Turkey Embassy Plot: 14 Jailed Over Alleged Al-Qaeda Plot To Attack U.S. Embassy

ISTANBUL, July 16 (Reuters) - A Turkish court has jailed 14 people pending trial on charges of al Qaeda membership for allegedly planning an attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara, state media said on Saturday.

The suspects were detained on July 12 ahead of the visit to Turkey of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was due to meet Turkish leaders in Istanbul on Saturday.

State-run Anatolian news agency said the court in the Turkish capital on Friday evening ordered the 14 be remanded in custody, while releasing one further person. One of the suspects had carried out reconnaissance on the U.S. embassy and other diplomatic premises.

Police seized 700 kg (1,500 lb) of ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in improvised explosives, in a raid on a house in the province of Ankara this week, media reports said.

The police also carried out raids in two other western provinces after the explosives find, the Interior Ministry said.

Media reports have said the suspects, linked to a group active in Afghanistan, were allegedly planning to avenge the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan on May 2.

Turkish police regularly arrest suspected Islamist militants and describe them as having links to al Qaeda, though further details seldom emerge.

Al Qaeda militants were behind bomb attacks in 2003 that killed some 60 people and wounded hundreds in Istanbul. (Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[Erewhon7]

10:59 AM on 07/18/2011

Catch-and-release is in the works, obviously.

[oxi]

03:56 PM on 07/17/2011

Why is Turkey having so much trouble joining the EU?

Why is Turkey the ONLY nation to recognize the illegal occupation of Cyprus?

Why do Kurds not get equal freedoms or treatment?

Why are Christians getting oppressed and treated like animals?

Please do not look the other way in the face of Turkish abuses...

[TuncayBayram]

09:05 AM on 07/18/2011

*Half of the people in Turkey do not want to be part of the EU which is going to drown in its garbage...
*Turkey occupation is not illegal. Turkey is there because Greeks of Cyprus tried to killed Turks of Cyprus systematically.
*Do not know anything about Kurds in Turkey. This is big lie not more
*Please be Truth, Turkish citizens and government respect all of Christians Turkish citizens in Turkey. Do you have any evidence about that christians getting oppressed and threated like animals...

Note: Most probably oxi is Greek. Therefore he/she tries to produce bad thoughts to Turkey without any evidence. True thing is that Bulgaria and Greece forced their Turks citizens badly. They are really in bad situation.

[oxi]

11:13 AM on 07/18/2011

How many nations recognize the illegal occupation of Cyprus?

Only Turkey!

Can't you wait until Cyprus has the EU Presidency! I cannot wait!

[dayzee10]

11:02 AM on 07/17/2011

Joey do you like gladiator movies? Have you ever been in a turkish prison?

[PoliticsHater]

01:35 PM on 07/17/2011

Midnight Express, Baby!

[Sammy Konur Bayrak]

09:23 PM on 07/19/2011

midnight express was made by greek and armenian film producers to make turkey look bad.

[Mr Sandbox]

08:37 AM on 07/17/2011

On the one hand the Turkish gov't arrests Al Queda Islamic fanatics (good)--on the other, the Turkish gov't expresses sympathy for Islamofacist Hamas (bad). I'm confused.

[oxi]

03:43 PM on 07/17/2011

If your Christian, you do not like Turkey!

[caseyjosh]

07:05 PM on 07/17/2011

Enlighten me please, what countries should Christians like?

[Sammy Konur Bayrak]

09:25 PM on 07/19/2011

Turkey opposes terrorism with islam but supports efforts made by hamas to free the gaza strip of Israel's terror.

[Taxim]

04:34 AM on 07/17/2011

In a sign of the conflicted relationship, Mrs. Clinton made a point on Saturday of thanking the Turkish authorities for their recent detention of more than a dozen suspected militants of Al Qaeda who are accused of planning to attack the United States Embassy in Turkey. But she also was unsparing in her assessment of Turkey, in particular of journalists’ detentions.

“I do not think it is necessary or in Turkey’s interests to be cracking down,” she said, according to The A.P. “It seems to me inconsistent with all the other advances Turkey has made.”

The Turkish Press Association says that more than 60 journalists are in jail, many charged with crimes related to their published work. At least two — Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik, both investigative journalists critical of the ruling party and supportive of Islamic organizations — have not been notified of their charges since their arrests in March.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/world/middleeast/17turkey.html?ref=todayspaper

[Maija Dravnieks]

02:37 AM on 07/17/2011

Good work and thankyou. ~ Maija from Detroit

[deppadderdepp]

09:24 PM on 07/16/2011

I say great job on saving innocent American lives.

[gattic619]

09:23 PM on 07/16/2011

I just returned from two weeks in Turkey...let all Americans know, that the Turkish people are really our freinds....regardless of their relious affiliations. They are good kind peolple, who are against fundamentalists,Taliban, Al Queda....and do not want to become a religous fanatical country. As an American, and JEWISH......I was treated with utmost respect and have made quite a few real frineds, in a short time. I love the people, their culture, their food and their spiirit,..It was the best trip that I have ever had..

[CologneCitizen]

02:09 AM on 07/17/2011

I hear you. We have 70.000 Turkish people or people of Turkish descent in Cologne which has a total of a million people. In the last 30 years, (when the first of them came) there was never a threat, attack or any form of religious or political violence. We don't buy here the fake, made up threat of fundamentalism. I say let the authorities watch the few extremists that are here, but don't take it out on the vast majority of peacefull people living here and in other parts of the world.

[Buster Nitchski]

03:55 AM on 07/17/2011

thank you for sharing your experience!

[se72748]

08:37 PM on 07/16/2011

In the nations of the world, not one is perfect,but those imperfect nations that are our friends deserve our friendship and support.

[oxi]

03:46 PM on 07/17/2011

Turkey is evil, if you think Turkey should be a part of the few (does not include U.S.) good nations on this planet, you are solely mistaken!

[porsche996]

07:43 PM on 07/16/2011

Wow 14 huh? That's twice as many as remain in Afghanistan....they've got more AQ than that in Queens.

[ingodsfaith83]

07:06 PM on 07/16/2011

Free them and allow them to continue on their mission of Freeing the world from the evil global empire.

These men are like the William Wallaces of their day.

Freedom for all people!

[lkjld]

08:01 PM on 07/16/2011

you're joking, roght?

[celtics3775]

08:26 PM on 07/16/2011

Go die.

[norkas]

06:41 PM on 07/16/2011

Want a good formula to help rid all of the world of Al Qaeda?

The head of the serpent is their religious teachers take the head of the serpent off and another grows after 20 heads taken off the snake no longer has a life.

History proves the point

[oxi]

06:19 PM on 07/16/2011

On Turkey, please listen to what neighboring countries have been saying about this evil regime!

Since the U.S. supports them in every way, that makes the U.S. evil as well!

Nice double standard U.S., point the finger at other nations for human rights and ignore Turkey, point the finger at other nations for suppression of people and lack of freedoms and ignore Turkey...

And you sell them weapons of destruction and allow them into NATO, nice job West, keep up the good work!

[Buster Nitchski]

03:59 AM on 07/17/2011

get a little more specific....which neighbors. Syria? Iraq? Iran? All non-secular gov'ts...religion does not belong in gov't. These gov'ts tend to support nutcases.

[oxi]

09:52 AM on 07/17/2011

Get real, Greece for starters then Cyprus..

[coreten]

10:11 AM on 07/17/2011

I used to be stationed there long time ago, and became familiar with certain things.
If he has to tell you which neighbors then he probably would have to expose himself as as an Armenian or Greek sympathizer because if I remember right, those are the only two that might feel that way.

[Uncle Bill]

05:52 PM on 07/16/2011

Where are the "religion of peace" tro((s on this thread- perhaps the mere existence of a country with a Muslim majority with a secular government that is fighting Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and protecting its citizens and ours made their heads explode.

[Buster Nitchski]

04:01 AM on 07/17/2011

nicley put Bill.

[oxi]

03:52 PM on 07/17/2011

They are doing a horrible job of protecting their Kurd citizens!

Just keep quiet on things you do not understand ok...

[Uncle Bill]

05:37 PM on 07/17/2011

oxi- Turkey is not perfect, I never claimed they were.  Neither are they the cartoon you offer in response.  I was responding to the routine anti Muslim bigotry that often appears here.  You seem to want to join them.

[cadawa]

05:29 PM on 07/16/2011

Turkey tortures according to Amnesty International. Especially political activists. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/turkey/100622/turkey-torture-prison-abu-ghraib

[caseyjosh]

02:46 PM on 07/17/2011

So does USA, Russia, China ... countries with far more power and influence than Turkey

[cadawa]

06:06 PM on 07/17/2011

I'm not singling Turkey out.
My point ws the US often has other nations do their torturing for them.
These alleged 'Al Qaida' operatives were arrested in the US Embassy. By the time the US and Turkey are finished with them they'll admit they belong to League of Women voters and that plotting to lob a missle onto the White House lawn.