Word: eta
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Rolling Up ETA...
...Today, 172 suspected or convicted ETA members are serving time in French prisons, 157 of them Spanish nationals. In Spain itself, there are close to 750 currently in jail. Increased coordination between Paris and Madrid, meanwhile, made things so hot for ETA that its networks started searching for other places to plot strikes. "They tried Portugal, they even tested Morocco, but authorities in those countries saw the results of our cooperation and slammed the door on ETA before it could set up shop," the French official says. "We're all sharing information on ETA and moving to smoke...
...Perhaps, but as Interior Minister Hortefeux noted on Wednesday, each time authorities deal a blow to ETA they also uncover further proof that whatever is left of the organization is still busy preparing more of the attacks that have killed around 800 people over the years. Meanwhile, officials say that with the group now under unprecedented pressure, the only - usually young - people willing to enter ETA these days are almost all driven by an extremism that knows no fear of failure. (Read "New Basque Government: A Blow to Separatists...
...more you pare it down in size, the harder a core you're going to be left with," says the French official. "So even if it's smaller and more limited in movement, ETA today has gone deeper underground, hardened in its radicalism, and become less predictable. As the saying goes, an animal is most dangerous when it's wounded...
...Meaning, until ETA can definitively be declared dead, Spanish and French authorities remain wary of the threat that injured beast still poses - and they won't be declaring ultimate victory any time soon...