How to Win Friends and Influence Terrorists
Aiding and abetting a terrorist group is a serious crime in Spain, punishable by jail terms of up to ten years. So if it should turn out that the country’s very own interior minister gave terrorists advance notice of an imminent police raid, and later apologized to them for not having aborted it, then it stands to reason that the government — which has since elevated the minister in question to deputy premier and political heir apparent — is in big trouble, and it is time to think about a vote of confidence and have the courts prepare indictments and the media raise all kinds of hell. But will any of that actually happen?
The terrorist group, of course, is ETA, and the incident all Spain refers to as “the big tip-off”occurred back in May 2006, when Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was desperately eager (as he still is) to reach a deal with the separatist group that has killed over 800 people since 1968 in its bid to set up an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.
The outcome of what the feckless, clueless Zapatero still insists on calling a “peace process” would become apparent half a year after that incident, when the terrorists blew up a parking ramp at Madrid’s Barajas Airport and crushed two people to death. The reason ETA gave for the “accident” — that’s what Zapatero called it — was that the Spanish premier had not kept his promises of political concessions that he repeatedly assured the public he never made.
But before it came to that, Zapatero had offered all sorts of deal sweeteners, good faith gestures, and parity — a democratic government negotiating on equal footing with killers. It was never much of a secret, though it could not be proven and was denied by, among others, Zapatero’s high-profile interior minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. But how far Zapatero would go in that direction and how abject he would be did not emerge until just this week
The smoking document is an internal memorandum prepared by and for ETA’s top ringleaders that gives verbatim extracts from talks held with two officials of the Zapatero government in June 2006. It was confiscated by French police in 2008 when they arrested ETA’s chief political strategist and released this week by order of High Court Judge Pedro Ruz, who is investigating the tip-off incident. Its self-evident veracity lies in the fact that it was not leaked or made public or channeled through one or another of the terrorist front groups — it was strictly for eyes-only internal circulation.
Confirmation that ETA had been warned about the raid that took place earlier that same month comes in the form of a groveling apology by one of the government envoys for having allowed it to happen. “This is a serious accident. I don’t know what to tell you — I was really upset when I heard about it and I can understand you guys were too,” he says, using the familiar/friendly form of address. ”They tried everything but they just weren’t able to stop it,” he reassured them.
Then the envoy goes on to admit that a political decision has been made to go easy on terrorists. “We have told the National Police, the Civil Guards, the Ertzaintza (Basque police force), and the French police not to make any arrests and it hasn’t been easy because that kind of order doesn’t get put into writing.” Evidently not. Evidence pieced together by Judge Ruz seems to show that the heads-up was home-delivered to the terror gang.
On May 4, a man since identified as a police inspector, had called on the owner of a sleazy bar in the town of Irun, on the French-Spanish border, that served as a clearing house for the money ETA obtained through its program of systematic extortion of Basque business owners and executives.
Seems Mr. “Shoemaker” should have stuck to lasts and heels and not messed with souls.
Spain is paying a price for stupidly kicking out Jose Maria Aznar but it’s doubtful that the voting public has learned anything.
The dumbing down of society is starting to have its effect as we witness in the US as well.
Actually Aznar wasn’t kicked out, he didn’t apply for a third term, it was his successor in the right wing PP, Mariano Rajoy who was beaten two times by Zapatero.
Also, there are lots of things wsay funny over the investigation of the Madrid bombings. Like why the bombed wagons were destroyed (along with any evidence they could contain) a mere two days later, why the experts in explosives searched the wagons not once but twice without fionding anything, why normal police collected teh reminings in the wagons (one of them a heavy bag (25 pounds) who didn’t attract teh attention of the policeman, how it was only hours later that it was “found” that it contained a bomb, that this bomb should have been detonated by mobile phone but that it wasn’t connected, that this mobile phone led to tha arrest of some Arabs (actually Maghrebis) who in fact were in fact petty ciminals not noted for their religious zeal and were police informers, that their o so opporune arrest took place at a time Spanish law banned teh gopvernement of replying to the accusations of socialist-controlled media, that the samples collected in the wagons have been washed with solvents so it is not possible to know if the explosives in the bag matched what had been used in the train (some people say that the way the metal of the wagon walls was cut clean points to a high velocity explosive and not the low velocity official one) and that the people who botched the investigation have been rewarded by Zapatero
Weak leaders like Zapatero continue to show their weakness whenever they try to “negotiate” with terrorists. And, as you can see by the results, it got him nothing. If anything, it made matters worse with the terrorists.
Obama is doing the same thing with Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Remember during the campaign Obama said we should “talk” to these people and that, seeing his “greatness and a communicator,” they would have no other “choice” but to negotiate a peace. Well, how’s that negotiating working out for you, champ? Iran actually murdered their own protesters in 2009 after a rigged election and Obama said nothing. Iran keeps seeking a nuclear bomb, and Obama does nothing. Iran keeps funding terrorists with Hamas and Hezbollah, and Obama does nothing. Iran keeps killing our troops in Afghanistan by supplying weapons to the Taliban, yet Obama does nothing. And Iran keeps trying to overthrow nations like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and Obama does nothing. Yep, “negotiating” with these people has really produced “great” results, right? When you appease terrorists there can be only one outcome: Failure.
Possibly he was moved by the fact that more people have been killed in traffic accidents gawking on Pablo Picasso Street in Barcelona since 1968 than have been murdered by the ETA.
Actually ETA has killed over 1 thousand people and it is highly dubious that 25 people a year have been killed in the quite unimportant Picasso Street in Barcelona.
The results of Zapatero terrorist policy are clear: last month pirates kidnapped a ship in Somalia. They freed everybody without further question but the Spaniards who were on board. Why? That’s easy: Spain has paid every single time they have kidnapped a Spaniard, while the rest of the countries don’t negotiate with terrorists.
What all that means? Well, first of all, that interior minister of the kingdom of Spain is chosen by a terrorist gang. Second, that they choose as well who is the prosecutor in the most important courts of justice. Third, that the Government uses the taxpayer money to fund a gang whose main activity is killing and extorting honest law-abiding taxpayers. Fourth, ZP lied to the Parliament and lied to the citizens when he said there were not negotiations. Everywhere else he would be processed under charges of hight treason.
3. James May: Does your statement mean that mass murdering of innocents is OK as long as there are less than eight hundred victims? Btw, that is too many traffic accidents for a street that according to Google Maps doesn’t even exist , isn’t it?
Odd how I remember standing and looking up at the plaque of the street’s name while walking to the Parc de la Ciutadella which has a very, very nice fountain that looks great from near Earth orbit.
I would write it off as a false memory from all the times transvestite prostitutes forced me to buy drugs every time I’m on La Rambla but on this occasion I have a photo of that plaque although the photos of the hookers are all blurry for some reason.
What better example of the liberal habit of thinking that keyboard ‘knowledge’ combined with sheer intellect trumps on the scene observation? Extend that out to all the commentary written about, for example, Tahrir Square in Egypt and you can plainly see there is a disconnect.
Also, one dead person every three weeks extends out the danger of terrorism to a lot of territory including the ‘mass murder’ of traffic accidents which are then no accidents but a preventable act we ignore by compartmentalizing death; what was more deadly for Americans, the decade of the Vietnam War or driving on American roads?
It was a thought experiment – I didn’t mean to be blithe about murder but rather in how semantics invokes different thoughts irregardless of the number of casualties. ‘Collateral damage’ seems an entirely acceptable concept though statistics show there are an equal number of tears at the funerals in question. What should we ‘worry’ about? What is danger? Why is it held that being murdered by an atomic explosion at Nagasaki is worse than being blown to bits by a howitzer?
Yes, my mind races sometimes and I have flash backs of some fat guy in a wig standing against a wall saying, “Regalo me un cigarro.” and the next thing I know I’m waking up on a Barcelona beach, stripped of my pride and all my cigarettes.
Actually there is no Picasso Street (obviously) but there is a Paseo Picasso (roughly Picasso Avenue) in the perimeter of the “Citadel Park” aka Barcelona’s Zoo and close to the sea. But there is no way that 20 peiople a year had ever been killed there. It is definitely not one of Barcelona’s main setreets
Danegeld. Admit you can’t win, surrender to the “inevitable,” pay the bad guys to leave you alone. That’s been Spain’s strategy since the train station bombings. We’ll see how it works in the long run.
Absolutely horrendous. Terrorists should NEVER be negotiated with! G-D protect the good people of Spain!
The terrible tragedy of our day is that politicians and nations’ leaders have a love affair with terrorists – Muslim terrorists. Global Muslim terrorist, Arafat, was adored by international elites and the most invited foreign guest to the Clinton White House. Cruel and barbaric Arafat and his Islamo Fascists, who are as cruel and barbaric as Arafat, were given mega money, Jewish land and weapons. They did EXACTLY as was expected of them: waged bloody jihad against Israel’s Jews.
Nothing has changed since the Holocaust.
The US/EU/UK/UN seek to have hundreds of thousands of Jews viciously ethnically cleansed from the Biblical Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria-land that is absolutely vital to Israel’s defense. Without this militarily strategic high ground, Israel CANNOT defend herself.
It was also unacceptable to G-D hater Hitler and his vile Nazis that Jews lived in Europe.
Under no circumstances must one inch of Jewish Holy Land be surrendered to the bloodthirsty Islamo Nazis.