[Hurriyet Daily News] Yesterday, we woke up to breaking news: Three Turkish F-16 fighter jets had bombed two ISIL headquarters in northern Syria, right near the Turkish border. Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... Turkish police detained some 290 people all across the country, not all but many suspected to be Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL) members. One the detainees was the notorious Halis Bayancuk, also called "Abu Hanzala," who has been an unabashedly pro-ISIL propagandist inside The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... All these pointed to the fact that Ankara (finally) decided to see ISIL as a main national security threat, in the wake of the horrible suicide kaboom in Suruc on July 20. This was further confirmed by the government's decision to allow U.S. forces to use its base in Incirlik, southern Turkey, to launch air strikes against ISIL.
But how was the scene before that? Was Ankara in love with ISIL? Not really. But it did not get how serious of a threat it is. In fact, in its list of problems in Syria, the Assad regime came first, Syrian Kurds came second, and ISIL came as only third. In the pro-government media, you got a powerful sense that ISIL is exaggerated. Bayancuk, the gentleman placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! yesterday, was even favorably interviewed about a year ago as a "victim" of the "parallel state" -- the threat that the AKP itself apparently exaggerated to some extent.
It is good to see that this self-delusion is slowly changing. But it is a belated change. ISIL may have penetrated Turkish society in a level that the government does not want to acknowledge. Moreover, the ISIL threat in Syria provokes another long-term threat in Turkey: the PKK. Since the bombing in Suruc, the PKK assassinated two coppers in Urfa, supposedly to "take Dire Revenge." It seems that the PKK sees the AKP complicit in the ISIL threat against Kurds, and thus trumping up its own terrorism as retaliation. But this can neither be allowed nor tolerated. I understand and support, therefore, that yesterday's detainees by the police included suspected PKK hard boyz as well.
Western governments and media should understand the PKK problem of Turkey. They are, understandably, focused on ISIL right now, and seeing all "Kurds," perhaps including the PKK, as a bulwark against ISIL. That would have been nice, indeed, if the PKK followed Selahattin Demirtas's recent call "to say farewell to arms inside Turkey," and mobilize itself only to defend the Kurdish zone in northern Syria. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... since the beginning of the "grinding of the peace processor" with the Turkish government in 2012, the PKK has a hawkish faction that wants to keep its weapons, who seem emboldened after the bombing in Suruc. Turkey, therefore, has the right to be worried about both ISIL and the PKK.
What is also worrying is the very political psychology of Turkey itself. Terrorism is a major threat to modern society, and can be overcome it only by uniting on the fundamentals of peace, security, and the sanctity of human life. Turkish society, however, is so torn politically that every terror incident makes political camps more bitter against each other. People cry for the victims only if they are one of their own, rather than seeing them as fellow beings. As a part of the same political polarization, Turkey cannot form a coalition government and our political destiny is still uncertain, almost two months after June 7 elections.
In short, we Turks are in deep trouble. And the biggest part of it is that we don't have much common sense left to see what the trouble is about.
Turkish security forces Saturday launched new raids to arrest suspected IS and PKK members in Istanbul and other cities, adding to hundreds of detentions already made the day earlier.
A total of 590 people have so far been placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! across The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... over links to terror groups and for allegedly posing a threat to the state, Davutoglu said.
As well as IS and the PKK, the arrest operations also targeted suspected members of the PKK's youth wing, The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), and the Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C).
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] This column on July 22 cited the deadly suicide kaboom that killed 32 youngsters in the town of Suruc in the province of Sanliurfa on the Syrian border as a declaration of war by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... That followed with the killing of a Turkish non-commissioned officer and wounding of two troops on July 23 as a result of fire opened by some ISIL gunnies after their attempt to cross the border into Turkey was prevented by Turkish border patrols.
With the escalation of tension along the border, the Turkish government instructed the army to carry out attacks against any terrorist organization that potentially posed a threat to Turkey at a security summit late July 23. As a result of security assessments, Turkish jets pounded ISIL positions on the Turkish border in the early hours of July 24.
"We are observing activity in Syria and on the border at every moment. Turkey will show the strongest reaction to the slightest movement that threatens it," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told news hounds July 24, in a bid to show Turkey's determination in clearing its border of terrorist units.
Turkey's attack on ISIL coincided with a serious and comprehensive agreement between Ankara and Washington over the use of the former's strategic military base, Incirlik, by U.S. warplanes as well as deepening cooperation in the fight against ISIL.
The agreement, on the one hand, will allow the United States to use Incirlik and Turkish airspace to hit ISIL but on the other hand it will allow Turkey to establish secure zones inside Syria. Beyond this, as an anonymous U.S. official told the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , this move of Turkey's would be a game-changer in the Syrian theater and would surely re-balance all parameters in the region.
As the Suruc massacre has shown, however, ISIL is no longer an external threat.
Simultaneously with the aerial campaign, Turkish security forces launched an extensive raid against ISIL which also included other terror organizations like the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) in more than dozen towns. As the main transit country for imported muscle who had joined ISIL in the last one-and-half-years, Turkey unfortunately has become a ground for the world's bloodiest terrorist organization with cells operating across the country.
These cells were claimed to have helped imported muscle cross into Syria as well as provided some logistic support to the organization. There is no solid intelligence on how many ISIL members and sympathizers are in Turkey and how many of them are planning terror acts. This unfortunately makes ISIL an important internal threat that needs to be immediately dealt with and eliminated before it hits civilian targets.
But as Davutoglu suggested yesterday, Turkish security believes these three terror organizations are committing their terrorist acts simultaneously and in coordination, thus creating a sort of terrorist bloc, despite having totally different world views and political objectives.
The PKK, et al in cahoots with ISIS?? Somebody's broken into the hashish stash again.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Theater - mark my words, they are using it as a cover to mainly go after the Kurds.
#2
this is the civil war within Islam between secular and theocrat
we can help secularism win by declaring the caliphate the enemy, and those who practice sharia to be traitors. Boot them out or lock them up.
Muslims are welcome, Sharia is not.
Every Islamofascist from Boko Haram to Milf to Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Muslim Brotherhood all want the same thing: Caliphate through Sharia.
Minor differences aside, they can all be lumped under that banner, and should be, and should face the same blanket treatment.
Eradicate support bases from within the West, then eradicate abroad.
Instead we have 'multicultural' internationalists who stupidly say those who defend secular Muslims (eg turkey) against Islamofascists (eg hizb ut-tahrir) are "racists". silencing them.
#4
a) turkish leadership is not as secular as it has been in the past but the state of turkey is still a secular muslim state, with large numbers of secularists, with secular armed forces
b) turkish secularism is now being threatened by IS theocratic fascism
c) attacks on the kurds is a byproduct gift for the turks, but that does not detract from the fact that there is a civil war between secular and theocrat which is now on their doorstep
#6
grom - i wish that thinking did in inform attitudes but all i have seen since 9/11 has been official denials that islam has *anything* to do with the problem.
Not once have i seen our leaders in politics, the media or anybody given any kind of platform speak out and say sharia is the problem.
declare the caliphate the enemy, sharia the ideology and start kicking them out and locking them up.
what is the problem??? have not seen this not even once.
hizb ut tahrir roam the streets of lakemba. Sharia criminal law the 4-volume set, for sale in the bookshops there.
our banks now issue sharia-compliant products
we now eat meat slaughtered by muslim men, praying with a koran over an animal that takes 5 minutes to bleed to death, that isnt even labelled as ritually slaughtered so I have no ability to avoid it at the supermarket
i see no evidence at all that secularists are being separated from theocratic fascism, with action taken on the theocratic fascist ideology of sharia
#7
I always thought those unmarked F-4s bombing ISIS in Iraq were actually Turkish. This goes back further than the article implies.
Yep, you have the secular and the clerical fighting it out.
The secular go about their daily lives enjoying Westernized life with all of its benefits and trot dutifully and faithfully to the mosque five times a day for prayers.
The clerical want to turn back the clock like Benjamin Button and go back to the grand old days of the Turkish empire with slaves, harems, rampant disease and vast ignorance easily controlled.
Somewhere in there is the real motive for this ISIS fanaticism funded by some wealthy non-clerical states.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/26/2015 12:41 Comments ||
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#8
With respect to Turkey, when you lay down with rats and fleas, you get the plague.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/26/2015 15:05 Comments ||
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#10
...well, sort of like war on low level war on their own military establishment, Israel, the Kurds, and they've now added now ISIS. You'd think they'd try to keep the number down. Maybe they'll add the Greeks next month.
#12
Bravo, TopRev. YES -> sharia code must be crushed utterly.
Problem - steps 1 - admit there is a problem
We have not even got to first base. The security infrastructure, spy infrastructure, armed forces, politicians, media
none of them will admit there is a problem with sharia. Nobody will say: Muslims are welcome, Sharia is not.
We are thus crippled and the citizenry are left to defend themselves. Our rulers have gone on holiday. They are busy playing with the military hardware, deploying it in useless fields which don't fix the problem.
The problem is now inside our countries. We cannot even get to square 1.
This very site often carries their water for them, calling Islamofascists "Daesh" instead of their true name "Islamic state".
Always hiding Islam from the problem. NO - speak OUT. Sharia is the problem, it is part of Islam. Secular Muslims are the solution - they are also part of Islam. Pick a side and fight goddamit
[DAWN] ON July 15, the Pakistain military announced it had shot down an Indian spy drone in Bhimber, Azad Kashmire. This response seemed to have triggered a series of border skirmishes along the working boundary and the Line of Control.
Pakistain filed a complaint with UNMOGIP, the UN body responsible for observing violations of the ceasefire line. India, however, no longer recognises UNMOGIP's mandate: it has repeatedly argued that UNMOGIP's authority ended when the Simla Agreement entered into force in 1972. This treaty is well known for its focus on bilateral relations.
If India did indeed conduct a spy drone surveillance flight inside Pakistain's territory, then this intrusion would be a flagrant violation of the latter's illusory sovereignty, which is safeguarded under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. Pakistain's response of shooting down such a drone would be a legitimate exercise of its inherent right of self-defence, provided under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Pakistain also reserves the right to take proportionate countermeasures to such aggression, a response enumerated by the International Court of Justice in its seminal Nicaragua judgement on the legality of the use of force.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... India denies that its surveillance drone was ever shot down by Pakistain. With conventional weapons such claims would be verifiable, because it would be easy to trace military weapons and equipment. But with commercially available surveillance drones, such assessments are difficult. For instance, the drone shot down by Pakistain is said to be commercially available for only $1,259. Any private citizen or krazed killer outfit would have access to this relatively cheap but effective technology. Any military using drones of this kind can always put the blame on private actors and deny it ever conducted such operations in the first place. In addition, militaries can continue to use surveillance drones without any risk of personnel injury or casualties. Both these factors provide an incentive for states to clandestinely use surveillance drones against each other.
This makes this technology exceptionally dangerous, because both combative and surveillance drones become force multipliers. Drone usage for surveillance or otherwise can serve as a catalyst for propagating or escalating conflict. Currently, the international law regime regulating drones, including their proliferation, is far from adequately developed. This in turn allows states to use this technology brazenly and opportunistically, seriously challenging established norms of international law that reinforce restraint and promote peace.
For an example of how this can happen, let's examine the legal regime governing spying under International Humanitarian Law (IHL). "Espionage is defined as gathering or attempting to gather information in territory controlled by an adverse party through an act undertaken on false pretences or deliberately in a clandestine manner." While combatants normally enjoy combatant immunity and protections, a charge of espionage can strip a captured combatant on enemy territory of his or her prisoner-of-war status: enemy combatants can be punished or sentenced under national legislation for espionage after a fair trial. But surveillance drone operators never enter enemy territory and cannot be caught, even though the information gathered by them through a drone can be much more revealing and intrusive as compared to that gathered by a spy physically.
Both combative and surveillance drones are not enemy combatants under IHL. Drones cannot be tried, punished or convicted of violations of the law of war, while the identities of the drone operators are kept strictly confidential by the states employing them. Thus surveillance drone operations currently seem to lie outside the conventional framework of responsibility and accountability under international law.
The legal lacunae are resulting in serious human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... violations including the right to privacy and liberty at a domestic level and violations of state illusory sovereignty at an inter-state level. They are also triggering a global drone arms race, which will pose serious challenges for international peace and security in the near future. States might also feel they can develop or devise their own rules on drone usage, because they are not bound by the traditional restraints in customary international law governing the use of force and surveillance.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] THE commission tried to be charitable. It threw in the bit at the end that the "PTI was not entirely unjustified in requesting the establishment" of the commission. It referred to the "suspicion of a sinister design".
But we don't have to be charitable. In the end, the PTI case of mass fraud and manipulation hung on two claims. Both those claims the commission took on in detail. Both were demolished in their entirety. Both -- in the end -- were nothing more than political smokescreens.
The first one, from the commission report: "562. The PTI has alleged that the Provincial Election Commission Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... had employed 200 extra persons, picked up from the Urdu Bazar Lahore, just 48 hours before the polling and surreptitiously printed ballot papers to be delivered to unknown constituencies."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] While Israeli intelligence officials believe the Shiite organization is experiencing the most difficult phase in its history after losing some 1,300 fighters in the Syrian battlefields, its leader Nasrallah is only intensifying preparations for the next conflict with Israel. World powers' nuclear agreement with Iran could strengthen Hezbollah even more.
#5
...its leader Nasrallah is only intensifying preparations for the next conflict with Israel.
Which will result in a) Israel kicking their asses and b) ought to result in Lebanon losing a few hundred square miles of land to Israel. Then again, I just checked out the map (aping that line from Roadhouse) - I thought Lebanon was bigger.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
