Maybe it was a revenge attack for the Spanish participating in the liberation of Iraq, resulting in the capture and demise of abu Abbas?

There's the fact that,on two separate occasions in recent months,suspected ETA members were intercepted with explosives with them.On the other occasion,they tried to plant bombs on trains in Madrid.It would have been a most peculiar coincidence if al-Qaeda,or any other terrorist group,had decided attack the same targets,in the same way now.

On the other hand,the change in MO is easier to explain:ETA had observed the Jihadist tactics used in Iraq and elsewhere and decided to emulate them.

NO MATTER WHAT THE BBC SAYS,this does smell of desperation tactics by the Basque terrorists.As in Iraq and in Northern Ireland (remember Omagh),creating mass civilian casualties is quite often the mark of a losing hand:the previous tactic of targeting individual government officials having failed,ETA is now in dire need of a major coup.

As in Omagh,this marks the end,not the beginning,of a certain type of terrorist campaign.The hope that by one-upping the acts of carnage,Spain could be intimidated into acquiescense,is over.

Another possibility is cooperation between a desperate ETA and Al-Qaeda linked, inspired, or affiliated groups.

To me it feels like Al-Qaeda had some involvement(not that I'm an expert or have any rationale to this.).... I also remember rumors of Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda linking up with South American narco-terrorists. It's not beyond belief to suppose cooperation between these murderous thugs.

So why not a joint attack?

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: