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 whoâve 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 arenât 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 Qaedaâs involvement in the blasts at the British targets or earlier bombings at two synagogues, officials say the attacks bear the hallmarks of Osama bin Ladenâs 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, heâs 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.
Heâs in good company, given how many other al-Qaeda top brass seem to be hanging out in the same place. Maybe heâs 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 Zarqawiâs camp in Afghanistan from the late 1990âs 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.
| The ideology is Qutbism, and amalgamation of Islam, fascism, and takfir-wal-hijra, with overtones of Trotsky. Abdullah Azzam passed it on to Binny in Afghanistan and Binny, with the money to get it running, has developed it. |
Turkey had already been in al Qaedaâs crosshairs. Richard Reid, sentenced to life in a U.S. Federal prison for plotting to blow up an American airliner with a shoe bomb, reported back to bin Laden on a scouting mission he undertook in 2001 to identify future targets. According to court documents, one of the countries he visited was Turkey. Anti-terror coalition intelligence sources tell CNN that another figure, Abu Zubayda, established a network of al Qaeda safe houses in Turkey beginning in 1998.
| Meaning they've had a structure in place since then. Now who would that structure be, do y'think? My guess would be existing Islamist organizations, maybe down on their luck, who could use a few petrodollars and a side order of ideology. |
In other developments in the Turkish investigation, authorities are tracing one more link to al Qaeda which leads to fundamentalist mosques in Germany in the heart of the expatriate Turkish community there.
Iâd 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. 
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