Bin Laden's Right-Man 'Instructed Istanbul Bombers

Ananova ^ | 12-2-2003

[blam]

Bin Laden's right-hand man 'instructed' Istanbul bombers

Two key suspects in the Istanbul suicide bombings reportedly met with and took instructions from Osama bin Laden's right-hand man.

Hurriyet newspaper, quoting from the testimony of another suspect, said Habib Aktas and Azad Ekinci met the al-Qaida chief's top surviving lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, several times.

The two Turks are suspected of hatching the plans for the November 15 suicide bombings against two synagogues and on the British Consulate and a British bank five days later. A total of 61 people died in the attacks.

"They were the only ones to meet with Al-Zawahiri," Hurriyet quoted the man, identified as Yusuf Polat, as telling police during questioning. The instructions came from him. They would meet (with him) at least three times a year, using false identity documents."

Milliyet and Zaman newspapers carried similar reports. Police would not comment. The reports came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener said that "those who were involved in these terrorist attacks as suicide bombers, and those who had relations with them are linked to the al-Qaida terrorist organisation."

At least three claims of responsibility for the bombings purportedly came from al-Qaida. The government had been hesitant to name al-Qaida and Sener's statement was the first time the government linked the attacks to bin Laden's network.

Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor, is believed to be bin Laden's deputy. The man identified as Polat was captured while trying to travel to Iran and charged over the weekend with a crime equivalent to treason.

Newspapers have said he confessed to belonging to a small al-Qaida cell in Turkey. Police said he surveyed the site for one of the synagogue bombings and gave the go-ahead for the attack. The man's arrest was the most prominent to date in the investigation into the attacks.

Police believe that Aktas, Ekinci and four other suspected ringleaders of a Turkish cell linked to al-Qaida, fled abroad just before the attacks, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.

Story filed: 15:26 Tuesday 2nd December 2003

[blam]

Ping.

[mylife]

This reinforces the idea that Zawahiri is a driving force in Al Queda. I think Osama has served his purpose and has been relegated to the trash heap of history.
He is probably dead or in such bad shape he is useless to Zawahiri as a frontman.
I could be way off, but nothing could please me more than Zawahiri's demise.

[Bars4Bill]

bin Laden doesn't have a right hand. Nor a left. Nor head. Or chest.

[Salvey]

This practitioner of the healing arts should be captured or killed ASAP.

[a_Turk]

Thanks for the ping.

I don't know if you read that the British Barclays Bank withdrew their credit offer from the Baku Tiblisi Ceyhan pipeline a couple of days ago. The British HSBC bank, the Turkish headquarters of which was bombed in Istanbul recently, is another bank extending credit to that project.