THAT THE MARCH 11 terrorist attacks in Madrid were a consquence of Aznar's support of Bush and the war in Iraq is an article of faith by most people, in Spain and abroad. You know, one of "those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what," to use Norman Podhoretz's words.

It won't be certainly killed by this:

A Syrian man believed to be a key figure in Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in Europe has been linked to a bomb attack on a Madrid restaurant 20 years ago in which 18 people were killed.

Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, who is believed to have been arrested last week in Pakistan, has already been linked to the 7 July terror attacks on London.

Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian with Spanish nationality, has now been identified by a person is in Spain's witness protection programme as being involved in the bomb attack in 1985.

The attack on the El Descanso restaurant killed 18 people and injured about 100.

The Islamic terrorist organisation Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility at the time.

They were preemptively responding to the war in Iraq they just knew was going to happen 18 years after, of course.

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