Are Syria and Iran Manipulating Turkey On Iraq?
By Walid Phares
for Counterterrorism Blog
PKK is the Kurdish Worker’s Party that adopted violence in its struggle against Turkey. As the Turkish Parliament recently voted to authorize a limited invasion into Northern Iraq to fight the PKK militias, one can see the rising shadows of two hostile regimes in the region, eager to see a NATO member, Turkey, eventually clashing with the United States through their local allies in Iraq. Indeed, the Iranian and Syrian regimes have been pushing the precarious mechanisms of a Turkish military intervention into Northern Iraq for a while now. Logically, a collapse of security in the most secure part of Iraq would lead to a crumbling of the military stabilization of the country, a chief objective of US plans in Iraq.
But the Iran plans for Iraq, which I have analyzed in a previous article, consist of three types of destabilization: An Iranian push in the south, a Syrian opening for the Jihadists in the center, and dragging Turkey to a dogfight in the mountains of the north.
In order to launch the third leg preemptively into Iraqi Kurdistan, Tehran and Damascus have been pushing all the right buttons for the confrontation. Iran’s shelling of villages in the northern part of Iraqi Kurdistan over the past months aimed at encouraging Turkey to do the same.
Opening salvos by the Ayatollahs are to test the Kurdish and US reactions. Moreover, Iran’s Pasdaran - the Revolutionary Guard that provides training and support to terrorist groups throughout the region and abroad - is said to have infiltrated some circles within the PKK, since the latter was based in Syria a few years ago. The PKK suddenly has been waging inexplicable operations inside Eastern Turkey with a new energy, after years of calm. Sources believe the PKK was manipulated by both Iran and Syria into these terror acts on Turkish soil while the official bases of the group are on Iraqi soil. Hence the attacks triggering Turkish anger and responses may have been manipulated by the “axis.”
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Dan the Infidel, sorry it took me so long to respond (I forgot about it). I’m pasting this in irrelevant thread in hopes that you see it.
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Dan (The Infidel)
Interesting name for a group that obviously does not know much about the Constitution; which by the way DOES NOT extend rights to the world. It only guarantees the rights of Americans. As such, if they really knew their business, they’d be defending Blackwater.
Leftists are such idiots. But they make their little god Marx very proud.
October 13th, 2007 at 6:07 am
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Robby Boy
Actually, the Constitution doesn’t just guarantee rights of Americans - it guarantees the rights of anyone on American soil (if we arrested a German tourist visitng New York, he would still have all of the due process rights guaranteed in the Consitution, regardless of the fact that he is not American).
October 13th, 2007 at 8:34 am
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Dan (The Infidel)
Robby Boy:
No bud you’re wrong. It does not guarantee the world any rights. Cite me specifics from the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. I got a copy in my hand. I don’t see it. What ammenment. I’m not interested in case law…Show me in the Bill of rights where those rights extend past American citizens.
October 13th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
(omitted you quoting me)
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Dan (The Infidel)
Robby Boy:
One more note: President Andrew Jackson said that the “Constitution, which was established for the benefit of our own, not of a foreign people: if in the latter, then, like other citizens or people resident within the limits of the States, they are subject to their jurisdiction and control.”
My other comment hasn’t shown up yet.
October 13th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
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Some rights, particularly those associated with our criminal justice system, are extended to everyone on American soil, regardless of nationality. Some, obviously, (like the right to vote) are not unless you’re a citizen.
To clear up one thing - the Constitution doesn’t extend beyond the physical borders of the US (maybe that’s what you mean), but aliens unquestionably have certain rights while on US soil.
I’m as conservative as you get, but it’s actually fairly clear from reading the constitution.
In classifying people, the framers explicitely reserved certain rights for citizens by, well, carving them out especially for citizens.
“No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President”
or
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
However, at other times, the framers simply use the term “person” to mean, well, any person, as in:
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury . . .” Are they a person? Then that applies to them.
I’m not sure what reason you think they have for using two different words, but the Framers were pretty clear that the Fifth Amendment applied to Aliens. When John Adams defended the British soldiers (aliens) after the Boston massacre, they were afforded the full protection of the Constitution.
If you still somehow doubting this idea, read Federalist 43 where James Madison, offhandedly, explicitly says that “persons” as used in the Constitution includes aliens.
Your quote from Jackson doesn’t make sense: it’s simply saying that aliens are subject to both the Constitution (my point) and laws of the States.
On a side note, because I had to look it up, check out the interesting account of the trial of the Boston massacre soldiers as an interesting historical quirk:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/bostonaccount.html
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:16 pm“When John Adams defended the British soldiers (aliens) after the Boston massacre, they were afforded the full protection of the Constitution.”
There was no American Constitution in 1770 when the Boston Massacre occurred.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:57 pmGood call, sully. That’s what I get for staying up late…
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:23 pmAnd feel free to substitute Sacco and Vanzetti or the trial of any other alien (for which the Constitution applied) for my example.
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:31 pmI said it before the PKK has it ties to Iran
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:18 pmAre Syria and Iran Manipulating Turkey On Iraq?
divise for reigning, they know perfectly Machiavel
anyway, since history can be written , it a long tale of revenge wars
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:08 amThe Constitution doesn’t give anybody any rights anywhere! All of the rights enumerated in the Constitution come from our creator, and are given by said creator to “all men”, that means all people, worldwide. The government of the United States exists to secure those rights to everyone in its jurisdiction. Be they American, Canadian, or from East Crapistan.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:15 amreal good article.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:19 am“divise for reigning, they know perfectly Machiavel”
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:10 amyeah? do you?
you mean if I know how or the manual
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:51 ameither
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:09 amas a knowing-it-all-about-policies, you should be aware that it is a requierred quality for a political man
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:17 amThe question was ‘do YOU know Machiavelli?’ YOU brought it up.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:34 amAre you a “political man”?
“either”, doesn’t mean only “do you know Machiavelli” though
as far as your late formulation, yes, I know him, but not studied him groundly though for my own purpose, only for information
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 amImplicit in the “manipulating” thesis is that Erdogan isn’t that reluctant to be manipulated. He’s certainly playing both ends against the middle.
But these games would slow down drastically, if not end, if Syria and Iran were properly hammered down.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:48 pm