"I am, of course, prepared to defend myself with my bicycle pump...

...and Regina is deadly with a skillet at ranges up to 15 meters."

A reminder of the twisted fates that await those who get caught in the spokes of Athens politics. From the website of John Brady Kiesling:


My first death threat (admittedly oblique), with commentary below

Avriani (sensationalist Athens daily newspaper), Monday, 9 February 2009 p32.

In the Shadow of the Acropolis (p1 box)
Strange affair with foreign agents as participants
Outside the house of a former diplomat (page 32)

Confrontation of agents in the shadow of the Acropolis [illustration: Central Intelligence Agency seal] p32
In one of the most idyllic spots of Athens, in the shadow of the Acropolis, a mini-spy thriller has unwound, which is already troubling foreign secret services and EYP (the Greek Intelligence Service). The description is guaranteed to AVRIANI by a serious source from the space of the Greek intelligence services. The participants: an American former diplomat whose career in our country has had particular publicity; a Lebanese - liaison with Hezbollah and the Iranian services; and a significant number of agents. The setting of the episode, a house below the Acropolis, which the former diplomatic cadre of the U.S. Embassy uses, in which, as was confirmed during the course of his surveillance, he used to meet the Lebanese. The intervention of the agents in the house, which was judged necessary in the course of surveillance, developed literally into a confrontation and it is attributable only to luck that the event did not cause a scandal of international proportions for the Americans, who in the event the "invasion" had a bloody conclusion would have been caught up for months in the affair of their former diplomat and his strange contacts with the Lebanese liaison. It remains unknown whether Greek or American agents took part in the intervention, but it is a fact that the former diplomat had been of interest to the National Intelligence Service, which carefully evaluates every information which concerns not only his career in Greece from the day he interrupted his professional tie with the Embassy but also his contacts with persons who are monitored for their real role and their presence in Greece.

The story is repeated in To Arthro of Sunday, 15 February 2009, p.54 with a different last paragraph:

What should be noted likewise is that the American diplomat in question, who lives permanently in Greece these last years and enjoys friendly relations with a fair number of Greek mass media -in which he also writes regular articles- has recently been attempting to appear as the "spokesman" of the Obama lobby in Athens. Something which, as we learn, has no connection with reality.

 

Bottom line: The Avriani story is complete fantasy. Nothing even remotely similar has happened. The pieces was planted with a publisher who runs a soft-core blackmail service to prop up his (and alas, the whole newspaper industry's) ailing finances.

The story is meant to remind me that there are people in Athens who are unhappy with me, and that they know where I live (e.g., by having looked it up on my web site). They would like me to ponder the possibility that if I meet with violent death the local police will ignore it as a settling of accounts among mysterious foreign agents. [The police are not as dumb as someone thinks I fear they are].

I currently have no Lebanese contacts, sadly, and have no reason to be wooing Hezbollah or the Iranians, though I hope the U.S. government will start talking to them soon. Given the book I am working on (a detailed study of Revolutionary Organization 17 November), visitors to my site can be pardoned for embracing the idea that I'm a secret agent. Since I can't hope to convince people otherwise, you must take comfort in the idea that I'm a very public and thus not very competent one.

If EYP has been surveilling me or invading our apartment, they have been very discreet and left no traces. They are welcome to try to make sense of my handwriting and notes. My lawyer has copies of everything important. I am, of course, prepared to defend myself with my bicycle pump, and Regina is deadly with a skillet at ranges up to 15 meters.

I don't know what Arthros's source means by the "Obama lobby." Ambassador Speckhard is the spokesman of President Obama in Greece. Yvette Jarvis is the head of Obama's official Athens supporter's group. Through Democrats Abroad, I campaigned for his election among U.S. voters here. When asked, I freely offer my wishful thinking regarding Obama's foreign policy. Unfortunately, I have never met the man or anyone close to him, so take any lavish promises I make on his behalf with a grain of salt.