A dark room

and exclaimed, to the surprise of everyone present, “Long live the King,” as dictated by the ritual of the ceremony. And this happened mere hours after the King had tried to overthrow the “Revolution.” 9 Papadopoulos then demanded that those officers who wanted to remain in a government or state position had to resign from the Army. This, along with the counter- coup, gave Ioannidis the opportunity he wanted to increase his power behind the scenes. THE ROLE OF THE ESA In October 1967 Ioannidis assumed command of the ESA. According to a secret CIA report, in private conversations he claimed that he “accepted the position to be able to monitor the situation. After the failed counter- coup by King Constantine in December 1967, he took charge of the surveillance of both active and retired army officers. He also had a say in the transfers of army officers to key positions. Ioannidis was the person who supported many of the arrests of high-ranking retired officers... under the pretense that they were conspiring against the regime.” 10 He held a key position, because he had under his control the regime’s long arm, the Special Interrogations Division (EAT) of the ESA, which was tasked with the interrogation of the regime’s enemies. Many of thοse arrested were brutally tortured in the building that housed the notorious agency, next to the present-day Athens Concert Hall. Through his network he gained and corroborated intel on officers who were disapproving of—or were actively conspiring against—the regime. He had become the “eyes and ears of Papadopoulos,” to the point where, if presented with a tip-off that a mere lieutenant had criticized the regime, Ioannidis would rush to solve the “case” by sending one of his trusted associates to confirm the info. Papadopoulos, who was also the Minister of Defense, visited the Pentagon every Thursday for his weekly briefing and also to make sure that he still had the Armed Forces under his control. However, the real seat of power was in the directorate of ESA, in Office 151, on the Pentagon’s second floor. Ioannidis was one of a handful of officers belonging to the Revolution’s inner circlewho decided to remain in the Army. He still wore his uniform, went around in an army jeep, spent many hours every day in the Pentagon, and his door was always open for the younger army officers who frequently came to complain about the government. Some of them thought that Papadopoulos had betrayed the principles of the “Revolution of 21 April” almost as soon as he had come into power. His close ties with powerful figures of the establishment and his general way of life betrayed the difference between him and Ioannidis. According to a report from the United States secret services: “Ioannidis became important because of his reputation among the younger officers who were believed to be hardline revolutionaries: he was rumored to be ascetic, puritan even, an incorruptible sentinel of the spirit of the ‘1967 Revolution’.” Their analysts had already prepared his psychological profile: “Ioannidis has the reputation of a respectable and honorable man, dedicated to his work. [...] A source describes Ioannidis as intelligent and committed. Another source, though, paints him as a person with limited capabilities, without imagination, incapable of taking the initiative. He is very conservative and lives a simple life. He is not at all impressive in person, and sometimes gives the impression he is naïve. He is a bachelor. Ioannidis is friendly and open with those he knows well. But