Rice Vows To Help Turks Fight Kurd Rebels
Top Diplomat Calls Rebels In Northern Iraq "Common Threat;" Warns Against Drastic Action
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Students walk to school as Turkish armored personnel carrier patrols mountains near the Iraq border, in the province of Sirnak, southeast Turkey, Friday, Nov. 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan prior their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Umit Bektas, Pool)
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Turkish soldiers stand next to their armored vehicle during a patrol in the mountains near the Iraq border, in the province of Sirnak, southeast Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
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A Turkish soldier holds his machine gun as patrols the area near Turkey-Iraq border. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
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Play CBS Video Video Turkey, Iraq Tensions Mount As tensions rise between Turkey and PKK terrorists in Northern Iraq, the U.S. is preparing to step in to aid Turkish forces. David Martin has an exclusive report.
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Interactive The Kurds And Northern Iraq Learn about the Kurdish people and their leaders, key cities in Northern Iraq and the potential for conflict with Turkey.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
Speaking after meeting with both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, Rice said she had emphasized that the United States is "committed to redoubling its efforts" to help Turkey in its struggle against the rebel fighters.
"We consider this a common threat, not just to the interests of Turkey but to the interests of the United States as well," she said at a joint news conference with Babacan. "This is going to take persistence and it's going to take commitment - this is a very difficult problem."
En route to Ankara, Rice told reporters in her traveling party that the United States, Turkey and Iraq will counter any attacks on Turkey by the rebels.
She didn't specify just what that meant but did warn against doing anything that might worsen the volatile situation on the Turkish-Iraqi border.
Prime Minister Erdogan, meanwhile, is to meet President Bush in Washington on Monday. The Turkish military has indicated it will wait for Erdogan's return before any large-scale assault on targets inside Iraq.
Washington worries that a cross-border incursion would bring instability to what has been the calmest part of Iraq, and could set a precedent for other countries, like Iran, who also have conflicts with Kurdish rebels.
But Ankara has been resolute in saying that, unless it hears concrete measures the United States will take against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, it will launch an attack.
"We have great expectations from the United States, we are at the point where words have been exhausted and where there is need for action," Babacan said.
CBS News' Charles Wolfson, traveling with Rice, reports that the chief diplomat's trip is made even more challenging by the current chilly relations between Ankara and Washington.
"Before Secretary Rice could begin discussing the latest developments in Iraq," says Wolfson in a report filed from Istanbul. "She had to stop in Ankara for a critical round of meetings with Turkish officials."
"The Bush administration has periodically 'talked the talk' about Turkey's importance and the advantages of strategic partnership. But it has simply not delivered on matters of greatest importance to Turkey," the Brookings Institution’s Mark Parris, a former ambassador to Ankara, told Wolfson.
The United States is committed to redoubling its efforts, because we need a comprehensive approach to this problem.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice"The United States is committed to redoubling its efforts, because we need a comprehensive approach to this problem..." she said. "No one should doubt the United States in this situation."
CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports one nation that will not be represented at the talks in Turkey, possibly to the detriment of Secretary Rice's goal of averting a cross border battle, is Iran.
"The Iranians have vested interest in helping out. They have a restive Kurdish population of their own which could be used by their enemies to create problems," says Pizzey in an analysis story on the summit. "Washington isolates Iran from the Kurdish problem at its peril."

Head of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, Barzani issued a statement saying there was "no place in the modern civilized world" for the type of violence carried out by guerrillas from the PKK.
It was one of the harshest denunciations of the PKK by a Kurdish Iraqi official in recent weeks, and came under increasing diplomatic pressure on Kurdistan's government to distance itself from the PKK.
For the most part, Kurdistan officials have tried to remain neutral, painting the conflict as a matter strictly between the insurgent group, which has waged a decades-long war against Turkey, and Ankara. The PKK has been accused of staging attacks on Turkey from bases in Iraq's mountainous northern border region.
"There can be no excuse whatsoever for these actions which undermine peace and stability in the entire region and which are not in the interest of anyone involved," Barzani said in his statement.
The prime minister's uncle is Kurdistan's most senior leader, who took a slightly less conciliatory tone in a rare television interview several weeks ago with CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.
"If Turkey comes up with a peaceful solution, and the PKK refuses it, we are ready to do anything against the PKK. But if Turkey is using the PKK as an excuse to fight with us, we are ready to defend ourselves," Massoud Barzani said.
His words reveal a mistrust between Kurds and Turks that dates back centuries, and which now threatens to destabilize one of the few bastions or relative tranquility inside Iraq's borders.Elizabeth Palmer writes on Kurdistan's fragile peace
Watch Palmer's Interview With Massoud Barzani
Barzani's statement Friday said the Kurdish government wants "peaceful and cooperative relations with Turkey."
"We have many strong ties to Turkey, both economic and cultural, and we hope to see these ties grow in the future. People on both sides of the border have come to benefit from our trade relations," he said.
In other developments:
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
- I support Ron Paul and his non-interventionist foreign policy. Hitlery wants to continue our illegal police action in Iraq until at least 2013, and she does not rule out a preemptive (nuclear) first strike against Iran. Ron Paul voted against our (undeclared) war in Iraq, which was sold to us with lies. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies--the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. The war in Iraq has cost more than 3,400 American lives and almost a trillion dollars. We need a leader in the White House who will ensure this never happens again. Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations. Today, we have 750 foreign bases and troops in 130 countries. We are spread so thin that we have too few troops defending America. And now, there are new calls for a draft. We can continue to fund and fight no-win police actions around the globe, or we can refocus on securing our borders against illegal alien who are invading our country from the South. No war should ever be fought without a Declaration of War voted upon by the Congress, as required by The Constitution. Under no circumstances should the U.S. again go to war as the result of a resolution that comes from an unelected, foreign body, such as the United Nations. Too often, we give foreign aid and intervene on behalf of governments that are despised. Then, we too become despised.
- Reply to this comment
- What we need is a President who will show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50+ years. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I''ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.
- Reply to this comment
- "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
- James Madison
"Those that give give up essential liberties for temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
- Abraham Lincoln
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and those who would exploit our fear for power and their own personal, selfish, cynical gain."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict through peaceful means."
- Ronald Reagan
"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must...undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
"Liberty, when it takes root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- George Washington
"Commerce with all nations. Alliances with none."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Wars are poor chisels for carving-out peaceful tomorrows."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
"Ron Paul doesn''t represent your Father''s school of political thought. He represents your Founding Fathers."
- Me - Reply to this comment
- media outed
Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased
Journalism: The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=278808786575124 - Reply to this comment
- I STAND WITH THE DANES
FASCIST NAZI TERRORISLAM IS
Persona non grata
Exclusive: Salute the Danish Flag! - It%u2019s a Symbol of Western Freedom By Susan MacAllen
In Denmark, once-liberal immigration policies have forced huge governmental change and zero tolerance for Muslim immigrants intent on turning Denmark into an Islamic welfare haven. FSM Contributing Editor Susan MacAllen reveals a shocking reaction there and lessons America must learn.
http://familysecuritymatters.org/homeland.php?id=1172085 - Reply to this comment
- VOTE FOR JEFFERSON VOTE AGAINST FASCIST NAZI TERRORISLAM VOTE GOP
dnc are like john adams and want to give the jihadist their lunch money hoping they will leave us alone
gop are like thomas jefferson and want to spend their lunch money on weapons and go kick the jihadists in their arses
What Thomas Jefferson learned from the Muslim book of jihad
Thomas Jefferson knew about fascist nazi islam, he killed plenty of them
In 1786 Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli''s envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves. Jefferson reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:
The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet (Mohammed), that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.
http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan07/jeff_quran.htm
America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjprece.html
muslim justifies slavery and piracy%u2026
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?6bdec278-6a71-4436-bc4d-29d1c54b0ad7 - Reply to this comment
- Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry
USA''s PLEDGE 2 THE WORLD GIVEN BY JFK!!
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961
One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein
Edmund Burke: All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. - Reply to this comment
- War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill
It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it. Robert E. Lee
A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war. Simone Weil
If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. Thomas Paine
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill
One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill
The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal warmonger. Theodore Roosevelt - Reply to this comment
- We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. Ben Franklin
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin
We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war. John F. Kennedy
There''s a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn''t a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature. Barbara Kingsolver
They have not wanted Peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war -- as though the absence of war was the same as peace. Dorothy Thompson
There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy. George Washington
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. John Adams - Reply to this comment
- it is fascist nazi terrorislam stupid,,,
non muslims of the world unite,,, fight against the tyranny of the fascist nazi terrorslam imperialist empire of the darkside,,,
I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist
By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair''''s bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.
More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=465570&in_page_id=1770
Bless the Beasts and Children
Fascist nazi terrorslam kills every man woman and child in the village again%u2026 typical mo for terrorslam%u2026
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm
Our Prophet commanded us to fight the kaafirs when we are able and to attack them in their homelands and to give them three choices before we enter their lands: either they become Muslim and be like us, sharing our rights and duties; or they pay the jizyah (poll tax) and feel themselves subdued; or they fight, in which case their wealth, women, children and homes become permissible as booty for the Muslims.
http://islamqa.com/index.php?ref=13759&ln=eng&txt=before%20islam%20arabia%20pagan
the truth about fascist nazi terrorislam...
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/ - Reply to this comment
- brianbwb--You forgot to throw the baby out with the bathwater--which is called for in this case...The Democratic mainstream is right on the heels of Bush & Co. in furthering the War Pig agenda...Look at what the Democrats and their Zio-Nazi financial backers did to Cynthia McKinney in Georgia. Look at the ''support'' that the Democratic leadership gave to Rep. Pete Stark when he stated the obvious about the Psychopath-in-Chief. Obama is trying so hard to paint himself as a reasonable choice for people opposed to the war...but look at his backers--a wing of the Pritzker family and the Israel-first pro-war crowd....Nixon had a plan to end the Vietnam war-- escalate and stretch it out for four more years. Look at Clinton''s support--Israel-first, pro-war, arms industry...The outlandish and obvious lies of the Bushies should not blind us to those of the slippery characters in the Democratic War Machine...
There are three insurgent candidates in the Republican and Democratic parties who demand support--
Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel. The rest of the campaigns are just mass marketing campaigns by the Anglo-American Oligarchy to reel the sucker fish in the mainstream into the boat on election day...Don''t get hooked by these b*astards again! - Reply to this comment
- "Let me remind you folks that Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and who won the war to preserve our Union, WAS himself a Republican..." Posted by USProphet
So what? You speak of the distant past. Before he began killing children, John Wayne Gacy was probably a nice guy. Today''''s Republican party is dominated by the voices and direction of idiots like David Duke, the Pats (Buchanan and Robertson), Robert Novak, Bush, and many of the most virulent racists and fascists. Most all of the more hate filled posts on these sites are by people claiming to be Republicans.
Why should I, a "Black" man, vote for a party that, since Nixon until today, supports and encourages maintaining racial disparity, war for profit, religious intolerance, and many other anti humanistic social policies, and is even now working to repeal the socio economic gains made by labor, civil rights, and religious freedom advocates and leaders?
Spare us the "party of Lincoln" garbage, only fools and suckers believe it. The modern Republicans would, if they could, repeal the Emancipation proclamation, and I will never lend my vote to the party officially representing their current sociopathic ideologies. - Reply to this comment
- Then we are fair-weather friends and will not have the support of ANY one in the future.
Posted by dony511 at 12:18 AM : Nov 03, 2007
............
That tangled web that the Bush Administration weaved, is strangling our troops in Iraq more and more. It makes one wonder who/what will break first.
You know a war is going badly, when on a daily basis the political leaders have to question which side to support/fund/aide today! - Reply to this comment
- We originally supported the Kurds against Saddam. Since we "Liberated" Iraq, they have been the only constant source of peace in that country. Now, since we need to use the "Turkish" airspace, we are going to turn on our "ALLIES", the Kurds, to maintain the status quo. True they are attacking Turkish positions as they want a "true" Kurdish nation, we are supposed to turn our backs on them when their objectives now do not coincide with ours? Then we are fair-weather friends and will not have the support of ANY one in the future.
- Reply to this comment
- Mr. Ron Paul cultist (AKA USProphet), You are mentally ill. Of course, you are not doing your gawd any favors either. I reported you earlier, and I will continue to report you. That mental hospital where you are located needs to get you off the computer, but maybe they are just glad to keep you occupied. Maybe they can get you an etch-o-sketch, instead.
- Reply to this comment
- I support Ron Paul and his non-interventionist foreign policy. Hitlery wants to continue our illegal police action in Iraq until at least 2013, and she does not rule out a preemptive (nuclear) first strike against Iran. Ron Paul voted against our (undeclared) war in Iraq, which was sold to us with lies. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies--the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. This war has cost more than 3,400 American lives and almost a trillion dollars. We must have new leadership in the White House to ensure this never happens again. Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations. Today, we have 750 foreign bases and troops in 130 countries. We are spread so thin that we have too few troops defending America. And now, there are new calls for a draft of our young men and women. We can continue to fund and fight no-win police actions around the globe, or we can refocus on securing our borders against illegal immigrants and bring our troops home. No war should ever be fought without a Declaration of War voted upon by the Congress, as required by the Constitution. Under no circumstances should the U.S. again go to war as the result of a resolution that comes from an unelected, foreign body, such as the United Nations. Too often, we give foreign aid and intervene on behalf of governments that are despised. Then, we too become despised.
- Reply to this comment
- USProphet;
What the heck do u owe to Ron Paul that we have to put up with your constant bombarding us with your version of politics ? - Reply to this comment
- Is Condi going to go fight or she just speaking for someone else she will send to kill and be killed ?
- Reply to this comment
- What we need is for someone to show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50+ years. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I%u2019ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.
- Reply to this comment
- Some people say, "a Republican? I''d never vote for a Republican." Let me remind you folks that Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and who won the war to preserve our Union, WAS himself a Republican. Would you have voted for Stephen Douglas, who was ardently pro slavery, against Lincoln simply because he was a Democrat? Of course you wouldn''t. It''s the person your voting for, and the ideas he or she represents, NOT the party. Ron Paul represents a different Republican Party from the one that Iraq, deficits and corruption have soured the country on. The Republican party has "lost its way," he said recently, during a GOP debate. Like the limited federal government principles espoused by Dwight D. Eisenhower, his school of Republicanism stands for a certain idea of the Constitution that much of the power asserted by modern Presidents has been usurped from Congress, and that much of the power asserted by Congress has been usurped from the States. Though Paul acknowledges flaws in both the Constitution (it included slavery) and the Bill of Rights (it doesn''t go far enough), he still thinks a comprehensive array of positions can be drawn therefrom: against gun control; for the sovereignty of States; and against foreign-policy adventures like the ones currently being played-out in the Mid-East. After ten terms of service as a U.S. Congressman, Ron Paul has demonstarted a consistent track record of adherance to The Constitution unmatched by anyone in either party.
- Reply to this comment
Elizabeth Palmer writes on Kurdistan's fragile peace
Watch Palmer's Interview With Massoud Barzani
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.




