ALMOST ONE YEAR after the March 11 massacre in Madrid, the parliamentary commission has been a real disappointment. I have written several posts about it (use the "Search" box above), and today Enrique Nolla, who teaches political theory at a Madrid's university, has a good piece on the Wall Street Journal (alas, subscription only):

The final report of Spain's special parliamentary commission on last year's March 11 terrorist attacks probably won't be ready until June. But it's already painfully clear that the body has failed in its basic mission to clear up the facts and depoliticize the debate over Spain's worst peacetime disaster ever.

In contrast to America's 9/11 commission, whose report became a surprise best-seller, the Spanish investigators failed to establish their independence or credibility. The strong agendas of all parties involved imposed their own rhythm and petty interests on the proceedings. The commission frequently seemed to ignore the events and victims of that tragic day, when 191 train commuters were killed in coordinated bomb attacks, and instead the proceedings turned into a bitter prolongation of the tragically shattered March election campaign.

Hope you're WSJ subscribers, because it's worth reading the rest. I would include more excerpts if I could fisk it (criticizing the piece would be somehow a justification for being looser with copyright protection), but it's not possible to fisk something you agree with.