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It is always enlightening to hear the frank assessment of a diplomat upon leaving the service, once unshackled from "the patriotic art of lying for one's country", as 19th Century American journalist Ambrose Bierce described the craft.
Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos was a career diplomat with the Greek foreign ministry. As a junior officer with the service in the 1970s, he helped assure the then freshly democratic nation's accession to the European Union (at the time the EEC). He was at different times Athens' ambassador to Poland, Albania and Canada, and finally the director general of EU
Originally posted by Quauhtli
I wonder how many times in history a government has contracted a foreign military to police it's own people.
Chrysanthopoulos says that the government has hired Blackwater, the American private military firm infamous for its activities in Iraq, which now goes by the name "Academi", along with five other international for-profit security outfits. Explaining why this has happened, he says bluntly: “The Greek government does not trust the police whose salaries have also been cut.”
UPDATE: Academi have rejected Mr Chrysanthopoulos's claim. According to a spokesperson for Academi, the firm "does not now, nor have we ever, provided security services to any entity of the Greek government."
Originally posted by bjax9er
Democracy, such a wonderful form of government.
Originally posted by R_Clark
This story from the New Statesman brings light to what is going on in Greece behind the scenes. It is a look how EU cadres, big business and security (Blackwater redux), and banksters have stripped the country then reset the rules for the people of Greece. One interesting tidbit is that the source confirms that the Greek government does not trust the police and has put in a layer of security control which is private from outside the country. Will this system of control be used on an ongoing basis in other locations to assure compliance?
www.newstatesman.com
(visit the link for the full news article)