Bezpieczeństwo europejskie a wojna z terroryzmem po zamachach w Madrycie 11 III 2004 r. : próba bilansu

On March 11, 2004, the news of another terrorist attack struck the world. This time the place of the attack was Spain, a European country and a USA ally in war on terror. Both on September 11 in the United States and in Madrid, the terrorists used the most common things that millions of people in the whole world use, in the USA these were paper knives and laptops, in Madrid mobile phones. They became the symbols of the new act of violence. The terrorists took advantage of a simple sys-tem of delivering explosives: 13 rucksacks and sport bags were left on the trains that arrived at three crowded stations. Each of them contained 11.5 kg of a powerful explosive material. The detonators were activated via mobile phones. Today the whole Europe is shocked with the terrorists' ruthlessness. Many cities of the Old Continent employed emergency measures. Fierce discussions aroused about the sense of waging Iraqi campaign and the participation of countries supporting so far the USA policy towards terrorists. The aim of this article is to present probable reasons and consequences of the Madrid attack on European security.