The smell is beginning to shift from Spicy Fish to Hummus.

Indeed. Reports I had read early this morning made it sound as if all the devices went off in close proximity to the double decker train at the El Pozo station that all the pictures are focusing on. Latter reports make clear that the devices went off within 15 minutes of each other at three separate platforms up to 9 miles apart. That's classic Al Queda. The latest rumor is that Spainish police have found detonators and a Islamic propaganda in a van near the scene. If that's true, it rules out ETA attempting to pin this on Al Queda. My guess now is that Al Queda got its bomb making material from the local black market (which appears to have its source in France not surprisingly), and may have had someone within ETA. Afterall, terrorist organizations can't really thrive without criminal contacts and weapons smugglers are not noted for having scruples about who they do business with. ETA's political wing was pretty quick to pin this on 'Arab Resistance'. I wonder if they could elaborate somewhat. Do you think they were just stating the obvious theory or did they know something was going down?

The train stations are located south east: Atocha, El Pozo and Santa Eugenia. http://www.renfe.es/empresa/cercanias/gif_madrid.html I believe the bombs were all time fused and expected to explode all at Atocha, but went off early & not so coordinated as those bastards wanted, it would have been even worse because as you can note Atocha is a major transport node, plenty of people there at 8:00am.

>Apparantly there were separate attacks at El Pozo >and Atocha stations. If someone could explain the >significance of these stations and their relative >posistions to each other I'd appreciate it BBC has a map of the railway line in the site. The stations are in line, same railway line, the sequence of events would be like this 1) Terrorists get onboard train#1 leave bombs, get off train through another door before the train closes doors and starts moving 2) Repeat steps with the next 2 trains in the same station 3) Another terrorist leaves bomb at the platform of the Atocha station with timer set to explode on arrival of train #1, that way maximum carnage is ensured as it hits both the people inside the train and those waiting at the platform Due to lack of precision, bomb in train #1 blows up before arriving on station. More or less that's a quick summary. It has been the ETA, the Al Qaeda speculation is just paranoia, it simply makes a more interesting story for CNN BBC and other US and UK media. ETA is a marxist leninist gang, nothing to do with Islamic fanatics. Any cooperation between those groups is... so unlikely to be ruled out. The dynamite is typical of ETA, stolen from French magazines, maybe the chemical lab can trace the batch. ETA had already tried this plan in Xmas day, but botched up the job. Last week their attempt to use yet again a huge truck bomb was stopped. They refined the tactic and targetted a conmuter train, that is an easier target. It doesn't take a lot of brains to execute. Leaving behind a van with some detonators and a casette with Koran versicles that can be bought anywhere seems like a false lead to distract the police. They achieve their objective of carnage while distancing themselves from it. The usual modus operandi from ETA is leaving a bomb in the car used for the strike, to try kill the explosive defusing experts, and to erase fingerprints with the explosion and fire. Abandoning the van intact with the tape is just a way to sow confusion. Simplest explanation is usually the correct one. For now most of the evidence points to ETA

If it wasn't ETA, and Spain cracks down on them hard anyway, what's the downside? Terrorists do not have explicit permission from me to breathe. This insubordination must be stopped.

1)"It has been the ETA, the Al Qaeda speculation is just paranoia, it simply makes a more interesting story for CNN BBC and other US and UK media." Sorry. THIS is paranoia. In fact, American media have, from virtually 9-11, been very chary of accusing any identifiably muslim individual or group of anything, at all. They've gone so far as to ignore real stories and real issues, apparently for fear of setting off anti-muslim violence. The BBC, if anything, is even more strongnly biased in this direction. 2)FWIW, I seem to recall that the Spanish police seized a large amount of explosives only recently. Several hundred pounds. 3)Also, fwiw, my immediate reaction to the first stories was that while ETA was the obvious first suspect to come to mind, we ought be careful not to rule out al-Qaeda, et al. The size of the attack and the complexity seems to me a bit more than ETA has been known for. And, I seem to recall that ETA often sends warnings timed just before their attacks on civilian targets (as opposed to their attacks on military, police, or government personel, whom they just assassinate when they can). It's only my opinion, and not well informed, but this smells more like AQ to me. There have been stories circulating in Europe, the US, and Israel for some months, now, that AQ, et al, have been aiming at one or more "mega" level attacks.

bsl "In fact, American media have, from virtually 9-11, been very chary of accusing any identifiably muslim individual or group of anything, at all. " How true. You mean like, when an Egyptian national, with ties to Al Qaeda, opens fire in the El Al terminal, at the millenium bombing target LAX, on July 4, and the coroner hasn't even shown up before we're hearing "this is not terrorism." "It's only my opinion, and not well informed, but this smells more like AQ to me." Upon more reflection I tend to agree. ETA would have had to really gone off the deep end to inflict these kind of casualties on the general population. As I recall, they have tended in the past to prefer government and business targets with casualties in the single digits, not massive carnage like this. I'm not even sure they could have pulled it off by themselves if they wanted to. As it is, even if it's not them the Spanish government is going to go completely ape-kaka on them anyway. I'm certain at this time in Spain the public rightfully wants the heads of terrorists, any and all terrorists, on a plate . Al-Qaeda preferred but not immediately required. In any case this may hopefully be the beginning of the end for the Basque terrorist movement. If I were the Grand Pooba of ETA I'd not only be issuing denials left and right, I'd have my OWN people out hunting for whoever did this. But then again, whoever said terrorists were smart.

Lets wait and see before jumping to any conclusion. Spanish polica has found and detonated a few more devices. Hopefully they got detailed description down. Explosive device design should give more conclusive leads to who was behind the attack, or at least who was rsponsible for the manufacture. Regardless, I doubt this is the end of either organization, they managed to survive quiet sucessfully so far. Only a concerted many of the world countries would hopefully be enough to wipe those groups out. Unfrotunately, Many countries still provide safe haven and training camps, as well as money to terrorists. So the end to this conflict is no in sight just yet.

Oh they are smart and they are ruthless. And AQ seems to pursue the goal of destruction of western civilization as a whole. So chances are they will attemt bigger things yet.

A few days, or weeks, for forensics to determine the signature of the explosive and the author, then retribution. I hope as information is gleaned, it is made available to the public.