Division of Internal Afairs the will of the Minister not to leave a single shadow over the Police Force”. What follows is extraordinary. In order to absolutely secure the objective conduct of the investigation by the Division of Internal Afairs, a series of chief oicers are replaced and relocated. Among them are a major general of the police who heads the Security Division at Police Headquarters; a police colonel who commands the Special Anti-terrorist Unit and his deputy, a lieutenant colonel; another police colonel who heads the Division of Weapons and Explosives, Subdivision of State Security, Attica Police Directorate; a police major who commands the DELTA squad; a police major and precinct chief in Nikaia; and the commander of the riot police platoon in Keratsini. The members of the latter, according to photos and testimonies, threw stones at demonstrators during the riots of 18 September 2012, without being hindered or arrested by their colleagues. Three days later, on 27 September 2013, the press reports the additional removal of the head of the Third Counter-Intelligence Division of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), who had been responsible for an investigation of Golden Dawn activities that included systematic telephone tapping. The counter-intelligence director was deemed to have served the organization as its chief informant! The same day sees the arrest for unrelated misconduct of a police sergeant who had efectively acted as an instructor for Golden Dawn members. A newspaper photo shows this particular police oicer giving lessons in self-defence to members of the organization at an ancient stadium on the island of Rhodes. The next day, Saturday, 28 September 2013, two police oicers of the DIAS squad are arrested, along with the leader of Golden Dawn, ater incriminatory evidence had been collected in wiretaps of their phone calls. A further chief of precinct, in Agios Panteleimon, is then arrested on 1 October. This is the Athens neighborhood where, for three years, Golden Dawn has maintained its operations centre, amidst numerous complaints that the precinct was functioning more as a Golden Dawn oice than as a service of the Hellenic Police. The irst Golden Dawn MPs are arrested that same morning. The operation was kept highly conidential, and even the police oicers of the anti-terrorist unit that conducted the arrests did not know whom they were going to arrest until the very last moment. This indicates the fear of a leak, not to the press, but within the police force itself. A Golden Dawn MP put a itting point on the proceedings at the moment of his arrest, proclaiming: “They dismantled the whole of the police and the NIS in order to arrest us”. Touché. 2/ A PROLOGUE: TWO SNAPSHOTS BEFORE THE DISMANTLEMENT OF GOLDEN DAWN In October 2012, a group of people from para-religious organizations besieged the Chytirio Theatre to block a performance of the play Corpus Christi. Demonstrations of this kind, against artworks deemed “blasphemous”, are not unusual in Greece. This case was extraordinary, however, because Golden Dawn cadre had come out in force to support the otherwise somewhat picturesque 22 | ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG