Key phrases
Domestic terrorism in Greece, notable cases and close examination of past attacks regarding the operational environment, the wider political & economic climate and the security measures implemented, as well as, the media & societal reaction.
Introduction
Domestic terrorism in Greece stretches back in the mid-70′s when the infamous terrorist organization “November 17″ was formed. Since then numerous groups have claimed dozens of victims either prominent Greek citizens, or foreign diplomats and military personnel. The following research focuses on some major attacks from the early 90′s and onwards, along with supplementary data.
It has to be noted that the terrorist phenomenon in Greece has been evolved over the past 40 years and still continues to be a threat for domestic stability. Moreover, the various terror groups have changed their tactics and strategy and they have mutated from close-knit, paramilitary-like groups as the case of “November 17″ to a variety of loosely connected cells that tend to operate in similar fashion like the “Nihilist- Anarchist groups” of the late 19th century, which at that period were responsible for campaigns of terror in major Western cities and carried out a large number of assassinations against state figures.
Lastly it should be noted that all available data so far, as well as, the analysis which derives from a multitude of open sources, points out that Greek domestic terrorist -especially its newer versions- have indeed connections with local and regional organized criminal networks and collaboration with other extremist groups in Europe.
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Basic elements
1) Leftist Terrorist tradition
Greece has a long-standing tradition of Leftist terrorism.
2) Three waves of terrorism in Greece
- “Cold War Era” groups (i.e. 17 N)
Tight-knit hierarchical group, paramilitary trained disciplined, ideologically compact, inward-domestic aims.
B) Post 2001 groups (i.e. Revolutionary Struggle)
- Horizontal hierarchy, paramilitary trained, loose ideological substance, outward-international aims.
C) Post December 2008 groups (Conspiracy Cells of Fire)
- Autonomous loose cells, poorly trained, obscure ideological substance, closely following international developments-global aims
CASES
1) Greek Finance Minister attacked in 1992 and a 22year old passerby was killed.
The Greek Finance Minister Yannis Palaiokrassas was attacked by members of the 17th November terrorist group with a grenade launcher, on June the 14th in the center of Athens, while he was passing by with his ministerial car.
The attack didn’t hurt the minister or his entourage, but it proved fatal for the 22year old Athanasios Axarlian who was accidentally passing by the pavement right across the car of the Minister. The busy Athenian road where the attack took place, named Voukourestiou was sealed off by the police but the culprits managed to escape, presumably with the use of motor bikes that were safely stationed near the attack scene. (1)
The attack resulted in a wide range police operation with no avail and prompted Mitsotakis government to request by the Parliament to pass a Law prohibiting newspaper of presenting proclamations by terrorists in order to show the intolerance of the state towards the terrorists.
The death of Axarlain was also a turning point for the 17th November group since it was the first accidental civilian death and damaged the aura of the group to the sectors of the public that viewed domestic terrorism under a sympathetic point of view. (2)
The Attack
The terrorists launched a grenade launched from an apartment across the area where the ministerial car was passing by early in the morning of 14th of June. Due to a few seconds of delay the car was not destroyed and a young person passing by was fatally injured, since he was walking right beside where the grenade was exploded.
The terrorists managed to escape unnoticed and later on during the trail of the 17th November group in 2003, it was revealed that 2 persons took part in the attack who had extensively monitored the are days before and had rent an apartment so as to be able to launch the attack from an advantageous location for them. They had also made several rehearsals concerning the method of their operation. (3)
(1) Kathimerini Newspaper:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_1_11/04/2003_28508
(2) In News:
http://www.in.gr/news/article.asp?lngEntityID=450484
(3) ENET newspaper: http://archive.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,dt=16.10.2002,id=18561856
2) Greek Police officer killed in an attack in 1992
Policeman Yiannis Varis is killed and 6 other policemen are injured by a rocket and grenade attack on a police bus in Exarchia, Athens, on November the 2nd. Later on the terrorist group Revolutionary Organization 17 November assumed responsibility. (1)
The attack was staged by a nearby road where the terrorist remained hidden and waited for the bus to approach. The fired the rocked once they had a clear vision of it and the police officer died later on from his wounds.
The attack
The attack took place in one of the busiest areas in Athens early in the morning during a period of continuous bombing attacks by the November 17th group and several other terrorist groups. There were no valuable data collected from bystanders and passerby witnesses and the perpetuators managed to vanish amid the Athenian notice unnoticed by the Police forced that arrived in the scene and cordoned the area. (2)
(1)wiki.phantis.com/index…/1991
(2)
http://www.in.gr/news/reviews/article.asp?lngReviewID=441065&lngChapterID=441056&lngItemID=440437
3) Greek Ship owner is killed in Piraeus in 1997
The Greek ship owner Costa Peratikos was assassinated by the 17th of November group on the 25th of March in a street nearby the port of Piraeus. The assailants shoot him with a 0.45 mm automatic weapon which was the primary lethal emblem of the 17th of November group and was used in many attacks including that of the CIA chief of station in Athens, Wells, in 1975. (1)
Peratikos was entangled in a legal battle with the then Greek government concerning the mismanagement of a shipyard he previously owned and was re-nationalized previously of his death. The attacked caused a stir in the Greek business world and the father of the diseased launched a nation-wide protest campaign in order to raise sensitivity to the public in issues concerning domestic terrorism. (2)
The attack
The terrorists operating as a couple approached Peratikos while he was walking to his office in Filonos street in Piraeus. They shot him several times and abandoned the scene of the crime using motorbikes that were stationed nearby and were stolen over the previous day having their license plates changed.
Peraticos did not make it to the hospital and eye witnesses were not able to provide a clear description of the terrorists that were operating in a fast and decisive manner and were careful as not to disclose their facial characteristics or their voice pattern. (3)
(1) HRI:https://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/1997/97-05-29.mpa.html
(2) BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/greek/local/020714_peratikos.shtml
(3) http://library.techlink.gr/4t/article.asp?mag=1&issue=311&article=8481
4) Murder of the British Defense Attaché Stephen Saunders
British Defense Attaché Stephen Saunders, 53, was gunned down in central Athens on Thursday 8 June at 7:40am. Saunders was stuck in traffic on Kifissias Avenue when he was shot through his closed car window by two persons on a motorcycle.
He was taken to the local Red Cross hospital where he died just over three hours later.
In a 13-page proclamation sent to the Greek daily Eleftherotypia, November 17 said Saunders was assassinated because he “actively participated in coordinating the NATO air raids and bombing of Serbia” in the spring of 1999. The British Embassy in Athens denied that Saunders had “any direct role” in NATO’s campaign.
The Greek government and opposition political parties alike denounced the British diplomat’s assassination as a barbarous act of terrorism. Prime Minister Costas Simitis said “we will not permit anyone to disturb the calm and progress being achieved, or to blacken the image of a modern, peaceful and democratic Greece.” He also promised to spare no effort in bringing the assassins to justice. (1)
The shooting occurred at almost the exact spot where an American naval attaché was gunned down in 1983 by the same group (2)
The days after the attack various theories were made available to the domestic media regarding the causes of the attack, that have been largely unknown even nowadays. It was made known later known that the Defense Attaché has never participated in the NATO air raids and the war in ex-Yugoslavia. According to Greek media commentary, there may have been a mistake by the terrorists regarding the identity of the Attaché. (3)
That was the last attack by the 17th November group that was finally disbanded in July 2002. The outcry against the attack on Brigadier Saunders along with heightened security measures and international police cooperation, lead finally to the arrest of the terrorists.
The attack
On May 17th, Stephen Saunders, the British Defense Attaché in Greece has been shot dead in his car in Athens.
Saunders was rushed to a local hospital in a serious condition, but died later of his injuries.
The two gunmen opened fire on Brigadier Saunders as the British official drove a white Rover belonging to the embassy along Kifissias avenue in a northern suburb.
It appears that the car the Brigadier was driving was not bullet proofed. Ballistic tests revealed that the gun used had been used by the 17th November group in past attacks. (4). The gunner used a 0.45 Colt pistol, although confusing information, allegedly by Police sources, mentioned around the use of a G-3A3, 7.62 mm round automatic rifle.
The attack took place on Thursday morning 8th of June 2000, just a few days when in Washington on Monday June the 5th, the National Commission on Terrorism reported to Congress that Greece “has been disturbingly passive in response to terrorist activities.” (5)
(1) Central Europe Review: http://www.ce-review.org/00/23/greecenews23.html
(2) Association of Former Intelligence Officers: http://www.afio.com/sections/wins/2000/2000-23.html
(3) http://www.in.gr/NEWS/article.asp?lngEntityID=395801
(4)BBC World News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/782245.stm
(5) The Tech Online-Washington Post: http://tech.mit.edu/V120/N28/greece_28.28w.html
5) Attack against the American Embassy in Athens
A rocket-propelled grenade slammed into the American Embassy on January the 12th 2007, causing limited damage and no injuries. The shoulder-fired missile narrowly missed a large blue-and-white American seal on the embassy’s facade and damaged a third-floor bathroom near the ambassador’s office. U.S. Ambassador Charles Ries called the attack “very serious” and said no warning had been given (1).
Four fire engines rushed to the scene, amid reports that the explosion struck the embassy and local residents called in to state television saying they had felt the explosion, which shattered some windows. (2)
Panayiotis Stathis, spokesman for the Public Order Ministry, also said, “This was a violent act aimed to provoke Greek public opinion and disturb relations with the United States.”
The strike against the embassy here was not unprecedented. On Feb. 15, 1996, another antitank rocket hit an outside wall of the embassy, damaging three diplomatic vehicles. (3)
The rocket, apparently fired from more than 300 yards away across a busy boulevard and over a ten-foot security wall, smashed the glass front of the building. The responsibility for the attacked was bore by the “Revolutionary Struggle”, a shadowy extremist group with Marxist leanings and strong anti-American sentiments that emerged from obscurity in 2003 with the bombing of an Athens courthouse complex. (4)
Investigators found the device used to fire the rocket shell at a construction site near the embassy.
Police cordoned off streets around the embassy. Authorities were searching apartment buildings and a hospital nearby for evidence. Traffic came to a standstill across parts of the city’s downtown as police and emergency services scrambled to the embassy. (5)
The terrorist attack against the US Embassy in Athens, the location, and the way it was hit, indicated that it was performed by very well-trained terrorists capable of performing terrorist acts in the city center and in one of the busiest streets in the Greek capital. So far, there was no-known eyewitness who saw the terrorists or the launch of the rocket. (6)
Greek Police sources have semi-officially confirmed that the weapon was never used in the country in another attack in the past. (7)
Moreover, concerning the timing of the terrorist attack, the Greek media have noted that it occurred the same day that the special UN envoy Mathew Nimitz was arriving in Athens in order to discuss the standing name issue between Greece and FYROM. In parallel on the 12th of January an appointment was arranged between the Prime Minister Karamanlis and the Public Order Minister Polydoras, in order to discuss issues concerning domestic terrorism and urban style extremism and ways to combat it. (8)
The American side sent a special FBI antiterrorist-team over the following days, in order to examine the visual material obtained by the CCTV’s across the Embassy compound and assist the research for the location of the terrorist group along with the Greek police. (9)
Local experts believed at that period that the attack by the revolutionary struggle would be the beginning of a new round of violence in the country and over the next years more attacks followed in several other targets.
Further detailed information & analysis:
On the private Greek TV stations MEGA Channel and Ant1 TV, which covered the events from the beginning, more than 10 people living behind the US Embassy building and near where the Ambassador’s house is located, stated that they heard “dense shots” in the back of the Embassy’s building two hours before the rocket blast.
For these public statements the Greek forces and the US Embassy made no formal comments, whilst from 10:00 hrs. local time (on January 12, 2007) none of the Greek media again mentioned such statements.
Also, after the attack a threatening telephone call was made, placing warning of a bomb in the Athens Olympic Stadium; the warning proved to be misleading.
Initial information mentioned that a rocket launcher was found on a construction site opposite of the US Embassy, and referred to an auto-launched rocket, 28.6 inches in length, similar to those used by the terrorist organization November 17.
The terrorists aimed to conduct an impressive and symbolic attack by targeting the US eagle emblem which hangs in the front of the building, but they missed as they hit some centimeters above the main target, and they actually hit offices located on the third floor of the building.
The official confirmation by the police authorities is that a Chinese-type Antitank Launcher, RPG-7 type, was used.
According to local analysts, the Revolutionary Struggle is most probably the follower of the older terrorist organization Revolutionary Cell which once operated close to the external cell of November 17. It cannot be excluded that members of the Revolutionary Cell founded the Revolutionary Struggle, along with November 17 members that have not yet been arrested.
Moreover, the terrorist act of the Revolutionary Struggle against a target like the US Embassy in Athens signaled its establishment as the successor of the November 17.
This theory is supported by the fact that the same day, on January 12, 2007 — in the Court in Athens, the operational member and one of the leading figures of November 17th — Demitris Koufodinas, codenamed “Lukas” — testified in his appeal trial process. Lukas was supposed to testify on Monday, January 8, 2007, but he requested a hearing for the 12/01.
On the other hand, the use of the RPG-7 from a close distance, against a heavily guarded target, indicated good training, decisiveness, experience, and a willingness to “internationalize” their acts, with the aim of winning international exposure of their organization.
Undoubtedly, after the US Embassy strike in Athens, the Revolutionary Struggle was regarded as the number one domestic terrorist organization in Greece, attracting possibly the “followers” of November 17 and of the Revolutionary People’s Struggle (ELA).
November 17 had, on February 15, 1996, conducted a rocket attack against the US Ambassador’s house in Athens. At that time the rocket had hit the protection wall.
The weeks after the attack Greek daily papers tend to confirm the suspicion that the attack in the USA Embassy in Athens had an Albanian or Balkan connection in general. The Athenian newspaper “Eleftheros Typos” assumed that the rocket launcher was sold by the Albanian organized crime groups to the Greek culprits for the amount of some 2,500 Euro. Moreover the activity of these crime groups is to be found in Western FYROM which is mostly populated by Albanians and they regularly illegally export weaponry to Greek criminal groups.
Also the Greek newspaper “To Vima” revealed the strong connections of Albanian organized crime and the Greek illegal weapons market that has flourished since the 1997 uprising in Albania and the consequent “disappearance” of hundreds of thousands of weapons from that country.
Lastly the Global Information Service (GIS) of the American Defense & Foreign Affairs institute made an articulate research about the attack and published its estimations that supported the notion that a wider plan for destabilization in the Balkans at that period was underway.
The author of the present article was interviewed by the Greek radio station “Sky” just a few hours after the 12th of January attack and pointed out towards a wider Balkan nexus, according to the then available data. On the 14th of January on a second interview by the same media , as well as the Deutche Welle in Greece and Athens International Radio- more commentary was provided in order to draw a clearer view of the modern-day correlation between terrorism and crime, a relationship that was formally acknowledged by a governmental minister in early 2009, when Mr. Markoyannakis head of the Public Order Ministry, admitted in an interview in the newspaper To Vima, that Greek terrorists have a definite bond with crime networks. Since then all successive Greek public order Ministers have stated along the same lines.
In parallel quite a few experts and security analysts supported the aforementioned hypothesis through public appearances in the media.
Lastly, the Greek daily Kathimerini revealed in early February 2007, that a team of Greek police officers ventured in several locations in the Southern Balkans in order to track possible contraband routes relating to the attack. Since then no other data of importance surfaced in the press, despite several arrests of arms trafficking groups in Greece and other organized crime related networks in the country, without any link to that particular attack.
The attack
One of the most expensively protected US embassies in the world – and the most heavily fortified in the Balkans – the Embassy building was attacked at 5:58am when security guards where changing shifts. Greek security officials said the grenade was fired from a street opposite by assailants probably riding a motorbike. (10) The rocket landed in a toilet on the third floor of the building, which also houses Ambassador Charles Ries’s office. No one was in the area of the building at the time, and no one was hurt, an embassy official said. (11)
Greek anti-terrorist officers arrived on the scene. The senior police official said Greece’s deputy police chief and Athens police chief had gone into the building together with officers of the national security and anti-terrorist squads. Dozens of police cars surrounded the embassy and police cordoned off all roads in the area, including a major boulevard in front of the mission.
The attack came just a day after President Bush announced he was sending 21,500 extra troops into Iraq to try and stem the rapidly-escalating sectarian violence. (12)
(1) New York Sun: http://www.nysun.com/foreign/blast-at-american-embassy-in-athens-called/46604/
(2) Herald Sun: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/us-embassy-in-rocket-attack/story-e6frf7lf-1111112822238
(3) New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/world/europe/12cnd-greece.html
(4) Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1577262,00.html
(5) CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/01/12/blast-embassy.html
(6) World Security Network: http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/showArticle3.cfm?article_id=17951&topicID=34
(7) In Greece: http://www.in.gr/news/article.asp?lngentityid=769208
(8) Eleftherotypia newspaper: http://archive.enet.gr/online/online?dt=11/01/2007
(9) ANT1 TV Station:
http://www.ant1online.gr/Society/PoliceBulletin/Pages/20071/fbae15a0-5cd8-4187-b01a-17026ee3422a.aspx
(10) The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jan/13/usa.greece
(11) The Wshington Post: http://www.google.com/search?hl=el&rls=WZPA,WZPA:2006-23,WZPA:en&q=rocket+attack+against+the+US+embassy&start=10&sa=N
(12) Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-428307/Rocket-attack-U-S-embassy-Athens.html
6) Antiterrorist Police Officer attacked
On June 17th, 2009, the Antiterrorist Police Officer Nektarios Savvas was killed by gunmen in the Athens district of Ano-Patissia.
Nektarios Savvas, 41, a member of the anti-terrorism branch, was hit at least a dozen times as he sat with a cup of coffee in an unmarked police car outside the flat of Sophia Kyriakidou in the inner-city Patissia quarter. The killers sped away on motorbikes. (1)
Police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis said between 15 and 20 shots were fired at officer Nektarios Savvas by at least two gunmen at about 6:20 a.m. local time in the residential district of Patisia. The officer had just taken over the morning guard duty shift outside the home of a person in a witness protection program after testifying at the trial of a member of the far-left Greek group Revolutionary Popular Struggle, known by its Greek acronym ELA. Only the officer was targeted in the attack, with no attempt apparently made to approach the home of the witness. (2)
Savvas had been in plain clothes and in an unmarked vehicle but locals claimed to have been aware of his role as a witness protection officer. The 41-year-old had been just 20 minutes into his shift, which began at 6 a.m., when the masked assailants appeared and started shooting him at nearly point blank range in the head and chest. The gunmen and a third man believed to have acted as a lookout, and then fled on two motorcycles, according to witnesses.
The Revolutionary Sect terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of the officer. The police had suspected from the start the involvement of Revolutionary Sect after finding 24 9mm cartridge cases at the scene matched to a weapon already used by the group which emerged in February. At the time, it had machine-gunned a police station and the headquarters of a private television channel in Athens and had warned of further indiscriminate attacks on police. (4)
The Police claimed that more than thirty witnesses have been questioned, with five testimonies being viewed as the most important ones.
Evidence has suggested that the assailants were more than four. Three men wearing helmets walked towards the police car of the officer, who was guarding a key witness for an ELA trial. Two of them assumed positions in front of the car and the third at its left side and opened fire, shooting the 41-year-old policeman, father to a toddler, in the chest and head. They then ran towards a nearby street, where at least one accomplice of them was waiting and they vanished into thin air. (5)
The attack
Nektarios Savas, 41, was shot dead around daybreak in Athens yesterday while sitting in his unmarked vehicle outside the witness’s home when three unknown assailants on motorbikes opened fire. He was hit by around 15 bullets and declared dead in hospital. Savas, a married father of one child, was attacked at around 6.20am, outside the home of Sofia Kyriakidou, who was a state witness in the 2004 trial of four followers of the extremist People’s Revolutionary Struggle (ELA). The four were sentenced to 25 years in jail but later released, mostly for health reasons. (6)
(1) Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6517360.ece
(2) CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/17/greece-athens-shooting-police-ela452.html
(3) Kathimerini newspaper: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_1_18/06/2009_108168
(4) News 24: http://www.news24.com/Content/World/News/1073/d486e16c979d40f6a391e7e4522ca7c4
(5) Express Newspaper: http://www.express.gr/news/news-in-english/182074oz_20090618182074.php3
(6) The Star newspaper: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5040003
7) Attack against the Greek Security Minister
The June 2010 attack against the Greek “Citizen’s Protection Ministry” in the Minister’s Chryssohoidis private office, revealed a tremendous breach of the Greek security system and an attack that has surpassed any other in the history of domestic terrorism.
The attack
The explosive mechanism was boxed in a postal parcel and was sent through the national post agency “ELTA” to the Minister’s office, through his political office in the center of Athens according to all available, verified and officially streamed information. Moreover, the mechanism according to the statements of the Police authorities was used for the first time in Greece, it is similar with bombs being sent by the IRA and ETA and it was composed by “Controlled” material that cannot be found in the Greek commercial market, but only through authorized merchants or enterprises dealing with explosives.
Analysis
First of all, even if one speculates that the internal check points in the Ministry of Citizen’s Protection were compromised, either by lack of duty by the guards or for any other reason, the same must have happened to the ELTA service that also has a security system and moreover all parcels pass through different pair of hands until they reach their final destination. Therefore the terrorists are either extremely lucky or they knew the exact route the parcel would reach from their hands until it reaches the Minister’s office, so they would be sure that it would not explode by mistake or more probably be discovered by the security systems or plainly by an observant eye.
Second of all, quite a few pundits in Athens pointed out that the obscure terrorist group “Laiki Thelisi” may be involved, a group that has hit a few times since 2004, but seems to have quite a sophisticated method of operations. In 2004 for instance in their first attack they hit the Judicial offices in the city of Larissa, using a mobile phone that by its ring detonated the explosives, the exact same mechanism that the Al Qaeda terrorists used the same year in Madrid, albeit with a far bigger quantity of explosives causing the deaths of 200 people. This kind of technique is quite novel for any terrorist organization and was the first time it was used in Greece.
Further in another May 2009 attack, Laiki Thelisi, hit the offices of Mr. Trepeklis, a Greek businessman that his name was at that period frequently related by the Greek press, as the main consultant for the procurement of the C4i system by the Greek government in the early 2000′s for the Olympic Games, a system that never operated and was accused as a classic example of taxpayers money waste.
During that period the Ministry for Citizens Protection rejected the use of the C4i and stated that the system cannot be used. If Laiki Thelisi is involved in the attack against the Ministry, that means the only element that connects -on a visible level- both attacks, is the existence of significant news concerning the use of C4i by the Greek security system.
Lastly it has to be noted, that the parcel directed to the Minister, has as a sender, the name a “Karavellas”, an ex-Siemens manager, who is now wanted by Interpol for economic crimes, involving the bribing of Greek officials in the late 90′s and early 2000′s, centered around the Olympic Games and also with the electronics system that the Greek Police had then procured by Siemens.
Apart from the sarcasm that the perpetuators of the attack seemed to enjoy, a vital question arises.
Why would anyone deliver a parcel to the Minister himself, stating on the back of the cover the name of the top Greek fugitive in the Interpol list for Greece and subsequently that would be delivered through many intervals to his Ministerial office and would be opened without taking into account that this could be just a farce?
For any terrorist group that would have as a single-minded purpose to cause a spectacular attack, this kind of preparation would seem absurd. That raises two possibilities, either the terrorists are very much influenced by the Aristophanean-yet tragic in its consequences- spirit or the whole truth is far from the official statements and the bits of information being handed out by the domestic media.
Since 2010, the Greek state managed though to seriously disrupt the operations of terrorist groups with more than 20 arrests being made and the discovery of arms caches in several locations across the country. In October 2012, the leading weekly political magazine in the country, “EPIKAIRA” claimed that domestic terrorism era is far from over, since both Greek and international authorities fear the continuation of terrorism by individuals that have evaded the Law and have re-grouped themselves in order to stage more attacks in light of the worst economic depression the country has witnessed since WW2.
The Greek parcel bombing attempts against Embassies in Athens, EU institutions and against the offices of the heads of government of Germany, France and Italy; caused a great deal of alertness and mobilization throughout the entire European security system.
Summary of the events as reported by international media:
http://premium.edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11/04/greece.suspicious.packages/index.html
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6A31WL.htm
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-01/greek-police-arrest-two-men-as-parcel-bomb-injures-courier-company-worker.html
Remarks
1) The attackers seemed not be professional enough in order to avoid police surveillance and arrest but they were able enough to place the bombs (Approximately 250 gr. of explosive material (Black powder connected with a 9volt battery) in each parcel. That shows that this particular group has started to “experiment” with know-how of “mail bombing” which is new to Greece and it seems that this know-how has been imported recently from abroad.
2) During the same period there was the case of “UPS air mail bombs”, and a terror attack in Istanbul. Although the attacks seem not to have any relation between them, this was quite of a coincidence.
3) The head of EUROPOL, Mr. Rob Wainright, in a visit in Athens in March 2010 stated in an interview in the newspaper “Kathimerini”, (http://news.kathimerini.gr/4Dcgi/4Dcgi/_w_articles_civ_11_21/03/2010_395045), claimed that Greek terrorism ” Has connection and supporters abroad….the EUROPOL will supply a task force of 50 experts in order to assist the Greek security forces to combat terrorism in their country…EUROPOL has the technical means to support the Greek Police to investigate links between the domestic groups and the foreign ones, through the use of an intelligence gathering network and database across Europe…certainly there are links between Greek groups and other European ones”.
EUROPOL was one of targets of the parcel bomb attempts, as it was discovered after the Greek Police checked all parcels that were to be exported by the Athens international airport on the 2nd of November.
4) There are several terrorist and/or radical groups in Athens composed of young people-university students that are training from what it seems to launch serious attacks. This probably is the case of the two young people that were arrested, and it may well prove to be a part of a training process in order for the terrorists to test the alertness of the police and the viability of such project. Mail bombing is a rather low cost but also low affectivity, manner under which, a terrorist group could orchestrate a terrorist attack. Nevertheless the overall preparation level of the Greek security forces was undoubtedly tested by the culprits.
5) The two young people that were arrested were well-armed, but not trained to use their weaponry against the police force that captured them. That data further ads to the hypothesis that they were sent (not in their knowledge perhaps) to test the security forces in Greece and not to actually state a spectacular attack or resistance, because they did not have the proper paramilitary training to do that.
Moreover the carried with them evidence such as telephone cards, bus tickets, that further supports the idea that they were not professionally trained to eliminate any clue that can unfold their connections after their arrest.
6) On a wider European level, it is likely for a truly “network-based” urban terrorism to emerge where radical anarchists, eco-terrorists-Islamic fighters and various criminal groups will cooperate in an “ad hoc” basis with each other for mutual gains and where the agenda of these groups will be mixed and far more complicated.
A kind of a “social media” networking between all kinds of extremists willing to use force will probably emerge, like a network that one can discover in “Facebook”, by replacing “friends” with criminal associates, and the various “applications” as the mechanisms used for criminal action.
The world is becoming increasingly mixed and globalized, and it is natural for terrorism to follow that trend. Those assumptions can be concluded by the rapid internationalization of the radical groups across the globe, the easiness in the exchange of information and training between them and the capabilities that new technologies provide to young people that take the crucial step from violent radical action into plain terrorist action. The overall economic climate across the Western countries greatly facilitates radicalization.
7) This was the first time in the history of Greek terrorism that foreign leaders were directly targeted, as well as, there was such a mass of foreign targets simultaneously attempted to be bombed. That certainly adds to the idea that one of the main aims of the Greek terrorists, was to “internationalize” their actions and by doing so they try to achieve two major gains:
A) Attract more supporters and collaborators to their aims from abroad
B) Upgrade themselves in the shady hierarchy of domestic terrorism in Greece, by proving to the other terrorist groups that they are capable of spectacular action, and the presence of international media, as well as the exposure that this entails, further increases their “prestige” amongst such criminal networks.
Lastly it is quite probable that the Greek terrorist groups are becoming fused, meaning merging their operational and logistic capabilities, due to multiple arrests over the past 24 months by the local authorities, therefore that could explain how a group in which the two young people that were arrested participated into; could have achieved the know-how and preparation level to stage a well-coordinate terrorist project as the one being examined.
For the record, the groups “Conspiracy cells of arsonists” that the two suspects presumably belong; was until now capable of staging only small scale bombing attacks mostly against unguarded public buildings or banks and all evidence showed it was composed by young people with no military training or international exposure in extremist action.
In comparison two other Greek terrorist groups, the “Revolutionary Struggle” and the “Revolutionary Sect”, had through their actions revealed elements of the aforementioned, therefore a convergence of power between these three terrorists groups may be at hand.
Key points of parcel bomb attack attempts & the newer Greek Leftist terrorism generation:
- Global Impact
- Poor execution
- European terrorist connection with the Greek group
- Aims to impress abroad (Strategic thought) rather to hit specific target (Tactical thought)
- Proliferation of terrorist methodology in exceptionally young individuals with no criminal record-connections
- Greek neo-terrorist groups are very active compared to the size of the country
-They have ease at recruiting people and gain access to weaponry
- Connections with domestic organized crime are becoming evident
- Should they gain solid Pan-European networking; potentially dangerous for Continental security
