Turkey charges more officers over coup plot

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119460§ionid=351020204


A Turkish court has charged eight more officers for tying to topple the Ankara government in 2003, bringing the number of coup suspects under investigation to 20.

The eight suspects, including two serving admirals, three retired admirals and a retired one-star general, were grilled several hours overnight and were remanded in custody in military and civilian prisons in Istanbul.

On Wednesday, the Istanbul court handling the probe ordered that 12 suspects questioned by prosecutors earlier should be kept in jail pending trial, but also decided to release around 10 other suspects.

Turkey's anti-terrorism police on Monday arrested about 50 serving and retired military figures, including the former chiefs of the navy and air force, Ozden Ornek and Ibrahim Firtina, in what the country's army described "a serious situation."

The army said top commanders held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, prompting a warning from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) against any moves to influence the judiciary.

Turkey's military which traditionally carries a great political weight has unseated four governments in the country.

The 2003 coup plot in question was codenamed "Operation Sledgehammer" and was allegedly planned and discussed in 2003 within the Istanbul-based First Army, soon after the AKP came to power in 2002.

The plot allegedly involved plans to bomb mosques and provoke tensions with Greece in a bid to force the targeting of a Turkish jet, and thus discrediting the government and leading to its collapse.

UK official: We knew about Mossad assassination plot

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118979§ionid=351020601


Israel's Mossad had tipped off British intelligence that they were going to use fake British passports before the assassination of the Hamas commander, a new report says.

According to a report by the Daily Mail on Friday morning, the British intelligence agency the MI6 was notified before the assassination took place in Dubai last month.

The UK newspaper published the report several hours following a 20-minute meeting between the Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor and a senior British diplomat in London on Thursday.

The two officials discussed the British passports apparently used in the assassination of Mabhouh in Dubai.

A British security source quoted a Mossad agent as saying that "the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen," the paper further added.

"There was no British involvement and they didn't know the name of the target. But they were told these people were traveling on UK passports," the Daily Mail quoted the British security source as saying.

On Thursday, Dubai Police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said he was 99-percent certain that the Mossad was behind the assassination.

Tamim said he would ask Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant against Mossad head Meir Dagan, and perhaps also against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu if it's proven that the Israeli intelligence agency was behind the assassination of Mabhouh.

Mabhouh, a senior commander in the armed wing of the Islamic movement, was killed in his hotel room on January 19 in Dubai by a hit squad of at least 11 people carrying forged European passports, according to the Dubai police.