H/t commenter Lynx.
CNN reports that a carbomb exploded earlier today at Barajas airport (Madrid, Spain). ETA claims to be responsible for it…
ETA announced a “permanent” cease-fire last March, raising hopes for an end to nearly 40 years of separatist violence blamed for more than 800 deaths and thousands of injuries.
In the autumn, so-called low-level street violence resumed in the northern Basque region — which ETA is seeking to make an independent nation — as pro-ETA youths burned buses and automatic bank teller machines and carried out other attacks.
In late October, authorities blamed ETA for the theft in Nimes, southern France, of 350 pistols and revolvers and 10,000 rounds of ammunition from an arms factory.
Saturday’s explosion, which came shortly after the execution of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, raised fears of a retaliatory strike in a country that has suffered attacks in response to its support for international military operations.
Luckily, no one has been killed: ‘only’ injured. However, commenter Lynx, who lives in Spain, explained (in the comment section of my post about the Archbishop of Canterbury) how this (logically) greatly effects the Spanish people nonetheless:
Though usually a muslim problem, you don’t have to be Muslim to be a terrorist .
Sorry, I know it’s not quite on the topic, I agree with the sentiment of the post, but today it’s hard for me to get worked up about Islamic terrorism when my own cities airport has just been attacked by terrorists of our own, ending the “cease-fire” (which was really just a strategy to regroup and rearm, and we all knew it).
PS: I HATE that American publications call ETA “separatists” or “militants” and their attacks “part of a bloody campaign for independence”. They are terrorists, they form a terrorist organization that MURDERS people. They put bombs in shopping centers, they once put a bomb in a child’s toy. Calling them separatists lends them a hell of a lot more credibility than those bastards deserve.
OK, I’ve gone way off topic, but I’m kind of shaken up about this. Americans learned on 9/11 the terror and the helplessness that terrorism brings, but Spaniards have dealt with it for 40 years and we are damn sick of it.
I understand and agree with this sentiment. It is a terrorist organization. It feeds on hatred, there is nothing even remotely honorable about ETA. It causes death and destruction, its members are willing to kill – and / or terrorize – civilians without feeling any kind of regret… and now it seems that the ‘permanent’ cease-fire, isn’t that permanent after all.
My thoughts today are with the Spanish people, who suffered from ETA terrorism for decades, who suffered from a terrorist attack carried out by Muslim terrorists, who had hopes that – finally – ETA would stop causing death and destruction… and for whom 2006 must end like this.
UPDATE
Others blogging:
See Dubya at Hot Air.
Patrick Ishmael at The News Buckit:
Yesterday: Spanish/socialist/appeaser PM Jose Luis Zapatero explains how his government is doing a great job keeping Spain safe from domestic terrorists, namely ETA. How? By working with them, of course…
If it is ETA that orchestrated the attack (and I am nearly certain it is), the bombing comes only a week after Spain’s socialist government, elected in the aftermath of the 3/11 attacks, held its first “official” meeting with the terrorists to “settle their differences.” I don’t know what sort of tension ETA could be citing to justify this attack, except that they’re not getting their way fast enough. Which is nothing new.
UPDATE II
Despite earlier reports, commenter Lynx writes that “one man is missing in the rubble, and it was a very big blast, so ETA may have murdered again after all.”
UPDATE III
Again from commenter ‘Lynx’:
“Little updates:
1- The number of missing persons has gone up to two, both young men, both Ecuadorians that had gone to pick up incoming passengers.
2- The president Zapatero has just spoken to the nation. He announced what we were all expecting. The truce is broken and negotiations are canceled. Ever since the cease-fire the government had been negotiating with the idea of attempting a peaceful end to the violence (while ETA held the cease-fire to regroup and rearm, as they always to). Negotiations are now over and we’re back to treating these people as the murdering criminals they are.”
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