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| Europe |
| Turk charged over truck bombings |
| 2003-12-19 |
| An anti-terrorism court has charged a Turk with an offense amounting to treason after authorities said he acted as a link between al Qaeda and suicide bombers who killed 62 people in Istanbul last month. Charged him already, that was fast. Adnan Ersoz, who was detained on Monday, is suspected to have been involved in the planning of the four truck bombings after meeting with Osama bin Laden, an intelligence official said Friday. Ersoz confessed that he underwent explosives training in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, the intelligence official said. Ersoz told a court Friday that he went to Afghanistan in 1997, admitted to receiving military training there, and met with bin Laden in 2001, but denied advanced knowledge of the attacks, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported. So he met Binny in 2001, not after Tora Bora. He also denied to the court that he had received orders from bin Laden to carry out the attacks, Anatolia reported. "Wasn’t me, musta bin one of those other mugs." The State Security Court in Istanbul charged Ersoz with attempting to overthrow Turkey’s "constitutional order by force," Anatolia reported. The offense amounts to treason and is punishable by life in prison. No trial date has been set. Police said in a written statement that the man was captured on Monday as he entered the country at Istanbul’s airport. The statement did not say where he was coming from or why he traveled to Istanbul. Anatolia said he came from Iran. There’s Iran again. Ersoz told the court that he had come to Turkey because he wanted to take advantage of a government amnesty that benefits those who give information about illegal organizations to authorities, Anatolia said. He admitted he knew several of the suspects in the bombings, but denied any links to them, the agency reported. "I know them, sure, but we’re not close." The police statement did not mention Ersoz by name, but Anatolia identified him as Ersoz, quoting police sources. The police statement said the man told interrogators that "a local structure has been established in Turkey" linked to "an international terrorist organization." Police also said the man said he lived abroad "and has been maintaining the link between this structure and the terrorist organization." So he admits to being the link between al-Qaeda and the Turkish cells and he’s based "abroad". If he flew in from Iran (and that would be easy to trace), then he could be the smoking gun showing al-Q higher ups are running ops out of Iran, not being "detained". The police statement did not name the "international terrorist organization," but intelligence officials said the statement was referring to al Qaeda. Ersoz was believed to be a senior member of local al Qaeda cells. Sounds like he was higher up than that. "He is one of the top guys who met with bin Laden and received his blessing for the attacks," the intelligence official said. Maybe bin Laden, the son? He’s supposed to be in Iran. It was not immediately possible to explain the discrepancy between Ersoz’s earlier testimony and his later account to the court. Earlier reports were most likely rumor. |
| Posted by:Steve |