Oct 15 2007

Breaking: US Security Contractors Clients of PKK?

Damien McElroy of the Daily Telegraph reports that US private security vehicles are parked at PKK headquarters high in the Quandil Mountains this week.

“There is a landing pad complete with spotlights near Mr Karayilan’s headquarters, while four-wheel-drive vehicles belonging to a US private security contractor, are easily seen.”

Get that? US private security company vehicles have been sighted at the base of the top PKK Military Leader: Murat Karayilan.

Turkey is ready to invade Northern Iraq to end PKK attacks

ISTANBUL, Oct. 12 — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that he is prepared for a rupture in relations with the United States if his government launches an incursion into northern Iraq in search of Kurdish rebels.

Sy Hersh wrote last year that US and Israeli forces were likely working with Kurd separatists in Northern Iraq. Kurds want an independent homeland. The violent struggle for a greater Kurdistan encompassing parts of Syria, Iran and Turkey is being led by the PKK and the PJAK, which focuses exclusively on attacking Iran.

Some insist that there is some meaningful difference between the PKK and PJAK.

Current PJAK leader Ahmedi does not downplay the PKK’s importance to his organization. When asked about PJAK-PKK ties in a June 2006 interview with the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, he replied, “We are brother parties . . . sharing the same core. We support each other.” Cemil Bayik, a founding member of the PKK and one of its current leaders, spoke along the same lines in November 2006: “The PKK is the one who formed PJAK, who established PJAK and supports PJAK.”

The two groups remain geographically close as well. PJAK’s base camp is located on the southern slopes of Mount Qandil, Iraq, currently within PKK-held territory. The PKK’s base camp is on the western side of the mountain. Journalists visiting Qandil have reported that entry to PJAK’s home base is granted only after passing through several PKK-run checkpoints en route.

Turkish Troops are ready to invade and US private security company vehicles are parked at a PKK airport.

We don’t know which US private security company is involved; or who is paying the bills. We don’t know if the company in question is operating alone, or if any other US private security companies are also working with the PKK.

We do know that US military involvement with the PKK at the private or government level is going to be hard to explain.

 

8 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. some completely innocent explanation for all this.

    • fatdave on October 15, 2007 at 19:48
    • #

    It was no more than a goodwill delegation from the company Mercenaries for Peace inc, who were  ensuring the best possible Feng Shui for the headquarters.

  4. Former Blackwater employees are also being investigated by the Feds for smuggling arms to the Kurds. From an AP story last month:

    In the United States, officials in Washington said the smuggling investigation grew from internal Pentagon and State Department inquiries into U.S. weapons that had gone missing in Iraq. It gained steam after Turkish authorities protested to the U.S. in July that they had seized American arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels.

    The Turks provided serial numbers of the weapons to U.S. investigators, said a Turkish official.

    The Pentagon said in late July it was looking into the Turkish complaints and a U.S. official said FBI agents had traveled to Turkey in recent months to look into cases of missing U.S. weapons in Iraq.

    Investigators are determining whether the alleged Blackwater weapons match those taken from the PKK.

    It was not clear if Blackwater employees suspected of selling to the black market knew the weapons they allegedly sold to middlemen might wind up with the PKK. If they did, possible charges against them could be more serious than theft or illegal weapons sales, officials said.

    And according to the Washington Post, the arms smuggling was part of the  Krongard intimidation cover-up.

    It also included an internal e-mail that indicated Krongard had intervened to stop his office from cooperating with a Justice Department investigation into alleged arms smuggling by Blackwater. In a North Carolina case, two Blackwater employees have pleaded guilty to weapons charges and are cooperating with Justice officials.

    Krongard helped Blackwater warlord Erik Prince get some of his initial government contracts.

  5. in Northern Iraq.  I suppose a security firm is parked there because if the military was parked there the hell to pay with Turkey would be worse and undeniable….and the PKK working with the United States I doubt gets them much in the long run other than killed but I can always hope I’m wrong.

Comments have been disabled.