When a bomb exploded aboard a rush-hour train in the Spanish capital, Madrid, in March 2004, the Finnish leadership of the time condemned the incident and at the same time took a stand on the battle against terrorism. Then-Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen commented on the attack.

"It is fortunate for the Finns that there were no Finns involved neither in this, nor in 9.11 in New York. The nature of these strikes is such that they can affect anyone at all, also Finns, the citizens of any country. In this way, these strikes are a common matter," Vanhanen said in a comment to YLE radio news.

Vanhanen's position did not please the Americans. It was not enough, even though the then-Prime Minister called for international cooperation in the fight against terrorism in a comment. The US position was that Finland's political leadership should have stated that "the bombers could have struck as easily in Helsinki". Simply arguing that vacationing Finns could have been aboard the Madrid trains did not please the Americans.

On the basis of the documents YLE has received from Wikileaks, the main challenge for US diplomats in the fight against terrorism in Finland at mid-decade was to change the it-can't-happen-here attitude that had taken root among Finnish politicians.

Experts say that this is not surprising. Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Tampere, Tuomo Melasuo, notes that in 2005 the Americans were promoting the Bush administration's war on terrorism everywhere.

"They, of course, wanted to get everyone in some way into the ranks. At that time a continuation in Afghanistan was on the table. It was hoped that all countries would stay in line," Melasuo points out.

Because of the Finnish thinking of being safely isolated, US diplomats even felt that Finland was slow in joining in the battle against terrorism. Examples given were that maritime travellers and freight were not being properly inspected.

In an effort to change the thinking of the Finns, the US brought experts to Finland to speak on issues including Islamic extremism. In addition, Finnish officials were taken to the United States to see how the war on terrorism was being managed.

Professor Melasuo does not believe that this kind of influence was very effective. Similar efforts were already familiar from the days of the Cold War.

According to Professor Melasuo only recently has there been a change.

"Finland has become strongly integrated into Europe - more than in 2005. It has already been six years [since the Madrid attack]. What happens elsewhere could happen here, too. This has perhaps also been affected by what happened in Stockholm late last year," speculates Melasuo.

See the original diplomatic cable (pdf file):

Subject: GWOT Assesment: Embassy Helsinki response