The devastating suicide bombings in Istanbul last weekwere planned in an internet café in the remote eastern Turkish town of Bingol and co-ordinated with al-Qa'eda.
Turkish police seized equipment from the Bingol internet Merkezi café owned by the family of Gokhan Elaltintas. He is thought to have been one of two suicide bombers who attacked synagogues in Istanbul nine days ago.
The four bombers - natives of a town that is connected to the rest of Turkey by one treacherous road - had travelled across the Middle East and South Asia before returning home to form a terrorist cell which was activated this month. They are believed to have received weapons training in Pakistan and at al-Qa'eda camps in Afghanistan.
Security officials told the Turkish National Security Council on Friday night that as many as 1,000 Turks have trained in Islamist terrorist camps in the past decade.
The Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, has said that the two suspects in the latest bombings had visited Afghanistan, while the Turkish media reported that one trained in Iran in 2001. US intelligence officials said that both men trained in al-Qa'eda camps in Afghanistan, and returned to Turkey in 2001.
Bingol's proximity to Iran and Syria, which have become havens for al-Qa'eda since the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan, made it attractive as a base for plotting the terror attacks.
Al-Qa'eda operatives are believed to have made their way to Turkey to help design the bombs and fuses, picking the targets and planning the missions. They also taught the Turkish cells how to communicate via encrypted messages posted on the internet.
[. . . .]
Police officials said that 18 people had been arrested in connection with the bombings, including printers who had sold the men false identity papers and car dealers who provided the vehicles used in the attacks.
My Commentary:
Sure, we need Al Jazeera and El Arabiya to help spread the Islamist/extremist word in Canada, don't we? Note that, Liberals. You too can aid the crazies with this, as well as with your lax immigration and refugee policies and practices. Of course, we need more Wahhabi schools and influence here to round out our diversity.
And we must bring in more students to study computer science without adequately monitoring them -- students from the territories of the crazies -- or is it considered racist to say that in politically correct Canada? Anyone who had travelled to these countries years ago would have questioned this policy based on their experiences. (I shall spare you the details; let it suffice to say many of us knew there would be no meeting of the minds if they came to the West.)
