Defeated Aznar denies bomb probe 'cover-up'

Spain’s outgoing prime minister defended his government today for initially blaming Basque separatists for the Madrid train bombings.

Jose Maria Aznar’s comments came in an article in The Asian Wall Street Journal that accused his political enemies of exploiting the crisis with false claims of a cover-up.

The worst terrorist attack in Spain’s history killed 190 people and injured 1,800 on March 11, and the Spanish government was quick to blame ETA, the Basque group that has killed hundreds of people through the years in its separatist campaign.

Aznar’s conservative party had been tipped to win the general election that took place just three days after the bombing, but public opinion turned in favour of the opposition Socialists as evidence emerged indicating the attacks might have been carried out by Muslim terrorists who wanted revenge on Spain for backing the United States in the Iraq war.

Aznar’s opponents accused the government of a cover-up, but he claimed in the article that the charges were politically-motivated lies which created a “wildfire of innuendo” that “spread rapidly among many people who were justifiably indignant after the attacks.”

Aznar said his government was honest with Spaniards from the outset, presenting them with all “the honest evidence that emerged” from the bombing probe.

“In the hours that followed the attacks, our investigation focused on one obvious suspect, the Basque terrorist group ETA,” Aznar wrote. “It was a reasonable inference to make and those who say otherwise are either being naïve or dishonest.”

The outgoing prime minister said ETA had committed more than 800 murders over the past three decades in what he called a terror campaign to weaken and divide Spain’s democracy.

“History has left us with clear evidence of ETA’s sinister habit of killing during election campaigns,” he wrote. “The terrorists always attempt to soak our democracy in blood on the days when we Spaniards go to the polls to reaffirm our liberties.”

Aznar said ETA tried to carry out a big bombing just days before the train attacks but the plot was thwarted by Spain’s national police.

But Aznar noted that as soon as authorities found an Arabic-language tape and several detonators in a vehicle the public was informed that a new line of investigation was being pursued.

The opposition quickly “invented a parallel reality” and accused the government of “lying about what we knew”, Aznar wrote.

“Those who twisted the facts in this way cannot feel very proud today,” Aznar wrote. “Instead of backing the government during the worst crisis in Spain’s recent history, our opponents declared that truth and transparency were on their side.”

Aznar said the bombings left Spain “in a state of shock, disoriented, in need of certitudes” and national unity was crucial.

“But it was also the moment just before the elections, and the temptation to exploit the situation for political gain proved irresistible to some. At a time when we most needed a common front, some set out to stoke the fires of doubt.”

“Barely 24 hours had gone by when those who were themselves lying began to accuse my government of mendacity, of a cover-up, of things that would be repugnant to all good people in the context of an attack upon our country.”