In denial
Mr. FRIEDMAN: Mr. Secretary, do you have any independent information or have you heard from the Spanish government any kind of conf--that would lead to any kind of confirmation that al-Qaida or al-Qaida sympathizers were behind the attacks in Madrid?
Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, first, Tom, let me just say the--how tragic that attack was in Spain. The 200 people that were killed, that are known to have been killed--my condolences to their families and--and their loved ones. It's a--it's a tragic event. We've seen terrorism strike in--in not just Spain or the United States, but obviously in--in--in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and--and Turkey and--and so many other countries across the globe. And it's always a sad thing when it happens.
No, I don't have any intelligence that would give cl--clarity. It's so recent. The--the one thing I would say is there seem to be growing connections between terrorist organizations. And Spain has been fighting terrorists for many, many, many years, and they have demostrated leadership in the global war on terror. And terrorists attack leaders. And it takes courage to be a leader. And--and God bless the Spanish people and the Spanish government for the strength and the courage they've shown and--and we all wish them well as they sort through the--the terrible carnage they're experiencing.
-- CBS "Face the Nation," March 14, 2004
Isn't it amazing that Rumsfeld, proxy for the administration, is so uncertain when it comes to an al-Qaeda connection to the bombings in Spain, yet, even today, so certain that the dubious links to an Saddam Hussein-al-Qaeda connection are true?
That's the perspective and attitude that underscores the administration's failure to combat Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. They see the "war on terrorism" as a state-based problem -- that is, go out and attack a country in the "axis of evil" -- rather than as a battle against a loose network of criminal cells.
And that's the attitude, as evinced by Spanish leadership last week, that led to their downfall on Sunday. It wasn't acquiescing to terrorism, as David Brooks so moronically chirps, it was anger at how the truth is used and manipulated by Aznar -- and Bush -- to cynically propel their policies.
"...interviews with scores of Spaniards of both parties indicated that a number of things happened after the attacks that shifted the balance to the Socialists. Voters flooded the polls on Sunday in record numbers, especially young people who had not planned to vote. In interviews, they said they did so not so much out of fear of terror as out of anger against a government they saw as increasingly authoritarian, arrogant and stubborn. The government, they said, mishandled the crisis in the emotional days after the attacks.
"Voters said they were enraged not only by the government's insistence that the Basque separatist group ETA was responsible, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, but they also resented its clumsy attempts to quell antigovernment sentiment.
"For example, the main television channel TVE, which is state-owned, showed scant and selective scenes of antigovernment demonstrations on Saturday night, just as it ran very little coverage of the large demonstrations against the war in Iraq last year. It also suddenly changed its regular programming to air a documentary on the horrors of ETA.
"That was the last straw for some Spaniards, who said it evoked the nightmare of censorship during the Franco dictatorship little more than a quarter of a century ago."
To David Brooks, perhaps if Aznar had come out forcefully and said that it was al-Qaeda and that this requires even more resolve in response, instead of shamefully hiding behind the black cloaks of ETA, he could have diffused the anger of the Spanish electorate.
And the connection to Franco's fascist propaganda machine cannot be discounted.
Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, first, Tom, let me just say the--how tragic that attack was in Spain. The 200 people that were killed, that are known to have been killed--my condolences to their families and--and their loved ones. It's a--it's a tragic event. We've seen terrorism strike in--in not just Spain or the United States, but obviously in--in--in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and--and Turkey and--and so many other countries across the globe. And it's always a sad thing when it happens.
No, I don't have any intelligence that would give cl--clarity. It's so recent. The--the one thing I would say is there seem to be growing connections between terrorist organizations. And Spain has been fighting terrorists for many, many, many years, and they have demostrated leadership in the global war on terror. And terrorists attack leaders. And it takes courage to be a leader. And--and God bless the Spanish people and the Spanish government for the strength and the courage they've shown and--and we all wish them well as they sort through the--the terrible carnage they're experiencing.
-- CBS "Face the Nation," March 14, 2004
Isn't it amazing that Rumsfeld, proxy for the administration, is so uncertain when it comes to an al-Qaeda connection to the bombings in Spain, yet, even today, so certain that the dubious links to an Saddam Hussein-al-Qaeda connection are true?
That's the perspective and attitude that underscores the administration's failure to combat Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. They see the "war on terrorism" as a state-based problem -- that is, go out and attack a country in the "axis of evil" -- rather than as a battle against a loose network of criminal cells.
And that's the attitude, as evinced by Spanish leadership last week, that led to their downfall on Sunday. It wasn't acquiescing to terrorism, as David Brooks so moronically chirps, it was anger at how the truth is used and manipulated by Aznar -- and Bush -- to cynically propel their policies.
"...interviews with scores of Spaniards of both parties indicated that a number of things happened after the attacks that shifted the balance to the Socialists. Voters flooded the polls on Sunday in record numbers, especially young people who had not planned to vote. In interviews, they said they did so not so much out of fear of terror as out of anger against a government they saw as increasingly authoritarian, arrogant and stubborn. The government, they said, mishandled the crisis in the emotional days after the attacks.
"Voters said they were enraged not only by the government's insistence that the Basque separatist group ETA was responsible, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, but they also resented its clumsy attempts to quell antigovernment sentiment.
"For example, the main television channel TVE, which is state-owned, showed scant and selective scenes of antigovernment demonstrations on Saturday night, just as it ran very little coverage of the large demonstrations against the war in Iraq last year. It also suddenly changed its regular programming to air a documentary on the horrors of ETA.
"That was the last straw for some Spaniards, who said it evoked the nightmare of censorship during the Franco dictatorship little more than a quarter of a century ago."
To David Brooks, perhaps if Aznar had come out forcefully and said that it was al-Qaeda and that this requires even more resolve in response, instead of shamefully hiding behind the black cloaks of ETA, he could have diffused the anger of the Spanish electorate.
And the connection to Franco's fascist propaganda machine cannot be discounted.
posted by John at 9:10 AM
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