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Remembering March 11: The Madrid Bombings and Their Effect
on Spanish Government, Society and the Antiwar Movement
Recovering Historic Memory in Spain: Grandson of Man Killed
by Franco Finds Remains in Mass Grave
Family of Spanish Journalist Killed by U.S. Forces in Baghdad
Accuses U.S. of War Crime
Remembering March 11: The Madrid Bombings and Their
Effect on Spanish Government, Society and the Antiwar Movement
We look at the March 11, 2003 bombings that killed 192 people
in Madrid. We speak to a videographer who captured it all
on tape, a survivor of the bombing, and a commissioner investigating
the attack. [includes rush
transcript - partial]
Last March 11th, just three days before Spain was to hold
presidential elections, three separate explosions shook Madrid
in the early morning. As people were heading to work and school,
the blasts ripped apart three commuter trains and killed almost
200 people. Thousands more were wounded. The victims were
from all walks of life: students, immigrant workers, parents
taking their children to daycare, civil servants heading to
their offices, and so many others. The images of the smoldering
trains soon went around the world, and within minutes the
experts were talking about simultaneous terrorist attacks.
Within a few hours, Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar
had called all the major media executives in the country and
told them that ETA, the Basque separatist group, was to blame.
Such was the conviction expressed by the president that Spain's
largest newspaper, the left-leaning EL PAIS, published a special
edition on the day of the attacks with the title "ETA
massacre in Madrid."
But in the first few hours after the bombings, another version
began to circulate in the alternative media: all initial evidence
was pointing to Al Qaeda. While the state-owned media advanced
the government's version, just a few outlets began to feed
information to the public that pointed in a radically different
direction. A van had been found parked at one of the stations
containing a tape that had verses of the Koran, as well as
identical detonators to one found in an unexploded bomb in
one of the trains. A cell phone found next to the unexploded
bomb had led police to several Moroccan immigrants already
under investigation for ties to Al Qaeda groups. Several arrests
had been made. As the evidence pointing to radical Islamic
groups mounted, Aznar's government continued to press its
case against ETA.
The day after the bombings, a massive demonstration that
had been promoted by the government to protest the attacks
turned into a spontaneous antiwar event that condemned both
the bombings in Madrid and in Iraq. Finally, on the eve of
the elections, thousands of people congregated in front of
the headquarters of the governing political party, the PP.
They demanded to be told the truth.
The next day, Aznar's party was ousted from office. Voter
turnout was unprecedented, reaching a historic 70 percent.
Today we take a look at what happened on those days. Why
Aznar's government tried to mislead the Spanish public. And
we look at the two investigations currently underway: one
judicial, conducted by the courts, and one political, carried
out by the March 11th commission.
Next week, former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar is scheduled
to testify before the March 11th commission in Madrid. This
congressional group, which is similar in some ways to the
September 11th commission established in the United States,
was created to find out how the attacks were planned, and
what if anything could have been done to prevent them. The
commission is also seeking to find out whether the Spanish
government withheld from the public critical information that
pointed to Al Qaeda, while insisting that the Basque separatist
group ETA was the main suspect.
- Jesus Ramirez, representative of the Association for
the Victims of March 11. Jesus was critically injured in
the bombings and spent several days unconscious in intensive
care. He is still receiving medical care for his injuries.
- Gabriela Gutierrez, filmmaker who shot "Four Days
in March." Many of the survivors of the bombings have
thanked the filmmakers, they say that the film has helped
them to understand what happened that day.
- Uxue Barkos, a member of Spain's March 11th Commission.
Recovering Historic Memory in Spain: Grandson of
Man Killed by Franco Finds Remains in Mass Grave
We look at the legacy of Francisco Franco - the dictator
who in 1936 launched a bloody civil war and then ruled Spain
for 40 years - and one man's quest to find his grandfather
who was killed by Franco's troops decades ago.
When I ask people here about the legacy of Francisco Franco,
the dictator who in 1936 launched a bloody civil war and then
ruled Spain for 40 years, many of them say this: he was the
man who divided Spain forever into two sides.
Over one million Spaniards were killed in the war and in
the brutal repression that followed. Many victims were summarily
shot and buried in mass graves. Entire villages were wiped
out. Many people were imprisoned and tortured. But unlike
other countries that have tried to bring justice to victims
through truth commissions, Spain never closed this traumatic
chapter. No-one was ever tried or jailed for these crimes
after Franco died and Spain transitioned into a democracy.
In fact, Franco's longtime Minister of the Interior, Manuel
Fraga, still holds a powerful political post as the head of
the Autonomous Region of Galicia.
But recently, there has been a growing movement to uncover
the memory of those lost in the war. Family members of the
disappeared have formed organizations that conduct archeological
digs to uncover mass graves. Many of those participating are
also young students of archeology. We are now joined by a
man who went on a very special search for his grandfather,
and found him.
- Emilio Silva Parrera, President of the Association for
the Recovery of Historic Memory. His grandfather was killed
by the Franco troops during the civil war.
Family of Spanish Journalist Killed by U.S. Forces
in Baghdad Accuses U.S. of War Crime
We speak with Javier Couso and Maribel Permuy, the brother
and mother of Spanish journalist, Jose
Couso, who was killed by US forces in an attack at the
Palestine hotel in Baghdad on April 8th 2003. They are calling
on a full investigation into whether journalists were deliberately
targeted by the military.
April 8th of 2003 will be remembered as a bloody day for
journalists in Iraq. On the same day, American troops fired
a rocket on the bureau of Arab news service Al Jazeera, killing
correspondent Tareq Ayyoub. Then the staff of another Arab
station, Abu Dhabi TV, was attacked in their offices by American
artillery. And finally a tank fired on the Palestine Hotel,
where most of the unembedded reporters were staying. This
last attack killed two people, Reuters photographer Taras
Protsyuk, from the Ukraine, and Jose Couso, cameraman for
the Spanish television station Telecinco who had been filming
the tank from the hotel balcony all morning. Couso initially
survived the attack and told his colleague that the Americans
had seen him, and that he felt they had fired deliberately.
He later died in the hospital.
Today we are joined by one of Jose's brothers, Javier Couso.
The family has insisted on a full investigation into whether
the journalists were deliberately targeted by the military.
They have filed a criminal lawsuit in Spanish courts accusing
the three soldiers who fired the shots of committing a war
crime and of murdering a Spanish citizen abroad. So far, the
Bush administration maintains that the soldiers acted in self-defense
and responded to gunfire coming from the hotel, and it refuses
to conduct further investigations.
- Javier Couso, the brother of Spanish journalist Jose
Couso, who was killed by US forces in Iraq at the beginning
of the invasion of Baghdad in April 2003.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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