, which depicts a terrorist car bomb exploding on a crowded ferry boat in New Orleans carrying over 400 passengers, many of them U.S. naval personnel on leave. The explosion and resulting carnage were devastating. With that film still fresh in my mind, I read today’s Telegraph report of a foiled terrorist plot in Spain to detonate a car bomb on a ferry carrying thousands of British tourists departing a Spanish port. From the Telegraph coverage (Telegraph photo):Spanish police have foiled a plot by Eta terrorists to blow up a ferry carrying thousands ofBritish tourists, officials said yesterday.
They said the Pont-Aven, which sails twice a week between Plymouth and the northern Spanish port of Santander, was one of three possible targets.
If the bomb had exploded at sea a major disaster could have occurred on the vessel which carries up to 2,400 passengers and 183 crew.
Since the end of an Eta ceasefire just over a month ago, Spanish officials have warned of "an imminent major attack" by the terrorist group which is demanding an independent Basque region encompassing parts of northern Spain and southern France.
… A spokesman for the Spanish interior ministry said that the ferry plot was foiled when police arrested a young Eta terrorist at Santander bus station on Tuesday.
Aritz Arginzonic Zubiaurre, 22, was carrying a rucksack containing a Smith & Wesson pistol, a detonator usually used by Eta for car bombs and false identity documents.
He had been staying at a campsite 27 miles away with his girlfriend, Saioa Sánchez Iturregi. Among their camping gear police said they found details of targets in Santander: the ferry, a law court and a popular plaza.
Police said the couple were planning an "imminent attack" and had been waiting for the delivery of a car bomb when Arginzonic was detained. Sánchez escaped.
It would not be the first time that Eta has attempted an attack at sea. Several years ago the group planned to load a van bomb on to a ferry sailing from Valencia to the Balearic Islands, but the van broke down and the plot was abandoned.
Click here for the full Telegraph article.
To add to my sense of déjà vu while reading this article, the bombers in the movie and in the recently thwarted actual Eta plot were not Islamic terrorists. In the film, the bomber is a disgruntled Caucasian American who was rejected for military service and wanted to exact revenge. In the recent Eta ferry plot, the thwarted bombers were Basques who have been attempting to bomb their way to independence from Spain since 1968. The movie and true ferry bomb plots served as timely reminders that terrorism is not limited to Islamic radicals. Of course, the choice to portray the ferry bomber in the movie as a white American was most likely a bow to political correctness by not scripting the bomber as an Islamic terrorist or cell, but regardless, terrorism is employed by many groups for diverse political or religious motives, and innocent citizens and tourists are literally at risk at all times and in all places.
Incidents like this are why Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff is concerned about a summer attack. It won't matter much to the victims whether the bombers are Eta or al Qaeda, and summer brings many more opportunities to strike large groups of tourists anywhere in the world.
Thankfully Spanish police disrupted the plot to bomb the Plymouth ferry, or it would have been a horrific déjà vu for us all.
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Deja Vu, Plymouth Ferry, Eta, Terrorist Attack, Ferry Bomb, Spanish police, Aritz Arginzonic Zubiaurre, Foiled Plot, Santander
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