No hard evidence surfaced in the trial linking the defendants to al-Qaeda. While one can reasonably assume that al-Qaeda’s ideology and methodology served as a source of inspiration for the 11-M attacks, the actual financing and carrying out of the bombings seems to have been independent of formal al-Qaeda support. Moreover, given the defendants’ insistence on their innocence throughout the trial, we have no confession from those convicted that points to a clear motivation. The timing of 11-M suggests that the perpetrators wanted to disrupt Spain’s national elections and to undermine its involvement in the War on Terror, but, in the end, it is impossible to move beyond speculation concerning the motives.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 395