US embassy in Athens just exploded

[Schadenfroh]

Text

ATHENS (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through the U.S. embassy compound in central Athens on Friday, a police source said.

It was not clear what caused the blast and there was no immediate word on whether there were any casualties.

Police cordoned off all roads around the embassy.

Police officials at the scene said that whatever caused the explosion damaged the official embassy sign outside the mission, but there was little other indication of the extent of damage inside.

Hope no one was hurt,

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Anyone else trying to turn this into a Bash Bush thread (after this message) will be on a vacation.

A similar comment has been posted in the perps that attempted to do so prior to this warning

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[Bitek]

 

[dahunan]

Violence begets violence

I do also hope nobody was hurt

 

[ntdz]

Sigh...

 

[magomago]

uhhh...that sux >,<

 

[kage69]

Thin details so far, but I really doubt it was something other than terrorism - lots of Chechens in Greece.

Hopefully all the money we've been pouring into embassy defense has paid off and kept damage to a minimum. Still, there's a difference between an explosion going off and the whole place going up in smoke, as per the topic title. Just saying....

 

[Aegeon]

Originally posted by: kage69
Thin details so far, but I really doubt it was something other than terrorism - lots of Chechens in Greece.

Given its Greece, who's responsible is a genuine question right now.

Greece has also been home to the domestic Greek terrorist organization 17 November, which has assassinated and bombed US diplomatic targets in Greece over the years.

While the members of the organization were believed to finally be caught several years ago, its possible they missed some members or this is a revival of a like minded terrorist organization. Having said this, Islamic terrorism probably is still more likely.

 

[bamacre]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/12/athens.blast/index.html

No injuries yet. Let's hope it ends that way.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Hope no one is hurt over there

Lets keep the partisan bickering to a minimum in this thread guys.

-Kevin

 

[Aimster]

They must have thought they wwere bombing the Turkish embassy

 

[Banzai042]

Originally posted by: bamacre
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/12/athens.blast/index.html

No injuries yet. Let's hope it ends that way.

From that link it almost sounds like an attempt to kill the ambassador, given that it was a single RPG that exploded near his office. Thankfully nobody was hurt, and it even sounds like the damage wasn't all that great compared to what it could have been. Give them a few weeks and they'll probably have everything back to normal there, well, maybe with some more bulletproof glass added.

 

[f95toli]

Originally posted by: Aegeon

Originally posted by: kage69


Greece has also been home to the domestic Greek terrorist organization 17 November, which has assassinated and bombed US diplomatic targets in Greece over the years.

While the members of the organization were believed to finally be caught several years ago, its possible they missed some members or this is a revival of a like minded terrorist organization. Having said this, Islamic terrorism probably is still more likely.

I am not so sure, this really sounds more like 17 November than Al-Quaida. 17 November has targeted foreign ambassadors before so it fits their MO quite well.

 

[ericlp]

I think we all can agree that we hope no one died... but this kind of sh!t happens when you got a war monger for your leader... sigh is right...

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Start your own Bash Bush thread - keep such drivial out of this thread

Anandtech Moderator

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: ericlp
I think we all can agree that we hope no one died... but this kind of sh!t happens when you got a war monger for your leader... sigh is right...

Was Clinton a war monger? Was Carter a war monger? Was Roosevelt a war monger? This sh!t happens no matter who is in charge. Jesus. Get some perspective. I'm not happy about Iraq either but stop pretending like this kind of thing didn't happen before we went there. :disgust:

 

[International Machine Consortium]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Text

ATHENS (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through the U.S. embassy compound in central Athens on Friday, a police source said.

It was not clear what caused the blast and there was no immediate word on whether there were any casualties.

Police cordoned off all roads around the embassy.

Police officials at the scene said that whatever caused the explosion damaged the official embassy sign outside the mission, but there was little other indication of the extent of damage inside.

Hope no one was hurt,

Extremely misleading title and lead in. The building was damaged a little. There were no injuries.

 

[International Machine Consortium]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: ericlp
I think we all can agree that we hope no one died... but this kind of sh!t happens when you got a war monger for your leader... sigh is right...

Was Clinton a war monger? Was Carter a war monger? Was Roosevelt a war monger? This sh!t happens no matter who is in charge. Jesus. Get some perspective. I'm not happy about Iraq either but stop pretending like this kind of thing didn't happen before we went there. :disgust:

No comparison. This cock up idiot Bush HAS NO EQUAL when it comes to being a cock up idiot.

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Start your own Bash Bush thread with ericip - keep such drivel out of this thread

AnandTech Moderator

 

[imported_Shivetya]

Originally posted by: International Machine Consortium

No comparison. This cock up idiot Bush HAS NO EQUAL when it comes to being a cock up idiot.

Oh yeah, lets forget the idiots who got us into Vietnam, that will make Bush look worse.


About the only President who didn't suck in the last 40 years was Ford,the rest of them ****** up one way or another and to various extremes.

Bush ][ is no worse than Clinton, hell they can both rot in the hall of shame.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: ericlp
I think we all can agree that we hope no one died... but this kind of sh!t happens when you got a war monger for your leader... sigh is right...

Was Clinton a war monger? Was Carter a war monger? Was Roosevelt a war monger? This sh!t happens no matter who is in charge. Jesus. Get some perspective. I'm not happy about Iraq either but stop pretending like this kind of thing didn't happen before we went there. :disgust:

So you're saying that it's just a coincidence that this happens THE DAY AFTER we raid Iran's embassy in Iraq?

Thursday January 11: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070111/3/45wqm.html

Friday January 12: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlene...9479_RTRUKOC_0_US-GREECE-EXPLOSION.xml

 

[Aegeon]

Originally posted by: ebaycj
So you're saying that it's just a coincidence that this happens THE DAY AFTER we raid Iran's embassy in Iraq?

Actually that definitely appears to be the case.

A group that appears linked somewhat to 17 November called in to claim responsibility for the attack, not exactly a group associated with Islamic terrorism. You basically seem to leaping to assumptions with fairly weak justifications behind them in this case.

 

[conehead433]

I thought we were fighting all the terrorists in Iraq.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: ebaycj

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: ericlp
I think we all can agree that we hope no one died... but this kind of sh!t happens when you got a war monger for your leader... sigh is right...

Was Clinton a war monger? Was Carter a war monger? Was Roosevelt a war monger? This sh!t happens no matter who is in charge. Jesus. Get some perspective. I'm not happy about Iraq either but stop pretending like this kind of thing didn't happen before we went there. :disgust:

So you're saying that it's just a coincidence that this happens THE DAY AFTER we raid Iran's embassy in Iraq?

Thursday January 11: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070111/3/45wqm.html

Friday January 12: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlene...9479_RTRUKOC_0_US-GREECE-EXPLOSION.xml

Where did I say that?

Read the statement again. Then read my response. Trying to say that things like this happen because we have a "war monger" for a president is ridiculous. I don't think anybody considers Clinton, Carter or Roosevelt to be war mongers yet things like this happened under their watch. Things like this happened several times under Clinton (WTC Bombing, USS Cole, African Embassies, etc...) and we all know about the hostages under Carter and Pearl Harbor under FDR and the marine barracks under Reagan. There's no end to it.

And if you are trying to suggest that things like this wouldn't happen if we weren't in Iraq then you're deluded. These people don't need any excuse to commit violence against us other than we exist.

 

[KAZANI]

Photo update
Source: Athens Indymedia

 

[tomywishbone]

Looks like some 3rd graders threw rocks at the building. Small rocks. zzzzzzzzz

 

[MonkeyK]

Originally posted by: Aegeon

Originally posted by: ebaycj
So you're saying that it's just a coincidence that this happens THE DAY AFTER we raid Iran's embassy in Iraq?

Actually that definitely appears to be the case.

A group that appears linked somewhat to 17 November called in to claim responsibility for the attack, not exactly a group associated with Islamic terrorism. You basically seem to leaping to assumptions with fairly weak justifications behind them in this case.

While I see your point, I find it amazing that my local paper put both events on page 4 in seperate articles and made no statement on a relationship (or lack thereof) between the events.

 

[f95toli]

Originally posted by: MonkeyK

While I see your point, I find it amazing that my local paper put both events on page 4 in seperate articles and made no statement on a relationship (or lack thereof) between the events.

That is probably because there is no obvious link. The original reason why 17 November targets the US was because the US governement supported the Greek junta back when Greece was a dictatorship between 1967-1974 (as far as I remember 17 November started out as a resistance movement). However, for the past 20 years or so they have been a far left movement targeting both the greek government and diplomats from other countries (mainly the US and UK) for reasons that are not quite clear.
In terms of ideology I guess 17 November and their followers are much closer to the anti-globalisation movement than they are to more "traditional" political movements.; I don't think they ever had a clear political goal once the Junta was defeated.

It could simply be that this latest attack was carried out by people who where inspired by 17 November and think that these type of activites are exciting and targets the US just because everyone else is, sort of an even more violent version of the groups that like to fight with the police every now and then.
One thing is clear: If it was indeed 17 November this attack has nothing to do with Islam.