Hurriyet Daily News
Is the US really holding out on us?
By C. CEM OĞUZ
Last week, in response to Turkish authorities’ statements that the United States has not given enough support to Turkey in its fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, U.S. ambassador to Ankara, Francis J. Ricciardone, was reported to have described such claims as “disinformation,” “myth,” and “a lie.”
According to Ricciardone, Washington’s most important support to Ankara is in the intelligence field. More importantly, Washington has preferred to provide this “valuable, expensive and special” capability for use by Turkish forces instead of deploying it for the benefit of combating U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
To a certain extent, the ambassador is right. U.S. intelligence support to Turkey is indeed important and must be appreciated by Turkish authorities. I have, nevertheless, some reservations with regard to the nature of the intelligence given to Ankara.
“Real-time,” or “actionable” intelligence are strategic concepts, which developed during the course of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Actually, American intelligence operations before and during the occupation were a complete fiasco. James Risen, the author of an important book, “State of War,” on the subject in question maintains, “No other institution failed in its mission as completely during the Bush years as did the CIA.”
As the insurgency surfaced, the situation became more complex. The U.S. Army lacked even the most basic information that might enable them to assemble a picture as to what was really happening on the ground. The U.S. commanders didn’t know who the enemy was, how they operated, their numbers and capability, their motivations or how they were organized.
In late 2003 the symptoms of the problem were finally recognized and U.S. authorities launched an extraordinary push to improve intelligence capabilities in Iraq. They concluded that speed was the key to attaining concrete results. Attempts at obtaining reliable intelligence were a disaster, and what little good information was gathered at the lower levels unfortunately struggled to make it up the chain of command. That which did, arrived too late.
Now with that in mind, imagine the quality of U.S. intelligence support reaching Turkish authorities. If you take the length of the chain of command into account, do you think that the inevitable time lag is likely to be conducive to gaining concrete results? Under these circumstances, I am afraid to say, U.S. intelligence support to Turkey is in fact nothing more than a mere border patrol.
There is one final aspect of the problem, a political one, which is more important. The aim of the U.S. intelligence operations was primarily to get a bead on enemy leadership and then to destroy it. This is what they also did to Osama bin Laden. The PKK, leader Abdullah Öcalan, in turn, was handed over to Turkey with one stipulation: The death penalty was not to be applied to him. The rest of the leadership of the PKK, on the other hand, freely walks the streets of northern Iraq today.
It is precisely for this paradox that some Turkish authorities are skeptical of further U.S. intentions in the region. And Ambassador Ricciardone is actually one of the few American officials who is aware how deep Turkish distrust against the U.S. might go particularly on that matter, because he did not only serve in the past as political advisor to the U.S. and Turkish commanding generals of Operation Provide Comfort, but was also involved, as deputy chief of mission, in the evacuation of pro-U.S. Iraqi Kurds subsequent to the coup attempt against Saddam Hussein in 1995-96.
Having said that, do you think that the basic interests of the U.S. and Turkey on the Kurdish question in the Middle East are easy to reconcile?
You may not have to wait long for the answer to that critical question, dear readers; all is likely to be revealed as events unfold in Syria.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=is-the-us-really-holding-out-on-us-2011-05-15
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