Greek police arrest Marxist terrorist as US pressure builds

The New Australian ^ | July 2002

[Tailgunner Joe]

Greek police arrested three brothers, Savas Triandafyllos, 40, Christodoulos Triandafyllos, 44, and Vassilis Triandafyllos, 30, and charged them with being members of the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Organisation of November 17 terrorist group. The brothers are being charged with having participated in a number of terrorist inspired killings. The police have now made nine arrests, including the Xiros brothers.

Savas Triandafyllos, reported to have Sudanese links, was seriously injured on 29 June when a bomb he was carrying exploded. On investigation, police found the fingerprints of Alexandros Giotopoulos, a 58-year-old academic, in flats containing bomb-making equipment. Giotopoulos denies all knowledge of the terrorist group. He has been accused of founding the terrorist organisation and of being its ideologist, and is expected to be charged soon.

November 17 had operated with impunity in Greece for 27 years. During its reign of terror it murdered more than 20 people, including the British military attaché in 2000. Greece was the only Western country, until now, that had failed to arrest any of its terrorists. Rumours have circulated for years that the terrorists were shielded by members of the government and other anti-American high-ranking officials.

Greek governments have known from the organisation’s beginnings that it is largely based in Exarcheia, the old city quarter of Athens, that includes the Technical University and the Faculty of Law of the University. It is through academics at these institutions that the group recruits student sympathisers.

Thomas Niles a former U.S. ambassador to Athens, Thomas Niles, who told the New York Times sometime ago that Greece’s ruling political elite and November 17 were closely linked. He said he had supplied the Greek authorities with a list of potential suspects, including '“prominent members of Greek society,” linked to the Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, but nothing had been done.

Niles’ suspicions seemed to have been confirmed by the experience of Wayne Merry — a former State and Pentagon official. Mr Merry, who worked in Athens, tried without success to get the Greek government to take action against the terrorists.

It is believed that Western intelligence supplied the Greek Government with information describing the group’s ideologist as an academic with Paris connections. Giotopoulos was born in Paris. However, it is also believed that British and American intelligence reported that the real leader of the organisation is not Giotopoulos but a well-known figure who established the terrorist group with the support of the late Andreas Papandreou, and that it is Papandreou’s supporters who have protected the organisation.

Nearly three years ago, former CIA Director James Woolsey and Ambassador L. Paul Bremmer III, both of whom headed a congressional inquiry into terrorism, suggested that Washington put Greece on the list of countries facing sanctions because of its refusal to take action against the November 17 group.

Post September 11 leaks suggest that the Bush administration made it clear to Athens that if it did not act to eliminate these terrorists a price would be paid.

It seems that America has a president whose suggestions Athens feels it must take seriously.

[gaspar]

Savas was reported to have "Sudanese links". I wonder what that means?

[piasa]

Sudasnese links usually means ties to either Iraq or al Qafda via Hasan al Tourabi's group. Interesting.

[piasa]

The suspects are all said to have had dealings with Mr Xeros, a 40-year-old iconographer believed by experts to have been a senior operative in the group, in charge of logistics and executions.
Yesterday there were widespread reports that Mr Xeros had begun cooperating with investigators who are looking into the connections he is thought to have developed with other terror groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan.
--------By Guardian Unlimited Published: 7/7/2002