November 17: A Greek Terrorist's Story

Following World War II, a bitter civil war ravaged Greece for five years as Washington and Moscow vied for control of Europe's soft-underbelly. The Marshall Plan and NATO eventually thwarted Moscow's plans, but not before the country's social and political fabric was greviously torn asunder, permanently conflicting future generations of Greeks against one another. In 1967, the Greek military overthrew the monarchy with the support of the CIA, once again pitting brother against brother as the new Junta assembled voluminous secret dossiers on its opposition. When the Junta collapsed in 1976, November 17's terrorist agenda surfaced: remove American installations from Greece, those too of NATO, and withdrawal Greece from the European Union. Decades later the Greek government requested the CIA provide its secret Greek dossiers to Athens. Washington indicated the files had been destroyed. In 2002, Athens announced it had captured the masterminds behind November 17. Four were sentenced to life in prison. Two years later the alleged mastermind walked out of prison, disappeared, and is still at large today. Over twenty-five new terrorist attacks have occurred in Athens since that time. The following story begins today with the murder of a U.S. government employee near Washington and the disappearance of classified documents. The FBI investigates, leading it to November 17, and one of the most enduring Greek terrorist organizations in Europe.