Spain? Did someone speak too soon? Terrorism and Trains

I was reading this story the other day, of the plans to Disarm the ETA in the Basque, and found this mornings news a little to close to a coincidence.

www.iht.com...

Zapatero announces ETA talks
By Renwick McLean International Herald Tribune

Published: June 29, 2006

MADRID In an announcement that will probably fan Spain's bitter debate over how to respond to terrorism, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced Thursday that his government would open disarmament talks with the militant Basque separatist group ETA.

Zapatero had promised to start the talks in exchange for a permanent cease- fire, which ETA declared in March.

Speaking at a news conference at the national Parliament in Madrid, Zapatero stressed that the government would make no concessions to ETA's separatist demands during the talks.

The broad goal is to persuade ETA to hand over its weapons and dissolve, according to Spanish officials. But it is unclear what the government is willing to offer to achieve that objective.

IT GOES ON TO NOTE...

The announcement Thursday opened a lengthy process of discussions over the Basque region that is expected to dominate Spanish politics at least through the end of the year, and probably well into the next.

The Basque region's numerous peaceful separatists and supporters of loosening ties with Madrid have hailed the ETA truce as a chance to aggressively pursue more autonomy, saying that past demands have been unfairly tarnished by associations with ETA.

The cease-fire, they say, will undercut efforts to portray government concessions to their demands as appeasement to terrorism.

It's truely strange that talks, which seem a little onesided, (Disarm, Disband, and No Seperate Basque), would be met with happiness.

www.foxnews.com...

Spain Train Derailment Kills at Least 30, Injures 12
Monday, July 03, 2006

MADRID, Spain — A subway train derailed and overturned in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia on Monday, killing at least 30 people and injuring about a dozen, a regional government spokesman said.

The likely cause of the accident was that the train was traveling at high speed and one of its wheels broke off, local government spokesman Luis Felipe Martinez said. A tunnel wall also may have collapsed onto the carriage, investigators said, according to news reports.

Speed Kills, apparently.

Hopefully, it is an accident.

Ciao

Shane

After seeing the results of the terrorist acts carried out by extremist Muslims in Spain and London, I doubt local separatists would want similar accusations placed on them. They wouldn't risk allienating themselves from their supporters through acts like this. The Basque were never as violent anyway. Most of their terrorist acts came with a warning, so that no people would be hurt. Most resulted in either damage to property or killing of some government officials or police. They would not target civilians.

This is just an accident, and no suspicion rests on anyone so far.

I think it is now confirmed as an accident, which is why it has dropped to the middle pages of newspapers.

Seems a tragic loss of life only gets top news when there's some War on Terror agenda to push.

Yes, This seems to be heading towards that end.

The Figures are Growing, but it seems, speculation alone will be the basis of the Findings. The Driver is amoung the Dead.

www.foxnews.com...

MADRID, Spain — A subway train accelerated, shuddered and flipped off the tracks Monday in the Mediterranean port of Valencia, killing at least 41 passengers and injuring 47 in one of Spain's worst rail accidents, officials and witnesses said.


......Justice Ministry official Rosa Sanchez confirmed the driver of the train was among the dead.


......Jorge Alvarez, secretary-general of the Independent Railway Union, said it was too early to blame human error for Monday's tragedy. He said his union repeatedly warned of safety problems on Valencia's 18-year-old subway system, particularly the No. 1 line.

"The train began to go faster than usual and started to move from one side to the other," Cesar Hernandez Nunez, a 21-year-old student traveling in the second car, told the newspaper El Mundo. "Right after that it was chaos."

Makes me wonder if the Driver was dead, before the accident, since it is Known to be a Problem area to Operate in. But thats me I guess.

Ciao

Shane

The "black box" of that train was analyzed and it showed that the train was travelling at 80Km/h, twice the speed for that particular piece of the track.

Apparently, the driver applied the brakes almost to the maximum and just before the accident tried to put the train in reverse.

It seams that this is just another unfortunate accident, nothing more.