] Spain's interior minister said a suspect van had been
] found on Thursday near Madrid, scene of bombings that
] killed 190 people, containing seven detonators and a tape
] in Arabic language.
]
] Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the tape had
] recordings of verses from the Koran.

It will be difficult for the conspiracy theorists to claim that Spain "allowed this to happen" as the government fingered the wrong suspects in the outset. (U2: Or maybe not, but read below.) This is the first successful Al Q' move in Europe. It may create some renewal of Al Q' as they've been failing operationally on a frequent basis in the past months, but that is not the goal here.

What Al'Q wants is for Spaniards to be angry at their government for supporting the war in Iraq, and to beleive that their government exposed them to terrorism by supporting the United States. Their goal is to reduce the support that various governments in Europe have for the United States by making people afraid that supporting the U.S., even if they agree with the U.S., will expose them to these risks.

It could end up backfiring on them if it drives home the overall concept that Europeans are at risk from Al'Q regardless of whether or not they support the United States, and thereby galvanizes support for more extensive anti-terror efforts rather then diminishing support.

It will be interesting to see how Europe reacts. I hope they do not succumb to fear.

U: The fact that Spain got the UN to blame ETA at this stage is a little perplexing. Looking at the information it seems clear to me that this not ETA. At the very least the UN ought to be more cautious here lest they look like fools. If you're looking for a conspiracy theory, here is one: Spain is focusing on the ETA in order to confuse the emotional message sent by the terror attacks in the early days as the shock sets in. If they went to the public and said "Al Q attacked us and they did it for XYZ reason" they would be underlining the attacks with the explanation. By muddying the issue as much as possible Al Q is less likely to get their point across.

U2: I've revisited this theory a bit. The fact is that the Spanish government doesn't like ETA and wants to go after ETA. By misdirecting energy at ETA they build support for more extreme crackdowns on ETA. That is almost certainly their motive in this. In effect they are replacing Al Q's message with one they find more suitable to their interests. As for the inevitable claim that they allowed this to occur so that they could target ETA, the fact is that the international community will cease to be confused about this matter on short order, and allowing Al Q this victory is far more damaging to them vis-a-vis their already unpopular support for the war in Iraq to be worth the slight advantage this offers them against the already marginalized and weak ETA organization. So no, there is no way that the government of Spain was complicit in this. Its simply not in their best interest.