The only problem is that it's just too perfect, and as El Pais reports no embassy has recieved the letter, and Gara the Basque paper that normally publishes ETA statements questions the authenticity of the letter noting untypical language, seals and stamps differing from the established pattern, and the mysterious announcment of the note having not been sent to embassies.
El Gobierno considera auténtico el comunicado de la banda, interceptado por la Guardia Civil European embassies in Madrid, París and Bruselas still haven't received ETA's communiqué in which the gang demands international mediation to achieve peace in the Basque Country. The letter has also not reached the European Parliament nor the European Commission, nor BBC, the alleged destination of the note. The latter was intercepted by the Guardia Civil, which transitted its content to the Government. This notwithstanding, counter-terrorism commanders doubted its authenticity, as did the daily newspaper Gara. Despite those initial hesitations, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Interior Ministry confirm ETA's authorship.
When I first read about this letter a couple of days ago I completely missed the fact that it had been intercepted by the Guardia Civil and never proven to have been released by ETA. tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
El Gobierno considera auténtico el comunicado de la banda, interceptado por la Guardia Civil
Something's not right here. Terrorist groups like ETA live in a parastic relationship with the press (the question being who the parasite is). ETA likes to talk. Why would they not send this to embassies like they have with previous letters like the one to Villepin in October, why is the only proof this even exists an intercept from the Guardia Civil? And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
With the Basque Homeland [standing] at the gates of a new political process, the role to be played by the international community is again under consideration. This is the backdrop of the media maelstrom unleashed by a written [document] attributed to ETA in which the armed organization challenges, in particular the European institutions, to not detach themselves from the situation that our country is living. Both the conduits through which that text has flowed until it was presented to the public opinion as well as the tumult unleashed after its release lead [one] to think that there exists a reasonable fear among certain state instances that the international community might make itself present in the Basque process, what will undoubtedly happen..
On the other hand, has anyone published an image of the document? Maybe it will be as crude a forgery as the Niger one? tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
Note in this document the seal is in Basque but the last sentence is in Castillian, not Basque. Normally the end of a document issued by ETA or even Batasuna would be in Basque using language like this from the 1998 document
GORA EUSKADI ASKATUTA! GORA EUSKADI SOZIALISTA! JO TA KE INDEPENDENTZIA LORTU ARTE
The use of Castillian for the end is extremely suspicous. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
There's somehing deeply wrong with a group of victims of terrorism playing the dead for poltical gain, and the stuff with Pilar Manjon, the cabrones And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
Viva Euskal Herria Libre Viva Euskal Herria Socialista Derecho de Autodeterminación para el Pueblo Vasco
The traditional last sentence means "keep at it until independence is achieved". Jo Ta Ke (translated in Spanish as dale que te pego) was the name of a policy document issued by one of the incarnations of Batasuna.
It is very, very strange that they would drop the Jo Ta Ke and that they would water down their demand from "independence" to "self-determination". tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
Somebody concocted this.
It's the work of the slightly above average intelligence who think that they are a genius, it's the hallmark of a conservatice mind. They get the little details wrong.
All is not as it appears....... And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
This just might give Sr. Zapatero the breathing space needed to finish what he's started, and might make the PP transform like Gonzalez did to the right, leading to the PP. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
