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Turkish group linked to Montreal cell
History Of Weapons Trafficking: Investigator; 'Important Role'
Stewart Bell, National Post; With Files From The Daily Telegraph
Published: Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom
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Mike Faille & Richard Johnson , National Post .
The Turkish group behind the Gaza flotilla, the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), has a history of weapons trafficking and was linked to a Montreal terrorist cell, according to a former French counter-terrorism investigator.
Jean-Louis Bruguiere testified about the IHH during the 2001 trial of "Millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam, the Montreal-based Algerian terrorist who tried to bomb Los Angeles airport.
Mr. Bruguiere testified that the IHH played an "important role" in the Montreal cell and was also "implicated or involved in weapons trafficking," according to the court transcript.
Although a judge, under the French system, Mr. Bruguiere played the role of terrorism investigator. He investigated the Montreal cell in the late 1990s because of its links to attacks in France.
A report that Mr. Bruguiere wrote following his investigation of the Monreal cell says that Turkish authorities began investigating IHH in 1997, following allegations it was buying automatic weapons.
Police searched the group's Instanbul offices and seized weapons, explosives and bomb-making instructions. The IHH president Bulent Yildrim was also arrested, the report says.
The group was accused of planning the violent overthrow of the Turkish government in order to impose Shariah law, Mr. Bruguiere wrote in his report.
"In particular, men were sent to Muslim countries at war for combat experience," he wrote, adding the group also sent firearms, knives and explosives to countries, as well as financial aid, to secure their political support.
Mr. Bruguiere's testimony at Ressam's trial in Los Angeles was disallowed by the judge, who ruled that "the force of his reputation" might taint jurors. He has since left the judiciary.
Israel does not dispute that the IHH foundation provides relief compatible with its official status, including supplying food and medicines to orphans and conflict zones, and investing in education.
But the Israelis also accuse it of overtly supporting Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by both the United States and the European Union, and also of being in contact with al-Qaeda cells and with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/story.html?id=3094790#ixzz0pe2rAslQ