TIME EUROPE
May
29, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 21
Terrorism
Unlimited
Ineptitude and lack
of political will leave Greece second only to Colombia in anti-U.S.
attacks
By ANTHEE CARASSAVA Athens
Twenty terrorist attacks
against American targets in a 12-month period; a combined 40 strikes
on U.S., French and British holdings; 52 anti-American protest
marches; seven rocket attacks ... the country in question isn't
Afghanistan or Iran. It's Greece. The cradle of democracy, and a key
NATO ally, is the home of anti-American terrorism. An intelligence
report by the U.S. State Department released this month says Greece
led Europe in the number of anti-American attacks in 1999, ranking
second only to Colombia worldwide.
Much of the anti-U.S.
sentiment dates back to Washington's support for the military junta
that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974. Since then, there has been
a succession of anti-American waves, the most violent of which came
last year, after a botched Greek Foreign Ministry plan to hide
Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish rebel leader whom Athens sees as a
freedom fighter, but whom Ankara and Washington condemn as a
terrorist. After Ocalan's capture in Kenya, Athens was riven by
riots, with extremists hurling gas-canister bombs at everything
representing the West, from European embassy cars to a Ronald
McDonald statue. The anti-American feeling only grew as NATO began
blasting Greece's best of Balkan friends: the Serbs. Millions of
Greeks took to the streets, and some of the country's 80-plus
terrorist groups staged a string of attacks.
What most
infuriates the Americans is that the terrorists have almost a free
hand. "It's not that Greece has the world's worst terrorist
problem," says Wayne Merry, a former U.S. Embassy official now with
Washington's Atlantic Council. "It's that Greece has the world's
worst counterterrorism problem." The cardinal example is
Revolutionary Organization 17 November, a Marxist-Leninist group
named for the date the junta ordered tanks to quash a student
uprising in 1973. It was responsible for gunning down Richard Welch,
the cia's station chief in Athens, in 1975, and has since killed
another 19 people, including three other U.S. Embassy officials.
What are Greek police doing about the violence? "Zilch, zip,
zero," huffs one U.S. official. Not one arrest. Exactly a year ago,
a 17 November hit man was injured while launching a rocket against
the residence of German Ambassador Karl Heinz Kuhna. Blood was
spotted near a shrub where the assailant hid to launch the rocket.
More was found in the abandoned getaway car, along with strands of
the attacker's hair. Then everything went into slow motion. U.S.
officials claim it took four months for a Greek police crime lab to
type the blood. And when it did, says the State Department report,
the authorities "did not follow up aggressively, and made no
arrest."
"It's no wonder 17 November has been dubbed one of
the world's most elusive terrorist organizations," says a
high-ranking former state official, who was afraid to be named.
"It's being chased by incompetent, unprofessional police." The
source adds, "We are a country of 11 million, no greater than New
York. We have a 50,000-strong police force. We know that these
suspects circulate within a neighborhood a quarter of the size of
Central Park. And we still can't catch them."
The police
argue that, in a nation that suffered the junta's wanton use of
police brutality, officers are wary of even the lightest use of
force. Legal codes also limit the time suspects can be held.
Government officials say there are plans to introduce witness
protection programs and secret hearings. Prosecutors also need
protection: more than a handful of them have been gunned down, and
one Supreme Court prosecutor was told his children would be burned
alive if he proceeded with a case. Most importantly, however, legal
reforms could embolden police action. As one former counterterrorism
agent told Time: "There were many cases in which 17 November
assassins were identified on the basis of witness testimony and
sketches." But, he concedes, "there were many legal restraints to
nabbing them."
Last December, Greek authorities nabbed
Avraam Lesperoglou, one of the presumed founders of the
Revolutionary People's Struggle — which in turn is believed to be
linked to 17 November — as he was entering the country with a false
passport. Though sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail for that,
Lesperoglou has yet to be charged in connection with about a dozen
terrorist attacks on prosecutors, police and security guards to
which he is allegedly linked. U.S. officials insist that now is the
time to hunt down 17 November, while Lesperoglou is in custody. But
to do so, argues Wayne Merry, the ruling Socialist pasok Party must
face up to some skeletons in its closet. "We know," he says, "that
there were people in the government, in the party, who had more than
a damn good idea" of the terrorists' identities.
Prime
Minister Costas Simitis, the reform-minded successor to the late,
anti-American Andreas Papandreou, may have no other choice than to
open that Pandora's box. With the Greek capital due to host the
Olympic Games in 2004, his government will not want visitors to be
wondering if their plane was somehow diverted and landed in
Afghanistan instead of Athens.
— With reporting by
Massimo Calabresi / Washington
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May 29, 2000
COVER
Beyond
2000: A New World of Work
EUROPE
Shell-shocked
Angry
Dutch residents want answers after a fireworks factory
explodes in the middle of their
neighborhood
Power
Grab
Putin reveals his leadership
plans
Rebel
Yell
Serb protests against Milosevic's media
crackdown kick-start opposition leaders into
action
Campaign of
Terror
Greece is second only to Colombia in its
number of anti-American terrorist attacks
Viewpoint
The
E.U. needs a constitutional framework
AFRICA
Ray
of Hope
A warlord's capture sparks jubilation
in Freetown
BUSINESS
BooHoo.com
A
much-hyped dotcom has gone belly up. How many more will
follow?
TIME
FINANCE
The
Pension Problem
As the number of workers to
support retirees dwindles, Europe's governments must face a
looming financial crisis
Your
Money
Rules for planning your
retirement
Viewpoint
The
early bird can't always expect success
DEPARTMENTS
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