How 'November 17' was foiled

Greek police sources say Scotland Yard overhauled the way investigations were conducted. Instead of investigating the crimes on a case-by-case basis, British police conducted a methodical investigation beginning with the first evidence.

"Before, each packet of evidence was just filed away somewhere. The British came in and said, 'We need to go back to day one, to collate it all, to proceed on this as we would if we were studying multiple homicides'," says Merry. Greek Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysoidis has said publicly that the new techniques were essential in the latest breakthroughs.

Greek and British officials also credit Saunders's widow, Heather, with raising public awareness. She helped create a victims' lobbying group to further pressure the government. "I wanted the world to know that we, the family, the women and children were the victims," she says, adding that she is happy with current progress in the investigation.

After using the new methods for a little more than a year, police got an unexpected break: On June 29, Savas Xiros, an icon painter and son of a Greek Orthodox priest, allegedly attempted to plant a bomb in the port of Piraeus. But it blew up prematurely in his hand.

Police said that a handgun found next to the painter had been stolen from a police officer during a November 17 attack in 1984, and used in six subsequent murders by the group. Xiros allegedly was carrying other weapons and documents, which led police to two of the group's hideouts, both of which contained massive caches of weapons which had been used in November 17 attacks, as well as documents outlining the group's activities. They also found Giotopoulos' fingerprints. Xiros began cooperating with police and remains under heavy guard in the hospital.

On Wednesday, police captured Giotopoulos on the tiny island of Lipsi. Greek police said he matches the profile they had created of the group's leader: an intellectual with a connection to France who had received training in Cuba. Giotopoulos was active in student street riots in Paris in the '60s, and had also traveled to Cuba. His father was a Trotskyist theoretician in the '30s.

On Thursday, police arrested two of Xiros' brothers and a family friend, whom they described as the group's "foot soldiers" and "executioners." Police say that Christodoulos Xiros, a musical-instrument maker; Vassilis Xiros, an unemployed advertising worker; and their friend Dionissis Georgadis, a musician in an obscure rock band, have together confessed to participating in attacks from 1984 to 1992. The attacks killed a total of 10 people, including two US military officials – U.S. Embassy defense attaché Capt. William Nordeen in June 1988 and Air Force Sgt. Ronald O. Stewart in March 1991 – as well as Saunders. Police say they also confessed to participating in two bombings of buses carrying US servicemen in 1987, the theft of antitank rockets from a military base in 1989, and a rocket attack against the home of the German ambassador in 1999.

Police say that Giotopoulos has confessed nothing, but that the brothers' confessions have led them to other suspects. Currently police are hunting for another alleged "foot soldier," Dimitris Koufodinas, a 44-year-old beekeeper who was living with Savas Xiros' former wife.

Merry says he is not surprised that the group seems linked by a family. "The family is the way every business in Greece is organized. Why should terrorism be any different?" he says.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis says investigations and trials will continue methodically and Scotland Yard says it will remain active in the investigation. "The United Kingdom is not here solely because of the tragic death of Stephen Saunders," Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner David Veness said at an Athens press conference. Referring to the Olympics, he added: "We intend to be engaged ... at the very least until the summer of 2004."

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