also illegal, that it goes against UN resolutions. When in government, PSOE approved taking part in operations in the former Yugoslavia that were not approved by the UN Security Council, but that fact does not preclude the Socialists to organize demonstrations in 2003 demanding that Bush and Aznar be accused of “war crimes.”

 

The phrase “illegal, immoral and unlawful” is repeated out in the streets and by the overwhelmingly leftist mass media. But the most serious incident takes place in October 2003, when in front of dozens of journalists, Rodríguez Zapatero ostensibly refuses to stand up when the Stars and Stripes passed his way in a parade. The American troops had been invited to participate in the Armed Forces Parade; from the dignitaries stand, Rodríguez Zapatero shows his contempt for America’s reaction to Islamic terrorism behaving in that fashion.

 

This man that is Spain’s current president thinks that Aznar’s policy amounts to blind obedience to the United States. That is what he says in a debate in March 2003, when Rodríguez Zapatero accuses the European countries to kneel down before the government of the United States; “Mr. Aznar, neither you nor anybody has the right to engage us in an adventure commanded by the Right’s most radical and enlightened sectors of the United States.” Moreover, in the same debate, he accuses the United States and President Aznar of lying and carrying out undemocratic and immoral acts; “To justify the invasion and the war, they bring up a new argument every day, one more embarrassing than the one before for any democrat; an argument to justify an attack against international law, the UN Charter, and common sense; against moral reason and democratic values and principles.”

 

The Spanish Left thinks Spain must turn its back on the United States; that the Iraq war is foreign to Spain, and that it is motivated by evil and selfish interests.  For the Socialists, Aznar “engages” Spain in the war just to please the United States and President Bush. The leftist political parties (PSOE and IU) and the leftist media (El País) blamed José María Aznar for placing Spain in the terrorists’ crosshairs.

 

 

We are now in 2003. At the same time that PSOE organizes anti-American demonstrations, Rodríguez Zapatero’s Socialists, together with Communist and revolutionary parties ERC and IU, sign the Tinell Pact (December 2003) by which all signatories commit themselves not to reach any agreement with the Popular Party anywhere in Spain. The signatories consider that all the leftist Spanish political forces must isolate the PP everywhere possible. Since then, that is the way it has turned out to be. 

 

In January 2004, ERC’s leader José Luis Carod Rovira meets with the terrorist organization ETA in Perpignan (France). In the meeting, they agree that ETA will not attack in Catalonia, region where ERC is part of a coalition government since 2003 together with Rodríguez Zapatero’s PSOE. On February 18, 2004, ETA informs that it will not murder any more in Catalonia as a gesture of solidarity with the ERC separatists in power, and because Catalonia finally has  a leftist government. 

 

It is now March 2004, we are in the middle of the election campaign. The Left has it very clear about terrorism. On one hand, it considers that Spain is taking part in an illegal, immoral and unlawful war, “kneeling down” before America. It denounces in the streets that Aznar’s foreign policy puts Spain’s security in danger, because Spain does not have common interests with America and the Spanish support to what they call “Bush’s war” is unjustified.

 

And on the other hand, at the same time it denounces the war against Saddam Hussein, the Left is reaching agreements and negotiations with a much weakened ETA that is in terrible shape due to the Aznar Administration’s relentless pursuit since 1996. In that moment, all we know is the existence of a pact between Rodríguez Zapatero’s ally, ERC, and the ETA terrorists. But today we know that, by that same time, Rodríguez Zapatero’s PSOE had already been dealing for years with the terrorists without the knowledge of the government or the Spanish public. This is something we discovered in March 2006, when ETA declared a ceasefire to negotiate openly with the Zapatero Administration.

 

It is now March 11, 2004. It is the moment when the Left already considers Aznar a war criminal while, at the same time, they are dealing with ETA behind everyone’s back. Those two characteristics, the rejection to the Iraq war and the United States, as well as the support to negotiate with the ETA terrorists, help explain the posture held by Rodríguez Zapatero, the Socialists and the liberal media between March 11 and 14, 2004, and ever since those days until the present time.

 

 

 

The Madrid bombings take place in the morning of March 11, 2004; the biggest attack in the history of Europe. Every day, approximately one million people use these public services to go to work or study. The attacks take place in the most popular line, el Corredor del Henares that connects Guadalajara with Madrid. 192 human beings, of all races and religions on their way to the capital of Spain from all the metropolitan area, die that morning at around 7.30 a.m. The bombs explode in four different trains and in four different locations. For that reason, the news comes in slowly. At the beginning, the talk is that there was an explosion without casualties; but as the morning goes by, it becomes known that several bombs have exploded; at noon we already know that the casualties are around two hundred.

 

At the very beginning, all leads point to the ultra-leftist terrorist organization ETA. In 1979, ETA had attempted an attack against two stations, Chamartín and Atocha, killing six people. On December 24, 2003, ETA had tried to explode a bomb in a train on its way to Madrid, something that the Police successfully stopped in the last minute. The previous year, ETA had also tried to spread terror in Baqueira Beret ski resort, following the method of leaving several bombs put in backpacks and placed in strategic locations to inflict the biggest number of victims possible. In the first hours of that morning, all the politicians and journalists have it clear: It is ETA’s doing.

 

In the morning, all political parties and mass media say that ETA is the culprit of the Atocha crimes. The main radio networks (COPE on the right and Cadena SER on the left), and the most prominent Spanish politicians condemn the crime. Rodríguez Zapatero is one of the first politicians pointing to the Basque terrorist group. In those first hours, the unity between PSOE and PP is complete; here and there, everyone thinks it is ETA. The election campaign is suspended, and the Minister of Interior makes a statement at noon, announcing that all suspicions point to ETA. A little later, President José María Aznar makes his own statement. True to his policy, he calls for fighting against terrorism to the very end.

 

The Left and PSOE panic at the thought of the people’s reaction on Sunday when voting; because of their long negotiations with ETA, they fear the worst outcome; they ask the voters not to change their minds when voting so that the terrorists do not influence democracy…elegant way to try avoiding their own responsibility.

 

Meanwhile, the government has two priorities: taking care of the victims, and making progress with the investigation. At 8.30 p.m., Ángel Acebes, Spanish Minister of Interior, informs that a van containing detonators, explosives and a tape with Koranic verses was found parked by one train station where the terrorists allegedly boarded a train. That finding opens a new line of investigation; it could be Islamists, but it could also be a false lead. From this moment on, when Acebes informs in real time that they have started an Islamic investigation lead, things begin to change in the Left. That is the moment when the Left stops supporting the government.

 

The events cascade before us in no time; the radio network of the Spanish Left, Cadena SER, broadcasts an exclusive that same night; “Three anti-terrorist sources have confirmed to Cadena SER that in the first wagon that exploded when arriving to Atocha, there was a suicide bomber. The Ministry of Interior does not confirm it.” They even completed the information like this: “Spanish coroners have requested the Israeli embassy to help them with the identification of suicide bombers.” They give details about the suicide bomber: He wore several layers of underwear, had his body hair and head shaved. The news spreads very quickly among media outlets and PSOE divulges this information; that night, Rodríguez Zapatero personally phones around to inform the media about suicide bombers in the trains. 

 

That night, the Spanish Left begins to accuse Aznar to hide the information about suicide bombers in the trains. In the meantime, the government fully concentrated in the investigation, has a late reaction. The Left begins to explain that the attack could be a way to retaliate against Aznar for his support to the Iraq war, and that the government is concealing this information because of Sunday’s elections. PSOE’s partner, Communist Gaspar Llamazares, demands to know the truth; “But tomorrow, before we go to vote.” A change of attitude takes place in the Left. It is not a matter of changing the vote because of the terrorists, but to do it depending on who the culprit was.

 

The government denies it, and wonders where such news comes from. That night, all the investigations demonstrate that the information about the suicide bomber is false. In the 3/11 Parliamentary Commission in May 2004, the Chief Coroner answered categorically: “There was nothing, from the medical point of view, to make us think, then or now, that there ever was a suicide bomber. Nobody in the investigation thought something like that… Why were we, the coroners of Madrid, to think there was a suicide bomber? Why should I have thought that...? I do not understand.”

 

They finish all the autopsies at 01.15 a.m. on March 12. Why are the main leftist media group and Rodríguez Zapatero announcing the existence of suicide bombers since the day before? Without any report, without autopsies, the Left spreads that news time and time again, denouncing that the government is concealing evidence. On the 11^th, at night, the government states that there are two main leads, ETA and al-Qaeda, but that we all must wait. By that time, he thinks that the news about the suicide bomber is just a mistake. But it is more than that; it was the first move of a propaganda campaign that will go on during three more days.

 

 

According to what was declared in the trial, on March 12 at 01.15 a.m., the coroners had finished the autopsies and they did not find suicide bombers. Nevertheless, during the morning of March 12, the Left continues repeating the news officially known to be false: “The sources consulted by Cadena SER confirm that a person was wearing three layers of underwear, and was totally shaved – a very commonplace practice of Islamic terrorist commandos before blowing themselves up.” The official investigation denies it, but PSOE insists on the information broadcast by Cadena SER and keeps on during all morning without making any reference to the real results of the autopsies.

 

Aznar addresses the nation at 11.30 a.m. saying that ETA is the main suspect, although he states that they have opened another line of investigation. The police reports he receives continue pointing to the Basque terrorists, and that they are investigating the findings of a non-exploded bomb and a van parked in the surrounding area of a train station. Cadena SER informs at midday that the backpack found in the trains on March 11 points to the Islamic lead because of a cellular phone found inside it. The government starts feeling the pressure to admit that it is already working on the Islamic lead. 

 

Secondly, the Left denounces that some fingerprints belonging to Islamic terrorists have been found in the van, plus a tape in Arabic; information that the government is trying to hide: “It does not make any sense that we do not have the fingerprints in the van yet,” they say in the evening. It is Friday, only two days before Election Day, and the government is being accused of lying and hiding information shortly before the beginning of a popular protest march against the bombings, a march requested by Aznar, and to be held in the afternoon of March 12. Now, to the suicide bomber news, the Left adds the backpack bomb and the fingerprints found in the van. At 6.15 p.m., the Minister of Interior informs the media that the non-exploded bomb will allow them to make progress in the investigation. They do not believe him.

 

The demonstration against terrorism starts at 8 p.m. and millions of people walk in silence. However, the leftist media talks about an authentic revolution saying that the most repeated message was “Who did it?” At that time, the Left denounces that the government is concealing data about the backpack and the van found next to the station. Cadena SER informs about people screaming “Murderers, murderers!” against the government, and it also states that they are screaming “This happened because we have a fascist government!” The network states that the government is concealing police information. In Barcelona, two well-known members of PP had to run for their lives while people shouted “Your war, our casualties”, and “No more blood for oil.”

 

What is going on? The Left is quickly turning popular indignation against the government. Is the government concealing evidence on the 12^th as Rodríguez Zapatero keeps on saying? The trial shows irrefutable information. According to the investigation, the non-exploded backpack is found in the early hours of March 12, in a nearby police station, among the belongings of the victims. Until 5 a.m., they cannot deactivate it, and then they begin to analyze it. And according to the judicial writ, the cellular phone card information is retrieved the following day, on the 13^th, when we get to know that the card was sold in a call shop owned by a Muslim. The police find the Islamic lead on the 13^th; but the Left claims it was much before.

 

To this false news, they add another one; on the 12^th, the government is accused of hiding information about the fingerprints found in the van used to transport the terrorists for the bombings. In the ocular inspection during the morning of March 11, no objects were found but in the thorough search that afternoon scores of objects were found, among them, detonators and a tape in Arabic containing Koranic verses, just as the government had informed the previous afternoon. And most important; the summary states that no fingerprints were found in the van.

 

The night of March 12, the Left demands to know the truth quickly, and keeps on accusing the government of hiding information that it does not have and cannot have. PSOE and Cadena SER spread false news; the Left claims that there are suicide bombers in the trains (false), that a found bomb points to Islamic terrorists (something not yet known), and that the fingerprints found in a van belong to Islamists (also false). That day, the investigation is done following standard procedures in the event of an attack. Therefore one wonders why PSOE and its media behave in that fashion.

 

Why would they concoct evidence and besiege the government? Soon afterwards, some Cadena SER’s anonymous news writers denounce a joint move by PSOE, El País, and Cadena SER. These journalists provide details of what happened in those days. According to their story, in the morning of March 11, the news director of the leftist radio network makes the following analysis: “If it is ETA, the Popular Party wins by a landslide. If it is al-Qaeda, we can win the election. Therefore, from now on, the authorship of the bombings remains confusing.” This interpretation of the leftist Cadena SER’s news director is the same that PSOE and the Left do in the morning of March 11. If the attack were the work of Islamic terrorists, the culprit would be Aznar because of his support to America’s policy: The citizens would punish him in the ballot box.

 

The Left thought then that, on the contrary, if the attack were the work of the ETA terrorists, the soft approach policy that PSOE and its allies applied to them would be evident. Today, we also know that PSOE was negotiating with the terrorists at the time.  For that reason, on the morning of March 11, when all leads to ETA, the leftist forces repeat the mantra that the terrorists should not influence on the vote. Next, false evidence starts emerging and most untimely, things begin to change. So, on the 12^th, they keep repeating that we should punish the government.

 

Negotiation or surrender, neither one was acceptable. If we were determined to face al-Qaeda or ETA, did it matter who the culprit was? The investigation would go on as long as necessary. But this point of view would soon be swept away with a propaganda campaign by the Left and its reference to Iraq. Only COPE came to the defense of the government’s point of view, being left completely alone and in absolute minority in comparison with the leftist mass media. The night of March 12, Spaniards are already divided, and the Left prepares the final blow for the following day.

 

 

The day before the general elections, “the Day of reflection”, the Left goes on the final offensive, linking the 3/11 bombings with the Iraq war, the March 2003 Azores photo and José María Aznar. The government – in a complete state of shock – finds itself accused of lying and concealing information by leftist forces using false evidence. In addition, there are leaks to the media by police investigators that are presented to the public as government lies.

 

At 1.30 p.m. on March 13, a government spokesman gives a press conference denying any concealment of information. At 4.30 p.m., the Minister of Interior continues speaking about the two leads, and about possible cooperation between terrorist groups.

 

We are now on March 13, on the eve of Election Day. At noon, a new assault against the government; Cadena SER informs that the Spanish secret service (CNI), is already working 99 per cent with the Islamic lead, information that, according to the network, had been provided to the Minister of Interior on the 11^th. It is one more lie. As in the case of the suicide bombers, the CNI officially denies the claim at mid-afternoon; however, during the whole day, that news is inexplicably broadcast on and on. Three years later, as the 3/11 trial unfolds, one can see that the Left fabricated information one more time.

 

The first suspects are arrested at 4 p.m. after having analyzed the backpack contents and the cellular phone found the night before. The investigation continues to move forward briskly, it is only two days after the bombings and we already have arrested suspects. The Minister of Interior announces that he will give information about the arrests at 8 p.m., but there is another leak to Cadena SER and the network accuses the government of concealing the information about the arrests and that the Minister has decided to inform the public only because the Left has already been giving out that information.

 

The massive campaign starts paying off; at the end of the afternoon, the main headquarters of the Popular Party in Madrid is surrounded by thousands of people screaming that Aznar and Rajoy are murderers and liars. The police are called to protect the PP’s headquarters. In the meantime, Cadena SER urges to vote against the lies and consequences of the Iraq war. During a sports program, the host denounces that “not all politicians are the same, not all of them lie”.  Leftist politicians and journalists start mobilizing their forces by phone. Nothing seems to matter most; it is the final act of a joint effort carried out during the past hours. It triggers a cascade of demonstrations against the party of the Right; they are not against the government, but against the party that will show up for the elections the following day. For a moment, during some minutes, the fear in the air is that if the police charge the crowd, it could result in serious incidents.

 

The government is unable to respond to the well-promoted indignation against it. At 9.45 p.m., the candidate of the Popular Party makes a statement for the press, and demands that the electoral law be fulfilled and the attacks against his party’s offices around the country are stopped. In reply, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, current Minister of Interior, gives a press conference on behalf of candidate Rodríguez Zapatero, and denounces that the government is lying pronouncing a phrase that today is all too well-known; “Spaniards deserve a government that does not lie to them, that always tells them the truth.” With that, he adds fuel to the fire, and the tension in Spain becomes unbearable. On the following day, March 14, PSOE wins the general elections; later on, they withdraw the troops form Iraq amid insults against José María Aznar.

 

 

Once the Parliamentary Investigation Commission concluded, and now that the trial is on the verge of conclusion, there is no doubt that the Aznar Administration did not lie to the public during those days between 3/11 to 3/14. The investigation unfolded, in the first hours, at a high pace especially if one considers the scope of the bombings. The security forces worked fast, and the link between the findings and the information the government gave just demonstrates that the Minister of Interior was giving information of the findings in real time.

 

The subsequent investigation and the testimony of witnesses in the 3/11 trial have demonstrated how the leftist media fabricated evidence, doctored information and concealed data. The false news about suicide bombers and Islamists’ fingerprints were officially denied in the moment during the investigation; nevertheless they were broadcast time and time again for hours. The evidence pointing to Islamic terrorism was found much later than what PSOE and Cadena SER broadcast during those days.

 

The elections of March 14 gave the victory to a leftist block headed by Rodríguez Zapatero. From that moment on, the PSOE government has used all means at hand to repeat, even today, the motto “PP and Aznar lied.” The leftist media, like El País and Cadena SER, have also repeated that message during three years; the conservative media in Spain – in a drastic minority – continues informing the facts as they really happened, but they have not been able to break that constantly repeated dogma spread since 3/11, and that has also permeated the international mass media.

 

During years, the legend built around the Aznar Administration and its concealments has become bona fide, though there is no evidence that the Aznar Administration lied, and all the investigations done for the trial case show a joint effort by PSOE and the leftist media to manipulate the existing information. The 3/11 trial shows that the government of José María Aznar never lied or concealed information to the public. On the contrary, it just shows the existence of a Socialist agitprop campaign in collusion with their media allies.