VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTH #1707 3500948
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 160948Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1232
INFO RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS ATHENS 001707 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER ASEC EFIN KCRM KHLS PINS PREL AEMR GR
SUBJECT: GREECE: 2009 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM 
 
REF: STATE 109980 
 
¶1. Embassy Athens submits the draft below for the Greece section of 
the 2009 Country Reports on Terrorism. 
 
 
 
Begin text: 
 
 
 
¶2. Greece and the United States have a strong record of 
counterterrorism cooperation.  Domestic terrorism and extremist 
violence increased significantly in 2009, following large-scale 
rioting in December 2008.  In the first nine months of 2009, there 
were over 330 security incidents (defined to include incendiary and 
explosive attacks, as well as attacks involving small arms, 
grenades, and other infantry-style weaponry), far more than have 
been recorded in each of the previous ten years.  Local extremists 
increasingly targeted businesses and Greek law enforcement, and 
there was an increasing use of infantry-style weaponry in terrorist 
attacks. 
 
 
 
¶3. The leftist domestic terrorist group Revolutionary Struggle (RS) 
claimed responsibility for shooting police officers and bombing 
financial targets, including U.S.-affiliated banks and the Athens 
Stock Exchange, which was targeted in an ammonium nitrate car bomb 
attack on September 2.  A previously unknown group, Sect of 
Revolutionaries, emerged during the year to claim responsibility 
for attacks on police and other targets, including the only such 
lethal attack during the year: the murder of a police officer on 
protective detail outside the apartment building of a government 
witness in Athens June 17.  Unknown assailants attacked the Aghia 
Paraskevi police station in suburban Athens with AK-47s on October 
27, seriously wounding six officers and a civilian. 
 
 
 
¶4. The appeals of eight convicted members of the November 17 (N17) 
terrorist organization went before the Supreme Court in October, 
with a decision expected in 2010.  Prosecutors urged the court to 
sustain the convictions, but recommendation consideration of 
reduced sentences for two of the convicts.  On December 3 an 
appeals court threw out the convictions of three members of the 
People's Revolutionary Struggle (ELA) terrorist organization, who 
had initially been sentenced in 2004 to 25 years each for the 1994 
murder of a police officer, 48 attempted murders by bombing, and 42 
bomb attacks and attempted bombings, though they had been released 
for health reasons and on other grounds pending appeal in separate 
decisions in 2005 and 2006.  For further information on RS and N17, 
see Chapter 6, Terrorist Organizations. 
 
 
 
¶5. Throughout the year, self-styled anarchists attacked banks, 
police stations, the homes and offices of politicians, and other 
"imperialist-capitalist" targets with tools such as firebombs and 
Molotov cocktails.  Since these attacks usually occurred outside 
normal business hours, few persons were seriously injured and there 
were no deaths.  Several U.S. businesses were targeted.  On January 
3, a rock-throwing group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators caused 
some physical damage to the U.S. Embassy during a protest against 
the Israeli operation in Gaza. 
 
 
 
¶6. Greece is a major EU entry point for illegal immigrants coming 
from the Middle East and South Asia, and it could be used as a 
transit route for terrorists traveling to Europe and the United 
States.  The number of illegal immigrants entering Greece, 
especially through the Aegean Sea, increased dramatically in 2008 
and 2009, with over 100,000 illegal immigrants, nearly half of whom 
originated from North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, 
arrested each year.  Greek authorities participated in the 
Container Security Initiative and cooperated with U.S. officials on 
information sharing, as well as the training of Greek security and 
customs officials, and judicial personnel.  Greece sustained its 
participation in the International Security Assistance Force in 
Afghanistan by providing engineers and other support officers. 
 
 
 
End text. 
 
 
 
¶7. Embassy Athens POC is Alan Purcell, PurcellAS@state.gov. 
Speckhard