Revolutionary Organization 17 November (November 17)

November 17 is based in Greece, with its attacks made primarily in the Athens metropolitan area.

November 17 is a radical Marxist group committed to the removal of U.S. military bases from Greece, the elimination of the Turkish military presence in Cyprus and the severing of Greek membership in NATO and the European Union.

Exact numbers are unknown, but it is thought that the central core of the group never exceeded 25 members. Membership was limited to a few select families. Along with the strict use of code names, this helped ensure secrecy. Other reports have indicated that November 17 had 20 members in leadership positions, and about as many operational members. In June and July 2002, Greek police detained 14 members of the group. Fifteen members were convicted and jailed in late 2003.

November 17 is an insular group that shuns contact with other organizations. It may receive some backing from Greek supporters.

The group financed many of its more recent operations from criminal activity. The main source of November 17 financing has come from bank robberies, but some components have become involved in more organized and profitable endeavors.

A faction of the group, under the leadership of man known as Sardanapalos, has reportedly been involved in human-trafficking, as reported by Jane's Intelligence Review for September 2002. The Sardanapalos group may also be involved in drug- and weapons-smuggling.

Several arrests of key members from June to July 2002 may have signaled the effective end of November 17. Before the arrests, the group committed several increasingly sophisticated assassinations, rocket attacks and bombings. November 17 has been held responsible for the killings of many Greek public figures and U.S. and European officials. In 1990, the group began targeting European Union facilities and foreign firms operating in Greece.
 
A trademark of several November 17 assassinations has been the use of the same .45-caliber handgun. The use of this signature weapon ensured that no other group could effectively claim responsibility for the killing.
 
The 2002 arrests may have meant only the end of the ideological "old guard" of November 17. A younger generation of members, mainly aligned to the Sardanapalos faction, was said to be focusing operations on criminal activities.

The group is named for the Nov. 17, 1973, bloody student uprising against the Greek military junta. The terrorist group was established soon after that. In 1975, November 17 claimed responsibility for the assassination of the CIA station chief in Greece, Richard Welch. From 1975 to 1986, the group carried out six other attacks, using the same .45-caliber handgun.
 
Bombings were added to the group's repertoire in the 1980s, and attacks became more sophisticated. The group targeted U.S. military buses and assassinated U.S. defense attache William Nordeen in 1988.
 
During the 1990s, the group began using rocket attacks and stepped up activities against Turkish targets. It was also held responsible for at least five attacks on coalition targets during the 1991 Gulf War.
 
Greek police were unable to arrest any member of the group until a botched bombing in June 2002 led to the capture of November 17 member Savvas Xiros. Information from Xiros, coupled with robust detective work, led to the arrest of 18 other members, including the group's alleged ideological leader, Alexandros Giotopoulas. Greek police heralded a major victory against November 17, saying it had disrupted its activities.

In December 2003, a Greek court convicted 15 members; four were acquitted.
 
Although many in the group have been arrested, some of the senior leadership remains at large. The crackdown by government security organizations essentially broke up the November 17 group. Some analysts maintain that a new group, Revolutionary Struggle, was created by those members of November 17 who were not detained. Following a Revolutionary Struggle rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007, Greek authorities maintained that the group was a November 17 spinoff.

1975
Dec. 23: November 17 assassinated CIA station chief Richard Welch outside his home in Athens.
 
1983
Nov. 15: The group killed U.S. Navy Capt. George Tsantes, the chief of the naval section of the U.S. Military Advisory Group.
 
1986
Nov. 26: A November 17 car bombing of a Greek police bus killed one officer and left 13 injured.
 
1988
Jan. 21: U.S. Air Force Sgt. Ronald Odell Stewart was killed by a remote-controlled bomb outside his Athens apartment building. November 17 claimed responsibility.
 
1990
Dec. 16: November 17 used rockets to attack European Community offices in Athens.
 
1994
Jan. 25: November 17 killed a former Greek bank chief it had accused of "high treason" for his illegal role in the sale of a state-owned company.
 
April 11: November 17 carried out an 88-mm rocket attack against U.S. and Dutch insurance company offices in Athens.
 
April: November 17 failed in an attempt to attack HMS Ark Royal from the Royal Navy with mortars while the British ship was on a port visit in Athens.
 
May 18: November 17 claimed responsibility for the bombing of an IBM office in central Athens.
 
July: November 17 killed a Turkish diplomat in central Athens.
 
1995
March: The group attacked the privately owned Mega television broadcasting corporation with grenades during a nightly news broadcast. The attack caused some damage, but no casualties.
 
1998
April 7: A rocket attack was made on the Athens branch of Citibank. There was some damage to the building's entrance.
 
Nov. 17: A bomb exploded outside the Citibank branch in Athens. There was major damage, but no casualties.
 
1999
March 22: Time-bomb explosions severely damaged Citibank branches in Kallithea and Fliro, suburbs of Athens. No casualties were reported.
 
2000
June 8: Stephen Saunders, the defense attache at the British Embassy in Athens, was shot and killed in his car on his way to work. November 17 claimed responsibility in a six-page statement.
 
2001
January 21: Vasilis Mihaloliakos, a member of the Greek Parliament, was injured in a bomb attack on his home. Police suspected that November 17 was responsible for the attack.
 
2002
June to July: The premature detonation of a bomb in Piraeus led to the arrest of November 17 member Savvas Xiros. Information gleaned from Xiros led to the arrest of more than a dozen November 17 operatives. Greek police said they had disrupted the group permanently.
 
2003
Sept. 5: Two bombs exploded in the early morning hours at the main court complex in Athens. One policeman was injured. Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for the attack.
 
Dec. 10: A Greek court convicted 15 members of November 17 for bombings, assassinations and other attacks that killed 23 people over a period of three decades. Among those convicted were Alexandros Giotopuolos, the leader of November 17, and Dimitris Koufodinas, its chief assassin.
 
2006
May 30: Revolutionary Struggle operatives attempted to assassinate Greek Culture Minister Georgos Voulgarakis with an improvised explosive device. The bomb hit the wrong vehicle and no one was hurt. The group vowed to continue its attacks.
 
2007
Jan 12: The U.S. Embassy in Athens was hit by an anti-tank rocket. The attack, which struck the front of the building and failed to injure anyone, was followed by an anonymous phone call placed by an alleged member of the Revolutionary Struggle who claimed responsibility. Greek authorities view the group as a spinoff from November 17. This was the first major terrorist attack against a U.S. building in Greece in more than a decade.

May 14: The Athens Court of Appeals issued consolidated sentences in a November 17 appeals trial. There were 226 counts of major felonies (murder, attempted murder, attacks with explosives) in the original trial, resulting in convictions on 224 counts. The appeal proceedings involved de novo review of 225 counts. The public prosecutor appealed one acquittal on behalf of the United States. During the proceedings, six counts were dismissed under Greek law governing a statute of limitations.

Of the 219 counts remaining, convictions were sustained on 218. The six members of the operational core of November 17 received a total of 44 life sentences. Seven members received various prison terms. Six of those originally charged were either acquitted or prosecutions were time-barred. Two of the 15 members of the group that were convicted in 2003 were acquitted on appeal. The convictions of the other 13 terrorists were upheld.

2008
November: Dimitrios Koufodinas, a convicted November 17 member, issued a statement from prison advocating "direct action" that would "strike blows" to the capitalist system. Other imprisoned members made similar statements.