Novak glad to have planned PKK operation leaked

News Diplomacy
Novak glad to have planned PKK operation leaked
Veteran syndicated US columnist Robert D. Novak has said he would be happy if his reporting about an operation before it took place rendered inoperable a joint US-Turkish military move to suppress terrorist action by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) based in Iraq.

Robert D. Novak His article, published Monday, led to much speculation in the Turkish media, almost all of which agreed that it was a "pre-emptive leak." Novak said that US officials are planning a US-Turkish operation that, if successful, would avert a Turkish invasion of Iraq.
Participating in a meeting held at the Washington-based think tank The Heritage Foundation on Thursday, Novak responded to questions from Turkish journalists about the information provided in his article.
Novak said he received the information from a Congress member who was against such an operation and later found two additional sources confirming the same information. Milliyet daily's veteran Washington correspondent, Yasemin Çongar, highlighted in her article on Friday that Novak used the third-person singular masculine, hinting that his source was a male member of Congress.
In his article Novak said that Eric S. Edelman, a former aide to US Vice President Dick Cheney and now undersecretary of defense for policy, last week gave secret briefings concerning the issue on Capitol Hill. "While detailed operational plans are necessarily concealed, the broad outlines have been presented to select members of Congress as required by law," Novak wrote, adding that "US Special Forces are to work with the Turkish army to suppress the Kurds' guerilla campaign."
Novak told Turkish journalists that the planned operation aimed at killing PKK leaders and he was personally against such an idea. "If an improper operation has been sabotaged because of this article, it would make both me and the member of Congress who gave me the information happy," he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency in remarks translated into Turkish.
When asked whether he believed that his article had harmed US interests and served to advance the interests of the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by the US and a majority of the international community, Novak said: "You're calling the [PKK] a terrorist organization. Others call them 'the Kurds' freedom fighters.' I said this once on television and got into trouble. I believe that one side's 'terrorist' is the other side's 'freedom fighter.'" The fight between Turkish security forces and the PKK dates back to 1984 and has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of both civilians and soldiers.
04.08.2007
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