Is Germany shading the truth about its knowledge of the Spain bombings?

From Deutsche Welle:

In the days following the March 11 terror attacks that killed 201 people in Madrid, Spain's intelligence authorities kept a tight seal on evidence related to the investigation and misled allied intelligence services by providing false information pointing to involvement by the ETA, German public television reported Tuesday...

Three specific complaints are provided:

• the Spaniards said Titadyn was used, then they said it was Goma 2 Eco dynamite: "It wasn't until Monday, a day after Spain's conservative government suffered a surprising loss in the general election, that officials in Madrid admitted Goma 2 explosives were not a type previously used by the Basque separatists."

• "German officials were also not informed until after the election that the detonator found with the explosives was not a type used by ETA."
• "Moreover, after the arrest of three Moroccans and two Indians on Saturday, Spanish authorities continued to tell the German source in Madrid that a connection to Islamic circles could not be confirmed."

As for the third point, has a connection been confirmed? What is the definition of confirmed? Can't an Islamic connection be inferred simply by, let's be honest, their nationalities? Surely the Germans aren't that naive.

As for the second point, see this report from Friday:

"Rucksack bombs used in deadly Madrid train bombings were set off by mobile phone and contained copper detonators, which are not generally used by armed Basque separatist group ETA, a radio station has reported... The Interior Ministry could not immediately confirm the report."

I don't know exactly what time on Friday this was released, but I blogged it at 2pm PST.

So, the Germans might be telling a half-truth about that point. They might not have been informed, but it would appear that information was out there, and Reuters is a well-known news source.

UPDATE: I changed the title from 'Spain Allegedly Misled Germany Over Bombings'.

Terrorism · Wed, 03/17/2004 - 13:02 · · Importance: 1