The Reina Club shooting, Ankara.
It's hard to distinguish between fact and fiction in these incidents and even harder to successfully pin the blame on any individual or organisation. However a fairly reliable starting point is to doubt almost everything put out by official sources.
This is only the latest of numerous outrages in Turkey and further afield. There is little doubt they have common ancestry and purpose. Indeed they are virtually blamed on just one source - ISIS or whatever the favourite name of that loose conglomeration of fanatics is. But that only takes us so far and may in any event be wrong.
Everyone now knows - or should do - that ISIS and its forerunners were creations of American/Israeli policy, supported by a good deal of Middle East oil money and the supply of western weapons and machinery. (Thank you Toyota) So if the West blames ISIS it is hard to resist the logic that it is blaming itself!
Saddam Hussein was also a product and agent of the West but had to be stopped when he got carried away with his own importance and challenged his masters. Similarly Libya's Qaddafi. It is fairly certain Assad would have gone the same way were it not for Russia (and latterly China) and the whole purpose of ISIS was to dislodge him.
Needless to say, the Turkish leader Erdogan was destined for the same treatment but this (and the assassination of the Russian Ambassador) appears to have back-fire and strengthened rather than weakened the threefold alliance of Russia, Turkey and Iran so feared by America dominated NATO.
So having failed with a Coup - if such it was - internal violent disruption may be the next best thing, particularly if it can be blamed on anyone but its true originators.
And of course in the case of Turkey there are many that can be blamed, the first and most convenient being the PKK - now a friend of American so called anti-ISIS coalition.
ISIS has claimed responsibility but surely this has the least credibility of all of them. Turkey to date has been an avid supporter of of the ISIS-affiliated anti-Assad groups with annexation of northern territory the plan and goal. Why would these groups wish to wreak damage on Turkey, unless it is argued this was essentially targeting a location of essentially Western values and clientele.
Or might it be considered as punishment for Turkey's rapprochement with Russia, principally responsible for driving the anti-Assad groups out of Aleppo? Who knows?
But NATO has proven Gladio track record. This linked with the overwhelming evidence of recent False Flag events in Europe, blamed on the whole Western created mess in the Middle East, points the finger first and foremost to deeply embedded covert American/Israeli action yet again.
Why should Israel express shock at such a notion when it has demonstrated its proclivity to violence, particularly against Gaza civilians and to a prolonged and vicious programme of assassination against anyone it decides it doesn't like or proclaims a "threat to its security", as most recently demonstrated in the case of Mohammed Al-Zoari in Tunisia?
The Evening Standard had this headline on the 1st January, 2017, later officially denied. This is highly suspect of intentional propaganda.
The Evening Standard had this headline on the 1st January, 2017, later officially denied. This is highly suspect of intentional propaganda.
Istanbul Reina nightclub shooting: At least 39 killed after gunman 'dressed as Santa Claus' opens fire on New Year's revellers
https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/video_thumbnail/public/thumbnails/image/2017/01/01/12/istanbul01012b.jpg
More video support for the "Santa" suggestion plus mention of a number of assailants here:
This clip (@ 3:00 mins) states two attackers dressed as Santa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGg_0H0UF88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR1ghQirGh4
The picture below suggests this is the attacker but yet again the light coloured clothes does not approximate to the black clothes described.
Saldırgan montunu değiştirip kaçarken kameralara böyle yakalandı pic.twitter.com/RKxc5RGYnG
The Telegraph quotes the Hurriyet newspaper's report that
Reina's owner, Mehmet Kocarslan said, "Security measures had been taken over the past ten days after US intelligence reports suggested a possible attack."
This is a list of terrorist attacks in Turkey since the summer of 2015, via the New York Times:
List of terrorist attacks in Turkey since summer 2015, including 5 on Istanbul over the past year. Source: New York Times
Nato auditor shot dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqQJTGFJJnE
ReplyDeleteFrom: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/jan/01/istanbul-nightclub-attack-dozens-killed-new-years-eve-mass-shooting-live-updates?CMP=twt_gu
ReplyDeleteLebanon – The Lebanese foreign ministry announced the death of three Lebanese and said another four were wounded. “I was saved by my passport which I was carrying right near my heart,” one of the injured, Francois al-Asmar, told Lebanese television from his hospital bed.
One important question that has been raised is how the assailant managed to escape even though the police response was quite swift to the attack, since there is a police station just across the street from Reina. There are over 300 security cameras in the club and the surrounding area so investigators are combing through security cam footage. One theory, believed by some who have seen some of the footage, is that the attacker, who left his gun at the scene, may have pretended to be an injured civilian in the immediate aftermath and chaos.
Turkish officials said it was a lone gunman but some survivors described seeing multiple attackers.
One survivor said the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) during the attack.
The survivors they spoke to all said there were multiple assailants, although Turkish authorities have said there was a lone attacker, and some said they were in contact with each other on walkie talkies.All of the dead had gun wounds caused by a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/03/two-held-at-istanbul-airport-in-connection-with-nightclub-attack
ReplyDeleteTwo people have been arrested at an Istanbul airport,
both foreign nationals, were held as they waited to board an international flight. The latest arrests, plus a further six detained on Tuesday, brought to 16 the total number of suspects held over the attack. The suspected gunman, who has not yet been named, remains at large. Turkey’s parliament voted to extend emergency rule by a further three months. First imposed in Turkey after an abortive military coup on 15 July and then extended in October, enables the government to bypass parliament in enacting laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms when deemed necessary.
Turkish media broadcast a video filmed by the suspect showing him circling Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The camera never leaves his face as he walks through the popular tourist spot during the 44-second film, which was broadcast on Anadolu television and other outlets.
A barman at the club told the Habertürk newspaper that the gunman threw explosive devices several times during the shooting spree, apparently to disorient people and give himself time to reload, claims corroborated by several witnesses who spoke to Reuters.
He ranged through the kitchen and lower and upper levels of the clubs and reportedly shot victims in the head with his Kalashnikov. Only 28 of 120 bullets fired failed to hit a target, it reported.
Police were seeking a 28-year-old Kyrgyz national. Authorities were close to identifying the gunman after gathering fingerprints and information about his appearance.
Those detained included a woman suspected of being the gunman’s wife with whom he had stayed in the central Turkish city of Konya along with two children. She told police she did not know her husband to have been a member of Isis. the suspected gunman flew to Istanbul from Kyrgyzstan with his wife and children on 20 November. From there they drove to the Turkish capital, Ankara, before arriving in Konya on 22 November.
TURKISH BOMBING: We are all wise to be cautious whenever there is a "terrorist incident" that plays to a prevailing government narrative. In this case the abiding hatred by Turkey of the PKK and any suggestion of an autonomous Kurdish state in the south. The problem is the same with all these attacks: you can trust no one and no story, least of all those that emanate from government.The most basic and useful question to ask, as always, is, "Who benefits?" Certainly the NATO/Israeli/Saudi alliance - for that is what it is - is desperate to avoid and prevent a Russia/Turkey/Iran triumvirate, and perhaps whilst we're at it, Pakistan, Syria and China as well! So the question arises, was the recent Coup attempt - if such it was - and the assassination of Russia's Ambassador only a week before a summit of the three, designed to throw a spanner in the works, or more more deceptively, just to make it appear that way, to garner more support for Erdogan in his attempts to centralise power and jettison Ataturk's secular state.
ReplyDelete