Free Republic

Former Islamist Abdullah Gul withdrew his candidacy for Turkey's presidency on Sunday after pressure from the military and demonstrators who accuse his ruling party of subverting the nation's secular order. A dispirited-looking Gul made the move that could ease a crisis in Turkey after his ruling AK party failed to gain a quorum in parliament to elect him. "After this ... my candidacy is out of the question," Foreign Minister Gul told reporters after the roll-call in parliament. "I don't feel resentment." Gul, leading architect of Turkey's EU membership bid, has not yet formally withdrawn, but the next president is...

Guantanamo Inmates Despair of Ever Leaving Sunday, March 5, 2006 9:13 PM EST The Associated Press By MIRANDA LEITSINGER GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Ahamed Abdul Aziz has been in the Guantanamo Bay prison for more than three years and, by his account, has been interrogated 50 times without being charged with any crime. He waits with anguish for freedom but fears it will never come. "We are in a grave here," he told his lawyers, echoing the despair felt by many of the roughly 490 prisoners held as suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base in eastern...

<p>ONE wonders what Osama bin Laden and his ilk learned from Hiroshima.</p> <p>The decision to incinerate the Japanese city and another, Nagasaki, was not taken in anger. White men in gray business suits and military uniforms, after much deliberation, decided that the United States could not give the Japanese any warning, that although it could not concentrate on a civilian area, it should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many inhabitants as possible. They argued that it would be cheaper in American lives to release the nuclear genie.</p>

Jan. 2, 2005 23:43 | Updated Jan. 3, 2005 16:53 FM's arrival signals upswing in ties By HERB KEINON Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is scheduled to arrive Monday for a two-day visit here and in the Palestinian Authority, the highest-level Turkish official to arrive since the Islamic-based Justice and Development Party came to power in November 2002. Gul's visit follows a rough year in relations with Turkey, strained by a series of anti-Israeli comments Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made in the spring and summer. One senior Israeli diplomatic official said Gul's visit is important precisely because of the...

"The leadership vacuum created by the sad demise of [Palestinian] President Arafat can only be filled by Osama bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammad] Omar, the real leaders that are the only dedicated individuals with the mass support of the Muslim world," said the front-page statement in Pakistan's mass circulation, Urdu-language newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt. The author was none other than Gen. Hamid Gul, the notorious former head of Pakistan's intelligence service (ISI), perennial agitproper and America-hater, who is "strategic adviser" to the six-party coalition of politico-religious extremists known as MMA.

Turkey on Thursday condemned the beheading of a U.S. civilian in Iraq as "barbaric" and against Islamic teaching and said such acts would harm the sympathy for Iraqis that emerged after the release of photos revealing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by their U.S. captors in a Baghdad prison. "We very strongly condemn such a cruel act, that is the beheading of an American, a civilian," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in an exclusive interview with the Turkish Daily News. Twenty-six-year-old Nick Berg was beheaded by five masked men, and a video clip of the execution, put on an Islamist...

In 1997-1998, I became aware of clearly observable warnings of hostile terrorist intentions against America, by Osama bin Laden. For over eighteen months -- as part of an investigation for Reader's Digest -- I had been learning from a variety of former U.S. intelligence officers and foreign sources about a vast, world wide network of Islamist radicals, who had emerged from the U.S.-backed war to drive the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. At their head was the shadowy Saudi renegade, Osama bin Laden, whom his followers referred to as the "Prince of Jihad." What made bin Laden unusual was his background....

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 8 — American officials here have obtained a detailed proposal that they conclude was written by an operative in Iraq to senior leaders of Al Qaeda, asking for help to wage a "sectarian war" in Iraq in the next months. The Americans say they believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has long been under scrutiny by the United States for suspected ties to Al Qaeda, wrote the undated 17-page document. Mr. Zarqawi is believed to be operating here in Iraq. The document was made available to The New York Times on Sunday, with an accompanying...

Both Erdogan and Gul have to explain to the American people why Turkey behaved like this Our discussions with Turkish leaders over the weekend showed that they are fully aware that serious damage has been inflicted in Turkey's relations with the United States and urgent steps are needed for damage control. The Americans were angered when Turkey could not pass a second motion in its Parliament to allow U.S. troops on Turkish soil. Then came the new motion that only allowed the Americans over flight rights that effectively shut even the use of Turkish bases to the U.S. But even...