Posted on 07/01/2002 1:49:40 PM PDT by Shermy
ATHENS, Greece - Authorities on Monday identified a bomber who was severely injured when a time bomb he was carrying exploded as he walked past a busy dock in the country's main port of Piraeus.
Anti-terrorist police named the man as Savas Xiros, 40, an icon painter from the northern city of Thessaloniki. It added he did not have a criminal record.
The time bomb exploded late Saturday near a busy dock used by tourist ferries and hydrofoils sailing to resort islands. Explosives experts later defused a second time bomb found nearby, and were examining two hand grenades and a revolver found at the site.
It was unclear what the final target of the bombs were, but the attempted attack came at the beginning of Greece's tourist season.
United States senator Olympia Snowe, who is currently visiting Greece and was to sail from that dock to a nearby island on Sunday morning, rejected Greek media speculation that she could have been the intended target.
"I don't believe, nor does the embassy believe, that the incident had anything to do with my visit," said Snowe, a Republican from Maine.
Greece is under pressure to crack down on terrorism ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games to be held in Athens. The country has come under international criticism for failing to make any significant arrests.
Authorities were investigating Xiros' connections to domestic terrorist groups, but said they did not believe he was involved in the elusive November 17 group — Greece's most wanted terrorists. The group has killed 22 people since it first appeared in 1975, and there have been no arrests.
Xiros remained hospitalized in serious condition. He is the second person Greek authorities have identified in recent years as having possible connections to domestic terrorism.
Nikos Maziotis, now 30, was convicted of attempting to blow up the industry ministry in 1997. An appeals court last year reduced his 15-year sentence by more than two-thirds.
A search of a central Athens apartment revealed numerous handguns and bomb-making instructions, while authorities were also searching several other locations around the city.
Police were also questioning several people in connection with the blast, including a man and woman believed to have visited the hospital to inquire about Xiros' condition on Saturday night.
Saturday's attack was the second in Piraeus in less than two weeks.
On June 17, a group calling itself Popular Resistance claimed responsibility for a hand grenade attack against the political office of a retired basketball star who is now a government deputy. There were no injuries.
Correction a RINO from Maine
Greek police 'close' to arresting leaders of terrorist group
By Daniel Howden in Athens
Greek authorities are poised to unmask the leaders of November 17 (17N), one of the West's deadliest terrorist organisations, after 27 years without an arrest.
Greek police, with the help of Scotland Yard, have evidence linking suspects in the assassination of 17N's first victim, the CIA bureau chief Richard Welch in 1975, to the drive-by murder of the British defence attache Stephen Saunders two years ago, according to sources close to the investigation.
"We know the names of the three-four persons who are the founding nucleus of 17N and we are waiting only to collect evidence which will be acceptable in court," a security source told the Greek newspaper To Vima. "The leader is approximately 65 years old and believed to have taken part in the killing of the Athens director CIA, Richard Welch," the source added.
Mr Saunders was the 23rd victim of 17N, an extreme leftwing group that attacks prominent Greek, American, European and Turkish diplomatic and military personnel. Much credit is given to Scotland Yard anti-terrorist experts in the effort to find the killers after nearly three decades of failure by Greek police.
An editorial in the Greek tabloid To Karfi said: "The British Scotland Yard, being more methodical, started from the beginning, looked at all the people who were related to the very first assassination and possibly other unclaimed attacks. Their collection of evidence led to the leader of November 17."
In an interview with the Eleftheros Typos newspaper yesterday, Michalis Chrysochoidia, the Greek Justice Minister, refused to comment on the investigation.
To Vima quotes an unnamed foreign agent close to the case as saying that arrests are imminent. "I could compare the situation to a submarine, with the target in its sights, the torpedo tubes full and ready to launch and the crew just awaiting the order to fire."
To Karfi goes further than other newspapers to claim that the "first among equals" in the leadership of the shadowy group is a Greek intellectual and former member of a non-parliamentary Trotskyist group who lives between France and Greece.
All sources deny the list of suspects contains any well-known political or cultural figures, defusing speculation that 17N, named after the date of the 1973 uprising by students against the American-backed military dictatorship, has clear links to past or present Greek governments.
In January, Thomas Niles, a former US ambassador to Greece, claimed on the CBS programme 60 Minutes that links between the ruling Pasok party and November 17 had prevented arrests being made.
The claims by the American diplomat, made on the eve of the first visit to Washington by Costas Simitis, the Greek Prime Minister have been strongly denied by the administration in Athens.
* Police believe a time-bomb explosion that seriously injured a man at the Athens port of Piraeus may be connected to a domestic terrorist group and not November 17. The injured man, who lost part of a hand, is thought to have been carrying the bomb.
Our own Rino for sure. Maine is so full of them that being a conservative here is like wanting to order pizza in a Dunkin Donuts restaurant.
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