May 21, 2013

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for intelligence agency

Benghazi e-mails show ‘no conspiracy,’ expert says

May 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

986229f96e88496f5d884de8171e1ea5 Benghazi e mails show no conspiracy, expert says

Story Highlights

Republicans say editing process misled Americans
Former ambassador Thomas Pickering has been called to testify
Four people died in the attack in Libya

(PhatzNewsRoom / ) — E-mails released by the White House that describe how the CIA’s assessment of the Benghazi attack was edited to exclude any mention of terrorism appear to be part of a routine process by Washington bureaucrats, says a former who used to take part in such processes.

“There’s no conspiracy here that I can see,” said Reuel Marc Gerecht, now an analyst at the . “It’s just how the U.S. government works.”

But Republicans say the editing process wound up misleading Americans when the final version of the CIA assessment made no mention that the attack was a pre-planned assault by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.

The ’s assessment was alluded to by the Obama administration in claims now proved false that the attack was not terrorism but sprang from a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam video on the Internet.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says the editing represented “grappling” between the State Department and the CIA, which wanted it known that it warned the Obama administration of terror threats in the region. State said in the e-mails that her “leadership” didn’t want to appear to have ignored the warnings.

“That resulted in more inaccuracies,” Chaffetz said. “It’s right before the election, nobody wants to take the blame, and the casualty is the truth. Truth was not the primary or we wouldn’t have gotten this fiction.”

In the latest news, House oversight committee chairman Rep. , R-Calif., issued a Friday for former ambassador Thomas Pickering to testify about his role in the of its actions before, during and after the Sept. 11 attack.

Pickering co-chaired the Accountability Review Board, which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appointed to look into allegations that State failed to protect its staffers and refused added security in the weeks leading up to the attack.

In a letter to Pickering, Issa called the board’s investigation process “opaque” and says he had to subpoena Pickering because he refused to submit documents requested by the committee or appear before committee staffers for a transcribed interview.

House Republicans want to know how the White House and State Department came up with a false narrative about an attack by al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Benghazi that killed Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three others. The narrative wound up in talking points given to Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who insisted the attack was a protest gone awry.

The CIA’s first unclassified assessment of the Benghazi attack said “we believe… the attacks in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo,” which occurred on Sept. 11. That wording, which proved to be false, was kept in the final CIA memo on the attacks. But references to the attack being the work of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, which U.S. counterterrorism officials say is what happened, were removed.

The editing process shows administration officials, such as Nuland, questioning the basis of that and other assertions in the CIA assessment. They show White House officials, such as Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor, then-spokesman for the national security adviser, insisting that State’s concerns be addressed.

At least 16 named officials and 13 unnamed officials or offices in the departments of Justice, State, CIA, the of Intelligence and the White House participated in the process.

“They’re deleting references to Ansar al Sharia,” a Libyan al-Qaeda affiliate whose members the CIA said it knew were involved in the attack “because that’s what government bureaucrats do,” Gerecht said. “They’re trying to be precise, to be overly meticulous. Unless you know for sure you don’t say it.”

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Turkey says Syrian forces behind border town bombings

May 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

alt turkey span articleLarge v2 Turkey says Syrian forces behind border town bombings

(Reuters) – Turkey believes fighters loyal to -Assad were behind two car bombings that killed 46 people in a Turkish border town where thousands of Syrian refugees live, officials said on Sunday.

Authorities have arrested nine people, all Turkish citizens and including the alleged mastermind, after the bombings in Reyhanli on Saturday, Besir Atalay told reporters.

Foreign Minister said those involved were thought also to have stage an attack on the Syrian coastal town of Banias a week ago in which at least 62 people were killed.

The increased fears that Syria’s civil war was dragging in neighboring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending two years of fighting in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.

“The attack has nothing to do with the Syrian refugees in Turkey, it’s got everything to do with the ,” Davutoglu said in an interview on TRT television.

“We should be careful against ethnic provocations in Turkey and Lebanon after the Banias massacre,” he said.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zubi denied any Syrian involvement and rejected what he called “”.

The conflict has inflamed a confrontation between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims in the Middle East, with Shi’ite Iran supporting Assad, and Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia backing the rebels.

Banias is a Sunni pocket in the midst of a large Alawite enclave on Syria’s . Activists in the area accuse militias loyal to Assad, an Alawite, of ethnic attacks.

Reyhanli has become a logistics base for the rebels fighting Assad just over the border and the thousands of Syrian refugees there are mostly Sunni.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the attacks had been carried out by a group known to the and with direct links to Syria’s Mukhabarat .

The bombs ripped into crowded streets near Reyhanli’s shopping district in the early afternoon on Saturday, scattering concrete blocks and smashing cars as far as three blocks away. Among the dead were 35 Turks and three Syrians, Atalay said.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zubi, speaking on Syrian state TV, accused Turkey of responsibility for the bloodshed in Syria by aiding al Qaeda-led rebels. He denied any involvement by Damascus in the bombings in Turkey.

“Syria did not and will never do such a act because our values do not allow this. It is not anyone’s right to hurl unfounded accusations,” he said.

FEARS OF BACKLASH

The bombings too place as prospects appeared to improve this week for diplomacy to try to end the war after Moscow and Washington announced a joint effort to bring government and rebels to an international conference.

They also highlight the strain the war and the refugee exodus are placing on neighboring states, with local people resentful over stretched economic resources and the risk of violence. Turkey is housing more than 300,000 refugees.

Protests erupted in Reyhanli after the blasts, with some blaming Syrian residents for bringing violence over the frontier and others railing against Turkey’s foreign policy.

Some smashed the windows of cars with Syrian number plates.

“We don’t want the Syrians here anymore. They can’t stay here. Whether we even wanted them or not, they can’t stay after this,” said a teacher in Reyhanli, who gave his name as Mustafa.

He said the government’s Syria policy was to blame.

“It’s Tayyip Erdogan politics that have done this. Turkey should never have got involved in this mess. We have a 900 km border with Syria. They come and go in wherever they like. Everyone here is in fear.”

NATO-member Turkey has fired back at Syrian government forces when mortars have landed on its soil but despite its strong words has appeared reluctant to bring its considerable military might to bear in the conflict.

(Additional reporting by Mehmet Emin Caliskan in Reyhanli, Ece Toksabay in Istanbul, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Breaking News: 42 killed in blasts near Turkish-Syrian border

May 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Breaking News: 42 killed in blasts near Turkish Syrian border
People carry injured people from one of explosion sites after several explosions killed at least 40 people and injured dozens in Reyhanli, near Turkey’s border with Syria.(Photo: Cem Genco, AP)

(PhatzNewsRoom / AP) — report that and were responding to a third blast in a town near the where two car bombs already killed 42 people and caused more than a 100 injuries.

Turkey’s said Syria’s intelligence and military were “the usual suspects” behind the bombings, but said authorities were still investigating the attacks.

There were no reports of additional casualties at this point, said Ilhan Tanir, Washington correspondent and for the Turkish daily Vatan. Turkish TV channel NTV reported that the third explosion went off about a quarter mile from the where the other blasts occurred, Tanir said.

“I can see on TV, people are trying to understand what’s going, if there are other bombings on the way,” he said.

The initial blasts, which were 15 minutes apart, raised fears that Syria’s brutal civil war violence was crossing into its neighbor.

One of the car bombs exploded outside the city hall while the other went off outside the post office in the town of Reyhanli, a main hub for Syrian refugees and rebel activity in Turkey’s , just across the border. Images showed people frantically carrying victims through the rubble-strewn streets to safety.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said about 40 people were killed and 100 others wounded in the blasts and linked them to Syria. There was no immediate information on the identities or nationalities of the victims.

“We know that the Syrian refugees have become a of the Syrian regime,” he said. “Reyhanli was not chosen by coincidence.”

“Our thoughts are that their mukhabarat (Syrian ) and armed organizations are the usual suspects in planning and the carrying out of such devilish plans,” he said.

Arinc said Turkey would “do whatever is necessary” if proven that Syria is behind the attack.

Tanir said the town is walking distance from the Syrian border town of Idlib, has been the scene of recent clashes between long-term residents and Syrian refugees who have flooded the town since civil war erupted in Syria two years ago, said Tanir, who’d been there in August.

It is in Hatay Province, where a half million residents share the Alawite religion of Syria’s ruling clan, and where in recent months there have been protests against Turkey’s rulling party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Tanir said violent spillover from Syria has been limited, considering that up to 500,000 refugees have streamed into Turkey, including some that thought to be Syrian .

The timing of the attack, about a week after Israeli airstrikes reportedly destroyed a shipment of Iranian missiles destined to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, is similar to another that Turkish intelligence officials tied to Syria’s Assad regime after a similar Israeli airstrike in January.

That bombing, at Cilvegozu, killed 12 people and injured 28 on the Turkish side of a rebel-held Syrian border crossing, according to the New York Times. The previous Israeli airstrike occurred on Jan. 30.

“it’s a pattern, it doesn’t mean a definite link,” Tanir said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier also raised the possibility that the bombings may be related to Turkey’s peace talks with Kurdish rebels meant to end a nearly 30-year-old conflict.

Syrian mortar rounds have fallen over the border before, but if the explosion turns out to be linked to Syria it would be by far the biggest death toll in Turkey related to its neighbor’s civil war.

Syria shares a more than 500-mile border with Turkey, which has been a crucial supporter of the Syrian rebel cause. Ankara has allowed its territory to be used as a logistics base and staging center for Syrian insurgents.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed from Berlin that Turkey would act.

“Those who for whatever reason attempt to bring the external chaos into our country will get a response,” he said.

The main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the “terrorist attacks” in Reyhanli, saying it stands together with the “Turkish government and the friendly Turkish people.”

The coalition sees “these heinous terrorist acts as an attempt to take revenge on the Turkish people and punish them for their honorable support for the Syrian people,” it said.

Reyhanli is a center for aid and alleged weapon trafficking between Turkey and Syria, as well as for Syrian rebel activity. Apart from refugees living in camps, many Syrians escaping the civil war have also rented houses in the town.

The explosions came days before Erdogan is scheduled to travel to the U.S. for talks, which are expected to be dominated by the situation in Syria.

“This … will increase the pressure on the U.S. president next week to do something to show support to Turkey when Erdogan visits him in Washington,” said Soner Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute. “Washington will be forced to take a more pro-active position on Syria, at least in rhetoric, whether or not there is appetite for such a position here.”

Abdullah, a Reyhanli resident, told The Associated Press he heard two strong explosions at about 1 p.m. “The bombs were very powerful,” he said by telephone.

The frontier area has seen heavy fighting between rebels and the Syrian regime. In February, a car bomb exploded at a border crossing with Turkey in Syria’s Idlib province, killing 14. Turkey’s interior minister has blamed Syria’s intelligence agencies and its army for involvement.

Four Syrians and a Turk are in custody in connection with the Feb. 11 attack at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post. No one has claimed responsibility, but a Syrian opposition faction accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group.

In that bombing, most of the victims were Syrians who had been waiting in an area straddling the frontier for processing to enter Turkey.

Tensions flared between the Syrian regime and Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side, prompting Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. to send two batteries of Patriot air defense missiles each to protect their NATO ally.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Breaking News, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Update – NATO: 7 Americans killed in Afghanistan

May 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

1a03880d9b7fb3155b8d9c69125be481 Update NATO: 7 Americans killed in Afghanistan

Story Highlights

The U.S. servicemembers were killed on Saturday by a
It’s the latest attack against NATO troops since Taliban announced spring offensive
The coalition did not disclose the location of the blast

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Seven U.S. were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans in Afghanistan in recent months, as the Taliban continued attacks against foreign troops as part of their spring offensive.

The renewed violence came as acknowledged at a news conference that regular payments his government has received from the CIA for more than a decade would continue. Karzai also said that talks on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral to govern future American military presence in the country had been delayed because of conditions the Afghans were placing on the deal.

The U.S.-led coalition reported that five were killed by a roadside bomb in , and coalition spokesman Capt. Luca Carniel confirmed that all five were American.

The coalition did not disclose the location of the roadside bombing. However, Javeed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said the coalition patrol hit the bomb in the Maiwand district of the province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Later, the coalition reported that a soldier with the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on coalition troops in the west, killing two in the most recent of so-called . Such attacks by members of the Afghan against their fellow colleagues or international troops have eroded confidence in the Afghan forces as they work to take over from foreign forces.

Both killed were American, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the nationalities ahead of an official announcement.

It was the fourth time since last summer that seven Americans have been killed on a single day in the war.

On March 12, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed outside Kandahar, killing five U.S. troops. Two more U.S. troops were killed that day by an insider attack.

And on April 6, Afghan militants killed six Americans, including a young female diplomat, and an Afghan doctor in a pair of attacks in southern Afghanistan. The three U.S. service members, two U.S. civilians and the doctor were killed when the group was struck by an explosion while traveling to donate books to a school. A seventh American, a civilian, was killed in a separate insurgent attack in the east.

On Aug. 16, 2012, seven American service members were killed in two attacks in Kandahar province. Six were killed when their helicopter was shot down by insurgents and one soldier died in a roadside bomb explosion.

At the news conference, Karzai said he had met earlier in the day with the Kabul of the CIA and was reassured that the agency’s payments to the Afghan government would continue. The New York Times had reported that for more than a decade, the CIA had given the Afghan National Security Council tens of millions of dollars in monthly payments delivered in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags.

Karzai said he told the station chief: “‘Because of all these rumors in the media, please do not cut all this money because we really need it. We want to continue this sort of assistance.’ And he promised that they are not going to cut this money.”

Karzai described the payments as a form of “government-to-government” assistance, and while he wouldn’t say how much the CIA gave to the of Security, which is the Afghan intelligence service, he said the financial help was very useful. He claimed that much of the money was used to care for wounded employees of the NDS, Afghanistan’s intelligence service, and operational expenses.

“We have spent it in different areas (and) solved lots of our problems,” Karzai said.

He said the CIA payments were made in cash and that “all the money which we have spent, receipts have been sent back to the intelligence service of the United States monthly.”

The CIA declined to comment on Saturday.

During the news conference at the presidential palace, Karzai also discussed ongoing negotiations on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement. He said talks had been delayed because of certain conditions that Afghanistan was insisting be included in the pact, which will govern a U.S. military presence after 2014 when nearly all foreign combat troops are to have finished their withdrawal from Afghanistan. The talks, which started in late 2012, are set to last up to a year.

President Barack Obama has not said how many troops will remain, although there have been estimates ranging from 8,000 to 12,000. It is unlikely such an announcement will be made until the security agreement is signed. Those troops would help train Afghan forces and also carry out operations against al-Qaida and other militant groups.

Karzai said Afghanistan was ready to sign a deal as long as the American government in exchange for being able to stay on bases in the country agrees to terms of Afghan security, funding assistance and help with training and equipping Afghan security forces. It is thought that the contentious issue of providing U.S. troops immunity from Afghan law is a low priority for the Afghan government in the negotiations.

The Afghan government has not said how much rent it would want for three or four U.S. bases, but it is believed to be in the billions. Afghanistan is also thought to be seeking security guarantees to protect its porous borders, including the frontier with Pakistan that is the main infiltration route for insurgents who retain sanctuary in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.

It was unclear how Karzai expected the United States or any of its allies to guarantee Afghanistan’s borders against attack.

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Breaking News, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Karzai urges Taliban to fight Afghan enemies after Pakistan clash

May 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

25004acd7a5bd01df54cb0f3a79e1464 Karzai urges Taliban to fight Afghan enemies after Pakistan clash

(Reuters) – called on the Taliban on Saturday to fight Afghanistan’s enemies in what was widely seen as a swipe against Pakistan days after the neighbors’ clashed on their border.

Karzai’s remarks are likely to unsettle already shaky ties with Pakistan and come as the United States wants Pakistan to help Afghanistan persuade the Taliban to engage in ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of next year.

“Instead of destroying their own country, they should turn their weapons against places where plots are made against Afghan prosperity,” Karzai told reporters in the capital, Kabul, saying this was “a reminder for the Taliban”.

“They should stand with this young man who was martyred and defend their soil,” he said, referring to a border who was killed in the Wednesday night clash on eastern Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Two were wounded.

Hundreds of men took to the streets of the eastern Afghan town of Asadabad on Saturday, near where the clash took place, to protest against both Pakistan and the United States.

A day earlier, thousands of men in Kabul rallied in support of the Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have had since Pakistan was formed in 1947, at the end of over India. Afghanistan has never officially accepted the border between them.

Pakistan helped the Taliban take power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Many Afghan leaders say Pakistan is still helping the , seeing them as a tool to counter the influence of its old rival, India, in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies helping the militants and says it wants peace and stability in its western neighbor.

Karzai also revealed that he had spoken earlier on Saturday to the CIA’s Kabul station chief, asking that the intelligence agency continue to provide payments to his country.

He was report in the New York Times late last month that said his office has been receiving so-called ghost money from the CIA for more than a decade.

“Just this morning I met with the station chief of the CIA in Kabul and I thanked him for the support given to us in the past 10 years and I asked him to continue the support,” he said, adding that the money was “flowing to” Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the of Security.

“In the situation of Afghanistan where there is so much need … it proves extremely helpful.”

The New York Times said the money was meant to buy influence for the CIA but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni; Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman and Dylan Welch; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Insurgents launch 4 attacks in Afghanistan

February 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Insurgents launch 4 attacks in Afghanistan

Story Highlights

claimed responsibility for the bombing near
In Kabul. a shootout between and a would-be attacker
Other bombings in outlying provinces

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A series of early morning attacks hit Sunday, with three separate in outlying provinces and a shootout between security forces and a would-be attacker in the capital city of Kabul.

The attacks were a reminder that insurgents are still going on the offensive even as U.S. and other international forces draw down. All four attacks Sunday appeared to Afghan forces, who have been suffering higher casualties this year. Afghan soldiers and police are easier targets than their because their checkpoints and bases are less fortified.

The deadliest attack Sunday was a suicide car bombing at a site just after sunrise in the eastern city of . In that attack, a car approached the gate of a compound used by the National Directorate of Security and exploded, killing two guards and wounding three others, said regional government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai. The building was damaged in the attack, he added.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Shortly before the Jalalabad attack, an assailant detonated a van packed with explosives at a highway police checkpoint in province, also in the east. That explosion wounded three police officers but no one was killed, said Deputy Police Chief Rais Khan Abdul Rahimzai.

In Kabul, meanwhile, police shot and killed a would-be suicide bomber who was trying to attack an intelligence agency office downtown, according to the city’s deputy police chief, Gen. Mohammad Daud Amin. spotted the bomber before he could detonate the explosives in his vehicle and shot him, Amin said.

The explosives in the vehicle were later defused, he added.

Later in the morning, a man wearing a suicide vest blew himself up outside the police headquarters for Baraki Barak district in Logar province. The man was stopped by police as he tried to force his way into the building, but still managed to detonate his vest, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, the provincial government spokesman.

One policeman was wounded in the Baraki Barak attack, Darwesh said.

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NATO to help implement Karzai air strike decree: NATO commander

February 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

4f0e6833f45506e16ab67f226ff56691 NATO to help implement Karzai air strike decree: NATO commander

() – NATO will work with the country’s defence leadership to implement a ban by on Afghan forces using in residential areas, the new in Afghanistan, U.S. General Joseph Dunford, said on Sunday.

Karzai announced on Saturday that he would issue a decree banning Afghan from requesting NATO air strikes on “Afghan homes or villages”, following the deaths of 10 civilians in the eastern province of Kunar last Wednesday.

The NATO air strike had been requested by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, Karzai said on Saturday.

In his first meeting with reporters since assuming command of NATO’s Force (ISAF) a week ago, General Dunford said he would work out the details of how to implement Karzai’s order.

“We got the broad guidance from the President, and we will work out the details in the coming days,” he said at the heavily guarded ISAF headquarters, several hundred meters from Karzai’s palace.

Karzai’s decree was expected to be issued on Sunday and paralleled a “tactical directive” issued by ISAF in June last year, which forbade from using air strikes against insurgents “within civilian dwellings”, Dunford said.

That directive was issued days after 18 civilians were killed during a NATO air strike in eastern Logar province.

A meeting was planned between Dunford, Afghan Defence Minister Bismillah Khan and Afghan Chief of General Sher Mohammad Karimi later on Sunday to discuss the ban’s “technical aspects”, he said.

NATO air strikes that cause civilian casualties have become a significant in relations between Karzai and his international backers as the United States and Afghanistan enter negotiations about the size of the once most international troops depart by the end of next year.

The limiting of air strikes will place further pressure on the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces as they assume security control from international forces.

Foreign air power is crucial for Afghan forces in areas near Pakistan’s border, like Kunar and Nuristan, which are covered with forests and rough terrain, making ground operations difficult.

(Reporting By Dylan Welch; Editing By Ron Popeski)

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Kurd militants end hunger strike in Turkey, deal seen

November 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

64215075 turkey Kurd militants end hunger strike in Turkey, deal seen

() – Hundreds of Kurdish ended a hunger strike in jails across Turkey on Sunday in response to an appeal from their leader, fuelling hopes a deal had been struck that could revive talks to end a decades-old conflict.

Workers Party () leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his supporters to end their protest after holding a series of discussions with Turkish MIT intelligence , according to one media report.

Top MIT officials have held secret meetings with senior PKK representatives in Oslo in recent years and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in September more talks were possible.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in of fighting between Turkey and the PKK – designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.

Ocalan’s call for an end to the hunger strike, which militants staged to demand an end to his isolation in an island prison south of Istanbul, was announced by his brother on Saturday.

“On the basis of our leader’s call … we end our protest as of November 18, 2012,” Deniz Kaya, a spokesman for the jailed PKK militants, was quoted as saying in a statement by an association representing the inmates’ families.

The announcement was welcomed by the government, which had been increasingly worried any deaths during the hunger strike might provoke more violence.

“I hope we will not face such protests from now on. Turkey is a democratic country,” was quoted as telling reporters by state-run Anatolian news agency.

“Whatever demands the people have, the government and politicians can air them in parliament,” he added.

A newspaper said on Sunday talks between Ocalan and Turkish over the last two months had paved the way for his appeal to end the protest, which lasted 68 days.

“A delegation went to Imrali on three occasions. A senior MIT official joined one of these visits and Ocalan’s intervention was sought to end the hunger strike,” the liberal daily Radikal said. It did not identify its sources.

Fighting between the PKK and Turkish forces surged over the summer. Ankara has linked the renewed hostilities to the conflict in neighboring Syria and accused -Assad of arming the PKK.

In the latest violence, five Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK fighters in Hakkari province near the border with Iraq on Sunday, security sources told Reuters.

MOST DEMANDS NOT MET

Ocalan, imprisoned on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea south of Istanbul since his capture in 1999, has significant support among Kurds but is widely reviled by Turks who hold him responsible for the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984.

According to justice ministry figures, about 1,700 people had been taking part in the hunger strike. Kurdish politicians said the inmates were now receiving medical treatment.

There was no indication their demands had been met.

As well as end to Ocalan’s isolation and limited access to lawyers, they had demanded greater use of the Kurdish language in schools and other institutions.

Erdogan’s government has boosted Kurdish cultural and language rights since taking power a decade ago. But Kurdish politicians are seeking greater political reform, including steps towards autonomy for mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.

Addressing one of the protesters’ demands, the government has submitted to parliament a bill allowing defendants to use Kurdish in court testimony.

Seven leading Kurdish politicians, mostly from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), had joined the hunger strike over the last week.

“We hope this call will pave the way for the next process, which is to end (Ocalan’s) isolation … The Kurdish problem should be resolved by dialogue and deliberation,” BDP leader Selahattin Demirtas told reporters late on Saturday.

(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bombing kills at least 6 in central Kabul / U.S. to blacklist Pakistan-based Haqqani as terrorists

September 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

bc978d0c78ecc74afbeabd78b4f6cb81 Bombing kills at least 6 in central Kabul / U.S. to blacklist Pakistan based Haqqani as terrorists

( News / USA Today) — KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan authorities say a suicide bomber has blown himself up near in Kabul, killing at least 6 people.

Kabul Amin says the U.S. Embassy, the Italian embassy and the presidential palace are also located near the site of Saturday’s attack.

The Ministry of Interior says six people were killed and five others were wounded.

The attack came as Afghans celebrated the 11th anniversary of the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the charismatic Northern Alliance commander who was killed in an al-Qaeda suicide bombing two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The alliance joined with the United States to help rout the Taliban after America invaded Afghanistan a month later in the wake of the attacks.

7ce2fa4a86a589809f0d1911689f762f Bombing kills at least 6 in central Kabul / U.S. to blacklist Pakistan based Haqqani as terrorists

U.S. to blacklist Pakistan-based Haqqani as terrorists: NYT

(Reuters) – The United States is preparing to designate the Pakistan-based Haqqani network as a terrorist group as early as Friday, the said on its website.

The Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe with strongholds in southeastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, have been blamed for an attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul and other high-profile assaults in Afghanistan.

The United States accuses Pakistan’s intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country.

Pakistan denies the allegations.

A senior Pakistani security official said the Haqqani network would be counterproductive and put unnecessary pressure on , a strategic U.S. ally.

“If the United States wants to have a with Pakistan, then this is a bad move,” the official told Reuters. “This will push Pakistan into a corner.”

In June, Defense Secretary said the United States was reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan because of the that groups like the Haqqanis found there.

Designation by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would bring sanctions such as criminal penalties for anyone providing material support to the group and seizure of any assets in the United States.

The Obama administration is facing a congressional deadline this weekend to determine whether the network met the criteria for such designation.

The New York Times said senior officials who argued against blacklisting the group were concerned it could further damage relations with Pakistan and possibly jeopardize the fate of U.S. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl who is being held by the .

But State Department and military officials who argued for the designation believed it would help curtail the group’s fund-raising activities in countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and pressure Pakistan to act against the militants, the newspaper said.

“This shows that we are using everything we can to put the squeeze on these guys,” one administration official involved in the process told the New York Times on condition of anonymity. The newspaper said four administration officials late Thursday said the government was going ahead with the designation.

Asked for comment on the New York Times story, a senior State Department official said: “As she (Hillary Clinton) noted earlier this week, the Secretary expects to send her report on the Haqqani network to Congress today, September 7, and announce her decision regarding designation of the Haqqani network.”

Clinton was wrapping up an Asia-Pacific trip and was headed to the APEC summit in Vladivostok in Russia.

MAFIA

The Haqqanis run a sophisticated and diverse financial network comparable to a mafia group, according to a July report by the Center for Combating Terrorism.

It said the group raised money through kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking but also had a business portfolio that included import/export, transport, real estate and construction interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf.

But the group had never had to deal with a sustained attack on their finances, author Gretchen Peters said, and might be vulnerable to cash flow chokepoints and attacks on its small and centralized command structure.

“Network leaders appear to be as motivated by profit-making as they are driven by issues like revenge, honor and ideology,” the report said.

Formal designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would increase pressure on the Pakistani government, but any actual effects beyond that were unclear since most of the Haqqani leaders have already been blacklisted individually.

In Kabul, a government spokesman said any move by Washington against the Haqqanis was welcome.

“This will be a major step by the United States against the Haqqani network who are still plotting for dangerous and destructive attacks against us,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Andrew Quinn, Katherine Houreld and Michael Georgy in ISLAMABAD and Hamid Shalizi in KABUL; Editing by Jackie Frank and Nick Macfie)

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pakistani officials: U.S. drones killed key militant

August 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

a71db70e0062192f03cccea3311d5668 Pakistani officials: U.S. drones killed key militant

(AP) — Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed Thursday that a U.S. strike last week near the killed the son of the founder of the powerful militant network, a major blow to one of the most feared groups fighting American troops in Afghanistan.

Badruddin Haqqani, who has been described as the organization’s day-to-day operations commander, was killed on Aug. 24 in one of three strikes that hit militant hideouts in the Shawal Valley in Pakistan’s , said two senior intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The presence of the mostly Afghan Haqqani network in North Waziristan has been a major source of friction between Pakistan and the U.S. The Obama administration has repeatedly demanded Pakistan prevent the group from using its territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan, but Islamabad has refused — a stance many analysts believe is driven by the country’s strong historical ties to the Haqqani network’s founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani.

The Pakistani intelligence officials didn’t specify which strike on Aug. 24 killed Badruddin, but said he was leaving a hideout when the U.S. missiles hit. The confirmation of his death came from their sources within the Taliban, which is allied with the Haqqani network, and agents on the ground, they said. But neither the officials nor their sources have actually seen Badruddin’s body.

Pakistani intelligence officials previously said they were 90 percent sure Badruddin was killed in a drone strike in a different part of North Waziristan on Aug. 21. It’s unclear what caused the discrepancy.

Afghanistan’s said several days ago that its had confirmed Badruddin’s death, but did not provide any details. A senior Taliban commander has also confirmed the militant’s death.

A in Afghanistan, Zabiullah Mujahid, has however rejected reports of Badruddin’s death, calling them “propaganda of the enemy.”

The U.S. does not often comment publicly on the covert CIA drone program in Pakistan and has not said whether Badruddin was killed.

The areas where the American drone strikes generally occur are extremely remote and dangerous, making it difficult for reporters or others to verify a particular person’s death.

Badruddin is considered a vital part of the Haqqani structure. He is believed to be the network’s day-to-day operations commander, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War.

The U.S. State Department has designated Badruddin, along with his father and brothers — Nasiruddin and Sirajuddin — as terrorists. The State Department said in May 2011 that Badruddin sits on the Miram Shah Shura, a group that controls all Haqqani network activities and coordinates attacks in southeastern Afghanistan.

Badruddin is also believed to have been responsible for the 2008 kidnapping of reporter David Rohde, the department said.

After their father effectively retired in 2005, Badruddin and his brother Sirajuddin expanded the network into kidnapping and extortion, both highly profitable for the organization, according to a recent report by the West Point, N.Y.-based Combating Terrorism Center. Afghan intelligence authorities have released intercepts of Badruddin orchestrating an attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in 2011, the CTC said.

The U.S. has long viewed the Haqqani network as one of the biggest threats to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as the country’s long term stability. The group has shown little interest in negotiating with the Washington, and has pulled off some of the highest-profile and most complex attacks in Afghanistan, although not necessarily the most deadly.

The Pakistani military has refused to target the Haqqani network, saying its troops are stretched too thin fighting militants at war with the state in other parts of the tribal region. But many analysts believe the military views the group as an important potential ally in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw. Pakistan worked closely with Badruddin’s father, Jalaluddin, during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Also Thursday, fighting continued for a seventh day between security forces and Taliban militants who came from Afghanistan to attack an area in northwest Pakistan, officials said. The fighting in the Bajur tribal area killed eight militants, two anti-Taliban militiamen, a soldier and a female civilian, said a local political official, Nazimeen Khan.

A total of 73 militants, 14 militiamen, 10 soldiers and 11 civilians, including six women and four kids, have been killed in the week of fighting in the Salarzai area of Bajur, said Khan.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, gunmen shot to death a Shiite Muslim judge along with his bodyguard and driver Thursday in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, said senior police official Wazir Khan Nasir. The police suspect it was a sectarian killing, he said.

Extremist Sunni Muslims have been killing Shiites with increasing frequency in Baluchistan and other parts of Pakistan.

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts