New Spanish President will pull out troops by June

MADRID, Spain – Incoming Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has made it clear his new Socialist government will desert the so-called "Coalition of the Willing," and recall all 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq by the end of June.

In his first press conference, nattily attired in a dark suit and blue-striped silver tie, Zapatero virtually condemned United States President George W. Bush and Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair for the "disaster" in Iraq.

The stunning defeat by Zapatero’s PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) of exiting Spanish President Jose Ma. Aznar’s ruling Partido Popular last Sunday has repudiated the Aznar-Bush-Blair alliance, and the shock waves of this sudden turnabout by Madrid will have a geopolitical tsunami effect on all the capitals of Europe – and in Washington DC and London, too.

Despite desperate attempts at government cover-up and spin-doctoring (to create the now-discredited notion that the Basque separatist ETA terrorists, not al-Qaeda linked Islamic terrorists, had exploded the ten bombs on those "massacre" trains here last Thursday morning), it’s emerging that Muslim plotters may, indeed, have created the carnage which resulted in 200 dead commuters and 1,500 seriously wounded – some of whom could still succumb to their injuries. Tearful funerals have been going on, and 24 of the shredded and mutilated cadavers of the train victims cannot, as yet, be identified.

It was a backlash, perhaps, at the Aznar government’s lack of transparency, its clumsy try at blaming ETA instead of Islamic terrorists – promoted, up to the very last by Interior Minister Angel Acebes, Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, and even Javier Solana, the European Union’s top foreign policy official (a former Spanish foreign minister and ex-NATO chief, who, remember, was the one who hectored ex-President Estrada to suspend attacks on the Abu Sayyaf while European hostages were in those murdering kidnappers’ hands).

Angry mobs had demonstrated outside People’s Party (Partido Popular) headquarters yelling for the truth, and had ringing Aznar and PP candidate Mariano Rajoy when they went to vote Sunday, crying out: "Aznar murderer," or "liars, users, murderers, manipulators!" The 76 percent of the electorate who turned out to vote in unprecedented numbers Sunday gave Zapatero and his Socialists a clear majority – to take over the government.

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In sum, Zapatero will assume the title of Presidente del Gobierno in two weeks, then, after forming a Cabinet and a plantilla of government, also assume the title of Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers. (Hence, the confusing duality of appellations by which Aznar used to be referred to as "President Aznar at times, and on other occasions as Prime Minister Aznar".)

Poor Aznar brought Spain to both prosperity and prominence in the councils of Europe, but his decision to tie up with Bush and Blair, and send Spanish forces into Iraq was unpopular at home. His decisiveness and leadership are to be applauded. But the Iraq decision had earlier been rejected by 90 percent of Spaniards in poll surveys.

Zapatero’s announcement that all 1,300 Spanish troops will be pulled out by June 30 – a reiteration, it must be said of the PSOE’s pledges – is therefore popular here in Spain, particularly since most now perceive the horrible train attacks were launched by Muslim terrorists in retaliation for Spanish participation in the "war." As one grieving relative in the El Pozo district asserted last Saturday: "Aznar got his war, but we got the dead!"

In a way, in my own estimation, it was Mr. Aznar’s hubris and miscalculation which brought his PP down, just as his strong leadership had brought it up in 2000 and shot Spain up to economic success. Aznar wisely chose not to seek a third term, as he could have buoyed up by his earliest gains; but he chose a weak, colorless successor, Rajoy, whom he might have expected (some darkly hint) to "influence" even when he was himself no longer in office.

Alas, Spain’s relations with the US, the United Kingdom, and its former Coalition of the Willing allies are now in complete disarray. A new, aggressively Socialist Spain is now a big player. Worst of all, Al-Qaeda and Islamic militants have learned that by a ruthless terrorist attack they can "hi-jack" a democratic election, change the course of foreign policy – indeed, derail the alliance among their enemies in the "war against terror".

We can expect that this lesson is not lost on our homegrown Muslim terrorists or even rebels, or the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, with our May 10 elections in in prospect.

It was the "identification" of six Moroccans, all of them Spanish residents, as possibly being behind the Thursday bombings of three trains in Madrid that turned the trick – propelling an earlier lethargic electorate into giving their vote to the Socialists. Authorities believe the March 11 attacks were carried out by the same radical Islamics who struck Casablanca in Morocco in May last year, killing 43 persons, including the suicide-bombers themselves.

Jamel Zougam, one of the five nabbed Saturday for alleged complicity is now the prime suspect, one of the ringleaders who organized the material used in the blasts – a powerful explosive called "Goma-2", packed into mochila (backpacks) filled with nails and other shrapnel, and triggered off by movils (cellphones) placed on top of the mix. One of the lethal bags failed to explode because the cellphone-trigger was "dead", its batteries expired or low-batt. The police traced this tell-tale cellphone to the Indians who had supplied it.

The two Indian men, Vinnay Kholy and Suresh Kumar, were released following an interrogation into their suspected role in the attacks. (Incidentally, did you know that Indians also "monopolize" the cellphone trade in our tiangges and retail outlets in Metro Manila?)

In any event, Zougam and two other Moroccan suspects in custody, Mohammed Bekkali and Mohammed Cahoui, were found to have police records – for inflicting bodily injury, fencing stolen materials, and one was charged earlier with homicide.

The chill factor exists in the fact that 300,000 Moroccans live in Spain, most of them in and around Madrid, as "residents" or immigrants.

The incoming President (ZP – or Zapatero Presidente, as the quip goes) will have to form a coalition – since his PSOE lacks a few seats for absolute majority in the parliament or Congreso de los Diputados (by coincidence just across the street from my hotel, the Western "Palace Hotel"). He will either link up with the Catalan CIU of Josep Antoni Duran Lleida and Jordi Pujol, which has 10 diputados, and/or the leftwing Esquerra Republicana (ERC) of Josep Lluis Carod-Rovira, who has eight seats in parliament. Both hate the Partido Popular and Aznar-Rajoy.

A key ally is, of course, the Communist Party or Izquierda Unida (IU), the United Left. Gaspar Llamanzares’ faction now holds five seats in parliament.

So there you are. A new Spain, hostile to Bush and Blair (despite Zapateros’ polite pronouncements) and seeking alliance with America’s and Britain’s critics, France and Germany. The "good news", of course, is that Spain, once alienated, will now be "reconciled" with Europe.

Remember the old British army marching song, played when Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington’s revolutionaries, the Continental Army? It was The World Turned Upside Down.

Play it again, Sam. And not just in Casblanca.

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The body of our own lone Filipino victim of the Thursday train bombings, 21-year old Rex Ferrer y Reynardo, will be flown home day after tomorrow, unless there’s a hitch.

The Spanish airline, IBERIA, is picking up the tab for flying Ferrer’s remains back to Manila, enroute to his funeral in his hometown of Santiago, Isabela up north.

Since IBERIA does not fly (any longer) direct to the Philippines, another airline – possibly Air France or Lufthansa – may be contracted.

IBERIA will also underwrite the homeward bound tickets of Rex’s parents, Arturo D. Ferrer and Anita P. Ferrer. They will be accompanied by the deceased’s sister, an uncle and an aunt.

Our Ambassador Joseph Delano "Lani" Abad told me this, while conveying the information that he had been instructed by President Macapagal-Arroyo and Foreign Secretary Delia D. Albert to extend government assistance to full extent.

An appeal has been made to Philippine Airlines’ Chairman Lucio Tan to have PAL fly the body and family onward to Tuguegarao, so the funeral can be conducted there. The family, poignantly, including Rex, had been scheduled to go "home" to the Philippines for their first visit in more than eight years so Rex could celebrate his birthday (on September 27 – he was born there in 1983) in his hometown. Now, it will be a sad homecoming.

Rex had been on his way to an Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) prayer-meeting that fatal Thursday morning when his train, inbound to the central Estacion Atocha – four blocks away from this writer’s hotel, by the way – exploded. He had gotten on the train at the Torrejon de Ardoz station, some 42 km. away from his rendezvous with death at 7:29 a.m. as the coach neared the Atocha terminal. (Torrejon is a community almost halfway between Madrid and the city of Toledo.)

The deceased had worked as a waiter in the Centro Commercial Arturo Soria in one of Madrid’s well-off residential districts.

His body now lies in the Tanatorio de Madrid (mortuary) on M-30 highway. Hopefully, Ambassador Bernardo said the "air-lift", if the documents can be fully affixed and delivered by the authorities, will take place Thursday or Friday.

Young Ferrer, barely 21, was our casualty of "war". He had just received, it must be said, Spanish "citizenship".