Here's the latest at 1:30 on Sunday, election day. Very early this morning, at about 1 AM (after I'd gone to bed), Acebes went on TV again and said more or less the following: The cops got a call saying they should go pick up a videotape deposited in a public wastebasket. On that tape a man dressed Arab-style and speaking Arabic with a Moroccan accent said he was named Abu Dujan Al Afgani and was the "military spokesman" for Al Qaeda in Europe. The man, who showed his face, stated that these attacks were retaliation for "the crimes committed in the world and concretely in Iraq and in Afghanistan". This man had never spoken before in any capacity and was unknown to both Spanish and foreign intelligence.

The five arrested men are apparently the suppliers of the mobile phones and fake phone cards to the bombers. The two men being interrogated, Spanish citizens of Indian origin, have been released.

La Vanguardia's headline, "Al Qaeda confirms on video authorship of massacre", seems to me to be as much of a hasty jump to conclusions as the one that the Government and I both committed.