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"Lower Manhattan Security Initiative (LMSI): The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative (LMSI) is a networked surveillance project designed to detect threats and perform pre-operational terrorist surveillance south of Canal Street in Lower Manhattan. LMSI combines an increased police presence with technology to accomplish its mission. At the heart of this initiative is the public-private partnership fostered amongst the NYPD, private entities, and public agencies in Lower Manhattan to create an information sharing environment and better defend against potential threats to the nation's financial capital. The Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center (LMSCC), staffed 24/7 by NYPD officers, recently opened in November 2008...

Greek fires may be treated as terrorism Staff and agencies Monday August 27, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Burned cars sit in a field near Artemida, one of the villages caught in the fires which have spread through the Peloponnese forests. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty A Greek prosecutor today ordered an investigation into whether arson attacks, which have been blamed for the worst forest fires in decades, could be considered terrorist acts. The public order ministry said Dimitris Papangelopoulos, who is responsible for prosecuting terrorism and organised crime, ordered the investigation to determine "whether the crimes of arsonists and of arson attacks...

A Greek court handed down multiple life sentences Wednesday to the leader, chief assassin and three other November 17 terrorists, putting an end to a group that killed and bombed with impunity for 27 years. An anti-terrorist tribunal sentenced Alexandros Giotopoulos, 59, the leader of the group, to 21 life terms. It also sentenced Dimitris Koufodinas, 45, the terror group's main hit man, to 13 life terms. Four other men that made up the core group of November 17 gunmen received sentences ranging from one to 10 life terms. The decisions make parole virtually impossible for most of the men....

The leadership of Europe’s most elusive terrorist group, including the killers of Brig Stephen Saunders, the British defence attache, were found guilty yesterday of a murderous, 28-year terrorist campaign. They face multiple life sentences.November 17’s ideological leader, top marksman and chief bomb maker - who were all involved in the murder of Brig Saunders three years ago - were convicted alongside 12 other members of the Marxist group following Greece’s first ever terrorism trial.It is hoped that the verdict of the 10-month special tribunal has ended one of the most unsavoury chapters in modern Greek history and will be central...

The Greek government is heralding what appears to be the end of the terrorist group November 17, a small but tightly knit organisation that has claimed responsibility for 23 political killings in the country over the past 27 years. Three judges sitting at a top-security court in Athens today convicted 15 members of the group, including its leader and its top assassin, on hundreds of terrorism charges after a marathon £1.4m, nine-month trial. November 17, a radical leftwing group that melded Marxist and nationalistic principles, developed in the early 1970s in opposition to the rightwing military junta that ruled Greece...

ATHENS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Police were sealing off streets around a top-security Athens prison where judges deliver verdicts on Monday in the murder trial of suspected members of the November 17 guerrilla group that plagued Greece for decades. Among the 19 defendants, including the Marxist group's alleged founder, some are accused of murdering 23 Greeks as well as British, U.S. and Turkish diplomats in a reign of fear that began with the 1975 killing of CIA Athens chief Richard Welch. Police said that before dawn, hundreds of officers would line the streets leading to the special court built in...

Members of Greece's bloodiest terrorist cell made murder "their job" as they outwitted authorities for more than a generation, a lawyer for the families US and British victims said Monday. The trial of 19 suspected November 17 members moved into a new phase with summations by attorneys for families of victims whose slaying is blamed on the group. Civil and criminal proceedings can run parallel in Greek courts. Ilias Anagnostopoulos, representing the families of American and British victims, said for three decades the November 17 "gang" caused havoc with armed robberies, explosions and assassinations of "unsuspecting victims." "They existed, lived...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Two powerful time bombs exploded at Athens' main court complex Friday in attacks the government linked to the trial of suspected members of Greece's deadliest terrorist group. The twin blasts, which injured a police officer and damaged a building in the closely guarded compound, also elevated concern among security officials preparing for the Athens Olympics, now less than a year away. A group calling itself Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility in a call to an Athens newspaper. It did not give a reason for the pre-dawn attack. Government spokesman Christos Protopapas suggested the bombings sought to influence...

A beekeeper accused of being the chief assassin for Greece's deadliest terrorist organization told a court Thursday that he was proud of the group's legacy because "it targeted symbols of imperialism," raising cheers from his supporters in the room. Dimitris Koufodinas, 45, has admitted belonging to the November 17 terror group. The militant group attacked American and British military personnel, Western diplomats and Greek industrialists, eluding police for decades before being exposed after a bungled bombing attempt last year. "They describe the actions of November 17 as terrorism. No, it targeted symbols of imperialism ... and we are proud of...

Some of Greece's richest men are believed to have paid large sums to be kept off the hit list of the terrorist group November17. They are said to include the family of Gianna Angelopoulos, organiser of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and Yiannis Latsis, a shipowner. The blackmail came to light when Ms Angelopoulos's husband, Theodore, gave the Prime Minister, Costas Simitis, an extract from the diary of his uncle Dimitris, who was murdered by the gang in 1986. Mr Simitis, who regards the arrest of domestic terrorists before the Games as a priority, sent it to the judiciary. This week...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Three brothers accused of being key hit men for the November 17 terrorist group said Friday their involvement in killings and bomb attacks was politically motivated. The brothers, who had made little mention of politics in earlier confessions, appeared to be trying to debunk prosecutors' claims that they are nothing more than common criminals who were just following orders and didn't even know who their targets were. The Xiros brothers' statement came after November 17's alleged chief executioner, Dimitris Koufodinas, unexpectedly surrendered Thursday. He has portrayed himself a political prisoner. The confessions of the three Xiros...

A key member of the Greek terrorist group, November 17, has surrendered to authorities. Police officials say Dimitris Koufodinas gave himself up to police in Athens, Thursday. He is a suspected ring leader of the radical group and allegedly helped orchestrate the 23 killings and other attacks attributed to the group since its emergence in 1975. Greek law enforcement officials say they believe they have successfully dismantled the notorious group. Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis said last month that most of the group's leaders have been arrested and its weapons have been seized. He said authorities have solved all the...

ATHENS, Greece - Police captured a 10th suspected member of the deadly November 17 terrorist organization and a newspaper reported that the group had been planning an attack on U.S. and NATO peacekeepers. The daily Eleftherotypia reported Sunday that alleged gunmen of the ultra-left group already in custody told police they had planned to strike NATO peacekeepers based in Kosovo as they traveled through Greece. The newspaper said evidence had been found at November 17 hideouts suggesting the urban guerrillas were gathering information on NATO convoys leaving the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki. November 17 has claimed 22 killings, including...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A suspected member of the deadly November 17 terrorist group confessed Sunday to the murder of British military attache Brig. Stephen Saunders, state-run television said. Savas Xiros told investigators he fired the shots at Saunders after his accomplices' weapon jammed, state-run NET television reported. ``I shot Saunders ... I fired four times,'' Xiros said in 10 hours of testimony from his hospital bed, according to NET. Saunders was killed in June 2000. NET said Xiros confessed to involvement in nine killings and dozens of bomb and rocket attacks, and apologized to the families of his victims....

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A cache of weapons, including automatic rifles, were stolen from a Greek military armory after thieves tunneled through a wall, officials said Saturday. Suspicion immediately fell on the embattled terrorist group November 17, but authorities also left open the possibility it was a heist by ordinary criminals. The theft on the island of Kos was discovered late Friday, but could have occurred anytime in the past 10 days, military authorities announced. It was not immediately clear whether the weapons were supposed to be under guard or in an unmonitored army storehouse on the island, near the...

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...

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...

<p>ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Police have made more arrests in their ongoing campaign to rout the terrorist organisation November 17 before Athens hosts the 2004 Olympic games, law enforcement officials said on Saturday.</p> <p>Officials did not release the names of two suspects apprehended outside Athens, but said the pair -- aged 30 and 35 -- were being brought to police headquarters in the Greek capital.</p>

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The alleged leader of Greece's November 17 terrorist group declared his innocence Saturday, police and court officials said, a day after he was charged with murdering at least 13 people, including American officials, in terror attacks dating back to the 1980s. Police, however, said other suspected members of the elusive terror band had confessed to participating in bombings, robberies and assassinations and identified Alexandros Giotopoulos, 58, as the leader of November 17. In handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, Giotopoulos was led before a public prosecutor on Friday to hear the charges that he was involved in...

The first arrests were made on Thursday Until a key arrest barely three weeks ago, not a single member of the shadowy Greek terror group, November 17, had ever been captured. For 27 years, the left-wing militant organisation carried out a string of bombings and shootings, killing 23 people until a near-fatal blunder which gave police their first lead. The arrest of Savvas Xiros was a vital breakthrough On 29 June, icon painter Savvas Xiros was captured after being seriously injured when the bomb he was apparently attempting to plant in Athens exploded prematurely. A gun discovered nearby was found...