Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι η Blackwater ήταν η κύρια εταιρεία μισθοφόρων που ανέλαβε την επιβολή της τάξης στο Ιράκ και τη φύλαξη Αμερικανών αξιωματούχων, μετά την εισβολή των Αμερικανών και είναι διαβόητη για πρακτικές βασανιστηρίων κατά των Ιρακινών. Η εταιρεία έχει μετονομαστεί σε Academi.
Επίσης, καταγγέλλει παρέμβαση της κυβέρνησης στον Τύπο, υποστηρίζοντας ότι έχουν δοθεί κατευθυντήριες γραμμές στα μέσα ενημέρωσης για το «τι επιτρέπεται να λέγεται και τι όχι».
«Δεν υπάρχει πλέον στην Ελλάδα δημοκρατία», λέει και σημειώνει «στις δημοκρατίες τα κοινοβούλια δεν χρειάζονται προστασία».
Για το μέλλον της Ελλάδας είναι απαισιόδοξος, αν συνεχιστεί η κατάσταση που επικρατεί σήμερα. «Θα είναι δύσκολο να αποφευχθεί η κοινωνική αναταραχή, ακόμα και ένας εμφύλιος πόλεμος είναι πιθανός υπό αυτές τις συνθήκες».
Αναφερόμενος δε στην πολιτική λιτότητας που επιβάλλουν οι δανειστές λέει, «δεν μπορείς να σώσεις μία χώρα, καταστρέφοντάς τη».
Ο Λεωνίδας Χρυσανθόπουλος έχει θητεύσει ως πρέσβης της Ελλάδας στην Αρμενία, το Τορόντο και το Πεκίνο, ενώ ως νεαρός διπλωμάτης συμμετείχε στις ενταξιακές διαπραγματεύσεις της Ελλάδας στην ΕΟΚ, το 1977. Μέχρι το 2012 ήταν Γ.Γ. της Διεθνούς Γραμματείας του Οργανισμού Οικονομικής Συνεργασίας Μαύρης Θάλασσας.
Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos apparently caused quite a stir on Thursday when he told a diplomatic newspaper in Canada that the Greek government has commissioned “Blackwater” (or Academi) -a powerful mercenary army- to provide military security to the Greek Parliament! He said that some these members have engaged in activities in shadow operations in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan while others say that they are they see themselves as being above the law! In fact a report on the YoungTurks said that they have been brought up on international war crimes in Iraq!
The report was confirmed on February 1, 2013, when the Greek military news site Defencenet, citing the same Canadian newspaper sources. According to Defencenet, the contract is alleged to have been signed by former Parliament President Evangelos Meimarakis. Obviously this new, and shocking revelation, raises many concerns about the safety of Greek citizens and the violation of the fundamental principles outlined in the Greek Constitution. If the information is true, because there are still many doubts about this story, then the government is accountable and whoever is involved with this, must immediately resign and be brought to justice.
Blackwater or “Academi” – previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide- is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark, a right winger who apparently was a great fan of the Bush family (according to Jeremy Scahill who apparently exposes this mercenary force in the video above).
The news itself is SHOCKING, and as we said earlier, the Greek people deserve answers!
Here is the statement from the Greek Ambassador in Canada that has caused such a stir in Greece, as posted on the Greek-Salonika news site.
QUESTION: Many observers also believe the crisis has been aggravated by political trends in Greece: prime ministers with their “heads in the sand” to avoid tough decisions, weak minority governments, destructive protest movements, the growth in extremism, etc. How do you assess the contemporary state of Greek democracy and the ability of political parties to create an environment that can promote solutions or create obstacles?
RESPONSE: I believe that the crisis has been aggravated by the wrong measures of austerity imposed on Greece by the so-called Troika (IMF-EU and the European Central Bank) and the lack of courage of Greek governments to oppose or negotiate them. IMF has admitted in public that mistakes were made. Many Greeks are suffering because of these measures .The IMF recently admitted that it did not anticipate the high levels of recession. But mistakes have to be paid. It is a shame that the Greek Government did not estimate the cost of the damages of these mistakes to the country and ask that they be reduced from the so-called debt.
Democracy no longer exists in Greece. The austerity measures recently adopted were unconstitutional according to Greece’s highest courts. One Member of Parliament and former minister said unabashed on television that the measures are unconstitutional but he has to vote for them. In this way, he blatantly violated the oath he took when he was sworn in to protect the Constitution.
The Greek government recently made an agreement with the successor company of Blackwater to hire mercenaries for the protection of Parliament. Parliament, however, in democracies needs no protection. Guidelines have been issued to the mass media of what can be said and tolerated and what cannot be tolerated. Journalists that do not conform are being harassed by government agents or arrested. Another journalist was summarily fired from state television because he showed the Prime Minister being booed at the October 28 National day celebrations. And the EU does not give a damn about democracy in Greece as it does about democracy in other countries like Turkey. Read the complete Interview at greece-salonika –http://greece-salonika.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post_3328.html#ixzz2Jf6o9FdX
For argument’s sake let us suppose it is true. Maybe the government does not feel secure from the present Greek police force because let’s face it, these young men and women are being paid peanuts for maintaining law and order and after the latest wage cuts their wages have been reduced to ridiculous levels.
On the other, maybe there is some other kind of threat, and something that citizens do not know about. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had mentioned this months ago, and we all know what types of threats have been flying our way from ultra nationalist groups in Albania, as well as Turkey.Also, Greece is getting ready to proclaim its EEZ so maybe these forces are here as part of some strategy. On the other, maybe, the Greek government commissioned these forces to train its own specialized police force to face a possible threat. Or maybe, just maybe these forces are here to weed out the bad guys that are associated with the recent bombings in Athens.
One thing is for sure, there are threats both on the domestic and international fronts. And the reason we say this here at HellasFrappe is because we read an article earlier today on the Serbianna news site which talks about Albanian extremist groups in Greece which might be working with Turkish MIT forces in a ploy to destabilize Greece. Here is the relevant excerpt:
Moreover, in several cases of narcotics contraband in Greece where Albanian smugglers were involved, links were established as for the ulterior motive of the smuggling which included raising capital for extremist purposes. In similar fashion, a leading Greek journalist and security expert, Manos Eliades has showcased in a recent book of his, links and case studies of direct cooperation between certain Albanian immigrants to Greece and the Turkish intelligence service MIT.
For the time being it has been established that UCC (according to Research Terrorism Center in Washington, UCC is a known terrorist group), although still in nascent form, is being kept as a potential destabilizer regarding Greece and it is being supplied with weaponry from the Albanian black market. There is also support from radical Albanian-American groups and the Turkish intelligence service and the focus has been shifted from propaganda purposes into recruiting Albanian immigrants in Greece by using as a pretext the economic distress many of those have felt due to the ongoing economic crisis in the country and the lack of employment opportunities. Lastly small-scale paramilitary training is taking place in Northern Albanian and UCC serves yet another role -this time regarding domestic Albanian politics- by having the ambition of be seen in the South of the country as the “Long arm of the Kosovo Albanians”, which do keep their aims of uniting the rest of Albania with Kosovo and not vice-versa.
The countermeasures implemented so far by the Greek state include a variety of intelligence and security actions. One of those that is on an training level and it is going to be fully operation by the end of 2012, is the creation of rapid and heavily armed Police mobilization units to intervene in cases both of heavy criminality (armed robberies with the use of AK-47) and any potential paramilitary actions, as the hypothetical threat by UCC.
Information points out that a mass of light weaponry has entered Greece through Albanian lately, and in a more worrying trend, the same development has been observed in FYROM, which according to many independent experts is a potential hot spot of any paramilitary action that will involve offshoots of UCK. In addition the Albanian government in Tirana is also fully aware around the developments and NATO itself is paying close attention in order to avert any potential destabilization caused by extremist groups that primarily live off by contraband, extortion and organized illicit activities and have as a hub of operations the territory of Kosovo. http://serbianna.com/analysis/archives/1563
So maybe, just maybe the Blackwater team is here to train Greek officials instead. At least we hope this is the reason. If not then we must know the ugly truth.
This must be cleared up immediately.