Aegean Disclosure

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Minority Report (cont'd)

The same people that raised hell over the report now sent in a request asking for it to be returned. One of complainers said "the best thing about the report is that the back pages are empty. " They claim that the procedure in which the report passed through the commission was not legal, and that changes were made to the report after it was approved. My theory: they didn't attend the meetings or pay attention until the report was made public, and then they freaked out. These guys are also blaming the foreign minister Abdullah Gul for appointing the people that prepared a report that "attacks the country" and "creates new problems" instead of fixing the existing ones. The governor of Diyabakir put in his support behind the report saying, "Turkey has to solve its problems through debate, not by pretending they don't exist." (Hurriyet)

Meanwhile, the TV and Radio content regulators (RTUK) announce that the police are aiding them by scanning channels that RTUK can't reach (probably in the east). In other words, the police will likely be reporting broadcasts that are deemed to encourage separatism. (Hurriyet) And knowing what broad definitions may be used to define separatism, this looks like to be another self-fulfilling prophesy.

Fikret Bila, a Milliyet journalist, declares he wants a "Turkey that doesn't take the written word to court" after he was taken to court for writing a book about Ankara's relation with the Iraq war. The claim is that some things in the book are classified information. (In Turkish)

Update: Peter Boyer on Wolfowitz in the New Yorker, Hitchens' response