Counter-terror by proxy

<p>Between 1983 and 1987 mercenaries adopting the pseudonym GAL (<i>Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación</i> Antiterrorist Liberation Group) paid by the Spanish treasury and relying upon national intelligence support were at war with the Basque militant group ETA (<i>Euskadi (e)Ta Askatasuna</i> 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.<br><br>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.<br><br><i>Counter-terror by proxy</i> 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.</p>