Rob Blackhurst

Terrorism is too dangerous an issue to be used as the pawn of government politics

The Independent

19 April 2004

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Even as the bodies await burial, there is a distasteful sense that Thursday's horror in Madrid is becoming the plaything of politicians. The bombings were the worst act of terrorism in Europe since the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, and have led to an outpouring of emotion across the continent that probably wasn't even felt when the twin towers fell two-and-a-half years ago. The arrest of five men on Saturday, and the emergence of a videotape from the man claiming to be al-Qa'ida's military spokesman in Europe made the worst seem likely: this was no backyard problem for Spain, but a threat for any commuter in any European city.

Even as the bodies await burial, there is a distasteful sense that Thursday's horror in Madrid is becoming the plaything of politicians. The bombings were the worst act of terrorism in Europe since the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, and have led to an outpouring of emotion across the continent that probably wasn't even felt when the twin towers fell two-and-a-half years ago. The arrest of five men on Saturday, and the emergence of a videotape from the man claiming to be al-Qa'ida's military spokesman in Europe made the worst seem likely: this was no backyard problem for Spain, but a threat for any commuter in any European city.

Spain sleepwalked into the polling booths yesterday, just hours after hearing that al-Qa'ida had taken responsibility for the bombing that the retiring Prime Minister, José Maria Aznar, had insisted was the work of the old Basque enemy. It has also emerged that the Foreign Minister, Ana Palacio, had sent a memo to Spain's ambassadors telling them to use "every opportunity" to confirm that Eta was responsible in the immediate aftermath of attacks, when facts were thin on the ground. How all of that backfired.

For it didn't take a Socialist opposition member or a conspiracy theorist to find this all a little convenient. Aznar's banning of Eta's Batasuna political wing and refusal to grant a referendum on Basque independence would have been triumphantly vindicated if the attacks turned out to be homegrown. But because Spanish voters have instead reasoned they were the work of Islamic fundamentalists, and, more, that they were ­ deliberately or not ­ misled, they were regarded yesterday as the bitter fruit of their Prime Minister's support for Bush's war.

With 90 per cent of the population already against Mr Aznar's policy on Iraq, it might have been expected that the Socialists would benefit. What was staggering, though, was the size of the boost.

With a tsunami of emotion moving back and forth between the parties according to the latest news report, Mr Aznar will surely agree this morning that this should have been no time to decide Spain's political future. It surely would not have been a "victory for terrorism", or an "undermining of democracy" if the contest had been delayed until the morgues had been emptied and the elemental facts about who was responsible were known.

Perhaps the government thought that the confusion, and that the nation was united in defiance, might have have benefited it. If so, it was a terrible miscalculation, and one which other leaders might do well to grasp.

President George Bush, for example, is seeking to plant the "war on terror" standard in the bomb wreckage. His appearance at the Spanish embassy in Washington rightly emphasised the shared experience of New York and Madrid in facing a terrorist threat that is based on nihilism and hatred rather than any coherent demands. But his practised sleight of hand ­ linking the threat from al-Qa'ida and pre-war Iraq ­ gave the impression that the Madrid bombings were fast becoming a political football. One which, given last night's astonishing events, might rebound with unpredictable consequences.

In the UK, Tony Blair is understandably obsessed by the thought that the commuter trains could have been heading for Marylebone rather than Madrid, and that he will never be forgiven if he fails to prevent an attack. But his apocalyptic rhetoric is in danger of doing the work of the terrorists by creating widespread alarm and the impression, however inadvertently, that this is a "war" between the West and Islam. He, too, must ponder last night's result, and the implications.

Vigilance, security, intelligence, better co-ordination: all are needed to fight this kind of conflict. But, above all, what is required is international solidarity and the calm, controlled sense that the societies attacked will not be panicked, nor will they allow the threat to become a weapon in their own internal politics.