Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Court rules to arrest one more Turkish officer on coup charges
10 June 2011, Friday / TODAYSZAMAN.COM,


Gen. Balanli was arrested last month.

One more Turkish military officer was arrested on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation
into newly seized documents concerning the suspected Sledgehammer coup plot.

Four active duty military officers testified on Friday to the Istanbul prosecutor
overseeing the investigation, with the prosecutor referring three of them to court for arrest.

A colonel, a captain and two lieutenant colonels arrived at the Besiktas Courthouse early on Friday and testified to Istanbul specially authorized prosecutor Hüseyin Ayar over the documents. The Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court ruled to arrest the colonel while releasing the two lieutenant colonels and the captain.

The documents in question were seized in the Eskisehir home of retired Col. Hakan Büyük during a police search in February. After a detailed examination of the documents, the Istanbul Police Department concluded that their contents support the Sledgehammer coup plan. The documents include copies of Sledgehammer as well as copies of the Oraj and Suga plans, both sub-plans in the Sledgehammer plot.

A total of 15 individuals, including War Academies Commander Gen. Bilgin Balanli and Air Force Academies Commander Maj. Gen. Ismail Tas, were arrested earlier as part of the probe into the documents seized in Eskisehir. However, one day after his arrest, Balanli was hospitalized at the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine (GATA) due to high blood pressure.

Sledgehammer is a suspected coup plot believed to have been devised in 2003 with the aim to unseat the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government through violent acts. According to the Sledgehammer plan, the military was to systematically foment chaos in society through violent acts, among which were planned bomb attacks on the Fatih and Beyazit mosques in Istanbul.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-246847-court-rules-to-arrest-one-more-turkish-officer-on-coup-charges.html

See also .. Top Struggles in the Arab Spring Today
Syria is important to the US as a major country abutting the Eastern Mediterranean, neighboring NATO ally Turkey, as well as non-NATO allies Jordan and Israel. It also shares a border with Lebanon and with Iraq. It is central to the Palestinian-Israeli struggle and had been part of Turkey’s hopes for a big expansion of regional trade in the Middle East. The Damascus regime is allied with Iran and so is on the wrong side of the geopolitical divide in the region from an American, Israeli and Saudi point of view. The one-party, authoritarian Baath Party has ruled with an iron fist for decades.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63840200

The old bear of the Assad regime is falling .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63310797

Syrian cabinet resigns amid unrest .. Lebaneseproud, i've read in a number
of places that Bashar is a popular president .. don't know .. just saying
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=61493349

Grantbud asked about President Bashar's tactics and whether he could use events in Syria as an opportunity to push through his own reforms:

"From my understanding, Bashar is relatively popular in Syria, especially compared with the rest of the people in the regime. I'm curious why Bashar wouldn't use this opportunity to enact reforms that would leave him personally in power (and greatly popular), but would let him flush out some internal (factional) threats to his power that inevitably comes with one party states?" .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63999798

Chuckle .. ow! .. closer to home in sort of a right-left, right wrong role reversal ..

Insurrectionism Timeline .. add [USA] .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=58583125

Also posted as a reminder here .. A Timeline of Right Wing & Whacko Violence in the Last 2 Years .. Not a Dem among them!
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=58708305