Counter-Terror by Proxy: The Spanish State's Illicit War with ETA - New Approaches to Conflict Analysis (Hardback)
  • Counter-Terror by Proxy: The Spanish State's Illicit War with ETA - New Approaches to Conflict Analysis (Hardback)
zoom

Counter-Terror by Proxy: The Spanish State's Illicit War with ETA - New Approaches to Conflict Analysis (Hardback)

(author)
£85.00
Hardback 224 Pages
Published: 10/08/2021
  • In stock
  • Free UK delivery

Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days

  • This item has been added to your basket

Between 1983 and 1987, mercenaries adopting the pseudonym GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación, Antiterrorist Liberation Group) paid by the Spanish treasury and relying upon national intelligence support were at war with the Basque militant group ETA (Euskadi (e)Ta Askatasuna, Basque Country and Freedom). Over four years, their campaign of extrajudicial assassinations spanned the French-Spanish border. Nearly thirty people were killed in a campaign comprised of torture, kidnapping, bombing and the assassination of suspected ETA activists and Basque refugees.

This establishment of unofficial counterterrorist squads by a Spanish Government was a blatant detour from legality. It was also a rare case in Europe where no less than fourteen high-ranking Spanish police officers and senior government officials, including the Minister of Interior himself, were eventually arrested and condemned for counter-terrorism wrongdoings and illiberal practices. Thirty years later, this campaign of intimidation, coercion and targeted killings continues to grip Spain. The GAL affair was not only a serious example of a major departure from accepted liberal democratic constitutional principles of law and order, but also a brutal campaign that postponed by decades the possibility of a political solution for the Basque conflict.

Counter-terror by proxy uncovers why and how a democratic government in a liberal society turned to a ‘dirty war’ and went down the route of illegal and extrajudicial killing actions. It offers a fuller examination of the long-term implications of the use of unorthodox counter-terrorist strategies in a liberal democracy.

Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9781526158826
Number of pages: 224
Weight: 490 g
Dimensions: 234 x 156 x 14 mm

You may also be interested in...

The Gunpowder Plot
Added to basket
Hellhound on his Trail
Added to basket
France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944
Added to basket
The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice
Added to basket
The Dirty War
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99
A Secret History of the IRA
Added to basket
Killing Rage
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99
From Beirut to Jerusalem
Added to basket
Armed Struggle
Added to basket
Paperback
£16.99
Writings From Prison
Added to basket
The Trigger Men
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99
The Northern Ireland Conflict
Added to basket
Farewell Kabul
Added to basket
Paperback
£14.99
The Year Of Liberty
Added to basket
The Islamist
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99
Ghost Wars
Added to basket
Paperback
£18.99

Please sign in to write a review

Your review has been submitted successfully.