Do terrorists play election politics?

Osama bin Laden has long targeted Spain. In his 1996 declaration of war against the US, he mentioned reclaiming Andalucia as a goal. That is the name Arabs gave to southern Spain, which was part of the Muslim Empire until 1492. Spain has been mentioned several times since then, including by Mr. bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Last October, he included it in a list of nations that should be punished for helping the US in Iraq.

"In bin Laden's declaration of war against the US, he talks about Americans being the new crusaders, just like the Spanish," says a senior US government official. "When he alludes to that, Muslims pick up on it - Muslims are so much more cognizant of their history than us. When you talk about the conquest of Spain, it is like yesterday to them."

Intelligence officials do not yet know if the suspects in the Madrid bombings were acting on direct orders from the Al Qaeda leadership, or if they were simply inspired, supported, trained, or funded by the group.

But what's clear is that Al Qaeda is morphing into more of an global movement than a terror group with a simple agenda. In fact, CIA director George Tenet alluded to this in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.

"As we continue the battle against Al Qaeda, we must overcome a movement - a global movement infected by Al Qaeda's radical agenda," Mr. Tenet said.

The attacks in Spain bear some other Al Qaeda's hallmarks as well - synchronized explosions that cause massive structural and economic damage, use of cellphones to detonate the explosives, hits planned in another country. But there is also one striking difference: Suicide bombers were not used. That may be part of Al Qaeda's morphing into a movement, or it may be intended to just be deceptive - no one knows for sure.

"I think we're seeing bin Laden make use of talent available to him, even if it doesn't involve suicide," the senior government official says. "There is a whole generation of young Muslims in Europe who admire and support bin Laden, but would rather not die."

Others see even more conscious method in their mayhem. "Al Qaeda is consciously mixing and matching to frustrate our efforts to prevent them from striking," Mr. Hoffman says. "What's worrisome is the ease with which they did this."

Some European countries are clearly worried they may be next. In recent tapes and on websites, Al Qaeda operatives have targeted a number of countries for helping the US.

By one US government official's count, Al Qaeda has now hit 20 of 23 countries that either Zawahiri or bin Laden said they would after the invasion of Afghanistan. "Japan, Norway, and Nigeria are the only ones that haven't been attacked," he says.

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