Ergenekon Investigation: Military Unit Linked To Human and Arms Trafficking
Documents seized in a police raid on the house of an executive of a TV station as part of the ongoing Ergenekon operation have revealed that a secret and illicit military intelligence unit known as JITEM was engaged in several illegal acts, including drug and human smuggling and arms trade with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)…. 
According to the documents, army members and village guards were earning thousands of dollars from smuggling arms and drugs into Iraq. The documents also provided the names of some army officers affiliated with JITEM who were engaged in arms and drug smuggling in such provinces as Diyarbakir, Van and Sirnak…. The documents also revealed that though some JITEM members had been caught in the act by the police, they were protected and prevented from being sent to jail by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
According to the documents, a first lieutenant identified as Cihan B. cooperated with village guards in Diyarbakir in human smuggling into Turkey. Cihan B. smuggled around 300,000 illegal immigrants from Iraq to Turkey during the US invasion into Iraq in 1991. He also sold more than 150,000 weapons to terrorists in Iraq. Ibrahim K., a noncommissioned officer, was also engaged in human smuggling into Turkey from various war-torn countries. He also forced immigrant women into prostitution.
Other documents seized in a police raid on the family home of Fikret Emek, suspected member of the Ergenekon gang, showed that dozens of army officers, including generals, were blacklisted by the state’s intelligence agencies.
During the raid on the home, the police found lists of army members compiled by various intelligence agencies, which categorized people according to their political and religious affiliations. For example, some army generals were tagged with such labels as “close to leftist ideology,” “cooperates with Alevis,” “ideological Alevi” or “relative of PKK head.” Other tags included “alcoholic,” “despicable,” “sells porno CDs to army staff,” “goes to bars every night” and “sells guns to northern Iraq.”
The names of military members who were supposed to be promoted were underlined. Other military members were blacklisted for their religious affiliations.
Emek had previously confessed to having categorized people according to their political affiliations. He had said many such lists were put together by military intelligence departments during the years 1999 and 2000 in the Feb. 28 process, which started in 1998 when the military overthrew the government in a non-armed intervention.
The documents had blacklisted hundreds of Istanbul [citi]zens as being members or supporters of armed terrorist groups such as the PKK, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), the Turkish Workers’ and Peasants’ Liberation Army (TIKKO) and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), as well as tagged them with such labels as “extreme left,” “religious fundamentalist” or by the names of religious orders, including Nurcu, Süleymanci and Naksibendi.
[JW: It never ceases to amaze me that people will create and keep incriminating videos and files.]
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