Ángel Liberal Fernández, a retired Spanish Navy officer, is pictured on the far right at a presentation of his new book: "Gibraltar: Military Base. The Anglo-American interest in the Rock." He is accompanied by La Linea mayor Juan Carlos Juárez [second from left], San Roque Mayor Fernando Palma [second from right], and the sociologist Salustiano del Campo to formally present his work [far left].

At a book presentation in La Linea yesterday morning, an audience of senior Spanish diplomatic, military and political figures listened attentively to detailed commentary on Gibraltar's role as a military base.

The book's title speaks volumes for its main thrust: "Gibraltar: Military Base. The Anglo-American interest in the Rock."

Its author, Ángel Liberal Fernández, a retired Spanish Navy officer, has for years followed Gibraltar matters closely in a professional capacity.

Among many other roles connected to Gibraltar, he was a member of the Spanish team that tracked developments during the HMS Tireless incident.

In the Museo del Istmo yesterday, he sat alongside La Linea mayor Juan Carlos Juárez, San Roque Mayor Fernando Palma, and the sociologist Salustiano del Campo to formally present his work.

Sat in rows in the packed room were high-level dignitaries including Julio Montesinos, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs representative in the Campo; Spanish senator Jose Carracao, the PSOE's parliamentary spokesman on foreign affairs; Antonio León, the top military official in the Campo, who sat alongside senior officers from the Guardia Civil and the Policia Nacional; and former La Linea mayors José Antonio Fernández Pons and Juan Carmona, as well as Franco-era diplomat Fernando Olivié.

The book is a highly detailed analysis of military activity in Gibraltar.

It explores the Rock's modern-day role as an air and naval base, a logistics platform and an intelligence-gathering post. It includes chapters on the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and the Gibraltar Services Police.

The book sets out to shine light on "the hidden face" of Gibraltar and includes photographs of military installations including the nuclear submarine berths, the airport and the maritime data collection centre in Rosia Bay.

Sr Liberal stressed that the book was compiled using "open source" material - historical documents, books, press cuttings - and did not rely on any privileged or classified information.

But as the other speakers acknowledged, the author's analysis also draws heavily on his years as a military officer working at headquarters in Madrid and other cities.

La Linea's mayor was clearly impressed with the work and said it "enriched" the view he had of Gibraltar.

"My conclusion after having had the opportunity of reading it is that the UK is only interested in the military base," Sr Juárez told the audience.

"And with all respect, I have to say that it even uses the Rock's population as a parapet to serve those interests."

His view was echoed by the San Roque mayor, who described the book as "a magnificent manual" to understand that, for the British Government, "the military importance comes above all else".

The author kept his contribution to a bare minimum, limiting himself largely to explaining how his interest in Gibraltar came about through his direct experiences as a navy officer.

As with the other speakers, his intervention was, on occasion, couched in strong terms as he described how Gibraltar's presence had, over the years, proved damaging to Spain.

"Gibraltar is often described as a fiscal paradise, but really it is a multidimensional paradise," he said.

According to the book, one of those dimensions is the Rock's role as a port for UK and US nuclear submarines.

This theme was picked up by the sociologist Salustiano del Campo, who in a lengthy presentation referred to the potentially disastrous consequences for the Campo population of a nuclear accident in Gibraltar.

Sr del Campo's speech was, if nothing else, provocative.

Gibraltar, he said at one point, is "a paradise for traffickers of all sorts". Later, he described the Rock as an anachronism, "a colony in the territory of an ally."

His speech was peppered with recent controversies. Treasure hunters Odyssey Marine Exploration were in there, as was the Spanish ban on cross-border military movements.

At times, Sr del Campo's address verged on the surreal, most notably when he floated the possibility that, for all Spain knew, the planned Eastside Project, rather than a luxury marina development, could in fact become a base for nuclear submarines.

His point was that military activity on the Rock was shrouded in secrecy.

That, in his view, was why Sr Liberal's book was valuable, because it offered insight "into a matter that is rarely touched upon".