Blasts echo Madrid's 2004 nightmare

MADRID -- The parallels are unmistakable. A coordinated series of deadly explosions during the crowded morning rush hour. A strike on public transport serving millions of commuters and tourists in a major European capital. An attack on one of the United States' key allies in the war in Iraq.

The four bombings on the London underground and a double-decker bus were eerily reminiscent of the explosions on four Madrid commuter trains that claimed 191 lives and injured more than 1,500 people last year, and prompted a newly-elected government to withdraw Spain's troops from Iraq.

In the 16 months since the Madrid bombings, Spanish authorities say they have foiled at least four alleged Islamic terror plots, detained more than 100 suspects in the train bombings, and intercepted communications among Muslim radicals plotting new attacks while in custody. Much has been learned about the recruitment and operation of terror cells in Spain, a principal destination for North African immigrants and a European hub for radical Islamists, according to terror specialists here.

Spain has nearly 40 years of experience fighting the Basque separatist group ETA, making high-profile arrests in recent years, much as British authorities endured a bombing campaign by the Irish Republican Army for three decades, often successfully infiltrating IRA cells. Yet neither country's intelligence service has as much experience penetrating Islamic terror cells, nor have they been able to foil every plot by any group.

A major difference is that Islamic terrorists operate without a clear, organized structure, said a senior official in the Spanish Interior Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''The Islamic terror cells are very autonomous and can make their own decisions. They are much more difficult to fight than ETA, where the structure is clear, hierarchical, and well-known," the official said.

Antonio Elorza, an author of books on terrorism by Islamic extremists and a professor at Madrid's Universidad Complutense said Spanish officials have learned that ''Al Qaeda doesn't need to have a firm structure to keep it going. It's like a many-headed Hydra that can fracture and yet keep going."

In the aftermath of the March 11, 2004 train bombings, Spanish authorities found a backpack with an unexploded cellphone-triggered bomb that led them to numerous suspects in the days and weeks after the attack. In a series of sting operations since, some 120 people, many of Moroccan origin, were detained and remain suspects, according to Interior Ministry records.

Twenty-six of those accused of the most serious involvement are in custody awaiting trial, while the investigating judge has amassed 50,000 pages of testimony and evidence. A trial is expected to start late this year or early next year.

The socialist government that was elected three days after the March 2004 bombings has beefed up the number of intelligence agents dedicated to Islamic terrorism from a few dozen to more than 600, with plans to double that number within two years, according to the Interior Ministry official. From almost no Arabic speakers working with the police, border guards, and jails, he said, authorities have recruited and trained 100.

Those linguists helped detect a plot discussed among inmates to bomb the country's highest antiterror court with more than 2,000 pounds of explosives, he said. The inmates have since been separated among 30 different jails to prevent communication, the official added.

Spain also created an antiterrorism coordination unit similar to those in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, designed to analyze information collected by different agencies. Legislation has made it much more difficult to legally manufacture or purchase explosives. But lawmakers have not imposed new restrictions on civil liberties.

In contrast, France launched a draconian crackdown in the aftermath of a series of Paris subway bombings in 1995 carried out by Algerian Islamic militants that killed eight and wounded 200. The French began carrying out identity checks on millions of Muslim immigrants, and approved a law that allows authorities to detain terror suspects without firm evidence and try those who are charged in terrorism tribunals with no jury.

For survivors of the Madrid bombing, the televised images of burned victims carried away on stretchers in London flooded them with painful memories of their own horror.

''The seventh of July has become for us another 11th of March; it's the same anguish and pain," said Pilar Manjon, 46, president of the Association of March 11 Victims, whose 20-year-old son died in the blasts.

''London families are now searching for their loved ones just as I did for six days and nights," she said, weeping.

Marisol Luque, 34, a police officer at the precinct that was the first to respond to the Atocha train station bombings said the London images reminded her of her colleagues ''bringing bloodied personal belongings they found back here, wondering if the owners were alive or dead."

After the Madrid attacks, a 57-year-old doorman told police he had seen three masked men walking hurriedly that morning near a van by a train station.

Authorities found the van, which contained seven copper detonators and a tape of Koran verses, according to press reports at the time. Luque said a lesson from Madrid is that ''civilians are the ones who have to alert police if they see something suspicious. We can't prevent attacks without their help."

But the most important lesson that law enforcement officials and ordinary Spaniards say they would convey to Britons is that no country is immune from terror attacks, and life must go on afterward, or the terrorists will have won.

''No matter how well-prepared you are, you can never be 100 percent terrorist-proof," said Gustavo de Aristegui, an opposition leader in Spain's parliament, former diplomat in the Middle East, and author of a book on terrorism by Islamic extremists.

''It's important to train people and emergency services so they can react in the admirable way they did yesterday," he said, praising Londoners for their calm. ''And it's absolutely crucial to return to normal life. One of the most important messages a country can send is that no matter how bad the attack, [terrorists] cannot alter daily life, the economy, peaceful coexistence."