Ending PKK terror. The PKK operates in save havens in Kurdish territory in Northern Iraq. Bush bungling of the run-up to the invasion kept the PKK off the Bush list of terrorist organizations until 2004.
The Turkish Daily News, however, in a little publicized story reports today that Bush's mediator with the PKK suddenly quit.
Oct. 11th, 2007
The U.S. State Department confirmed Tuesday that retired General Joseph Ralston, a former NATO supreme commander who last year became Washington's special envoy for countering the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), had quit his job.
Ralston's resignation formally ends a painful and faltering process that has produced no visible results in efforts to expel the PKK from bases in northern Iraq, from which the terrorist group attacks Turkish targets.
"For his own reasons, [Ralston] decided that he was going to be moving on. And we appreciate everything that he has done," State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, told reporters when asked to comment on the general's status.
"Any continuing presence of the PKK or the continuing activities of the PKK is not because what he did or did not do. He did a great job," McCormack said.
In recent days there were rumors that Ralston had sent his letter of resignation to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
McCormack gave no reason why Ralston had decided to quit.
For his own reasons, Ralston decided that he was going to be moving on. And we appreciate everything that he has done. Probably wants to spend more time with his family.
What exactly was the former NATO commander doing to end PKK activities? In a Harpers piece published last year titled Lost in the Valley of the Wolves, Ken Silverstein and Sebastian Sosman argue: next to fuck all:
Three months ago, the Bush Administration appointed retired Air Force General Joseph Ralston to be U.S. "Special Envoy for Countering the PKK," or Kurdistan Workers Party. Ralston's job, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, was to work with the governments in Ankara and Baghdad "to eliminate the terrorist threat of the PKK and other terrorist groups operating in northern Iraq and across the Turkey-Iraq border." But it appears that Ralston is representing the interests of the shareholders of Lockheed Martin rather than the interests of the American people.
At the time, it was not clear why Ralston was chosen for the post. As a former supreme allied commander for NATO and vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he would appear overqualified for the job.
Then came the mid-September announcement (just weeks after Ralston's appointment) that Turkey would be purchasing thirty new F-16's from Lockheed Martin. Weeks later, the Turkish government ruled out purchasing any Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes. This leaves only one option—Lockheed Martin's new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. A deal between Lockheed and Turkey would be worth as much as $10 billion.
Did Special Envoy Ralston lobby on behalf of Lockheed Martin during his encounters with Turkish officials? It seems likely. Ralston sits on the Board of Directors of Lockheed Martin and serves as vice chairman of The Cohen Group, a lobbying firm that has represented Lockheed since 2004. On August 11 of this year, seventeen days before he was named Special Envoy, Ralston was appointed to The Cohen Group team that lobbies for Lockheed.
Sound familiar? Ralston was hired to work for Lockheed and he did, not end PKK operations. A year later the situation on the Kurd border has deteriorated. Now with Turkey threatening to invade Iraq and the spot-light on the PKK, Ralston suddenly quits. Why do you think that is?
Wapo Spins for Terrorists. September 13th, 2007:
...The young men and women who hail from the Kurdish diaspora in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria fight for greater Kurdish influence in those countries. The most prominent among the guerrilla groups is the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which focuses its efforts against Turkey. Its affiliate organization of Iranian Kurds is called the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK.
"They are targeting the area under the pretext that the PKK and PJAK are there, but they're not hitting the positions," said one PKK official on condition of anonymity. "Iran's actual goals, which they will not announce, is to strike the U.S. and destabilize Iraq."
What are Turkey and Iran planning in response? Well, apart from attacking Iraq, Turkey and Iran Signed a New Gas Deal last week, increasing Iran's regional influence again at the expense of the US.
In May 2006, Turkey and Iran met to discuss regional threats. Iranian diplomats presented Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan with evidence that Iraq is providing the PKK with weapons and that US military commanders were 'consulting' with PKK leaders. Turkey and Iran also discussed sharing Iran's nuclear technology.
In 2004 Syria ended its dispute with Turkey because of fears the US wanted 'carve out a Kurdish state' from pieces of Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Turkey is so far safe. That begs the bigger question? Is the US secretly supportive of PKK activities against Syria and Iran? Is that why former general Ralston did nothing to squash the PKK?
Looks that way. Attack Iran Bush officials rely on the PKK as US proxies:
...Washington has its own considerations in northern Iraq, where it has indirect links with Iranian Kurdish dissidents in the mountainous Iraq-Iran border area through the PKK. It would like to use the Iranian Kurds against the Tehran regime at the right time, and a Turkish operation in northern Iraq would seriously dent the alliance...
We may think we've ended Bush imperialism against Iraq and Iran. Maybe not. We don't know exactly why Bush is keeping the PKK around. To use against Tehran and Damascus while he carves up Iraq?
We do know Turkey isn't going to stand for it. The wheels are coming off. Losing Turkey to Iran and Syria may be the very least of the problems we face in the next few weeks. Incompetence, deceit, corporate greed and blood. Do we really have to wait until 2009 for this to end? Can we?
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