IS IT TIME TO FINISH OFF ETA?

There are many people in the State security forces in both Spain and France who now believe that the time is right to carry out the final strike against ETA.

They argue that the terrorist organization is divided, demoralized and has little support in the Basque region.

However there seems a reluctance to act on the part of Zapatero and his government. Even the proposal to kick ETA supporters out of the town halls they control in the Basque region has not been acted upon.

One theory is that Zapatero wants to end his second term with the signing of a peace document with ETA. Hence to achieve that aim the terrorist organization has to be kept alive.

Having been in London and then Dublin at the height of the IRA and Loyalist campaigns of the 1970s, which included the assassination of the British Ambassador to Ireland, I have experienced at first hand what living in the midst of terrorism means.

One thing is for certain. Terrorists by their very nature do not observe the same laws and norms of behaviour that we do.

People that can slaughter innocents in the name of an ideal that has little popular support are not capable of negotiating a peace with anybody. They have only one objective and that is victory, a bloody victory that will create a Basque nation under their control.

Ah, you may cry, but look at Ireland and what has been achieved there under the peace process!

True those republicans and loyalists who have seen fit to follow a democratic path have come together in a power sharing initiative, even though that path is far from smooth.

However the reality comes from the British security services. They report that the main threat to Britain comes not from Islamic terrorism but from the remnants of the IRA and other Republican terror groups.

The simple truth is you cannot make peace with terrorists – you have to eliminate them before they eliminate you. To believe otherwise is pure folly.

SEXY ‘Z’ WOWS THE ITALIANS

Never mind the world economic recession Italian business leaders know what is important in the world. Hence that nation’s edition of Playboy magazine has voted the Spanish Premier, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, as the fourth sexiest political leader in the world.

Barak Obama is now getting used to topping the polls and the Italians voted him as the sexiest leader with 58 per cent. He was followed by France’s Nicolas Sarkozy with 44 per cent and Italy’s own, Silvio Berlusconi, with 40 per cent.

Zapatero smiled his way in to fourth place leaving in his wake Russia’s Vladmir Putin and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

In the same poll the business leaders were asked to rate the sexy political leaders of the past with Napoleon coming first followed by John F Kennedy and then the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini – well it was an Italian poll.

Surprisingly 81 per cent of those polled said they were attracted by State and Government leaders and the factors that drew their attention most were power (63 per cent) and the attention they give to public opinion (58 per cent). The Playboy survey was taken amongst 180 business leaders and generators of opinion in Italy.

Curiously Britain’s jowly prime minister, Gordon Brown, was not listed and one can only wonder how Mariano “Papa Smurf” Rajoy would have scored in this poll of polls.

LIBERTAD EN PRENSA

There is an interesting blog on the ‘Voto en Blanco’ website entitled: “España: demasiados periodistas al servicio del poder dominante”. It argues that journalists in Spain are no longer free and that they have abandoned the pursuit of truth and instead have become “"propagandistas", "publicistas" or "agitadores" for the political commissars.

It is difficult for a Briton, from a nation that has enjoyed freedom of speech for centuries, to envisage what freedom of the press means in Spain where a dictatorship decreed what you could say well within living memory.

But what is freedom of the press?

Certainly in British terms a newspaper has a right to say what it likes within the bounds of the laws governing State security and liable. However nobody is foolish enough to suggest that journalists enjoy independent freedom other than which their masters wish them to employ.

For instance a journalist writing for the Daily Mirror knows that the paper is heavily slanted to supporting socialism and a Labour government as a hack on the Daily Mail will be expected to take a pro Conservative line.

Broadcasters who work for Fox News and Sky TV and journalists on The Times and in The Sun are in no doubt that at the end of the day they will reflect the views of Rupert Murdoch on major issues.

As long as the wider public is aware of this then no great harm is done and in general it is Labour supporters who read the Daily Mirror and Tory voters who buy the Daily Mail.

Those who want to plough a more independent furrow have to revert to the free world of blogs or start their own publication.

Certainly within the confines of writing in Spain I am aware that the majority of local English language newspapers will not report negative reports on some financial advisors even though too many ex-pats have been ripped off by them leaving their lives in ruin. They have been big advertisers and hence that money has bought silence.

An international radio station run by Onda Cero that is now defunct has carried numerous commercials over the years for the same suspect financial advisors as well as those hawking investments in ostriches or promising miracles cancer cures from crystals. Many listeners suffered whilst Onda Cero pocketed the income from the ads with no guilty conscience.

I know of one English publication, now also defunct, that barred any criticism of ETA because it was convinced the terrorist organisation read its news and would exact revenge if it spoke out against it.

That is the reality that journalists, who might wish to expose financial corruption or show ETA up for what it is, have to work in. We live in a free society but the freedom of journalists is dependent on the limits that their employers place on them.

So yes in Britain and Spain journalists, publications and broadcasters do enjoy freedom of speech but the bounds of that freedom are set not by journalists but by their employers and those they sympathise with.

This is in stark contrast to countries where there is no freedom of expression for anyone and the lines of press freedom are demarked by the bullet from a gun.

EL MOCITO FELIZ

On Tuesday I was researching a report on Julián Muñoz when I came across a photograph of him leaving Alhaurín de la Torre prison. Next to the disgraced former mayor of Marbella was a larger than life character who I’d seen often on television but had no idea who he was or what he was doing there.

As I know more about Julián Muñoz than most men do about their wives I decided to concentrate my attentions on the imbecile next to him.

I had presumed he was promoting a newspaper as he always appeared when news cameras were around and had a front cover pinned to his coat. No luck there because when I Googled the name of the newspaper – something Colectivo – all I learned was that Colectivo is the largest bus company in Argentina.

In the latest photo I also noticed he had a copy of Tu Barrio with his picture on the cover plus the headline – Mocito Feliz. Surely that couldn’t be his name – but it is!

Actually the real name of Mocito Feliz is Enrique Jiménez and he comes from Málaga where he was born by all accounts at an early age. His great claim to fame is that he can sing 20 songs in a minute. The reason I couldn’t track down El Colectivo is that it is a newspaper in Almeria which many years ago printed a detailed interview with Mocito Feliz. I have no idea whether the newspaper still exists but Mocito Feliz has his copy wrapped in plastic and proudly displays it wherever he goes.

Watch out for him on TV news clips or programmes such as RTE’s ‘Gente’ and you will see him appear in the background of interviews with famous personages such as Muñoz, Pantoja and Ortega Cano. He’s usually dressed the same, although sometimes as Father Christmas – Papa Noel, always has a happy smile on his face and knows where the cameras will be.

One mystery is how he manages to afford to be in the right place at the right time given that he has no obvious means of income. I have read that it is rumoured that he has sold his body for medical research after his death – but given the number of places he pops up in they must have paid him a fortune for his eventual remains.

According to Telecinco his ambition is to be better known than “Manolo el del bombo”. I think he’s probably already there. He’s certainly more fun - so watch out for him on a Spanish TV screen soon – you can’t miss him!

FLIGHTS TO NOWHERE

If a “top secret” document leaked to the Spanish newspaper El País is genuine then it appears that the US sought permission from the Spanish Foreign Ministry in 2002 for rendition flights.

The Spanish government has always denied that “secret stopover” flights by CIA planes transporting terror suspects to the US military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, landed on the nation’s soil.

Now it appears that in early 2002 a request was communicated to Spain’s then foreign minister, Josep Pique, hours before a CIA flight landed at Moron airbase in Sevilla. It is further claimed that the government of José María Aznar recommended that “discreet” airports could be used for the stopover of rendition flights.

Aznar was a strong ally of the US in the war of terror. It was during his term of office that the secret flights allegedly started. The former prime minister is on the record as having denied any knowledge of the stopovers.

Spain’s current foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, stated on Sunday that the socialist government of which he is a key member, which came to power in March 2004, had not been informed that these authorisations having been given. He insisted: “We have nothing to hide,” and ordered an internal investigation stressing that Spain had a strong commitment to human rights.

The inference therefore seems to be that the CIA flights took place during Aznar’s watch and not Zapatero’s. However the president of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, insists that during the Aznar reign he was not involved in any discussions on the flights to Guantánamo. Furthermore he added that two of these flights took place in the Aznar era but nine under Zapatero.

Rajoy also stated that the minister of defence has stated that these flights were: “legal and based on treaties between the USA and Spain”. So did Aznar and Zapatero know about the flights or where they sent via US bases in Spain such as Moron or Rota without the Spanish government’s knowledge? Also, why has US President George Bush been cold-shouldering Zapatero when it would appear the socialist premier’s administration allowed these controversial flights – or did they?

Certainly the Council of Europe now appears vindicated. It published a report in June 2006 that named Spain as one of 14 European countries allegedly in collusion with the CIA to transport terrorist suspects on secret flights to third party countries for interrogation but these claims were hotly denied by Madrid.

A report approved by a European Parliament committee in 2007 said more than 1,000 covert CIA flights had crossed European airspace or stopped at European airports in the four years after the 9/11 attacks. It now remains to be seen how many of those were in or via Spain – and who knew about them.

ROSA TOPS THE POLITICAL LEAGUE

Her party may have very little electoral support but Rosa Díez is currently the most valued politician in Spain. The leader of the recently formed UPyD records 5.1 in a poll by Público compared with 4.7 for Prime Minister José María Zapatero and 4.3 for the Partido Popular’s Mariano Rajoy.

Rosa Díez was the former leader of PSOE in the Basque region. Her party received just 1.9 per cent of the vote at the last election but is now recording 4 per cent.

However it is far from bad news for Zapatero and the socialists. It seems that despite the economic crisis PSOE is back in the lead. If an election was held now it would romp home with 41.3 per cent compared with 39 per cent support for the PP.

Of course different soundings give difference levels of support. La Rázon for instance gives the PP a winning percentage of the votes and more seats than the socialists.

Two things are clear though – a politician of a party with little chance of winning power is more popular than any mainstream opponent and even with the country and the world in economic turmoil Mariano Rajoy and the PP have still to convince people that their present and future would be safer in their hands. One wonders what calamity has to befall the country before Spain swings behind Rajoy.

Rosa Díez is surely a happy woman today – but the real smile must be on the face of Zapatero.

IN THE NAME OF GOD

There is an intense debate in Spain over the Catholic Church, religion and religious freedom.

Those on the far left take a very strong stand against Christianity and the Catholic Church.

Those of the right in general and within the Partido Popular in particular would seem to stand with and speak for that same church.

The Andalucía government has banned from schools all items that could impinge on religious freedom yet Christians would feel that this hits at them rather than other faiths such as Islam.

The Catholic Church certainly sees itself and its core beliefs being under siege from the present socialist government and those further to the political left.

If you go back to the Spanish Civil War and post-war dictatorship you can see the roots of this conflict when the Catholic Church largely sided with Franco and the right whilst those on the left were seen as the agents of Communism and hence atheism. Those chickens are now rushing home to roost.

The only other country I have lived in with a civil war in living memory and a strong Catholic background was southern Ireland. However whilst that bloody conflict is reflected in the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties of today both sides were always essentially Catholic so it did not evolve in to a religious divide. You have to look at the wider Irish nation for that.

Although I was brought up a Catholic it was in England where followers of my then faith were in the minority and to this day the established Church of England holds sway. So the Catholic Church was unable to influence and control society in the same ways as it once did and still attempts to do in Spain or Ireland. Indeed in Britain Catholics are still barred from taking the throne and in my lifetime faced restrictions in many other spheres.

I have long since ceased being a practicing Catholic and in Spain, which is now my home, I find a great personal unease with that church’s not too distant past. If I had to describe myself now I would class myself as a Christian with a small ‘c’ but certainly spiritual.

However I have a total tolerance of all faiths and of people who have none. I have a very limited tolerance of organized religion and see in it many of the ills that affect the world today.

I believe we should all be free to practice our religion but would equally argue that it is essentially a private matter and hence my or your core beliefs should not be inflicted on one another.

Christianity and Islam have brought to the world much of the elements that underpin our cultures and cultural life. At the same time they still form the great divides that separates peoples, nations and continents often in bloody confrontation.

If the west is to be tolerant of all religions then it is only right that so too should the east...but that is far from the case.

Sadly the divisions created over the years in the name of religion can be seen all too plainly in modern day Spain and in northern and southern Ireland. The foundations of these and wider conflicts are based on centuries of abuse and mistrust and I have no doubt it will take centuries to right these wrongs all carried out in the name of God – whoever that God may be.