Family, friends, and politicians gathered around the councilman’s gravesite to mark the third anniversary of his death.
But Goodman and his CNN crew were not aware that ETA had planted a bomb in a flowerpot next to the gravesite, which was about 100 yards from where they were standing.
The bomb was intended for Kote Villar, a Popular Party town councilman in San Sebastian, who was attending the memorial service. The bomb failed to explode.
“We probably would not have been offed but we would have witnessed a massacre less than one hundred yards away,” Goodman recalled recently in an e-mail to his former intern.
“Also, one of our crew members has grandparents buried there and went strolling right by the bomb, before anyone knew it was there.”
Goodman was in Basque Country, a northern province in Spain some 450 kilometers from Madrid, for one week documenting an in-depth special on the Basque conflict. The program aired on CNN International network this week on two programs, Insight and Inside Europe.
ETA, an acronym meaning Basque Homeland and Liberty in the Basque language, has been fighting since 1968 to carve an independent homeland out of northern Spain and parts of southwestern France.
ETA has been blamed for some 800 deaths in its 32-year-long struggle for Basque independence.
Goodman’s report on the Basque conflict can be viewed on CNN’s Website at http://www.cnn.com/basque
The report provides an overview of the conflict in northern Spain, including articles entitled: “Living in fear,” “Standing vigil,” “ETA background,” and “ETA and IRA.”
A video archive of Goodman’s reports can also be seen, which includes interviews with Carlos Iturgaiz, president of the Popular Party in Basque Country, and Loren Arkotxa, a board member of the Basque nationalist party Herri Batasuna, widely seen as ETA’s political wing.
Frank Griffiths may be reached at fgriffiths@suite101.com
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