Clueless or complicit? The abundant evidence of Turkey aiding Islamic State jihadis points to the latter.
“Why did Turkish intelligence fail at finding Baghdadi?,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, November 3, 2019:
…How did Turkish intelligence not know what was going on within shouting distance of its border? How did a NATO ally as sophisticated as Turkey – with UAVs, signals intelligence and observation posts throughout Idlib where Baghdadi was living – not know he was there? Turkish media, which is almost all pro-government and often rabidly nationalist, has claimed that Baghdadi was only able to get to Idlib by crossing areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces. The Daily Sabah headline on October 29 claimed that “Al-Baghdadi’s death exposes YPG-Daesh [ISIS] ties.”
But Turkish intelligence monitors YPG’s presence because Turkey claims that it is linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Ankara demanded to take over part of eastern Syria to remove the YPG from the border. Turkey says this is a serious security concern.
Turkey says it is also fighting ISIS, invading Afrin, another Kurdish area, in January 2018, also under the pretense of “security concerns.” Yet, its intelligence agencies could not find Baghdadi, even though Turkey asserts that he had “YPG-Daesh ties.” Turkey claims that its intelligence “played a key role in the death of Daesh terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” because it detained and extradited a local aid to Iraq. This man was named Ismael al-Ethawi; “he provided US authorities with critical information.”
Turkey claims it found him in Sakarya province on February 8, 2018. It says that he “entered Turkey through a PKK-linked controlled area.” But wait: He entered Turkey – so shouldn’t Turkey have stopped him when he entered? If his passage through a PKK controlled area is evidence of PKK not being vigilant, then his ability to enter a NATO country would also reveal the same evidence of an intelligence failure….
According to Martin Chulov in an October 27 piece in The Guardian, the break in the Baghdadi case was helped along by a Syrian man, “who had been used to smuggle the wives of two of Baghdadi’s brothers, Ahmad and Jumah, to Idlib province via Turkey.” They had also brought Baghdadi’s children from Iraq. Turkish intelligence didn’t notice the smuggling of Baghdadi’s relatives apparently….
Others are wondering what Turkey knew and why it hasn’t gotten more information from the more than 1,000 ISIS fighters it holds in prison….