Elias P. Demetracopoulos

Who is Elias P. Demetracopoulos?

Elias P. Demetracopoulos is a Greek journalist and dissident during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. During the dictatorship, Demetracopoulos lived in exile in Washington, D.C., where he lobbied against the Greek junta. In June 1970, the Greek dictatorship revoked his citizenship.

In 1968 Demetracopoulos uncovered illegal campaign donations of $549,000 given by the Greek military dictatorship to the Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew 1968 presidential campaign. He gave the information to Larry O'Brian, then chairman of the Democratic National Committee who issued a call for an inquiry into the activities of Thomas Pappas.

Through suits against the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency Demetracopoulos found out that he had been under extensive surveillance by those agencies from November 9, 1967 to October 2, 1969, August 25, 1971 to March 14, 1973, and February 19 to October 24, 1974.

After 1974, he gained access to secret police files in Athens out of which he learned that there had been several attempts by the Greek junta to kidnap and kill him.

In 1967, Demetracopoulos engaged attorney William A. Dobrovir to investigating the involvement of the United States. Dobrovir uncovered hundreds of documents from the FBI, CIA, Department of State, Department of Justice, and Department of Defense via the Freedom of Information Act.