Another article:
Turkey Foils Plot to Bomb Nato Summit Attended by Blair and Bush
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2873643 Turkey claimed today it had foiled a plot by al-Qaida linked militants to launch a bomb attack on a Nato summit in Istanbul next month that Tony Blair and George Bush are to attend.
Sixteen men linked, suspected members of Ansar al-Islam, a group linked to Osama bin Laden’s terror network, appeared in a Turkish provincial court today where the local governor said the attack plan has been “rendered ineffective.”
The men were arrested in an operation last Thursday in the north-western province of Bursa, said Governor Oguz Kagan Koksal. The suspects were also planning to attack a synagogue in Bursa and rob a bank to raise funds for the group, he said.
Nine others were detained in a simultaneous raid in Istanbul. They were questioned today, but later released, officials said.
The crackdown on the group comes amid heightened security in Turkey in the run-up to the summit on June 28/29, following a string of bombings in Istanbul in November.
More than 60 people were killed when suspected members of a Turkish al-Qaida cell bombed two synagogues, a London-based bank and the British Consulate. Turkish officials have charged 69 suspects in connection with the bombings. Their trial starts later this month.
Istanbul’s governor, Muammer Guler, insisted today that the city, which will also host the Eurovision song contest later this month, and a meeting of foreign ministers from Islamic countries in June, is safe.
“There is no question of a situation that will affect the Nato meeting,” Guler said. “We have taken every precaution.”
The 16 arrested men, believed to be member of the al-Qaida linked group Ansar al-Islam, today appeared in a Bursa court, where they face charges including membership in a terrorist group, possession of explosives, violating gun laws and holding fake identity documents.
Koksal said the suspects in Bursa were caught following yearlong police surveillance.
The group’s leader, identified as Alpaslan Toprak, was among those held, he said. Television footage showed him being escorted by police, grinning.
Koksal said police also seized equipment to make remote-controlled bombs, guns, books on bomb-making, forged identity documents and CDs that served as training manuals.
“The group, which was in the middle of an attack plan, has been rendered ineffective,” the governor said.
Some of the suspects surveyed the site of a synagogue in Bursa as well as that of a bank, Koksal said.
He said the suspects planned to flee to Iraq to fight US troops there once they had carried out a major attack in Turkey.
An Islamic group based in northern Iraq also goes by the name Ansar al-Islam and is suspected of bombings in Irbil that left 109 dead in February.
A police official said the Turkish group and the northern Iraq group shared “the same ideology and tactics.” The Turkish group increased in size following in reaction to the US war in Iraq, the official said.
Dogu Ergil, a professor of political science at Ankara University said such plots were not unusual ahead of high profile events like the Nato summit.
“The stage is important. The number of spectators is important. The Nato summit in Istanbul is an ideal stage for such a terrorist act to be staged,” he said.
Earlier this month, authorities rounded up dozens of alleged members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, in simultaneous raids in Turkey, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The crackdown was seen as the results of increased international security cooperation before the Nato summit and the Athens Summer Olympics.
According to Turkish newspapers, more than 30,000 police and other security forces, including hundreds of snipers, are expected to be on duty at the summit. Police are also reportedly keeping a close eye on anti-war, anti-globalisation, and various leftist groups ahead of the summit, fearing they could stage protests or attacks.
The NATO summit will be the first since Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia joined the alliance in April to increase its membership to 26 countries
Please keep President Bush in your prayers.