Posted on 05/20/2004 1:26:07 AM PDT by MN_Mike
CIA tipped off Turkey over al-Qaeda plan to attack NATO
ANKARA: Turkey received a tip-off from the CIA over an alleged al-Qaeda plan to attack the June 28-29 NATO summit in Istanbul, to be attended by US President George W Bush, ahead of the arrest of suspected militants this month, the Milliyet newspaper reported Wednesday.
The CIA reportedly told Turkish authorities that the al-Qaeda network was planning a "large-scale" attack during the summit and that explosives were dispatched to Istanbul from northern Iraq, Milliyet said, without citing a source. A police spokesman contacted by AFP declined to comment.
The tip-off was received prior to April 30 when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a security meeting with senior officials, Milliyet said. Shortly afterwards, Turkish police rounded up 25 people in Istanbul and nearby Bursa, thought to belong to the northern Iraq-based radical group Ansar al-Islam, an alleged ally of al-Qaeda, on suspision that they were plotting a bomb attack on the NATO summit. A search at the suspects’ homes and offices in Bursa netted home-made pipe bombs, materials used for making explosives, CDs featuring Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants in training and subversive documents.
The newspaper did not specify whether the May 3 crackdown was directly linked to the intelligence received from the CIA. Six of the suspects were put in jail on charges of "belonging to an illegal organisation," while the remaining 19 men were released. Fears of terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, have been heightened since four suicide bombings targeted two synagogues, the British consulate and the HSBC bank in the city last November.
More than 60 people were killed and hundreds injured in the carnage, which officials blamed on local Islamic extremists with links to al-Qaeda. According to Milliyet, the CIA told Turkish police that the alleged plot against the NATO summit was being coordinated by a Saudi man named Muhammed Mustapha, who was using a false Yemenite passport.
Also involved in the plot was a Yemenite national, Muhammed Aziz, who was allegedly at the helm of Al-Qaeda activities in Iraq, the daily said.
I thought the Kurds control Northern Iraq?
If they used sleep deprivation on these guys, it could backfire on us.... /sarcasm
The CIA did this? But I was told they are a bunch of extreme ultra-nationalist James-Bond-Wannabe's who only work to insure the importation of heavy drugs into minority neighborhoods? I guess someone got it wrong.
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