http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-226893-101-families-of-slain-sold\ iers-link-espionage-gang-to-heron-scandal.html <http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-226893-101-families-of-slain-sol\ diers-link-espionage-gang-to-heron-scandal.html> Families of slain soldiers link espionage gang to Heron scandal
The discovery of a conversation of two military officers who in July discussed how to protect PKK terrorists has devastated the families of soldiers killed in terrorist attacks. The families of Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and their lawyers have argued that if the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had managed to shed light on scandalous phone conversations between members of the air forces in 2007, in which members discussed how to down Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to protect PKK terrorists, the prostitution gang within the naval forces would have collapsed. Prosecutors have recently discovered that the gang was hoping to extract vital state security information from high-ranking officers and senior bureaucrats through blackmail to sell to foreign intelligence services. According to new evidence in the investigation, the gang has connections to two military officers who talked about downing Herons to protect PKK militants in 2007. The new evidence was found on the computer of Lt. Emrah Küçükakça during a search of the suspect's house. The document says the Heron project should be impeded. In July of this year a voice recording that was picked up by the National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) in 2007 when 13 soldiers died in a PKK attack on a military outpost in the village of DaÄlıca in Hakkari's Yüksekova district was made public. The phone conversation was recorded only 11 days before that attack. In the conversation, a member of the air forces asks another to down Herons to protect PKK terrorists. This case of treason, which is being investigated separately, will now be examined along with the espionage gang. The prosecutors are now looking into possible links between Küçükakça and Selçuk Çakmaklı, one of the two officers in the earlier wiretapped conversation that could be identified. The espionage gang was hoping to extract vital information about state security from high-ranking officers and senior bureaucrats by blackmailing them and to sell the information to foreign intelligence services. The gang has connections to two military officers who talked about downing Herons to protect terrorist PKK members in 2007 Martyrs and Widows' Association's Ä°zmir branch head Volkan Kaya said if the Turkish military had initiated an investigation into the Heron scandal in 2007 and found out who was behind the phone conversation in time, then the espionage gang would not have gained so much power and would have eventually collapsed. The brother of Selçuk Gürdal, who was killed in the DaÄlıca attack, noted that while he worked to find out what was behind the attack, military officers worked to cover up the issue. "Military authorities wanted to silence me due to a speech I delivered on the anniversary of the DaÄlıca attack. An investigation was launched against me," he recalled. Lawyer Sinan Kılıçkaya, head of the Jurists' Union, said documents seized from the prostitution gang are mainly military projects to finish off the terrorist PKK. "These are among the most strategic projects of the TSK. A group within the armed forces does not want the PKK to be finished off. Had [related authorities] fought the gangs, then the PKK would not exist today," he added. Kılıçkaya also complained that almost no serious action was taken against the scandalous Heron conversation between members of the air forces though the conversation was discovered by MÄ°T in 2007. "The result is so evident. If the PKK is still alive today, then that's thanks to a number of people that betrayed the state," he stated. Colonel confesses to `Heron inaction' in voice recording In the meantime, a voice recording of Col. Ünal Atabay has shown that the military deliberately did not take action against terrorists in the Hantepe area of eastern Hakkari province in mid-July despite earlier intelligence provided by Herons. The recording was released on Tuesday evening on various news sites. It features a voice that says: "They say we [the military] did not take action [against terrorists] after [receiving] Heron images. That's very stupid. There were eight or 10 terrorists. I mean, the military does not take action upon every piece of intelligence or [Heron] image." The recording has suggested that the TSK neglect to take action against terrorists despite the fact that Herons provide prior intelligence. On July 19 six soldiers were killed in an attack by the terrorist PKK at the Hantepe outpost. The military drew the ire of the Turkish public as well as that of the families of the slain soldiers when it was revealed that they had failed to act against the terrorists, despite intelligence provided by Herons to 30 security units during the attack. The colonel also said people who leak military information to third parties, especially newspapers, should be "slaughtered." "There is only one thing to do: slaughter the Taraf daily [reporters] and the people who give them [military] information. Who gives information to Taraf? And how? They should be slaughtered," he noted. Taraf has published many military documents that have shown military flaws in the fight against terrorism and plans by members of the armed forces for a coup d'état. The General Staff often accuses the daily of compromising its confidentiality. The voice also claims that the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, allegedly drafted by jailed Col. Dursun Çiçek, was prepared upon the orders of the General Staff and the Land Forces Command. "That's a plan prepared as a result of an exchange of views between the General Staff and the Land Forces Command. I am aware of the plan. I also contributed a little to the preparation of the plan. I mean, some of the views included in the plan belong to me. I read its draft version," Atabay states in the voice recording. The plan details a systematic TSK plan to discredit the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and the faith-based Gülen movement, to downplay the Ergenekon investigation and to gather support for members of the military arrested as part of the Ergenekon investigation. Ergenekon is a clandestine criminal organization accused of working to overthrow the government. Atabay also said there is "more than the plan itself" in the General Staff, implying that the action plan is not a single kind of itself and that the General Staff possesses many other coup plans against the government. The Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism was made public in June of last year after Taraf published a copy of it. The published documents were seized in the office of Serdar Öztürk, the lawyer of a retired colonel arrested in 2008 on charges of membership in Ergenekon. The documents, prepared in April 2009, were reportedly drawn up by Col. Çiçek and submitted to a department of the General Staff. 11 November 2010, Thursday MUSTAFA GÜRLEK/GÖKSEL GENÇ Ä°STANBUL <http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-226893-101-families-of-slain-sol\ diers-link-espionage-gang-to-heron-scandal.html> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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