2004 Madrid train bombings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

REDIRECT Template:Totally-disputed

March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings
The scene of one of the Madrid bombings.
Location	Madrid, Spain
Target(s)	Madrid Commuter Train System
Date	11 March 2004 07:30 – 08:00 (UTC+1)
Attack Type	backpacks
Fatalities	191
Injuries	2050 [4]

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known as 11-M, 3/11, 11/3 and M-11) were a series of coordinated bombings against the commuter train system of Madrid, Spain on the morning of 11 March 2004, which killed 191 people and wounded over 1700.

[edit] Description of the bombings

Plaque in memory of the casualties in the 11-M terror attack in Madrid

On the morning of Thursday 11th March 2004, ten explosions ^[1] occurred at the height of the Madrid rush hour aboard four commuter trains (known as cercanías in Spain). All the affected trains were travelling on the same line and in the same direction between Alcalá de Henares and Atocha station in Madrid. A total of thirteen improvised explosive devices were reported to have been placed on the trains; two of the three devices which did not explode were subsequently destroyed in controlled explosions by bomb disposal teams.

According to the summary of the judicial investigation ^[2] the explosions took place between 07:37 and 07:40 in the morning as described below (all timings given are in local time UTC/GMT+1):

Atocha Station (train number 21431) - Three bombs exploded. Based on the video recording from the station security system, the first bomb exploded at 7:37, and two others exploded within 4 seconds of each other at 7:38.

Outside Atocha Station, approximately 800 metres from the station at a location generally referred to as Calle Tellez after the street running adjacent to the tracks (train number 17305) - Four bombs exploded in different carriages of the train at approximately 7:39.

El Pozo del Tío Raimundo Station (train number 21435) - At approximately 07:38, just as the train was starting to leave the station, two bombs exploded in different carriages.

Santa Eugenia Station (train number 21713) - One bomb exploded at approximately 07:38.

All four trains containing explosive devices had departed the station at Alcalá de Henares between 07:01 and 07:14. At 08:00 emergency relief workers began arriving at the scenes of the bombings. The police reported "numerous victims" and spoke of 50 wounded and several dead. By 08:30 SAMUR, the emergency ambulance service, had set up a "field hospital" at a sports facility at Daoiz y Velarde. Hospitals were told to expect the arrival of many casualties. Bystanders and local residents helped relief workers. At 08:43 fire fighters reported 15 dead at El Pozo. By 09:00 the police had confirmed the death of at least 30 people; 20 at El Pozo and about 10 in Santa Eugenia and Atocha.

Also at 08:00, a "Cage Operation" (Operación Jaula in Spanish), designed to prevent terrorists from fleeing the city went into effect and started affecting transportation in, out and around the city.^[3] At 08:45 RENFE, the national railway operator, shut down all rail traffic in to and out of Madrid, and Line 1 of the Madrid metro was closed for security reasons. At 08:56 the police sealed off all streets adjacent to Atocha and evacuated the station. At the same time, RENFE closed the stations at Chamartín and Príncipe Pío, the other train stations in Madrid.

Consequently, all railway traffic to and from Madrid was shut down, including commuter, regional, and intercity trains as well as the high-speed AVE service to Seville. International rail traffic to and from Madrid was also interrupted due to security concerns, although trains to and from France departed from Chamartín, Madrid's second largest train station. According to the French SNCF, this was done at the request of the Spanish authorities. ^{[citation needed]}

RENFE organized alternative transportation, and moved 3,000 passengers by road. Around 18:30, traffic to and from Chamartín and Príncipe Pío was restored, including some commuter rail lines and northbound national and international traffic out of Chamartín. In France, the Vigipirate plan was upped to the orange level.^[4] In Italy, the Government declared a state of high alert.^[5]

A blood donation bus, which had already been parked in the Puerta del Sol for a number of days ^{[citation needed]}, became inundated with donors, with several hundred queuing to offer their assistance.

The towns served by the commuter rail line on which the bombings occurred are home to large Latin American and Eastern European immigrant communities. Many of the 250,000 people using the line each day are students, blue-collar workers, and middle-class people who cannot afford to live in the city of Madrid and so commute from neighbouring communities.

Forty-one of the dead came from thirteen countries outside of Spain, including fifteen from Romania, five each from Ecuador and Peru, four from Poland, three from Colombia, two from Honduras, and one each from Bulgaria, Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, France, and Morocco.^[6]

The number of victims was higher than in any similar action in Spain, far surpassing the previous worst bombing incident at a Hipercor chain supermarket in Barcelona in 1987, which killed 21 and wounded 40; on that occasion, responsibility was claimed by the Basque armed militant group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ("Basque Fatherland and Liberty") or ETA. It was also the worst incident of this kind in Europe since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.

[edit] Aftermath

Main article Aftermath of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings

An attempted bombing of the track of the high-speed AVE train took place on 2 April but was unsuccessful.^[7] Shortly afterwards, police identified an apartment in Leganés, south of Madrid, as being the base of operations for the individuals suspected of being the material authors of the Madrid and AVE attacks. The suspected militants, headed by Jamal Zougam, Serhane Abdelmaji "the Tunisian" and Jamal Ahmidan "the Chinese", were trapped inside the apartment by a police raid on the evening of Saturday 3 April. At 9:03 pm, when the police started to assault the premises, the militants committed suicide by setting off explosives, killing themselves and one of the police officers.^[8]

Investigators subsequently found that the explosives used in the Leganés explosion were of the same type as those used in the 11 March attacks and the thwarted bombing of the AVE line. ^[7]. It is generally presumed that the militants killed at Leganés were, indeed, the individuals responsible for both attacks. An investigation on how they obtained their explosives (a total of around 200 kg) revealed that they had been bought from a retired miner who could still gain access to a blasting equipment store many months after he had left the mine for health reasons.^[9]

^[10] Five to eight suspects believed to be involved in the 11 March attacks managed to escape. ^[11]

Initially it was feared that families of illegal immigrants killed in the terrorist attack would be afraid to contact the authorities for fear of being deported for immigration violations, but Spanish Prime Minister José Aznar announced an immigration amnesty for victims of the attack. ^{[citation needed]}

Makeshift shrine for the victims of the attacks

[edit] Responsibility

Official statements issued shortly after the Madrid attacks identified ETA as the prime suspect, but the group, which usually claims responsibility for its actions, denied any wrongdoing.^[12] Later evidence strongly pointed to the involvement of extremist Islamist groups, with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group named as a focus of investigations. Currently a loose group of muslims inspired by al-Qaeda is suspected of having carried out the attacks. As of 11 April 2006, Judge Del Olmo charged 29 suspects for their involvement in the train bombings.^[13] Immediate reactions to the attacks in Spanish media assumed ETA involvement, and government officials were ready to confirm such suspicions. Because the bombs were 3 days before the general elections in Spain, the situation had many political interpretations. The massacre took place exactly two and a half years (912 days) after the September 11 terrorist attack on America in 2001. (9/11 in US date format) Although ETA has a history of mounting bomb attacks in Madrid, planting delayed-action bombs to kill rescue workers and using booby traps (such as explosives in wallets), as well as also having attempted to attack trains,^[14] the 11 March attacks were on a scale far exceeding anything previously attempted by any European terrorist organisation. This led some experts to point out that the tactics used were more typical of Islamic militant extremist groups, perhaps with a certain link to Al-Qaeda. Observers also noted that ETA customarily issues warnings before its mass bombings and that there had been no warning for this attack. Europol director Jürgen Storbeck commented that the bombings "don't correspond to the modus operandi which ETA has adopted up to now".^[15]

All of the devices are thought to have been hidden inside backpacks. Despite Spanish Government's claims that the explosive used was titadine, a type of compressed dynamite used by ETA in recent years, forensic analysis of one of the remaining unexploded devices found at El Pozo revealed the explosive used there to be Goma-2, manufactured in Spain and not used by ETA since the 1980s. The police investigated reports of three people in ski masks getting on and off the trains several times at Alcalá de Henares between 7:00 and 7:10. A van was found parked outside the station at Alcalá de Henares containing detonators, audio tapes with Qur'anic verses, and cell phones. ^[16]

The provincial chief of the TEDAX, bomb experts of the Spanish police, declared on 12 July 2004, that damage in the trains could not be caused by dynamite, but by some type of military explosive, like C3 or C4.^[17] Two bombs - one in Atocha and another one in El Pozo stations, numbers 11 and 12 - were detonated accidentally by the TEDAX. According the provincial chief of the TEDAX, deactivated rucksacks contained some other type of explosive. The 13th bomb which was transferred to a police station, contained dynamite, but did not explode, because there were not two wires connecting the explosives to the detonator. That bomb used a mobile phone Mitsubishi Trium as a timer, requiring a SIM card to activate the alarm, and thereby detonate.^[18] The analysis of the SIM card allowed the police to arrest the first perpetrators. On Saturday, 13 March, when a number of Moroccans and were arrested for the attacks, it was confirmed that the attacks came from an Islamic group.^[19]

On 3 April 2004, in Leganes, south Madrid, four Arab terrorists blew themselves up, killing one special assault police officer and wounding eleven policemen. According to witnesses and media between five and eight suspects escaped on that day. ^[11]

Security forces carried out a controlled explosion of a suspicious package found near the Atocha station and subsequently deactivated the two undetonated devices on the Téllez train. A third unexploded device was later brought from the station at El Pozo to a police station in Vallecas, and became a central piece of evidence for the investigation. It appears that at least the El Pozo bomb failed to detonate because a cell-phone alarm used to trigger the bomb was set 12 hours late.^[20]

The Partido Popular, now in opposition, as well as certain media outlets such as El Mundo newspaper, ^[21] continue to support alternative theories relating the attack to a vast conspiracy to remove them from power. These theories consider that the Socialist Party (PSOE), together with ETA and members of the security forces and national and foreign (Morocco) secret services were implicated in the bombings. ^[22]

Image:Anónimo11M04.jpg

"The brave one is brave until the coward wants".

[[5]] "The brave one is brave until the coward wants"

Nowadays, Judge Del Olmo assigns the responsibility to "local cells of Islamic extremists inspired through the Internet",^[23] not Al-Qaeda, GIA or Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. These local cells would be consist of hash traffickers of Moroccan origin, remotely linked to an Al Qaeda cell already captured. These group would have bought the explosives (dynamite Goma-2 ECO) from low-level thiefs in Asturias (North of Spain) using money from the small scale drug trafficking.^[24]

According to El Mundo, "the notes on the Moroccan confident 'Cartagena' prove that the Police had the 3/11 leadership under surveillance." ^[25] 34 of these 40 imputed were informers and / or controlled by the Police, Civil Guard and National Center of Intelligence before the attacks and contains weird coincidences like the Moroccan El Chino who distributed hash in the Basque country. A notebook of Carmen Toro, member of Asturian group, contained the cellphone number of the chief of TEDAX. The cellphones used in the bombing were purchased from a shop of Mausilli Kalaji, a Spanish police officer and former member of Al Fatah.^[26]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Whether the conservative government lied

The government of the conservative PP was accused of falsely blaming ETA for the attacks. The very day of the attacks police officials informed the Government that explosives usually used by ETA were found at the blast sites, which along with other suspicious circumstances led the PP to blindly believe in ETA's authorship. Although there was no direct or indirect evidence from the investigation of the bombing pointing to ETA involvement ^[16], the group had been caught with a large amount of explosives some months previously, which looked like preparations for a big strike.^[27] But according to a report of the ESISC (The European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center ) the very same morning of the bombings the Spanish Intelligence Services and Policy had concluded that the author of the massacre was an Islamic terrorist group but they had been ordered by the government to deny the Islamist lead and to insist that ETA was the only suspect. ^[28]. The government sent messages to all the Spanish embassies abroad ordering that they upheld the ETA version. President José María Aznar even called a number of newspaper directors personally to ask for their support of this version.^[29]

Broadly speaking, the extremely tense political atmosphere in Spain over the previous term of office served as a breeding ground for a situation that the attacks turned into a chasm, bringing the conservative government to the very edge of it just three days before the elections. On one hand, José María Aznar was aggressively opposed to any dialogue with ETA and based most of his campaign on the threat of terrorism (the 9/11 attacks in New York reinforced his view of the war against the terrorists). On the other hand, Aznar's friendship with U.S. president George W. Bush led him to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq against the view of the overwhelming majority of the population (resulting in the biggest demonstrations ever seen in Spain since the restoration of democracy in the late 1970's) ^[30].^[31] This left Aznar in a tricky situation: if Basque terrorists were proven to be responsible for the massacre, it would favor the PP's campaign; if an Islamic group appeared to cause the blast, people might blame him for earning himself (and Spain) enemies.

The Summary of the Judicial Enquiry concluded that the decision to attack Madrid was taken after and as a result of the invasion of Iraq. Nevertheless, The New Yorker claimed that the decision was taken before 9-11 ^[7] according to an Italian police report.^[32]

[edit] Controversy regarding responsibility

Thirteen improvised explosive devices were reported to have been used by the Islamic militant group that was responsible for the bombing, all but three of which detonated. This group seems to have worked with a very tenuous connection with Al-Qaeda but with the aim of acting on its behalf. Shortly after the bombings, the group was completely dismantled by the Spanish police and the core members committed suicide when they were surrounded in the nearby city of Leganés. ^[11]

The bombings in Madrid have led to a sharp political and social fracture in Spain. This result stands in sharp contrast to other large scale terrorist attacks such as those of New York and London, which galvanized society and political forces.

Spain's political division is exemplified by the accusation by members of the Partido Popular and several conservative media outlets regarding the responsibility for the bombings and whether the attacks were for political gain. ^[33] Some of these source initially supported the hypothesis that ETA was behind the attacks. These groups have focused their investigation on unexplained details and inconsistencies in the Summary report and expressed scepticism about the truthfulness and bias of the evidence presented thus far.

Since the bombings, the chief opposition party, the PP, together with the conservative forces in the media in Spain have overtly argued the possibility that the Socialist party, the police, the Spanish, French, and Moroccan secret services, and, of course, ETA, have had a role in organizing the bombings.^[34]

Not all conservative media outlets are involved in this campaign. There is a distinct difference between those who believe that the PSOE use it for political gain as it had access to information (either through France or through links to the Police) which it used to criticise the government in the aftermath of the bombings, and those who consider the possibility that the ETA, some groups in the State Security Forces (possibly related to the GAL), in the Moroccan secret services and in the Socialist Party (PSOE) may have had a role either in organizing the bombings or in blocking official investigation, or confusing it with misleading evidence. ^[22] The first group includes the Newspaper ABC, while the second group includes the Radio Station COPE and the newspapers La Razón and El Mundo.^[21] This group claims that the official version is more than questionable and that the truth is still unknown. They have coupled such claims with doubts about the legitimacy of the current government, which they oppose ideologically .

An attempt to link ETA to the bombings occurred in May 2006 when the newspaper El Mundo published on its front page that a business card of the Basque firm Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC) had been found in the van which was used by the terrorists. This piece of evidence, discovered by the policemen which found the van, wasn't present on the numerous police reports, while new pieces of information appeared. ^[35] The rationale of "El Mundo" was that Mondragón has no relationship with ETA but it could point to ETA as well as the Coranic cassette pointed to Al Qaeda conception.

It was later asserted by the Spanish police that, it was not a business card but the cover of a music CD of the popular Spanish 80s rock group "Orquesta Mondragón".^[36] The CD itself with its box was found in a pile of various other music CDs. The rear of the cover had apparently been used by the legitimate proprietor to warn people when he parked in the middle of the street since it has handwritten a message that said "I am coming back inmediately".^[37] On the other hand, "El Mundo" insisted in the existence of a MCC card in the van.^[38]

The Spanish police also asserted that a card from "Gráficas Bilbaínas" (i.e., "Bilbao printing", a printing shop located in Madrid) found in the van was the source of the alleged confusion.^[39]

[edit] Questions over the type of explosive used in the bombs

On July 11th 2006 the Spanish newspaper El Mundo published this headline:

No era Goma-2 ECO: El explosivo que estalló el 11-M era distinto del que tenían los islamistas ^[40]

It was not Goma-2 ECO: The explosive that detonated on 11 March was different from the explosive that the islamists had

El Mundo argues that:

During the official hearings of 7 July 2004 on the Madrid bombings, the chief of the bomb disposal team (TEDAX), Juan Jesús Sánchez Manzano, emphatically asserted that there was nitroglycerine in the remains of the explosion, and that all dynamites contain such substance. Mr. Sánchez Manzano said:

...logramos encontrar restos de nitroglicerina, y la nitroglicerina es el componente de todas las dinamitas

...we managed to find traces of nitroglycerine, and nitroglycerine is a component of all forms of dynamite

Testimony in the Spanish Congressional file^[41] ^[42]

In response to a question from a member of the commission on whether he was an expert on explosives, Sánchez Manzano replied:

En explosivos, no; soy un experto en desactivación de explosivos ^[43]

In explosives no; I am an expert in the deactivation of explosives

Nitroglycerine is, definitely, not a component ^[44]^[45] of the only explosive (Goma-2 ECO) that the alleged Islamist perpetrators had. Goma-2 ECO was the explosive found in the only unexploded bomb recovered from the trains.

¿es la nitroglicerina un componente de la Goma 2 ECO? Rotundamente, no.

Is nitroglycerine a component of the Goma 2 ECO?. Positively, not. ^[40]

El Mundo founder and manager, Pedro J. Ramírez, has said about this issue:

No estamos ante una entrega más de los misterios, de los agujeros, de los enigmas del 11-M ... Hemos llegado a un punto absolutamente crítico ... Todo el Sumario está construido sobre la base de que lo que estalló en los trenes era Goma 2 ECO ... Si ahí pone Nitroglicerina, el Sumario del 11-M se ha venido abajo.

Excerpts taken from the first fifth of the COPE radio program.^[46]

This is not just a new chapter to the mysteries, the shady issues, the enigmas about 11-M ... We have reached an absolutely critical point ... All the "Sumario" [i.e., the government version] is based upon Goma 2 ECO exploding in the trains ... If you can read there "nitroglicerine", the entire "Sumario" goes down (there is the original scientific police reports, missing from the "Sumario").

Full context quote.^[47]

Nevertheless, on July 17th 2006, Mr. Sánchez Manzano stated before the investigating judge that he had mistakenly used the word "nitroglycerine" because of its historical connection with dynamite ^[48].

The 19 July 2006 digital edition of El Mundo contains a report on the appearance before the investigating judge, Juan del Olmo, of the inspector belonging to the bomb disposal squad (TEDAX) who was responsible for the preliminary reports on the explosives used in the bombings.^[49] This officer, head of the TEDAX investigation group and a graduate in Chemistry, stated before the judge that she was unable to determine the type of dynamite used in the bombs because it was not possible to obtain a test sample of sufficient size to study the composition of the explosive. She also declared that at no time did she ever mention the presence of nitroglycerine to any of her commanding officers - who include Mr. Sánchez Manzano. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Reactions

Crowds in Madrid's Puerta del Sol protest against the 11 March bombings.

[edit] Social

On 12 March Spaniards took to the street to protest against the bombings in a government-organised demonstration to condemn ETA, who at the time were being blamed for the attacks. Vigo, which has a population of 300,000 inhabitants, saw 400,000 demonstrators on its streets.^[50] The protests were peaceful, and included members of the leading political parties marching together down Madrid's Paseo de Castellana in solidarity against terrorism. More than two million people convened on Madrid's streets screaming: "not everyone is here, 208 are missing, we will never forget you" There were also people wondering "who was it?", in reference to the lack of accurate information provided by the government.^[51]^[52]

Demonstrations Total: 11.400.000 demonstrators (28% of Spanish population)
Madrid	2,000,000
Barcelona	1,500,000
València	700,000
Sevilla	650,000
Málaga	400,000
Vigo	400,000
Zaragoza	400,000
Murcia	300,000
Oviedo	300,000
Cádiz	300,000
Bilbao	300,000
Granada	250,000
Alacant	250,000
Santa Cruz de Tenerife	250,000
Valladolid	250,000
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria	225,000
Córdoba	200,000
A Coruña	200,000
Palma de Mallorca	140,000
Pamplona	125,000
Guadalajara	120,000?
Huelva	120,000
Jaén	120,000?
Almería	120,000
Salamanca	100,000
Santiago de Compostela	100,000
Castelló	100,000
Albacete	100,000
Logroño	100,000
León	100,000
Burgos	100,000
Vitoria	90,000
Santander	85,000
Badajoz	80,000
Ferrol	80,000
Orense	80,000
Pontevedra	75,000
Ciudad Real	70,000
Girona	58,000
Cáceres	50,000
Cartagena	50,000
Lugo	50,000
Alcalá de Henares	45,000
Eivissa	42,000
Tarragona	40,000
Lleida	40,000
Segovia	40,000
Zamora	40,000
Ceuta	35,000
Melilla	30,000
Cuenca	30,000
Lorca	25,000
Toledo	25,000
Talavera de la Reina	25,000
Palencia	25,000
Mérida	20,000
Medina del Campo	15,000

All TV stations replaced their logos with black ribbons overlaid on the Spanish flag at 18:00, visible in the upper-right corner of the television screen".

However, the official rally in Barcelona, which had politicians from all political parties in attendance, resulted not only in scuffles between demonstrators of differing viewpoints but also the forced evacuation of Rodrigo Rato, Spain's Economy Minister and Vice President (later appointed Director of the IMF) and Josep Piqué, president of the Partido Popular de Catalunya, who were being jostled and insulted by the angry crowd.

The following day, a number of Moroccans were arrested and there were a number of clues - such as a cassette tape with verses of the Koran in a white van in Alcala de Henares - that pointed to Al-Qaeda, or at least an Islamic involvement. ^[16]

Again, the people of Madrid took to the streets, mainly congregating on Puerta del Sol, where there are a number of government buildings.^[53] This time the mood was not so peaceful. The group that had congregated on Puerta del Sol chanted and made an all-round racket, bashing bottles and dustbin lids, in a demonstration of anger towards Aznar.^[54] Meanwhile, people gathered in unofficial demonstrations in front of PP (Partido Popular) offices in all the major cities in Spain,^[55] apparently also provoked by the news that President Bush had expressed on the BBC his regret for the bombings coming as a result of Spain's involvement in Iraq. Notably this news came from abroad while the media in Spain seemed unable to emit any such information. The demonstrators accused the government of lying about the responsibility for the attacks and demanded that the truth be told before going to vote. ^[56]

The demonstrations of the 13th were allegedly invoked via spontaneous cell phone messages ending in the phrase "pasalo" (pass it on). The candidate of the governing conservative party, Mariano Rajoy, complained on television about the demonstrations and demanded that the opposition parties condemn them.^[57] On behalf of the socialist party, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba gave a message saying that "the Spanish people do not deserve a government that lies to them" and that they had neither organized nor supported the demonstrations.

The conduct of the protestors on the Saturday was strictly speaking illegal: with a General Election the following day, the Saturday is designated as the "day of reflection" ("día de reflexión"), during which all political activism is banned. That said, the many TV appearances of the PP candidate Mariano Rajoy on the same day, were also illegal.

Rumours circulated afterwards, and were propagated by film director Pedro Almodovar on Cadena SER radio, that government ministers Eduardo Zaplana and Angel Acebes had approached King Juan Carlos and asked him to approve the imposition of a Law of Exception (Ley de Excepción: effectively Martial Law) for the election to be postponed, to which the king responded that that would constitute a coup d'etat. ^[58] The PP have since threatened to sue Almodovar for his comments.^[59]

[edit] Political

The attacks came three days before the Sunday elections. At 08:40, the ruling People's Party suspended all electoral campaigning. Shortly after, Mariano Rajoy, the People's Party candidate for prime minister, cancelled all his electoral activity for the day. The opposing Socialist Party cancelled all campaigning at 08:59. At 09:02 Prime Minister Aznar also cancelled all public appearances.

Prime Minister Aznar spoke with King Juan Carlos, then with leaders of the political parties in parliament and with the heads of government of Spain's autonomous communities. At 10:36 a "Crisis Cabinet" was convened, including Aznar, Deputy Prime Ministers Rodrigo Rato and Javier Arenas and Interior Minister Acebes.

A decree declaring three days of official mourning was issued by the government,^[60] and five minutes of silence on Friday.^[61] Demonstrations were called for Friday evening in cities across the country, under the motto "With the victims, with the constitution and for the defeat of terrorism". The Catalan government led by Pasqual Maragall also declared official mourning in Catalonia. The Government chosen motto, was very criticized by all the opposition, because "with the Constitution" inclusion in the motto, implied that the bombs were set by the Basque ETA, while many in the opposition believe that it was made by a Islamic group in retaliation for having the Spanish government troops in Iraq at that moment.

The first government official to make an open public statement, two hours after the attacks, was Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu, head of government in the Basque Country. He unequivocally blamed ETA and said, "those who commit these atrocities are not Basque" and "ETA writes its own ending with terrible actions". In another early public appearance, Interior Minister Acebes pointed in unambiguous terms to ETA, although by the end of the day he was forced to retract his accusations and admit, "no possibilities have been discarded". ^[62]

The head of the Catalan government Maragall said, "We are all Madrileños today", and continued: "if terrorists intended to divide us, they will have achieved the exact opposite, and the best way to reject terror is to vote on Sunday".^[63] Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira of the Catalan nationalist party, the Republican Left of Catalonia, who had recently come under fire for secretly meeting with ETA ^[64] and advocating dialog, said that he would not communicate with ETA again, but that someone else should do so to prevent them from committing any more bloodshed. "We thought we had already seen everything, but unfortunately that was not the case", he lamented.^[65]

By the time Aznar and the King had made their public statements in the afternoon, doubts over ETA's involvement were substantial enough that both of them avoided naming a culprit, and they referred just to "terrorists". Aznar insisted on the need to stay the course, echoing his Interior Minister's earlier remarks.^[66]

Many people suspected that ETA was being blamed in order to hide Al-Qaeda since that could mean that the massacre was in response to the Iraq war. According to the Real Instituto Elcano, this could have resulted in the Aznar government losing the Sunday elections. ^[33]

[edit] National

Most TV stations reported the attack during their regular morning news programs, starting around 08:00. The program on Antena 3 lasted until 14:00. Madrid newspapers issued special midday editions and TV stations rearranged their regular programming schedules. The public stations TVE (national) and Telemadrid (regional) did not break for commercials at all during the day. All TV stations replaced their logos with black ribbons overlaid on the Spanish flag at 18:00, visible in the upper-right corner of the television screen. That week, the satirical magazine El Jueves, known for its mordacious, highly provocative front pages, wore a black front page, for the first time in 25 years.

People across Spain flocked to hospitals and mobile blood donation units in such numbers that the need for blood for transfusions was more than satisfied by 10:30, although continued donations were requested for the coming days. The deceased were moved to IFEMA, the largest convention centre in Madrid, for identification by their relatives.^[67]

Riay Tatary Bakry, president of the Union of Muslim Communities in Spain, stated on 1 April 2004 that his organisation has no plan to publicly urge mosques to step up their battle against terrorism. He said the union will continue to work privately with government officials. ^[68]

[edit] International

Sympathy poured in from governments worldwide immediately following the bombings, led by Spain's partners in the European Union; France raised its terror alert level, and in Athens security was tightened at train stations and the Spanish Embassy. Similar measures were adopted in Italy.

World leaders were united in their condemnation of the attacks. The United States, the United Kingdom and Russia said the attacks demonstrated the need for a toughened resolve against terrorists. Queen Elizabeth II sent a message of condolence to the Spanish King on behalf of the British people. A PLO/Palestinian National Authority official also condemned the attacks targeting civilians.

U.S. President George W. Bush called Prime Minister Aznar and King Juan Carlos to offer his condolences to the Spanish people and condemn the "vicious attack of terrorism". He expressed "our country's deepest sympathies toward those who lost their life...I told them we weep with the families. We stand strong with the people of Spain" ^[69] The U.S. Senate observed a moment of silence and unanimously passed a resolution expressing outrage and urging Bush to "provide all possible assistance to Spain" in pursuing those responsible for the attacks. Bush led a memorial service at the Spanish ambassador's residence in Washington and gave an interview with a Spanish television network the following day.^[70]

European Commission President Romano Prodi called the attack "ferocious and senseless" ^[71] The European Parliament observed a minute of silence; its president Pat Cox expressed the parliament's condolences, and a resolution was introduced proposing 11 March as a European Day of Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism. ^[71] Pope John Paul II condemned the bombings in a message to Catholic church leaders in Spain. Many nations extended offers of material support to the Spanish government. By 17 March, governments around Europe had voiced their concerns that the Spanish government had jeopardized their security by feeding them false information about ETA's involvement. ^[72] On 17 March 2004, Otto Schily, German interior minister, called for a special European summit ^[73] to deal with Madrid bombings. The summit was held on 25-26 March 2004.^[74]

The UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1530 condemning the bombings.^[75] This happened early in the day and, at the request of the Spanish government, the resolution accused ETA unambiguously of being responsible. The resolution "condemns in the strongest terms the bomb attack in Madrid, Spain, perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA".^[76] After al-Qaeda involvement became clear, Germany and Russia voiced their concern over Spain's hasty assurances and suggested adding the word "allegedly" to the statement. ^[72] On 15 March, Spain's ambassador to the UN Inocencio Arias submitted an unapologetic letter updating the Security Council on the progress of the investigation, repeating that the Spanish government had "the strong conviction" that ETA was involved. ^[77] UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, "I think there is a lesson here for everybody, including the council members". ^[77]

The human rights group Amnesty International condemned the attack saying that attacks targeting civilians could never be justified. The organisation also pointed out that killing of civilians on such a scale may constitute a crime against humanity ^[78]

UEFA and the Spanish Government and Football Federation decided that Spanish football teams due to play matches on 11 March and 12 should do so, lest they give the impression that the militants had disrupted normal life, and the teams complied with this decision. Out of respect for the victims, members of Spanish football teams wore black armbands. The Spanish Government and Football Federation asked that all games involving Spanish teams begin with a moment of silence for the victims.

Leaders across the world sent letters of mourning to Juan Carlos and Prime Minister José María Aznar. Most EU countries declared 12 March a day of national mourning as a sign of solidarity. There were demonstrations in cities across Europe and the Spanish-speaking world on 12 March, including Brussels, Paris, Lisbon, Helsinki, Geneva, Berlin, Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Bogotá.

Cuban President Fidel Castro was more critical, however. Speaking during a television interview on 13 March 2004 in Havana, Castro accused Spain's government of deceiving its citizens over the Madrid train bombings for electoral gain. He went on to assert that Prime Minister José María Aznar had known an Islamic group was behind the explosions on 11 March, but preferred to blame ETA ahead of the general elections which were due just three days away. ^[68]] Germany too condemned Aznar, who had been kept in the dark about the fact that the explosives used were not of the type used by ETA.^[79] Otto Schily accused Aznar of not acting responsibly by claiming that the perpetrators were ETA - therefore a national problem - rather than Al-Qaeda, which ought to have heightened the threat to other countries.^[80]

Germany hastily arranged an urgent meeting of European Union security chiefs on 14 March 2004 as possible al-Qaeda involvement in the Madrid bombings set alarm bells ringing across the world. On the same day, Queen Elizabeth II asked that the Spanish national anthem be played during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.^[81]

The attacks also reawakened fears of terrorism amongst investors with most European stock markets falling between two and three percent on 11 March. Stocks dropped in London and in New York, with the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average diving after speculation of involvement by al-Qaeda. Airline and tourism related stocks were particularly affected by sharp declines in share prices. In Tokyo, stocks opened sharply lower the next day.^[82]^[83]

On 15 March, at the request of Irish leader Bertie Ahern, then President of the European Council, all of Europe observed three minutes of silence at noon Central European Time (CET) ^[84]