| This story bounced around the net all Monday. I don't know how true the threat was. |
The man, who was carrying an Al-Jazeera TV ID card in the name of M.G., confessed after his arrest that he was planning on stabbing the U.S. president with a knife during the Alliance of Civilizations summit held in Istanbul, adding that he had three other accomplices to help him execute his plan.
According to the paper, Turkish investigators were trying to verify whether the Qatari-based Arab TV channel has truly issued the ID card produced by the man, or if itÂ’s a forged copy. The suspect, a permanent resident of Istanbul, has been regularly attending all conferences and events relating to the Middle East held in the city.
Al-Watan contacted Al-Jazeera's bureau chief in Ankara, Yucef al-Sharif, who said that news of the suspect came as a complete surprise to Al-Jazeera staff in Turkey, who all claimed that they knew nothing about the man. "We learned that he (the suspect) claimed to be working for our bureau … if that has been the case then he most certainly forged our ID card,” al-Sharif told al-Watan in a phone call from Ankara.
Al-Sharif said that Turkish security services know everyone who worked in Al-Jazeera's offices in Ankara.