FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION LIST: 17N, RN, AND

S E C R E T ATHENS 000631 SIPDIS NOFORN S/CT FOR MICHELLE ARIAS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/09/2018 TAGS: PTER ASEC PGOV PREL KCRM KJUS GR SUBJECT: FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION LIST: 17N, RN, AND REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE REF: SECSTATE 44153 Classified By: AMBASSADOR DANIEL SPECKHARD. REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (S/NF) In response to reftel request seeking information on the activities of the Greek terrorist groups 17 November (17N) and Revolutionary Nuclei (RN) since their last re-designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) in 2003, Embassy Counterterrorism Task Force (CTTF) reviewed all available information and provides the analysis and conclusions below. It was Embassy's considered judgment not to contact host government officials for their input to this request due the highly sensitive nature of Greek domestic terrorism issues, particularly those associated with 17N. At the same time, Embassy CTTF officials have close working relationships with Greek CT officials in law enforcement and intelligence, and we have a high degree of confidence that these officials have already shared with us currently available information on 17N, RN, and other terrorist groups. ¶2. (S/NF) The legacy of Greece's most lethal and prolific terrorist organizations, respectively, 17N and Revolutionary People's Struggle (ELA),continues to play a significant role in Greek domestic terrorism. 17N's last claimed terrorist act was its assassination of British Brigadier General Stephen Saunders in June 2000; ELA ceased claiming operations in 1995. Greek CT officials have told us they believe 17N is moribund as a formal organization. Nevertheless, they believe 17N lives on through its continued ideological influence and the contributions of its members and supporters to current terrorist organizations, including Revolutionary Struggle (RS). Greek law-enforcement investigations are predicated on the working assumption that many individuals who were identified as peripheral, active, or otherwise sympathetic members of the 17N and/or ELA groups, as well as militant activists in left-wing and anarchist communities, are involved in current terrorist activities. Imprisoned 17N and ELA members, as well as some who have been released, continue to support their jailed comrades and espouse revolutionary rhetoric. ¶3. (S/NF) Moreover, certain imprisoned members and their confederates likely provide inspiration, expertise, and personnel to active terrorist groups. The body of all source reporting suggests that 17N and ELA gave rise to successor groups, such as RN and others. Similarly, RN has faded from the operational scene since about 2003, when the group was implicated in two July incidents targeting Commercial Bank and Alico Insurance. Those attacks took place subsequent to RN's last re-designation as an FTO in 2003. The perpetrators of those and previous attacks by RN remain unknown and at-large, while the status of the organization itself remains undetermined. ¶4. (S/NF) Thus, it is our judgment that while 17N and RN have not claimed responsibility for terrorist acts since, respectively, 2000 and 2003, their links to current known terrorist groups remain sufficiently close to warrant their remaining on the FTO list. ¶5. (S/NF) Regardless of the decision whether to re-designate 17N and RN, Embassy's priority is the FTO designation of the successor organization Revolutionary Struggle (RS)(Ref B). RS dominates the current Greek domestic terrorist scene and is responsible for numerous attacks on Greek and foreign government personnel and institutions, as well as domestic and international business interests since late 2003. RS emerged as the pre-eminent domestic terrorist group in Greece with its first claimed double attack on Greek Court buildings in September 2003. Since 2003, the group has either claimed or been implicated in over a dozen attacks. The group was responsible for the failed attempted assassination of former Minister of Public Order Georgios Voulgarakis in 2006. RS also claimed responsibility for the January 2007 RPG assault on the U.S. Embassy. Most recently, the group conducted an armed assault and grenade attack at a Police Department in Nea Ionia in April 2007 using weapons stolen earlier from a Supreme Court Chairman's police guard. SPECKHARD