Today's potential good news about ETA brings to mind a book recommendation I've been meaning to make for some time:
Dirty War, Clean Hands by Paddy Woodworth is one of the few books and the only one in English I have been able to find about the GAL, an anti-terrorist unit set up to liquidate members of ETA who had sought refuge in the French Basque country. GAL was set up with the knowledge of the Spanish Socialist government of Felipe Gonzalez in the 1980's. Jose Barrionuevo, the Interior Minister served time for his involvement with the GAL.
What was the result of the effort? Some ETA members were killed and innocent people were killed, kidnapped and tortured. Mercenaries were used for much of the dirty work, and the net effect was to further radicalize younger Basques and spur them into becoming members of ETA. A number of martyrs were created and most significant among them were Joxe Antonio Lasa and Joxe Ignacio Zabala who disappeared in 1983 and whose remains were found in Valencia years later.
So what inspired ETA to make the permanent ceasefire? I'm no expert and I'm sure that there were a number of factors, but one that should also be considered were the successful prosecution of many of its major figures. So the lesson to be learned here is that clandestine semi-official units designed to kill members of and/or break up suspected terrorist groups are capable of making horrific mistakes and their actions can have the opposite effect. On the other hand, reliable, transparent public prosecutions of terrorists are still capable of strong achievements in fighting terrorism.
I hope someone is listening, but I doubt it.
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