right-wing media such as the
It was widely known that ETA sought to attack targets in the capital and had previously tried to bomb trains, and only weeks before 11–M a vanload of ETA explosives had been seized approaching Madrid. Further, police in the northern region of Asturias had been tipped off that Basque separatists had sold dynamite for an imminent incident. The dynamite used in Madrid allegedly contained DNT, common in ETA blasts. Moreover, the Atocha attack was remarkably free of many of the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda attack, such as the suicide of the bomb carriers themselves.
The Socialists had a reason to shine the spotlight on al-Qaeda, not ETA. Before polling on 14 March they claimed, without any certain evidence, that al-Qaeda was responsible for the train attacks. Fearful of more al- Qaeda assaults on Spanish citizens, Spain voted to oust the party which had sent Spanish troops to Iraq—Aznar’s Popular Party. In the three days between the bombings and the election, Aznar’s Popular Party went from 5 per cent ahead in opinion polls to 7 per cent behind the Socialists. Once elected, the Socialists had to shore up their unfounded claims concerning Atocha.
On the other hand, Spain was indeed a prime target for al-Qaeda, as Aznar had been a high-profile supporter of the Bush-led ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Spanish police and judiciary continued on the al-Qaeda trail and within weeks surrounded Moroccan suspects in a hideout at Leganes. Rather than surrender, the suspects blew themselves up. Eventually, the Spanish police would arrest 29 more suspects in the Madrid train bombing investigation, and commit them to trial in 2007. The indictment ran to 96,000 pages, and failed to note any ETA connection with the Madrid bombings. It did find overwhelming evidence, however, of involvement in the crime by members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which is loosely associated with al-Qaeda.
Despite the strength of the prosecution case, Aznar and the Popular Party refused to let go of their conspiracy theory, which fractured Spanish society almost exactly along right/ left lines running back to the 1930s Civil War. Even the 11–M victims’ groups were run on pro- and anti-conspiracy lines.
In truth, any conspiracy theorizing after 11–M was as likely to be directed by Aznar and the Popular Party as against them. According to the ESISC (European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre), by late morning of the 11th the Spanish Intelligence Services had concluded the massacre was authored by an Islamist terrorist group, but were then ordered to deny the Islamic lead and insist that ETA was the sole suspect. The Popular Party government followed up by sending messages to Spanish embassies ordering them to uphold the pro-ETA line. Aznar is further reported to have phoned newspaper editors and personally asked them to support his version.
Addendum: On 31 October 2007 the Spanish National Court found 20 Islamists and Moroccan petty criminals guilty of perpetrating the Madrid Train Bombings and/or belonging to a terrorist organization. A Spanish miner was convicted of supplying the explosives used in the bombing.
Majestic–12
Returning home on the evening of 11 December 1984, TV producer and UFO investigator Jaime Shandera found a bulky envelope stuffed into his mailbox. Inside was a roll of 35mm undeveloped black-and-white film. When Shandera and his colleague William Moore developed the film they found photographs of a “TOP SECRET— EYES ONLY” document from 1952 briefing the then president of the US, Dwight Eisenhower.
The document informed the newly installed Eisenhower on the crash of a UFO at Roswell in July 1947, from which the bodies of four aliens had been recovered. Attached was a 1947 memo from President Harry Truman authorizing the setting up of a 12–member panel of military officers, scientists and intelligence officers, under the codename “Majestic–12” (aka “Majic-12”), to study the aliens’ technology.
After three years of research, Shandera and Moore became convinced that the Majestic–12 document was genuine, and released it on 29 May 1987 into the public domain. There were headlines around the world. A former CIA pilot called John Lear (son of the Learjet inventor) came forward to announce that he had discovered a paper trail of contacts between the Majestic–12 committee and alien visitors; the latter had, in order to heal genetic disorders, carried out experiments on cattle (resulting in the phenomenon which became known as “cattle mutilation”) and humans. Sometimes the experiments were carried out aboard flying saucers (see Alien Abductions) but more usually in huge US subterranean cities, peopled by aliens and guarded by the US; afterwards abductees were returned to their lives with trackers installed in their bodies. In exchange for permitting the alien experiments, the White House received alien technological know-how. Alas, after a diplomatic spat the aliens withdrew from Earth and, fearful they might return with less-than-peaceful intentions, the US created the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) to protect itself. According to the arch-UFOlogist William Cooper, the US government kept the lid on its long relationship with the aliens through a Mafia-like vow of silence. Any US subjects who blabbed were harassed into silence by Men in Black. Cooper claimed to have seen sheaves of UFO documents when he served in the navy, and even attempted the impeachment of George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton for complicity in Majestic–12. Cooper’s investigations into Majestic–12 came to an abrupt end in November 2001 when he was shot dead in what the authorities said was an unrelated accident.
The original Majestic–12 document was proved beyond reasonable doubt to be a forgery in 1989, when conspiracy de-bunker Philip Klass showed that President Truman’s signature on the document was an exact copy of his signature on an earlier letter. Nobody signs their name precisely the same way twice. Additionally, the 1947 memo was typed on a Smith Corona typewriter—a model not in production until 1963—and CIA chief Admiral Hillenkoetter is referred to as “Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter” even though all known letters from the time refer to him as “Adm. R. H. Hillenkoetter”.
Some suspect Bill Moore forged the original document himself. Moore is said to have written a novel in 1982 called
Nevertheless, diehards continue to hold that a super-secret body called Majestic–12 exists and that William Cooper was permanently silenced by the Men in Black because he was about to expose the whole White House- UFO cosy relationship. Hundreds of other Majestic–12 documents of disputed authenticity have been discovered and published.
Majestic–12 aside, there are verifiable accounts of a UFO study group set up by the Pentagon in 1954 called NSC 5412/2 about which next to nothing is known. Perhaps the hoaxers who forged the original Majestic–12 documents had the right guys, just the wrong name.
William Cooper,
Stanton T. Friedman,
DOCUMENT:
Purported 18 November 1952 Briefing to President-Elect Eisenhower on Majestic–12
