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




"...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.
Posted by: kingronjo | Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 11:57 AM
If Muslims did it, it's time to blast that rock in Mecca.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 03:10 PM
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.
Posted by: Chripa | Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 03:33 PM
"Who did it is anyone’s guess." Ummmm, the Greek Baptists maybe?
SPARTA! SPARTA! SPARTA!
Posted by: Timur | Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 03:44 PM
Fallaci's one great love (and her partner in death - she's buried alongside him) was a Greek.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 04:56 PM
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.
Posted by: pastorius | Monday, August 27, 2007 at 12:03 AM
"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!?
Posted by: allat | Monday, August 27, 2007 at 03:54 PM
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!
Posted by: Plein 2010 | Sunday, September 02, 2007 at 06:04 PM
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.
Posted by: bright strangely | Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 03:12 PM
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.
Posted by: Tim Clarke | Monday, July 27, 2009 at 01:19 PM