Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

34 • ANTITERRORIST LIBERATION GROUPSto sue foreign nations for terrorist acts against U.S. citizens abroadunder the Alien Tort Claims Act.AEDPA authorized $1 billion to be spent over a four-year periodto strengthen law enforcement efforts against terrorism and increasedfederal penalties for engaging in international terrorist activitieswithin the United States.The constitutionality of AEPDA was challenged on the groundsthat it restricted the rights of defendants to file for successive writsof habeas corpus without a declaration of a state of emergency, asrequired by Article I, Section 9, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution.However, in Felker v. Turpin (1997), the U.S. Supreme Court ruledunanimously that these limitations on successive appeals did not violatethe right of habeas corpus.ANTITERRORIST LIBERATION GROUPS. The Grupos Antiterroristasde Liberación (GAL) was a group under Spanish statesponsorship that acted largely as an anti-Basque death squad,killing Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) members and otherprominent Basques within Spain and France. Spanish police comprisedmuch of the membership of this group, who in turn recruited,financed, and directly aided hit men to assassinate as many as 37Basques in France during the period 1983–1987.In November 1984 the GAL killed a popular Basque leader, SantiagoBrouad, and in September 1985 killed four Basques in France.GAL members were well-equipped killers who were provided withsurprisingly good intelligence about the whereabouts of ETA members.Within France alone the GAL killed over 20 ETA members andsuspected sympathizers during the 1980s. After the GAL officiallydisbanded in 1987, French authorities became less willing to grantpolitical asylum to ETA refugees and carried out more extraditionsof ETA members wanted on terrorism charges in Spain.In 1991 two GAL members were tried and convicted for attemptedmurder. In 1994 two Spanish police officers, José Amedo and MichelDomínguez, were sentenced to a total of 108 years for ordering andcarrying out kidnappings and murders of suspected ETA members.During 1995 the Spanish Supreme Court investigated allegations thatPrime Minister Felipe González had authorized these secret deathsquad activities, but by November 1996 the court ruled there wasinsufficient evidence to warrant his prosecution. The controversy