Russian ambassador to Turkey shot and killed

[American Dream]

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2016/12/t ... reign.html

The bodyguard of the Iranian foreign minister is watching the bodyguard of the Turkish foreign minister VERY CLOSELY



Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil

[nashvillebrook]

there was NO ONE HERE including myself salivating for a Clinton win ....NO ONE

Trump will be impeached

I wonder if he lives thru his term.

Trump's choice for national security advisor supposedly wants to hand over the Pennsylvania (asset, i mean) cleric, Fethullah Gulen, to Erdogan -- a move which would certainly displease the IC.

http://www.rferl.org/a/trump-adviser-flynn-wants-extradite-turkish-cleric-gulen-turkey-erdogan-blamed-coup-attempt/28127523.html

Maybe Trump survives small plane travel, but there's a spy coup, nonetheless:

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/18/a-spy-coup-in-america/

(snip)
from Robert Parry at Consortium News:
An Intelligence Coup?

There’s another possibility in play here: that the U.S. intelligence community is felling a number of birds with one stone. If indeed U.S. intelligence bigwigs deemed both Clinton and Trump unfit to serve as President – albeit for different reasons – they could have become involved in leaking at least the Podesta emails to weaken Clinton’s campaign, setting the candidate up for the more severe blow from FBI Director Comey in the last week of the campaign.


Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Then, by blaming the leaks on Russian President Putin, the U.S. intelligence leadership could set the stage for Trump’s defeat in the Electoral College, opening the door to the elevation of a more traditional Republican. However, even if that unlikely event – defeating Trump in the Electoral College – proves impossible, Trump would at least be weakened as he enters the White House and thus might not be able to move very aggressively toward a détente with Russia.

Further, the Russia-bashing that is all the rage in the mainstream U.S. media will surely encourage the Congress to escalate the New Cold War, regardless of Trump’s desires, and thus ensure plenty more money for both the intelligence agencies and the military contractors.

Official Washington’s “group think” holding Russia responsible for the Clinton leaks does draw some logical support from the near certainty that Russian intelligence has sought to penetrate information sources around both Clinton and Trump. But the gap between the likely Russian hacking efforts and the question of who gave the email information to WikiLeaks is where mainstream assumptions may fall down.

As ex-Ambassador Murray has said, U.S. intelligence was almost surely keeping tabs on Podesta’s communications because of his ties to Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments. So, the U.S. intelligence community represents another suspect in the case of who leaked those emails to WikiLeaks. It would be a smart play, reminiscent of the convoluted spy tales of John LeCarré, if U.S. intelligence officials sought to cover their own tracks by shifting suspicions onto the Russians.

But just the suspicion of the CIA joining the FBI and possibly other U.S. intelligence agencies to intervene in the American people’s choice of a president would cause President Harry Truman, who launched the CIA with prohibitions against it engaging in domestic activities, and Sen. Frank Church, who investigated the CIA’s abuses, to spin in their graves.

[seemslikeadream]

Erdogan arrested Trump's good buddy business partner for a reason...


to get Fethullah Gulen

he gets Gulen and Trump's guy gets the ok to keep making money for him and Trump in Turkey



and btw Manafort was left off the hook in Ukraine

and I have always loved Robert Parry and still do....seems very plausible to me

FBI did not notify Podesta till after the leak of the hack ....they were aware way before that

[Rory]

It's a pretty bad turn of affairs. I'd like to hope this is a random event, unsupported by state actors or conspirators. Well..

The #FakeNews site, Saker, has some interesting things to say. It stuck me because of how angry he (and other Russians) seem to be at their own embassy/foreign department side for allowing him to go without apparent bodyguards or vetted security detail.

http://thesaker.is/a-few-initial-short- ... to-ankara/

What this means is one of two things:

Version 1: there was nobody in charge of security at this exhibition

Version 2: the room where this murder happened was considered ‘safe/sterile’ because it was inside an outer security perimeter which we don’t see in this video.

I find version 2 far more likely. That would also explain why and how Mevlut Mert Aydintas so easily got it: he simply flashed his police ID and was let through.

When such an event occurs it is also important to ask cui bono – whom does it benefit?

Erdogan? No.

I see absolutely no imaginable reason why Erdogan would want the Russian Ambassador murdered in Ankara, but I can easily imagine a long list of reasons why he would not want that to happen at all. Some will correctly say that the fall of Aleppo is a humiliating defeat for Turkey and Erdogan, and I agree. But I would remind everybody that Erdogan clearly had a deal going with the Russians and the Iranians when he moved his forces across the border and occupied northern Syria. There is *no way* he would have risked such a move against the will of Moscow and Tehran. So what was this deal? We will probably never know, but it clearly included a provision which limited Turkey’s actions to a narrow strip in the north. If that hypothesis is correct, then Aleppo would have to be considered outside the “Turkish sphere of interest” in Syria, at least by the tripartite Turkish-Iranian-Russian understanding. Did Erdogan know that Aleppo would fall and would fall so fast? Probably not. It appears that Erdogan got outmaneuvered by the Russians and the Iranians. But he most definitely had better options to retaliate against the liberation of Aleppo than to have the Russian Ambassador murdered in Ankara. The fact is that the Turks did precious little when Aleppo was liberated, at most they helped the Russian evacuate part of the “good terrorists”.

Even if Erdogan is a lunatic, he is smart enough to understand that if he has the Russian Ambassador murdered in Ankara NATO will do nothing to protect him and that the Russians can fire a cruise missile right into his bedroom window. Erdogan might be crazy, but he is clearly not *that* crazy.

Finally, let’s remember the disastrous consequences for Turkey following the shooting down of the Russian SU-24 and the fact that, by numerous corroborated accounts, the Russian intelligences services saved Erdogan, probably literally, by warning him of the coup against him.

So, for all these reasons, Erdogan is not on my current list of suspects. Never say never, new facts might come to light, especially with a maniac like Erdogan, but right now I will assume that he has nothing to do with what happened.

Daesh & Co? Maybe.

Well, it is rather obvious that the Daesh & Co. had an extremely long list of reasons to want to kill a high profile Russian official. So yes, they sure had the motive. Considering how successful radical Islamist extremists have been at penetrating the Turkish deep (and not so deep) state, Daesh and Co. also had the means. As for the opportunity, the video above clearly shows that not only did Mevlut Mert Aydintas have the time to shoot the Russian Ambassador many times (I counted 9 shots), but after that he still had the time to just stand there and scream all sorts of slogans about Syria, Aleppo and God. While we don’t know all the details yet, this is already very strong evidence that security at this event was dismal.

Gulen, the CIA, Obama & Co? Maybe.

Yes, they are also on my list of suspects. The Gulenists have nothing to lose, the CIA has gone crazy with anger and fear at the election of Trump, and the Obama Administration is full of angry, offended, deeply vindicative and otherwise plain nasty characters who would love to trigger a new crisis between Russia and Turkey or make the Russian pay in some way for humiliating the AngloZionist Empire in Aleppo. Keep in mind that this is exactly how the CIA always kills foreign dignitaries: by subcontracting the murder to a local fanatic so as to preserve what they call “plausible deniability”.

During the Cold War the Soviets and the Americans had an unwritten understanding that “we don’t kill each other”. It was never formally mentioned or otherwise acknowledged, but I assure you that it was real: neither side wanted an open ended escalation of assassinations and counter-assassinations. But today’s CIA is a pathetic joke compared to the CIA of the Cold War, and with hodge-podge of mediocre dimwits now in the Executive branch I would not put it past some idiot in Langley to approve of the murder of a Russian Ambassador. Besides, if the Americans were crazy and reckless enough to attempt to overthrow Erdogan, why would they not try to murder a Russian Ambassador?

What about the lone gunman hypothesis?

Well, it is impossible to prove a negative. Mevlut Mert Aydintas did lose his job in a recent purge, he did have police credentials and his actions on the video seem to be a textbook example of the kind of fanatical behavior a lone nutcase would display. So yes, it is possible that Mevlut Mert Aydintas acted alone. After all, all he needed was a gun and a police ID. Let’s see what the Turks, and the Russians, find out about him. Still, I doubt it. That kind of personality is usually identified by state sponsoring terrorism and then activated when needed. My gut tells me that he did not just act alone. Somebody probably used Mevlut Mert Aydintas.

Painful questions

Here I really hope that I am wrong, but if I want to be honest I have to admit that I am completely unable to find an excuse of the lax security around Ambassador Andrey Karlov. And I am not referring to the Turks here, I am referring to the Russian security services. Here is why.

Even if we assume that the Turks had told the Russians that they had established a ‘safe/sterile’ perimeter around the exhibit and that the general public would not be let in, the footage shows what appears to be only a few guests, there is no excuse for the Russian not to have at least one bodyguard in the immediate proximity to the Ambassador. Turkey is not only a country at war, but Russia is a party to that war, the Takfiris have made a very long list of threats against Russia and, finally, Turkey is a country which has suffered from terrorism for years and which has just suffered a bloody attempted coup. In a country like that a top official like an Ambassador should have been protected by an entire group of bodyguards, but in this case there was clearly nobody. Oh sure, the Russian can blame the Turks for having set up a crappy perimeter, but as professionals they should know that the Turks are already having extreme difficulties in dealing with their own terrorists and that following the massive purges the security services are in a state of chaos. Would one bodyguard have made a difference?

Yes, possibly. Probably in fact.

From the video it appears that Mevlut Mert Aydintas was standing about 5 meter behind Ambassador Karlov when he opened fire. Apparently, not a single of the shots hit the Ambassador’s head. If Ambassador Karlov had been wearing a flack jacket or any other type of body armor he would have probably survived that first volley of bullets (unless one hit the cervicals). One single bodyguard could then have easily killed Mevlut Mert Aydintas and evacuated the ambassador to safety. Evidently Karlov was not wearing any kind of body armor that day. Why? He did not have a single bodyguard next to him. Why? No Russian voices are heard on the video, so there appears to have been no Russian security anywhere near the ambassador. Why?

Normally, ambassadors are a very easy target. Everybody knows them, their routine is public and, contrary to what many seem to think, most of them have no security detail. I am absolutely amazed that more ambassadors are not killed regularly. In high risk countries, however, ambassadors are normally protected, especially ambassadors representing countries involved in a war or who are likely targets of terrorist attacks. True, as a rule, the Russians, including diplomats, tend to be more brave/reckless (pick the term) than their western counterparts: they don’t scare easy and they like to show that they are not afraid. But that kind of attitude needs to be kept in check by professionals.

Frankly, it makes me angry to see how many Russians have been killed by that lax attitude towards personal risk and security. Yes, it is very noble to be courageous, but to die killed by a manic is also plain dumb. I would feel much better if Russian officials and politicians would be a little less courageous and a little more careful. Because what happened today begs the question: who will it be the next time?

Conclusions

What happened today is a tragedy made twice as painful by the fact that it could probably have been avoided. The Turkish security services will probably arrest overnight pretty much anybody and everybody Mevlut Mert Aydintas has ever met, and they will get lots of confessions. I am pretty sure that they will share a lot of that data with the Russians, if only to show how sorry they are. Alas, both the Turks and the Russians have an long tradition of secrecy and we might never find out who, if anybody, really was behind Mevlut Mert Aydintas.

The only thing I am sure of is that Putin will do nothing harsh regardless of who is behind this murder. If it is the Takfiris, then the people involved will die in the next couple of years. If the CIA is involved, however, the Russians will be much more careful and might chose to act in a very different way, possibly through the next Administration. The murder of Ambassador Karlov will not succeed in derailing the Russian and Iranian efforts at getting some kind of a regional solution to the war in Syria, nor will it change the Russian determination to prevent the AngloZionst Empire of turning Syrian into yet another Takfiristan.

As for Russia and Turkey, as long as Erdogan remains in power they will continue to try to collaborate against the odds and in spite of deep and fundamental differences. Neither Russia nor Turkey, which have fought each other in twelve wars, have any other option.

With that said, the assassino, if he was paid, I'm not sure considered the likely, full implications of the russian response. Might take a few years to do it all but I'd expect everyone in his family to be at risk of being killed. I mean, Erdogan might just do it all himself just to placate the surely angry and disturbed russians

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/how- ... t-lessons/

On September 30, 1985, a group of gunmen seized four Soviet diplomats and embassy workers (Arkady Katkov, Valery Myrikov, Oleg Spirin, and Nikolai Svirsky) in Beirut. During the kidnapping right outside the embassy, Katkov was wounded in the leg.

The abductors called themselves "The Khaled Al-Walid Force" and the "Islamic Liberation Organization". According to SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) Colonel Yuri Perfilyev, who at the time was the KGG rezident (station chief) in Lebanon, the kidnapping was orchestrated by infamous Hezbollah operative Imad "Hyena"Mugniyeh in response to an offensive by Syria-backed leftist militias in the Lebanese city of Tripoli. The Shiite radicals demanded that Moscow force Damascus to suspend the Tripoli offensive and close its embassy in Beirut. To demonstrate that they meant business, only two days after the kidnapping, Mugniyeh murdered the wounded Katkov by riddling him with machine gun bullets and left his body in a Beirut rubbish dump.

Perfilyev then met up with Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Fadlallah, then spiritual leader of Lebanese Shiites and told him: "A great power cannot wait forever. From waiting and observing, it can proceed to serious action with unpredictable consequences". Met with silence from Fadlallah, the KGB station chief spoke bluntly:

We aren't only talking about people in Beirut. I'm talking about Tehran and Qom [Shiite holy city and the residence of Ayatollah Khomeini], which is not that far from Russia's borders. Yes, Qom is very close to us and a mistake in the launch of a missile could always happen. A technical error, some kind of breakdown. They write about it all the time. And God or Allah forbid if this happens with a live, armed missile.

The visibly shaken Fadlallah responded after a moment of silence: "I think everything will turn out well". Later, his closest advisor "Hassan" (Nasrallah?) told Yuri Perfilyev that no one dared to talk to the Grand Ayatollah in such a fashion.

But the ominous threat against one of the holy cities of Shiism was only one prong in the Soviet strategy. According to Benny Morris, who was Jerusalem Post's diplomatic correspondent at that time and later became famous as a brilliant historian, in tandem with the threats, the Soviets took sharper action:

[T]he KGB kidnapped a man they knew to be a close relative of a prominent Hezbollah leader. They then castrated him and sent the severed organs to the Hezbollah official, before dispatching the unfortunate kinsman with a bullet in the brain.

In addition to presenting him with this grisly proof of their seriousness, the KGB operatives also advised the Hezbollah leader that they knew the indentities of other close relatives of his, and that he could expect more such packages if the three Soviet diplomats were not freed immediately.

Soon thereafter, the surviving three hostages were dropped off by the Soviet embassy "from a late-model BMW that couldn't drive away fast enough" and never again was a Soviet (diplomat or otherwise) kidnapped in Lebanon. As Benny Morris put it: "This is the way the Soviets operate. They do things - they don't talk. And this is the language the Hezbollah understand." Not only Hezbollah, but ISIS and every other Muslim terror group.

{edit - to add one last thing}

I'd expect a few senior Qatari/Saudi folk to pass away unexpectedly too. They won't just punish the hand that pulled the trigger - the heart and brain that propelled the bullets will be dealt with too. There will be a lot of blood spilled over this, and in unexpected places

[seemslikeadream]

Trump is so out of his league ..he has no idea what is going on

and Putin planning on going to see that play about the assassination of a Russian ambassador that very night Woe from Wit?

[Grizzly]

Assange on Hannity. I personally think Assange is dead*, and has been since October.
And I agree, it sounds like speech morphing.

*I'd be okay with being wrong.

[Luther Blissett]

Didn't Podesta click on a fucking phishing link?

I've been holding on to a secret…I sent him that phishing link. It was me. I'm not Russian.

Now which email sent by the actual humans in the DNC lost them the election exactly? The one that every human American read and decided that they didn't want to vote for the imperialist anymore?

The entire notion is just absurd. The leaks of emails written by the actual human beings in the DNC to one another had minimal effect on this election.

[Nordic]

When I first came to RI I was deeply impressed at how most people here didn't subscribe to the lying mainstream media's propaganda and bullshit and social conditioning. It was like finding a door that led to the outside world. SLAD was one of the people who led me here.

Those days are over. Just reading through this thread for the first time, the chaff to wheat ratio is about the same as anywhere else. Trump! Russia is evil! Look how this stupid headline from MSM proves the MSM nonsense that MUST be true because I can't accept the alternative!

Imagine this:

An internet board that was automatically skeptical of all western mainstream sources, of all western media, of all western governments (hell, all governments), a place where we researched things independently without letting our buttons get PERMANENTLY pushed by the paid button-pushers in the employ of our spook agencies, and where we didn't jump to stupid fucking conclusions.

RI used to be a lot more like THAT. Not perfect by any means but certainly not what it's turned into now.

Can we please strive for some objectivity and open-mindedness?

2016 really fucked with everybody's heads (including mine; I'm not perfect.). But can we please get away from
DailyKos levels of discourse and thought? The election is over. Finally.

[Nordic]

To add: I just woke up, drinking my coffee, after a five day job of extreme difficulty, and saw with great pleasure there was a six-page thread on the assassination. Cool! Turns out it was 5.9 pages of bickering and bullshit.

I'm about to write a very angry YELP review about this place. You've been warned!

[brainpanhandler]

When I first came to RI I was deeply impressed at how most people here didn't subscribe to the lying mainstream media's propaganda and bullshit and social conditioning. It was like finding a door that led to the outside world. SLAD was one of the people who led me here.

Those days are over. Just reading through this thread for the first time, the chaff to wheat ratio is about the same as anywhere else. Trump! Russia is evil! Look how this stupid headline from MSM proves the MSM nonsense that MUST be true because I can't accept the alternative!

Imagine this:

An internet board that was automatically skeptical of all western mainstream sources, of all western media, of all western governments (hell, all governments), a place where we researched things independently without letting our buttons get PERMANENTLY pushed by the paid button-pushers in the employ of our spook agencies, and where we didn't jump to stupid fucking conclusions.

RI used to be a lot more like THAT. Not perfect by any means but certainly not what it's turned into now.

Can we please strive for some objectivity and open-mindedness?

2016 really fucked with everybody's heads (including mine; I'm not perfect.). But can we please get away from
DailyKos levels of discourse and thought? The election is over. Finally.

No one is preventing you from providing you're own objective, open minded, non-msm sourced analysis of events.

[seemslikeadream]

When I first came to RI I was deeply impressed at how most people here didn't subscribe to the lying mainstream media's propaganda and bullshit and social conditioning. It was like finding a door that led to the outside world. SLAD was one of the people who led me here.

Those days are over. Just reading through this thread for the first time, the chaff to wheat ratio is about the same as anywhere else. Trump! Russia is evil! Look how this stupid headline from MSM proves the MSM nonsense that MUST be true because I can't accept the alternative!

Imagine this:

An internet board that was automatically skeptical of all western mainstream sources, of all western media, of all western governments (hell, all governments), a place where we researched things independently without letting our buttons get PERMANENTLY pushed by the paid button-pushers in the employ of our spook agencies, and where we didn't jump to stupid fucking conclusions.

RI used to be a lot more like THAT. Not perfect by any means but certainly not what it's turned into now.

Can we please strive for some objectivity and open-mindedness?

2016 really fucked with everybody's heads (including mine; I'm not perfect.). But can we please get away from
DailyKos levels of discourse and thought? The election is over. Finally.

well there you go again Nordic ....my posting habits have not changed in 12 years....and I don't just post MSM....I read and post everything I come across ....as I always have done but you seem to overlook the stuff that does not comport with you bias against me. I have no idea why you continue to write the same shit about me over and over and over again ...everyone here has read how you feel about me...do you really have to repeat yourself saying the same shit 20 times? Does it make what you post correct? NO...but just like MSM you use the same tactics against me...why is ok when you to do it against me all the while you complain about them...cause it furthers your cause and lies about me ...say something repeatedly and it becomes true?

Talk about open mindedness....try taking your own advice for a change

stop taking turns with your friend in derailing every single thread with your complaints about me...why are you doing that? Everyone has read your diatribes over and over....you've said your peace..now can you please move on and stop your personal attacks...everyone knows exactly how you feel you don't need to keep repeating yourself

Just post what you want ..anything of value would be just fine....I won't complain about what you post and you could return the favor and stop posting the same old shit over and over about me....stop making this personal and just get on with what you think is important.....you are free to post here just as I am

To add: I just woke up, drinking my coffee, after a five day job of extreme difficulty, and saw with great pleasure there was a six-page thread on the assassination. Cool! Turns out it was 5.9 pages of bickering and bullshit.

yes and you are right there to continue it....go ahead be my guest continue the derail

Nordic, Mac, coffindogger and 2 other members are trying to censor me here with constant intimation, personal attacks, lies and bullying in every thread I post in no matter what the subject is...this shameless, rude, rule breaking tactic needs to stop now.

[guruilla]

Assange on Hannity. I personally think Assange is dead*, and has been since October.
And I agree, it sounds like speech morphing.

*I'd be okay with being wrong.

[seemslikeadream]

I do not have any idea if Assange is alive or dead....I just posted a video from FoxNews (is that MSM to you Nordie?) I thought it was him ..I didn't realize at the time the Assange dead thing was that prevalent ...I must have missed it being posted about here...was it posted about in my Assange thread I started 6 years ago? I'll have to go back to look ...somebody should have posted about it there

Nordic are you now ok with Greenwald? It is hard to keep up with you

[Grizzly]

http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=73b_1482230063

warning Not safe for life . My condolences to the Ambassador and his family.

TRIGGER WARNING

[Rory]

Lulzy chuckles at this one. Same author for both links

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/d ... -1.2917281

Assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was not terrorism, but retribution for Vladimir Putin’s war crimes

Karlov was the public face of that murderous dictator’s war crimes around the globe and of oppression at home. Andrei Karlov is the human embodiment of policies that deployed bunker busters to kill babies, sent fighter planes on scorched earth bombing runs that destroyed a whole city, aided Syrian madman Bashar al-Assad in his campaign that has killed hundreds of thousands, and even ordered attacks on UN aid workers.
So I, for one, am shedding no tears for Andrei Karlov. Frankly, I’m surprised his murder didn’t come months ago.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/f ... -1.2673201

What is it like to fire an AR-15? It’s horrifying, menacing and very very loud

Squeeze lightly on the trigger and the resulting explosion of firepower is humbling and deafening (even with ear protection).

The recoil bruised my shoulder, which can happen if you don't know what you're doing. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary form of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.

Kuntz like these are stealing a living.