VZCZCXRO7724
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHTH #2280/01 3321041
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281041Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0818
INFO RUEHIK/AMCONSUL THESSALONIKI 1721
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4995
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1975
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0594

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 002280 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR PREL ASEC KPAO GR
SUBJECT: GREEK MEDIA WELCOME PAROLED SPY STEVEN LALAS AS HERO 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary and Comment:  A major news story over the weekend of 
November 24-25 in Greece, the return of former Foreign Service 
communicator and convicted spy Steven Lalas on Sunday afternoon was 
covered live on Greek television, and featured prominently in the 
evening's prime-time broadcasts.  Met by Ministry of Justice 
officials as well as family and friends as he picked up his bags at 
the Athens airport, Lalas made a short, emotional statement 
expressing his relief at being reunited with his family after 14 
years in the U.S.  He was widely quoted as urging: "We [Greeks] 
should stand united, that's all I am asking for, because we are 
few."  Lalas went immediately with his family to Kavala province in 
northern Greece, saying little else of substance in an "interview" 
en route carried on Monday in top-circulation, left-of-center Ta 
Nea. 
 
¶2.  (U) More in-depth coverage of Lalas' journey ran Monday night on 
SKAI TV's "New Files," a well-regarded Greek analog to "60 Minutes." 
 A follow-up to a 2005 interview for the same investigative news 
program, Lalas repeatedly said of his crime that he would "do it all 
over again."  The result of long-standing interest in the case by 
one of Greece's most prominent journalists, this report also 
featured an interview with an FBI Agent and Lalas? attorney.  A 
print version appeared in influential, independent newspaper 
Kathimerini in both its Greek and English editions. 
Internationally, the matter received limited wire service coverage, 
with the International Herald Tribune, Pravda, and a few other 
European outlets picking up an AP dispatch, as did major 
Greek-American newspaper The National Herald/Ethnikos Kyrix. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Greek political figures have not so far engaged in the 
kind of triumphalism that might have been expected given the long 
history of this case.  Lalas has been widely cast as a "patriot" and 
a "hero" in the media, with several mainstream newspapers 
criticizing the Greek state for failing to adequately protect and 
honor him, then or now.  Embassy Athens has not been approached by 
any party to the matter or by the media since last Thursday?s 
discussion with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman and the 
next day?s coordination on a Ministry of Justice press release that 
acknowledged "close cooperation with U.S. officials" on Lalas' 
supervised return.  Representative samples of Greek newspaper 
reporting and commentary follow.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
¶4.  (U) Kathimerini (independent, influential) had extensive 
coverage, including this front-page Sunday, 11/25 headline in its 
Greek edition: "Steven Lalas: Greek Spy Returning from the U.S. 
Today."  Virtually the same story appeared on an inside page of the 
English-language edition on 11/27, available at 
www.ekathimerini.com.  It was written by the paper's editor-in-chief 
Alex Papahelas, also the senior figure on the "New Files" SKAI TV 
investigative program. 
 
¶5. (U) The inside banner headline read: "Steven Lalas' Big 
Adventure.  He Fought in Vietnam, Spied for His Homeland, Was 
Imprisoned, and Today, after 14 Years, is Seeing His Family Again." 
The text reads in part: "It is well-known that people in serious 
countries exposed to national perils say that "A country's 
reliability is gauged by the way it behaves toward a spy after his 
arrest."  Or, as Israelis would put it, 'each spy must be a 
prince/princess in his/her country.' The Greek state failed 
lamentably to protect the most valuable source it had had in the 
past few decades, for a number of reasons, such as incompetence and 
partisan favoritism through which the wrong people were assigned to 
the wrong jobs ... out of stupidity."  [Ellipsis original.] 
 
¶6. (U) Papahelas concludes: "What I have learned monitoring the 
Lalas case all these years is this: The first to hide when 
difficulties emerge are the self-proclaimed, insipid patriots who 
are willing to drag the country into an adventure and then hide, 
leaving the few, cool-headed professionals to take the chestnuts out 
of the fire.  I have also found out that the core, most sensitive 
agencies of the Greek state became rotten after 1974.  In 1977, the 
Greek state was still doing a good job, but in 1993 it mistook 
gendarmes for party-lords, and the Greek Intelligence Service for a 
political party branch.  The last thing I have learned, and excuse 
my emotion, is that what Greeks of the diaspora have in their souls 
has nothing to do with the super-patriotic verbosity of the 
indigenous monkeys.  It is a crazy love for a country that exists 
only in their minds, a patriotism that is exceptionally genuine 
without ulterior motives or self-promotion.  Obviously, the Steven 
Lalas that I got to know paid for this patriotism.  He will at 
last see his family again after 14 years ..." [Ellipsis original.] 
 
¶7. (U) Top-circulation Ta Nea (left-of-center) ran a two-page story, 
tagged with this front-page secondary heading: "In Turkey there?s a 
Bounty on My Head: Ta Nea?s Interview with Lalas," a piece signed by 
Harry Karanikas.  An inside carry-over is headlined: "Greece Does 
Not Support those who Supported Her," but the text attributes this 
quote to a friend of Lalas.  The writer traveled with Lalas from the 
 
ATHENS 00002280  002 OF 002 
 
 
airport in Athens to Kavala in northern Greece and has a few quotes 
from Lalas that he presents to be an interview.  In this story, 
Lalas comments indirectly on the reduction of mandatory Greek 
military service to 12 months, saying that the "Army is a useful 
thing." 
 
¶8. (U) In addition, Ta Nea chief editor Notis Papadopoulos commented 
under the headline "They Owe Him" as follows:  "The Lalas case is a 
shame for the Greek state.  The probably one-off Greek spy who had 
been giving secret U.S. Pentagon and State Department documents to 
Greek governments ended up in an American prison through a blunder 
by a Greek official who nailed him -- wittingly or not -- to the 
American agencies.  The Mitsotakis government, during whose tenure 
the arrest was made, not only left him alone and did not provide 
forensic support, but also left him alone to cover the huge expenses 
of the trial, and his wife helpless (she was pregnant then) with two 
young children.  The Greek state demonstrated amateurism, 
incompetence, and callousness in the Lalas case.  The least it could 
do for Lalas today is to recognize the services he offered. 
Whatever the cost.  They owe him." 
 
¶9. (U) Eleftheros Typos (centrist) carried a weekend story by 
diplomatic editor Angeliki Spanou under the headline: "The Spy who 
'Paid the Piper' for the Macedonian Issue."  It reads in part: "His 
fate was tough, considering that two Americans who were caught 
wearing ... wigs [ellipsis original] in a van in November 1993 at 
Amerikis Square were simply sent back home. ... Some people link 
Washington's belated clemency with the Greek-American vote, and some 
say the Bush Administration is making an effort to embellish the 
face of justice in the U.S. in view of the 2008 elections." 
 
¶10. (U) Eleftherotypia (left-of-center) had this on the front-page: 
"'Spy' Welcomed as Hero."  Inside headline: "Emotional Gathering for 
Lalas." The text reports that:  "In TV interviews, Lalas said he was 
a victim of treason and denounced the politicians of that period 
(Mitsotakis's government) who played truant.  'We should stand 
united, that's all I am asking for, because we are few.'" 
 
¶11. (U) Ethnos (left-of-center) noted:  "[After his arrest, h]is 
wife, Maria Maidanou-Lalas, who was then 26 years old, was taken to 
the U.S. Embassy building where she went through the 'polygraph 
test.'  Since then she has been living at Chryssoupolis, in Kavala, 
where she started a private English-language school and raised her 
two children with great difficulty." 
 
¶12. (U) Smaller-circulation Avriani (populist, independent) ran this 
front-page banner:  "Stavros Lalas for Parliament.  The Greek State, 
Political Parties, Church, and Greek People Should Publicly 
Recognize Sacrifice of Man Who Stayed in Prison in America for 14 
Years."  The paper?s back-page lead commentary read in part:  "Lalas 
is one of the last heroes.  He was sold to Americans in an era when 
CIA agents used to maraud around in our country." 
 
SPECKHARD