Dirty War, Clean Hands: Eta, The Gal and Spanish Democracy Book

"Democracy is defended in the sewers as well as the salons." This is how former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez responded to allegations that his government was fighting the Basque separatist group ETA with its own methods; indiscrimintae terrorism, shooting up crowded bars, bombing busy streets, toturing kidnap victims. For three years, GAl (Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups" created mayhem in the French Basque Country, where ETA had its "sanctuary." In 1986 the French government began to hand over ETA suspects to the Spanish police in large numbers and the GAL campaign stopped. But this dirty war had already created widespread support for the ETA in the first generation of Spanish Basques to grow up under post-Franco democracy, and its consequences reverberate to this day. The GAL's links to the SPanish security forces, and finally to Gonzalez's own cabinet, have been revealed by controversial magistrates like Baltasar Garzon, despite all the resources of "state secrecy." The investigations continue, and Garzon is still attempting to establish the full extent of the relationship between the former SPanish government and the GAL's death squads. Over the last 15 years, the GAL scabdal has undermined Gonzalez'a reputation as a democrat and EU statesman and raised fundamental questions about PSain's much-praised transition to democracy. The GAL investigations have stretched the relationship between government and judiciary in Spain to a breaking point, and have sent a minister and a Guardia general to prison. Paddy Woodworth, who has covered Spain for The Irish Times and other media since the 1970's, has interviewed many of the GAL's surviving victims and some of the GAL's leading protagonists. He has followed the investigations in the SPanish media and courts for many years. The result is a dramatic narrative and a tought-provoking analysis of what happens when a democratic administration fights fire with fire.Read More