"GREECE'S 9/11"

UPDATE: Israeli Firefighters Rush to Greece to Help Battle Wildfire (hat tip Michael)

Panagiotis Efstathiou, a senior Health Ministry official, said more than 49 50 bodies were taken to hospitals.
"We still have missing (people) who haven't been found. We have about 10 missing," Zaharo Mayor Pantazis Chronopoulos said, adding that soldiers had begun checking burned houses for more victims.

In what is being described as the worst fires in Greek history, fears for destruction of the ancient ruins of Olympia, a world heritage site and home to the first Olympics,  Greece's devastating forest fires close in. .

So many fires breaking out simultaneously in so many parts of the country cannot be a coincidence," Karamanlis said in a nationally televised address. "The state will do everything it can to find those responsible and punish them." ABC News

Frank asked the most obvious question that the mainstream media deliberately ignores. Who set Greece afire? This comes from Skai tv station in Greece, a very unbiased source of news:

The police, the armed forces and the Greek antiterrorism authorities have found arson devices in Greek forest areas which are triggered by mobile phones.

Satellite images reveal that within a space of a single hour, many fires appeared in different locations of Greece. The plan was to make the fire brigate forces overstretch.

It is certainly a terrorist attack. George Karatzaferis, the leader of the right wing party, LAOS, called the day, ‘Greece's 9/11’.

Who did it is anyone’s guess. It could be Greek anarchists or radical groups of Greece’s northern neighbours which have claims on northern Greece. We should never forget that there will be general elections in Greece soon. Who might have an interest from an image of a weak and overstretched state mechanism?

The BBC makes no mention of it in their rather long(winded) piece here: Greek fires threaten ancient city.

A 65-year-old man was arrested and charged with arson and multiple counts of homicide in a fire that killed six people in Areopolis, a town in the southern Peloponnese, said fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis. Separately, two youths were arrested on suspicion of arson in the northern Greek city of Kavala, he said. Their parents were also to face charges, he said.

No names have been released.

UPDATE: 61 dead .......Olympia in jeopardy, the holiest site of ancient Greece.

UPDATE: GREECE FROM SPACE

Comments

[kingronjo]

"...two youths were arrested..." well call me an Islamophobe for even thinking that these 'youths' may be related somehow to the 'youths' I always read about in France.

This is just a wild guess, a shot in the dark, but when you read about co-ordination like this it isn't just your High School firebug getting his jollies.

[Jeremiah]

If Muslims did it, it's time to blast that rock in Mecca.

[Chripa]

In the news (German TV) they said that in the past after such fires no forestation or anything like that took place. Instead they often turned the burnt down areas into building land. Therefore some people may have in interest in these fires because they can hope to make money out of ensuing real estate deals. I don´t think it has anything to do with Islam.

[Timur]

"Who did it is anyone’s guess." Ummmm, the Greek Baptists maybe?
SPARTA! SPARTA! SPARTA!

[Jeremiah]

Fallaci's one great love (and her partner in death - she's buried alongside him) was a Greek.

[pastorius]

I running on the treadmill in the gym today, and I was seeing these news reports, and this was the first thing I thought; Muslim terrorism.

However, let us remember, the same thing happened in Spain last year, and it was the work of Socialists.

However, the planning, the mobile phones, and the precise timing suggest Al Qaeda.

And obviously, Greece has its history with Islam.

[allat]

"I don´t think it has anything to do with Islam."

You don't think? Amazing! You think all those fires - 50 at last count - an accident?

The first rule to think of is "Who benefits?"

And in southern Greece, at that!?

[Plein 2010]

I recently had a interview with a Greek independent journalist about what underlies it, and it goes a lot deeper than you might think on the face of it. It involves Kosovo and Bosnia, of course! The post, containing a link to his article, can be read here: http://millennium-notes.blogspot.com/2007/09/war-against-greek-state.html.
Cheers, grrl, more power to the cause and to you!

[bright strangely]

chripa told you who benefits... building contractors who snag the land after it burns.

Wild fires across Greece are frequently blamed on arsonists working on behalf of developers intent on building on prime forest land.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2157076,00.html
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/topstories_story_239060245.html

ah capitalism... sometimes even worse than terrorism.

[Tim Clarke]

Most of the fires will have been started by idiots, loonies, small people who want to feel big or people with grudges against their neighbours. Indeed, perhaps some of the grudges are even political. But you don't need conspiracy theories, although the web loves them.