Spain's success in fighting Basque separatist guerrillas may have led it to lower its guard against the threat of Islamic fundamentalist violence, former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar has said in a newly published book.
The comment, in Mr Aznar's book Eight years of government, is his first admission of any failing by his government over the March 11th Madrid rail bombings that killed 191 people and overshadowed his last days in office.
In an epilogue dealing with the suspected al-Qaeda-linked bombings, Mr Aznar defended himself for singling out ETA Basque guerrillas as the main suspects in the first days after the bombings.
Anger over the Aznar government's handling of information about the attacks is widely seen as a factor in the shock defeat of his conservative Popular Party in a general election three days after the attacks. A videotape claiming responsibility for the attacks in the name of al-Qaeda was found on the eve of the election.
ETA and Islamic terrorism deserved the same rejection and the same response, Aznar said in the book.
"I must acknowledge, however, that Spanish public opinion was perhaps not sufficiently aware, until March 11th, of the extent of the threat of Islamic terrorism, or at least not as much as it was about the threat of ETA terrorism," he wrote.
"If that is the case, the government undoubtedly has to bear a responsibility. Perhaps the very successes achieved in the fight against ETA in recent years led us to lower our guard against the fundamentalist threat," Mr Aznar said.
Investigations after the September 11th, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities had shown that Islamic fundamentalist terrorism networks were spread throughout the world, including Spain, Mr Aznar said. "In some cases, we have been able to detect their movements in time. On March 11th, unfortunately, we were not," he said.
"We have learned a lesson . . . that in an open world such as ours no frontier guarantees we are safe from an attack," Mr Aznar said.