March 11 – Double The Enigma
Editorial
«It is getting increasingly difficult to pull off the pirouettes needed to dodge the obvious (as happened two months ago with the backpack). Rubalcaba better take note. »
As we announced a little over a month ago on the second anniversary of the March 11 bombing attacks, the investigation has only just begun. And it is the independent press that is keeping up the pressure. The other day, the newspaper
El Mundo reported that the Renault Kangoo van found in Acala de Henares didn’t have anything inside it. No tape of the Koran, no explosive residues, nothing resembling the 50 or so key bits of evidence that were found later.
We knew the Skoda Fabia did not hold any clues during the first five inspections. Now the neighboring Kangoo van apparently didn’t have anything inside either. The Skoda had to be inspected six consecutive times before finding the pistol holster and Alekema Lamari’s DNA. The Kangoo needed to go through the police station in Canillas before the celebrated Koranic verses tape and the no less celebrated explosives cartridge appeared. This happened on March 12, 48 hours before the elections and the cause of the chain reaction that ended, a day later, with protesters in front of PP headquarters on Genova Street.
The discovery of the “Koran tape” was decisive in tilting public opinion in favor of those who claimed the attacks were committed by Islamist radicals. It opened the door to the confusion that reigned over those days. Moreover, it was perfect for PSOE, allowing the socialists to build up a connection between the war in Iraq and the massacre at Atocha. If now it turns out there was no tape or, worse, the tape miraculously appeared after the van was taken to the police station, a sinister panorama emerges. Someone better explain this soon.
The van, however, was not the only major setback to the “official story” this week.
Libertad Digital’s extensive report on the cellular phone which sustains one of the official version’s main pieces of evidence on March 11 is conclusive: “if the idea was to detonate a bomb at a specific time, it makes no sense to use a telephone because a simple timer is cheaper, more secure, and simpler and doesn’t leave a trace.
Libertad Digital conducted its research on a number of the same model cell phones as discovered in the backpack in Vallecas (the brand Trium). It found this telephone could not have set off the adjacent explosives. On the one hand, we already knew the two cables were loose making it impossible to detonate. On the other hand, it was carrying an important clue, the SIM card which allowed authorities to find Jamal Zougham, but which was unnecessary to set off the bomb. In other words, the terrorists didn’t need to leave the card in place to set the alarm that, eventually, would have exploded the backpack.
Everything seems to indicate that someone placed the backpack as a decoy to lead the investigation to the Lavapies neighborhood and to Kalaji’s story and Zougham’s calling shop. The two worked perfectly: discovering the tape and the arrests in Lavapies happened at once and the television and radio station gave the news simultaneously.
The “official story” about March 11 is unsustainable; and every step forward in the real investigation discredits another part of that story. It is possible the government’s numerous media outlets are not too interested in this matter, but this does not mean the government shouldn’t be. It is getting increasingly difficult to pull off the pirouettes needed to dodge the obvious (as happened two months ago with the backpack). Rubalcaba better take note.
