United State files espionage charges against Turkish military contractors with Turkish ties

October 12, 2016 By administrator

In a development that is expected to contribute to the downward spiral in Turkish-American relations, the United States government has reportedly filed espionage charges against three Department of Defense contractors with Turkish background. The three are believed to have been charged with transferring US military secrets abroad and are currently in prison.

A statement published by the US Pentagon said that the group consists of two men and a woman, all of whom are of Turkish background. Two of them are naturalized American citizens. They are listed as owners of a company that conducts research in military technology and has contracted for many years with the US Pentagon. All contracts were allegedly won following competitive bids and can only be awarded to bidders who are in possession of US citizenship and top security clearances. According to Turkey’s pro-government English-language newspaper, Daily Sabah, the three contractors have helped develop and manufacture parts for missile-launching systems used on American warplanes. They have also worked on several generations of grenade launchers used by the US military.

But on Sunday, the three contractors were arrested in simultaneous raids and charged with “funneling military secrets out of the country”, according to Sabah. The paper said the US government decided to arrest the three once it became known that some hardware parts related to the Pentagon bids handled by their company were being illegally manufactured in Turkey. There is no information in the Pentagon’s press release on whether the top-secret military components were also shared with the Turkish government. Relations between Washington and Ankara, two North Atlantic Treaty Organization member-states, have suffered since the failed July 15 military coup in Turkey. Many in the administration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blame Washington for the coup and for allegedly shielding the man behind it, the Islamic cleric Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, who lives in the US state of Pennsylvania.

Source: https://intelnews.org/2016/10/12/01-1992/

Egypt sentences ex-President Morsi to life in espionage trial

June 18, 2016 By administrator

morci-sentance An Egyptian court Saturday, June 18 sentenced former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to life in prison in an espionage trial in which six of his co-defendants were handed death penalties, AFP reports.

The court acquitted Morsi of charges of having supplied Qatar with classified documents but sentenced him to life for leading an unlawful organisation, his lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud told AFP.

The ousted president was also convicted of having “stolen secret documents concerning state security” and handed another 15-year jail term, the lawyer added.

Qatar was a main backer of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement while he was in power between 2012 and July 2013, when the military overthrew and detained him, AFP says.

Morsi has been sentenced to death in a separate trial for his alleged role in prison breaks and attacks on police stations during the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

He has also received a life sentence and a 20-year jail term in two other trials.

On Saturday the court confirmed death sentences against six defendants, including three journalists tried in absentia who allegedly helped relay secret documents to Qatar.

The journalists have been identified as Ibrahim Mohamed Hilal and Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar Mohamed Sablan, both of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel.

The third has been named as Asmaa Mohamed al-Khatib, a female reporter with pro-Muslim Brotherhood news outlet Rassd, AFP says.

The death sentences had been sent to the mufti — Egypt’s official interpreter of Islamic law — as Egyptian law requires his opinion on death sentences although his opinion is not binding.

The verdicts can be appealed.

AFP. Egypt’s Morsi sentenced to life in espionage trial

Turkish newspaper editor in court for ‘espionage’ after revealing weapon convoy to Syrian militants

November 26, 2015 By administrator

A Turkish prosecutor asked a court to imprison the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper pending trial for espionage and treason. In May, the outlet published photos of weapons it said were then transferred to Syria by Turkey’s intelligence agency.

Besides the editor, Can Dündar, the prosecution said it is seeking the same pre-trial restrictions for Cumhuriyet’s representative in Ankara, Erdem Gül.

Dündar arrived at an Istanbul court on Thursday, saying that he and his colleague “came here to defend journalism.”

“We came here to defend the right of the public to obtain the news and their right to know if their government is feeding them lies. We came here to show and to prove that governments cannot engage in illegal activity and defend this,” Dündar was cited by Today’s Zaman.

The articles, published on Cumhuriyet’s front page in May, claimed that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) is smuggling weapons in trucks into Syria and was caught doing so twice in 2014. The trucks were allegedly stopped and searched by police, with photos and videos of their contents obtained by Cumhuriyet.

According to the paper, the trucks were carrying six steel containers, with 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells. The arms were reportedly delivered to extremist groups fighting against the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, whom Ankara wants ousted from power.

The Turkish authorities denied the allegations, saying that the trucks were carrying aid to Syrian ethnic Turkmen tribespeople and labeled their interception an act of “treason” and “espionage.”

Espionage trial involving Turks in Germany reveals alleged money transfers

September 18, 2015 By administrator

Muhammed Taha Gergerlioğlu sits in front of the regional appeal court in Koblenz, Germany on Sept. 9. (Photo: Reuters)

Three suspects of Turkish origin have been charged with espionage in an indictment prepared by the German attorney-general that includes wiretapped phone conversations revealing transfers of huge sums of money and claims of Germany being the true enemy of Turkey.

In the third hearing of the suspects’ trial, provincial Police Chief Steffan Blasius testified that a suspect and former aide of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Muhammed Taha Gergerlioğlu, 59, frequently communicated with German national Göksel Güler, also a suspect in the case, and many others, some of whom remain unidentified.

Blasius said the police prepared 3,300 pages of transcripts from more than 20,000 wiretapped phone and Internet communications. Police only mentioned the headings of the transcripts in court, without going into detail. Blasius read headings such as “Ismail al-Buti, 500 million USD,” “Swiss Bank, power of attorney, 500 million USD” and “To be given to RTE [Erdoğan]” in the Koblenz High Court.

Last year, the leader of the Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, claimed Erdoğan has eight Swiss bank accounts. He called on the president to prove otherwise, but Erdoğan has never responded.

During the trial of the suspects, the third of whom is Turkish national Ahmet Duran Y. and all of whom were arrested in Germany in December on suspicion of espionage, the court rejected the defense’s attempt to have the indictment thrown out because of ongoing cooperation over terrorism between the two countries.

In May, the attorney-general filed charges against the trio, accusing them of spying on behalf of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Blasius stated that Güler had acted as a sort of personal secretary for Gergerlioğlu, organizing his itinerary and picking him up from the airport when he came to Germany. He said the two originally spoke over the phone, but later switched to written communication, often using messaging software, including Skype, Viber, Tango and WhatsApp.

Among the headings of transcribed messages were “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will reach [out to] 7 billion people and bring justice to the world” and “Arab media launched a campaign against TR [Turkey], all except Al Jazeera.”

‘Germany real enemy of Turkey’

A message Gergerlioğlu sent to an unidentified person on Aug. 18, 2014, stated, “Germans are our real enemies,” “These [Germans] are true enemies of Islam” and “Germans did not take it well that THY [Turkish Airlines] outperformed Lufthansa.”

Blasius said many messages included comments about Fethullah Gülen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the US and who has inspired a civil society movement in his name. One message even noted that the Israeli ambassador had attended an event organized by the Gülen movement.

Gülen, who is internationally acclaimed for his promotion of interfaith dialogue, tolerance and education, served as a spiritual leader and imam before moving to the US in 1999. He became a target of Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government following the eruption of a graft scandal that implicated Erdoğan’s inner circle in late 2013.

Erdoğan has accused the Gülen movement of operating a “parallel structure” of supporters in the judiciary and the police force who initiated the graft probes, while the movement denies the charge.

Turkish spies are said to have been ordered to spy on Erdoğan’s opponents in Germany, including members of the Kurdish minority, the faith-based Gülen movement and other Turkish nationals critical of the Turkish leadership.

According to court documents, the three were charged with tracking and spying on Turkish and Kurdish dissidents who would be detained upon returning to Turkey. Blasius said police had recovered many photographs from the communications, including some of demonstrations by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Bielefeld and Mannheim.

The suspects allegedly profiled Alevi groups in particular. One message was titled “Regarding a PKK and Alevi rally in Koln: German intelligence is supporting atheist Alevis and secular Kurds against Turkey with lots of money. They are swimming in a pool of money. German anarchists are supporting this rally as well.”

Gergerlioğlu also organized a social group, called the “New İstanbul Civilization (YİM),” on WhatsApp, with more than 50 participants, who exchanged information and photos. In his messages, Gergerlioğlu talked about setting up a wide intelligence network, stressing that all information exchanged within the group would be assessed by MİT. He said: “MİT infiltrated the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [ISIL]. Foreign intelligence exposed that. The PKK is arming. Don’t worry; they will use it against ISIL.”

Gergerlioğlu was reportedly sent by MİT head Hakan Fidan with a fund of 25,000 euros to launch a consulting firm for German-Turkish companies in the city of Bad Dürkheim with Güler in 2011.

The indictment states that the suspects were engaged in acts of espionage for MİT. Ahmet Duran Y. and Güler were charged with collecting information about dissidents opposing Erdoğan in Germany under the leadership of Gergerlioğlu. They face a prison sentence of up to five years, according to German law.

The second witness to testify on Thursday was Police Chief Martin Müller of the Mainz Criminal Bureau. He said he examined the iPhone seized from Gergerlioğlu and found more than 300 documents in the phone’s memory. Among them were passport photographs belonging to British, Syrian, Iranian and Kazakhstani citizens, a list of names from various groups, including al-Qaeda, documents of arms trades between Israel and İstanbul, as well as various official letters and notifications addressed to and from Turkish prosecutors’ offices, governors, and members of the police force and gendarmerie.

Source: ZAMAN

When Turkey’s FM caught red handed he implies espionage from within ministry over Syria leak

March 28, 2014 By administrator

ANKARA

Ahmet Davutoğlu went ballistic after the leak, saying that everyone potentially implicated would be investigated.

Hurriyet daily news The leak of a recording of top security officials discussing possible military action in Syria to the video-sharing website YouTube is a violation of confidentiality of the State of the Republic of Turkey, thus no one and no institution will be immune from being investigated over the incident, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said.

“Everything and everybody is being investigated in the most meticulous way,” Davutoğlu said in an interview aired live on NTV news channel on March 28.

In response to a question urging him to elaborate, the minister said “everything” included an internal probe at his ministry too, while underlining the incident constituted a case of cyber-attack against the confidentiality of the state.

“There were ordinary pawns used in this tapping. Fellow staff members have been assessing alternatives which may be related to this tapping technology,” Davutoğlu first of all said, when boldly asked to name the perpetrators of the tapping and was reminded of the fact he earlier said, “They have been using the ‘parallel structure’ inside [the state].”

Davutoğlu’s remarks, since he used the term “parallel structure,” signals that the ongoing hostility between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the movement of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is likely to reach a new high with the latest leak.

The term “parallel state” or “parallel structure” is commonly used by critics to refer to the Gülen movement. Gülen has been in voluntary exile in the United States for over a decade. The alleged “parallel state” is accused by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of orchestrating a corruption scandal to unseat him. The related investigation went public in mid-December 2013 and triggered a huge counter-reaction from the AKP, particularly in the judiciary, as it aimed to contain the damage from the probe, which involved the sons of three former ministers and businesspeople known to be close to the government.

“It is a room where a jammer is used,” Davutoğlu said, referring to a device system used as a measure against being tapped.

“Whichever hands that used these pawns; there is no difference between launching an attack via violating the border or tapping confidential meetings of the state. This is an open attack. Any other violation committed in a different way may remain local, such as violation [of the border] by a plane. However, if such a cyber-attack is launched at a meeting where military and security options were discussed, then it is no different than a military attack.”

Upon such an interpretation, Davutoğlu was asked whether the response would be “militaristic.”

“I’m just saying in regards to the content. Otherwise, Turkey is a state governed by the rule of law and [the response] would be given within these rules. First, the pawns; and then whoever is behind these pawns, them,” Davutoğlu said.

Deputy PM dismisses MİT role

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has dismissed any possibility that the MİT could be involved with the leak. “Thinking that the MİT could have leaked it is inconceivable,” he said, describing the incident as “treason to the state.”

“This is an extremely complex situation. It would even be beyond [Turkish officials’] intelligence. If this is done by a [foreign service] without a spy inside, the technology used needs to be well-assessed,” Arınç said.

Meanwhile, a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy accused one of the four officials attending the meeting of being a spy.

“The government constantly accuses [the Gülen] movement, calling them a parallel organization. But it is clear that there are other parallel organizations within the government. They are the ones who recorded the meeting,” Lütfü Türkkan told daily Hürriyet.

March/28/2014