LA ASSOCIATED PRESS publica hoy que el 11-M era tan sólo el primero de una serie de ataques que se iban a llevar a cabo durante meses, estos sí que con el método del hombre bomba a la palestina:

Islamic militants blamed for last year's commuter train bombings in Madrid were plotting more bloodshed a string of suicide attacks in the months after the massacre, Spain's counterterrorism director told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The revelation adds a chilling what-if element to Spain's national trauma as it prepares to mark the anniversary of the March 11 bombings, the country's worst-ever terrorist attack.

Fernando Reinares, the counterterrorism chief, said the militants most likely to have carried out such suicide attacks in Spain which would have been the first ever in Western Europe were seven men who blew themselves up April 3 as special forces moved in to arrest them.

"According to data collected so far, it can be deduced that those terrorists were probably planning suicide attacks in the months or weeks after" the train bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500, Reinares told AP.

Reinares said the information suggested "their terrorist campaign was not going to end on March 11, but was going to go on and include suicide attacks at a later stage.

The seven men who died in Leganes, a town outside Madrid, included suspected ringleaders of the train strikes, which were claimed in videotapes by militants who said they acted on behalf of al-Qaida in revenge for Spain's troop presence in Iraq.

At least five men are fugitives in the case, including one who escaped from the apartment in Leganes. Reinares gave no indication these men are considered suicide-attack risks."

Pues tienen toda la pinta de serlo. Lo más revelador del artículo es esto:

But Reinares said the plans for later suicide attacks showed that the Madrid train bombers were probably not interested in bringing down the conservative government then in power, which had supported the U.S.-led Iraq war, but rather wanted to go on causing bloodshed.

Former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his party have insisted the bombing three days before a general election was tantamount to a surgical strike against his government, which had defied public opinion by supporting the Iraq war and sending 1,300 peacekeepers after President Bush declared an end to major fighting.

The Socialists, who had opposed the war, won election and took power in April. They quickly brought troops home but insisted it was to keep a campaign pledge, not to cave in to terrorists.

Reinares said information about the Madrid bombers' suicide attack plans was featured in a new book by a Spanish investigative reporter, but the information wasn't carried in the mainstream Spanish media.

Así que ese plan de futuros ataques suicidas indica que la finalidad de los mismos no era conseguir la derrota electoral del PP, según Reinares; pero si eso es así, también lo es que la acusación de que los ataques eran una consecuencia de la guerra de Iraq -que a la postre es la que acabó llevando al PSOE a La Moncloa- era falsa. Quizás eso explique eso que intriga tanto a la AP (pero a Reinares seguro que no, pillín): que la información no haya sido recogido en los medios de comunicación españoles. Bueno, por este motivo y también porque permite 'vender la idea' de que una vez retiradas las tropas de Iraq, ya estamos más seguros gracias a ZP.

La verdad es que no recuerdo haber visto nada sobre esto, y Google News devuelve un sólo resultado, en el Miami Herald de hoy.