Turkey's Thugocracy
by Burak Bekdil • October 26, 2015 at 5:00 am
- As in 1908-1912, journalists are at the center of the government's rage.
- "They [journalists from Turkey's leading newspaper, Hurriyet] had never had a beating before. Our mistake was that we never beat them in the past. If we had beaten them..." — Abdurrahim Boynukalin, Member of Parliament from the governing AKP Party.
- Last week, Ahmet Hakan, Hurriyet's popular columnist, who has 3.6 million Twitter followers, was beaten by four men, three of whom happened to be AKP members. Hakan had to undergo surgery. Of the seven men involved in allegedly planning and carrying out the attack, six were immediately released.
- The mob confessed to the police that they had been commissioned to beat Hakan on orders from important men in the state establishment, including the intelligence agency and "the chief."
- Hundreds of Turkish and Western politicians have publicly condemned the attack on Hakan. Except President Erdogan. Hardly surprising.
Abdurrahim Boynukalin (center of left image), a Turkish Member of Parliament from the ruling AKP Party, leads a mob in front of the offices of Hurriyet newspaper, September 6, 2015. At right, the shattered windows of the building's lobby, after the mob hurled stones.
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In 1908, the Ottoman Empire, under the new name of The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), transformed into an autocratic establishment openly threatening its critics, especially journalists. In 1910, three prominent journalists, Hasan Fehmi, Ahmet Samim and Zeki Bey, who were leading opponents of the regime, were murdered. Several other journalists were beaten by thugs commissioned by the CUP.
In the election three years later, when the party lost its parliamentary majority, its leaders declared that election null and void. Soon mobs, often holding batons in their hands, "guarded" ballot boxes. Miraculously, the CUP vote rose to 94 percent! Victory, however, did not bring good fortune to the party. Its leaders would eventually have to flee the country.
The End of Arms Control in the Second Nuclear Age?
by Peter Huessy • October 26, 2015 at 4:00 am
- So radical is this proposal that -- while Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are arming themselves to the gills and seizing territory -- it would reduce America's nuclear "assets" from over 500 missiles, bombers and submarines to less than a handful of nuclear-armed submarines.
- "To my knowledge, our unilateral disarmament initiatives have done little to promote similar initiatives in our potential adversaries, and at the same time, they have reduced our arms control negotiating leverage." -- Admiral Richard Mies (Ret.), former Commander of the United States Strategic Command
- America's nuclear deterrent is roughly 35-40 years old. By the time there has been a complete modernization (by 2020) of the Russian nuclear missile force, the U.S. will not have yet built a single new strategic nuclear weapon for its arsenal.
- To help with modernization, Congress and administration needs to get rid of the defense budget caps. Removing them should be America's #1 arms control and nuclear deterrent priority in the nation.
- Congress should approve, and potential presidential candidates should announce, their support to fund and accelerate the modernization of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, including capabilities that strengthen tactical nuclear deterrence especially in Europe. The modern U.S. nuclear deterrent umbrella over more than 30 NATO allies is one of the prime reasons most of them have not sought to build nuclear weapons themselves -- the U.S. makes them feel safe.
- Most importantly, with the North Korean, Chinese and Russian nuclear and missile capabilities in mind, the U.S. and its allies should as quickly as possible protect our country and its electrical grid from missile delivered nuclear electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) threats. The U.S. should also adopt a global missile defense plan, including enhanced U.S.-based missile defenses that can deal with EMP threats. Of particular concern is that the U.S. has no missile radar capability looking south from the continental United States.
The U.S. nuclear "triad" consists of nuclear warheads mounted on platforms based at sea, in the air and on land.
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The United States may have come to the end of traditional nuclear arms control. Since 1972 the United States and Russia have signed seven major nuclear weapons treaties, beginning with the SALT I agreement in 1972 and concluding with the 2010 New Start treaty; however, upwards of 65% of all nuclear warheads in the world still remain under no treaty limits, mainly because countries with such arsenals have no interest in agreeing to nor the technical means to verify, such controls.
Between 1972 and 2015, the number of U.S. and Russian deployed strategic nuclear weapons peaked at roughly 13,000 in each country's arsenal, then declined to between 1,800-2,500. This reduction represents a cut of more than 80% in their respective deployed arsenals, a remarkable accomplishment.[1]
