OPINION

Hot on their trail, once again

It’s years now since we’ve been «hot on their trail,» to use the famous words of Gen. Antonis Drosoyiannis. And it’s been years since we’ve supposedly traced the identity of the mastermind behind the November 17 terrorist organization and its executioners. More recently our certainty has been grounded on the contribution of American and British experts (whose performance in their homelands has not been spectacular) and the use of ultramodern technology. Years have passed since political leaders – such as the late Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou – profiled the «spiritual fathers of terrorism» while others, such as former conservative leader Constantine Mitsotakis, made assurances that should they come to power they would disrupt the terrorist group in less than two months. And they did come to power. But they failed to disrupt the organization; neither in the early months of their rule, nor in the following ones. Hence the terrorist organization carried on with its deadly cause, while we carried on with our production of scenarios, a habit which may have contributed to the outpouring of detective novels in Greece. And, perhaps, scriptwriting is the only domain which has never lacked persistence and systematic work. Imagination is a useful element in politics; perhaps even a pleasant one. However, the systematic cultivation of great expectations by the government – which creates certain impressions before they backtrack on their own leaks – can only cause confusion and disappointment. If this is not just part of a naive and ineffectual war of nerves with the members of November 17, what’s the point of heralding the «impending» arrest of the «intellectual leader» or the «executioner with the cap»? Do we have the technology to install invisible bugs in the newspapers that profile the terrorists, hoping they will buy a paper to check if they are listed, so that we can then track them down and arrest them?

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