Spain campaigned to blame ETA (MSNBC-Wash Post)

[WillyT]

Spain campaigned to blame ETA
Despite contrary evidence, focus was on Basque group

By Keith B. Richburg
Updated: 12:20 a.m. ET March 17, 2004



<snip>

MADRID, March 16 - In the first frantic hours after coordinated bomb blasts ripped through several packed commuter trains Thursday morning, the government of outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar undertook an intense campaign to convince the Spanish public and world opinion-makers that the Basque separatist group ETA had carried out the attacks, which killed 201 people and wounded more than 1,500.

Beginning immediately after the blasts, Aznar and other officials telephoned journalists, stressing ETA's responsibility and dismissing speculation that Islamic extremists might be involved. Spanish diplomats pushed a hastily drafted resolution blaming ETA through the U.N. Security Council. At an afternoon news conference, when a reporter suggested the possibility of an al Qaeda connection, the interior minister, Angel Acebes, angrily denounced it as "a miserable attempt to disrupt information and confuse people."

"There is no doubt that ETA is responsible," Acebes said.

Within days, that assertion was in tatters, and with it the reputation and fortunes of the ruling party. Suspicion that the government manipulated information -- blaming ETA in order to divert any possible link between the bombings and Aznar's unpopular support for the war in Iraq -- helped fuel the upset victory of the Socialist Workers' Party in Sunday's elections. By then, Islamic extremists linked to al Qaeda had become the focus of the investigation.

<snip>

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4542904/

So our office of misinformation is still up and running I take it? Both at home, and abroad... perhaps???

:nuke::shrug::nuke:

FUCK!!! And Damn You Too!!!

:cry::cry::cry:

[WillyT]

1. My Humble Apologies - This Is A Dupe !!!

Please delete me, and be tender about it, M-Kay??

LOL

[Moderator]

2. Please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=426872