re: cheech & chong...new terrorist attack....istan
This report from the New York Times alongside other news sources shows the good relationship that exists between a moderate and modern Muslim country and Israel. Present reports indicate more non Jews, in the area, may have been killed than Jews, which indicates the true and indiscriminate nature of this Islamic terrorism. Of the 300 wounded, how many are non Jews is yet to be told:
November 16, 2003 20 IN ISTANBUL DIE IN BOMBINGS AT SYNAGOGUES By SEBNEM ARSU and DEXTER FILKINS
ISTANBUL, Nov. 15 — A pair of truck bombs exploded Saturday morning outside two synagogues crowded with families at bar mitzvahs, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 300.
The bombs exploded nearly simultaneously, destroying parts of the synagogues, Beth Israel and Neve Shalom, and killing many of the worshipers inside.
The survivors, many of them wounded and drenched in blood, ran from the synagogues, screaming for help. Both blasts shook the ground and rattled windows more than a half-mile away. A gaping crater and a mangled car marked the scene outside Neve Shalom in the city's Beyoglu neighborhood. At Beth Israel, in the Sisli neighborhood three miles away, the roof had collapsed and the streets were covered in debris.
"It was the scene of a massacre," said Zafer Tatu, 39, still in shock as he stood by his shattered lamp shop, down the street from Neve Shalom. "I saw people awash in blood, all kinds of body parts spread around."
Rescue workers swarmed across both blasts sites, carrying off the dead, the burned and the wounded. The explosions cut off electricity for blocks around the two synagogues, shrouding both areas in darkness. The identities of those behind the attacks were not immediately apparent. The Turkish police said they were unsure whether the trucks were driven by suicide bombers or detonated by remote control.
The two synagogues are regarded as integral parts of the city's Jewish community, whose presence in the country dates back centuries. As the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul and other parts of what are now the Turkish Republic became an important destination for many of the Jews who were expelled en masse from Spain in 1492.
The Jewish population in Turkey now numbers about 30,000.
Initial suspicions focused on Al Qaeda, which has threatened Turkey, a Muslim-majority country that enjoys a strong relationship with both Israel and the United States.
In a news conference, Turkey's interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, said both bombings were probably carried out by the same group, and that a preliminary analysis of the blasts suggested that the explosive material used in each was identical. Mr. Aksu said that similar pick-up trucks were used in each attack.
"It is obvious that this terrorist attack has some international connections," said the Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah Gul. Both Mr. Gul and Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, vowed to hunt the attackers down. Al Qaeda is suspected of attempting several direct attacks on Jews in the past 18 months. In April 2002, a car bomb struck a historic synagogue on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, killing 21 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Last November, surface-to-air missiles narrowly missed an Israeli passenger jet as it lifted off from the airport in Mombasa, Kenya. A car bomb detonated nearly simultaneously outside a beachfront hotel on the other side of town killed 13 people. Al Qaeda is suspected in both the Kenya attacks.
Security had already been tight around both synagogues, particularly Neve Shalom, which has been the target of two previous attacks. Parking was prohibited in front of the synagogues, for instance. NTV, a Turkish television network, quoted unnamed Turkish intelligence sources as saying that two slow moving trucks might have been able to detonate their bombs while passing in front of the synagogues.
NTV also reported Saturday that security cameras at the Neve Shalom synagogue showed a red truck in front of the synagogue shortly before the explosion.
Neve Shalom — Hebrew for "oasis of peace" — has twice before been the target of terrorist attacks. In 1986, gunmen killed 22 worshipers and wounded 6 during a Sabbath service. That attack was blamed on the Palestinian militant Abu Nidal. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group, is suspected in a bomb attack against the synagogue in 1992. No one was injured then. A senior Israeli security source told the Reuters news agency in Jerusalem that the blasts on Saturday seemed to be the work of a Qaeda affiliate, which may have been seeking to punish Turkey for its ties to Israel and the United States.
A militant Turkish Islamic group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to the Anatolia News agency. But NTV, the Turkish television network, quoted the police as saying the attack appeared to have been too sophisticated to have been carried out by that group. The police said recent intelligence had indicated Al Qaeda might have been planning attacks in Turkey, the network reported. It also broadcast videotape of what it said was a team of Israeli intelligence experts arriving in Istanbul on Saturday night. Turkey is unusual among Islamic nations in having decades-old ties to Israel that now include military, as well as diplomatic, relations. Israel buys water from Turkey, and Turkey is a popular destination for Israeli tourists. The two countries sometimes hold joint military exercises. Turkey was the first predominantly Muslim country to recognize Israel, in 1948. Turkey has stood apart from the rest of the Muslim world in the role it assigns Islam in public life. As a largely secular republic, it has angered Islamic militants around the globe.
Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, called the bombings "not an attack against Israel, against Jews, or even against Turks " but a "crime against humanity." He also linked the attacks to anti-Semitism that he said was disguised as opposition to Israel.
"There's an undeniable connection between the atmosphere of hatred that is promulgated and instigated against Israel and the wave of terrorist attacks in the world today," he said. But, he warned, "Once you give the terrorists an opening, the target may be not a synagogue in Istanbul on the holy day of the Sabbath, but a cathedral in Paris."
At the Taksim Hospital in Istanbul, the relatives of the victims crowded about the emergency entrance, many of them straining to read a preliminary list of the wounded that had been tacked to a wall inside. One of them was Huseyin Komurcu, the owner of a small shop next to Neve Shalom.
Mr. Komurcu counted many friends among the victims of Saturday's blast, and he said he feared that these would not be the last. He said he had lived through all three attacks on Neve Shalom, and said he fully expected there would be another.
"It happened now, had happened 17 years ago, and will happen again. I will be anxious as long as I work next to a synagogue," Mr. Komurcu said.
