Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "Debka recently reported that the Turks captured an airbase in northen Iraq, and American bases have been set up in eastern Jordan, others confirmed it."
Here's the news from Debka:
2. Two days later, on Wednesday night, August 8, Turkey executed its first major military assault inside Iraq. DEBKAfile’s military sources learn from Turkish and Kurdish informants that helicopters under US, British and Turkish warplane escort flew Turkish commandos to an operation for seizing the critical Bamerni airport in northern Iraq. This airport, just outside the Kurdish region, lies 50 miles north of the big Iraqi oil cities of the north, Kirkuk and Mosul. With the Turkish commandos was a group of US special forces officers and men. Bamerni airport was captured after a brief battle in which a unit of Iraqi armored defenders was destroyed, opening the airport for giant American and Turkish transports to deliver engineering units, heavy machinery and electronic support equipment, which were put to work at once on enlarging the field and widening its landing strips.
The American unit, reinforced, went on to capture two small Iraqi military airfields nearby.
The Turkish expeditionary force in northern Iraq now numbers some 5,000 men, in addition to Turkish air force contingents.
(temp) debka.com
And sure enough, Turkey does have 5,000 men (and tanks) in Kurdistan. Here's verification from the Kurdish Observer:
Turkish military is playing dangerous
Kurdish Observer, July 17, 2001
...
5,000 soldiers in the South
Meanwhile, it has been reported that 5,000 Turkish soldiers and 100 tanks have crossed into South Kurdistan. It was reported that the aforementioned tanks and soldiers were positioned in the Qoysanjak region, while 12 TIR trucks, said to be civilian, entered the city of Suleymaniya.
...
kurdishobserver.com
The only problem is that the Kurdish Observer is from a year before the Debka article. I wouldn't call that timely. Plus, Debka is deliberately bamboozling their readers by failing to mention that (1) Turkish actions against the Kurds are ongoing, or (2) that Turkey has a longstanding agreement with Iraq allowing this. Turkey is taking care of their (and Baghdad's) business, not toppling Saddam (like Debka wants to believe).
You want logic? If these actions are so much against Iraq, then how come Iraq isn't making a big ruckus at the UN? The truth is that Debka's breaking news story is ancient history.
Now when was it that Turkey moved into Bamerni??? August 8th, you say, according to Debka??? Why don't you click on these links and find out how many years the Turks have been in Bamerni:
burn.ucsd.edu
burn.ucsd.edu
burn.ucsd.edu
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! LOL!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
This is a classic example of what Debka does. They take some unimportant military detail, like the importation of gas mask components into Israel, and blow it all out of proportion.
Now, if Debka is so f'ing brilliant, and so together on what is going on in the Middle East, then why didn't they tell you that the Turks have been in Bamerni for 4 years, and that Turkey had twice as many men in Iraq 4 years ago as they have now? Answer: They're not trying to educate anyone, they're just a right wing Israeli fantasy playmate organization. They're living in dream land.
-- Carl |
