Golden Dawn witch hunt targets members of the Greek-American community

By Lamprini Thoma

A witch-hunt with a chiefly anti-Marxist slant has been launched by the New York arm of Golden Dawn against Greek expat professors, luminaries, activists of the American left, as well as other distinguished members of the Greek-American community. In an act of ‘retaliation’, as they themselves called it, against the ‘criminals’ and their ‘conspiracy’, the Greek-American Golden Dawn published personal details, phone numbers and addresses of whomever they put in their sights.

According to the post on their website, the neo-fascists decided to target the particular Greeks and Greek-Americans because  they ‘dared’ to give their opinions about Golden Dawn in the documentary, “Golden Dawn, NYC.” They dub it, ‘a propaganda film against Golden Dawn pretending to be a documentary’ and attack all those who speak against the group in it. They don’t restrict themselves to slander however. They proceed to publish personal details, asking that their readers call them and… take to task all those who dared speak out.

The documentary

The documentary by Richard Ledes which triggered the targeting of members of the Greek community is a 30 minute film which records the opinions of people in the street during the parade of the 25th of March, as well as the opinions of distinguished Greeks of New York about Golden Dawn and its rise, about the threats that they themselve have received and about how Greek-Americans have handled the group’s efforts to create a branch in the US, beyond the internet presence of “Golden Dawn America”.

It is worth noting that the documentary also presents at length the efforts of the filmmaker (who is of Greek descent) to record the opinions and positions of Golden Dawn members in New York. Yet they refuse to talk, either as a small group on the street or in response to his repeated requests by phone.

Now, without a public face, unwilling to state clearly who they are and what they want after refusing to take part in the documentary, anonymously and with half-truths, they are targeting the distinguished members of the Greek American community via an extensive post on their website. One which is clearly intended to ‘warn’ average people against ‘daring’ to express their opinions against Golden Dawn.

AHEPA, the Church and journalists targeted

Among those targeted by the anonymous Golden Dawn members is, first and foremost, the director of the documentary, Richard Ledes, because he dared to produce it, as well as the well known businessman and father of the director, George John Ledes, whose ‘Greekness’ is questioned by the neo-fascists because his picture “indicates other racial origins,” and of course, because he has business dealings with Jews.

Father Alexandros Karloutsos is the biggest surprise among those targeted. The priest is condemned for being ‘an outspoken supporter of the Samaras regime’ who lives in an upmarket suburb, marries celebrities and collects money for the Archdiocese.

AHEPA president Nikolaos Karakostas is targeted – indeed his phone number and email are published – because he does business with Jewish ‘zionists’, because he ‘lashed out at Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus’ (sic) criticism of Israel’ and of course because he lives in an expensive suburb (incidentally the class hatred of NY Golden Dawners is all too clear and potentially shows a leaning towards Marxism – they should keep an eye on that).

Dean Sirigos, a journalist with the National Herald, the historic paper of the Greek American community, is among those listed because he is ‘on the Samaras and Zionist payroll’ and ‘claims 30% of Greek-Americans are descended from or are illegal immigrants’ (and they are not protesting that they find the number too low.)

The information they published is already in the hands of extreme American Nazi organisations who have been making threatening phone calls to those targeted. According to sources the president of AHEPA in particular has even received such calls at his home in the middle of the night.

Golden dawn’s other targets

Nikos Alexiou, Despina Lalaki and Peter Bratsis are targeted for being leftists and academics (‘who have never worked a real job in their lives’ – teaching at university is obviously an unknown concept for the Golden Dawners of New York). In particular Nikos Alexiou is criticised for being an atheist (an ‘Admitted Anti-Christian’). Ms Lalakis address is made public as is the amount of rent she pays as well as the number of the Onassis Foundation where she works. The authors of the post ask readers to call and “ask why the self proclaimed anti-capitalist and philo-turk, is taking a grant from an organization based off one of the wealthiest capitalists who ever lived, Aristotle Onasis (sic).” They also take offense to the fact that her brother works at a company that has signed a contract with the Greek state (Teva Pharmaceuticals). Mr Bratsis’s address in Astoria is also published and information is given about the areas he frequently visits, “He can easily be found on the streets of Astoria eating in his favorite restaurants.”

The photographer Ioannis Delatolas is targeted for being the ‘appointed leader of ANTARSYA US’ and a homosexual – he doesn’t hide either – while it is insinuated that he either turns tricks or is a secret agent: “A flaming homosexual who claims he makes his money as a photographer,  his real source of income in order to pay the approximately 1800 Euro per month rent is unknown.”

A thrilling figure of the American left, the poet, historian and intellectual Dan Georgakas is also targeted, but it is clear that the only information they have about him is from Wikipedia. The charges levelled at Georgakas, as with the lawyer Eric Poulos who is condemned for having… lost a case, ‘suffer’ somewhat from a lack of catty gossip by the group, in contrast to the others.

The well-known and award winning researcher and academic, professor at the University of Columbia Neni Panourgia is not only labelled a ‘supporter of November 17’ but her address in New York is made public (together with how much she pays for rent) while she is also condemned for… spending her summers in Greece where she has a country house. In the Richard Ledes documentary, Ms Panourgia talks about previous threats she had received.

The anonymous and brazen attack on the respected members of the Greek-American community for daring to speak openly in the documentary is one of the most worrying recent incidents of Golden Dawn thuggishness. More concerning than the 30-year old photographs and photo-editing that is presented as ‘reportage’ as if the real and current information ran out. Unfortunately it went unnoticed in homeland Greece, which was focused on the ‘revelations’ regarding carrots by the Elmer Fudd of Greek journalism.

At the same time that Golden Dawn is changing its image within Greece in the face of the maneuvering of the Samaras government, abroad it still appears with all its thuggish characteristics. The Greek community in the US, as in Australia, have succeeded in showing much clearer the origin and character of their own Golden Dawn branches, fighting them with the Truth.