I SAW 3 BOMBERS

[dArKeR]

Mar 13 2004

By Graham Brough in Madrid and Mark Ellis in London

A WITNESS told last night how he saw three masked men fleeing a white van in Madrid that was later found full of bomb equipment.

As Spanish police launched their biggest manhunt, the man said he watched as the trio left the vehicle which contained detonators, a tape of the Koran and a mobile phone believed to be used to detonate booby-trapped explosives in the doomed trains.

He told Spanish TV: "I saw three men leaving the van.

"They had their heads and mouths covered but with what I could not see. They left the van quickly in another direction to me. I did not see them again."

The motor was found in Alcala de Henares - a suburb near where the trains began their journeys.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=14048080_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-I%2DSAW%2D3%2DBOMBERS-name_page.html

As per the Repukes in the DU bashing the Mirror, 99% fact on news reporting over the last 2 years.

[Renew Deal]

1. It's still not clear if they were Spaniards or Arabs

Could the Koran business be a diversion? Hmm

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. I'm surprised they didn't

leave their passports. It makes it so much easier to figure out who the bad guys are.

[chasqui]

23. Yeah, I like how it just smacks of red herring-ness

"...the van was found with explosives, guns, and a copy of Martha Stewart Living..."
Which would then not so much prove that Martha Stewart was behind it, but, rather, to HELP convince the public that she was behind it.
There are so many unthinking people out there.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Wouldn't it make sense that if men are setting up a bombing

and leave a tape of the Koran, that they are trying to implicate a group, as in "frame" someone, to use the language of 1940's movies?

I know I believe it.

Re your reference to a few posters trying to smear the Mirror yesterday: Didn't that highly respected American journalist (I've got a mental block on his name right now) who hacked off the _Bush administration by revealing something they didn't like during the beginning of the Afghanistan war get tossed off his own American job, and start working for the Mirror within days?

We all discussed it a LOT when it happened, but I can't remember his name. When this happened the consensus was that the Mirror has a better rep. now than in the past, as it's moving upward and onward.

Thanks for the article.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

6. re journalist -- I know who you mean

& can't think of name either! but if we're thinking of the same one, it was during the Iraq war & I think his crime was to be interviewed on on Iraq TV.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Cool! Peter Arnett! Thanks a million times.

Getting the right war was all it took to get me into google for a link.



Just fired, Peter Arnett hired by British paper
Tuesday, April 1, 2003 Posted: 4:37 AM EST (0937 GMT)

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Daily Mirror hired veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett Tuesday, less than 24 hours after he was fired by NBC and National Geographic for saying on Iraqi TV the U.S. war plan has "failed."

The tabloid's banner headline Tuesday said: "Fired by America for telling the truth ... hired by Daily Mirror to carry on telling it."

Piers Morgan, an editor for the Daily Mirror, told CNN, "Peter is one of the most respected journalists in the world, and we are delighted he is joining us to expose the truth about a war increasingly dominated by propaganda."

Arnett, 68, was quoted in the tabloid as saying, "I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologize for it. I have always admired your newspaper and am proud to be working for it."

Arnett -- who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Vietnam War, and covered the 1991 Persian Gulf War for CNN -- was one of the last reporters in Baghdad reporting for a U.S. network when he was interviewed by Iraqi TV over the weekend.
(snip/...)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/31/sprj.irq.arnett/

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

11. top stuff! nt

[Toby109]

8. Was it Peter Arnett?

[windansea]

12. possibly the ETA trying to frame Al Queda

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x419949

oh oh...we might agree on something....:)

[aquart]

22. Which would aid the Basque cause exactly HOW?

[windansea]

27. ETA hates RW spanish govt.

if bombs are by ETA it helps the govt

if bombs are by Al Queda it hurts the govt

[henslee]

16. They had a volleyball, warm water, the koran, handstamps from a stripclub.

[shadu]

4. I get a charge out of that tape of the Koran they always leave behind

Isn't that just a bit silly?

[Minstrel Boy]

5. They must think people are stupid.

The thing is, most people are.

[abelenkpe]

10. ain't that the truth n/t

[Jazzgirl]

20. I thought about all the evidence they "left" behind as

a diversion too. I also thought about NSA, CIA, or somebody being involved. It was just a little too obvious.

[ParanoidPat]

28. Not really silly if......

.....the van was driven by a blind Muslim cleric who simply couldn't see that he'd forgotten his 'book on tape' in the cassette deck! :evilgrin:

[The Stranger]

9. Not Suicide Bombers? Isn't that the hallmark of Al Queda?

Another ignored fact.

[yltlatl]

14. Hallmarks

The "news" shows have been consulting their pundits about the bombings, and they keep talking about "Al Qaeda hallmarks." I remember MSNBC in particular mentioned "multiple simultaneous bombs" as an Al Qaeda hallmark, but I can't remember any bombings that were firmly linked to Al Qaeda (aside from 9/11 I suppose) that used this technique. Doesn't it seem like "Al Qaeda hallmarks" are whatever the interested governments and media say they are?

[Renew Deal]

15. No

The first WTC bombing was not a suicide bombing. Some of the others weren't either. They are fans of car bombings.

[yella_dawg]

13. Stupid Question

Why did they walk away from a mound of evidence instead of driving away with the evidence and disposing of it?

It's getting easier by the day to believe Al Queda is an arm of the NSA.

[ConcernedCanuk]

17. It's getting easier by the day to believe Al Queda is an arm of the NSA.

.
.
.

GEE - ya think ?

just cuz the ONLY people allowed out of the USA after 911 were bin Ladens?

naaaah

just coincidence

[dArKeR]

19. And we know they killed a Presdient, a future Presdient and a leader and

possible future President; JFK, RFK, MLK, so why would they have any conscience not to kill more? Look at the millions of people who were butchered by the USAs puppet dictators. Wake up.

Friendly Dictators Trading Cards
http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html

[henslee]

18. When I heard Kerry saying "these guys are Crooked", I always imagined it..

was something with implications as insidious as your idea that Al Queda is an arm of the NSA. I mean, some Beltway comrades must really know some good stuff.

[54anickel]

25. Not sure, but I thought the van was suppose to blow up, had a detonator

that malfunctioned. Thought I read that in one of the many articles.
:shrug:

[fedsron2us]

21. I have a horrible feeling that perpetrators of this atrocity

will never be caught. This will prove to be remarkably convenient for -

1 - Islamic terrorists who can claim credit for the attacks even if they did not carry them out

2 - ETA who can deny organising the blasts even if they did plant the bombs

3 - The Spanish right who will blame ETA

4 - The Spanish left who will blame Al Qaida and Spain's involvement in Iraq

5 - George Bush who will use the tragedy to bolster his election campaign and his war on terror.

6 -Tony Blair who prophetically predicted new terror outrages in speech only six days before the Madrid attacks and will be able to use the events to silence his critics.

The only ones to suffer from this outcome will be the poor souls who lost loved ones as a result of the crime and who will be denied justice, and the rest of us who will be denied the truth

[aquart]

24. ETA always claims its own work. That's the point of doing it.

Why is it so terribly important to you that "Islamic terrorists" have clean hands in this?

I don't want to even hint how racist and condescending it is to instantly discount them as you seem to be doing.

[DerBeppo]

26. because...

some here feel that admiting that there are very dangerous and active islamic terrorists in this world = supporting bush.

[fedsron2us]

29. You have completely misinterpreted my post

I do not deny the existence of Islamic terrorist groups or their capability of carrying out these attacks. What I am saying is that the appalling attacks that have taken place in Spain are going to be exploited by different political groups for their own purposes. Like most Americans you completely underestimate the capabilities of Europes indigenous terrorist organisations to carry out attacks on innocent civilians. I suggest that you ask a few Spaniards whether they think ETA is capable of this sort of atrocity. Alternatively, try visiting Omagh in Northern Ireland and ask the populace how much warning they were given before an Irish republican splinter group decimated their community.


By the way my wife is Jewish so I am hardly likely to be an apologist for a fascist like Osama Bin Laden