Tom Clancy's Op-center Balance of Power - Tom Clancy [30]
Hood's eyes lowered slowly.
"And if you remember correctly," Herbert said quickly, "as soon as Deputy Serrador had a look at our diplomatic roster he asked for Martha specifically. And she couldn't wait to get her arms around this situation and make it hers. So don't even think about second-guessing what you did."
"Hear, hear," Ann Farris said quietly.
Hood looked up. He thanked them both with his eyes then looked at Carol Lanning. "Anyway," he said, "that was the start of our involvement."
"What do these groups want?" Lanning asked. "Independence?"
"Some do," Hood said. He turned to his computer screen and accessed the file on Spain. "According to Deputy Serrador, there are two major problems. The first is between the two factions of Basques. The Basques comprise just two percent of the population and are already battling among themselves. The bulk of the Basques are staunch antiseparatists who want to remain part of Spain. A very small number of them, less than ten percent, are separatists."
"That's point two percent of the population of Spain," Lanning said. "Not a very considerable number."
"Right," Hood said. "Meanwhile, there's also a long-simmering problem with the Castilians of central and northern Spain. The Castilians make up sixty-two percent of the population of Spain. They've always believed that they are Spain and that everyone else in the country isn't."
"The other groups are regarded as squatters," Herbert said.
"Exactly. Serrador tells us that the Castilians have been trying to arm the separatist factions of the Basques to begin the process of tearing the Spanish minorities apart. First the Basques, then the Galicians, the Catalonians, and the Andalusians. As a result, Serrador had intelligence that some of the other groups might be talking about joining together for a political or military move against the Castilians. A preemptive strike."
"And it isn't just a national issue," McCaskey said. "My Interpol sources tell me that the French are supporting the antiseparatist Basques. They're afraid that if the separatist Basques get too much power, the French Basques will act to form their own country as well."
"Is there a real danger of that?" Herbert asked.
"There is," said McCaskey. "From the late 1960's through the middle 1970's, the quarter-million Basques in France helped the two million Basques in Spain fight the repression of Francisco Franco. The camraderie between the French Basques and the Spanish separatist Basques is so strong that the Basques-Spanish and French alike-simply refer to the region as the northern and southern Basque country, respectively."
"The Basques and the Castilians are the two groups Serrador wanted us to investigate immediately," Hood said. "But in addition to them, there are the Catalonians, also of central and northern Spain, who make up sixteen percent of the population. They're extremely rich and influential. A large portion of the Catalonians' taxes go to supporting the other minorities, especially the Andalusians in the south. They would be just as happy to see the other groups disappear."
"How happy would they be?" Lanning asked. "Happy enough to make that happen?"
"As in genocide?" Hood asked.
Lanning shrugged. "It doesn't take more than a few loud men to fan suspicion and hate to those levels."
"The men on the yacht were Catalonian," McCaskey said.
"And the Catalonians have always been separatists," Lanning said. "They were a key force in spurring on the Spanish Civil War sixty years ago."
"That's true," Ron Plummer said. "But the Catalonians also have a bunker mentality regarding other races. Genocide is usually the result of an already dominant force looking to turn widespread public anger against a specific target. That's not what we have here."
"I'm inclined to agree with Ron," Hood said. "It probably would have been easier for the Catalonians to exert financial pressure on the nation than to resort to genocide."