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| photo by parapolitika |
The obvious question would be, where is the crime?
According to what has already been reported, (on many news sites, blogs and Epikaira magazine) Alex Rondos is the silent, or as some term him, "mysterious” adviser to George Papandreou. He was also a former formal adviser to the government of Georgia, who according to Epikaira magazine (in its June issue) knew about the attempted murder plot!
For instance, at the start of October we featured an article here on hellasfrappe titled "Does Papandreou agree with Rondos’ views about sharing the Aegean with Turkey" where we analyzed a report that was published on defence-point about this "mystery man". In this report we slammed the anti-Hellenic views of Mr. Rondos who while commenting on Greek-Turkish issues in an interview to the Turkish daily "Hurriyet" newspaper had said that Greece needed to drastically reduce its military spending, as opposed to Turkey... who should not. (Read more by clicking here)
He had also said "the Aegean should be transformed into one tourist market where both nations can come and go as they please to each others coasts for the weekend" - in other words a share of the Aegean!
This very same man has apparently appeared in countries where rebellions or threat of rebellions have occurred and cannot be viewed as someone who is just conducting diplomatic work. From the Balkans and the Milosevic regime, to Georgia and Michael Saakasvili before the conflict with Russia, Mr. Rondos has been at the center of all these developments and his statements are taken very seriously. But who is Alex Rondos?
Since 2004, Mr. Rondos is working on the private sector, and serves on the board of various international initiatives. He serves in the following international capacities: Chairman of Working Table l of the Stability Pact for the Balkans; and as Personal Representative of the Romanian Chairman in Office of the OSCE. Mr. Rondos’ career has included journalism at West Africa Magazine, followed by 12 years work in relief and development work, including eight years for Catholic Relief Services in senior management positions in Ethiopia and the Middle East. Mr. Rondos created the first inter-Orthodox relief agency, International Orthodox Christian Charities, and established operations in the former Yugoslavia, the Russian federation, and the West Bank and Gaza.In a separate analysis on Alexander (Alex) Rondos we uncovered the following shocking information on the ohridsky web site.
After two years at the World Bank, he became an adviser to the Foreign Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, counseling him and implementing changes in Greek strategy in the Balkans and Turkey as well as helping manage the Greek Presidency of the European Union during the Iraq crisis. He concluded government service as Ambassador at Large.
In addition to serving as personal adviser to the Foreign Minister, Mr. Rondos undertook special missions. These included designing a relief mission to Kosovo during the NATO bombing campaign (report provided to UNSG); advising senior democratic opposition politicians in Belgrade leading up to and during the change of power; establishing and serving as Director General of the Department of International Development Cooperation. In this capacity, he led the Greek humanitarian mission to Turkey following the earthquake there in 1999 that led to a rapprochement between Greece and Turkey. Throughout this period, he also served as a personal envoy of the Foreign Minister on missions to Turkey, governments in the Middle East, Europe, and the USA.
Alex Rondos is Greek national, born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in 1954. He was educated in Kenya and the UK, completing his BA (Hons) at Oxford University (Brasenose College). The turning point in his career was in 1992 when the Archbishop of North America Iakovos chose him to establish the first humanitarian NGO's Orthodox Church, called the International OrthodoxChristian Charity (IOCC). In his new role, Mr. Rondos started to come into contact with the Greek Diaspora and the Greek-American lobby. A little after this, says a separate article in TO VIMA, or specifically in the period 1996-1997 he came into contact with George Papandreou who was acting Deputy Foreign Minister then under the government of PASOK party leader at the time Costas Simitis. Their friendship apparently strengthened when Mr. Rondos came to Athens with the Presidency of the Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE) Andrew Athens to convince the Greek government to financially support the Greek Diaspora in the Black Sea. In 1999 Papandreou took the helm of the Foreign Ministry succeeding Mr. Theodore Pangalos. Source - symisymposium website
Rondos is directly involved with the Greek Foreign Ministry’s chapter on foreign aid development that holds an annual budget of some 60 million Eiros.
The article specifically says that his connections in the IMF and the World Bank apparently helped Papandreou to deal with the current debt crisis. It also says that he holds excellent relations with FYROM authorities especially people from the WAZ Group including the director Srdjan Kerim. His liaison or mediator with Greek political and business structures is always Marinela Koppa whose role in secret negotiations with the name is explained in WikiLeaks documents.
Interestingly enough it also says that his latest activity was a project in Egypt and mentions the activity of the canvas in Egypt, which is an organization through non-violent protests that topple governments in undemocratic regimes.
The article says that this “organization” apparently operates from Serbia in centres on Crete. Moreover it also notes that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the WG, Dimitris Dolis is his closest friend, which in recent years led paradiplomatic activities in Pakistan and India by Greek NGOs.
The shocker for this writer was reading that Rondos’ first diplomatic activity was working with Albania, Egypt, Libya, Cyprus and Turkey to mark the division of Mediterranean.
According to the same article Rondos has conducted secret activities between Tirana and Athens. According to what has been reported a series of strategic agreements on maritime border emerged from these top secret meetings.
These agreements were also known and signed by Dora Bakoyannis who is also a close friend of Rondos.
So what is Falios Kranidiotis doing with a man who is obviously suspiciously "dark"? What business does an MP from the conservative party have with someone who was apparently questioned at the prosecution over the assassination attempt against the former prime minister?
When the story first made headlines on Tuesday, hellasfrappe was a little weary about publishing it, until we watched George Trangas' nightly talk show on Tuesday where more details were given.
According to a story on parapolitika.gr on Wednesday, Trangas asked Kranidiotis what business he had with Rondos, who we repeat has been accused by the Epikaira magazine for knowing about the assassination attempt against Karamanlis, and it was revealed that Samaras' right hand man had accompanied Mr. Rondos to the prosecution (since he is his legal advisor), but also -and to our surprise- also holds close relations with Rondos and Rondos' father.
Friends, this is a close associate of Antonis Samaras.
Something is not right here.
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