Hellenic National Intelligence Service

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The Hellenic National Intelligence Service (NIS or EYP) (Greek: Ethniki Ypiresia Pliroforion, Εθνική Υπηρεσία Πληροφοριών, ΕΥΠ) is the national intelligence service of Greece. Its headquarters are located in Athens.

1 Mission
2 Personnel
3 History
4 Recent Controversies
5 See also
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Mission

The mission of NIS is national security. The agency fulfills its mission by:

Information collecting, processing, evaluating and distribution. This information may be of a political, economic or military nature.
Confronting spying activities by foreign agents.
Securing national communications.

[edit] Personnel

The director general of NIS is Ioannis Korandis.

The agency is directly responsible to the Minister of Public Order, who can appoint or dismiss the director general.

NIS employs the following categories of personnel:

Permanent civilian personnel.
Scientific civilian personnel, serving on the basis of private contracts of employment.
A number of officers on active service in the Armed Forces, the Coast Guard or the Hellenic Police. It also employs an unspecified number of national field agents.

[edit] History

The agency had the name Central Intelligence Service (KYP, Greek: ΚΥΠ) from May 9, 1953 until August 27, 1986, when its name changed to National Intelligence Service.

The establishment of the KYP was significantly assisted and monitored by the CIA and its stationmaster in Athens between 1950 and 1954 Tom Karamesinis. As a result, the United States went to great lengths to quash any efforts by the Greeks to establish an autonomous intelligence policy in accordance to Greek national interests. Thus, in essence, KYP's primary task was collecting on behalf of the CIA intelligence on communism in Greece and, to a far lesser extent, its neighboring states.

KYP's intelligence achievements during its first 30 years were of little significance, and the agency largely dedicated itself into sabotaging efforts by consecutive Greek governments to advance its commercial and cultural contacts with communist Balkan states. Some of the "experts" who staffed KYP's communist monitoring offices later became primary agents of the Greek junta of 1967-1974, and included colonels George Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos.

During the 1961 national election, KYP successfully implemented the infamous Project Pericleus, which was an anti-communist terrorist campaign aiming to prevent populist and left-of-centrist political parties (primarily the United Democratic Left) (Ενωμένη Δημοκρατική Αριστερά) from gaining power.

The agency's suspected role in the 1963 assassination in Thessaloniki of leftist politician Grigoris Lambrakis (Γρηγόρης Λαμπράκης) is still largely unknown.

Prior to the Greek junta of 1967, KYP's anti-communist sabotage culminated between 1963 and 1967, during the rule of Center Union (Ένωσh Κέντρου) politician George Papandreou (senior). The agency systematically sabotaged his attempts to normalize relations with the People's Republic of Bulgaria, among other policies.

Following the 1967 coup, the KYP played a major role in quashing democratic movements and left-wing movements in Greece and monitoring the activities of exiled and self-exiled Greek dissidents abroad.

The agency's political activities were largely curtailed following the 1981 election victory of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα). Soon after the party was re-elected for a second term, it renamed the KYP to NIS, by ministerial decree 1645/86, issued on August 28, 1986. This law is published online on the official web site: English version, Greek version. Since that time, the EYP, has largely switched its intelligence concentration to fellow NATO ally Turkey, in accordance with Greece's new national defense priorities.

[edit] Recent Controversies

[edit] Assistance to Bosnian Serbs

According to University of Amsterdam professor C. Wiebes, EYP systematically sabotaged NATO operations in Kossovo in the mid-1990s, in an attempt to aid Bosnian Serb nationalists, whom Greece generally supported during the Yugoslav wars. In his report for the Dutch government, entitled Intelligence en de oorlog in Bosnie 1992-1995, Wiebes claims that EYP leaked classified NATO military plans (to which, as an allied intelligence service, it had access) to the Serb Bosnian leadership, and often to General Ratko Mladic himself, during the summer of 1995. Eventually, Wiebes states in the report, NATO allies ceased sharing NATO military plans with the Greek authorities.

[edit] Telephone tapping case 2004-2005

The agency found itself once again in the eye of the storm following the uncovering the Greek telephone tapping case 2004-2005, in March, 2005. The scandal was uncovered by way of the suicide of Vodphone software engineer Costas Tsalikidis, who is suspected of having assisted agents of foreign intelligence services install monitoring software in the mobile phone company's central computers. The software allowed them to eavesdrop on the personal phone calls of the Greek prime minister and numerous other political and military officials, including the head of EYP, during Greece's hosting of the Summer Olympic Games. Other bugged cell numbers included those of the chair of the Stop the War Coalition, many journalists, as well as Arab and Muslim residents in Greece. A subsequent government report discovered that the antennae facilitating the wiretaps were located in apartments near the United States Embassy in Athens. EYP was forced to take the blame for its inability to protect the privacy of the country's leadership.

[edit] Abductions of Muslims

At around the same time, EYP received even more negative publicity when members of the Pakistani community in Greece came forward and accused Greek intelligence agents of abducting them and interrogating them in secret about potential extremist connections with Muslim fundamentalists abroad. The abductions, which allegedly took place prior to (and were probably related with security issues concerning) Greece's hosting of the Olympic Games, received wide publicity in Greece, particularly since some of the abductees claimed to have been tortured and threatened with loaded handguns while being interrogated. In September, 2006, the Pakistanis allegedly identified the locations in which they were taken by their interrogators, in Halkoutsi, eastern Attica; Aspropyrgos, west of Athens; Mount Parnitha, northern Athens; and Aghia Paraskevi, in north-east Athens. At least one of these locations is reportedly part of a Greek military base. Despite the strong allegations, EYP has denied any participation in the abductions and has refused making further comments.

[edit] Role in CIA Extraordinary Rendition Program

According to information published^[1] by Greek newspaper To Pontiki, EYP assisted the CIA in its extraordinary rendition program from 2002 onwards. According to the publication, at least thirteen CIA flights carrying renditioned prisoners were given permission to land in Greece during that time.