White House won't condemn Turkish incursion in Iraq

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

White House won't condemn Turkish incursion in Iraq
37 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House on Tuesday declined to object to a reported Turkish incursion targeting Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, citing what it called "conflicting" information about the raid.

Spokeswoman Dana Perino called the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters "a threat" to Turkey, Iraq, and the United States but said Washington had urged Ankara to take "very targeted and limited" action against them.

But she declined to comment specifically on what the office of Massud Barzani, president of Iraq's northern Kurdish government, said was an incursion by around 500 Turkish soldiers. Turkey has declined to confirm the strike.

"Since there are conflicting reports, let's wait and see what is actually happening on the ground there before we comment. We have asked Turkey to keep the operations very targeted and limited," said Perino.

"I think we should wait until there's more concrete information from the ground in terms of how far the incursion was, how many people, who all was involved," said the spokeswoman.



Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jUVNUgegbjbjgcB_lF-UIS1Lmh0A

[babylonsister]

1. Maybe that's because the US encouraged it?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1695506,00.html

Turkey's US-Backed Strike in Iraq
Monday, Dec. 17, 2007 By ANDREW PURVIS


The official U.S. line is that Washington did not approve Turkey's Sunday air strike on Kurdish targets in northern Iraq. But the U.S. does control the skies over Iraq and the Pentagon did open airspace over Iraq for at least three hours to Turkish warplanes. It was also informed of the raids beforehand, according to an American spokesperson in Ankara. "By opening its airspace, America gave its approval to the operation," Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit said. He also said U.S. intelligence provided targeting information for the attack. The U.S. may not have formally approved Sunday's operation, but it did everything short of that. In fact, the raids "show a degree of tactical cooperation between the U.S. and Turkey that we have not seen since the beginning of the Iraq war," according to Mark Parris, a former U.S.ambassador to Turkey now at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. Turkey sent another 300 troops across the border on Tuesday. Washington may see such raids as the best way to prevent tensions between Turkey and Iraq from spilling over into a broader conflict.

more...

[boricua79]

3. frankly, I'm not bothered

if the best way to deal with PKK guerillas is for washington to look the other way, and for Turkey to take them out, so be it.

The altenative is that these guerillas flaunt the control of the Iraqi Central government (endangering reconciliation efforts) and attacks Turkey with impunity. That cannot be allowed.

Turkey is allowed self-defense, like any other nation in the world

[jaksavage]

2. Connie is in Kirkuk this morning

I wonder if it has anything to do with this?
Duh.

[acmavm]

5. Well, the Kurdish leader refused to meet with her. I suppose they're

pretty tired of US duplicity.

[radfringe]

4. why should WH object? it's our freaking INTEL that is giving them the targets

Washington Post: US intelligence helped Turkey in Iraq attacks
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/160734.html

Washington - The United States is providing "real-time" intelligence to Turkey to launch attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, the US daily Washington Post reported, citing Pentagon sources. According to the report, the US military has allowed Turkey access to information taken from US aircraft on locations of rebels of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which was used in recent Turkish air raids.

The authoritative US daily quoted a military official as saying the US was "essentially handing (the Turks) their targets."

[LynnTheDem]

6. But if it had been 2 Iranian fishmongers who incursed...!

Regardless of "how far the incursion was".

Stunning level of hypocrisy as always with The New aMerica.

[winter999]

11. Easily explained:

Turkey = ally
Iran <> ally

[gratuitous]

7. What are we going to do? Say, "Don't invade Iraq?"

Like the Bush administration has any credibility whatsoever.

[lovuian]

8. Turkey troops have entered Iraq

it is an invasion

[SpiralHawk]

9. "This deployment is absolutely essential for Armageddon." - Commander AWOL

"You free-thinkers out there had just damn well better realize that we need these troops in position so we can all kill each other senselessly soon on the plains at Meggido. Smirk. Please allow me to introduce myself. What's my name? Smirk, smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[HuffleClaw]

10. can you IMAGINE the fuss they'd be making had it been an iranian incursion?

they'd be calling for war for sure.