The Minister of National Defense stated that he would raise the issue of leaks of sensitive information to the Chiefs of Staff
The Minister of National Defense, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, likened the “Swiss cheese” to “Parliament cheese”, speaking in Parliament about the information system in the Armed Forces, stifling the leaks of sensitive information and noting that he would raise the issue with the chiefs of staff.
“I will raise the issue with the leaders about Swiss cheese in the staffs. Counterintelligence does not make sense. It is a problem. Everyone discusses it in cafes. Who; Officers? NCOs? For God’s sake. This is a point of concern. The information should not be accessible to everyone. I wish everyone to talk less. “The ED executives can not pass on information. Look for this, look for that, see if the other is valid,” he said, as part of briefing the relevant parliamentary committee on the issue of defense assistance to Ukraine.
“Revisionism will not pass”
Sending an indirect message to Turkey, Nikos Panayotopoulos said: “We support the Ukrainian people and, we send a message to those who embrace revisionism, that ‘it will not pass'”.
“When some people only understand the language of the power of arms, either to deal with the engagement or to prevent it, the countries that are opposed to the revision must do the same,” he said. in the EU and NATO, and we do, nothing more or less, than everyone else does: “We continue to support the Ukrainian people, while at the same time sending a message to those who embrace this revisionism, and we say it will not pass!”
He even stressed that we can not follow a convenient and painless (so far) policy of distancing from everything, (that is) “not to get involved in this quarrel.”
As Mr. Panagiotopoulos“When the whole mountain is on fire, we must not say that our house should be saved and encircled next to it, and we should see the fire raging and coming down…”.
Referring to the military equipment sent to Ukraine, and without mentioning the relevant quantities, he said that it consists of ammunition, missiles and launchers.
In fact, when asked by opposition MPs to provide specific information, he said that the parties are available to inform the Ministry of Defense, while reiterating that the defense material provided to Ukraine it is not operationally critical and does not affect the level of our stocks.
“If there was a suspicion of weakening we would not have any of that,” he said.
Responding in particular to SYRIZA MPs Th. Dritsa and G. Tsipras who noted that in other countries there is detailed information about the weapons sent to Ukraine, Mr. Panagiotopoulos said that “I am not the Portuguese Minister of Defense or Luxembourg. When I bring out defensive elements, I have to do it with special responsibility. When I say that we gave x from this system and we have ψ, so we have the margin, many listen. Not Spaniards and Dutch. “Finally to take a responsibility”, said Mr. Panagiotopoulos.
