Free Republic

The media will spend the next ten years with their heads up their sphincters trying to determine motive. Hmmm ..... what could it be now? For those of us in the media who have not surrendered to jihad (all three of us), we have noticed a decided uptick in this activity. Arrests in the US are weekly now, sometimes daily. Nothing to see here, folks, keep it moving until the next catastrophe. And then the enemedia and Hamas-CAIR operatives in DC will blame ...... counter jihadists. :) Colorado man arrested on terrorism AP (hat tip Ken) AURORA, Colo. (AP) —...

About 40 Israeli passengers on board a Turkish Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul were held for several hours by local police on Monday after their passports had been taken away from them. The passengers said that the Turkish police officers were disrespectful, claiming that such an incident was unprecedented. [Snip] Everyone was in shock; we didn't know what they were going to do to us. Obviously this was done intentionally in order to create an unpleasant feeling."

<p>At least 15 people have been injured in a suspected suicide bomb attack in Istanbul's main square. The blast rocked the city's central Taksim Square, Turkish television channel NTV reported.</p> <p>The suspected bomber targeted a police vehicle, NTV said.</p> <p>TV footage showed police and ambulances rushing to the scene.</p>

SNIPPET: "A remote-controlled bomb that hit a bus carrying Turkish soldiers and civilians has killed five people and left at least 12 injured in Istanbul. The explosion took place when the vehicle was passing through the Halkali district on the outskirts of the city. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), believed to be an offshoot of the PKK Kurdish rebel group, later claimed responsibility for the attack. The PKK has recently stepped up its attacks on Turkish military targets."

IPT News June 9, 2010 SNIPPET: "The Turkish-based charity that helped drive last week's deadly confrontation with Israeli commandos has deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. The Hamas ties are not in question. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and IHH officials simply do not acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist group." SNIPPET: "U.S. officials have expressed concern over the fact that "IHH representatives have met with senior Hamas officials in Turkey, Syria, and Gaza over the past three years," but IHH is not a designated terrorist organization in the United States. It's fair to ask, why not?"...

"ANSWER: BULENT YILDIRIM'S LAPTOP COMPUTER, AMONG OTHER THINGS" SNIPPET: "Question: What did the IDF collect from the Mavi Marmara." SNIPPET: "The reader may recall that Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Recep Erdogan was formerly the mayor of Istanbul - thus we see a likely connection between IHH's purchase of the Mavi Marmara and Erdogan cronies in the Istanbul Deniz Otobusleri."

  The Iranian Red Crescent is planning to send two ships to Gaza this week it was announced on Monday. AFP quotes Red Crescent director for international affairs Abdolrauf Adibzadeh  as saying: "One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers. The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week."  

SNIPPET: "It said the bomb exploded in the Kucukcekmece district on the outer edge of the western side of the city, as the bus was passing. The injured included at least two police officers as well as a number of civilians, Anatolia said. No immediate claim of responsibility was reported." SNIPPET: "Tuesday's bombing came as Turkey was hosting an Asian security meeting attended by leaders including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin."

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish police blocked dozens of stone-throwing protesters who tried to storm the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul over reports of an Israeli attack on at least one aid ship in international waters on Monday, news channels reported. CNN-Turk and NTV showed dozens of angry protesters scuffling with Turkish police guarding the consulate in downtown Istanbul.

Bicycles instead of cars? Dense apartment clusters instead of single homes? Community rituals instead of churches? "Human rights" instead of religious freedom? The UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) which met June 3-14 [1996]in Istanbul, painted an alarming picture of the 21st century community. The American ways-free speech, individualism, travel, and Christianity-are out. A new set of economic, environmental, and social guidelines are in. Citizenship, democracy, and education have been redefined. Handpicked civil leaders will implement UN "laws", bypassing state and national representatives to work directly with the UN. And politically correct "tolerance"-meaning "the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism"...

The refusal of 3rd Army Comman-der Gen. Saldray Berk to attend a terror trial on Tuesday and the unexpected appearance of two F-16 fighters flying over the Erzurum 2nd High Criminal Court building as the trial began were met by harsh criticism from most observers, who said the general not only defied the law by not attending the hearing but also hoped to put psychological pressure on the court with the fighters. The general has been indicted for membership in a terrorist organization. The first hearing of the trial was held in Erzurum on Tuesday. Thirteen suspects were present during...

Left to right; Haris Silajdzic, Abdullah Gul, and Boris Tadic Presidents of Serbia and Turkey, Boris Tadic and Abdullah Gul respectively, and Chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency Haris Silajdzic have agreed today in Istanbul that in the future, regional policy should be based on ensuring security, the permanent political dialogue and the preservation of multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious characteristics of the region. It was pointed out in a joint declaration adopted at the Istanbul summit, which was assessed by observers as historic. At the trilateral meeting, highlighted were a courageous and visionary approach of Serbian President Boris Tadic...

WORLD’S “MOST DANGEROUS ISLAMIST” ALIVE, WELL, AND LIVING IN PENNSYLVANIA FEDS TURN BLIND EYE TO MOUNTING HOMELAND SECURITY THREAT by Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. The most dangerous Islamist in the world is neither Afghani nor Arab. He comes from neither Sudan nor Somalia. And he resides in neither the mountains of Pakistan nor the deserts of the Palestinian territories. This individual has toppled the secular government of Turkey and established madrassahs throughout the world. His schools indoctrinate children in the tenets of radical Islam and prepare adolescents for the Islamization of the world. More than 90 of these madrassahs have...

SNIPPET: "Think-tanks from a host of Islamic countries gathered this week at the Think-Tank Forum of Islamic Countries under the theme Civilization of Peace and Cooperation, organized by the Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) in Istanbul. The focus of the forum was the role of think-tanks in the Islamic world, which was late to recognize their importance in policy formation. The rising tide of conflict in the world was also discussed. These points were stressed in both speeches and seminars." SNIPPET: "The role and development of the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) were discussed in a specific...

SNIPPET: "ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish police launched a nationwide crackdown on suspected militants linked to the al-Qaida terror network on Friday..." SNIPPET: "Those detained Friday's raids include a faculty member of the Yuzunci Yil University in the eastern city of Van, who is suspected of recruiting students at the campus and other people through the Internet and of sending them to Afghanistan for training, Anatolia reported, citing unnamed police officials. The suspect was identified by his initials M.E.Y. only. Anatolia said other suspects included some local leaders, university students, and people believed to be spreading al-Qaida propaganda."

Iran has helped Hizbullah form an operational network for attacks on Western targets, officials said. The officials said the Hizbullah priority was to strike Israeli and U.S. interests in Turkey. "Hizbullah established an operational cell in Istanbul that included members of Iran's IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]," an official said. Officials said Hizbullah organized a safe house and formed a front company in Istanbul. They said IRGC helped Hizbullah set up a tourist agency that would enable Iranian agents to easily enter Turkey. In mid-2009, officials said, Turkey foiled a Hizbullah strike on an Israeli target. Officials said the attack,...

The Ice Age has been a longstanding problem for uniformitarian thinking, with many unsolved mysteries. No mere tweaking of today's climate conditions would cause such a catastrophe. A creationist model based on the revealed events of Scripture, however, offers a possible answer...

An attempted hijacking by a man wielding a knife from an in-flight meal has been thwarted by guards, EgyptAir officials said. The incident happened shortly after the plane, carrying almost 90 people, took off from Istanbul, Turkey, heading to Cairo. The Sudanese man threatened crew members and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, officials said. He was detained by air marshals, and the flight landed in Cairo.

A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.

Is Turkey Renaming Istanbul Constantinople? Chances of Turkey and the Kurds reaching a rapprochement are at their highest in 25 years. But what does that mean for Turkification -- and what concessions are the Turks willing to make? BY NICK DANFORTH | SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 Last month, Turkish President Abdullah Gul broke a long-standing national taboo: He called the remote village of Guroymak by its Kurdish name, Norshin. The president's opponents say renaming Istanbul Constantinople on highway signs will inevitably follow. Or worse. For many Turks, saying Norshin leads to saying Kurdistan, and saying Kurdistan leads to recognizing an independent...

Discovering the Greek side of Istanbul The Maiden Tower That Ä°stanbul is a real treasure chest for history, art and architecture freaks is no secret. Its colorful mosaic of historical city structures -- mosques, churches, synagogues, palaces, castles and towers -- reflects the many, many social and cultural influences of a number of foreign communities that have left their indelible footprints across the city throughout its long history. The oldest settlement on the land that is now Ä°stanbul was, however, Greek. Already, in 685 B.C., settlers from the ancient Greek town of Megara chose to colonize the town of Chalcedon,...

Review: How the Byzantines Saved Europe Posted by JOHN COURETAS on MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2009 The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Edited by Elizabeth Jeffreys, John Haldon, Robin Cormack. Oxford University Press (2008)Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin. Princeton University Press (2008) Ask the average college student to identify the 1,100 year old empire that was, at various points in its history, the political, commercial, artistic and ecclesiastical center of Europe and, indeed, was responsible for the very survival and flourishing of what we know today as Europe and you’re not likely to get the...

Osprey Media. - Peterborough Examiner - Ontario, CA [Emperor] Constantine's Last WalkJunior Fiction winner Local News - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 @ 00:00 By Erik Blackthrone O'Barr Grade 9 Peterborough Collegiate The cannon fire grew closer with each thundering belch of rock and iron, as the walls of Constantinople, wonders of the world that had never been breached save for treachery, groaned under the strain. Buildings crackled with scorching heat, set ablaze by pitch- covered arrows. The shouts and screams of the dying echoed in the empty streets of the once great city. And Constantine XI Palaiologos, last Emperor of...

Aug 14, 2009 From church to mosque: Istanbul’s forgotten Byzantine heritage Is it a church? Is it a mosque? Is it a museum? Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia, the Church of Divine Wisdom) may be one of İstanbul's most famous buildings, but it's also one that suffers from an acute identity crisis, having started life as the great sixth century church of the Emperor Justinian, before becoming a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and then a museum in 1935 after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the Turkish Republic. Something similar happened to Chora, near Edirnekapı, which also kicked...

SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON - Last week, German authorities discovered that groups of terrorists may have been dispatched from training bases in Pakistan to launch crippling attacks.” SNIPPET: “They say as a minimum of 12 al-Qaida operatives who were trained in the tribal region of Pakistan have left the training camps and are headed back to their home countries. Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Egypt are just some of those countries. According to the source, the threat levels also were raised for many other Western European countries to include concerns for “Turkish Airlines flying passengers from Istanbul to the...

What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists? Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers. The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists. ...secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality...

Assailants have carried out arson attacks on four separate mosques in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Tuesday. According to a report on HaberTurk television, no one was wounded in the attacks, and damage to the mosques was minimal. Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti or chief cleric for Istanbul, confirmed Tuesday that fires had broken out in four mosques. He would not say if they had been caused by arson. Last year, police arrested a mentally unstable man for a series of arson attacks on mosques in Istanbul.

Baghdad, 5 May (AKI) - Radical Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, is reported to have assumed the title of Grand Ayatollah after concluding his studies in the holy city of Qom in Iran. Sources close to the cleric's faction released the news to the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat. Around 70 supporters of al-Sadr on Sunday concluded a conference in the Turkish city of Istanbul where they elected new leaders and mapped out their future. Al-Sadr, who leads the Mahdi Army militia, also met both Recep Tayyip Erodgan, the Turkish prime minister, and president Abdullah Gul in Ankara on Friday during...

US President Barack Obama visited a landmark mosque in Istanbul on Tuesday, following strong messages of US reconciliation with the Islamic world on his maiden trip to a mainly Muslim country. Taking off his shoes as tradition requires, Obama stepped into the 17th-century Sultanahmet Mosque in the ancient heart of Istanbul, accompanied by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid tight security in the area. Two Muslim preachers guided Obama inside the grandiose edifice -- better known as the Blue Mosque for its blue tileworks -- and the president smiled when they showed him a dome scripture mentioning the Prophet...

CLICK TO READ The Ä°stanbul leg of US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Turkey is expected to include a stop at the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, Turkish and US press reports said over the weekend. "In Ä°stanbul, his last stop, workers are polishing up the Hagia Sophia basilica-cum-mosque-cum-museum for the expected visit," The New York Times said Saturday in a report posted from Washington. The US president is also expected to participate in the second day of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Forum scheduled for April 6 and 7 in Ä°stanbul, after his talks in Ankara....

Turkish security services have arrested a Syrian man who was planning to assassinate US President Barack Obama during his current trip to Turkey, the Saudi daily Al Watan reported Monday. According to the report, the man, who was arrested on Friday, was carrying a press card identifying him as an employee of Al Jazeera. He reportedly confessed to his intention to stab Obama with a knife and said that he was aided by three accomplices. The report stated that Turkish authorities were still unsure as to whether the press card was a fake or whether it had actually been issued...

In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig, speaking of Google, ‘it’s hard to . . . gather data in ways that don’t raise privacy concerns or in ways that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.’ In March of last year, Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, was notified that there had been a precipitous drop in activity...

Istanbul Police said 222 kg of heroin, 184 kg of hashish, 2 kg of cocaine and thousands of synthetic pills were confiscated in 141 operations in several parts of the metropolis.

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday condemned the attack on its consulate in Istanbul and a State Department spokesman said he could neither confirm nor rule out al Qaeda involvement. Three Turkish police officers and three gunmen were killed in the attack at the compound. "The United States condemns the terrorist attack that took place on our consulate general in Istanbul earlier today," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Reports in Turkey said al Qaeda involvement was suspected. "At this point one can't rule that out, but I also can't support at this point, those suspicions,"...

Three unidentified gunmen and three Turkish policemen were killed Wednesday in an attack on a police guard post at the main entrance of the well-fortified U.S. Consulate in Istanbul that officials labeled a "terrorist" act. One person has been taken into custody, Dogan News Agency reported. (UPDATED) The attack was "an obvious act of terrorism" aimed at the United States, the country's ambassador to Turkey said. "This was an attack on an American diplomatic establishment. The persons who lost their lives are Turkish citizens and we are very sad about that," Ross Wilson told reporters in Ankara. The three assailants...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Armed men have opened fire from a vehicle outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul killing four people, according to CNN-Turk. CNN-Turk initially reported that at least three of the attackers were killed and one police officer later died from his injuries in a hospital. Police returned fire on the gunmen who were traveling in a white car ..."

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Three police officers were killed in a shooting outside the United States consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkish television said. Television images appeared to show four bodies on the ground in front of the high-walled complex. Media earlier said that two police had been shot dead. The U.S. embassy in Ankara said it was aware of an incident near the Istanbul consulate, but had no further details.

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Istanbul - Turkish police have arrested 45 suspected members of al-Qaeda in eight districts of Istanbul. The militants were reportedly planning attacks against foreign embassies. In January, police carried out raids at 18 locations in southeastern Turkey after receiving information that an al-Qaeda cell was planning car bomb attacks. One police officer and four militants were killed in a gunfight. Seventeen people were arrested.

Charlize Theron has referred to the Turkish city of Istanbul as Budapest three times in an interview about her "backpacking" adventures around the world. Theron, an Oscar winner known for taking on tough roles, described buying Turkish carpets in a bazaar and attending the Istanbul International Film Festival in "Budapest", the Daily Mail reports.

Nautical archaeology takes a leap forward For centuries the harbour of Ancient Constantinople, modern Istanbul, was the inlet of the Golden Horn, running north between the peninsula on which the city’s core stands and the commercial and foreign quarter of Galata and Pera to the east. A boom across the inlet protected the city from attack, although the Ottoman troops of Mehmet II stormed across the Golden Horn in 1453 to end the Byzantine Empire. A second, mainly commercial, harbour, in use from the 5th-10th centuries AD, has been found on the south shore of the peninsula, on the Sea...

Excerpt - ANKARA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - A Turkish passenger plane heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus was hijacked on Saturday and forced to land for refuelling in southern Turkey, local media reported. It was not clear how many hijackers were on board, but they said they wanted to fly to Tehran, media said. ~ snip ~

Media fury rages over swimsuit photo ban By Thomas Grove in Istanbul May 18, 2007 01:10am A DECISION by Turkey's largest city to ban some pictures of swimsuit models has revived claims about the rising power of Islam, with newspapers saying the move was more befitting of theocratic Iran than a secular democracy. Istanbul municipality asked stores selling swimwear made by Turkish manufacturer Nelson to seek permission to place photographs of models in swimsuits and bikinis on store front windows located on main streets. It then denied them permission. The controversy follows several large secularist protests in Turkey, a secular...

Wellington - New Zealand's foreign ministry warned Tuesday of a 'strong likelihood' of terrorist attacks in Turkey as thousands of tourists head to Gallipoli to mark ANZAC Day on Wednesday. ANZAC Day commemorates the first major action of World War I for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps which launched an ill-fated assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915. The assault was intended to give the British navy command of the Turkish-held Dardanelles, but turned into a long-drawn out disaster, ending eight months later at a cost of 2,721 New Zealand dead and more than 4,750 wounded....

ANKARA - British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett cut short a visit to Turkey after a telephone conversation with her Iranian counterpart over 15 sailors detained by Iran, a Turkish diplomat said on Tuesday. "We were informed that she cancelled the Istanbul leg of her trip (on Wednesday) after she spoke over the telephone with the Iranian foreign minister," the diplomat told AFP. The diplomat said the call was related to the 15 naval personnel detained by Iran. Officials from the British embassy were not immediately available for comment.

Pope Benedict ended a sensitive, fence-mending visit to Turkey on Friday amid praise for visiting Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque and praying there facing toward Mecca "like Muslims." The Pope, who sparked protests across the Muslim world with a speech two months ago seen as criticizing Islam, looked relaxed and pleased as he entered the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit for a mass at the end of the four-day trip. His first visit to a mostly Muslim country, held under tight security for fear of protests by nationalists and Islamists, was highlighted by a series of conciliatory gestures culminating in a...

An EU delegation on a fact-finding mission to Turkey has reported a "worrying" increase in allegations of torture and abuse in the country. The European Parliament's human rights committee members focused mainly on the Kurdish south-east of the country. They said they had heard reports of a resurgence of torture, abductions and beatings by security forces. Turkey has faced a barrage of criticism from Europe recently, with human rights a key issue in its bid to join the EU. 'Going backwards' The delegation of six MEPs met officials and human rights groups in the capital and in Istanbul. They also...

Thousands evacuating airport. Huge fire and flames. Explosions heard as the fire rages. No indication what caused the fire.