Final report due on Madrid train bombings
Politicians met today to vote on a final report on the Madrid train bombings, ending a year of acrimonious debate on whether conservatives in power at the time of the massacre could have foreseen it and later lied about who was responsible.
The report by the 16-member commission will be debated in parliament and voted on in the last session before the legislature breaks for a summer recess.
Socialists who were voted into power three days after the March 11, 2004, attack were expected to present a draft that argues that conservatives under then-Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar ignored warnings from intelligence services that Spain could be targeted by Muslim extremists, in particular because of Aznar’s widely unpopular decision to send troops to Iraq.
The Socialists also say Aznar’s government lied in a bid to save the election by insisting that Basque separatists were behind the bombings, even as evidence of an Islamic link emerged.
The backpack bombs that exploded on the Madrid commuter rail network killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500. In a video claim of responsibility, militants who said they had acted on behalf of al Qaida in revenge for Aznar’s deployment of troops to Iraq.
Shortly after taking power, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero brought Spain’s 1,300 troops home, but insisted he was simply complying with a campaign pledge, not caving in to terrorists.
Conservatives on the panel are expected to argue the government did not ignore warnings about Spain’s potential risk for an Islamic terrorist attack and told the truth about who was believed responsible.
