BREAKING: TURKEY TO INVADE NORTHERN SYRIA; White House STANDS DOWN KURDISH DEFENSE
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bloomberg.com
Did Turkey Know Where Baghdadi Was Hiding?
By Eli Lake
5-7 minutes
Some U.S. intelligence analysts have their suspicions.
By
,
November 1, 2019, 12:00 AM EDT
Did Turkey see this coming?
Photographer: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP
Did Turkey see this coming?
Photographer: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP
Photographer: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP
As U.S. intelligence analysts comb through electronic and paper documents seized last weekend from the lair of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one question is foremost on their minds: How was the Islamic State leader able to find refuge in a Syrian province secured by the Turkish military and its proxy forces?
Three U.S. national security officials told me that they want to know more about Turkey’s knowledge of Baghdadi’s whereabouts. One important task for the team now going through the material seized in the Baghdadi raid and another raid that killed organization’s spokesman, Abul Hassan al-Muhajir, is to map out the relationship between Turkey’s intelligence service and Islamic State.
Both men were hiding close to the Turkish border in Syrian territory. Muhajir was found in Jarabulus, a town in the Aleppo province patrolled by Turkish forces. Baghdadi was found in Idlib province, where there are numerous Turkish military checkpoints.
It’s possible, of course, that two of the most wanted terrorists in the world managed to slip under the noses of a NATO ally. But U.S. intelligence officials are suspicious. And this suspicion is based not just on where Muhajir and Baghdadi were found in Syria.
In the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the Turkish intelligence service allowed foreign recruits from Europe and Africa to travel through Turkey into Syria. At the time, Turkey pursued a policy of regime change in Syria, supporting many jihadist fighters against the government of Bashar al-Assad.
More recently, the U.S. government identified at least one senior Islamic State official as based in Turkey. The U.S. Treasury noted in August 2017 that the organization’s finance minister had relocated from Iraq to Turkey earlier that year. As one U.S. official who works closely on Syria policy told me: “Turkey has done everything in its power to support the worst actors in the Syrian civil war.”
Tom Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told me the Turks have been known to raid al Qaeda and Islamic State safehouses and redoubts. More often, he said, U.S. sources find cases of jihadists “roaming free,” raising the question of what Turkey’s real policy is on Islamic State.
All of this invites a comparison to Pakistan. In the 1980s, the CIA worked with Pakistan to support jihadist rebels fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, just as in the first years of the Syrian civil war the CIA indirectly supported jihadist elements fighting the Assad regime. Over time, U.S. interests diverged from those of its ally, with the rise of al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan and Islamic State in Turkey. Osama bin Laden was found in 2011 in Abbottabad, where Pakistan’s most prestigious military academy is located. Baghdadi was found in Idlib, an area of Syria under responsibility of the Turkish military.
To this day, the U.S. government has not accused Pakistan’s intelligence services of hiding bin Laden, though the U.S. military considers elements of Pakistan’s military intelligence services to be working with the Taliban in Afghanistan. And in the eight years since the raid on Abbottabad, once-strained U.S.-Pakistani relations have stabilized; earlier this year, Trump invited the Pakistani prime minister to the White House.
A similar dynamic may soon play out with Turkey. Trump has invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House this month, although Erdogan said he may not accept the invitation after the House passed a resolution condemning Turkey for its role in the Armenian genocide. Meanwhile, the Turkish military has violated an earlier cease-fire in northern Syria and resumed its campaign against Kurdish civilians, according to Syrian Kurdish leaders.
It was Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, remember, that cultivated the source that was able to find Baghdadi. U.S. intelligence analysts may soon find out if the Turks knew where he was all along.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
@88m3 @ADevilYouKhow @wire28 @dtownreppin214
@dza @wire28 @BigMoneyGrip @Dameon Farrow @re'up @Blackfyre @NY's #1 Draft Pick @Skyfall @2Quik4UHoes
bloomberg.com
Did Turkey Know Where Baghdadi Was Hiding?
By Eli Lake
5-7 minutes
Some U.S. intelligence analysts have their suspicions.
By
,
November 1, 2019, 12:00 AM EDT
Did Turkey see this coming?
Photographer: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP
Did Turkey see this coming?
Photographer: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP
Photographer: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP
As U.S. intelligence analysts comb through electronic and paper documents seized last weekend from the lair of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one question is foremost on their minds: How was the Islamic State leader able to find refuge in a Syrian province secured by the Turkish military and its proxy forces?
Three U.S. national security officials told me that they want to know more about Turkey’s knowledge of Baghdadi’s whereabouts. One important task for the team now going through the material seized in the Baghdadi raid and another raid that killed organization’s spokesman, Abul Hassan al-Muhajir, is to map out the relationship between Turkey’s intelligence service and Islamic State.
Both men were hiding close to the Turkish border in Syrian territory. Muhajir was found in Jarabulus, a town in the Aleppo province patrolled by Turkish forces. Baghdadi was found in Idlib province, where there are numerous Turkish military checkpoints.
It’s possible, of course, that two of the most wanted terrorists in the world managed to slip under the noses of a NATO ally. But U.S. intelligence officials are suspicious. And this suspicion is based not just on where Muhajir and Baghdadi were found in Syria.
In the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the Turkish intelligence service allowed foreign recruits from Europe and Africa to travel through Turkey into Syria. At the time, Turkey pursued a policy of regime change in Syria, supporting many jihadist fighters against the government of Bashar al-Assad.
More recently, the U.S. government identified at least one senior Islamic State official as based in Turkey. The U.S. Treasury noted in August 2017 that the organization’s finance minister had relocated from Iraq to Turkey earlier that year. As one U.S. official who works closely on Syria policy told me: “Turkey has done everything in its power to support the worst actors in the Syrian civil war.”
Tom Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told me the Turks have been known to raid al Qaeda and Islamic State safehouses and redoubts. More often, he said, U.S. sources find cases of jihadists “roaming free,” raising the question of what Turkey’s real policy is on Islamic State.
All of this invites a comparison to Pakistan. In the 1980s, the CIA worked with Pakistan to support jihadist rebels fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, just as in the first years of the Syrian civil war the CIA indirectly supported jihadist elements fighting the Assad regime. Over time, U.S. interests diverged from those of its ally, with the rise of al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan and Islamic State in Turkey. Osama bin Laden was found in 2011 in Abbottabad, where Pakistan’s most prestigious military academy is located. Baghdadi was found in Idlib, an area of Syria under responsibility of the Turkish military.
To this day, the U.S. government has not accused Pakistan’s intelligence services of hiding bin Laden, though the U.S. military considers elements of Pakistan’s military intelligence services to be working with the Taliban in Afghanistan. And in the eight years since the raid on Abbottabad, once-strained U.S.-Pakistani relations have stabilized; earlier this year, Trump invited the Pakistani prime minister to the White House.
A similar dynamic may soon play out with Turkey. Trump has invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House this month, although Erdogan said he may not accept the invitation after the House passed a resolution condemning Turkey for its role in the Armenian genocide. Meanwhile, the Turkish military has violated an earlier cease-fire in northern Syria and resumed its campaign against Kurdish civilians, according to Syrian Kurdish leaders.
It was Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, remember, that cultivated the source that was able to find Baghdadi. U.S. intelligence analysts may soon find out if the Turks knew where he was all along.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
@88m3 @ADevilYouKhow @wire28 @dtownreppin214
@dza @wire28 @BigMoneyGrip @Dameon Farrow @re'up @Blackfyre @NY's #1 Draft Pick @Skyfall @2Quik4UHoes
Jhoon
Spontaneous Mishaps and Hijinks
Maybe we never really left? Maybe it was all political theatre to have it appear that the Republicans in Congress can really stand against the president now while absolve his from his treason later.
Well Russian just admitted last week we never left the oil fields in Syria and they were pissed off because they really thought we left completely.
It was all show
Jhoon
Spontaneous Mishaps and Hijinks
That’s why I didn’t understand the vote. Why give the republicans an easy out? Vote only for what we want you to vote on. Impeachment and stfu.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
The New York Times
17 mins ·
Breaking News: In a searing memo, the top U.S. diplomat in northern Syria criticized the Trump administration for not trying harder to prevent Turkey’s invasion.
About this website
BREAKING
17 MINS
NYTIMES.COM
U.S. Envoy in Syria Says Not Enough Was Done to Avert Turkish Attack
In an internal memo, the senior American diplomat in northern Syria criticized the Trump administration for failing to try harder to deter Turkey from invading northern Syria last month.
17 mins ·
Breaking News: In a searing memo, the top U.S. diplomat in northern Syria criticized the Trump administration for not trying harder to prevent Turkey’s invasion.
About this website
BREAKING
17 MINS
NYTIMES.COM
U.S. Envoy in Syria Says Not Enough Was Done to Avert Turkish Attack
In an internal memo, the senior American diplomat in northern Syria criticized the Trump administration for failing to try harder to deter Turkey from invading northern Syria last month.
apnews.com
Turkey says it captured slain IS leader's sister in Syria
By SARAH EL DEEB
2-3 minutes
BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey captured the elder sister of the slain leader of the Islamic State group in northwestern Syria on Monday, according to a senior Turkish official, who called the arrest an intelligence “gold mine.”
Little is known about the sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Turkish official said the 65-year-old known as Rasmiya Awad is suspected of being affiliated with the extremist group. He did not elaborate.
Awad was captured in a raid Monday evening on a trailer container she was living in with her family near the town of Azaz in Aleppo province. The area is part of the region administered by Turkey after it carried out a military incursion to chase away IS militants and Kurdish fighters starting 2016. Allied Syrian groups manage the area known as the Euphrates Shield zone.
The official said the sister was with her husband, daughter-in-law and five children. The adults are being interrogated, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.
“This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine. What she knows about (IS) can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys,” the official said.
Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi from Samarra, was killed in a U.S. raid in the nearby province of Idlib last month. The raid was a major blow to the group, which has lost territories it held in Syria and Iraq in a series of military defeats by the U.S-led coalition and Syrian and Iraqi allies.
Many IS members have escaped through smuggling routes to northwestern Syria in the final days of battle ahead of the group’s territorial defeat earlier this year, while others have melted into the desert in Syria or Iraq.
The reclusive leader al-Baghdadi was known to be close to one of his brothers, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hamza.
Al-Baghdadi’s aide, a Saudi, was killed hours after the raid, also in northwestern Syria, in a U.S. strike. The group named a successor to al-Baghdadi days later, but little is known about him or how the group’s structure has been affected by the successive blows.
Turkey says it captured slain IS leader's sister in Syria
By SARAH EL DEEB
2-3 minutes
BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey captured the elder sister of the slain leader of the Islamic State group in northwestern Syria on Monday, according to a senior Turkish official, who called the arrest an intelligence “gold mine.”
Little is known about the sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Turkish official said the 65-year-old known as Rasmiya Awad is suspected of being affiliated with the extremist group. He did not elaborate.
Awad was captured in a raid Monday evening on a trailer container she was living in with her family near the town of Azaz in Aleppo province. The area is part of the region administered by Turkey after it carried out a military incursion to chase away IS militants and Kurdish fighters starting 2016. Allied Syrian groups manage the area known as the Euphrates Shield zone.
The official said the sister was with her husband, daughter-in-law and five children. The adults are being interrogated, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.
“This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine. What she knows about (IS) can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys,” the official said.
Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi from Samarra, was killed in a U.S. raid in the nearby province of Idlib last month. The raid was a major blow to the group, which has lost territories it held in Syria and Iraq in a series of military defeats by the U.S-led coalition and Syrian and Iraqi allies.
Many IS members have escaped through smuggling routes to northwestern Syria in the final days of battle ahead of the group’s territorial defeat earlier this year, while others have melted into the desert in Syria or Iraq.
The reclusive leader al-Baghdadi was known to be close to one of his brothers, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hamza.
Al-Baghdadi’s aide, a Saudi, was killed hours after the raid, also in northwestern Syria, in a U.S. strike. The group named a successor to al-Baghdadi days later, but little is known about him or how the group’s structure has been affected by the successive blows.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
The Hill
·
National security adviser Robert O’Brien defended the U.S. response to Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria, adding that the Trump administration is "very upset” about the county's purchase of Russian missiles, saying “there will likely be sanctions” if Turkey does not “get rid of” the weapons.
About this website
THEHILL.COM
Trump administration 'very upset' about Turkish purchase of Russian missiles
O’Brien added that Trump remains “very concerned” about possible Turkish war crimes in northern Syria after the president pulled troops from the country.
·
National security adviser Robert O’Brien defended the U.S. response to Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria, adding that the Trump administration is "very upset” about the county's purchase of Russian missiles, saying “there will likely be sanctions” if Turkey does not “get rid of” the weapons.
About this website
THEHILL.COM
Trump administration 'very upset' about Turkish purchase of Russian missiles
O’Brien added that Trump remains “very concerned” about possible Turkish war crimes in northern Syria after the president pulled troops from the country.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Washington Post
1 hr ·
In the month since Turkey intervened to drive U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters from a broad swath of northern Syria, proxy forces backed by Ankara have been blamed for a growing ledger of abuses against the local population, residents say, undermining Turkey’s stated goal of creating a “safe zone” for civilians.
About this website
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
‘Filled with hatred and a lust for blood’: Turkey’s proxy army in northern Syria accused of abusing civilians
1 hr ·
In the month since Turkey intervened to drive U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters from a broad swath of northern Syria, proxy forces backed by Ankara have been blamed for a growing ledger of abuses against the local population, residents say, undermining Turkey’s stated goal of creating a “safe zone” for civilians.
About this website
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
‘Filled with hatred and a lust for blood’: Turkey’s proxy army in northern Syria accused of abusing civilians
Isn't this a U.K. issue
Are we still allies?
