16 February 2010

Bomb Explodes At J. P. Morgan Offices in Athens


A bomb was detonated outside the JP Morgan offices in Athens, Greece. No one is reported injured at this time. A warning was called in prior to the explosion allowing police to cordon the area.

This is somewhat remniscent of the bombing of the J.P. Morgan headquarters on Wall Street in 1920, presumably by anarchists. The marks and pitted holes on the JPM building remained to the modern day. I saw them myself some years ago.

The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 p.m. on September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of New York City. The blast killed 38 and seriously injured 400.

The investigation had quickly stalled when none of the victims turned out to be the driver of the wagon. Though the horse was newly shod, investigators could not locate the stable responsible for the work. When the blacksmith was located in October, he could offer the police little information.

The Bureau of Investigation and local police investigated the case for over three years without success. Occasional arrests garnered headlines but each time false hopes evaporated within days. Most of the investigative effort focused on the same network of Galleanist anarchists law enforcement tied to the 1919 bombings and to Sacco and Vanzetti. In the Harding administration, new attention was paid to the Soviets as possible masterminds of the Wall Street bombing and then to the renascent Communist Party USA.

In 1944, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, successor to the BOI, performed a final investigation and concluded by saying its agents had explored the involvement of many radical groups, "such as the Union of Russian Workers, the I.W.W., Communist, etc....and from the result of the investigations to date it would appear that none of the aforementioned organizations had any hand in the matter and that the explosion was the work of either Italian anarchists or Italian terrorists." Wikipedia


The actual perpetrators of the 1920 bombing were never discovered. There was no warning and the bomb was detonated at the height of business hours.

It is good that no one was hurt in this recent bombing. Violence is never the answer. Never.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Mohandas K. Ghandi

Reuters
Bomb goes off at JP Morgan offices in Athens
By Renee Maltezou
16 Feb 2010 18:17:54 GMT

ATHENS, Feb 16 (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside the JP Morgan offices in Athens on Tuesday, causing minor damage to the building, police said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

"It was a time-bomb at JP Morgan's offices in central Athens," a police official said. "The explosion damaged the outside door and smashed some windows."

The official said police cordoned off the area after a local newspaper had received a warning call.