Plus more hacks, calls for amping up the security state, and more.
We begin with raw footage of riots and protests in Africa and the Mideast triggered by the depictions of Mohammed in the Charlie Hebdo memorial issue, via RT:
Middle East protests Charlie Hebdo cartoons, burns French flags
Program notes:
Thousands of Muslims marched in Pakistan, Iran, Jordan and other countries in the region took to streets to protest the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo magazine. Clashes erupted between anti-Charlie Hebdo protesters and security forces in Turkey and Iran.
From the New York Times, less than meets the eye?:
Patriot Act Idea Rises in France, and Is Ridiculed
Many European countries, and France in particular, already have robust counterterrorism laws, some of which American authorities have studied as possible models. But the terrorist rampage at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper offices and the Hyper Cacher market prompted calls to go even further. Valérie Pécresse, a minister under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, said France needed its own version of the USA Patriot Act, which gave the United States more authority to collect intelligence and pointed America’s surveillance apparatus at its citizens.
Politicians and civil rights advocates on both sides of the Atlantic bristled at that suggestion, and at a string of arrests in which French officials used a new antiterrorism law to crack down on what previously would have been considered free speech. One man was sentenced to six months in prison for shouting support for the Charlie Hebdo attackers. Up to 100 others are under investigation for remarks that support or tried to justify terrorism, authorities said.
Dominique de Villepin, the former French prime minister, warned against the urge for “exceptional” measures. “The spiral of suspicion created in the United States by the Patriot Act and the enduring legitimization of torture or illegal detention has today caused that country to lose its moral compass,” he wrote in Le Monde, the French newspaper.
From Bloomberg, troops on the streets:
Belgium Deploys Troops Amid Threat From Syrian Jihadis
Belgium is deploying more troops on its streets to counter a heightened terror threat as the fallout from last week’s attacks in France led to arrests across Europe and fueled protests in several African countries.
Security forces have arrested at least 28 people across the continent after attacks in Paris last week by Islamist gunmen and a deadly police raid on Thursday in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers. The threat is an “urgent and very serious challenge,” Europol Director Rob Wainwright told Sky News today.
As many as 300 soldiers will be deployed in Belgium starting today, Prime Minister Charles Michel said in a statement. The troops will be deployed in Brussels and Antwerp as well as Verviers and other locations if needed, protecting potential targets such as Jewish neighborhoods and embassies.
Deutsche Welle covers the latest arrests:
Greek police arrest four over Belgium terrorist plot
Greek police say they have arrested several people in connection with a foiled terrorist attack in Belgium this week. Brussels has meanwhile deployed hundreds of troops to help maintain security.
Greek police on Saturday arrested at least four people in the capital, Athens, as part of an investigation into a terrorist plot foiled in Belgium this week, a police source and media say.
It is still unknown whether those arrested include Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old man of Moroccan origin who Belgian authorities reportedly believe may be the mastermind of the terrorist cell behind the foiled plot.
The case of the curious DNA from the London Telegraph :
Charlie Hebdo attack: French police investigate whether there was a fourth Paris gunman
Suspect’s DNA found on Tokarev semi-automatic pistol used by Amedy Coulibaly when he attacked the kosher supermarket in Paris
French police are investigating whether one of 12 suspects held in connection with the Paris terrorist attacks might have been a “fourth” gunman.
The suspect’s DNA has been found on a Tokarev semi-automatic pistol used by Amedy Coulibaly when he attacked the kosher supermarket. The same weapon was also used to shoot and injure a jogger two days earlier on Jan 7.
The eight men and four women in custody were arrested on Friday. They are being questioned over whether they helped the Kouachi brothers, who attacked Charlie Hebdo magazine killing 12 people, and Coulibaly, who killed a policewoman on Jan 8 and four hostages in a Jewish supermarket the following day.
From the Independent, another terror attack:
Moroccan man in France killed at home in front of wife in ‘horrible Islamophobic attack’
A Moroccan man in France was brutally killed after being stabbed 17 times in front of his wife at his own home by a neighbour in what is described as a “horrible Islamophobic attack”.
Mohamed El Makouli was confronted by a 28-year-old attacker who forced himself through the front door at around 1:30am on Wednesday, shouting “I am your god, I am your Islam”, the National Observatory Against Islamophobia said yesterday.
The father of one, 47, was killed in the quiet village of Beaucet, near Avignon in southern France, while his 31-year-old wife Nadia tried to save him. She suffered wounds to her hands before she fled the scene with their child to call the police.
From Deutsche Welle, commemorating a slain immigrant in Germany:
Thousands march in Dresden to remember stabbed asylum seeker
Several thousand people turned out in Dresden to pay respects to stabbed asylum seeker Khaled I. The explanation behind the Eritrean’s death remains unclear, with many criticizing the response by the city’s police.
Under the slogan “Rights and security for refugees – in memory of Khaled,” the march on Saturday aimed not only to remember Khaled I., but also to show a sign of solidarity with asylum seekers and refugees in Dresden, particularly in light of an apparent increase in xenophobic sentiment in recent months.
Following in the footsteps of mourners across the world who last weekend remembered the Paris attack victims with the slogan “Je suis Charlie,” many of those marching in memory of Khaled I. on Saturday were seen holding signs bearing the words “Ich bin Khaled” (I am Khaled).
Amid claims that Khaled I.’s stabbing could have been racially motivated, the participants at the march also demanded an explanation for his death and criticized the anti-Islamization group PEGIDA, which the marchers accuse of turning Dresden into a “center of xenophobia.”
On to the cyber front, first with the Associated Press:
France sees 19,000 cyberattacks since terror rampage
Hackers have targeted about 19,000 French websites since a rampage by Islamic extremists left 20 dead last week, a top French cyberdefense official said Thursday as the president tried to calm the nation’s inflamed religious tensions.
France is on edge since last week’s attacks, which began Jan. 7 at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The paper, repeatedly threatened for its caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, buried several of its slain staff members Thursday even as it reprinted another weekly issue with Muhammad on its cover.
Calling it an unprecedented surge, Adm. Arnaud Coustilliere, head of cyberdefense for the French military, said about 19,000 French websites had faced cyberattacks in recent days, some carried out by well-known Islamic hacker groups.
The attacks, mostly relatively minor denial-of-service attacks, hit sites as varied as military regiments to pizza shops but none appeared to have caused serious damage, he said. Military authorities launched round-the-clock surveillance to protect the government sites still coming under attack.
Spiegel covers things to come:
The Digital Arms Race: NSA Preps America for Future Battle
The NSA’s mass surveillance is just the beginning. Documents from Edward Snowden show that the intelligence agency is arming America for future digital wars — a struggle for control of the Internet that is already well underway.
Normally, internship applicants need to have polished resumes, with volunteer work on social projects considered a plus. But at Politerain, the job posting calls for candidates with significantly different skill sets. We are, the ad says, “looking for interns who want to break things.”
Politerain is not a project associated with a conventional company. It is run by a US government intelligence organization, the National Security Agency (NSA). More precisely, it’s operated by the NSA’s digital snipers with Tailored Access Operations (TAO), the department responsible for breaking into computers.
Potential interns are also told that research into third party computers might include plans to “remotely degrade or destroy opponent computers, routers, servers and network enabled devices by attacking the hardware.” Using a program called Passionatepolka, for example, they may be asked to “remotely brick network cards.” With programs like Berserkr they would implant “persistent backdoors” and “parasitic drivers”. Using another piece of software called Barnfire, they would “erase the BIOS on a brand of servers that act as a backbone to many rival governments.”
The Wall Street Journal covers an alliance against privacy:
Obama Sides with Cameron in Encryption Fight
President Barack Obama said Friday that police and spies should not be locked out of encrypted smartphones and messaging apps, taking his first public stance in a simmering battle over private communications in the digital age.
Apple, Google and Facebook have introduced encrypted products in the past half year that the companies say they could not unscramble, even if faced with a search warrant. That’s prompted vocal complaints from spy chiefs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and, this week, British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Obama’s comments came after two days of meetings with Cameron, and with the prime minister at his side.
“If we find evidence of a terrorist plot… and despite having a phone number, despite having a social media address or email address, we can’t penetrate that, that’s a problem,” Obama said. He said he believes Silicon Valley companies also want to solve the problem. “They’re patriots.”
From the New York Times, censorship sought:
Turkey Threatens to Block Social Media Over Released Documents
Turkish officials threatened to shut down Twitter in the country unless the social-media company blocked the account of a left-wing newspaper that had circulated documents about a military police raid on Turkish Intelligence Agency trucks that were traveling to Syria last January.
The demand came on Thursday, a day after a local court in Adana, a southern Turkish province, issued an order barring coverage of the investigation, hinting at the possibility of an overall ban on social media networks where documents on legal proceedings of the raid have been circulated.
The court argued that publication of the information violated national security and interfered with a continuing inquiry. Turkish government officials strongly denied opposition claims that the intelligence agency’s trucks had carried weapons for extremists fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
From the Associated Press, metadata:
DEA acknowledges phone records program that ended in 2013
The Drug Enforcement Administration has formally acknowledged that it maintained a sweeping database of phone calls made from the United States to multiple foreign countries. The program has since been discontinued, the Justice Department said Friday.
The revelation was made in a court filing in the case of a man accused of conspiring to export goods and technology illegally to Iran.
A DEA official wrote in a three-page document filed Thursday that the program relied on administrative subpoenas to collect records of calls originating in the U.S. to foreign countries, including Iran, that were “determined to have a demonstrated nexus to international drug trafficking and related criminal activities.”
The American Civil Liberties Union covers political panopticon deployment:
Christie Use of Tollbooth Data and Why Location Privacy Must Be Protected
David Sirota of the International Business Times reported last week that Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and his appointee, the deputy governor of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had released a political opponent’s private tollbooth data in order to embarrass him.
Under criticism from the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg at a hearing on toll increases, the Port Authority official, Bill Baroni, fought back, as Sirota describes:
“Respectfully, Senator, you only started paying tolls recently,” Baroni said, according to a transcript of the exchange. “In fact, I have a copy of your free E-ZPass,” he continued, holding up a physical copy of the toll pass Lautenberg had received as a benefit from his tenure as a Port Authority commissioner. “You took 284 trips for free in the last 2 years you had a pass.”
The next day, in a press conference, Christie used the data to attack Lautenberg more specifically about the details of his travel:
I find it interesting, too, by the way, in 2005 and 2006, that he went over the Hudson River 284 times. Where was he going?… I think he needs to answer that. ‘Cause he’s supposed to be the senator from New Jersey. So what’s he doing going over the bridge or through the tunnel to New York three or four times a week for 2005 and 2006?… Did he ever spend any time in New Jersey?
From Fox News Latino, a sheriff faces sanctions:
Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio could face civil contempt hearing in court
An Arizona sheriff could face a civil contempt hearing in federal court for his office’s repeated violations of orders issued in a racial-profiling case.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow held a telephonic conference Thursday and told Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s attorneys that the six-term sheriff may face an April 21-24 hearing.
But a top lawyer with the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Friday that Snow stopped short of officially ordering the hearing. The judge has given both sides until Jan. 23 to file additional paperwork.
ProPublica covers an execution:
Zombie Cookies Slated to be Killed
Tech company Turn said it would stop using tracking cookies that are impossible to delete. The decision came in response to a ProPublica article this week that revealed the controversial practice.
“We have heard the concerns and are actively re-evaluating this method,” Max Ochoa, Turn’s chief privacy officer, wrote in a blog post.
He said the company plans aims to suspend the practice by “early February.”
Turn’s zombie cookie was exploiting a hidden undeletable number that Verizon uses to track its customers on their smartphones on tablets. Turn used the Verizon number to respawn tracking cookies that users had deleted. The company said it will now re-evaluate its practices.
Speculation, via TheLocal.de:
Pegida marches possible Islamist target: report
Foreign intelligence agencies have intercepted discussions by Islamist militants about possible attacks on weekly marches organized by Germany’s new anti-Islamic movement, a news weekly reported Friday, without citing its sources.
Der Spiegel magazine said that foreign intelligence services had picked up the content of communications by some “known international jihadists”, without giving specific details.
The intelligence, which was passed to German authorities, indicated they had discussed possible attacks on the rallies organised by the so-called group, “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” (PEGIDA), the magazine said in a pre-released story to appear in this weekend’s edition.
“We take these leads very seriously,” Spiegel quoted an unnamed high-ranking security official as saying.
After the jump, a gunman buried in an unmarked grave, another shooter’s trip to Spain raises questions, Turkish police warn of thousands in ISIS sleeper cells, Charlie Hebdo riots continue in Niger with deaths and burned churches, French embassy beseiged in Khartoum, another protest in Mali and one in Yemen, Iran shutters a paper over a ‘Je Suis Charlie’ George Clooney photo, more riots and injuries in Pakistan, U.S.-led bombings continue in Iran and Syria, ISIS boasts of gay killings and stonings of women, allegations of CIA inspiration for Moroccan torture, Ghana calls for a regional anti-Boko Haram force, Shinzo Abe ponies up for the anti-ISIS fight and embraces Sisi. . .
BBC News covers a burial:
Paris attacks: Gunman Said Kouachi given unmarked grave
One of the brothers who launched a deadly attack against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been buried in an unmarked grave.
Said Kouachi was buried secretly late on Friday in the eastern city of Reims, where he had lived before the attack.
The mayor of Reims said he had opposed the burial, fearing a grave could become a shrine, but had been forced to accept it by law.
Another shooter’s trip to Spain raises questions, via El País:
Jihadist who attacked Paris grocery store was in Madrid over New Year
Amédy Coulibaly arrived in the Spanish capital with his wife on December 31, say sources
Amédy Coulibaly, the terrorist who last week killed a police officer and four Jewish French citizens in a Paris kosher supermarket, was in Madrid along with his wife for three days over the New Year holiday, a French TV station and a Spanish terrorism investigative source both confirmed.
Coulibaly, 32, was in the Spanish capital with his wife, Hayat Bouméddiene, who is now wanted by authorities, days before traveling back to Paris to carry out his attacks. He was killed on January 9 in a shootout with police in the grocery store where he had taken a large number of hostages.
Spanish High Court Judge Eloy Velasco has opened an investigation into the visit to Spain made by Coulibaly, his wife and a third person reportedly with them, who may have helped Boumeddiene flee to Syria. Judge Velasco has already received a police report concerning their stay.
More from TheLocal.es:
Paris gunman ‘was with five others in Madrid’
Amedy Coulibaly, one of the three gunmen behind last week’s Paris attacks, drove five people to Madrid in early January to catch a plane to Turkey, a Spanish anti-terrorism source said Friday.
Among the five was Mehdi Sabry Belhoucine and his brother Mohamed, who has already been convicted of terrorism related offences in France, as well as Coulibaly’s partner Hayat Boumeddiene, the source told AFP.
“We think they travelled from Paris, going to Madrid-Barajas (airport), without stopping — Coulibaly, Hayat, the Belhoucine brothers, and Mohamed Belhoucine’s wife and son.”
The five people flew to Turkey on January 2nd with tickets bought over the Internet, the source added.
Turkish police warn of thousands in ISIS cells, via RT:
‘Sleeper cells’: 3,000 in Turkey linked to ISIS, police report says
About 3,000 people have been linked to Islamic State militants in Turkey, says a police report. The data has prompted a red alert over possible attacks, including in NATO and the West, by the so-called “sleeper cells” of the jihadist group.
A Turkish police intelligence report has urged surveillance of about 3,000 people to observe their connections with the jihadists, sources told the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News.
“There are around 500-700 Turkish citizens who have joined the ranks of [Islamic State],” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier this week.
Charlie Hebdo riots continue in Niger, via BBC News:
Charlie Hebdo: Niger protesters set churches on fire
At least two churches have been set on fire in the capital of Niger amid fresh protests against French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Saturday’s protests began outside Niamey’s grand mosque with police using tear gas a day after at least four were killed in the second city of Zinder. The French embassy has warned its citizens to stay indoors.
In Niger, a former French colony, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Niamey’s grand mosque, shouting “God is Great” in Arabic.
At least two churches were set on fire – similar to Friday’s demonstration in Zinder where protesters also raided shops that were run by Christians.
Raw video from Agence France-Presse:
Niger churches torched in Charlie Hebdo protests
Program notes:
A violent mob torches at least three churches in Niger’s capital Niamey during fresh protests against Charlie Hebdo magazine, as France’s president stressed his commitment to “freedom of expression.”
And an update from France 24:
French flags torched as Charlie Hebdo protests erupt from Algiers to Zinder
At least five people were killed on Saturday during a second day of unrest in Niger, as French citizens were warned to stay indoors amid anger in several Muslim countries over a Prophet Mohammed cartoon published by Charlie Hebdo this week.
Police fired teargas at crowds of stone-throwing youths, who set fire to churches and looted shops in Niger’s capital Niamey.
Moussa Kaka, FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Niamey, reported that at least five people had been killed in the violence, citing Niger’s presidency.
“President [Mahamadou Issoufou] has condemned the deaths of five people in Niamey today, four of whom died in burned churches and one woman who died in a bar,” Kaka said, adding that 23 churches had been torched. “The president said that those responsible will be identified and punished.”
French embassy beseiged in Khartoum, via StarAfrica:
Protesters besiege French embassy in Khartoum
Angry protesters in the Sudanese capital Khartoum briefly surrounded the French Embassy during demonstrations on Friday against a satirical magazine in Paris which printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
Thousands of Sudanese Muslims took to the streets of the capital to vent their anger at the French weekly {Charlie Hebdo} magazine for publishing the cartoons which also outraged millions of Muslims around the world.
Protesters who also walked to the French cultural Center in Khartoum demanded that the European country’s ambassador to Sudan be expelled.
It took several hours before they were dispersed by the police using batons and teargas.
Another protest in Mali, via StarAfrica:
Mali: Anti-Charlie Hebdo protest mounted in Kayes region
Thousands of Malians have taken to the streets on Saturday in Kayes to demonstrate against a French satirical weekly’s latest caricature of the Prophet Muhammad which they described as “insult”. Throughout their match, protesters chanted slogans against the French satirical newspaper and called for respect to Islam and its prophet.
“Your freedom ends where another begins”, Oumar Baro, one of the organizers of the event said. “We do not want this newspaper either today or tomorrow”, Amadou Fofana, a member of Kayes Islamic High Council said for his part.
From the Independence Square, the match was completed in the governorate of the city and with a warning to authorities against introductions, authorization or sale of the French publication on Malian territory.
From Agence France-Presse, a short segment on another, smaller protest:
Dozens protest against Charlie Hebdo in Yemen
Program notes:
Dozens protested in front of the French embassy in Sanaa, after the French satirical paper published a cartoon of prophet Mohammed on its front page.
Iran shutters a paper over a ‘Je Suis Charlie’ George Clooney photo, via BBC News:
Iranian paper shut over Clooney ‘Je Suis Charlie’ photo
An Iranian court has ordered the closure of a newspaper that published a picture of George Clooney wearing a badge backing French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was attacked last week.
The Mardom e-Emruz (Today’s People) newspaper ran a picture of the actor headlined “I’m Charlie too”.
But conservative elements in Teheran were incensed by a catchphrase they regard as “anti-Islamic”, BBC Middle East analyst Alan Johnston says.
Judges said the headline was “obscene”.
The Express Tribune covers more riots and injuries in Pakistan:
Blasphemous cartoons: Muslim anger boils over
Tens of thousands of people rallied in different towns and cities of Pakistan on Friday as the seething anger fuelled by the publication of blasphemous cartoons by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo swept across the Muslim world.
The protests in Pakistan came a day after its parliament condemned the cartoons as a “deliberate attempt to incite violence, create discord, [and] widen misunderstandings among civilisations”.
The protest rallies remained largely peaceful except for Karachi, where more than a dozen people were injured during violent clashes between protesters and the police.
From the Guardian, the war continues:
US-led task force launches 29 air strikes against Isis targets in 24-hour period
Forces continue to attack key objectives, according to statement
Isis releases around 350 Yazidis and delivers them to safety
The US and its allies conducted 29 airstrikes on Islamic State (Isis) targets in Syria and Iraq in a 24-hour period, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Saturday.
Sixteen strikes around seven Iraqi cities destroyed vehicles, buildings, equipment and fighting positions, as well as hitting units belonging to Isis, which is trying to establish a caliphate in the Middle East, the task force said.
In Syria, 11 airstrikes were carried out near the city of Kobani, destroying a tank and fighting positions. Kobani, on the border with Turkey, has been fiercely fought over. Other strikes in Syria focused on targets near Abu Kamal and Dawr az Zawr.
ISIS boasts of gay killings and stonings of women, via VICE News:
Gruesome Photos Allegedly Show Islamic State Throwing Gay Men Off a Tall Building
The Islamic State has released photos that allegedly show militants executing gay men by throwing them from the top of a tall building in Mosul, Iraq.
Other photos show two men allegedly accused of theft being crucified in a public square. The montage also includes photos of militants stoning a woman to death.
The grisly images all appear to come from an Islamic State video that is not included on the web page on which the photos were posted. The photo site states that it was created January 15 by an organization that calls itself “The Ninevah Province Media Center” and bears the logo and flag of the Islamic State.
Imitation, flattery, and all that, from the New York Times:
U.S. Tactics in Morocco Said to Enable Torture
The release of the United States Senate report on torture last month renewed debate about the merits of harsh interrogation techniques in fighting terrorism. But less attention has been paid to what human rights advocates call the damage the sites have done in their host countries, which they say have used them as a tool for terrorizing their political opponents.
“In the early 2000s, many beautiful speeches came from Washington on the necessity to democratize,” said Aboubakr Jamai, a Moroccan journalist and international relations professor at IAU College in Aix-en-Provence, France. “They were meaningless because at the same time the C.I.A. was sending people to get tortured in Morocco.”
Senate Democrats said in their report that the C.I.A.’s harsh interrogation methods failed to produce valuable information that saved American lives. In Morocco, the government was targeting international terrorists as well as its own citizens, who had not necessarily been identified by the C.I.A. Mr. Jamai and others believe that the local authorities exploited the United States’ war against terrorism to intimidate the Moroccan opposition and independent press.
Bloomberg covers a call for a coalition:
Ghana Says Nations Want Regional Force to Fight Boko Haram
Ghana and four other West African nations are ready to provide soldiers to a regional military force to fight Boko Haram, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said.
The force could be created immediately once the African Union or United Nations establish a mandate, Mahama said in a phone interview on Friday from the capital, Accra.
The presidents of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria are prepared to contribute troops, though “they want it structured properly and to have their appropriate mandate before any such commitment,” he said.
From Kyodo News, Shinzo Abe ponies up for the anti-ISIS fight:
Abe pledges $2.5 bil. for Middle East, as Japan ups nonmilitary support
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday that Japan will provide $2.5 billion to help stabilize the Middle East, as Tokyo aims to boost its contributions in nonmilitary fields such as humanitarian assistance and infrastructure development.
As the world grapples with the threats posed by Islamic State militants and a series of recent terrorist attacks in France, Abe said Japan will work side by side with Middle East countries toward stabilizing the region.
Abe made the remarks in a speech delivered at a meeting of Japanese and Egyptian government officials and business leaders in Cairo, the first leg of his nearly weeklong tour of the Middle East.
And gains a new BFF, via NHK WORLD:
Abe, Sisi agree on anti-terror cooperation
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have agreed to work together to step up efforts against terrorism. Abe met Sisi in Cairo on Saturday.
Abe suggested that Egypt should prosper and serve as a star of hope in the region if a stable and vigorous Middle East is to be built. He said Japan strongly supports Egypt.
Abe pledged about half a million dollars in grant aid to help Egypt bolster its border control to prevent the inflow of weapons into the country.
And to close, a former Greek defense and interior minister is linked to a bombing plot, via Greek Reporter:
Former Greek Minister Participated in Criminal Organization
The largest criminal organization that has ever acted in Greece was dismantled by Greek police officers with the assistance of the Anti-Terrorist Unit.
Greek authorities assembled a large file against the criminal organization which contains a total of 37 extortioners and henchmen, including the name of Akis Tsohatzopoulos, former PASOK Minister, who has already been convicted of receiving 54 million euros in kickbacks.
According to Greek news, Akis Tsochatzopoulos ordered a bombing attack against Yiannis Sbokos, because he allegedly owed him around 2 million euros.
The former minister had paid 5,000 euros for this bombing and pressured a known long-term convict to do the job, even though the convict was opposed to the idea.
