the disinformation campaign is in full swing - check out the quotes from this article:
1. "The bomb in the gym bag, which he said was believed to have been connected to an alarm clock function on the phone, failed to go off. Mr. Astarloa said that one hypothesis was that the phone was new and had never been properly activated"
why would an unactivated phone have the fone numbers of his best 5 friends?

"Mr. Astarloa said that ETA had detonated bombs in the past using mobile phones, but that in the past the trigger had been a call to the phone, not an alarm. The phone was not of a manufacturer used by ETA in the past, he added."
in other news, suicide bombers have switched backpack allegiances, saying "nike just has more street cred." adidas shares were off 3% overnight.


"Clothing found in the van has been sent for DNA testing, he said."
these people abandoned a car and left their clothes and tapes behind. look for another 17 page memo in the glovebox.

"There are many fingerprints, too many, " he said. For example, in the stolen van "there are years and years of normal people who used it," he said. "Then there are the possible fingerprints of terrorists. Then there are the fingerprints of the police who took charge of the van."
keystone kops bungle investigation. on day one. chief sez 'i slept thru the fingerprint class'

"Mr. Asterloa called the discovery of the unexploded bomb in the gym bag "a blessing" because, he said, "it is the only bag planted by the terrorists that allows us to investigate something that isn't just ashes."
praps freud would have something to say about the choice of the word 'planted' - thank god for such blessings. of course, the fingerprint-tainted van could also qualify as 'something that isn't just ashes'

"Mr. Astarloa acknowledged that the explosive found in the gym bag, Goma 2-E, a gelatinous, nitroglycerin-based explosive that is typically used in mining, had been used by ETA in the past but not recently because of much tighter security controls by Spanish authorities. "This has not been habitually used by ETA in recent times," he said."
this last quote should read "hasnt been used by eta in 20 years"

viva le journaliste