Madrid and London bombing comparison

Essay by monte1000High School, 10th gradeA+, October 2007

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2004 Madrid Bombings & 2005 London Bombings

In 2004 and 2005, two major scale terrorist attacks occurred in almost exactly the same nature. In 2004, four commuter trains in Madrid were destroyed by terrorists, killing 191 people and wounding another 2050. The London attacks were next, having three underground trains hit by suicide bombers and a double-decker also hit by a suicide bomber, killing a total of 52 people and wounding 700 more. Both attacks were thought to be the work of notorious terrorist organization with a grudge against the West - Al Qaeda.

The motives behind both the Madrid Bombings and the London Bombings are not fully understood and agreed upon. This is due to a number of factors, including multiple terrorist organizations claiming responsibility for the one attack, government denial from opposing political groups with clashing extremist views, ect.

For the Madrid attacks, which occurred three days before Spain's general elections, there exist two theories as to who was behind the attacks and why.

One idea was that it was carried out by Basque separatist organization, ETA, in order to keep the current political party, Partido Popular in power, and thus keep the Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol party, who have a very strong anti-terrorist platform, from gaining power.

The other idea was that Al Qaeda was behind the attack due to Spain's involvement in the Iraq War. According to this idea, the attack would be directed at the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol) due to their strong anti-terrorist policy.

After the trials were concluded, we can confidently rule out direct ETA involvement, because even though ETA have had a history of attacks in Madrid, the 2004 attacks were completed on a much larger scale than anything previously attempted.

It is now accepted by the American FBI...