If things seem to go slowly with our war on terror, just be glad this is not Greece. In another newspaper I read that they were tripped up on a single mistake. They used the same 45-caliber gun for at least half a dozen of the 23 murders since 1975. The gun was preserved and is now in the hands of Greece's terrorist police. A lucky break in an investigation long believed hopeless, as Greece prepares to host the 04 Olympics.
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Greek Police Say Capture US/UK Diplomat Killers
Thu Jul 18, 9:22 AM ET

By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek police on Thursday announced their first ever capture of suspects of the notorious November 17 guerrilla group, blamed for killing 23 people including American and British diplomats in the past 27 years.

In a nationally televised news conference, Greek police chief Fotis Nasiakos said police believe they may also have in custody a fourth man who is possibly the leader of a decades-old radical leftist group sought since it killed the Athens CIA chief in 1975.

"Today three members of the terrorist group November 17 will be brought before prosecutors. The accused admitted their acts and described in detail the way these were committed," Nasiakos said.

A list provided by Nasiakos at the news conference detailed confessions by the trio, including the killings of British defense attache Stephen Saunders on June 8, 2000 and U.S. naval attache William Nordeen in June 1988.

It listed a total of 42 crimes to which the trio confessed including murders of Greek industrialists and police as well as bank robberies, bomb blasts and rocket attacks.

The attacks dated back to 1984, and did not mention crimes linked to November 17 before then.

Named after the date of a bloody student uprising in 1973 during Greece's 1967-74 military rule, the radical leftist group started its killing with the 1975 murder of Richard Welch, head of the American CIA's Athens bureau.

The last crime linked to November 17 was the murder of Saunders.

Two of the trio are brothers of another November 17 suspect, Savas Xiros, currently in hospital after he was hurt in a failed bomb attack at the port of Piraeus at the end of June.

Greek media have hailed the breakthroughs as a "rendezvous with history" for a group which ranked with Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang and the Italian Red Brigades as a major security threat, particularly with the Athens 2004 Olympics
looming.

SUSPECTED LEADER

Referring to the possibility that police may also have the leader of November 17 in custody, Nasiakos said a man who fitted the police profile of the leader was being questioned in Athens and his fingerprints examined.

On Wednesday, police detained 55-year-old Alexandros Giotopoulos on suspicion that he might be the leader of November 17.

He was detained on the remote Aegean island of Lipsi where he had a holiday home and was flown to Athens.

"His fingerprints were sent to police laboratories and it was found that they matched fingerprints from a November 17 safehouse," Nasiakos said.

An anti-terrorism squad used a fire brigade helicopter to disguise their arrival on the island 250 km (160 miles) east of Athensand inhabited by only 600 people.

A government spokesman told reporters that Prime Minister Costas Simitis had said "there is evidence of his involvement in the planning of terrorist attacks."