Greek bombers used books
Officials say men cut away pages to conceal explosives
ATHENS, Greece – The two young Greeks who allegedly mailed a wave of micro-bombs to embassies and foreign leaders used a simple mix of gunpowder and hollowed-out books to rattle nerves across Europe, according to investigators and court documents seen by the Associated Press.
Pretending to represent Greece’s top cleric, the deputy prime minister and the debt-ridden country’s finance ministry, a 22-year-old chemistry student and a jobless 24-year-old were allegedly able to send explosive packages as far as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office.
Nobody was hurt, and only two devices made it out of Greece. Most of the 14 located by Thursday were addressed to foreign embassies in Athens, with one intended for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Only two went off where intended, while Greek authorities believe one or two may still be in the mail.
But the campaign exposed flaws in Europe’s mail security network and prompted calls for stricter continentwide package screening processes.
Police in central Athens destroyed a package addressed to the French embassy Thursday, using a 48-hour ban on airmail post and courier deliveries abroad – which ended at midnight – to re-screen thousands of packages. Armed with a small amount of explosives, the name of Archbishop Hieronymos, head of the nation’s Orthodox Church, was written as the sender, police said.
Authorities say one of the suspects is believed to belong to a radical anarchist group that has quickly evolved in two years from an annoying source of arson attacks to a full-scale security concern.
Most of the bombs were intercepted and destroyed in Athens, but small blasts at a delivery company and two embassies left one delivery worker slightly singed. And packages addressed to Merkel – also in a hollowed-out book – and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusoni were only stopped in Berlin and Italy’s Bologna Airport.
Details from a court indictment, a copy of which was seen by the AP, described how the suspected bombers allegedly packaged the devices.
“Pages from a book on Greece’s legal code were cut in a uniform way … to conceal an improvised explosive device,” the document said. “The book was covered on bubble-wrap and plain blown paper with a clear plastic label.”
In the return addresses, the bombers also posed as a renowned Greek criminologist and a Greek charity that works in Africa and Asia.