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| Europe | ||
| Tracing the trail of radical Turks | ||
| 2003-11-26 | ||
| Follow-up to Asia Times story from yesterday with some more information, this time from CNN. As investigators continue to probe who may have orchestrated the string of deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul this month, authorities are pointing the finger at Turkish radicals with links to conflicts in Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Tap, tap, tap ... anybody surprised? Officials fear extremist Turks who’ve been waging conflict abroad, have brought their fight home. Investigators say the trail of the Istanbul suicide bombers starts in Turkey, leads through Chechnya and Bosnia, along with Afghanistan and Iran, before ending back in Turkey. With the exception of Bosnia, that pretty much makes it the usual suspects, all you need is a Pakistani link (which the bombers may already have) and Saudi funding and the picture is complete. Turkish media have reported that one of the bombers in the November 20 suicide blasts at the HSBC bank and the British consulate was a Turk believed to have fought with Islamic radicals in Afghanistan and Chechnya. All in the name of Armed Struggle(TM), no doubt ... But authorities are seeking to answer whether the Turkish bombers were lone actors or did larger terrorist groups such as al Qaeda manipulate them. My guess would be the latter. The synagogues could easily work for homegrown extremists, but the British consulate and that bank? Most Turkish Islamist krazed killers generally direct their struggle more against folks who aren’t towing the line or against the government than against foreigners, even as an attention ploy. Though Turkish leaders have said it is too early to confirm al Qaeda’s involvement in the blasts at the British targets or earlier bombings at two synagogues, officials say the attacks bear the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden’s terror network. CNN has learned a coalition of Arab, Israeli and European investigators working the case strongly suspect that Abu Musab al Zarqawi helped organize the Turkish attacks. Like Fred said, he’s the pivot guy. Though Zarqawi is a close associate of bin Laden, he directs his own network of terrorist groups. So did Hanbali, who was involved in everything ranging from MILF to Abu Sayyaf to Jemaah Islamiyyah to God knows what else in Southeast Asia and he was still taking orders from Binny. So does Zulkarnaean, if his bio was anything to judge by. Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is the leading suspect in the suicide bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad on August 7. He is also believed to be a leader of the Iraqi terror group known as Ansar al-Islam. The U.S. has posted a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. I think we can also probably lay the UN HQ bombing, the multiple police station/Red Cross booms, and the Nasiriyah suicide bombing at his doorstep with a fair degree of certainty ... Zarqawi has been named by the Bush administration as an al Qaeda terrorist who fled to Iraq from Afghanistan in May 2002 for medical treatment and then stayed to organize terror plots with Ansar al-Islam. Intelligence sources suspect Zarqawi is now hiding in neighboring Iran. He’s in good company, given how many other al-Qaeda top brass seem to be hanging out in the same place. Maybe he’s important enough to be "in custody" again ... They say he also plays a lead role for two radical Islamic groups who operate in southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border — Turkish Hezbollah and an equally dangerous and reclusive group called Beyyeat al-Imam, or Allegiance to the Imam. According to Middle Eastern intelligence agencies, members of all three groups trained in Zarqawi’s camp in Afghanistan from the late 1990’s until 2001. Bayat al-Imam I knew about, but al-Qaeda (or more specifically, al-Tawhid) taking over the Turkish Hezbollah is a new connection to me. I guess Zarqawi really does tie up all the loose ends ... The groups may not be al Qaeda by name, but certainly by inspiration and methodology. And cash and the slight fact that their supremo takes his marching orders from Saif al-Adel ... "Al Qaeda is not only a terrorist organization that attacked the U.S. on 9/11. Al Qaeda is also morphing into an ideology which unfortunately a lot of people have signed on for," explains terrorism analyst Peter Bergen.
I’d still like to hear someone explain to me with a straight face why these mosques are still in operation given what their congregations appear to have been up to. My God, even the Brits finally shut down Finsbury Park ... It is believed to be the same radical Islamic community in Germany that, for a time, nurtured many of the 9/11 hijackers. | ||
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #13 Watching the comment threads here and elsewhere, I see a lot of cognitive dissonance among people like NMM, who really, really, really would like all this "War on Terror" stuff to be about the warmongering militarists and their neocon ideology. How rude of you, Dan, to insist on assembling uncomfortable facts and reasonable chains of evidence that make the Islamacist threat so *vivid*. I suspect that al-Q's rather high profile threats about imminent major attacks have the left really nervous, in part because such an attack would destroy the last vestiges of closed-eyes syndrome in a dramatic way. Dan's patient work is more gradual, but it too erodes comfortable illusions and seems to leave NMM and similar minded folk more than usually frothy about the mouth lately. I truly hope a major attack does not happen, but most of us here know it's quite possible and even likely that one will be attempted. This holiday weekend is a target-rich environment in the States. |
| Posted by: rkb 2003-11-26 9:55:42 PM |
| #12 Hey NMM last I checked you weren't paying for this website so you just so you could insult people, how bout YOU tone it down a few hundred notches hmm? Your personal attacks on several different threads today are getting tiresome. |
| Posted by: Val 2003-11-26 2:39:33 PM |
| #11 NMM, I don't really see what me being a FReeper has to do with any of us this. The last I checked, anybody can post here at Rantburg, provided that it's in accordance with the posting guidelines ... even Murat. I really don't see what domestic political affiliations have to do with my ability to post news or provide analysis, so long as you take the latter into account when reading that analysis. All I can say is, if you don't like my analysis, don't read it. Same goes with the news articles that I post, if you don't like them than either don't read them or post your own. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-11-26 10:45:54 AM |
| #10 i tend to find dans posts among the more insightful ones here. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-11-26 9:56:59 AM |
| #9 RC didn't believe it the first time I read it, but after reading thru todays posts I suspect you are dead on. We made need to get a net if the employment numbers are as good. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-26 8:59:53 AM |
| #8 Anon -- I posted a theory in a comment a little above this one. Yesterday's good economic news has the left frothing; trolling and picking fights online is one way they work out their anger. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-11-26 8:42:38 AM |
| #7 No - must be you. I always shudder when muRat shows up. |
| Posted by: .com (Abu The Turkeys Com Home To Roost) 2003-11-26 8:18:05 AM |
| #6 Is this just me, or are today's comments much more tense than usual? What's the point of all that, btw? I shudder to think what will happen when Murat shows up... |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-11-26 7:33:44 AM |
| #5 Hey Moore, what's with you? You've got a personal insult for anyone who posts something you don't like? You destroy any point you try to make with your absurd junior high insults. |
| Posted by: RMcLeod 2003-11-26 6:04:45 AM |
| #4 And we know .moron is an asshat-- who has been given a free ride on Rantburg by people afraid of his spuming personal attacks---while I've reread my comments--they are more thought out than his idiotic personal attacks |
| Posted by: NotMikeMoore 2003-11-26 5:49:48 AM |
| #3 Oho kafr! Dan is a moron? And you are, what? Oh, my bad, you're the eminent authority. I've forgotten all of those deep and insightful posted articles and comments. Please forgive me, I too, thought Dan was contributing - when all along he has been duping us. Dan! You're Evil! NMM, you've saved us yet again! How can Rantburg ever repay you? The debt is so great. |
| Posted by: .com (Abu Trollslicer) 2003-11-26 5:23:14 AM |
| #2 But Dan is a Freeper moron trying to turn Rantburg into a satellite--DUH Lucky--time to buy a clue |
| Posted by: NotMikeMoore 2003-11-26 4:33:38 AM |
| #1 First I've heard that Finnsbury Park was shut down. Dan your doing top grade work. A true warrrior. Iran is the new front on this war. But how to crack that nut is something else. Iranians are not fools like SA's and Tribal Pakis. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2003-11-26 2:11:54 AM |