ATHENS: Twenty-six years to the day after the emergence of the Nov 17 group, when it assassinated Athens’s CIA station chief as he returned from a Christmas party, the Greek authorities are close to unmasking the West’s most elusive terrorist organization.

The faceless killers behind the group could be revealed in a matter of months, according to sources who have been working closely with British, American and Greek intelligence.

Significant headway has been made since Scotland Yard detectives arrived in Greece following the murder of the British military attache, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, in Athens last year.

Despite the initial frustration of British detectives surprised by the ineptitude of the local police, Anglo-Greek counter-terrorist co-operation is said to have been much more productive than similar efforts with the Americans.

No member of Nov 17 has been captured since 1975. Nor have there been any credible leads to the gang, which targets prominent Greek, American, European and Turkish diplomatic and military personnel.

But sources say investigators have identified some of the group’s members. “They’re very close, they have names. They just want to make sure that the evidence will stand up in a court of law,” one well-placed insider said.

Investigators believe the group is three-tiered, with six people at the top, 15 support activists and numerous hired henchmen, including assassins, at the bottom.

The leaders are believed to be in their sixties, one having a “distinctive voice” as first among equals.

A well-known cultural figure is thought to be among the suspects, as are former holders of office under the ruling Pasok party.

The findings coincide with recent statements by Thomas Niles, Washington’s former ambassador to Athens, who now heads the US Council for International Financial Affairs.

Recently Niles said he had handed the Greek Prime Minister, Costas Simitis, a list of suspected November 17 leaders in 1997.

The suspects were all “prominent Greeks, members of the establishment”, he said.—Dawn/The Observer News Service.