Death threat to Greek media as terrorists plot bomb havoc

[CHIMO]

Source: The Observer

Amid growing fears that Greece could become a centre of terrorism in Europe, political extremists yesterday issued a warning to journalists, saying it had them within its sights because they represented a corrupt establishment.

Mounting social unrest is believed to have goaded the militants into armed action. Youths radicalised by record levels of unemployment and deep-seated economic disaffection are thought to have augmented the ranks of anti-establishment groups, many of which emerged emboldened from the December "uprising". Last week, authorities announced that crime rates had also soared.

But the frequency of the attacks and their sheer brazenness - the assailants have often struck in broad daylight - has surprised Greeks. In a break with the tradition of careful targeting by Greek extremists, authorities were not alerted to the planned attack against Citibank, raising the spectre of mass casualties.

"I am very afraid that the situation will get a lot worse," said Chrysohoides, the former public order minister. "This is like nothing we have dealt with before. These people care not for human life. What we are seeing doesn't happen elsewhere in Europe. It happens in Kabul."


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/22/greek-terrorism-guerrilla-group

[lxlxlxl]

1. cough...no comment....

[Deja Q]

2. No doubt they care not for human life... Here's a question:

Who does?

[Psephos]

4. me

prolly a few others around here too

and a few billion more around the world...

The real problem is that power and the intrigue involved in its acquisition attract exactly the kind of people who shouldn't have any...which is why, whether it's personal, corporate, or governmental, power is a hellish problem. We should do all we can to keep it dilute and spread around.

[Hugabear]

3. This is a natural consequence of unrestrained greed & capitalism

You can only suppress people for so long, beat them into submission, back them into a corner before they lash out with violence. Does it really surprise anybody that those who have borne the brunt of capitalism should finally strike out against their oppressors?

[Ghost Dog]

5. Especially corrupt crony capitalism.

At least we're seeing corruption increasingly emphasised as close to the heart of the problem.

[geek tragedy]

6. Oh good god, terrorism is murder pure and simple.

Stop making excuses for murderers.

[Alamuti Lotus]

7. But state terrorism, and its supporters, is ok......?

Plenty of excuses made for them.

[Ghost Dog]

8. No it is not. The most common definition of terrorism

is the use of, or the threat to use, violence for political ends.

Pure and simple.

Edit: For example, where the above OP says "political extremists yesterday issued a warning to journalists, saying it had them within its sights because they represented a corrupt establishment", we could say that here a 'political end' has been stated (calling out the media for supporting a corrupt establishment', but, wherever the phrase "has them within its sights" comes from (perhaps the same media itself? I don't know), whether or not we were looking at an act of terrorism here (the threat by itself) or not would depend on whether the expression was intended to literally refer to the sights of, say, a gun, rather than a camera, or whether the expression was intended more metaphorically (eg. pointing fingers, calling out corruption-compliant media in other (alternative) media).

... And I say the above purely theoretically, with respect, without even having got as far as reading the Guardian/Observer article yet.

Edited again for clarity, on reading the article: Where there are cases of violence or threatened or attempted violence such as the explosions in Athens, and where there are stated political ends, then yes, of course, we can call this terrorism. A job for the hopefully not corrupt police. In exactly the same sense that State violence as well as, for example, Irish freedom fighters, the French Resistance in Vichy France or, say the Spanish guerilla opposing Napoleon's occupation (or resistance to Franco's regime, not to mention the Basque country's ETA to this day), should be termed terrorism.

It's a catch-all term, and pretty useless as such, except for propaganda purposes.

It would have been nice if, for the sake of some balance, the Observer could have referred to some of the other 'scourges' on Greek society over the last decades...

[conspirator]

11. Terrorism is just a word. You seem to have been brainwashed by the elite and MSM

What was the invasion of Iraq if not corporate terrorism?
Try stealing a bank and see if they won't shoot you.
But they can steal from us with no consequences.

[Lost in CT]

9. Um you do realize this is Greece we are talking about.

Most of the institutions under attack are state owned monopolies (such as the universities)

[Joanne98]

10. Because the Greek media is just like the Venezuelan media..

Or the Italian media or the US media. If they all TOLD THE TRUTH they wouldn't have anything to worry about!