The state funerals for the Spanish intelligence agents killed in Iraq were held today; it is a day of national mourning and the flags are flying at half-mast. Prime Minister Aznar will speak in Parliament today about the Spanish mission in Iraq; he's been criticized by the SocioCommies for some reason. Apparently it's not appropriate for the PM to speak in Parliament on the day of a state funeral. I don't know why they would care, since they've never given a shit about the Army or the intelligence services--they consider the military and state security forces to be reactionary leftovers from the Franco regime. They have demanded several times in the past that the former CESID, now the CNI (National Intelligence Center), be shut down. Their whining about Spanish lives lost is pretty pathetic, since those lives that were lost were the SocioCommies' ideological enemies. (Most of the dead were high-ranking officers, colonels and brigadiers and the like. I believe only one was enlisted and he was a sergeant.)

Communist leader Gas has been blasting the government for the past three days over anything he can think of. Fortunately, I don't think anyone but the usual suspects is taking him seriously. Zap has kept his mouth pretty much shut so far, which is quite professional of him, though I'm afraid he'll shoot off his mouth today in Parliament.

There are conflicting reports about where the ambush that killed the Spaniards happened; the Vanguardia says it was in Latifiya. They got caught in a crossfire between a vehicle that sneaked up behind them and a bunch of snipers holed up on the roofs of buildings. They were riding in two 4x4s; the driver of the first one was killed by a sniper shot and a shootout ensued. The Spaniards, overconfidently, were carrying only pistols and were traveling all together without an escort. They were all killed except one who managed to flee, commandeered a car, went to the next town down the road, and got the Iraqi police, who called in Coalition troops and headed for the scene. The Iraqis got there 45 minutes after the shootout; by then the vehicles and the bodies had been torched and a few local scumballs were dancing around on top of them. Minister of Defense Trillo believes that there was a leak, that one of the agents' contacts betrayed them to the terrorists.

Here's something stinky. The Israeli ambassador to Spain was supposed to speak at the Carlos III University in Madrid. Some students threatened to disrupt the speech and the university chicken-heartedly cancelled it. Israel considers this just one more step in the European university boycott against them.

Tikrit Tommy Alcoverro says, of course, that the shootout in Samarra in which 54 terrorists were killed is just another example of how evil the Americans are. I haven't got the heart to translate it all, so I'll just throw in a few sentences:

The Iraqi resistance...occupying troops...American bombardment of houses, mosques, and schools...a violent and disproportionate attack...strengthens the will of the resistance...used their great firepower blindly and indiscriminately...

Gee, Tommy, it's interesting that you criticize everything America does. Our guys get ambushed and you say they shouldn't shoot back. If they hadn't shot back, they'd have wound up like the seven Spaniards, Tommy. It's also interesting that Tommy says that this terrorist defeat will only strengthen their will, but whenever Americans get killed it hurts our troops' morale. And have we ever bombed a terrorist stronghold? Not according to Tommy. We bomb only hospitals and schools. And, of course, Tommy has reported absolutely nothing positive, not the lights coming back on or the schools opening up or the lack of hunger and disease or the turning over of police power to the Iraqis or the massive rebuilding of the infrastructure.

He certainly hasn't reported that the coalition has captured 5000 terrorists so far in the Iraqi postwar or that we almost certainly just got Izzat Ibrahim, the boss of the Saddam Fedayeen and one of Saddam's intimate buddies.

They did report that we're going to send home a hundred and forty of the least dangerous prisoners at Guantanamo, and they're claiming it's due to the efforts of human rights groups. I doubt it. I think it's because they got all the info they could out of those small fry and decided we could go ahead and deport them. and I'll bet that the prisons they get stuck in in Pakistan or Jordan or Saudi or wherever they came from are considerably less pleasant than Guantanamo.

By the way, in case you're interested, here is a collection of communiques from the "Spanish Brigades" who hung around Baghdad for a while in April. It's in English. Check it out. Count how many times the word "aggression" is used, and they're not talking about Saddam Hussein.

You might be surprised at where Spanish anti-Americans get their beliefs from. Their main source of "facts" is the Democrat Party. for instance, there's been a lot of charges made that Bush doesn't care about US soldiers because he doesn't go to their funerals. Actually, it is very rare for US Presidents to go to military funerals, especially when a war is on; this is not a precedent Bush is setting. Also, there is a ton of charges being made that the Americans are covering up and censoring the fact that our soldiers are getting killed by forbidding the press from covering their funerals. This is simply not true. The press can cover all the funerals they want. What they can't do is interview anybody (family members, etc.) who doesn't want to be interviewed. This is not censorship. Anyway, you might check out this Charles Krauthammer piece on the subject.