Just to be clear (as numerous readers have noted), the relevant “supposed consequence” of the Madrid bombing, from Bin Laden’s perspective, wasn’t the reshuffling of partisan chairs within the Spanish government, it was the reshuffling of Spanish troops out of Iraq and out of the coalition. This is what prompted Bin Laden to offer Europe a truce if it broke from America. And this is why Ashcroft noted the need to protect both the Democratic and Republican conventions.