r incursions by Kurdish militants into Turkey. We said, specifically, that these troops were not designed to cooperate with Turkey but to be armed and equipped to deal with anticipated ‘civil disobedience’ in the United States under the guise of protecting the country against “al Quaeda terrorist attacks” which Bush knows all about, being privy to them. We said, specifically, that the public should watch for propaganda press releases concerning this. The very next day, the following story appeared on Reuters:”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pentagon says working with Turkey to solve PKK Problem

July 31, 2007

Reuters

Washington…The Pentagon said on Monday it is working with Turkey to resolve a serious problem posed by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, but declined comment on a media report of secret plans to stop terrorist violence.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the US State Department lists as a terrorist organization, has escalated attacks on soldiers and civilians in Turkey in recent months, prompting Turkish calls for a cross-border operation against terrorists based in northern Iraq.

“We recognize that the PKK is a serious problem and we're working closely with both the government of Iraq and the government of Turkey to resolve this,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

But he declined to comment on a US report on Monday that said the Pentagon briefed Congress last week on secret plans for a joint US-Turkish military operation to suppress the terrorist movement and capture its leaders.

The PKK, which consists mainly of Turkish Kurds, launched a separatist campaign in 1984. The Turkish government blames PKK violence for more than 30,000 deaths.

Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak said on Monday that US officials plan a US-Turkish operation that if successful would avert a Turkish invasion of Iraq.

Up to now, the Bush administration has focused on diplomacy to ease tensions along the border between Turkey and Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdistan region. The US Treasury Department has also targeted PKK funds flowing through Europe.

But US efforts to stop Kurdish militants in Iraq from attacking Turkey have been meager and unsuccessful, increasing the chances of a retaliatory strike by Ankara, US officials and analysts have warned.

“And further, we see here a well-known presenter of official views holding forth on the identical subject.

Now we can fully expect to watch long pseudo-news concoctions on Murdoch’s discredited FOX News on the same subject, replete with camouflage-uniform general officers mixed in with grave Republican legislators and even Bush himself adding his feather-weight mumblings to the swelling propaganda chorus.”

****************

Bush's Turkish Gamble

July 30, 2007

by Robert D. Novak

Washington Post

The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable new secret operation. High-level U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq.

While detailed operational plans are necessarily concealed, the broad outlines have been presented to select members of Congress as required by law. U.S. Special Forces are to work with the Turkish army to suppress the Kurds' guerrilla campaign. The Bush administration is trying to prevent another front from opening in Iraq, which would have disastrous consequences. But this gamble risks major exposure and failure.

The Turkish initiative reflects the temperament and personality of George W. Bush. Even faithful congressional supporters of his Iraq policy have been stunned by the president's upbeat mood, which makes him appear oblivious to the loss of his political base. Despite the failing effort to impose a military solution in Iraq, he is willing to try imposing arms — though clandestinely — on Turkey's ancient problems with its Kurdish minority, who comprise one-fifth of the country's population.

The development of an autonomous Kurdish entity inside Iraq, resulting from the decline and fall of Saddam Hussein, has alarmed the Turkish government. That led to Ankara's refusal to allow U.S. combat troops to enter Iraq through Turkey, an eleventh-hour complication for the 2003 invasion. As the Kurds' political power grew inside Iraq, the Turkish government became steadily more uneasy about the centuries-old project of a Kurdistan spreading across international boundaries — and chewing up big pieces of Turkey.

The dormant Turkish Kurd guerrilla fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) came to life. By June, the Turkish government was demonstrating its concern by lobbing artillery shells across the border. Ankara began protesting, to both Washington and Baghdad, that the PKK was using northern Iraq as a base for guerrilla operations. On July 11, in Washington, Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy became the first Turkish official to assert publicly that Iraqi Kurds have claims on Turkish territory. On July 20, just two days before his successful reelection, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened a military incursion into Iraq against the Kurds. Last Wednesday, Murat Karayilan, head of the PKK political council, predicted that "the Turkish Army will attack southern Kurdistan."

Turkey has a well-trained, well-equipped army of 250,000 near the border, facing some 4,000 PKK fighters hiding in the mountains of northern Iraq. But significant cross-border operations surely would bring to the PKK's side the military forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the best U.S. ally in Iraq. What is Washington to do in the dilemma of two friends battling each other on an unwanted new front in Iraq?

The surprising answer was given in secret briefings on Capitol Hill last week by Eric S. Edelman, a former aide to Vice President Cheney who is now undersecretary of defense for policy. Edelman, a Foreign Service officer who once was U.S. ambassador to Turkey, revealed to lawmakers plans for a covert operation of U.S. Special Forces to help the Turks neutralize the PKK. They would behead the guerrilla organization by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years.

Edelman's listeners were stunned. Wasn't this risky? He responded that he was sure of success, adding that the U.S. role could be concealed and always would be denied. Even if all this is true, some of the briefed lawmakers left wondering whether this was a wise policy for handling the beleaguered Kurds, who had been betrayed so often by the U.S. government in years past.

The plan shows that hard experience has not dissuaded President Bush from attempting difficult ventures employing the use of force. On the contrary, two of the most intrepid supporters of the Iraq intervention — John McCain and Lindsey Graham-- were surprised by Bush during a recent meeting with him. When they shared their impressions with colleagues, they commented on how unconcerned the president seemed. That may explain his willingness to embark on such a questionable venture against the Kurds.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

“And in the Monday, July 30 edition of the New York Times, we saw an idiotic puff piece by Michael E. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack, Brookings Institution hacks, claiming that the Bush ‘surge was winning’ and that morale was at an ‘all-time high’ with American troops in Iraq. I wonder how much creeps like this are paid? We know about Novak and such luminaries as Walter Pincus who pretend to be fair-minded journalists instead of paid stooges for the government. Among the people I know, Murdoch’s worthless and far-right biased trailer park papers and television outlets are a bad-taste joke and now it is becoming evident why so many Americans are no longer reading the national press. Why pay $50 a month to subscribe to newspapers only to read planted news stories when you can get all the Pentagon and White House propaganda nonsense absolutely free on the internet? And if it weren’t for that internet, we would all be compelled to attend church services on Sunday and admire the fine color pictures of the President nailed up above the altars. There is nothing quite as pathetic as watching a fool running around in public with no pants on to cover his wizened genitalia and mistaking ribald laughter for public adulation. And it’s a wonderful feeling when these scribbling pimps support your anti-government comments. Bush and his cronies keep members of the media around for the same reason a whore keeps a pimp. They all want someone even they can look down on.

“The American public is fed up with obviously canned official propaganda. In today's (August 1, 2007. ed) New York Times, we read an article on page A-8 that breathlessly informs us that the death toll in Iraq is ‘the lowest in '07’ with a final total of only 74 dead!!! The official U.S. DoD public site for such casualties: http://www.defenselink.mil/Releases/ shows 89 dead. We're all lucky that Rupert Murdoch doesn't own the Times or the final July total would be 8 dead with one GI found, a smile on his face and a big color picture of the President clutched in his cold hand. Murdoch’s obnoxious Bill O’Reilley could weep about this while eagerly discussing used panty shields with one of his female on-line guests.”