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Re: Hersh's story on Israel and the Kurds. This today from Ha'aretz:
Paper says Turkish FM leaked Mossad, Kurd story
By Zvi Bar'el
ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is the source of the
leak to New Yorker correspondent Seymour Hersh that dozens of Israeli
Mossad agents are ostensibly in northern Iraq. The reliable Turkish
newspaper Cumhuriyet yesterday stated that Gul, along with two advisers and a spokesman, had a breakfast meeting with Hersh on May 27, on which occasion he gave the information to Hersh.Official Turkish spokesmen denied the report in Jumhurriyet, dismissing
it as "a report by an opposition paper," but sources at the paper
insisted the report is "correct, verified, and approved by highly informed
sources."Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani categorically denied Hersh's report on
Wednesday.Turkish sources yesterday confirmed to Haaretz that despite the
denials, official Turkey still does not completely believe that no Israeli
agents are present in northern Iraq. According to these sources, Israeli
and Turkish officials held talks over the past year regarding the
possibility of cooperation with the Kurds. The Israeli side indeed declared
that any cooperation of this kind would only occur in coordination with
Turkey and not behind its back. However, "Turkish sensitivity to the
possibility that Israel would exploit an opportunity prevents the Turkish
government from relaxing. Perhaps that is why, if it was indeed Gul who
passed on the information, his sole purpose was to nip the idea in the
bud," they said.In any event, Israel has made it clear to Turkey that Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon decided not to open a channel of cooperation with the Kurds.
For now, that decision is blocking proposals submitted by Israeli
intelligence officials to Sharon to try to reestablish the connection with
the Kurds.
Many interesting threads to pull from this. Turkey of course has long been anxious about Kurdish separatism; the fear that it would lead to greater autonomy for Iraq's Kurds and subsequently demands for autonomy by Turkey's Kurds was Ankara's principle hang up about a US-led intervention in Iraq. But for nearly a decade, Turkish-Israeli military to military relations have been very strong. So, what does the allegation that the Hersh story was sourced by the Turkish foreign minister indicate about how Ankara is viewing Sharon these days? Is there something to the allegations in Hersh's report about Israel covertly aiding Iraqi Kurdish militias, or is it all based in Turkish conspiracy theories and paranoia about US and Israeli intentions and Kurdish separatism? That remains to be seen, but surely the answer is to be found -- or not -- in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.
Let's hope Hersh comes through with a follow up clarifying all of this.
Meantime, what does the information in this Ha'aretz story say about the evolution of relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv? What had cemented strong relations between Turkey and Israel was a few shared strategic enemies, particularly Syria and Iran, as well as a shared principal ally: Washington. Particularly, Washington over Europe. All that has shifted, with improved Turkish-Syrian relations, somewhat improved Turkish-Iranian relations, improved Turkish-European relations, and deteriorating Turkish-US relations...as well as the rise of a (moderate) Islamist government in Ankara, and a more hardline Israeli government under Ariel Sharon. Neocons have long cherished the idea of a Washington-Turkey-Israel alliance, even over Washington's long-time alliances with NATO and certainly over Europe. But according to my Turkish sources, no one has done more to alienate Turkey from the US than the neocons, particularly Paul Wolfowitz who manages to alienate Turks with every public statement since the run up to the war. [According to Turkish sources, Wolfowitz had said something along the lines of, if what was keeping Turkey from joining the US-led alliance invading Iraq was Turkish public opinion, that Ankara should just disregard it. Not terribly democratic.]
It will be an interesting NATO summit in Istanbul this weekend.
One other point a contact raised with me yesterday. There are multiple reports of an Israeli presence in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. US diplomatic advisors have told me for instance of Israeli advisors to Kurdish Iraqi leaders, and Israeli involvement in the rise of a central bank in Kurdish Iraq. Whether there is some sort of covert relationship between Israel and Kurdish militias I have no knowledge of. But what this contact suggested to me yesterday was that if such contact exists, the real question to ask: is it private, or is it governmental? He hinted strongly that it was private.
Secondly, there's an interesting historical backdrop to this story that I was not previously aware of. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Israel was apparently very close to the father of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, a mullah. Apparently, Israel helped mullah Barzani flee Iraq when he was ill to get medical care in New York, where he ultimately died. Why this relationship? Two things. There were apparently lots of Jewish people from the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, many of them fled to Israel during Saddam's time, but there remains that tie. [In fact, some of them have the last name Barzani.] Secondly, as my contact explained the relationship between Israel and the Barzani family and the Iraqi Kurds to me, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
More: Here's a nice profile of Hersh from the Chicago Tribune (registration required). This is priceless:
[Hersh] inhabits a reality we can barely glimpse, crosscut by the chatter of encrypted satellite signals. For national security officials, leaking to Hersh is "generally better than writing a memo to the president," remarks his friend and competitor --Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus.
In recent months, The New Yorker editor David Remnick says, Hersh "seems to begin every phone call with the line, `It's worse than you think.'"