Train bomb ringleader may never be known

16 August 2004

MADRID –  It may  never fully be known who was the ultimate ringleader behind the 11 March train bombings in Madrid, says the Secretary of State for Security Antonio Camacho.

But in an interview with the El Mundo newspaper, published on Monday, Camacho praised the investigations carried out so far by security forces.

“We will probably never determine to the ultimate extreme who took part in the organisation of the attacks,” he said. “There is no sign that makes us suspect there was a (single) originator.”

Referring to criticism that the National Police and the paramilitary Civil Guard failed to share information before the attacks took place, Camacho said it was “healthy” that there were occasional disagreements between the two forces.

While the Interior Ministry is determined that all information be pooled in future, it was not the time to merge the two forces. That would “create more problems than advantages,” he added.

Meanwhile, the secretary general of the Socialist (PSOE) party, Diego López Garrido has said he does not think it necessary for former prime minister José María Aznar to appear before the commission investigating the events of 11 March.

As the former premier was “pretty well convinced of what he did”, it would only serve to “hear more lies, after all the hours we had to listen to Angel Acebes,” said López Garrido, referring to the former Interior Minister’s 10-hour appearance before the commission.

Although all the smaller parties have called for Aznar to be questioned by the commission, neither the PSOE nor Aznar’s own Partido Popular (PP) López Garrido have been in favour of him appearing.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news