El Pais, which was preparing a special edition on the attacks, received several calls directly from Aznar, its reporters confirmed. The editor of the Catalan-based paper El Periodico said Aznar called twice. Aznar "courteously cautioned me not to be mistaken. ETA was responsible," the editor, Antonio Franco, wrote in an editorial Tuesday. At a news conference on Friday, Aznar said he had called several newspapers, saying he wanted to explain the government's view.
Reading from a text, the spokeswoman gave three reasons why ETA was the culprit, Boom said: No one had asserted responsibility, which followed ETA's style of not making claims for at least a week; the type of explosive was similar to that normally used by ETA; and there was no call beforehand warning of the attacks, another characteristic of ETA -- a point some journalists have disputed.

''Spanish television was broadcasting footage of the demonstrations in Madrid, lingering on images of signs that read 'An Entire Nation and Only One Flag', but never showing the placards reading 'No to War, Yes to Peace','' according to an on-line article by Spanish journalist Lucía Etxebarría.

According to Etxebarría, the newspaper El Mundo refused to publish an article in which she criticised the government's hypothesis that ETA was responsible, even though the daily had specifically commissioned the story.

Scalia elucidates that if he and his family had not accepted a free ride on Air Force Two, there would have been "considerable inconvenience" to his other friends, who would have had to meet a commercial plane in New Orleans and arrange car and boat trips to the hunting camp.

He reassures us that "Washington officials know the rules, and know that discussing with judges pending cases — their own or anyone else's — is forbidden." We must simply trust them, for they were bred to lead. Watching Mr. Cheney and Justice Scalia in action is all the proof one needs that Washington officials would never break the rules or engage in cronyism.