Richard Welch

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Richard Skeffington Welch (1929—December 23, 1975), a Harvard educated classicist, was a CIA Station Chief killed by the radical Marxist organization Revolutionary Organization 17 November. He had been stationed in Athens only a few months before he was killed outside his home. He had previously been outed as a CIA agent by a magazine called CounterSpy, edited by Timothy Butz, although a communiqué issued by the group detailed Welch's movements prior to the publication.

Welch's murder led to the passage of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, making it illegal to reveal the name of an agent who has a covert relationship with an American intelligence organization.

By Presidential Order of U.S. President Gerald Ford, Welch was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 2003, fifteen defendants were convicted of Welch's murder.

In December 2005, Kleanthis Grivas published an article in To Proto Thema, a major Greek investigative Sunday newspaper, in which he accused "Sheepskin", the Greek branch of Gladio, NATO's stay-behind paramilitary organization during the Cold War, of the assassination of Richard Welch, as well as of the assassination of British military attaché Stephen Saunders in 2000. This prompted a press statement from the US State Department, whom denied both, declaring that "the Greek terrorist organization '17 November' was responsible for both assassinations". The State Department did not provide any counter-proof, but did highlight the fact that, in the case of Richard Welch, "Grivas bizarrely accuses the CIA of playing a role in the assassination of one of its own senior officials." while "Sheepskin" couldn't have assassinate Stephen Saunders for the simple reason, according to the US government, that "the Greek government stated it dismantled the “stay behind” network in 1988." Press statement

[edit] See also

• Metapolitefsi, the troubled period of Greek History when Welch was murdered.

[edit] References

• Arlington Cemetery
• Greek Assassins Arrested, Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Weekly Intelligence Notes #31-02 5 August 2002.
• Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe, by Philip Agee and Louis Wolf