Wednesday, March 22, 2006

ETA ceasefire

Famous last headlines: ETA announces permanent ceasefire.

They are, in AP lingo, "separatists" and "armed Basque group" and they had an "armed campaign." Despite the bombs and civilian targets, despite financing "the struggle" with money extorted from targeting the business community, the death of 800 people, and hundreds of bombs, the AP still can't call them terrorists.

Not all media make that fine distinction. Nor the EU. The European Union has ETA on their list of terrorist organizations, but then, the EU has Hamas and the PLO on their list and that hasn't stopped them from funneling money to the PLO for decades. But, at least, they know a terrorist organization when they see one.  

Canadian Broadcasting Corp: "ETA is an armed separatist group in Spain, seeking an independent Marxist state in the Basque region." in link to chronology. This, despite, noting that in 2001, the EU declared the group terrorist.

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