Turkey and the United States are preparing a joint operation to capture leaders of the PKK terrorist organization holed up in the northern Iraqi mountains, according to an article in the Washington Post published on Monday. The article written by prominent columnist Robert D. Novak says this is "Bush's Turkish gamble."
| Two strikes already: WaPo and Novak. |
According to the article high-level U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish terrorists and capture their leaders. It said the aim of the US is to "forestall Turkey from invading Iraq" by helping it with this covert activity.
Novak said while detailed operational plans are necessarily concealed, the broad outlines have been presented to select members of Congress as required by law. "U.S. Special Forces are to work with the Turkish army to suppress the Kurds' guerrilla campaign. The Bush administration is trying to prevent another front from opening in Iraq, which would have disastrous consequences. But this gamble risks major exposure and failure."
He said the Turkish initiative reflects the temperament and personality of George W. Bush. Novak said "significant cross-border operations surely would bring to the PKK's side the military forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the best U.S. ally in Iraq. What is Washington to do in the dilemma of two friends battling each other on an unwanted new front in Iraq?"
He said a surprising answer was given in secret briefings on Capitol Hill last week by Eric S. Edelman, a former aide to Vice President Cheney who is now undersecretary of defense for policy. Edelman, a Foreign Service officer who once was U.S. ambassador to Turkey, revealed to lawmakers plans for a covert operation of U.S. Special Forces to help the Turks neutralize the PKK. They would behead the terrorist organization by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years.
Novak reported Edelman's listeners were stunned. "Wasn't this risky? He responded that he was sure of success, adding that the U.S. role could be concealed and always would be denied. Even if all this is true, some of the briefed lawmakers left wondering whether this was a wise policy for handling the beleaguered Kurds, who had been betrayed so often by the U.S. government in years past."
| Always denied, maybe, but it'd be splashed all over WaPo and the NYT, and the Dhimmis would run with stories of 'Bush assassionation squads'. |
The Novak article came a day after Egemen Bagis, foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Turkish forces were prepared to mount operations against the PKK who are based in Iraq, because the US had failed to intervene. "We are hoping we will not have to do it. We are hoping that our allies will start doing something, but if they don't we don't have many options," he told England's Daily Telegraph.
The US must appreciate that Turkey was prepared to go into Iraq, even if such a move put it on collision course with Washington, which is desperate not to destabilize the Kurdish region of Iraq, Bagis added. "We would not ask anyone's permission," he said.
A poll last week by the US-based Pew organization found that 72 percent of Turks regarded terrorism as the key issue facing the country. The same poll showed that only 9 per cent of Turks had a positive view of the US, with more than three quarters concerned that the Americans could pose a military threat to their country. Many Turks believe that the US has been supporting the Kurdish militants. |