Posted on 07/26/2002 3:35:13 PM PDT by knighthawk
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A telephone operator arrested for being a leader of Greece's deadly November 17 terrorist group admitted taking part in the 1975 killing of a CIA official and said the triggerman already is in police custody, judicial sources said Friday.
The surprise confession by alleged second-in-command Pavlos Serifis added important details about the ambush killing of CIA station chief Richard Welch outside a Christmas party — a killing that launched a 27-year string of assassinations, bombings and robberies by the once-untouchable group.
Serifis also admitted participating in the 1980 slayings of two Greek policemen and said the same man who shot Welch was one of the two assassins, judicial sources said on condition of anonymity.
The sources said the late-night confession also bolstered authorities' belief that they have captured November 17's mastermind — white-haired, 58-year-old Alexandros Giotopoulos, who denies any connection to terrorist band.
Serifis, a 46-year-old telephone operator at an Athens children's hospital, at first denied any link to November 17 after his arrest Wednesday in the northern city of Karditsa.
But late Thursday, he began detailing his involvement in Welch's killing in a confession ending just before dawn, judicial sources said on condition of anonymity.
Serifis, who was 19 at the time Welch was killed, said he acted as a lookout. He identified the gunman as Giotopoulos.
Serifis also said he acted as a lookout in the 1980 slayings, in which Giotopoulos was one of two gunmen, judicial sources said.
Serifis has been charged with three felonies and could receive a life sentence. Because of a 20-year statute of limitations, he cannot be charged with the killings in which he admitted participation.
November 17 takes it name from the day in 1973 when Greece's military junta, which ruled from 1967 to 1974, crushed a student uprising in Athens. The group said it targeted Americans and their allies because Washington backed the dictatorship.
November 17 is linked to a total 23 slayings, including Welch and three other Americans. Its most recent victim was British defense attache Brig. Stephen Saunders in June 2000.
A total of 13 suspected November 17 members are now in custody. Most are believed to have been involved in hit squads and formed the group's ``second generation'' recruited in the mid-1980s.
Authorities believe Serifis was a link between the terror group's founders and the 1980s crew drawn to the group's ideological path: hard-line Marxism, Robin Hood-style bravado and extreme nationalism.
The latest suspect — 42-year-old Patroklos Tselentis — was expected to be formally charged Friday.
Tselentis confessed to participating in five killings, including that of U.S. defense attache Capt. William Nordeen in June 1988, and two attempted murders, including of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency station chief George Caros, police spokesman Lefteris Ekonomou said.
He also confessed to participating in the 1987 bombing of a bus carrying U.S. servicemen that injured 13 people, police said.
Police had been unable to crack November 17 until a suspected member was injured June 29 in a failed bombing. A domino-style collapse followed as police made arrests around the country.
The fallout has spilled over to regional rival Turkey, which long has suspected November 17 of assisting militant Turkish Marxist groups.
In Ankara, Turkish deputy police chief Feyzullah Aslan said Turkish police have in the past seized weapons they believe November 17 stole from the Greek military and then sold to the outlawed Turkish group Revolutionary People's Liberation Front, also known as DHKP-C.
Aslan said there is evidence the arms trade began as far back as 1989. But he provided no other information on the weapons.
Greek government spokesman Christos Protopappas would not comment directly on any link between November 17 and Turkish groups, but vowed to explore all possible leads.
``We will not stop at November 17 and if we see connections we will inform foreign governments if it is proven,'' Protopappas said.
The Greeks have probably also known, but before now refused to act, as they have generally had an uncharitable attitude towards us since the times of Papandreou. And we certainly hurt their feelings when Clinton sided with the hated Albanians during the "rescue me from Monica" NATO engagement.
Can these guys be extradited to the US? I have no idea what our "relations" are with Greece.
"The most effective and important systematic efforts to combat the CIA that can be undertaken right now are, I think, the identification, exposure, and neutralization of its people working abroad. . .we know enough about what the CIA does to resolve to oppose it. . .OC-5's Annual Report, published in the winter of 1975 edition of CounterSpy, describes its connections with other members of the antiintelligence lobby, all of them working within the system:
". . .Among the many conferences attended by the Fifth Estate were: the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL) conference [NCARL was originally formed as a communist front to oppose congressional investigation of subversive organizations]; the National Lawyers Guild Conference (with whome we work closely);. . .and. . .the Center for National Security Studies."In its first few years IPS played an important if quiet role in helping OC-5. . .On the OC-5 CounterSpy advisory board were Marcus Raskin, Victor Marchetti, Dave Dellinger of Chicago Seven fame, and several others, like Frank Donner and Sylvia Crane, both former members of the Communist party. CounterSpy's attorney was Alan Dranitzke, who was a leader of the Cuba Subcommittee of the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, and whose senior law partners include David Rein, a Communist party member, and Joseph Forer, a counsel for the Communist party, USA.
DECEMBER 1975 : (A PUBLICATION [COUNTERSPY] ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH PHILIP AGEE PUBLISHES THE NAME AND ADDRESS OF A CIA OPERATIVE IN ATHENS, GREECE BY THE NAME OF RICHARD WELCH - WELCH WAS ASSASSINATED SHORTLY THEREAFTER) In December 1975, a publication to which Agee reportedly had ties, published the name and address of CIA operative in Athens, Greece, Richard Welch. On December 23, 1975, Welch was shot to death outside his Athens home.
The CIA blamed Agee for this death, although he denied having provided the agent's address to the publication. Agee, however, had written in the edition of the publication publishing Welch's address the following advice to foes of the CIA: "…the CIA people can be identified and exposed through periodic bulletins disseminated to our subscribers, particularly individuals and organizations in the foreign country in question. Photographs and home address in the foreign capital or Consular cities should be included… the people themselves will have to decide what they must do to rid themselves of the CIA." ------ "Philip Burnett Franklin Agee: CIA Case Officer in Latin America (1936 - )"http://www.angelfire.com/dc/1spy/Agee.html
Thanks! BTW, Happy New Year! :-)
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