'Turkey's 9/11' also just happened to benefit Bush.

[stickdog]

When the perpetrator of any crime is in severe doubt, it always pays to asks, who benefits?

"He who profits by crime is guilty of it." Seneca, Medea


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52462-2003Nov17.html

Turkey Identifies Possible Bomb Suspects
Torn Passport Poses Clues; Death Toll Climbs to 24

ISTANBUL, Nov. 17 -- Three Turkish men with alleged ties to radical Islamic organizations were identified by police Monday as possible suspects in the car bombings near two Istanbul synagogues on Saturday, according to Turkish news reports. The death toll in the attacks climbed to 24 people Monday after rescue workers discovered the corpse of an elderly Jewish woman beneath the rubble of a damaged portion of one synagogue, city officials said.

Police used a torn passport found at the scene of one explosion and two false documents used to register the trucks used in the attacks to identify the potential suspects, according to Turkish media.

One of the men had been detained by police during past operations against a domestic Islamic militant group that originally asserted that it had carried out the suicide car bombings. On Saturday, Turkish officials discounted those claims, saying the group was not capable of planning such a well-coordinated assault, and on Sunday two London-based Arabic-language newspapers received separate statements claiming al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks.

The initial findings by police and the multiple claims of responsibility in the case underscored the difficulty of assigning blame in the often-disjointed operations of international terrorism. "You can easily say it was done by al Qaeda because there is no such thing as a hierarchy in al Qaeda now," said Fehmi Koru, a columnist for the newspaper Yeni Safak, which has close ties to Turkey's ruling party. "Anybody can be from al Qaeda."


http://slate.msn.com/id/2091318/

Terrorist Whodunits
Was al-Qaida responsible for the bombings in Istanbul and Riyadh?

Saturday's Istanbul synagogue bombings in which 24 people were killed, coming so soon after a car-bomb attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were seen by many regional papers as the work of al-Qaida. The Israeli government saw a more pervasive evil, drawing a link between what happened in Turkey and anti-Semitism in the Arab world and Europe.

This attracted the interest of the London-based Al-Hayat, which headlined its story: "Israel Links the Two Attacks in Istanbul to 'Provocations' in the Arab and Muslim States." The paper went on to quote Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom saying, during a visit to Turkey Sunday, that there was a connection between verbal and criminal terrorism. Beirut's Al-Mustaqbal, owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, had a different take, arguing that Israel was trying to take advantage of the bombings to improve relations with Turkey. The paper's Istanbul correspondent wrote that Shalom had met with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, and "called for Israeli-Turkish coordination in fighting terrorism; however his invitation did not provoke much response from Gul, who said the attacks were directed against all Turks, not only Jews." Significantly, Shalom did not meet Turkey's prime minister, and while the Beirut paper was too eager to interpret this as an indication of tension between the two countries, the moderate Islamists at the head of the Turkish government have indeed been more ambiguous about Turkish-Israeli relations than their predecessors.

Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the blasts in a statement sent to the London-based Arabic-language daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi that asserted, "the attacks were carried out by 'the Abu Hafs Masri Brigades,' " named for a former associate of Osama Bin Laden's. According to a senior Israeli political source in Istanbul quoted in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, "n recent weeks the Turkish authorities had received forewarning of intentions on the part of terror organizations to mount attacks against Jewish targets in and that similar information had reached the security services in Israel, including the Mossad." However, the paper added, "Defense establishment sources … again denied yesterday that the Mossad had relayed a warning to the Turkish authorities regarding possible attacks on synagogues." Turkish papers also mentioned early warnings of attacks, with the daily Milliyet observing in its Saturday edition: "The first sign of the attacks on the synagogues was seen a month ago. There was an increase in threats against our Jewish citizens."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,12700,1087424,00.html

In Turkiye, Yilmaz Oztuna warned that if the bombers had hoped to scare Turkey into embracing Islamic militancy, they had failed. "We cannot make concessions to terrorism, so we will only become more closely aligned with Washington. Moreover, this anti-semitic attack - something unfamiliar and alien in Turkey - will also lead to greater rapprochement with Israel." Al-Qaida, if it were behind the bombing, was targeting Turkey's ruling party, the moderate Islamic Justice and Development (AK) party, argued the Turkish Daily News. "Al-Qaida feels parties such as AK are the greatest obstacle between it and radicalism," said the paper. "It knows that with AK in power it can never create a Taliban-type administration in Turkey."

There were, however, more suspicious observers. The Islamic fundamentalist paper Vakit argued that al-Qaida would not launch an attack that would work against its own interests. Therefore, one had to wonder whether the CIA and Mossad were behind the bombings. A commentary piece in Milliyet noted that "this attack might have aimed to once again engage Turkey in Iraq and ensure it pursues policies that are more amenable to the US and Israel."

In the same paper, Fikret Bila argued that the real issue was how to prevent such attacks in future. Washington, he argued, should not fight terror with warfare. Instead, it must tackle global poverty. "If the social and economic roots aren't eliminated, there is no hope of stopping terrorist groups."


http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap11-16-224648.asp?reg=EUROPE

Sources in Turkey's southeast, a heavily Kurdish region, said the two suspects cited in the NTV report came from Bingol province, a hotbed of activity by Hezbollah, a Turkish extremist group that has carried out numerous killings in its drive to establish an Islamic state. The Anatolia news agency said the man was a member of the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders-Front, or IBDA-C _ the same group which Turkish officials said did not have the capacity to carry out such a large scale attack.

In a separate report, NTV said police found pieces of Turkish and Pakistani passports believed to belong to the attackers, but it did not explain why one of the Turks would have Pakistani documents.

Some analysts believe Saturday's attacks were meant as a warning to Turkey's Islamic-rooted government against continuing close relations with Israel and the West. Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation and NATO member, has close relations with Israel, including joint military exercises. Israeli has also helped modernize Turkey's military equipment.

''If they're thinking this might change (Turkey's) police toward the United States and Israel, they are gravely mistaken,'' said Sami Kohen, a newspaper columnist and prominent member of Istanbul's 25,000-member Jewish community.


http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20031117184508296

Blair Defends Bush’s Controversial Visit to UK
Despite public uproar, Bush and Blair remain strong allies

LONDON – British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted Monday that he stood by his decision to invite President George Bush to visit the UK this week despite mounting controversy from anti-war protesters and other demonstrators.

Departing from a prepared speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in Birmingham, he said that he strongly believed now was the right time for Bush to come to London.

"If we assess what has happened yesterday in Turkey, again many innocent people murdered, many more injured, and put that together with what happened in Saudi Arabia and in the bombing of the UN and Red Cross, this is the right moment for us to stand firm with the United States in defeating terrorism wherever it is," Blair said.

"Now is not the time to waver, now is the time to see it through," he said, while also strongly defending his government’s role as a bridge between the US and Europe.


http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/7286180.htm

Bombings undercut terrorist claims that they act in defense of Islam
BY RON HUTCHESON
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - President Bush on Monday sought to drive a wedge between al-Qaida terrorists and devout Muslims as governments around the world reacted to threats of more terrorist attacks like Saturday's in Istanbul. Without specifically commenting on al-Qaida's threat to use car bombs against the United States and its allies, Bush said Saturday's bombings undercut terrorist claims that they are acting in defense of Islam. Bush noted that most of the 24 victims in Saturday's attacks on two synagogues were Muslims.

"They claim they're religious people, but they're not. Religious people do not murder innocent citizens," Bush said during a White House meeting with a group of Iraqi women. "They just kill. They're trying to create fear and chaos."

Some U.S. intelligence analysts believe the recent al-Qaida attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which killed more Muslims than Christians and Jews, could backfire by undermining public support for Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization in the Muslim world.

"In order to make their Islamic revolution, they need to win significant numbers of people who are less violent than they are over to their side, the way (the Ayatollah) Khomeini did in Iran," said one U.S. official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "But these kinds of attacks (in Saudi Arabia and Istanbul) may make more enemies than friends."


http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=15173

ISTANBUL - Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu has said that drivers of explosives-laden trucks, which were used in Saturday's twin bomb attacks on Istanbul's two famous synagogues, could not be identified yet.

''We are taking into consideration every possibility, including the possibility that the local groups might have links with international groups, al-Qaida, or they might have used subcontractors, to carry out the twin attacks,'' he added.


http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=404599§ion=news

Turkey believes net closing in on bombing suspects
Mon 17 November, 2003 22:57

In Washington President George W. Bush said the Istanbul bombings showed al Qaeda was indiscriminate in its attacks. "We are seeing the nature of al Qaeda," Bush said. "The bombings in Istanbul, I was told today, may have taken more Muslim lives than any other religion. They just kill. And they're trying to create fear and chaos."

DNA tests were under way on the badly mutilated corpses of the two men found near the bombed synagogues to confirm their identities and even possibly if they were the bombers. Anatolian said one of the two bodies was thought to be that of a member of a little known group called the Islamic Movement. The other was believed to be the brother of the detained owner of one of the two vans used in the attacks. He was known to police as a member of the Turkish militant group the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders-Front (IBDA-C), the news agency said.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said the attacks were masterminded by a "foreign source".

"There is no organisation in Turkey that could have carried this out by itself," he told Vatan newspaper.


http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/7285056.htm

Powell Links Turkey Bombings to al-Qaida
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday the truck bombings that devastated two Jewish synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, had "all the fingerprints that we would expect of an al-Qaida operation."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s991196.htm

Turks blame local militants for blasts
By Middle East correspondent Jane Hutcheon

Turkish police now believe the suicide bombers who carried out the weekend attacks on two Istanbul synagogues may have been Turkish militants.

The identities of two bodies recovered from the scene have been linked to a local underground movement. Earlier, Turkish authorities claimed that the bomb attacks were the work of an international organisation.

The two bombers have been named as Mesut Cabuk and Azad Ekinci, both previously known to police as having links with radical Turkish Islamic groups.

One of the men identified was caught on a security camera at the Neve Shalom Synagogue.


http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=67059&Sn=WORL

Turkey slams 'crocodile tears' over terror blasts

ANKARA: Turkey called again yesterday for a united international effort to combat terrorism and slammed unnamed nations for shedding "crocodile tears" over the deadly bombings on two Istanbul synagogues on Saturday.

"Those who committed this are not human, they are not Muslims ... Turkey will continue to fight terrorism with determination to the very end," Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said, after a cabinet meeting.

Cicek, who is also the government's spokesman, also delivered a tirade on what he said were double standards that nations apply to global terrorism and charged that some countries - which he refused to name - have long supported "terrorists" targeting Turkey. "Turkey has long called for co-operation and a joint stance against terrorism... Unfortunately, Turkey has been left alone in its struggle against terrorism," Cicek said.

He was referring mainly to separatist Kurdish rebels, who have waged a bloody 15-year war on the Ankara government, with the conflict claiming about 36,500 lives until a unilateral ceasefire was declared in 1999.


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/international/europe/18TURK.html?ex=1069736400&en=6ea923db6ddefa31&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Suspicion has focused on Al Qaeda, though Turkish officials say they expect to find some local involvement. The government said that it was assessing the credibility of a claim of responsibility by an obscure Qaeda-linked group, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, but that the group had made false assertions in the past.

The bombing has raised anxiety here that the violence in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East will spread to Turkey as it has in the past.

The Turkish government has an interest in implicating international terrorists in the attacks because such a threat would enhance the country's position as a partner in the American-led campaign against terror and validate its own efforts against Kurdish guerrillas in the southeastern part of the country. Turkey has been criticized for that effort, which many people in the West regard as politically motivated and excessively repressive.

Finding that the attacks were carried out by domestic Islamic terrorists, on the other hand, would reflect badly on the governing Judgment and Development Party, which grew out of an earlier, now disbanded conservative Islamic party.

[stickdog]

1. What? No debunking antipathy?

I feel so unloved.

[DUreader]

2. lol

its alot of material, folks are probably still reading it