Many in Europe Suspect Spain Misled Them About Attackers

[Kellanved]

MADRID, March 15 — Senior European officials complained Monday that their governments and the United Nations felt misled by the government of Prime Minister José María Aznar in the way it initially blamed the Basque separatist organization ETA for the terror attacks last week.

...
Also on Thursday, Javier Solana, a Spaniard who is the European Union's top foreign policy official, gave television interviews in three languages saying it seemed certain that militant Basque separatists were responsible because the type of explosives and the tactics used were those of ETA.
Mr. Solana made his remarks at the request of the Spanish government, one senior European official in Brussels said.

Before the election, Spain's center-right government accused the Socialist opposition of waging a smear campaign by suggesting that the government was guilty of a cover-up in withholding intelligence about the investigation.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/international/europe/16SPIN.html?ex=1080018000&en=98fa406e1e07813c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[IkeWarnedUs]

1. Heard this on NPR this morning

They were playing clips of interviews with voters in Spain who talked about their anger at being lied to - about the extent of the earlier oil spill, the reasons for supporting Bush in Iraq (especially WMD) and trying to lay the blame for the Madrid bombings on ETA.

I hope American voters are just as sick of being lied to here. I know I am.

[NV1962]

2. Links to three stories confirming manipulation of media by government

are here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x424728#424791

[Kellanved]

3. this is more than "just" the media and voters

They lied to the UN and European intelligence agencies.

[NV1962]

4. I know - it's just a reminded how broad the deceptive effort went (n/t)