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January 8, 2014

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Authorities Launch Manhunt For November 17 Left-Wing Terrorist - US Outraged Over Escape (VIDEO)


Just a few days after shots were fired on the residence of the German Ambassador to Greece, and just one day before Greece officially took over the rotating EU presidency, one of the most dangerous left-wing terrorists escaped from prison. The escape of convicted November 17 member Christodoulos Xiros could not have happened at a better time to stir fear into the people, since Greece is now in the focus of global attention. Amid growing security concerns, Greek authorities are now saying that they are going to review the furlough rights of those serving prison time for terrorism and other such crimes.

Speaking to MEGA TV's US-correspondent Michalis Ignatiou late on Tuesday night, a State Department spokesperson noted that the American government was deeply concerned over the escape of Christodoulos Xiros, since this organization murdered five US officials. The spokesperson noted that the US government was working together with Greek officials regarding the case and expressed the hope that authorities locate him quickly and send him back to prison.

Christodoulos Xiros, who today is 55-years-old, is serving multiple life terms at the Korydallos Prison in Athens. After the crushing of the group in 2002, Xiros was sentenced in 2003 to serve six life sentences. Because of good behavior, he was permitted to leave prison eight times over the last 18 months - always under the condition that everyday he would report to the police. During his latest leave, he failed to report in -specifically on Monday-, and since then he has apparently gone underground.

A warrant for his arrest has been issued by the police who are currently looking for him in the areas of Chalkidiki and Thessaloniki. Special security measures have also been put into force at a hospital in Larissa where his brother Savvas is currently being treated for a plethora of health issues. He too is a convicted member of November 17.

Xiros was borin in Ikaria in 1958. He was recruited into the November 17 organization by Dimitris Koufodinas,identified as the group's chief of operations, in 1983 after being introduced to him by Yiannis Serifis. The 17 November organization was a Greek Marxist urban guerrilla organization formed in 1975. The group apparently assassinated 23 people in 103 attacks on US, British, Turkish and Greek targets. The group believes that capitalism is the cause of social injustice in Greece.

On 29 June 2002 Greek authorities captured an injured suspect, Savvas Xiros, following a failed bombing attempt on the Minoan Flying Dolphins ferry company in Piraeus. A search of Xiros' person and interrogation led to the discovery of two safe houses and to the arrests of six more suspects, including two brothers of Savvas. In all, nineteen individuals were charged with some 2,500 offenses relating to the activities of N17.

Reports also said that authorities are investigating possible links between Xiros and other newer terrorist groups on fears of a resurgence in domestic terrorism.

Reports claim that the jailed members of the  Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire apparently expressed solidarity with Xiros, and even dared to declare that the time to attack has come on the interarma.info website. There were also reports on Wednesday claiming that Xiros held a "farewell" feast on New Year's eve at the prison with the specific gang members.

Following the announcement of his escape, and while speaking on SKAI radio, Xiros’s lawyer Frangiskos Ragousis interpreted his client’s disappearance as a political escape, while supporting the opinion that his escape is an act in line with his revolutionary action. Commenting on Ragousis' provocative statements, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said that he was appalled by the lawyer's statement and stressed the importance of not treating convicted terrorists as ordinary prisoners.

Reacting to the development, Justice Minister Haralambos Athanasiou said authorities would re-examine laws for issuing furloughs to inmates serving time for terrorism and other serious crimes and heralded the creation of a new high-security prison for dangerous criminals “within 100 days.”

Greek authorities have intensified efforts to crack down on terrorism following an attack on the Athens residence of German Ambassador Wolfgang Dold right after the New Year. Police are examining evidence from the scene of the attack amid speculation of the possible involvement of Nikos Maziotis, the convicted leader of another guerrilla group, Revolutionary Struggle, who has been at large since summer 2012 after failing to respect the terms of his furlough.

And while all this was going on, anarchist Costas Sakkas, who was accused of being a member of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire urban guerrilla group, was finally arrested on Tuesday for allegedly violating his restricted-residence order, a term issued upon his conditional release from pretrial custody in July. He was released on Wednesday.

Some Greek officials considered Revolutionary Struggle (EA), the group that fired a Chinese-made RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade at the US Embassy in Athens in January 2007, to be a spin-off of 17N. However, three self-admitted EA members arrested in April 2010 claimed that they were anarchists—a designation 17N rejected in its proclamations.

For many years, leading politicians of the right-wing New Democracy party, as well as the conservative press, falsely claimed that Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was the mastermind behind 17N. Virginia Tsouderou, who became Deputy Foreign Minister in the Mitsotakis government, and journalist Giorgos Karatzaferis (later the founder and leader of a right-wing party, LAOS) claimed that terrorism in Greece was controlled by Papandreist officers of Hellenic National Intelligence Service (the Greek security and intelligence service), and named Costas Tsimas (the head of EYP) and Colonel Alexakis as two of the supposed controllers of 17N.

However, after 17N members were arrested, the only connection between the terrorist organization and PASOK was the fact that Dimitris Koufondinas was a member of PAMK (the PASOK high school students organization) and an admirer of Andreas Papandreou in his late teens.

Other writers have also claimed, but without any evidence, that 17N may have been a tool of foreign secret services. In December 2005, Kleanthis Grivas published an article in To Proto Thema, in which he accused "Sheepskin", the Greek branch of Gladio, NATO's stay-behind paramilitary organization during the Cold War, of the assassination of CIA station chief Richard Welch in Athens in 1975, as well as of the assassination of Stephen Saunders in 2000.

This was denied by the US State Department, who responded that "the Greek terrorist organization '17 November' was responsible for both assassinations", and asserted that Grivas's central piece of evidence had been a document ("Westmoreland Field Manual") which the State department, as well as a Congressional inquiry had dismissed as a Soviet forgery.

It should be noted the documents make no specific mention of Greece, November 17th, nor Welch.

The State Department also highlighted the fact that, in the case of Richard Welch, "Grivas bizarrely accuses the CIA of playing a role in the assassination of one of its own senior officials" as well as the Greek government's statements to the effect that the "stay behind" network had been dismantled in 1988.



References In Greek

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