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Arab terror cells in Athens? Police are worried
The New York Times: Raymond Bonner Monday, July 26, 2004 ATHENS As the opening of the Olympic Games draws closer, the Greek police and foreign intelligence agencies have increased their activities in a predominately Muslim area of Athens, a district of narrow streets lined with open-air shops selling such items as cement, onions and clothes, next to international call centers and places to wire money abroad. Greek, American and British intelligence agencies have all tried to infiltrate the Muslim and Arab communities here, Greek officials said. Doubting that the CIA and MI6, the British intelligence service, would have a great deal of success, the Greeks asked for, and received, assistance from counterterrorism teams and intelligence operatives from Jordan and Egypt, Greek officials said. And the Israelis have helped keep an eye on Arab embassies, they said. Egypt and Jordan? Idiots, what a perfect pipeline back to the terrorists. There are about 100,000 Arabs and Muslims in Athens, and they have generally not been troublesome or radical, Greek officials said. But the fear, heightened after the bombings in Madrid, is that Al Qaeda or some affiliated terrorist organization has implanted a sleeper cell. "If one were looking for a sleeper cell, this is where it would be," Alex Rondos, a former ambassador at large who was coordinator for Olympic activities, said of the area around Omonia Square. Rondos, who left office in March when the Socialist government was defeated, said his concerns arose more than a year ago, when he was working on various counterterrorism projects. The possibility of a sleeper cell, however remote, is something that the Greeks were slow to grapple with, he said. "There was a dangerous attitude of complacency," he said. Greek officials say the Arabs in general do not harbor animosity toward Greece, and they note that the country has not sent troops to Iraq. However, many Greeks, including some in government, were sympathetic to Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbs when Serbs were killing Muslims in Bosnia. Terrorism investigators in Europe have found cells in many countries, including France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and, most recently, Spain. But they have not found any lines leading to Greece, Greek and other European officials say. The Greek government has discovered that monitoring the Muslim community has been made harder by one of its own policies. In spite of repeated promises, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has not given the necessary approval for a mosque in Athens, because of stern opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church, the official state religion. "It is not a culturally sound policy, and it is counterproductive from a counterterrorism view," Rondos said. Last time I checked, the Greek Orthodox Church is not a branch of Islam. Instead of one central mosque, where the authorities could watch for suspicious people and listen for incendiary sermons, there are about 50 "underground" mosques, in tenement apartments and garages, Greek officials said. Muslims are displeased with the increased surveillance and police interrogations. Ten days ago, Ahmed Asak, a 32-year-old garment worker from Bangladesh, was stopped by the police. They wanted to check his documents, to be sure he was in the country legally, and they looked in his backpack. The same thing happened to Thomi Savr, 28, who managed to get out of Iraq three years ago. He made it to Greece via Turkey, was jailed for three months, then went to Germany, where he married. Then the Germans sent him back to Greece. Asak goes to Friday prayers on the second floor of a rundown eight-story tenement. Nigerians and Somalis live on the first floor, Bangladeshis on the third, Sudanese on the fifth, Afghans on the eighth. At another tenement mosque, attended by Pakistanis, speakers have extolled the virtues of Osama bin Laden, a Western ambassador in Athens said. He said he had been told this by a Muslim on his staff. Saudi Arabia has been sending money to various Muslim groups in Athens, Greek officials said, and the Greek government has spoken to the Saudi Embassy about it. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya has sent word to the Libyan community in Athens that it should not engage in any acts of violence during the Games, a Greek official said. The Palestinians have made a similar appeal to their community, which is said to number about 25,000, he said. The Turkish government has promised Greece that it would crack down on the smuggling operations that bring refugees through Turkey en route to Europe. The smugglers' routes go through Greek waters, and a potential terrorist could easily hop off at one of Greece's many islands. Fears of a possible attack by Islamic extremists are not allayed by the fire-brand rhetoric of Mehmet Imam, president of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Supporting the Muslims in Greece, the country's largest Muslim organization. Imam has called on all Islamic countries to boycott the Games, because of wars in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. "He is an enemy," Imam said in an interview, about anyone who attends the Games. But he denied any link to or sympathy for Al Qaeda. EMPHASIS ADDED Those pesky Saudis, always bankrolling intolerant jihadists. Whatever shall we do about them? Posted by: Zenster 2004-07-26 |
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