SPAIN: Spain relived the March 11th Madrid train bombings yesterday as the first public hearings began with the focus on whom police at first thought was to blame.
In the televised parliamentary hearings, the star witness - a doorman who saw the masked bombers on the morning of the attacks - undermined the government's claim that the early investigation pointed to Basque separatists.
The then conservative government, citing what it said was police guidance, initially blamed the Basque group ETA for the massacre rather than the politically less expedient Islamic militants whom investigators now agree were responsible. A backlash sparked nationwide protests and the government was defeated in elections just three days after the bombings which killed nearly 200 people.
Parliament created the special committee to offer a public accounting of the bombings, while Spain's special crimes court carries out a secret legal investigation.
After the elections, the new Socialist government made good on a campaign pledge and withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq, controversial because that was what the bombers had called for in admissions of responsibility. -