Ahh, if we could only get this kind of thing here

This is the kind of government report that shows you have a functioning democracy. The government investigated itself, and found that the Popular Party spun the information it had on the March 11 commuter train bombing in Madrid to influence the electorate, to prevent a backlash for supporting the War in Iraq.

What would the investigation of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, and the War in Iraq look like if we had a government body with subpoena powers that wanted to investigate this? I guarantee it would hold someone in the executive office accountable rather than saying "Oops" like the 9/11 commission report said.

Spain's govt 'twisted' bombings for gains - report - Yahoo! News

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's previous center-right government 'manipulated and twisted' the Madrid train bombings of March 2004 in a bid to salvage general elections three days later, a parliamentary commission found on Wednesday.

In a 200-page report after a year of bitter wrangling, the commission accused Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party (PP) government of ignoring police warnings that its support for the Iraq war increased the threat from Islamic terrorism in Spain.

The PP, which lost power to the Socialist party amid a backlash at its handling of the Islamic militant bombings, was the only party not to support the commission's findings.

Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, including a tape by an Islamic group saying the attack was a reprisal for Spain's role in Iraq, the PP insisted Basque separatist guerrillas ETA were the prime suspects in the attacks which killed 191 people.

'The objective was to influence public opinion about the authors of the attack and avoid political consequences which might harm the electoral interests of the Popular Party,' read the final report. The report alleged the PP was afraid of public outcry if the bombings were linked to its unpopular support for the Iraq war.