Turkey (& U.S. Embassy in Ankara) Hits Back at Wikileaks Accusations

[Turborama]

Source: Eurasianet

While the world awaits the big document dump from Wikileaks, some of those leaks have already been pre-leaking. One of the most explosive of those has been that the U.S. secretly aided Turkey's longtime foe the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and conversely, that Turkey had aided al Qaeda in Iraq. If true, this would obviously put some serious strain on an already strained relationship.

Hurriyet has been doing some good reporting from the Turkish side of this story and finds that, of course, all parties involved are denying that report:

“Turkey has never given support to any terrorist organization. Fighting against terror is our priority and we don’t make differentiations between terrorist organizations. Turkey has launched many operations against al-Qaeda,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told the Daily News.

Asked about the allegations that the U.S. helped the outlawed PKK, the same official said, “Turkey and the U.S. are carrying out an efficient cooperation in the fight against the PKK.”

And from the U.S. side:

Deborah Guido, spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Ankara, told the Daily News that the U.S. government’s policy “has never been nor will ever be in support of the PKK. Anything that implies otherwise is nonsense.”

Recalling that the United States considers the PKK a terrorist organization, Guido said: “Since 2007, our military cooperation with the Turkish government in fighting the PKK has shown results. The U.S. Treasury Department has also named top PKK figures as ‘drug kingpins’ in issuing further sanctions against the PKK.”

Read more: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62449

[Poll_Blind]

1. The PKK is on our OWN short list of worst terror organizations in the world.

Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, November 4, 2010

It could be problematic for the U.S. to explain exactly why it lists an organization as a key player in the War on Terra and yet be supporting them.

:shrug:

I'm sure the House and Senate would understand, riiiiiight?

PB

[wordpix]

2. well, so is ansar al-Islam, once of PKK's enemies

and our enemy's enemy is our friend, right?

[nolabear]

3. Boy I can tell it's Thanksgiving. My brain totally seized up there for a second over that headline.

[jberryhill]

4. Yeah, I hit back at the turkey for lunch today

[L.Torsalo]

5. Funny things about lies, they tend to be discovered.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hka8NDZjiLL3eZFNnvIuRrYDCJ5w

[L.Torsalo]

6. So, in the recent past, the US did back the PKK.

Turkey, US reinvigorate old partnership through fight against PKK
19 July 2010, Monday / MAHIR ZEYNALOV, İSTANBUL
As the US decides to strengthen its already existing support for Turkey in its fierce, perennial battle against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist organization by providing concrete support in addition to real-time intelligence, it seems the US is the one taking the first step to restore the once strong American-Turkish partnership. (Note: the USG only just changed their strategy...maybe)

[leveymg]

7. Sibel's friend, Mizgin, and Luke have written extensively about these relationships at Boiling Frogs

The release of the State Dept documents will show more of an incredibly convoluted stew of petroterrorism and narcoterrorism, with half a dozen global and regional powers stirring the pot.

[bemildred]

8. So they are refuting their own foreshadowing of the release which has not yet occurred? nt

[jamiefoxer]

9. I tell ya...

this guy Assange is gonna get whacked. Russian journalists got done in for less. Hell, they even got to that Ukrainian president and poisoned and disfigured him.

Taking on a government that does renditions is ballsy enough...but now he's branching out and exposing the work of governments that think NOTHING of hanging people by their balls.

I fear for his safety.

[ProudDad]

11. The genie's out of the bottle...

They wack Assange and a dozen more will pop up...

WikiLeaks is just the beginning...

My only hope is that the National Security (Corporate) State will unravel before it can finish its task of making the Earth uninhabitable for air-breathing mammals...

[jamiefoxer]

12. probably yes

but those dozen will get whacked too....

Very few people want to be "the" target for the repressive institutions of those governments. Several journalists were killed by Russia...not one.

[ProudDad]

10. You can't count on keeping secrets any more...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Fucking National Security State...

Getting what it deserves...