state department briefing : για τις έρευνες που αφορούν την επίθεση στην Αμερικάνικη Πρεσβεία

Daily Press Briefing
Tom Casey, Deputy SpokesmanWashington, DC
April 26, 2007

Mr. Lambros.
QUESTION: May I go to Greece? Mr. Casey, the chief of the Greek intelligence service Mr. (inaudible) who is in Washington and he had yesterday at dinner with the Greek Ambassador, President Mr. Alexandros Mallias. I was told that he had a meeting, too, with DOS officials with the Bureau of Intelligence. May we know the purpose of this meeting?
MR. CASEY: Mr. Lambros, I'm not sure whether they met or not. But if they did I'm sure it was a regular consultation among allies about intelligence matters that would sound reasonable to me. But we'll check for you and see if there's something.
QUESTION: And also --
MR. CASEY: But I can't confirm whether a meeting happened or not be (inaudible) tell you (inaudible).
QUESTION: Another question. And from -- upon the arrival of Mr. (inaudible), the daily publication of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, "The Dispatch," for unknown reasons on the front page, is dealing with the attack against 16 U.S. servicemen arrived in a Greek Air Force bus on April 23, 1987, by November 17 Terrorist Organization who had been injured.
Would you please comment since this issue of November 17 has been closed and it's a matter of foreign policy and not the business of the D.C. Metropolitan Police?
MR. CASEY: It's the business of any journalist in this country to report on whatever they want. And if you'd like to know why the journal of the D.C. Metropolitan Police ran a story on something, I'm sure their editor would be happy to talk to you about it.
QUESTION: But this (inaudible) and publications matter, not a private publication.
MR. CASEY: Uh-huh. And?
QUESTION: And then what's the answer?
MR. CASEY: The answer is that anyone in this country is free to publish what they want and if the D.C. Metropolitan police has a little newsletter and they'd like to run a story about something they're free to do so and you're free to talk to their editors about why they chose to.
QUESTION: And what about the timing?
MR. CASEY: Oh, I have no idea. You'd have to go ask them.
QUESTION: Okay. One question, according to the FBI, the investigation on the attack against the U.S. Embassy in Athens by an Albanian rocket on January 12th, carried out by terrorists or others, has been concluded, since according to an FBI (inaudible) emphasize, the Department of State is in charge, may we know the results of these investigations?
MR. CASEY: I have no idea what the FBI is referring to. The Greek authorities are in charge of this investigation. Certainly we are coordinating with them. But I'd refer you to the Greek police and law enforcement community and I'm sure they could give you a readout on what the terms of the investigation --
QUESTION: But why the FBI is saying that you are in charge?
MR. CASEY: I have absolutely no idea. You could go ask them, but we're not.
QUESTION: I just saw that -- I thought I read somewhere that Abdullah Gul had attended the Solana meeting. I'm just wondering why. I thought that was kind of --
MR. CASEY: I hadn't seen that report, but something you might want to go ask them about. You know -- no, I hadn't seen that.
Farah.
QUESTION: I don't expect an answer right now, but I'm --

(The briefing was concluded at 1:04 p.m.)
DPB # 74
Released on April 26, 2007