Nov. 17 Terrorist Group; Not One Arrest

A T H E N S, Greece, Dec. 19, 2000 -- “Mr. Welch?” a man asked in Greek.

The CIA station chief opened the car door. He stood for a secondand squinted at the figure in the shadows. Then came three shotsfrom a .45-caliber pistol, one of which tore into Richard Welch’sheart.

It was the bloody birth of the November 17 terrorist group.

“He got out of the car because he thought it was a friend,”said Welch’s widow, Cristina. “I rushed to him. But he was gone.”

The masked killer and two accomplices, who blocked Welch’s caron the way home from a Christmas party the night of Dec. 23, 1975,sped away without a trace.

And that’s how it remains, a quarter of a century later.

A Quiet Revolution

There have been no arrests or firm leads during a generation ofbombings, rocket attacks and shootings that have killed 22 people,including three American officials: Welch, Navy Capt. GeorgeTsantes in 1983 and defense attache Capt. William Nordeen in 1988.

With each strike and getaway, November 17 — named for the 1973date that Greece’s military junta crushed a student uprising — enhanced its reputation as Europe’s most slippery and cunning urbanguerrilla group.

“I think the Greek attitude is: ‘Let’s not talk about it. Let’sput it under the rug,“‘ said Cristina Welch, who lives inArlington, Va., and has never returned to Greece. “I have verylittle hope they will ever do anything. ... I’m very pessimistic.”

American officials, including former CIA Director R. JamesWoolsey, claim Greeks are unwilling or unable to take aggressiveaction against November 17. Some congressional leaders have evencalled for sanctions on the country.

The price tag for security in Athens is the highest of any U.S.diplomatic community in the world. In May, the State Departmentlabeled Greece “one of the weakest links in Europe’s effortsagainst terrorism.”

Five weeks later, November 17 claimed its most recent victim —the British defense attache, Brig. Stephen Saunders. An unexpectedstatement by the group last week called the slaying its mostimportant, claiming Saunders participated in British “imperialistinterventions” around the world, including the NATO bombing ofYugoslavia last year.

Greeks Criticized

The attack brought new pressures from Britain and other EuropeanUnion partners. It also stirred unprecedented public criticism ofthe group in Greece, which some experts believe led to its latestcommunique.

The reward for information leading to November 17 arrests hasbeen fattened to more than $9 million. The United States, which haspledged up to $5 million, hands out a flier describing the bountywith every visa it issues.

“We hear only excuses and promises from the Greeks,” said E.Wayne Merry, a former State Department official and seniorassociate at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington.“It’s words but no action.”

Greek authorities bristle at such criticism. They acknowledgepast weaknesses, but claim their security structures are now solidand growing stronger.

“There is no going back or falling between the cracksanymore,” Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said inSeptember. “We feel the urgency. We see the dangers.”

The Secret to a Long Life

So how does November 17 get away with it, time after time?

Until recently, Greek authorities felt little domestic pressureto react. Unlike Italy’s Red Brigades and the Red Army Faction inWest Germany, November 17 has never engaged in broad attacks. Itstargets — foreigners and prominent Greeks — did not leave thegeneral public feeling threatened.

The group’s early strikes were widely seen as justified paybackfor the 1967-74 military junta. The group said Welch was killed asrevenge for U.S. backing of the dictatorship.

November 17 expanded its list of grievances in the 1980s. Itsattacks reflect a confluence of Marxism, ultranationalism andxenophobia.

At various times it has denounced the United States,NATO, the European Union, all major Greek political parties, thenation’s business elite and a host of perceived social injustices.

Some accuse the long-governing Socialists of shielding suspectsand blocking inquiries. Others claim money and logistical supportcome from Libya or Kurdish and leftist rebels in Turkey. TheSocialists strongly deny any connection to the group.

“Does it bother them so much to admit that we are simplefighters for the people, that our motives are political?” November17 asked in its latest communique, which denied ties to Mideastfactions.

Efficient Agitators?

Most experts agree only that November 17 is small, silent andcoldly efficient.

Welch’s widow believes her husband was under surveillance forweeks. The street lamps by their home were knocked out the night ofthe attack. A bogus emergency call lured their butler away from thehouse.

But in a new book, Europe’s Last Red Terrorists, Greek journalist George Kassimeris remains unconvinced of the organization’s efficiency.

He relates the history of November 17, its foundation, ideology and its crimes. Basically he believes that the small, secretive group’s early ambitions were to become a genuine communist revolutionary movement.

This, its unknown founders evidently believed, would ultimately, through violence, arouse the Greek people to overthrow both conservative and socialist leaders and install the kind of extreme Leftist state once advocated by its ideological cousins of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

Like them, writes Kassimeris, November 17 has utterly failed in its efforts to prove that its ideas of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and “egalitarian communism” were workable, or could prevail in a middle-class society dedicated to democratic principles like that of Greece.

Police Force Efficacy Also Questioned

In a recent address to journalists, Greece’s socialist Prime Minister Costas Simitis appeared on the defensive over the failure of the police to cope with November 17. He repeated past statements about cooperation with the U.S. and British — whose Scotland Yard investigators are still trying to probe the Saunders murder here.

He avoided specifics of the stymied Saunders investigation.

The prime minister acknowledged that draft new anti-terrorism and anti-crime legislation, giving judges extra powers to issue search, seizure and arrest warrants and other special powers for police and security forces is yet to receive parliamentary approval.

But the pressure is mounting on Greek politicians.

In March 1992, police chased a van with November 17 suspectsinside but did not fire a shot or call for a dragnet. The stakeoutofficers did not even have a camera. “Supercops,” November 17mocked in a communique two months later.

In March 1999, it taunted authorities to “come and get us.”

“The ineptitude of the Greek state has been unparalleled,”Kassimeris wrote. “State authorities and political parties allowedterrorism to grow so uncontrollably that it finally became aroutine element of Greek contemporary life.”

The Olympics at Stake

Barely a week goes by without an arson or bomb attack claimed byself-proclaimed anarchists and other groups. The late-night blastsrarely cause casualties, but add to worries about security.

The decision to hold the 2004 Olympics in Athens hassignificantly raised the stakes.

Greece is under enormous pressure to show it is serious abouttackling terrorism and urban violence. In November, officials gavethe International Olympic Committee a security blueprint for theSummer Games that includes military patrols and 5,000 surveillancecameras.

“We will do what needs to be done,” Greek Police Chief YannisGeorgakopoulos said.

But there’s a risk. November 17 has a history of retaliatingagainst any sign of heavy-handed policies.

“November 17 is certainly capable of doing any sort of attackagainst who they feel is the enemy of the hour,” said PaulWilkinson, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism andPolitical Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Britain.

“The response of the Greek state has been so weak up until nowthere is a feeling that November 17 can strike with impunity,” hesaid. “There is no other situation like this in Europe.”

ABCNEWS.com’s John K. Cooley and the Associated Press contributed to this report.