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| Terror Networks |
| 162 Turkish officers ordered jailed in coup trial |
| 2011-02-12 |
| You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind's blowing. A Turkish court ruled Friday that 133 current and former military officers must be jailed pending the outcome of their trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government and issued warrants for the arrests of 29 other officers, Anatolia news agency reported. Security forces immediately closed all courthouse doors and detained the defendants, including the former air force and navy chiefs, broadcaster NTV reported. The officers began chanting military songs to protest the court's decision, the TV station reported. The officers, including several high-ranking generals, are on trial accused of conspiring to topple Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government in 2003. All but one officer had been free until Friday's hearing. The case marks the government's increasing confidence in confronting a military that once held sway over Turkish political life. The arrests of high-ranking military officers would once have been unimaginable. The military, which has overthrown three Turkish governments since 1960 and pressured a government to step down in 1997, has denied such a plot, saying documents used as evidence were from a military training seminar during which officers simulated a scenario of internal strife. I'd take even money that more Egyptian officers know this than American. I wonder when the halal torturing begins. Claire Berlinski comments here. It's every bit as bad as we think. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #2 Well, you can kiss that secular military good bye. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-02-12 19:52 |
| #1 Without a secular military to restrain them, Turkey becomes an Islamic theocracy overnight. And if the military ever gets the upper hand, it will have to kill each and every Islamist in the country. Something they should have done as a standard policy since 1960. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-12 18:15 |