Alleged plot in 2008 against Greek Prime Minister

[alhoon]

http://news.yahoo.com/greece-presses...193710013.html


" Greek prosecutor pressed charges of treason and trying to destabilize the country against unknown suspects on Wednesday over an alleged 2008 plot to overthrow the then-conservative prime minister, Costas Karamanlis."


Quite terrible.
I've heard of it from my father, but I didn't believe it then. I don't believe even now that it's actually that dramatic, but some faction of some "unamed" country may have made contigency plans just in case and these plans may have been brought to light. I've heard the Russians warned us about it.

I'm... at a loss. It's not like Karamanlis did anything significant in the Russia front after all. He made a deal but nothing of so great importance to warrant "removal".

EDIT: To make it more clear, I don't believe there was ever an assassination plot, but it's not impossible that some Multinational that felt threatened had plans to create and use scandals to hasten his removal from power.
That I believe possible and I find it abhorrent and wrong. If that was so, the people that decided to play Kingmaker with our country creating scandals to influence the goverment should be arrested and imprisoned for life. Whether they're multi-millionaires or not.

[Fernandez_1492]

Goldman Sachs written all over it!

[alhoon]

I don't think they had anything to lose by the deal. But I agree that if that's true, we shouldn't be looking for a whole country to blame but certain multinationals that hold no real allegiance to countries.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

I've read those rumors in the past from several sites such as defencenet.gr
At first they seemed just rumors, now it is clearly revealed that the Russian intelligence had warned Karamanlis about an upcoming assassination attempt against him, possibly with various Western agencies involved. And yes, Karamanlis signed some very cool deals with Russia such as the Burgas-Alexandropolis pipeline and the acquisition of 350 BMP-3. It was clear that Greece was trying to move closer to Russia, something that would have definitely upset a lot of people. Let's not forget that Papandreou, the PM who succeeded him was an American citizen, a mason and hated Russia. He blindly and blatantly favored American interests.

[alhoon]

None of those deals were important enough. The Burgas Alexandroupoli pipe line is something, but not everything. It's important to us a lot but not important enough to "unamed countries" or even Russia to warrant a coup or assassination.

Also I'm reluctant to believe they would need to assassinate such a useless and spineless creature. If they really wanted to overthrow him, they would create a couple more scandals. Bribe a couple more ministers to look favorably on a deal and expose it afterwards. Easier, safer.
Propably some multinationals holding no allegiance to anyone but their CEOs had plans to overthrow Kostakis, which the Russian intelligence got wiff of and warned us. And I doupt it was a plot to assassinate him, but more like attempt to scare him if necessary.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

None of those deals were important enough. The Burgas Alexandroupoli pipe line is something, but not everything. It's important to us a lot but not important enough to "unamed countries" or even Russia to warrant a coup or assassination.

Also I'm reluctant to believe they would need to assassinate such a useless and spineless creature. If they really wanted to overthrow him, they would create a couple more scandals. Bribe a couple more ministers to look favorably on a deal and expose it afterwards. Easier, safer.
Propably some multinationals holding no allegiance to anyone but their CEOs had plans to overthrow Kostakis, which the Russian intelligence got wiff of and warned us. And I doupt it was a plot to assassinate him, but more like attempt to scare him if necessary.

They were important because the pipe would strengthen both Russia and Greece and the acquisition of the 350 BMP-3s would have been only the beginning of a series of acquisitions of Russian military hardware. Don't be surprised if the M113s are replaced by a billion-worth German or American IFVs. Greece has cut most military ties with Russia since the election of Papandreou and they won't even upgrade the S-300s in order to render them serviceable. Greece is strategically a very important country, being situated in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the border of Europe with Asia. I don't think anyone would risk the country becoming Russophile.

[alhoon]

As I said, to stop us from going Russophile they just had to call a couple of MPs and ministers offer them a shady deal and then throw them under the bus and expose the deals.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

As I said, to stop us from going Russophile they just had to call a couple of MPs and ministers offer them a shady deal and then throw them under the bus and expose the deals.

We all saw how Karamanlis fell from power, didn't we? I wouldn't exactly describe the situation as 'normal'. Dozens of scandals revealed in the last few months, the economic problem surfaced (which to be fair was nowhere near what Papandreou made it) and a series of violent demonstrations after the death of a student by the police in the streets of Athens made up the scene in which Karamanlis proclaimed early elections. It was basically like he was running from something.

[alhoon]

Manuel, to that I agree. The scandals and all sounds far more fishy under the light of this. Let's see how it develops though.

[Fernandez_1492]

so GS takes over greece and italy, who is next? portugal spain and irlenad? eventually the usa?
yeah thats right, bernake the fed guy is GS and so is geithner, the sec of treasury! how did they ever pull off those positions?!!
*stab stab stab he knows too much*

[Admiral Piett]

More fuel for anti-western European fervor in Greece? I'd rather wait and see the evidence before we go on to include some kind of grand American vs Russian influence scheme.

[alhoon]

Anti-Western European Fervor? Not at all. It's not directed towards Western Europe, but USA.

As for the evidence, we will propably bury them. Evidence that certain companies (because I don't think it was a country) tried to kick our PM out of office one way or the other would be very damaging at the time.
Perhaps a secret deal will be reached behind closed doors, but I don't expect Greece to imprison for life the executives of any multinational involved.

Frankly, I'm pretty sure it will all be hushed and we will hear very little about this for at least 10 years. And that official that's after it will silently get promoted with a fat salary to keep his mouth shut.

[neoptolemos]

I find these allegations more close to a movie scenario than reality.
Karamanlis was the leader of the pro-Western Greek right, he has received US education in TAFTS university and he never opposed seriously US interests except for the NATO summit and Bush's administration FYROM invitation plan.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

I find these allegations more close to a movie scenario than reality.
Karamanlis was the leader of the pro-Western Greek right, he has received US education in TAFTS university and he never opposed seriously US interests except for the NATO summit and Bush's administration FYROM invitation plan.

Thing is that it is not a matter of if it was going to happen anymore but of who was responsible. Since a prosecutor has decided there is a case I have no reason not to believe him.

Anyway, you never know what games are being played behind our backs.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Burnum]

despite what you may see on TV, Western Intelligence agencies do not assassinate the leaders of western nations, and Greece qualifies as one. It sets a bad precedent.

[Basil II the B.S]

Some country needs to go down asap.

[Thorn777]

Also odd about that fellow "George Jeffrey Papandreou" is considering who he was roomates with at Amherst College Massachussets, a small college famed for its Marxist economics classes. The one where the popular Richard D Wolff also lectures on the Greek crisis, who I have heard spread some remarkable disinformation as well lately.

Before attending Harvard and London School of Economics of course.

[Akrotatos]

Me thinks that somebody is setting up Karamanlis as a "misunderstood hero" for his glorious event to "save" us when the country is completely and utterly ed up. Nothing boosts popularity like an assasination that damn hypocrite Bakogiannis still has her murdered husband's surname despite them being separated at the time of his death.
I mean I could do the campaign myself:

a)A visionary surrounded by corrupt advisors
b)A skilled politician that tried to build ties with Russia and get geopolitical advantages for Greece
c)Then the attack of foreign interests, the war of the media against him and of the local corrupt political machine (all somewhat true)
d)Then the assasination attempt that scares him to silence
e)Then the evil opponent who lies though his teeth backed by media and foreing interests and win the elections and then leads the country to IMF and disaster.

A perfect story and mostly true. Of course it ommits the part that he is an incompetent jackass, too spineless to sack some of his friends that leeched the taxpayers' money.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Karamanlis wasn't exactly an incompetent and dangerous guided fool like Papandreou, he wanted to do some good things for his country but he was surrounded by a government which was corrupted and stupid. You'd argue, that he was the PM and he chose his ministers but I'd answer that Karamanlis wouldn't have been able to do anything if he didn't have the support of his party.

[Akrotatos]

Karamanlis wasn't exactly an incompetent and dangerous guided fool like Papandreou, he wanted to do some good things for his country but he was surrounded by a government which was corrupted and stupid. You'd argue, that he was the PM and he chose his ministers but I'd answer that Karamanlis wouldn't have been able to do anything if he didn't have the support of his party.

First move of Karamanlis should have been to put half of PASOK in jail for all the they did during their "golden days of misrule". That was the reason I voted for him at the time. The first and last time I will ever vote for a major party.

What did he do instead? He did nothing to correct the mechanisms that still keep our corruption levels in the clouds and gave lofty positions to all his buddies that then went to a stealing spree probably thinking "our turn to get rich". I only liked some of his foreign policies but he failed miserably there as well by allowing his opponents to completely cancel them out.