People who deplore the Irak War usually identity G. W. Bush and Tony Blair as its planners. They often omit José María Aznar, Presidente de Gobierno (prime minister) of Spain at the time. Of course he was a puny yes-man to Bush and Blair but did his best to promote the war and considered a great honor (as he said on TV) to sit between the leaders of "the most perfect democracies on Earth". His ridiculous posturing was popular among many Spaniards; in Madrid, I heard "Now Spain has an international projection!", To their credit, most Spaniards didn't swallow Aznar's antics and there were huge antiwar demonstrations in Madrid and other cities.
The "international projection" lasted until a brutal terrorist attack on Madrid's Atocha station on March 11, 2004 that caused 193 dead and more than 2,000 wounded. Aznar, true to form, blamed the outrage on the Basque terrorist organization ETA, although there was not a shred of evidence and ETA denied any involvement. Then Aznar switched to an alternative theory; the attack was a conspiracy to cause him to lose the general election held 3 days later. These infamies were parroted by the mainstream press, which actually established a new principle, holding strong today: the role of the press is to ape mechanically for the public what the Government lets them know. No analysis, no criticism. No checking of sources. Finally the crime was attributed to an Al-Qaeda cell, and new facts came to view, such as: Aznar had requested help of the CIA to disable ETA ,without realizing that there could be consequences.
Aznar did lose the elections but, incredibly, was never confronted with his crimes. As to the material perpetrators, the Spanish police "located" them and there was a police operation in which all were killed. Dead men tell no tales. Case closed
I liked this documentary. Part of it centers on the victims and their relatives. The rest focuses on Aznar's despicable behavior.and that of his accomplices, thoroughly documented from news clips and newspaper articles. As to who was the real perpetrator, we will probably never know.
The "international projection" lasted until a brutal terrorist attack on Madrid's Atocha station on March 11, 2004 that caused 193 dead and more than 2,000 wounded. Aznar, true to form, blamed the outrage on the Basque terrorist organization ETA, although there was not a shred of evidence and ETA denied any involvement. Then Aznar switched to an alternative theory; the attack was a conspiracy to cause him to lose the general election held 3 days later. These infamies were parroted by the mainstream press, which actually established a new principle, holding strong today: the role of the press is to ape mechanically for the public what the Government lets them know. No analysis, no criticism. No checking of sources. Finally the crime was attributed to an Al-Qaeda cell, and new facts came to view, such as: Aznar had requested help of the CIA to disable ETA ,without realizing that there could be consequences.
Aznar did lose the elections but, incredibly, was never confronted with his crimes. As to the material perpetrators, the Spanish police "located" them and there was a police operation in which all were killed. Dead men tell no tales. Case closed
I liked this documentary. Part of it centers on the victims and their relatives. The rest focuses on Aznar's despicable behavior.and that of his accomplices, thoroughly documented from news clips and newspaper articles. As to who was the real perpetrator, we will probably never know.
