The trial of those purportedly involved with the bombing of the suburban trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004 in which 191 people died and over a thousand people were injured is on the point of handing down verdicts against the twenty seven people in the dock. Apart from showing a lack of preparation in the case as presented by prosecutor Olga Sanchez, more importantly the trial has shown that at no time did former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar or his ministers misrepresent the facts or the truth - either before the people of Spain whom they addressed on television or before the Socialist-dominated Parliamentary Commission that was investigating the bombings.

 

The Commission held its hearings after the Socialists had won the elections, and using their majority on the panel, the PSOE managed to quash or exclude a great deal of evidence in addition to closing down the Commission in record time. However, what could not be muzzled in any way were the court hearings, and these showed that there had been a massive conspiracy engineered by the Socialist party that promoted the diffusion of a large amount of untruths that were broadcast by the pro-Socialist media, including the Cadena SER radio chain and the El País newspaper. 

 

In order to understand how this came about it is necessary to return to the year 2000. 

 

The conservative Partido Popular had just won a second term in government with the additional advantage that the party had managed to obtain a large majority that included taking sixteen seats from the Socialists, meaning that the PP was dependent on no alliances in order to have its measures approved. This latest result meant that in effect the other main political party in Spain - the Socialists - were forced to undertake some serious revisions of both their leaders and their thinking in order to confront what at the time appeared to be an uncertain future.  At the annual convention in July, four names headed the list of possible candidates to succeed Joaquin Almunia, who had resigned as Secretary General of the party after the recent election defeat. They were:

 

Rosa Diez

A member of the Basque Socialist Party, she was elected a Euro MP in 1999

 

Jose Bono

A member of the executive committee of the Party since 1990, and President of the Castilla/La Mancha Autonomous region since 1983

 

Joe Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

Socialist MP for Leon since 1986, and President of the Leon branch of the Party since 1989

 

Matilde Fernandez

 Socialist MP for Cantabria during four parliamentary sessions and named as Social Services Minister by Felipe Gonzalez

 

Mr Rodriguez Zapatero was voted the new Secretary General by the slimmest of margins {414 votes as opposed to Mr Bono, who obtained 404} thanks in no small part to the votes of the Catalan Socialists - a debt he swore to repay. 

 

One of his first initiatives after being elected was to announce the creation of a Great Leftist Coalition that would unite the other similar-minded political groups of Spain, including the Communist coalition Izquerda Unida and the radical Catalan Party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunia, whilst at the same time, he also secretly initiated talks with the Basque separatist and terrorist group ETA.

 

In his new position as leader of the opposition, Mr Rodriguez Zapatero’s pronouncements soon became a virulent dialogue of opposition against the invasion of Iraq, that was proposed by Britain and the United States in the aftermath of the bombings of September 11, 2001, when Prime Minister Aznar stated that the correct method of combatting terrorism was confrontation not appeasement.  For the Spanish Left, the 9/11 attacks was the price paid by the United States for being far too arrogant for far too long. Mr Rodriguez Zapatero and the other members of his Great Leftist Coalition were not at all concerned with the thousands who died as the Twin Towers collapsed, what did worry them was the tone of the United States response. As the bombing and subsequent invasion of Iraq was mooted, this led to the Socialists in Spain staging anti-American protests similar to those of the 60s and 70s, which became more aggressive after Jose Maria Aznar stood alongside Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush in a picture taken in the Azores as the three leaders put the finishing touches to their invasion plans.

 

By 2003, the Socialist protests against the invasion of Iraq had reached such a pitch that during the military parade that took place in Madrid on October 12, Mr Rodriguez Zapatero refused to stand up as the United States flag passed the main VIP stands - something he later stated was a gesture of protest against the policies of the United States and not against the American people. 

 

As far as the Socialists were concerned, the Iraq war was immoral as are all wars, except any anti-capitalist revolutionary conflict. In all their marches protesting the Iraq War, the Socialists referred to Mr Bush, as well as Mr Aznar and Mr Blair as murderers.

 

In the meantime, this disrespect for the politics of Jose Maria Aznar was turned into downright antagonism after Mr Rodriguez Zapatero started to form his Great Leftist Coalition as he had promised. Every political entity that joined had to sign an agreement to the effect that under no circumstances whatsoever could any pact be undertaken with the Partido Popular. Amongst the signatories from Catalunia was the radical leftist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunia (ERC), whose leader, Josep Lluis Carod Rovira would be chosen for a mission of extreme importance by the future Prime Minister in the aftermath of the Catalan elections of 2003. 

 

These had resulted in the following results on November 16:

 

The Catalan Socialist Party

42 seats (a drop of ten)

 

Convergencia I Unio

46 seats (a drop of ten)

 

ERC

23 seats (double their previous results)

 

Partido Popular de Catalunia

15 seats

 

ICV/EUiA

9 seats

 

Mathematically, it could seem possible that the Convergencia i Unio party - the right-leaning Catalan party of charismatic former President Jordi Pujol - could form a government if they made a pact with the Partido Popular and the ICV, making a total of  70 seats as opposed to the Socialists and ERC, who together totaled 65. However, the reddish/greenish policies of the ICV meant that in effect they had also become part of the Great Leftist Coalition, and therefore refused to enter a pact that included the PP. As a result, the coalition between the Socialists, ERC and ICV, meant that with their collective 74 seats, they managed to remove the most-voted party in the autonomy - CiU -  out of any sort of power, signing their alliance under an agreement that became known as the Tinnel pact. When the jobs were handed out, the head of the Catalan Socialists, Pascual Maragall, the former Mayor of Barcelona, became the new President of the autonomy, with Mr Carod Rovira as his First Councillor in the new Catalan Government that was sworn in in December of 2003.

 

Some time later, Mr Maragall went on an official visit, in effect leaving Mr Carod Rovira in charge of the autonomy, and it was at this time that Mr Carod Rovira decided to carry out the mission assigned to him by The Great Leftist Coalition: to test the waters face-to-face with Eta. This he undertook at the start of 2004 in Perpignan, France, the former capital of ancient Catalunia and just 187 Kms away up the coastal motorway. Things appeared to be going well for the new coalition until the meeting was discovered by the intelligence services of the Aznar Government and reported in the pages of the daily newspaper ABC. As a result, Mr Carod Rovira was a forced to resign from the Catalan Government, but not before he had issued a statement revealing that he had managed to secure a ceasefire from Eta for Catalunia. 

 

Later analysis has revealed that Mr Carod Rovira carried out his mission and reported to Eta that a massive change was under way in Spanish politics, that this change involved Eta, but that they should show that they were able to control their members. Eta, for its part stated that they would issue a ceasefire for Catalunia, which did indeed take place, but the terror group used Catalunia during that time as a staging post for mounting operations in other parts of Spain.

 

At this point, the General Election campaigns were well under way, and the positions of the two main parties were

 

 

Despite Jose Maria Aznar revealing that he did not intend to stand for a third term in office, the Party envisioned their next term as one of continuity under Mr Aznar’s designated successor, Galician-born Mariano Rajoy. During the campaign, the party continued to point to its successes, which included the high level of relevance and international respectability that had been achieved for the country on the world stage; at home, the considerable financial success and stability brought about by the policies of the Economy Ministry presided over by Rodrigo Rato prior to his becoming President of the International Monetary Fund, and finally the overall openness and honesty with which Spain had been ruled for the last eight years

 

 

An extensive campaign was being engineered against the government, made all the more complex and nasty by Socialist envy of what the Government had achieved in real terms. This also included voicing very strong feelings against the PP for allowing Spain to be actively involved in the Iraq war.

 

Early on the morning of March 11 with just two more campaign days to go, when the difference between the two parties was still fairly close, according to the polls, a series of bombs exploded within minutes of each other on four commuter trains outside Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring over a thousand. All the trains left from Alcala de Henares station in this way:

Train No 21431

Departed 7:01 am/ Bombs on cars 4,5 & 6 exploded at 7:36

 

Train No 17305

Departed 7:04 am/ Bombs on cars 1,4,5 & 6 exploded at 7:39

 

Train No 21435

Departed 7:10 am/ Bombs exploded on cars 4 & 5 at 7:38 am, with another going off on the tracks near the train

 Train No 21713

Departed 7:14 am/One bomb on car 4 exploded at 7:38

 

 It was the worst bombing incident thus far to take place in Europe.

 

As police forensic examiners and ambulance workers sifted through the wreckage, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar stated that the election campaign would not continue as a gesture of respect for those who had died. This was rapidly seconded by Mr Rodriguez Zapatero, as politicians of every colour grouped together in a gesture of support for the victims and the many injured. Also voicing similar opinions editorially were the two main radio stations - the Cadena SER, (which openly supported the Socialist Party and was owned by Jesus de Polanco, who also owned the El Pais newspaper) and the Cadena COPE (traditionally a supporter of the Partido Popular and owned by the Roman Catholic Church).

 

Standing in Atocha railway station some three hours after the explosions, Interior Minister Angel Acebes made a preliminary statement to the effect that at that moment all the evidence appeared to point to Eta being behind the bombings. Because after the first analysis of the bombed areas, several police reported that in their opinion, due to the smell, the explosive Titadyne was used, an explosive favoured by the Basque terror group. The statement from Mr Acebes caused considerable alarm amongst the schemers of the plot. Had their plot misfired? Would the voters now massively stand behind the PP? 

 

Nine hours after his first announcement, Mr Acebes appeared before the press again and this time he revealed that a van containing detonators, explosives and a tape of the Koran read in Arabic had been discovered in the parking area of Alcala de Henares railway station, and that he had asked the security forces to open up a second line of investigation.

Now, this fell in line with the Socialists on two fronts: the senior members now felt reassured that their plan was on track, and on another, it gave the members of the Party justification for accusing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of being personally responsible as Islamist terrorism had been brought to the very heart of Spain thanks to the international politics of the PP.

 

Just one hour and forty minutes after Mr Acebes revealed the existence of the van with the tape, the Cadena SER radio station announced in a news flash that the remains of a suicide bomber had been found on one of the trains. At midnight Partido Popular spokesman Eduardo Zaplana, vigorously denied these allegations as unfounded and added that if there was a suicide bomber, the security forces would have informed the Government.

 

This failed to stop the stream of untruths broadcast by the Cadena SER who publicly stated almost as Mr Zaplana had finished his declarations that there were in reality not one, but two suicide bombers whose remains had been discovered on the trains. By 1 am on March 12, the first editions of the papers were on the streets, but even the pro-Socialist El Pais failed to mention the suicide bombers. By 9:30, Socialist Organizational Secretary Jose Blanco kicked off the Party’s campaign to discredit the government and whip up local hysteria, by appearing in an interview show on Antena 3 TV  during which he stated that he suspected the government was withholding information from the public about the bombings. This was echoed by Iñaki Anasagasti, the spokesman for the Basque National Party in a speech some five hours later. Later that same evening, Carlos Carnicero on the Cadena SER stated:  There is no real information being given out, such as when was the dynamite manufactured, or whether on not it was stolen. This seems to me to be maneuvring. What is going to happen on Sunday [voting day], will now be influenced by the bad actions of the Government after these attacks.

 

It was 2:30 on the afternoon of the Day of Reflection when Mr Acebes appeared at a press conference at which he once again stated that at no time had the government hid anything from the public. Just 23 minutes later, the temperature rose again  after Miquel Iceta of the Catalan Socialists stated We are absolutely scandalized by the amount of manipulations this government is undertaking.

 

 Inexplicably, many hundreds of people were summoned by text messages on their mobile phones to appear at the PP offices across Spain and demonstrate their displeasure, shouting slogans and generally being noisy and disruptive. Many PP offices were vandalized, with graffiti sprayed on the walls, and furniture broken.

 

As evening finally arrived on March 14, it became apparent that the Socialist campaign of disinformation and prevarication had worked, for the results were declared as:

 

Partido Popular

 148 seats (2000 - 183 seats)

 

Socialist Party

 164 seats (2000 - 125 seats)

 

Convergencia i Unio

10 seats (2000 - 15 seats) 

ERC

 8 seats (2000 - 1 seat)

 

Basque National Party

 7 seats (2000 - 7 seats)

 

The Canary Islands Coalition

 3 seats (2000 - 4 seats)

 

The Galician National Bloc

2 seats (2000 - 3 seats)

 

Chunta Aragonesista & Eusko Alkartasuna Parties

both obtained the same results in 2000 and 2004 - one seat each

 

Once he took over the office of Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hurriedly organized the retreat from Iraq of all Spanish troops in April 2004, without informing the allies in advance,  something that has scarred the relationship between Spain and the United States to this day.

 

In the meantime, both the courts and the media have been taking a very close look at the suspects of the March 11 bombings, and  although a number of discrepancies had been discovered, it was not until almost a month after the tragedy that the final part of the operation kicked in on April 3 in the small town of Leganes, which is nine kilometres southeast of Madrid. Here, according to the official version, seven of the alleged terrorists were holed up in an apartment in No 40,  Calle Carmen Martin Gaite  and were supposedly opening windows, shouting Arabic slogans and firing their weapons into the street. The Municipal Police soon arrived, and then a detachment of GEO police were on the scene. These were representatives of a highly qualified arm of the security forces, who specialize in hostage situations. Although trained to establish some sort of dialogue before going on the offensive, the force had hardly been in the street long enough to establish any sort of communication, before they decided to blow off the door of the apartment. Very shortly afterwards, the entire apartment was blown sky high by a tremendous explosion, killing all those inside as well as Captain Francisco Javier Torronteras Gadea, a member of the GEO, and the only time that a member of this elite force has ever been killed in the line of duty.

 

The death of Capt Torronteras Gadea brought to 192 the number of innocent people who died as a result of the bombs of March 11, but in fact opened up a Pandora’s box of questions about what actually had taken place up to that date and beyond. What does seem certain is that it is a clear case of creating deliberate false leads, misinforming both the judiciary and the public, with the security forces by no means having clean hands in this affair. 

 

Ultimately judge Juan del Olmo presented his findings on the bombings and the explosion in Leganes in a lengthy document of over one thousand closely typed pages, that was released on April 10, 2006, more than two years after the explosion in the flat had taken place. However, he was unable to clear up a number of points or throw any light on the real areas of conflict.  Subsequent research has shown:

 

*that of the forty possible suspects in the bombings, only seven were not under direct surveillance by some branch of the Spanish Security Forces

 

*no traces of bullet marks, broken windows or spent cartridge cases were ever found in the immediate area outside no 40 Calle Carmen Martin Gaite in Leganes

 

*No explanation has been forthcoming as to why the GEO were ordered to attack the flat without attempting to make contact with those inside and start negotiations as they are trained to do

 

*A large amount of forensic and other evidence, although correctly reported by investigators was deliberately altered by  their superiors before being handed to Judge Juan del Olmo. This much has been established in the courtroom of Judge Gomez Bermudez

 

The answers to these and over 180 other questions may only emerge in the aftermath of the next set of elections - also set for March 2008.