Madrid Bombings: Unanswered Questions
58 minutes, 2004
Ref: 76tvc

One-hour special program.

More than 200 people were killed on March 11 in the Madrid terrorist attacks. The tragedy moved and outraged all of Spanish society. During the 72 hours following the attacks, a series of events raised political tension to fever pitch in what was a climactic moment in Spain's brief democratic history. Exactly what happened during those tragic hours? Did the government deliberately mislead public opinion to escape electoral defeat? Were public and private media pressured to spread the official story that ETA was responsible for the attacks? If Al Qaeda was behind the worst massacre in Europe in the last 100 years, how would this have made a difference on a political level and in security measures? Why and how did Al Qaeda perpetrate the attack? Part 2 looks at how the terrorist network functions. It describes the challenge to western societies when facing an organization that makes everyone vulnerable and which has left a wake of death and destruction around the world. The report follows the movements of radical Islamic terrorists in Spain where a large number of arrests were made prior to the 11-M attacks. Have these arrests made a difference? Some sources believe that the arrests have made it impossible to continue tracking the movements of the terrorist organization, leaving security forces at a dead end, and, as a result, making society even more vulnerable to attack. This urgent special report tries to find answers to some of the many questions surrounding one of the worst days in Spain's recent history and looks at the dangers looming ahead.