Dec 04

In Zuckerberg’s garden, befriend your favorite armed organizations

Internet, Middle East, Palestinian Territories, terrorist organizations, Turkey Comments Off
walled garden/wired world/who wins/damascus gate/Jerusalem

walled garden/wired world/who wins

People say the “walled gardens” of social media are more restrictive than the World Wide Web. But are you surprised at how ideologically agnostic Facebook is? I’m not.

Hamas’s military wing recently set up a Facebook page and which got  blocked,  prompting the group’s online allies in Turkey to complain.

But supporters of Hezollah and Hamas have a Facebook page. And so do allies of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Seems pretty open to me. And guess which group has more Friends?

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Nov 29

Wikileaks #2: Bob Gates, travelling salesman

Europe, Middle East, Turkey, U.S. policy Comments Off

The Wikileaks documents are most interesting in confirming long suspected stories, like:

–the Persian gulf emirates don’t trust Iran and hope for a U.S. attack on its nuclear program.

–the U.S. Secretary of Defense is an unpaid lobbyist for U.S. military contractors

During his meeting with [Turkish defense minister Mehmet] Gonul, SecDef [Robert Gates] advised that Turkey had opportunities to increase its military capabilities while gaining economic benefits by selecting U.S. companies in currently open tenders. First, Sikorsky, was prepared to guarantee that for every helicopter produced in Turkey and bought by Turkey, Sikorsky would produce a second helicopter in Turkey for export. SecDef explained that in addition to providing modern equipment for Turkey, this offer would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in export revenue.

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Nov 29

Wikileaks #1: Cooked Turkey

Europe, Turkey Comments Off

As the Post and Times coverage focuses on  Arab pressure for U.S. military action against Iran, the German and Turkish focus on long-suspected Turkish sympathy for the Islamic Republic, driven by hostility to Israel

From SPIEGEL ONLINE:

The US diplomats’ verdict on the NATO partner with the second biggest army in the alliance is devastating. The Turkish leadership is depicted as divided, and [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s advisers, as well as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, are portrayed as having little understanding of politics beyond Ankara.

The problem notes the Turkish Daily News: U.S. diplomats and Israeli officials agree that Erdogan “hates” Israel. Erdogan’s goverment wants to offer Iran a “third way” out of the nuclear confrontation, an idea the U.S. goverment loathes and dismisses.  Turkey, said one U.S. diplomat has “the ambitions of Rolls Royce but the means of Rover.”

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Jan 12

After the blast, al-Qaeda’s PR campaign

Europe, Turkey Comments Off

Starring the Turkish widow of the CIA bomber helps–Zaman (Turkey)

“… from a tactical perspective al-Balawi deceived the CIA, the Jordanian intelligence agency and the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) at the same time. It is unthinkable that MIT or police intelligence were not aware of the communication between al-Balawi and Bayrak. Bayrak reveals that her husband always said that he was planning to come and build his career in Turkey. Perhaps al-Balawi put emphasis on his plan to come to Turkey to distract the CIA and Jordanian intelligence”

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Oct 29

Look who’s siding with Iran

Europe, Middle East, Turkey Comments Off

Why NATO ally and moderately Islamic Turkey leans toward the mullahs.–Gulnar Aybet in Today’s Zaman (Turkey)

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