u guys heard what happened in spain. why are humans so stupid, selfish and greedy?
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why are people so stupid (1 Viewer)
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besides the huge tragedy, i really really really hate how us Muslim's reputation around the world gets screwed by these maniacs!
All the news people say: Islamic terrorists, while the Islam they teach is far from the Islam I was taught.
i dont want to change the topic of this thread, but i find this too relavent to leave out.
Anyhow, my thoughts and sypmpathy go out to the families and friends of the Innocent victims.
All the news people say: Islamic terrorists, while the Islam they teach is far from the Islam I was taught.
i dont want to change the topic of this thread, but i find this too relavent to leave out.
Anyhow, my thoughts and sypmpathy go out to the families and friends of the Innocent victims.
MADRID, Spain - Millions of demonstrators jammed the streets of Madrid and other Spanish cities Friday night to protest the train bombings that killed 199 people in the country's worst terrorist attack as the focus of the investigation appeared to shift back more firmly onto the Basque separatist group ETA.
In Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, members of Spain's royal family, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and EU President Romano Prodi led one column of the crowd as it snaked down the city's main boulevard toward Atocha station, where two of the four bombed trains were attacked Thursday.
A stream of people huddled beneath umbrellas in a steady rain extended for miles toward the starting point at Plaza de Colon, chanting “cowards” and “killers,” whistling, banging drums, carrying black crosses or candles and waving placards saying “No More Killing.”
Authorities estimated that more than 2 million people attended the protest in Madrid.
Millions more turned out in Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and other cities — including Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. State TV said that nationwide, more than 11 million marched — one-quarter of Spain's 42 million people.
Earlier Friday, millions also streamed into the streets at noon for a silent tribute to the dead, while police removed evidence from the shattered commuter trains in the hunt for the bombers.
Expressing solidarity with the Spanish people, President Bush and his wife, Laura, attended a ceremony at the Washington, D.C., residence of Spanish Ambassador Javier Ruperez. After bowing his head during a wreath laying, the president called the deadly terrorist bombings "a grim reminder there are evil people in the world willing to kill innocent people."
Spanish officials initially blamed the Basque terror group ETA for the stunningly well-coordinated series of 10 explosions Thursday during Madrid's rush hour, which wounded nearly 1,400. Later, attention shifted to the possibility that the al-Qaida terrorist oprganization might be responsible.
An unexploded bomb meant to be used Thursday contained explosives similar to a type used by the Basque separatist group ETA in the past, Spain’s interior minister said late Friday.
Speaking to reporters, Interior Minister Angel Acebes confirmed that a sports bag was found Thursday night containing dynamite and with a cell phone for a timer.
The dynamite was of a type — Goma 2-eco — similar to one previously used by ETA, he said. The bomb was reinforced with shrapnel to multiply its effect, Acebes said.
Caller: ETA ‘has no responsibility whatsoever’
A caller claiming to represent ETA telephoned the pro-Basque daily newspaper Gara on Friday and said the separatist group "has no responsibility whatsoever" for the attacks, the paper told The Associated Press. ETA often issues statements through the Basque-language paper.
Arnaldo Otegi, a top Basque politician, also denied ETA was involved and accused Aznar's outgoing government of "lying deliberately" about the bombing to seek political advantage in the elections.
It was believed to be the first time ETA has issued such a denial. The group normally claims its attacks in statements to pro-Basque media outlets several weeks later.
Senior U.S. counterterrorism officials, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said that characteristics of the attack match both ETA and al-Qaida.
One official noted that ETA has "targeted trains, used unsophisticated explosives in bags and backpacks, and triggered bombs in close proximity (of civilians)."
But the official also noted that the group has never launched an attack near the scale of Thursday's and carried out its most deadly operations in the 1960s and 1970s. In the past 2 1/2 years, he noted, ETA has only killed eight people, compared to the more than 4,600 deaths attributed to radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida.
On the other hand, the official said, "multiple simultaneous attacks targeted at civilians" are a hallmark of al-Qaida operations and the organization typically does not publicly take responsibility for its attacks.
But a senior Homeland Security official said that unlike other al-Qaida attacks since Sept. 11, no increase in "chatter" in terrorist communication channels was detected before the Madrid attacks.
The conflicting signals are forcing analysts to examine other possibilities, including whether the Iraq-based terror group Ansar al-Islam or an ETA offshoot of radical Basques could have bombed the trains, the officials said.
The Spanish government has noted that Thursday attack resembled several recent thwarted actions by ETA.
Authorities derailed an alleged ETA attack last Christmas Eve on a Madrid train station using bombs hidden in backpacks similar to those used in Thursday’s attacks. Basque youths were arrested for that plot.
And two weeks ago, Spanish authorities seized a van driven to Madrid by ETA militants with 500 kg (1,100 pounds) of explosives inside.
But the simultaneous attacks also would be a break with past ETA tactics. ETA has usually gone after one target at a time and the largest casualty toll was 21 killed in 1987.
Death toll rises
The death toll from the attacks rose overnight from 192 to 199, the most recent victim a 7-month-old girl who died of her injuries, authorities said. Aznar said 59 of the more than 1,400 people wounded were in critical or serious condition.
He said 14 foreigners were among the dead: three Peruvians, two Hondurans, two Poles, and a person each from France, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Colombia, Morocco and Guinea-Bissau.
The attack — Europe's worst since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people — occurred when 10 backpack bombs exploded in a 15-minute span early Thursday.
Targeted were trains along nine miles of commuter line from Santa Eugenia to the Atocha terminal, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains just south of the famed Prado Museum. Police also found and detonated three other bombs.
The blasts turned train cars into twisted wrecks and left platforms strewn with corpses. Cell phones rang unanswered on the bodies of the dead as frantic relatives tried to call them.
Many of the injured were hurt as panicked commuters trampled one another as they fled the carnage.
Prime suspect
Both Aznar and Acebes said Friday that ETA remained the prime suspect in the bombings.
“(ETA) is still the main line of investigation," Acebes said at a late-afternoon news conference. "There is no reason for it not to be,” he said, adding that explosives used in the attack were similar to those used in the past by the Basque guerrillas.
Aznar strongly defended his initial statement blaming the group for the attack. But he said after a morning Cabinet meeting that "no line of investigation is going to be ruled out," referring to clues suggesting that Islamic terrorists linked to al-Qaida might have plotted the coordinated bombing blitz.
Among the tantalizing hints that Osama bin Laden's terrorist group might be involved were the discovery of detonators and an Arabic-language cassette with Quranic verses in a stolen van outside Madrid and the fact that the attack occurred exactly 2 1/2 years — and 911 days — after al-Qaida carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. The infamous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon using four hijacked airliners are known around the world by the shorthand reference "9-11."
Spain has been a staunch ally of the United States in Bush's "war on terror" and backed the U.S.-led war on Iraq — including sending troops for security duties — despite domestic opposition. Many al-Qaida-linked terrorists also have been captured in Spain or were believed to have operated from there.
The shadowy Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, which is named after a slain al-Qaida leader and claims to be a component of the terror network, also claimed responsibility for the bombings on Thursday in the name of al-Qaida, but U.S. intelligence officials said they gave the claim little credence.
Election to take place as scheduled
Three days of mourning were declared and campaigning was called off for Spain’s general election, but Foreign Minister Ana Palacio pledged that the vote would be held on Sunday as planned.
“This would be the first way to tell terrorists about our determination to go forward and that they will not succeed in their wicked cause,” Palacio told Australia’s Channel Nine television from Spain.
A major issue throughout the campaign has been how to deal with ETA, the Basque terror group.
Political observers said the determination of responsibility, if it comes quickly, could have an impact on Sunday's election.
If ETA is deemed responsible, that could boost support for Mariano Rajoy, Aznar’s hand-picked successor. Both have supported a crackdown on the violent separatist group.
However, if the bombing is seen by voters as the work of al-Qaida, that could draw attention to Aznar’s widely unpopular decision to support the U.S. war in Iraq.
Both the Popular Party and the opposition Socialists ruled out talks with ETA during the campaign.
ETA is believed by police to number perhaps only several dozen hard-core militants who are supported by a wider group of Basque nationalists.
The government had recently expressed cautious optimism that ETA was near defeat after mass arrests, seizures of weapons and explosives, increased cooperation from France and the banning of ETA’s purported political front. The number of people killed in ETA attacks dropped to three last year.
In Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, members of Spain's royal family, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and EU President Romano Prodi led one column of the crowd as it snaked down the city's main boulevard toward Atocha station, where two of the four bombed trains were attacked Thursday.
A stream of people huddled beneath umbrellas in a steady rain extended for miles toward the starting point at Plaza de Colon, chanting “cowards” and “killers,” whistling, banging drums, carrying black crosses or candles and waving placards saying “No More Killing.”
Authorities estimated that more than 2 million people attended the protest in Madrid.
Millions more turned out in Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and other cities — including Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. State TV said that nationwide, more than 11 million marched — one-quarter of Spain's 42 million people.
Earlier Friday, millions also streamed into the streets at noon for a silent tribute to the dead, while police removed evidence from the shattered commuter trains in the hunt for the bombers.
Expressing solidarity with the Spanish people, President Bush and his wife, Laura, attended a ceremony at the Washington, D.C., residence of Spanish Ambassador Javier Ruperez. After bowing his head during a wreath laying, the president called the deadly terrorist bombings "a grim reminder there are evil people in the world willing to kill innocent people."
Spanish officials initially blamed the Basque terror group ETA for the stunningly well-coordinated series of 10 explosions Thursday during Madrid's rush hour, which wounded nearly 1,400. Later, attention shifted to the possibility that the al-Qaida terrorist oprganization might be responsible.
An unexploded bomb meant to be used Thursday contained explosives similar to a type used by the Basque separatist group ETA in the past, Spain’s interior minister said late Friday.
Speaking to reporters, Interior Minister Angel Acebes confirmed that a sports bag was found Thursday night containing dynamite and with a cell phone for a timer.
The dynamite was of a type — Goma 2-eco — similar to one previously used by ETA, he said. The bomb was reinforced with shrapnel to multiply its effect, Acebes said.
Caller: ETA ‘has no responsibility whatsoever’
A caller claiming to represent ETA telephoned the pro-Basque daily newspaper Gara on Friday and said the separatist group "has no responsibility whatsoever" for the attacks, the paper told The Associated Press. ETA often issues statements through the Basque-language paper.
Arnaldo Otegi, a top Basque politician, also denied ETA was involved and accused Aznar's outgoing government of "lying deliberately" about the bombing to seek political advantage in the elections.
It was believed to be the first time ETA has issued such a denial. The group normally claims its attacks in statements to pro-Basque media outlets several weeks later.
Senior U.S. counterterrorism officials, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said that characteristics of the attack match both ETA and al-Qaida.
One official noted that ETA has "targeted trains, used unsophisticated explosives in bags and backpacks, and triggered bombs in close proximity (of civilians)."
But the official also noted that the group has never launched an attack near the scale of Thursday's and carried out its most deadly operations in the 1960s and 1970s. In the past 2 1/2 years, he noted, ETA has only killed eight people, compared to the more than 4,600 deaths attributed to radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida.
On the other hand, the official said, "multiple simultaneous attacks targeted at civilians" are a hallmark of al-Qaida operations and the organization typically does not publicly take responsibility for its attacks.
But a senior Homeland Security official said that unlike other al-Qaida attacks since Sept. 11, no increase in "chatter" in terrorist communication channels was detected before the Madrid attacks.
The conflicting signals are forcing analysts to examine other possibilities, including whether the Iraq-based terror group Ansar al-Islam or an ETA offshoot of radical Basques could have bombed the trains, the officials said.
The Spanish government has noted that Thursday attack resembled several recent thwarted actions by ETA.
Authorities derailed an alleged ETA attack last Christmas Eve on a Madrid train station using bombs hidden in backpacks similar to those used in Thursday’s attacks. Basque youths were arrested for that plot.
And two weeks ago, Spanish authorities seized a van driven to Madrid by ETA militants with 500 kg (1,100 pounds) of explosives inside.
But the simultaneous attacks also would be a break with past ETA tactics. ETA has usually gone after one target at a time and the largest casualty toll was 21 killed in 1987.
Death toll rises
The death toll from the attacks rose overnight from 192 to 199, the most recent victim a 7-month-old girl who died of her injuries, authorities said. Aznar said 59 of the more than 1,400 people wounded were in critical or serious condition.
He said 14 foreigners were among the dead: three Peruvians, two Hondurans, two Poles, and a person each from France, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Colombia, Morocco and Guinea-Bissau.
The attack — Europe's worst since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people — occurred when 10 backpack bombs exploded in a 15-minute span early Thursday.
Targeted were trains along nine miles of commuter line from Santa Eugenia to the Atocha terminal, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains just south of the famed Prado Museum. Police also found and detonated three other bombs.
The blasts turned train cars into twisted wrecks and left platforms strewn with corpses. Cell phones rang unanswered on the bodies of the dead as frantic relatives tried to call them.
Many of the injured were hurt as panicked commuters trampled one another as they fled the carnage.
Prime suspect
Both Aznar and Acebes said Friday that ETA remained the prime suspect in the bombings.
“(ETA) is still the main line of investigation," Acebes said at a late-afternoon news conference. "There is no reason for it not to be,” he said, adding that explosives used in the attack were similar to those used in the past by the Basque guerrillas.
Aznar strongly defended his initial statement blaming the group for the attack. But he said after a morning Cabinet meeting that "no line of investigation is going to be ruled out," referring to clues suggesting that Islamic terrorists linked to al-Qaida might have plotted the coordinated bombing blitz.
Among the tantalizing hints that Osama bin Laden's terrorist group might be involved were the discovery of detonators and an Arabic-language cassette with Quranic verses in a stolen van outside Madrid and the fact that the attack occurred exactly 2 1/2 years — and 911 days — after al-Qaida carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. The infamous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon using four hijacked airliners are known around the world by the shorthand reference "9-11."
Spain has been a staunch ally of the United States in Bush's "war on terror" and backed the U.S.-led war on Iraq — including sending troops for security duties — despite domestic opposition. Many al-Qaida-linked terrorists also have been captured in Spain or were believed to have operated from there.
The shadowy Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, which is named after a slain al-Qaida leader and claims to be a component of the terror network, also claimed responsibility for the bombings on Thursday in the name of al-Qaida, but U.S. intelligence officials said they gave the claim little credence.
Election to take place as scheduled
Three days of mourning were declared and campaigning was called off for Spain’s general election, but Foreign Minister Ana Palacio pledged that the vote would be held on Sunday as planned.
“This would be the first way to tell terrorists about our determination to go forward and that they will not succeed in their wicked cause,” Palacio told Australia’s Channel Nine television from Spain.
A major issue throughout the campaign has been how to deal with ETA, the Basque terror group.
Political observers said the determination of responsibility, if it comes quickly, could have an impact on Sunday's election.
If ETA is deemed responsible, that could boost support for Mariano Rajoy, Aznar’s hand-picked successor. Both have supported a crackdown on the violent separatist group.
However, if the bombing is seen by voters as the work of al-Qaida, that could draw attention to Aznar’s widely unpopular decision to support the U.S. war in Iraq.
Both the Popular Party and the opposition Socialists ruled out talks with ETA during the campaign.
ETA is believed by police to number perhaps only several dozen hard-core militants who are supported by a wider group of Basque nationalists.
The government had recently expressed cautious optimism that ETA was near defeat after mass arrests, seizures of weapons and explosives, increased cooperation from France and the banning of ETA’s purported political front. The number of people killed in ETA attacks dropped to three last year.
