Antza in his pantzaAP  IT WAS a spectacular coup. On October 3rd
Mikel “Antza” Albizu Iriarte, political leader and chief
ideologue of ETA, the Basque terrorist group, was arrested in
the town of Salies-de-Béarn in France, along with his
girlfriend, Soledad “Anboto” Iparragirre Genetxea. Fifteen other
suspects were also nabbed. In seven separate caches, arms were
found, among them over 1,200kg of explosives, two Russian-made
ground-to-air missiles, 44 submachineguns and an assortment of
pistols. Following leads gathered in the raid, five more
suspected ETA members were later arrested on the Spanish side of
the border, in Pamplona, San Sebastián and Irún. They were
reportedly awaiting instructions to carry out attacks.  The
French justice minister, Dominique Perben, hailed the capture of
ETA's political leader as “a great battle won in the war against
terrorism...a very fine operation”. Spain's prime minister, José
Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, trumpeted “a major step towards ending
the violence of the terrorist gr