March 11th....El Mundo And Their "Experts"

Even though I'm away from home at the moment I couldn't resist an entry about this one - already a few days old. The newspaper El Mundo presented its readers last Sunday morning with the opinions of some important experts on the question of whether it was possible to recover traces of explosives from the trains that were hit in the Madrid bombings. Naturally the experts were of the opinion that this should have been perfectly possible - thus supporting El Mundo's theme that we have not been told the truth about the explosive used in the bombings.

Unfortunately for their story it seems that El Mundo neglected to inform their readership of a few pertinent details about these "experts". One of them, Teresa De Lara, has been a professional politician since 1987 and is currently a member of parliament for, surprise surprise, the Partido Popular. She is a chemistry graduate, but unless she has some very unusual hobbies it is unlikely that she has participated in anything resembling explosives analysis in the last 20 years; given that she worked for Hertz before beginning her political career, we should probably extend that 20 year minimum.

Another "expert", Enrique de la Morena, is presented as an independent consultant; it appears that one of Enrique's consultancy jobs is to present the "Whats wrong with me doctor?" section on La Mañana, the programme on the COPE radio station presented by the rabidly right wing Federico Jiménez Losantos.

For five bonus points, what does El Mundo's choice of "experts" tell us about the solvency of their story?

Thanks to escolar.net for the information.