When Islamic terrorists blew up three commuter trains at Atocha station in Madrid on March 11 last year, they changed the face of Spanish politics. Shortly afterwards Spanish voters, blaming the outrage on Spain's membership of the coalition against Saddam Hussein, threw out their government and elected an appeasement-minded administration in its place.

Now, it seems that the belief some of us held at the time that the Atocha atrocity was nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do instead with the aim of the Islamic jihad to retake Andalucia as part of a restored Islamic caliphate was correct. For another, subsequent plot to attack Spain has apparently been uncovered -- and this one would have dwarfed Atocha. According to the Front Line programme transmitted on January 25 by the American TV station PBS, in October 2004 Spanish police disrupted a plot to bomb multiple targets, including a skyscraper designed by the architect who designed the World Trade Center; the offices of anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzón; the soccer stadium where the Real Madrid club plays; and, once again, the Atocha train station. 38 suspects are now being held.

This horrific plot was being hatched after Spain had effectively thrown up its hands in surrender over Iraq. According to the programme, the driving force behind these Islamists was the desire to retake Andalucia as an important part of the medieval Islamic caliphate. Well, there's a surprise.

A reader who saw this film, and who happened to be in Madrid last October and observed a great deal of unsual police activity at that time, drew it to my attention. You can access the film by clicking here to get to the PBS Front Line site; the revelation about the October plot comes almost at the end. The rest of it is pretty terrifying too, detailing how the jihad has now now turned its murderous attentions to Europe.

The far-reaching implications of this are surely of extreme importance. Yet as far as I can see, apart from this PBS programme there has been virtually no reporting or comment about this. Is this part of the general fatuous -- and potentially lethal -- denial of the nature of the threat we face?