CIA activities in Greece

Main article: CIA activities in Russia and Europe

Greece 1948

Covert action

President Harry S. Truman authorized the pre-CIA Office of Policy Coordination to support aid to Greek anti-communists in cooperation with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. The US Army Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) also provided personnel, and successfully resisted the takeover attempt.

Greece 1975

Attacks on CIA personnel

Richard Welch, the CIA station chief for Greece, was assassinated by the November 17 group.

"The Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N) was named after a 1973 uprising of students and workers. The group's doctrine represents a more traditional form of terrorism. Rather than applying coercive pressure on governments through indiscriminate violence, 17N's strategy has been to target symbolic elements of government, foreign, and business interests in an attempt at promoting a climate of insurrection.^[1] Added to the U.S. State Department's official list of foreign terrorist organizations in the mid 1980s, the group first launched its Marxist campaign in 1975 with the assassination of Richard Welch, the CIA's station chief in Athens. Its leaders blamed America, and especially the CIA, for supporting the Greek junta that had collapsed only a year earlier. It was also highly nationalistic and opposed to NATO, as well as for the expulsion of U.S. military bases from Greek soil, the removal of Turkish forces from Cyprus, and the withdrawal of Greece from all supranational institutions

Greece 2007

Attacks on CIA personnel

On May 4, a Greek appeals panel upheld the 2003 terrorism conviction of Alexandros Yiotopoulos, who led a Marxist terrorist group for 27 years. The group, 17 November, named after a 1973 student uprising that was suppressed by a military junta that ruled Greece, assassinated Welch as their first act, in 1975.^[2]

References

1. ^ In the Spotlight: Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N). Center for Defense Information. August 5, 2002. http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/17N-pr.cfm 
2. ^ Carassava, Anthee (May 4, 2007). "World Briefing Europe: Greece: Conviction In C.I.A. Death Upheld". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E4DB113EF937A35756C0A9619C8B63.