The police have confirmed that five terrorists were killed in the explosion in Leganes that also killed a police officer. Three of them are identified as among the six men international search warrents were issued for. The other three are thought to have escaped. The fourth dead terrorist is Asri Rifaat Anouar, and the fifth has not been identified.

Three more warrants have been issued for Amer El Aziz, Sanel Sjekirica, and Rabei Osman Ahmed. The police consider they have rounded up most of those responsible for the 3/11 bombing and identified most of the rest. A total of five terrorists are dead and 15 jailed, including five of the actual bombers, Zougam, Chaoui, Bekkali, Zbakh (the bombmaker), and Ghayoun. The other ten jailed are accused of collaboration. Nine arrested people have been freed due to lack of evidence against them.

Some bunch of people calling themselves the Abu Najaf al-Afghani Group Ansar Al Qaeda is claiming responsibility for the 3/11 bombings and the bomb planted on the high-speed train tracks that didn't go off. I thought we'd all agreed it was the Moroccan Islamist Combatants Group, but I suppose it's more than possible that these guys might have multiple affiliations, and it has been said that the 3/11 terrorist cell (almost all Moroccans) was more closely affiliated with Al Qaeda itself than with Al Qaeda's Moroccan franchise, the Islamist Combatants.

In good news, the French arrested 15 sleeper terrorists thought to be connected to the Islamist Combatants, and the French also pulled off a major ETA bust, getting Feliz Alberto Lopez de Lacalle, "Mobutu", ETA's number two; his girlfriend and accomplice Mercedes Chivite; and Inaki Esparza, ETA's logistics commander, along with an arsenal of guns and explosives. Congratulations to the French police and security services, who always do a good job no matter how obnoxious their government is. Two more arrests have been made following up on these three.

OK, I often have some fun with the left-wing wackos around here, but it's time for me to have a go at a right-wing nut, Pio Moa. Moa, as you may or may not know, is a former Grapo terrorist; the Grapo are sort of like the Baader-Meinhoffs or the Red Brigades, an ultra-Stalinist terrorist gang. Incredibly, they still exist. Anyway, Moa has jumped over to the right. One thing about conspiracy-mongerers is that they have a similar attitude no matter whether they're on the left or on the right. In this bit (from Libertad Digital) Moa goes on for a while about the Masonic conspiracy and then switches gears:

It's obvious who's benefited from the bombings, and who have been cheered by its electoral effects: Mohammed VI (King of Morocco), Chirac, Islamic fundamentalism, Catalan and Basque separatism, even Fidel Castro and the United Left communists. All of them have profited and are profiting from the electoral victory of Zapatero, who, in one way or another, they consider the ideal man for their interests in Spain. It is undeniable evidence, dignified of the greatest attention, being secondary, although not unimportant, the hidden fact of whether any or various of them organized, inspired, or permitted the bombings...What is going to have real political effects is the benefit received by these forces and the character of those forces, whether they are behind the attack or at its margin. Therefore, we will have to prepare ourselves for four years in which these who profited from the massacre are going to enjoy unusual power. Regarding their character, all of them, except Chirac, are direct enemies of democracy in Spain, and Chirac is an enemy of Spanish influence in Europe. The enemies of democracy and the unity and influence of Spain are thrilled, at the moment.

Now, now, Mr. Moa. We know the radical terrorist wing of the Islamic fundamentalists did the bombing, and I have no problem in the naming of them as behind the bombings. They did it. That's pretty clear. But is it responsible to insinuate, and Mr. Moa is more than insinuating, the involvement of the King of Morocco (unlikely, he's afraid of the fundamentalist terrorists too), of Jacques Chirac (Chirac's a crook and a weasel but not even he would blow up 200 Europeans for political purposes), the Catalan and Basque separatists (the ETA may well have had a hand in planning or executing the bombings, I wouldn't rule it out, but the non-violent separatists, no matter how politically wrong they are, aren't murderers), of Fidel Castro (how does he fit in? I hate Castro too, but let's not blame him for stuff he didn't do), and of the United Left (they're Communists and I don't trust them at all, but they don't openly support terrorism most of the time)?

No, it is not responsible. The responsible thing to do is exactly what the government is doing, getting the guys who did it and seeing that they are punished. Then we find out who's behind them, which sure looks to be Al Qaeda. Now comes the part that Zapatero can't deal with: we go after Al Qaeda and all Al Qaeda's friends, including everyone from Arafat to Hamas to Saddam to Hezbollah. It's not going to do a damn bit of good taking out only Al Qaeda, since obviously more terrorists are going to sprout up where they came from--these rogue regimes (Saddam, Assad, the Iranian mullahs, Kim, the Palestinian Authority), failed states (Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon), and unpleasant dictatorships with rogue elements within them (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan). Wanna talk about the root causes of terrorism? Try radical fundamentalist Islamic / Arab nationalist West-hating Jew-hating ideology.

Now, there's not any question in my mind that the Socialists, the United Left, and the Catalan and Basque nationalists and separatists DID intentionally take advantage of the bombings as a political weapon against Aznar, Rajoy, and the PP. To their eternal disgrace and shame. But let's not confuse their taking political profit from the massacre AFTER it happened and their having been in on the massacre BEFORE it happened. You can justifiably accuse them of the former--I just did--, but it's conspiracy nutcase-hood to allege the latter, that anyone besides Al Qaeda terrorists was behind the Madrid massacre.

Here's Alfredo Abian from today's La Vanguardia in the signed page 2 editorial. It's titled "Alien takes over the European spaceship".

Some experts on Islamic terrorism have been alerting us about the radicalization of its new combatants for some time.

Well, Al, actually they've been alerting us about the radicalization of ALL Islamic terrorists for some time.

With unforgivable simplism,

Is Al referring to the Americans again?

in Europe we have had many who thought that this previously unseen alien was a predictable self-defensive monster against the aggressions that Islam suffered from, of course, the United States.

He's not! But that doesn't excuse La Vanguardia for having argued exactly that for the last, I dunno, fifteen years or so.

The ostrich-syndrome has been so great that the most-heard melody after the 3/11 massacre attributed it exclusively to the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq.

And your newspaper played that tune so sweetly...

Let us hope that after the accumulation of tragedies and surprises, we will leave naivete to one side and admit that what happened in Madrid is a full confirmation that Europe has become the spaceship inside which the new alien can move around best.

The first step toward getting rid of that naivete is recognizing that the "new alien" is the same old one that did Lockerbie, the Munich Olympics, the Lebanon hostages, the Achille Lauro, the African embassies, 9-11, the bombings in Israel--shall I continue?

Religious medievalism camouflages itself under Western behavior and tries to convert immigrants into invading troops to spread its particular jihad.

How quick do you think the current feeling in Spain, which I am not callying "hysteria" because it isn't, is going to turn anti-immigrant? My bet is real fast.

Although it shares its methods and a global hate for progress with Binladenism, it organizes itself autonomously.

No, no, Al. Bin Laden is a religious fanatic, remember? These autonomously organized cells made up of long-term sleepers and their recruits are standard Al Qaeda practice, nothing new. This was an Al Qaeda hit.

Its operative centers are no longer only in Kandahar, but in the suburbs of European capitals.

This is news, Al?

And now what we all have to do, along with our Maghrebi neighbors, is to be active in self-defense and emulate those Palestinian mothers who watch their children so that they are not coopted by psychopaths who offer them oceans of honey and virgin maidens in exchange for self-immolation.

How about starting off, since we're going to begin self-defense activity, by keeping our troops in Iraq fighting the terrorists? And I sure hope those Palestinian mothers Al refers to really exist and aren't just the fruit of his overactive imagination.