In the realm of what appears to be recently declassified information, a Greek newspaper has disclosed that Greek and U.S. authorities discovered and seized a large cache of explosives from the basement of the Iraqi Embassy in Athens in March 2003. Among the items found were car bombs, detonators, guns and several rounds of ammunition. To their credit, I don’t think a certain number of guns and ammo is that unusual for the protection of an embassy, however, I certainly question the presence of explosive devices. Apparently, this was all done discreetly prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and a suggestion has been made that there might have been plans to stage some sort of attacks during the 2004 Olympics.
Ironically, this occurred at the same time as the deportation of the number two Iraqi diplomat from Greece. The two incidents are surely connected.
In no way do I think this could even in part help to justify the war against Iraq, however, the incident is of course quite suspicious. No embassy needs a cache of explosives for its own protection. Guns and ammo, yes. Explosives, no. Yet most diplomats have their own agendas, whether they represent their home country or not, so it is entirely possible that this had nothing to do with the Iraqi government, and only the diplomat that was expelled, otherwise I would think the whole embassy might have been closed.
Who knows. All I can say is I am glad they discovered it when they did and prevented something awful from happening on Greek soil.
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