[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 10:33 AM Subject: Greece: Protest Over NATO-Pushed 'Anti-Terrorism' Law [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ["The latest version states that three people working together can constitute a 'criminal organization.'" NATO and its major components, especially the United States and Great Britain, have been threatening Greece for two years on its alleged 'lack of resolve' in dealing with suspected terrorist groups. Leaving aside the question of who and what shadowy organizations like November 17 are, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) is right in protesting this police state law, a law dictated from abroad. The KKE itself is the intended target of this law and so-called November 17 is a red herring. The KKE played the major role in anti-war, anti-Nato demonstrations both during and after the war against Yugoslavia in 1999. They blocked, with peaceful protests, NATO supply convoys headed to the Balkans. They also played the major role in mobilizing hundreds of thousands of protesters on the occasion of Clinton's arrival there after the war, forcing him to curtail his scheduled three day visit to Athens and humiliating the main culprit of NATO's aggression in the eyes of the world. These are the reasons for the West threatening Greece with economic and diplomatic blackmail - and no doubt worse - to suppress political opposition to NATO and foreign armed aggression in Southeastern Europe. And it's part of a global pattern of criminalizing political opposition - peaceful opposition - by branding it terrorism. Throughout the Western - NATO - world, protests, whether at global trade meetings, the School of the Americas, nuclear weapons storage facilities or anywhere else, are being systematically treated as illegal, implicitly violent, breaches of the law and crushed with overwhelming, wildly disproportionate force by the state. Now that laws (and Greece's is no exception) are being promulgated that brand peaceful protests as criminal behaviors; that castigate planning meetings - "three people working together" - as criminal conspiracies, as implied or explicit 'terrorist' activity, the globalists/militarists are advancing their agenda of stamping out all opposition to their power. The lesson is to take to the streets - now or never - against both the repressive police state legislation and against the imperial forces that sponsor it.] Thursday June 7, 7:59 AM Protest in Athens over anti-terrorism law ATHENS, June 7 (AFP) - Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Greek capital Athens late Wedneday to protest against an anti-terrorism law as it was being adopted by parliament. The protest, which attracted a crowd of 1,500 according to reporters and 500 according to police, was organised by Communist party supporters and various other leftist groups. The Greek justice ministry submitted a watered-down version of its anti-terrorism bill to parliament after the left-wing parties had raised objections to provisions in the first draft. The bill was drafted in part to respond to calls for tougher government action against extremists following the murder of British military attache Stephen Saunders in Athens a year ago on June 8, 2000. Saunders was gunned down by members of the radical November 17 group, which claimed that he had helped plan the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. The anti-terrorism bill provides for the use of DNA analysis but the new version makes the admissibility of such evidence in court more difficult. There are also provisions for protection of judges and witnesses. The latest version states that three people working together can constitute a "criminal organisation". Electronic listening devices are banned under the new draft and restrictions are placed on police officers engaged in undercover work. However the protesters the revised law is still too draconian. They marched on the parliament building shouting: "Don't pass the law" and "we have the power to stop it". The protesters later dispersed without incident. Meanwhile Britain has given Greece an intelligence report on an anti-NATO militant group that claimed responsibility for Saunders' assassination a year ago. But a foreign office spokesman in London indicated Wednesday that the year-long study of the November 17 group, written by Scotland Yard detectives, was for Athens' eyes only. "We won't comment on the details of the report or operational matters for obvious reasons, but we can confirm the report has been prepared and handed to the Greek authorities," he said. November 17, an anti-US, anti-EU and anti-NATO organisation linked to 23 deadly attacks since 1975, claimed responsibility for the murder of Saunders. Following the killing, London built strong links between its police and Greece's detectives to bring the assailants to justice. In the report, Scotland Yard made a series of recommendations to its Greek counterpart into how best tackle the radical leftist group. Those recommendations were not made public. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
