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Greetings from the Extremists

By Anthee Carassava in Athens

(TIME.com Europe) -- Fire bombs have become a near nightly occurrence in Athens, the Greek capital. Extremists have taken to a new spree of attacks, flinging makeshift gas bombs at diplomatic cars and foreign and state holdings in Greek cities.

Several of the attacks appear to be in response to a new Greek-U.S. counter-terrorism pact, which gives the FBI the green light to work more closely with the Greek police in stamping out organised crime. As one extremist put it this week when calling an Athens daily to claim responsibility for a bomb-and-blaze blitz at a British car dealership and suburban police station: "Greetings to the new anti-terrorist deal."

The pact, signed in Washington by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and Greek Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoides, affords the FBI a more formal -- and firmer -- cooperation with Greek police. Under the agreement, FBI agents operating in the country will be allowed greater access to Greek police inquests linked to terrorism, arms and drugs smuggling and cybercrime.

The U.S. agents, in return, will offer crime-busting know-how to their Greek counterparts, including access to U.S. crime labs and decoding devices that can help accelerate investigations. Western envoys say they expect legislative reforms -- amended judicial practices, witness protection programmes, non-jury trials -- to complement the crime-fighting deal later this fall. Proposed surveillance projects have the country's most popular citizen, President Costis Stephanopoulos, warning of civil liberties abuses.

The agreement comes after eight years of "provisional teamwork" between Greek police and U.S. federal agents, a collaboration viewed by some Greeks as superpower spying. Chrysochoides says the crime-fighting pact "is no panacea" but an expression of Athens' intent to eliminate "the climate of distrust" that has existed for decades between Greece and the U.S. around the issue of terrorism.

Unprecedented U.S. criticism of Greece's inability to stop terrorism -- as evidenced by the June 8 assassination of the U.K.'s top military attache to Athens Brigadier Stephen Saunders -- plus a fear of losing the 2004 Olympics no doubt put extra pressure on Greece to conclude a deal.

The ultimate objective is to flush out the country's most elusive terrorist group, the Revolutionary Organization 17 November, which took responsibility for the Saunders killing. The self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist group has claimed 22 victims since it was founded 25 years ago.

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