Aznar: Guilty

But we knew that, since March 11th, 2004.

And to his dismay, the international media has not been so kind towards him this time around.

Almost as if those who make the decisions at the press rooms have finally managed to see through the smoke curtain that protects the rancid Francoism that still pesters Spain's life.

The next step if you ask me?

Take the pocket size Franco wannabe to The Hague, where he belongs. A cell right next to Milosevic's.

The final word about the inquiry into the attacks was first brought to us by Reuters:

Spain's previous centre-right government "manipulated and twisted" the Madrid train bombings of March 2004 in a bid to salvage general elections three days later, a parliamentary commission found on Wednesday.

In a 200-page report after a year of bitter wrangling, the commission accused Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party (PP) government of ignoring police warnings that its support for the Iraq war increased the threat from Islamic terrorism in Spain.

Few minutes later, the same outlet provided more info:

"The objective was to influence public opinion about the authors of the attack and avoid political consequences which might harm the electoral interests of the Popular Party," read the final report. The report alleged the PP was afraid of public outcry if the bombings were linked to its unpopular support for the Iraq war.

"It was clearly an informative attitude inappropriate for a democratic government," said the report.

Aznar, who stood down at the elections, told a hearing of the commission last year he still believed ETA was linked to the attacks. The commission said in Wednesday's report it found no evidence of any ETA involvement in the bombings.

The words by Aznar sound familiar?

That is because apologists like the pseudo-liberal bloggers behind Barcepundit and HispaLibertas have been lending credibility to Aznar's delusional misguided and misguiding rants, the sad part being that some American bloggers seem to be at ease while lies like these are fed to them.

Eventually AP took it from there:

The main body of the report said the Aznar government had been warned by Spanish and foreign intelligence services that Spain ran the risk of an attack by Islamic militants. At least one report from Spanish intelligence made specific mention of the Spanish troop presence in Iraq, which was widely unpopular domestically, as a motive for concern.

But Aznar's government was guilty of "clear underestimation of the announced risks," the commission's report charged, although it said this does not necessarily mean the bombings could have been averted.

Over the course of the parliamentary probe, the now ruling Socialists accused Aznar's of lying to save the 2004 election. They said Aznar feared that word of an Islamic role in the attack would make voters think his Iraq policy had made Spain a target for al-Qaida and eject his party from office.

Not only he feared the backlash over Iraq, he saw it as an opportunity to demonize the Basque dream of self determination even more, make it into a nightmare.

Expatica, an outlet with Francoist esqueletons in the closet, tried to downplay it:

Spain's much-criticised inquiry into the Madrid train bombings accuses the former conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar of 'manipulaing' and 'distorting' the tragedy for electoral ends.

Only the Popular Party (PP) members on the inquiry refused to agree to criticism of Aznar's role during and after the bombings in which 191 people were killed.

Aznar, whose PP was in charge when the Islamic terrorists struck on 11 March last year, initially blamed ETA — provoking a backlash from voters in the general three days later.

The Socialist opposition party won a shock victory, against all predictions.

The only ones criticising it are the members of the PP, because they were caught red handed in the process of raping democracy.

Which is why they disagreed with the outcome of the report. Well, duh!

Not to congratulate myself, but I said it a long time ago.

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