Greek Terrorist Document Found

In a boastful and defiant communique that has drawn the attention of law enforcement officials, diplomats and Olympic insiders, the Greek terrorist group called 17 November proclaims that it is a Robin Hood-style organization struggling to rid the world of American-led imperialism and capitalism.

The statement was discovered last week, as organizers of the Athens 2004 Summer Games were in Switzerland for a long-scheduled meeting with the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board.

Analysts are uncertain whether the coincidence is deliberate. The terrorist group--called “N17” in security circles--has been linked to 22 deaths since 1975. Four of the 22 were American. Most of the IOC’s top sponsors are U.S.-based companies.

“I recognize that in the Balkans any coincidence raises question marks,” said Wayne Merry, a former U.S. diplomat based in Athens in the late 1980s who is now senior associate at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington. “But even in Greece there are legitimate coincidences.”

The six-page N17 statement, found in a garbage can in Athens after an anonymous telephone call last Tuesday to a local newspaper, was issued roughly six months after the slaying of British Brig. Stephen Saunders, 52. He was shot four times while his car was stuck in morning traffic near Athens’ Olympic Stadium.

In the declaration, N17 claims Saunders was its most important target ever. It also boasts that Saunders’ killers have not been caught even though they drove through traffic on a motorcycle while carrying a three-foot-long assault-style rifle--a weapon stolen from an Athens-area police station in the late 1980s.

N17 takes its name from the date in 1973 the U.S.-backed junta that then ruled Greece crushed a student revolt.

In 25 years since CIA station chief Richard Welch became N17’s first victim in 1975, no one has been arrested.

Greek authorities, pointing to the Saunders killing as a turning point and mindful that the 2004 Games are approaching, say that fighting terrorism is now a top political and law-enforcement priority.