If this piece from Front Page is true, then a Yale history lecturer has just been denied tenure for writing a book critical of the Left during the Spanish Civil War. Stanley Payne, the well-known Hispanist and professor at the University of Wisconsin, said that the lecturer's book would break new ground in the study of Spain and the Civil War. In case you don't know him, Professor Payne has written many books on Spain, including a fine general history of Iberia, books on Fascism and Communism in Europe, and three excellent studies of Spanish politics before and during the Civil War, one of which is brand-new. Payne is one of the few academics, in America or anywhere else, who attempts to give a "fair and balanced" perspective on the Civil War. That is, he's not blindly pro-Left. In fact, he's not even pro-Left at all! He is extremely critical of BOTH sides, but he's most famous for being critical of the Left because no one else of his stature dares to do so. And he speaks up for the lecturer's work.
But the Yale faculty refused to give tenure to the lecturer, who I hope will light out for Wisconsin to work with Payne or to a university of conservative intellectual bent such as Chicago or Pepperdine. That's what happens when you buck the majority in today's American academic world.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Thursday, April 08, 2004
I think we actually have a tiny scoop here. Sanel Sjekirika, one of those wanted by Spanish police for participation in the 3/11 bombings, is Bosnian, at least according to this Slovenian website that linked to us. I thought his name sounded more Slavic than Moroccan, but I didn't twig he was Bosnian. This is interesting. It means some of those--well, at least one of those--who fought with the Muslims in Bosnia got radicalized and joined up with the bad guys. How soon do you want to bet somebody like Beirut Bob Fisk figures this out and starts blaming the Americans for supporting and arming the Bosnian Muslims back under the Clinton Administration?
Lots of terrorist news. Now they're saying that there might well have been seven terrorists killed in the Leganes explosion. If you look at the pictures they sure blew the hell out of the place. One of their bodies was catapulted into an empty swimming pool in the inside patio of the apartment building.
They were planning an attentat in or near Madrid for this week, which is Semana Santa, Holy Week, a time when there is a lot of traveling because everybody gets Good Friday off and there's a three-day weekend. A lot of people are taking today, Thursday, off too; the schools are mostly closed. Anyway, the terrorists had 185 kilos of dynamite, which is a hell of a lot when you figure that each of the 13 backpack bombs planted on 3/11 had about 10-12 kilos of dynamite in it. They also had plenty of detonators and everything else they could possibly have needed. That Leganes flat was an all-purpose arsenal.
Anyway, four of the dead guys have been identified, and the other three have not; none of them is among the wanted terrorists, six of them, whose identity has been made public. Specifically, none of them is Mohamed or Rachid Oulad or Said Berraj, the three suspected bomb-planters still at large. Meanwhile, two more arrestees were arraigned and jailed by Judge Juan del Olmo; they are Abdelilah El Fuad and Rachid Adli, both Moroccans. They are thought to be minor accomplices rather than big players.
"The Tunisian", now happily dead, was the organizer on the ground of the 3/11 attacks. His contact with Al Qaeda was Amir Azizi, co-boss of the Spanish Al Qaeda cell broken up in November 2001 (the other co-boss was Abu Dahdah, in jail still awaiting trial); Azizi was the conduit between "The Tunisian" and Zougam and Balkh and company, and Al-Zarqawi, one of Ben Laden's collaborators. Azizi is extremely badly wanted by the Spanish police.
Trivia note: "The Tunisian" received 30,000 euros of Spanish government scholarship money to study for four years, 1994-1998, at the Autonomous University of Madrid. An interesting point is that he was radicalized at this time, after arriving in Spain. He did not come here as a sleeper agent, not originally.
Just to demonstrate that there is some intelligent life in Spain, at least among the 35% who voted for the PP, here's a piece by Florencio Dominguez from today's La Vanguardia. It's called "Causes and Pretexts".
The 3/11 bombings have started a debate about the roots of Islamic terrorism and the most efficient method to combat it. The demonstrated lethality and the indiscriminate selection of the vicitms has caused a degree of fear in society greater than any other form of violence that we have suffered in the past. In addition, the willingness to commit suicide of the perpetrators of these attentats make older methods useful to combat other forms of terrorism obsolete.
The vision the progressives love is the appeal to the need to understand the causes that provoke terrorism to appear. They make use of explanations that make reference to the interventions in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the aftereffects of colonialism. Frequently the image of terrorists that come from the pockets of poverty or the oppression of the Muslim countries, who act motivated by the righteous need to settle old scores, is broadcast.
One of the founders of ETA, Julen Madariaga, "Ahmed" while he was an exile in Algeria, expressed yesterday a vision of this sort: "On an international scale, I understand, on the one hand, the reaction of these peoples, who are defending themselves the way they can." Madariaga stated that the Westerners had committed "cruelty and barbarity" in Iraq and that "they cannot defend themselves as they should be able to" against the military power of the "American giant", so they "answer back as they can."
"They send their commandos and do things like we have seen in Madrid or the Twin Towers of New York. Those attentats were a reply to all that," he added, forgetting that the Twin Towers were attacked long before the intervention in Iraq.
The vision of Islamic terrorism as a response to offenses and injustice conflicts frequently with the facts reality shows. It is difficult to make this posture cohere with the fact that the leader of Al Qaeda is a multimillionaire who has put his burgeoning resources to the service of his cause, or that the most radical and rigorous interpretation of Islam, that which feeds the majority of the terrorists, comes from the opulent Saudi Arabia and spreads through the world financed by the petrodollars that have enriched the bosses of that country.
Reality also frequently dismantles the image of the Islamic terrorist as a hopeless pariah. Just look at the list of suspects from 3/11: the boss of the group, the sadly notorious Tunisian, had been at the university, like another of those the police are looking for; one of those in jail has a degree in chemistry; another is the owner of a phone shop; "El Chino" and his family had a clothing wholesale business, as did other suspects now in jail. This profile does not correspond to that of unfortunate individuals, just the opposite of the many thousands of immigrants, whether Muslims or not, who have to make their own way every day working at the hardest and worst-paid jobs without for one moment thinking of violence.
If we're looking for the causes, we should look at what causes the fanaticism which moves all terrorists and, in particular, the Islamist ones. Probably sectarian indoctrination is a lot more important than the intervention in Iraq. When we look for the roots of this situation, we should pay attention to Professor Fernando Reinares, an expert in the study of violence: "It's important not to confuse causes with pretexts." For now we know a lot about the pretexts but very little about the causes.
I boldfaced the two bits I thought were particularly good.
They were planning an attentat in or near Madrid for this week, which is Semana Santa, Holy Week, a time when there is a lot of traveling because everybody gets Good Friday off and there's a three-day weekend. A lot of people are taking today, Thursday, off too; the schools are mostly closed. Anyway, the terrorists had 185 kilos of dynamite, which is a hell of a lot when you figure that each of the 13 backpack bombs planted on 3/11 had about 10-12 kilos of dynamite in it. They also had plenty of detonators and everything else they could possibly have needed. That Leganes flat was an all-purpose arsenal.
Anyway, four of the dead guys have been identified, and the other three have not; none of them is among the wanted terrorists, six of them, whose identity has been made public. Specifically, none of them is Mohamed or Rachid Oulad or Said Berraj, the three suspected bomb-planters still at large. Meanwhile, two more arrestees were arraigned and jailed by Judge Juan del Olmo; they are Abdelilah El Fuad and Rachid Adli, both Moroccans. They are thought to be minor accomplices rather than big players.
"The Tunisian", now happily dead, was the organizer on the ground of the 3/11 attacks. His contact with Al Qaeda was Amir Azizi, co-boss of the Spanish Al Qaeda cell broken up in November 2001 (the other co-boss was Abu Dahdah, in jail still awaiting trial); Azizi was the conduit between "The Tunisian" and Zougam and Balkh and company, and Al-Zarqawi, one of Ben Laden's collaborators. Azizi is extremely badly wanted by the Spanish police.
Trivia note: "The Tunisian" received 30,000 euros of Spanish government scholarship money to study for four years, 1994-1998, at the Autonomous University of Madrid. An interesting point is that he was radicalized at this time, after arriving in Spain. He did not come here as a sleeper agent, not originally.
Just to demonstrate that there is some intelligent life in Spain, at least among the 35% who voted for the PP, here's a piece by Florencio Dominguez from today's La Vanguardia. It's called "Causes and Pretexts".
The 3/11 bombings have started a debate about the roots of Islamic terrorism and the most efficient method to combat it. The demonstrated lethality and the indiscriminate selection of the vicitms has caused a degree of fear in society greater than any other form of violence that we have suffered in the past. In addition, the willingness to commit suicide of the perpetrators of these attentats make older methods useful to combat other forms of terrorism obsolete.
The vision the progressives love is the appeal to the need to understand the causes that provoke terrorism to appear. They make use of explanations that make reference to the interventions in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the aftereffects of colonialism. Frequently the image of terrorists that come from the pockets of poverty or the oppression of the Muslim countries, who act motivated by the righteous need to settle old scores, is broadcast.
One of the founders of ETA, Julen Madariaga, "Ahmed" while he was an exile in Algeria, expressed yesterday a vision of this sort: "On an international scale, I understand, on the one hand, the reaction of these peoples, who are defending themselves the way they can." Madariaga stated that the Westerners had committed "cruelty and barbarity" in Iraq and that "they cannot defend themselves as they should be able to" against the military power of the "American giant", so they "answer back as they can."
"They send their commandos and do things like we have seen in Madrid or the Twin Towers of New York. Those attentats were a reply to all that," he added, forgetting that the Twin Towers were attacked long before the intervention in Iraq.
The vision of Islamic terrorism as a response to offenses and injustice conflicts frequently with the facts reality shows. It is difficult to make this posture cohere with the fact that the leader of Al Qaeda is a multimillionaire who has put his burgeoning resources to the service of his cause, or that the most radical and rigorous interpretation of Islam, that which feeds the majority of the terrorists, comes from the opulent Saudi Arabia and spreads through the world financed by the petrodollars that have enriched the bosses of that country.
Reality also frequently dismantles the image of the Islamic terrorist as a hopeless pariah. Just look at the list of suspects from 3/11: the boss of the group, the sadly notorious Tunisian, had been at the university, like another of those the police are looking for; one of those in jail has a degree in chemistry; another is the owner of a phone shop; "El Chino" and his family had a clothing wholesale business, as did other suspects now in jail. This profile does not correspond to that of unfortunate individuals, just the opposite of the many thousands of immigrants, whether Muslims or not, who have to make their own way every day working at the hardest and worst-paid jobs without for one moment thinking of violence.
If we're looking for the causes, we should look at what causes the fanaticism which moves all terrorists and, in particular, the Islamist ones. Probably sectarian indoctrination is a lot more important than the intervention in Iraq. When we look for the roots of this situation, we should pay attention to Professor Fernando Reinares, an expert in the study of violence: "It's important not to confuse causes with pretexts." For now we know a lot about the pretexts but very little about the causes.
I boldfaced the two bits I thought were particularly good.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Oye, compadres, dees ees Espeedy Gonzalez wit de noos. De po-leese tink dere were sees sooiside bombers en de apartamento dat de terroriss bloo up in Leganes. Cool. Sees sooiside bombers fewer to worry about. De Peepol's Party deed not want to march wit de rest ov de po-litical pardies ayer porque da Communiss an Socialiss dun took over da march agin de terrorismo an shouted No a la guerra an mierda like that. Andele! Arriba! I am de fasses mouse in all Barselona! Da Vanguardia be admittin dat dere ees panico ein Leganes an een da ress ov Esspain. Espeedy Gonzalez do not esee da panico o da heesteeria aqui een Barsalona. Da Tuneesian, dat bad mofo, he be dead. He one bad mofo, dat Toonessien.
Monday, April 05, 2004
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.
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.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
As everyone must know by now, since this happened yesterday evening local time, four terrorists blew themselves up when surrounded by Spanish police in an apartment in the Madrid working-class suburb of Leganes. The dead include "The Tunisian", Jamal Ahmidan, and Abdennabi Kounjaa, three of the suspects with international arrest warrents on them, and a fourth yet unidentified man. They took a police officer with them, Javier Torrontera, age 41, with two children. 12 other police officers were injured, none especially seriously. They're all in good condition at local hospitals.
At about 5:30 local time yesterday afternoon, the police began their raid on a Leganes apartment they knew some of the terrorists were hiding out in. The terrorists started shooting, and by 6 PM the cops had the area evacuated and cordoned off. Between 6 and 8 PM the terrorists held out in a desultory shootout with the police. At 8 PM the helicopters were over the area, and at 9 PM the GEOs, the "Grupo Especial de Operaciones", the Spanish SWAT team, assaulted the apartment. The terrorists then blew themselves up with a bomb, killing themselves and Torrontera. Inside the apartment were found 200 detonators and ten kilos of unexploded dynamite.
This is war, folks. Get used to it, because Zap's not going to be much help, I don't think.
At about 5:30 local time yesterday afternoon, the police began their raid on a Leganes apartment they knew some of the terrorists were hiding out in. The terrorists started shooting, and by 6 PM the cops had the area evacuated and cordoned off. Between 6 and 8 PM the terrorists held out in a desultory shootout with the police. At 8 PM the helicopters were over the area, and at 9 PM the GEOs, the "Grupo Especial de Operaciones", the Spanish SWAT team, assaulted the apartment. The terrorists then blew themselves up with a bomb, killing themselves and Torrontera. Inside the apartment were found 200 detonators and ten kilos of unexploded dynamite.
This is war, folks. Get used to it, because Zap's not going to be much help, I don't think.
Friday, April 02, 2004
As I'm sure you already know, they found a bomb on the high-speed rail line between Madrid and Seville. No one was hurt, fortunately; inspectors found the bomb while doing a routine daily check. They'd buried the bomb in the railbed and there was a hundred-meter cable running from there to the bushes. The bomb didn't go off because the timer had not been set, which means the official hypothesis is that whoever planted the bomb was disturbed before finishing the job. The dynamite used in the bomb is the same as that used in the 3/11 Madrid bombings.
This is what happens when you appease terrorists--they come back for some more. La Vangua ran a story saying that they suspect there are 300 Moroccan Islamist Combatent Group affiliates in Spain, which means there are plenty more where Jamal Zougam and Abderraman Balkh came from.
The incoming Spanish government and most of the Spanish people do not seem to recognize that they, too, are at war with Al Qaeda. See, no matter how peaceful you want to be and however good your intentions are, if they want to kill you they're going to at least give it a try. The current illusion de jour is that Al Qaeda hit Spain because Aznar supported American and sent troops to Iraq, and if that hadn't happened Madrid wouldn't have been bombed. Dream on, Spaniards, keep dreaming. 3/11 didn't wake most of you up. Neither will this little incident. Al Qaeda hates you because you are degenerate Westerners whose women are prostitutes, Spaniards. They don't hate you because of Aznar. They don't know or care who Aznar is. They want to kill and destroy the West because the West is unholy and Satanic--and, ironically, it's the peace and love mutliculti lefties who make noise about sexual freedom and gay rights and freethinking and individual rights and women's equality whom Al Qaeda despises most.
I am terribly afraid that what wakes Spain up is going to be something on a 9/11 scale.
This is what happens when you appease terrorists--they come back for some more. La Vangua ran a story saying that they suspect there are 300 Moroccan Islamist Combatent Group affiliates in Spain, which means there are plenty more where Jamal Zougam and Abderraman Balkh came from.
The incoming Spanish government and most of the Spanish people do not seem to recognize that they, too, are at war with Al Qaeda. See, no matter how peaceful you want to be and however good your intentions are, if they want to kill you they're going to at least give it a try. The current illusion de jour is that Al Qaeda hit Spain because Aznar supported American and sent troops to Iraq, and if that hadn't happened Madrid wouldn't have been bombed. Dream on, Spaniards, keep dreaming. 3/11 didn't wake most of you up. Neither will this little incident. Al Qaeda hates you because you are degenerate Westerners whose women are prostitutes, Spaniards. They don't hate you because of Aznar. They don't know or care who Aznar is. They want to kill and destroy the West because the West is unholy and Satanic--and, ironically, it's the peace and love mutliculti lefties who make noise about sexual freedom and gay rights and freethinking and individual rights and women's equality whom Al Qaeda despises most.
I am terribly afraid that what wakes Spain up is going to be something on a 9/11 scale.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Christopher Buckley has a very funny short story in this month's Atlantic. Check it out. If you liked Thank You for Smoking, you'll like this one.
All baseball fans will want to check out this new site called the Hardball Times; it's one hundred percent better than every other source of baseball information out there, barring Rob Neyer's column and his and Rany Jayazerli's blog. Rob and Rany are just two guys, though; at the Hardball Times they have like twelve, all young writers and/or bloggers who know their stuff cold.
Matthew Namee, who is Bill James's research assistant, is one of the writers, but the one I like best is Aaron Gleeman. He's a college kid up at Minnesota and he's the best writer of the bunch, with a personal style that's inimitable. He doesn't take things too seriously, but you can tell he both loves and knows baseball. His blog is linked over there on the left, but I'll bet he doesn't keep it going. Seriously, Aaron, if you read this, I'd put the blog on hiatus and focus on the Hardball Times, where you're going to get a lot more readers.
Check out his play-by-play of the Opening Day game in Japan. It's dead-on and it's also hilarious. In this episode Aaron has some fun with Harold Reynolds, the none-too-bright ESPN announcer who's third man in the booth.
Harold Reynolds just said he thinks "the ball jumps more" in a domed stadium when it is full with people. Someone should study this, if they haven't already. It would seem to be fairly easy to do, and I'm about 99% sure Reynolds is just talking out of his ass, like he usually is.
...Crawford hits a high pop up to Jeter, who catches the ball, stumbles, and then falls right on his ass. Reynolds giggles like a school-girl and then, wouldn't you know it, gives Jeter credit for "not taking his eye off the ball."
...Reynolds: "That's the advantage of having a guy with the range of a shortstop at third base." As opposed to what they're used to, a guy with the range of a potted plant playing shortstop.
Baldelli grounds out to the potted plant for the third out.
...Reynolds said ARod has gained weight and, in his opinion, couldn't even play shortstop now. Right. ARod could suddenly have an obese Siamese twin surgically attached to him and I'd play him there over Jeter.
...Reynolds: "This whole steroid thing has been blown so far out of proportion."
Sheffield walks, putting men on 1st and 2nd. Ravech: "How can you say now it is blown out of proportion?"
Reynolds: "It was only five percent of the players. You can go anywhere in America to a health club to make yourself bigger, stronger, faster."
Reason #5,301,495 why I don't pay attention to any of this steroids stuff.
Matthew Namee, who is Bill James's research assistant, is one of the writers, but the one I like best is Aaron Gleeman. He's a college kid up at Minnesota and he's the best writer of the bunch, with a personal style that's inimitable. He doesn't take things too seriously, but you can tell he both loves and knows baseball. His blog is linked over there on the left, but I'll bet he doesn't keep it going. Seriously, Aaron, if you read this, I'd put the blog on hiatus and focus on the Hardball Times, where you're going to get a lot more readers.
Check out his play-by-play of the Opening Day game in Japan. It's dead-on and it's also hilarious. In this episode Aaron has some fun with Harold Reynolds, the none-too-bright ESPN announcer who's third man in the booth.
Harold Reynolds just said he thinks "the ball jumps more" in a domed stadium when it is full with people. Someone should study this, if they haven't already. It would seem to be fairly easy to do, and I'm about 99% sure Reynolds is just talking out of his ass, like he usually is.
...Crawford hits a high pop up to Jeter, who catches the ball, stumbles, and then falls right on his ass. Reynolds giggles like a school-girl and then, wouldn't you know it, gives Jeter credit for "not taking his eye off the ball."
...Reynolds: "That's the advantage of having a guy with the range of a shortstop at third base." As opposed to what they're used to, a guy with the range of a potted plant playing shortstop.
Baldelli grounds out to the potted plant for the third out.
...Reynolds said ARod has gained weight and, in his opinion, couldn't even play shortstop now. Right. ARod could suddenly have an obese Siamese twin surgically attached to him and I'd play him there over Jeter.
...Reynolds: "This whole steroid thing has been blown so far out of proportion."
Sheffield walks, putting men on 1st and 2nd. Ravech: "How can you say now it is blown out of proportion?"
Reynolds: "It was only five percent of the players. You can go anywhere in America to a health club to make yourself bigger, stronger, faster."
Reason #5,301,495 why I don't pay attention to any of this steroids stuff.
Well, here's the news; it's pretty unpleasant to start with. As you almost certainly know, four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, near Baghdad in the Sunni Triangle. They were shot to death and then their bodies were burned and hung from a bridge. It was apparently more of a lynching than a terrorist hit, according to La Vanguardia, which picked the story up from Reuters, of course; that is, they say it was a quickly organized small mob of locals rather than the typical international terrorists or Saddam Fedayeen. Now, according to Fox News and the Associated Press, it was a planned attack committed by the same terrorist gunmen as usual, and that the crowd then torched the bodies, defiled them, and hung them off the bridge.
Beirut Bob Fisk knows people who were there; at least that's what his piece in the Vanguardia implies. He spends two and a half columns describing in loving detail exactly what happened; then, of course, there's the obligatory disclaimer that it was "horrible". Both Bob and La Vangua point out that these images are apparently not being shown on American TV and imply government censorship. You, of course, do not want to see them.
But La Vanguardia has a front-page color picture, six inches by nine or so, in which you can see two burned bodies hanging off a green-painted steel bridge. There are about ten or twelve people visible in the photo, several of whom are identifiable and most of whom are cheering. Apparently the whole thing was filmed.
My attitude is that American and Iraqi forces should get all the film they can, go into Fallujah, and arrest everybody that was part of the mob--not more than about 100, from the looks of things--and put them on trial for murder. Let's not go off half-cocked with some sort of revenge attack which, though fully justified, would be counterproductive.
Meanwhile, five American soldiers were killed in a car bombing in the Baghdad suburbs. Now, this is not good news at all, but remember that we had more success in February than in January, and more in January than December. March was a bloody month but not as bad as last November, the peak of violence. It seems, through reading the European press, that Iraq is an inferno where you can't walk the street without being "butchered like a sheep", as Beirut Bob so elegantly put it, when in reality most of the country (according to what I read in the American and some of the British press and in most of the Iraqi blogs) is about as safe as Barcelona.
Oh, by the way, as for the war on terrorism, there's been a string of busts in Turkey, Belgium, and Holland of some of our terrorist friends in a radical Turkish Islamic group, and in Britain there's been a roundup of a bunch of scumballs who were trying to make a Tim McVeigh-style fertilizer bomb. Meanwhile, they're having a big old conference in Berlin about Afghanistan, a subject on which everybody now agrees--remember the Afghan war? All the lefties were against it and said we were going to lose horribly. Now consensus is it worked, though the Vangua of course dwells on the unsolved problems like poverty and warlords. Now, now, Afghanistan has had poverty and warlords since about 2000 BC or so. You've got to give us a few years in order to make some progress before complaining that Kabul doesn't look too much like Paris or Copenhagen yet. Anyway, though, Hamid Karzai has asked for $28 billion from the West; he wants $8.2 billion over the next three years. The Americans kicked in a billion and the European Union is promising $300 million. The Germans will put in $400 million of their own.
As far as Spain goes, international search warrants have been issued for six suspects wanted for the 3/11 bombings. Their photographs are posted at Libertad Digital accompanying this article, which is worth reading if you know Spanish. Their names are Rashid and Mohammed Ouled Akcha, Abdennabi "Abdullah" Kounjaa, Jamal "El Chino" Ahmidan, and Said Barraj, all Moroccans, and Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, known as "The Tunisian".
Judge Juan del Olmo jailed Antonio Toro Castro for conspiring with his brother to sell the dynamite and freed Mustafa Ahmidam for lack of evidence.
La Vanguardia's Santiago Tarin says this is what the investigators currently think: The bombers, of whom there may have been up to thirty in the plot, were a group of sleepers working cover jobs as waiters or construction workers or running phone shops. They have been in Spain for several years, which makes it clear that they had planned something here long before Spain sent troops to Iraq. The sleepers are mostly rank-and-file members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatents Group, which is an Al Qaeda franchise. These people were apparently more closely linked to Al Qaeda than to the leaders of the Combatents Group in Morocco, however.
The attacks were planned here in Spain. The sleepers received the order from Al Qaeda leadership in either Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Malaysia in about November of last year. They were merely ordered to do something nasty; they chose the objective and decided how to carry it out. They'd been actively planning the attentat for two and a half months, since about January 1. They got hold of Jose Emilio Suarez and swapped him thirty kilos of hashish (value: 2000 euros) for 110 kilos of dynamite on February 28. They took the dynamite to the shack in Morata de Tajuna, where they assembled the bombs on March 10. On the morning of March 11 eight of them drove in two cars, one the van identified the day of the bombings and the other of which the cops are still looking for, to the Alcala de Henares train station and placed the 13 bags on the trains. As Tarin quotes one of the investigators, "Cheap and easy. A lot of blood, very easy."
It looks to me like they've solved the case, if all this is true. Yep, the very Administration supposedly voted out by the people as a protest against their "manipulation of information" has figured out who did it, when, how, and why, three weeks after the attacks. Not bad at all for a bunch of so-called mendacious liars and bungling incompetents.
Beirut Bob Fisk knows people who were there; at least that's what his piece in the Vanguardia implies. He spends two and a half columns describing in loving detail exactly what happened; then, of course, there's the obligatory disclaimer that it was "horrible". Both Bob and La Vangua point out that these images are apparently not being shown on American TV and imply government censorship. You, of course, do not want to see them.
But La Vanguardia has a front-page color picture, six inches by nine or so, in which you can see two burned bodies hanging off a green-painted steel bridge. There are about ten or twelve people visible in the photo, several of whom are identifiable and most of whom are cheering. Apparently the whole thing was filmed.
My attitude is that American and Iraqi forces should get all the film they can, go into Fallujah, and arrest everybody that was part of the mob--not more than about 100, from the looks of things--and put them on trial for murder. Let's not go off half-cocked with some sort of revenge attack which, though fully justified, would be counterproductive.
Meanwhile, five American soldiers were killed in a car bombing in the Baghdad suburbs. Now, this is not good news at all, but remember that we had more success in February than in January, and more in January than December. March was a bloody month but not as bad as last November, the peak of violence. It seems, through reading the European press, that Iraq is an inferno where you can't walk the street without being "butchered like a sheep", as Beirut Bob so elegantly put it, when in reality most of the country (according to what I read in the American and some of the British press and in most of the Iraqi blogs) is about as safe as Barcelona.
Oh, by the way, as for the war on terrorism, there's been a string of busts in Turkey, Belgium, and Holland of some of our terrorist friends in a radical Turkish Islamic group, and in Britain there's been a roundup of a bunch of scumballs who were trying to make a Tim McVeigh-style fertilizer bomb. Meanwhile, they're having a big old conference in Berlin about Afghanistan, a subject on which everybody now agrees--remember the Afghan war? All the lefties were against it and said we were going to lose horribly. Now consensus is it worked, though the Vangua of course dwells on the unsolved problems like poverty and warlords. Now, now, Afghanistan has had poverty and warlords since about 2000 BC or so. You've got to give us a few years in order to make some progress before complaining that Kabul doesn't look too much like Paris or Copenhagen yet. Anyway, though, Hamid Karzai has asked for $28 billion from the West; he wants $8.2 billion over the next three years. The Americans kicked in a billion and the European Union is promising $300 million. The Germans will put in $400 million of their own.
As far as Spain goes, international search warrants have been issued for six suspects wanted for the 3/11 bombings. Their photographs are posted at Libertad Digital accompanying this article, which is worth reading if you know Spanish. Their names are Rashid and Mohammed Ouled Akcha, Abdennabi "Abdullah" Kounjaa, Jamal "El Chino" Ahmidan, and Said Barraj, all Moroccans, and Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, known as "The Tunisian".
Judge Juan del Olmo jailed Antonio Toro Castro for conspiring with his brother to sell the dynamite and freed Mustafa Ahmidam for lack of evidence.
La Vanguardia's Santiago Tarin says this is what the investigators currently think: The bombers, of whom there may have been up to thirty in the plot, were a group of sleepers working cover jobs as waiters or construction workers or running phone shops. They have been in Spain for several years, which makes it clear that they had planned something here long before Spain sent troops to Iraq. The sleepers are mostly rank-and-file members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatents Group, which is an Al Qaeda franchise. These people were apparently more closely linked to Al Qaeda than to the leaders of the Combatents Group in Morocco, however.
The attacks were planned here in Spain. The sleepers received the order from Al Qaeda leadership in either Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Malaysia in about November of last year. They were merely ordered to do something nasty; they chose the objective and decided how to carry it out. They'd been actively planning the attentat for two and a half months, since about January 1. They got hold of Jose Emilio Suarez and swapped him thirty kilos of hashish (value: 2000 euros) for 110 kilos of dynamite on February 28. They took the dynamite to the shack in Morata de Tajuna, where they assembled the bombs on March 10. On the morning of March 11 eight of them drove in two cars, one the van identified the day of the bombings and the other of which the cops are still looking for, to the Alcala de Henares train station and placed the 13 bags on the trains. As Tarin quotes one of the investigators, "Cheap and easy. A lot of blood, very easy."
It looks to me like they've solved the case, if all this is true. Yep, the very Administration supposedly voted out by the people as a protest against their "manipulation of information" has figured out who did it, when, how, and why, three weeks after the attacks. Not bad at all for a bunch of so-called mendacious liars and bungling incompetents.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
For all you people complaining about my use of the word "attentat", I did not make it up nor is it a sign of my ignorance of Spanish or Catalan, both of which I speak quite well, thank you.
Check this out.
attentat
e \At*ten"tate\, Attentat \At*ten"tat\, n. [L. attentatum, pl. attentata, fr. attentare to attempt: cf. F. attentat criminal attempt. See Attempt.] 1. An attempt; an assault. [Obs.] --Bacon.
2. (Law) (a) A proceeding in a court of judicature, after an inhibition is decreed. (b) Any step wrongly innovated or attempted in a suit by an inferior judge.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
It may be obscure today, but it counts as English.
Check this out.
attentat
e \At*ten"tate\, Attentat \At*ten"tat\, n. [L. attentatum, pl. attentata, fr. attentare to attempt: cf. F. attentat criminal attempt. See Attempt.] 1. An attempt; an assault. [Obs.] --Bacon.
2. (Law) (a) A proceeding in a court of judicature, after an inhibition is decreed. (b) Any step wrongly innovated or attempted in a suit by an inferior judge.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
It may be obscure today, but it counts as English.
In case you were wondering, the sources I use are the print issue of La Vanguardia every day, the print issue of El Periodico almost every day--I read it for free down at the coffee shop / beer joint on the plaza--TV 1 and TV 3 broadcast news most days, the websites of Fox News, CNN, TV 3, and Libertad Digital, the news and commentary websites at National Review, the New Republic, Slate, and Front Page every couple of days, and the blogs InstaPundit, Andrew Sullivan, HispaLibertas, and a whole raft of others. What you see here is a sort of digest of all those sources through my utterly prejudiced point of view.
It actually doesn't take me very long; I'm a fast reader, sometimes so fast I get careless and do something like call Solbes the next FM when he is to be Economics Minister. I check in on the TV news most days, but I turn it off after five minutes if there's not anything really interesting.
Anyway, here's the news. Judge Juan del Olmo has issued five international search warrants for, I guess, the five bombers not already in custody. One of them is Abdelkarim Mayati, who is said to be the commander of the hit team, operating directly under the Al Qaeda operative al-Zarqawa. Fouad El Morabit, one of the guys turned loose yesterday for lack of evidence, was just rearrested because they found his fingerprints in the shack where the bombs were made. Minor bungle there. Judge del Olmo arraigned two more arrestees, Antonio Toro Castro, Suarez the dynamite supplier's brother-in-law, and Moroccan Mustafa Ahmidam, two of whose brothers have already been arrested. One has been freed and the other jailed without bail. More arrests are supposedly on the way.
You know, I'll bet that the $70,000 of Al Qaeda money the Moroccan Islamist Combatants Group got was more than enough to pull this hit off. I see no signs of any real sophistication, World Trade Center-style, in this attentat.
It actually doesn't take me very long; I'm a fast reader, sometimes so fast I get careless and do something like call Solbes the next FM when he is to be Economics Minister. I check in on the TV news most days, but I turn it off after five minutes if there's not anything really interesting.
Anyway, here's the news. Judge Juan del Olmo has issued five international search warrants for, I guess, the five bombers not already in custody. One of them is Abdelkarim Mayati, who is said to be the commander of the hit team, operating directly under the Al Qaeda operative al-Zarqawa. Fouad El Morabit, one of the guys turned loose yesterday for lack of evidence, was just rearrested because they found his fingerprints in the shack where the bombs were made. Minor bungle there. Judge del Olmo arraigned two more arrestees, Antonio Toro Castro, Suarez the dynamite supplier's brother-in-law, and Moroccan Mustafa Ahmidam, two of whose brothers have already been arrested. One has been freed and the other jailed without bail. More arrests are supposedly on the way.
You know, I'll bet that the $70,000 of Al Qaeda money the Moroccan Islamist Combatants Group got was more than enough to pull this hit off. I see no signs of any real sophistication, World Trade Center-style, in this attentat.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
El Periodico, which is usually rather--how shall I put it? Bumwad? Bogroll? TP?--says that the cops have reconstructed how the 3/11 bombings in Madrid were carried out. Ten men placed the 14 bombs on the trains. Four of those who placed the bombs are already in custody; one is Jamal Zougam. The other six bombers' identities are known to the police, and they are all thought to have fled Spain. Numerous witnesses to the placing of the bombs and the actual explosions have identified these men, who are apparently all Arabs.
The bombers chose the date of March 11 specifically because it was exactly two and a half years after the 9/11 bombings, but they also planned to disrupt the March 14 elections, which they certainly succeeded in doing. Several of the bombers' conspirators are lowlifes involved in small-time drug and weapon trafficking, or small-time phone scammers--making it even less likely this was a professional job.
I really think that all they needed were ten guys to get on trains, leave a pre-loaded bag or two, and get off at the same station or, failing that, the next one down the line. They had somebody smart enough to figure out the train schedules, which isn't too hard since they're posted and given away on flyers at every station--though Zougam, for example, is clearly more than smart enough, you'd be surprised at the number of people who can't figure out something that simple--, they had somebody smart enough to make the bombs, and we know who he was, and they had the small-time prison connections that hooked them up with Suarez, the dynamite seller.
(Suarez and his brother-in-law got busted in 2001 with, get this, 84 kilos of hashish, three kilos of cocaine, 16 sticks of dynamite, and 94 detonators. What the hell were they doing out of jail? I know a guy in America who got six years in the slam for selling, admittedly, fairly large quantities of LSD through the mail, and he served all six in Leavenworth. Jeez. I couldn't smoke 84 kilos of hashish no matter how hard I tried, and believe me, I'd try.)
Then all the planners had to do was pass out the bombs, leave them on the trains, and bail out. I will bet that these guys who did the hit were mostly very low-level guys perhaps operating autonomously, though there's no question the money is Al Qaeda--no fanatic suicide bombers, no complicated training, nobody with specialized skills but one or two, nobody who had to plan five years ahead and get pilot training and all that stuff.
The brains behind the whole operation, Mr. Big himself, is one Abdelkarim Thami Mayati, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, according to the Moroccan cops. He is thought to be the operations boss of the Moroccan Combatant Group. The Moroccans have apparently arrested several dozen Islamic pro-terror activists and are sorting them out into people they're going to kill and people they're merely going to imprison, or something like that.
The bombers chose the date of March 11 specifically because it was exactly two and a half years after the 9/11 bombings, but they also planned to disrupt the March 14 elections, which they certainly succeeded in doing. Several of the bombers' conspirators are lowlifes involved in small-time drug and weapon trafficking, or small-time phone scammers--making it even less likely this was a professional job.
I really think that all they needed were ten guys to get on trains, leave a pre-loaded bag or two, and get off at the same station or, failing that, the next one down the line. They had somebody smart enough to figure out the train schedules, which isn't too hard since they're posted and given away on flyers at every station--though Zougam, for example, is clearly more than smart enough, you'd be surprised at the number of people who can't figure out something that simple--, they had somebody smart enough to make the bombs, and we know who he was, and they had the small-time prison connections that hooked them up with Suarez, the dynamite seller.
(Suarez and his brother-in-law got busted in 2001 with, get this, 84 kilos of hashish, three kilos of cocaine, 16 sticks of dynamite, and 94 detonators. What the hell were they doing out of jail? I know a guy in America who got six years in the slam for selling, admittedly, fairly large quantities of LSD through the mail, and he served all six in Leavenworth. Jeez. I couldn't smoke 84 kilos of hashish no matter how hard I tried, and believe me, I'd try.)
Then all the planners had to do was pass out the bombs, leave them on the trains, and bail out. I will bet that these guys who did the hit were mostly very low-level guys perhaps operating autonomously, though there's no question the money is Al Qaeda--no fanatic suicide bombers, no complicated training, nobody with specialized skills but one or two, nobody who had to plan five years ahead and get pilot training and all that stuff.
The brains behind the whole operation, Mr. Big himself, is one Abdelkarim Thami Mayati, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, according to the Moroccan cops. He is thought to be the operations boss of the Moroccan Combatant Group. The Moroccans have apparently arrested several dozen Islamic pro-terror activists and are sorting them out into people they're going to kill and people they're merely going to imprison, or something like that.
You'll want to read this one. It's titled Anti-Semitism: Integral to European Culture, by Manfred Gerstenfeld; Front Page links to it. It's a long article, twelve pages; the link is to a PDF. It is worth every second it takes you to read this.
And while we're on the subject, here's Victor Davis Hanson explaining a few of the basic ethical differences between the Israeli government and the terrorists.
And while we're on the subject, here's Victor Davis Hanson explaining a few of the basic ethical differences between the Israeli government and the terrorists.
Well, here's some more news from Spain. It hasn't even been a month since the 3/11 bombings and it seems like everybody's already forgotten about it. La Vanguardia is still running its biographical sketches of the victims, but the report on the investigation is on page 16. And it was only three weeks ago, on March 13 and 14, that everyone was screaming that the government had lied and they wanted the facts. Well, here's the facts, Jack: this was an Al Qaeda hit, the Moroccan Combatents Group is an Al Qaeda franchise, and Al Qaeda would have hit Spain whether it had sent troops to Iraq or not. You are at war with terrorism just as the rest of the West is, but the incoming Socialist government does not want to face this and so it's trying to avoid doing so, hoping Spain can get a free pass on terrorism if it is an obedient vassal of Al Qaeda. Wrong. The demands will just be higher next time. Now they know Spain scares easily, they're going to keep attacking here, and next thing you know we'll have to break off diplomatic relations with Israel or be forced to shelter terrorists here as long as they don't shit while they live. If you appease extortionists, they'll just come back for more, as anyone who has ever paid blackmail can tell you. And I thought Spain had learned something when Carod-Rovira tried to make exactly the same appeasement deal with ETA, in which Catalonia was declared an official terror-free zone (yeah, right, don't believe a word of anything ETA says, ever; Catalonia will get hit again just as soon as ETA feels like doing it.)
Anyway, a total of 22 persons have been arrested so far because of their connections to the 3/11 bombings. 14 of them have been arraigned and sent to jail without bail by Judge Juan del Olmo. The most recent hearing saw the jailing of Basel Ghayoun, a Syrian who was recognized by two witnesses at the scene of the loading of the bombs, and of a Moroccan named Hamid Ahmidam. Ahmidam's brother Said, another Moroccan named Fouad El Morabit, and a Syrian named Almallah Dabas Mouhammed were released without charges.
The five major figures arrested and jailed so far are Ghayoun and Moroccans Jamal Zougam, Mohammed Bakali, Mohammed Chaoui, and Abderrahim Zbakh. In addition, the apparently free-lance supplier of the dynamite, a Spaniard named Jose Manuel Suarez Trashorras, has been arrested and jailed. Two more arrests were made Monday; one is Suarez's former brother-in-law and the other is a North African.
The exchange of the Spanish troops in Iraq for new soldiers began yesterday; 160 left Zaragoza last night. Aznar demanded that Zap and the PSOE put their consent in writing; Zap did so grudgingly. Zap can't oppose the rotation of troops because the army guys there deserve to go back home; they've done the spell they were told they were going to do and now they must come home. But he's going to look like a real moron when he pulls the new troops out just a week after they all got there. Meanwhile, Zap promises that during the summer he'll double the size of the Spanish contingent in Afghanistan to 250; Afghanistan's OK, see, because the troops there are under UN command. But Iraq's not. You figure the logic. I can't. And Zap's not backing down on pulling all Spanish forces out of Iraq.
As for Zap's cabinet, there's a lot of speculation and few hard facts. Party baron Jose Bono will get Defense, Felipe holdover Pedro Solbes will get Foreign Affairs, and Jose Montilla, the Catalan party hack boss, will get some sort of super-Commerce ministry with several other fields like telecoms coming under it. There's also a shakeup in the PP; Rajoy stays on as party leader despite his defeat at the polls, because he would have won if not for the agitation on March 12 and 13. Angel Acebes is going to be his number two and Rajoy is putting his own people into the party organization posts. The names Carlos Aragones, Ana Pastor, and Jose Maria Michavila figure pretty big here, as does Eduardo Zaplana's.
Jacques Chirac (I'd rather off Jacques than jacques off) and his mess of a political coalition, the Union for a Presidential Majority, which beat Jean-Marie Le Pen in the last French presidential runoff (Jesus Christ. Here the French are criticizing us all the time and Jean-Marie Le Pen is the second-most-voted candidate for President in their country, not ours. And that crook Chirac, Saddam's towel boy, came in first) got massacred by the left in the French regional elections. The only place they won was Alsace. Now, you'd think this was great news, but the French Left is even worse than Chirac. The only French politician I respect is Alain Madelin.
Here in Catalonia they're already disobeying the PP's attempted overthrow of the idiotic American-ed-school-influenced school reforms that happened under the Socialists. They will not obey the regulations regarding tracking, a new less touchy-feely curriculum, professional training (for students), final exams, makeup exams, the flunking of students who fail more than three courses, and making religion an obligatory subject. I absolutely agree with all the proposed PP changes except for religion, which has no place in the public schools except when treated neutrally in history class.
They banned smoking in pubs in Ireland. That'll go over great there. Every single person I have ever seen in a Irish pub smokes. A lot. And bums cigs off you, because here's a dirty little secret: it's not just the Scots who are skinflints, it's 99% of residents of the British Isles. Interestingly, the subject isn't being treated hysterically over here in the Spanish media like the various smoking bans in parts of the United States are--you know, health police interfering with people's freedom, typical American Puritans wanting to keep people from having fun. Of course, it's not the Americans doing it this time, so it must be all right.
Rafael Ramos, in his typically imbecilic article on the subject, writes "It's the greatest revolution since the potato famine of 1847 and the mass emigration to the United States." Gee, Raffy, do the words "Easter Rising" or "Sinn Fein" or "Michael Collins" or "IRA" mean anything to you?
Anyway, a total of 22 persons have been arrested so far because of their connections to the 3/11 bombings. 14 of them have been arraigned and sent to jail without bail by Judge Juan del Olmo. The most recent hearing saw the jailing of Basel Ghayoun, a Syrian who was recognized by two witnesses at the scene of the loading of the bombs, and of a Moroccan named Hamid Ahmidam. Ahmidam's brother Said, another Moroccan named Fouad El Morabit, and a Syrian named Almallah Dabas Mouhammed were released without charges.
The five major figures arrested and jailed so far are Ghayoun and Moroccans Jamal Zougam, Mohammed Bakali, Mohammed Chaoui, and Abderrahim Zbakh. In addition, the apparently free-lance supplier of the dynamite, a Spaniard named Jose Manuel Suarez Trashorras, has been arrested and jailed. Two more arrests were made Monday; one is Suarez's former brother-in-law and the other is a North African.
The exchange of the Spanish troops in Iraq for new soldiers began yesterday; 160 left Zaragoza last night. Aznar demanded that Zap and the PSOE put their consent in writing; Zap did so grudgingly. Zap can't oppose the rotation of troops because the army guys there deserve to go back home; they've done the spell they were told they were going to do and now they must come home. But he's going to look like a real moron when he pulls the new troops out just a week after they all got there. Meanwhile, Zap promises that during the summer he'll double the size of the Spanish contingent in Afghanistan to 250; Afghanistan's OK, see, because the troops there are under UN command. But Iraq's not. You figure the logic. I can't. And Zap's not backing down on pulling all Spanish forces out of Iraq.
As for Zap's cabinet, there's a lot of speculation and few hard facts. Party baron Jose Bono will get Defense, Felipe holdover Pedro Solbes will get Foreign Affairs, and Jose Montilla, the Catalan party hack boss, will get some sort of super-Commerce ministry with several other fields like telecoms coming under it. There's also a shakeup in the PP; Rajoy stays on as party leader despite his defeat at the polls, because he would have won if not for the agitation on March 12 and 13. Angel Acebes is going to be his number two and Rajoy is putting his own people into the party organization posts. The names Carlos Aragones, Ana Pastor, and Jose Maria Michavila figure pretty big here, as does Eduardo Zaplana's.
Jacques Chirac (I'd rather off Jacques than jacques off) and his mess of a political coalition, the Union for a Presidential Majority, which beat Jean-Marie Le Pen in the last French presidential runoff (Jesus Christ. Here the French are criticizing us all the time and Jean-Marie Le Pen is the second-most-voted candidate for President in their country, not ours. And that crook Chirac, Saddam's towel boy, came in first) got massacred by the left in the French regional elections. The only place they won was Alsace. Now, you'd think this was great news, but the French Left is even worse than Chirac. The only French politician I respect is Alain Madelin.
Here in Catalonia they're already disobeying the PP's attempted overthrow of the idiotic American-ed-school-influenced school reforms that happened under the Socialists. They will not obey the regulations regarding tracking, a new less touchy-feely curriculum, professional training (for students), final exams, makeup exams, the flunking of students who fail more than three courses, and making religion an obligatory subject. I absolutely agree with all the proposed PP changes except for religion, which has no place in the public schools except when treated neutrally in history class.
They banned smoking in pubs in Ireland. That'll go over great there. Every single person I have ever seen in a Irish pub smokes. A lot. And bums cigs off you, because here's a dirty little secret: it's not just the Scots who are skinflints, it's 99% of residents of the British Isles. Interestingly, the subject isn't being treated hysterically over here in the Spanish media like the various smoking bans in parts of the United States are--you know, health police interfering with people's freedom, typical American Puritans wanting to keep people from having fun. Of course, it's not the Americans doing it this time, so it must be all right.
Rafael Ramos, in his typically imbecilic article on the subject, writes "It's the greatest revolution since the potato famine of 1847 and the mass emigration to the United States." Gee, Raffy, do the words "Easter Rising" or "Sinn Fein" or "Michael Collins" or "IRA" mean anything to you?
Monday, March 29, 2004
Here's Satan himself, Mr. Neocon, who along with Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz drinks the blood of Christian bab--oops, sorry, been reading La Vanguardia again. Here's Bill Kristol in the Weekly Standard on why the Richard Clarke flap doesn't mean a damned thing. The exchange quoted is from the Congressional hearing; Gorton is Senator Slade Gorton of Washington state.
GORTON: Now, since my yellow light is on, at this point my final question will be this: Assuming that the recommendations that you made on January 25th of 2001, based on Delenda, based on Blue Sky, including aid to the Northern Alliance, which had been an agenda item at this point for two and a half years without any action, assuming that there had been more Predator reconnaissance missions, assuming that that had all been adopted say on January 26th, year 2001, is there the remotest chance that it would have prevented 9/11?
CLARKE: No.
There have been occasions in the past when government officials properly took responsibility for actions under their direction that went terribly awry. Janet Reno accepted responsibility for the deaths in Waco in 1993. John Kennedy took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs in 1961. In those cases, apparently reckless U.S. government actions directly caused unnecessary deaths. On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda killed 3,000 Americans. It would be no more appropriate for President Bush to apologize today than it would have been for President Roosevelt to apologize for Pearl Harbor. Richard Clarke's pseudo-apology has cheapened the public discourse.
GORTON: Now, since my yellow light is on, at this point my final question will be this: Assuming that the recommendations that you made on January 25th of 2001, based on Delenda, based on Blue Sky, including aid to the Northern Alliance, which had been an agenda item at this point for two and a half years without any action, assuming that there had been more Predator reconnaissance missions, assuming that that had all been adopted say on January 26th, year 2001, is there the remotest chance that it would have prevented 9/11?
CLARKE: No.
There have been occasions in the past when government officials properly took responsibility for actions under their direction that went terribly awry. Janet Reno accepted responsibility for the deaths in Waco in 1993. John Kennedy took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs in 1961. In those cases, apparently reckless U.S. government actions directly caused unnecessary deaths. On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda killed 3,000 Americans. It would be no more appropriate for President Bush to apologize today than it would have been for President Roosevelt to apologize for Pearl Harbor. Richard Clarke's pseudo-apology has cheapened the public discourse.
For information on who's behind the Madrid bombings, check out this Michael Ledeen piece in the National Review. I'm pretty sure the information Ledeen gives us is basically true, and if Ledeen is right, then this is all the same war, a position we've held to ever since 9/11.
Here's a nice article by David Greenberg in Slate. The subject is whether war Presidents always get reelected; Greenberg points out that both Lincoln and FDR had problems getting reelected in 1864 and 1944, respectively, and that Truman would have been defeated in 1952 and Lyndon Johnson defeated in 1968 if they had run. In addition, if Wilson had been capable of running in 1920--he'd been incapacitated by at least three different strokes and his wife was basically running the Executive branch--he'd have lost; by then the First World War was over, of course. George Bush I, a war president, lost in 1992, as we all know.
It seems to me that Bush is doing pretty well in the polls--from what I gather, they're running more or less 50-50--for this stage in the campaign. The Democrats have made all the noise, of course, and they'll keep making most of it until their convention at the end of July. Then it'll be time for the Republican convention at the beginning of September, and the Republicans will get the publicity bounce. This is nothing new or anything we invented; it's pretty much the standard pattern. Many reelected Presidents--Reagan in 1984 and Clinton in 1996 being the two most recent--had been much more unpopular at some point in their terms than Bush is now, or has ever been.
Here's my wild-ass guess, seven months and a half from the election: Barring disaster, Bush wins fairly handily though not hugely. He wins the election when he holds Florida and Ohio and wins a couple or three more states that the Dems won last time, say Iowa and Wisconsin. Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania are not impossible dreams. Illinois will be tough. If Bush wins Illinois it's a romp. He probably won't though, but that's a state I'd fight hard. Most of the battle is going to be in Florida and the Great Lakes states. The Dems will probably win in California, but I'd fight there too, at least for fundraising and local-candidate support. There's a lot of Republican sentiment in that state, and some grass-roots activity will force the Dems to spend hard-to-get money fighting there. If I were the Reps I'd write off New England (except New Hampshire and maybe Maine, and I wouldn't waste much money there over eight electoral votes), New York, and New Jersey. The Reps ought to win all the South and Plains states, no problem--if they don't, it's a Kerry romp--, and ought to do all right in the non-California West. The only places I'd out-and-out favor the Dems are Washington, Oregon, and New Mexico, in that order.
It seems to me that Bush is doing pretty well in the polls--from what I gather, they're running more or less 50-50--for this stage in the campaign. The Democrats have made all the noise, of course, and they'll keep making most of it until their convention at the end of July. Then it'll be time for the Republican convention at the beginning of September, and the Republicans will get the publicity bounce. This is nothing new or anything we invented; it's pretty much the standard pattern. Many reelected Presidents--Reagan in 1984 and Clinton in 1996 being the two most recent--had been much more unpopular at some point in their terms than Bush is now, or has ever been.
Here's my wild-ass guess, seven months and a half from the election: Barring disaster, Bush wins fairly handily though not hugely. He wins the election when he holds Florida and Ohio and wins a couple or three more states that the Dems won last time, say Iowa and Wisconsin. Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania are not impossible dreams. Illinois will be tough. If Bush wins Illinois it's a romp. He probably won't though, but that's a state I'd fight hard. Most of the battle is going to be in Florida and the Great Lakes states. The Dems will probably win in California, but I'd fight there too, at least for fundraising and local-candidate support. There's a lot of Republican sentiment in that state, and some grass-roots activity will force the Dems to spend hard-to-get money fighting there. If I were the Reps I'd write off New England (except New Hampshire and maybe Maine, and I wouldn't waste much money there over eight electoral votes), New York, and New Jersey. The Reps ought to win all the South and Plains states, no problem--if they don't, it's a Kerry romp--, and ought to do all right in the non-California West. The only places I'd out-and-out favor the Dems are Washington, Oregon, and New Mexico, in that order.
Read this piece by Michael Kazin from Dissent, which was picked up by Front Page, on the world's only rival to Noam Chomsky in mendacious anti-Americanism and pseudo-history, Howard Zinn. Mr. Zinn is the author of The People's History of the United States, a notorious conglomeration of conspiracy theory and falsehood. Kazin destroys both Mr. Zinn and his book.
I once owned a copy of said People's History. It was given to me by a good friend of mine named Jane, who used to live here in Barcelona. About Jane's only fault was a slightly hung-over '60s leftism (that and she was a packrat; she piled up amazing quantities of junk that should have been thrown away years ago as a goddamn health hazard); she'd actually been at Altamont, for example, and knew minor Beat poets and stuff like that. Anyway, she left that particular book to me when she went back to the States. I got about as far as the American Revolution before deciding that this was a complete waste of my time unless I wanted to do a seven-hundred-page Fisking. I then donated it to a charity auction some friends were having, where it went for five euros or so.
Maybe I should have burned it; it's undoubtedly gone on to poison another mind or two. It's been translated to Spanish and is a big seller over here, where it is of course taken seriously just as the ravings of Noam Chomsky and the gibberish of Susan Sontag and the pretentiousness of Paul Auster and the flat-out stupidity of Michael Moore are.
I once owned a copy of said People's History. It was given to me by a good friend of mine named Jane, who used to live here in Barcelona. About Jane's only fault was a slightly hung-over '60s leftism (that and she was a packrat; she piled up amazing quantities of junk that should have been thrown away years ago as a goddamn health hazard); she'd actually been at Altamont, for example, and knew minor Beat poets and stuff like that. Anyway, she left that particular book to me when she went back to the States. I got about as far as the American Revolution before deciding that this was a complete waste of my time unless I wanted to do a seven-hundred-page Fisking. I then donated it to a charity auction some friends were having, where it went for five euros or so.
Maybe I should have burned it; it's undoubtedly gone on to poison another mind or two. It's been translated to Spanish and is a big seller over here, where it is of course taken seriously just as the ravings of Noam Chomsky and the gibberish of Susan Sontag and the pretentiousness of Paul Auster and the flat-out stupidity of Michael Moore are.
In Memoriam
We've been posting short biographical sketches of the people killed in the 3/11 bombings in Madrid. Our source is La Vanguardia.
Miguel Reyes Mateos, office worker, 37, Alcala de Henares. Miguel was a civil servant who worked in the Immigration department of the Labor Ministry. He leaves his parents and his three brothers; he lived with his girlfriend in Alcala. He was especially fond of his seven-year old niece.
Sonia Cano Campos, receptionist, 24, Coslada. Sonia lived with her parents. She was a lively and friendly person who loved going out, dancing, and having fun. Sonia went to dance classes to learn how to do sevillanas. She worked as a receptionist in a nursing home.
Enrique Garcia Gonzalez, electrician, 29, Mostoles. Enrique was killed while helping other victims; he was on the platform when the first bomb in the Atocha Station train went off. He jumped down on the tracks and began helping people out of the train; then the second bomb went off and killed him. Enrique's father is Spanish and his mother is Dominican; he was born in the Dominican and came to Spain when he was 13. He worked with his brother and his cousin installing air-conditioning. Enrique had three different children, 2, 4, and 6 years old, by different marriages. He enjoyed dancing and Caribbean music.
Teresa Gonzalez Grande, cleaner, 36, Vallecas. Teresa worked on the janitorial staff at the Universidad Complutense. She lived with her boyfriend in an apartment they had just bought. The university held an homage ceremony for her.
Anca Bodea, teacher, 25, Guadalajara. Anca was from Romania; she had arrived in Madrid last December. She worked as a language teacher for children and lived with some Romanian friends. She planned to go back to Romania for a visit soon. It took them a week to identify her body.
Francisco Javier Casas Torresano, painter, 28, Getafe. Javier worked as a computer operator, but he wanted to be an artist. He'd taken a course in painting and worked in a surrealist style. He was about to move in with his girlfriend. His friends remember him as creative and original. He was a good-looking young man with a big mop of black hair.
John Jairo Ramirez Bedoya, cleaner, 37, Torrejon de Ardoz. John was from Colombia and had been in Spain for five years. He was a small man, with black curly hair and a mustache. His wife is expecting their child. They planned to visit Colombia in November. John was saving up because his dream was to open a florist's shop.
Maria Eugenia Ciudad-Real, bank employee, 26, Leganes. Maria Eugenia had just begun her first real job fifteen days ago at a BBVA branch. She had studied business and was serious and hard-working. She leaves her parents and her brother, with whom she lived.
Angel Pardillos Checa, civil servant, 62, Santa Eugenia. Angel had worked at the Banco de Espana for more than
thirty years. He was from a small town in Aragon to which he and his wife returned every summer. He had a daughter and a son and three grandchildren he was wild about. His daughter had just gotten married six months ago. He was going to retire in a few months; they identified his body by the watch he was wearing, which the bank had given him when he completed his 30th year.
Daniel Paz Manjon, student, 20, Villa de Vallecas. Daniel was studying at the National Institute of Physical Fitness. He was an excellent soccer player and enjoyed singing and playing the guitar; he liked to go to clubs where singer-songwriters play. Dani was shy but had literally dozens of friends. He was on his way to gymnastics class when the bomb went off at El Pozo.
Carlos Soto Arranz, welder, 34, San Sebastian de los Reyes. Carlos had had some tough breaks; both his parents died when he was 14. He had to quit school and get a job. He was married; he and his wife had a 14-month-old daughter along with two sons of hers by a previous marriage. They formed a close family. Carlos also leaves two brothers.
Sergio Dos Santos, electrician, 28, Vallecas. Sergio was from Parana in Brazil and had been in Spain for six months. He had decided to emigrate and save up 7000 euros to buy a house back in Parana, but it wasn't easy even though Sergio was a religious man and led an ascetic life. Sergio leaves his wife and their four-year-old son.
We've been posting short biographical sketches of the people killed in the 3/11 bombings in Madrid. Our source is La Vanguardia.
Miguel Reyes Mateos, office worker, 37, Alcala de Henares. Miguel was a civil servant who worked in the Immigration department of the Labor Ministry. He leaves his parents and his three brothers; he lived with his girlfriend in Alcala. He was especially fond of his seven-year old niece.
Sonia Cano Campos, receptionist, 24, Coslada. Sonia lived with her parents. She was a lively and friendly person who loved going out, dancing, and having fun. Sonia went to dance classes to learn how to do sevillanas. She worked as a receptionist in a nursing home.
Enrique Garcia Gonzalez, electrician, 29, Mostoles. Enrique was killed while helping other victims; he was on the platform when the first bomb in the Atocha Station train went off. He jumped down on the tracks and began helping people out of the train; then the second bomb went off and killed him. Enrique's father is Spanish and his mother is Dominican; he was born in the Dominican and came to Spain when he was 13. He worked with his brother and his cousin installing air-conditioning. Enrique had three different children, 2, 4, and 6 years old, by different marriages. He enjoyed dancing and Caribbean music.
Teresa Gonzalez Grande, cleaner, 36, Vallecas. Teresa worked on the janitorial staff at the Universidad Complutense. She lived with her boyfriend in an apartment they had just bought. The university held an homage ceremony for her.
Anca Bodea, teacher, 25, Guadalajara. Anca was from Romania; she had arrived in Madrid last December. She worked as a language teacher for children and lived with some Romanian friends. She planned to go back to Romania for a visit soon. It took them a week to identify her body.
Francisco Javier Casas Torresano, painter, 28, Getafe. Javier worked as a computer operator, but he wanted to be an artist. He'd taken a course in painting and worked in a surrealist style. He was about to move in with his girlfriend. His friends remember him as creative and original. He was a good-looking young man with a big mop of black hair.
John Jairo Ramirez Bedoya, cleaner, 37, Torrejon de Ardoz. John was from Colombia and had been in Spain for five years. He was a small man, with black curly hair and a mustache. His wife is expecting their child. They planned to visit Colombia in November. John was saving up because his dream was to open a florist's shop.
Maria Eugenia Ciudad-Real, bank employee, 26, Leganes. Maria Eugenia had just begun her first real job fifteen days ago at a BBVA branch. She had studied business and was serious and hard-working. She leaves her parents and her brother, with whom she lived.
Angel Pardillos Checa, civil servant, 62, Santa Eugenia. Angel had worked at the Banco de Espana for more than
thirty years. He was from a small town in Aragon to which he and his wife returned every summer. He had a daughter and a son and three grandchildren he was wild about. His daughter had just gotten married six months ago. He was going to retire in a few months; they identified his body by the watch he was wearing, which the bank had given him when he completed his 30th year.
Daniel Paz Manjon, student, 20, Villa de Vallecas. Daniel was studying at the National Institute of Physical Fitness. He was an excellent soccer player and enjoyed singing and playing the guitar; he liked to go to clubs where singer-songwriters play. Dani was shy but had literally dozens of friends. He was on his way to gymnastics class when the bomb went off at El Pozo.
Carlos Soto Arranz, welder, 34, San Sebastian de los Reyes. Carlos had had some tough breaks; both his parents died when he was 14. He had to quit school and get a job. He was married; he and his wife had a 14-month-old daughter along with two sons of hers by a previous marriage. They formed a close family. Carlos also leaves two brothers.
Sergio Dos Santos, electrician, 28, Vallecas. Sergio was from Parana in Brazil and had been in Spain for six months. He had decided to emigrate and save up 7000 euros to buy a house back in Parana, but it wasn't easy even though Sergio was a religious man and led an ascetic life. Sergio leaves his wife and their four-year-old son.
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