Rice In Baghdad.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Baghdad on Jan. 15 and praised its MPs for passing on Jan. 12 the first of laws meant to reconcile warring Iraqis, saying progress was remarkable, although more was needed. Rice, travelling with President Bush on his Jan. 9-16 Middle East tour, gave one of the most upbeat assessments yet by a senior US official of political progress in Iraq during a surprise visit to meet Iraqi leaders.

The measure reversed a de-Ba'thification law, allowing non-criminal members of the formerly ruling Ba'th Party to join the state and armed forces. She said there was a "spirit of co-operation" among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, who had often frustrated the US with their failure to agree on basic issues (see rim1-IraqSunniLoyaltyJan14-06).

Al-Qaeda In Turkey: Al-Qaeda has been active in Turkey and is a potentially serious threat to its state. Its cells have penetrated the Kurds and other segments of Turkish society which are opposed to Kemalism, the secular ideology of Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey whose legacy is jealously preserved by the state's military but still not eagerly tolerated by an AKP government dominated by Islamists.

Below are extracts from an article on the subject published on Jan. 17 by The Jamestown Foundation (with underlining and bracketed explanations by APS): "While the Turkish government would describe itself as a full participant in the 'war on terror', there is a tendency by the public to view this conflict primarily as a struggle against Kurdish militants, and only to a lesser extent against al-Qaeda. Nonetheless, two recent events have linked Turkey and al-Qaeda.

"First...Israeli intelligence recently warned of a possible terrorist strike by al-Qaeda operatives against Israeli institutions in Turkey. Second, in the central Anatolian city of Aksaray, Turkish authorities took 19 people into custody that were suspected of links with al-Qaeda; five members of this group were later arrested. It is not yet clear whether the Israeli intelligence reports were accurate, though it is known that al-Qaeda has previously planned attacks against Israeli targets in Turkey.

"Al-Qaeda operatives who carried out simultaneous suicide car bombings against the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel Synagogues in Istanbul on the morning of November 15, 2003, considered their targets to be Israeli rather than Turkish, even though the 27 initial victims were largely Turkish Muslims. At his court hearing, Harun Ilhan - a top member of a Turkish al-Qaeda cell and the mastermind of the Beth Israel bombing - described Israel as the state of all Jews, Judaism as 'Zionism under the guise of religion', and clearly stated that the synagogue bombings were meant as a message to Israel.

"Five days later, on November 20, 2003, the same al-Qaeda cell detonated two additional trucks at the HSBC Bank headquarters and the British Consulate in Istanbul.

"Further investigations revealed that Turkish militants in al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan had organized a cell before...[9/11], that the Istanbul bombings were ordered...by... bin Laden and that preparations for these bombings were carried out under the guidance of Muhammad Atef - also known as Abu Hafs al-Misri - then leader of al-Qaeda's military wing. Initially, Atef assigned two targets for the Turkish militants: the Incirlik Air Base in Adana (used by the US) and an Israeli tourist ship traveling to the southern port of Antalya. The militants decided that it was impossible to stage an assault on Incirlik, and postponed an attack on the Israeli cruise ship due to a lack of intelligence.

"Two years after the...bombings, Louai Muhammad Hajj Bakr al-Saqa - an al-Qaeda operative of Syrian origin - was arrested after a failed plot to attack an Israeli cruise ship near Antalya. The court accused al-Saqa of preparing for the operation by purchasing a 6,000 euro (US$8,899) yacht called Tufan that was to be filled with explosives, making a $60,000 down payment on a villa in Antalya's Beldibi district worth $350,000 and obtaining a diver's submersible sea-scooter. The plot was foiled when al-Saqa and a Syrian accomplice were arrested after a bomb accidentally exploded in an Antalya safe house they were working in.

"When it became obvious that al-Saqa - who could easily pass as Turkish due to his fluency in the language - played a key role in al-Qaeda's operations in Iraq, many began to think that the terrorist organization had set a goal to hit Israeli targets in Turkey. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, al-Qaeda is likely to have infiltrated Turkey with some of its operatives for this attack...[T]he 2003 Istanbul bombings demonstrate that the [Neo-Salafi] network has the capacity to recruit militants within Turkey, primarily due to the growth of radical Islam there since the 1980s.

"Over the years, many Turkish youth (indoctrinated by Wahhabi shaikhs) have volunteered to fight with Islamist groups in areas such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir and Ogaden; in so doing, some have developed a close relationship with al-Qaeda.

"...Newspapers often report stories of Turkish nationals who die in suicide attacks...[in Iraq]... Habib Akdas - ...[head] of the Istanbul bombings - was reportedly killed in a US bombardment of al-Anbar province in September 2004. Similarly, it is claimed that Gurcan Bac, another leading member of al-Qaeda, died in a clash in Fallujah in 2005.

"Lastly, a US Army spokesperson announced the deaths of Mehmet Yulmaz and Mehmet Resit Isik in Iraq's Hawiya region in June 2007. The spokesperson stated that these individuals helped foreign activists enter Iraq through Turkey. Yulmaz, also known as 'Halid al-Turki', was a top leader of the organization while Isik was his deputy. Another report revealed that two Turkish al-Qaeda militants, Sadettin Akdas - the brother of Habib Akdas, who is suspected of plotting the Istanbul bombings - and Burhan Kus, escaped from the Abu Ghraib prison in April 2007. In the wake of the Istanbul bombings, groups linked to or inspired by al-Qaeda have been the target of greater scrutiny by intelligence organizations...

"...[On March 9, 2004, two Islamist youths - Nihat Dogruel and Engin Vural - independently sought to bomb 40 Masons congregating in the Masonic Lodge in Istanbul's Kartal district; Masons are considered to be pro-Zionist by many Turkish Islamists. Security prevented the two from deploying the bomb properly and, as a result, only Dogruel and a waiter were killed, while Vural was wounded and arrested....

"Far from being professional militants, Turks influenced by al-Qaeda are generally ordinary citizens. One of the suspects arrested in Aksaray was a high school English teacher, and the other four were also employed and socially integrated individuals. It might also be worth noting that one of these bombers - Ilyas Kuncak - had grandchildren.

"Al-Qaeda-style militancy in Turkey continues to attract individuals outside the usual profile of young, single, unemployed/underemployed youths".

The article added: "Turkey has witnessed attacks by a variety of terrorist organizations for many years. Its intelligence services and security forces are therefore well-equipped and well-experienced in counter-terrorism. Yet for several reasons, Turkey is ill-prepared for a potential fight against al-Qaeda.

"Turkish counter-terrorism is overwhelmingly focused on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). This organization has carried out armed offensives against Turkish authorities since August 1984, and revoked its latest ceasefire in 2004. Over the past six months the overwhelming majority of Turkey's security resources have been poured into efforts to liquidate the PKK.

"Turkish public opinion remains unconvinced of the threat posed by al-Qaeda. Some believe that this organization does not exist, having been fabricated for manipulative purposes by countries such as the United States and Israel. Others accept that al-Qaeda is real, though do not view it as an organization countering US and Israeli hegemony, but rather as a tool used by these countries to colonize the Middle East. With Turkish-US relations strained as never before, a larger number of Turks are inclined to sympathize - or at least empathize - with al-Qaeda's stated goal of combating US policies.

"Turks do not see themselves as the primary target of al-Qaeda. The Turkish public did not react to the 2003 Istanbul bombings in the way the general public in Madrid and London did to the terrorist attacks that they sustained. Many believe that it is impossible for al-Qaeda to target Turkey, especially as the country is run by a party with Islamist roots.

"Others subscribe to the theory that al-Qaeda did not, in fact, target Turkey in November 2003. According to this view, the intended victims of the synagogue bombings were Jews, and therefore a 'concern' of Israel, even though the victims were Turkish rather than Israeli citizens. Similarly, attacks against the British Consulate and HSBC Bank have been dismissed as attacks upon Britain, though again, most of those killed were actually Turks.

"The enforced exclusion of Islamic movements from the political process in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes across the Middle East makes al-Qaeda's job easier, while Turkey has managed to integrate Islamic movements into its political structure.

"The fact that the Islam-based Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power [in early November 2002] through legitimate elections and has been able to remain in power is testament to this fact.