Sen. Collins calls for expanded U.S. relations with Turkey
WASHINGTON — Sen. Susan Collins R-Maine, who returned from Istanbul, Turkey, last week, spoke on Monday at a conference about the state of America’s relationship with Turkey and how it can be improved.
The event, the American-Turkish Council’s 30th Annual Conference, was held to facilitate growing ties between the two countries. The conference’s theme was more pertinent after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey last week, killing more than 600 people.
Collins happened to be in Turkey when earthquake hit and said she was struck by the amount of the damage and felt for the victims.
She also focused on foreign relations, and said the relationship between the United States and Turkey has benefitted and can continue to so by increasing trade relationships and counter-terrorism efforts with one another.
Collins, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee suggested more be done to increase bilateral trade with Turkey, which has the 16th largest economy in the world.
Collins said her home state has been particularly helpful with facilitating trade by shipping thousands of cattle for dairy farming to Turkey. “With a little ingenuity, there are a lot of trade opportunities,” she said.
Collins also said there are many opportunities for America to help Turkey continue to fight terrorism.
According to Collins, the United States spends an average of $1 million a day to help Turkey fight terrorism. She said, aside from spending money, the United States should also encourage democratic freedom in the region.
Panelists who appeared with her — Ambassador Selim Yenel, deputy undersecretary at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Nuri Colakoglu, president of Dogan Media International; and Philip Gordon, Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs — discussed efforts such as those outlined by
Collins as possible reasons for improved favorability of the United States abroad.
According to Pew Research Center Poll from 2010, 17 percent in Turkey say they approve of the United States, up from a decade low of 9 percent in 2007.
While Collins said Turkey-U.S. relations have improved in recent years, she said she still has “concerns” with the deterioration of the relationship between Israel and Turkey and the how journalists are treated in Turkey.
“Addressing these issues would further enhance Turkey’s chances of being an exemplar of democracy in the Middle East,” she said.
Despite her reservations, Collins said Turkey has “more influence than ever before in our modern era to be a good role model. This is Turkey’s time,” she said.
via Sen. Collins calls for expanded U.S. relations with Turkey | SeacoastOnline.com.
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press – 16 hours ago
FILE – In a July 14, 1992 file photo, Hillary Clinton, right, and her mother Dorothy Rodham are shown in their New York hotel room. Dorothy Rodham died shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C. She was 92. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dorothy Rodham, mother of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton’s mother-in-law, died Tuesday at age 92 after an illness.
The family said Rodham died shortly after midnight, surrounded by her family at a Washington hospital. The secretary of state had cancelled a planned trip to London and Istanbul to be at her mother’s side.
In a statement, the Clinton family hailed Rodham as a woman who “overcame abandonment and hardship as a young girl to become the remarkable woman she was — a warm, generous and strong woman; an intellectual; a woman who told a great joke and always got the joke; an extraordinary friend and, most of all, a loving wife, mother and grandmother.”
President Barack Obama praised Rodham as a “remarkable person” who also was “strong, determined and gifted.”
“For her to have been able to live the life that she did and to see her daughter succeed at the pinnacle of public service in this country I’m sure was deeply satisfying to her,” Obama said after signing an executive order in the Oval Office. “My thoughts, Michelle’s thoughts, the entire White House’s thoughts go out to the entire Clinton family. I know that she will be remembered as somebody who helped make a difference in this country and this world.”
Dorothy Rodham was a witness to her daughter’s political victories and defeats. She avoided the spotlight and rarely gave interviews about herself or her daughter and son-in-law, the former president.
A notable exception was her daughter’s 2008 bid for the Democratic nomination for president. She appeared with her daughter in primary states, particularly at events focusing on women’s issues.
Clinton cited her mother in at least one ad during the campaign, saying that her mother had taught her to stand up for herself and to stand up for those who needed help.
As Clinton battled Barack Obama for the nomination in April 2008, Rodham joined her daughter and granddaughter at a campaign event at Haverford College, Pa. Then 88, Rodham didn’t speak at the event, but Hillary Clinton noted that her mother lived with her and “always has a lot of great ideas about what we need to be doing,” drawing chuckles from the audience.
When Clinton ended her campaign during a speech in June 2008 at Washington’s National Building Museum, her mother watched from off stage and wiped a tear as Clinton conceded the nomination to Obama. The following February, Rodham was on hand as her daughter was sworn in as Obama’s secretary of state.
Dorothy Howell Rodham was born in Chicago in 1919, the daughter of a city firefighter. In her autobiography, “Living History,” Hillary Clinton described her mother’s childhood as lonely and loveless.
The Howells shuttled Dorothy and her younger sister, Isabelle, among relatives and schools. She was 8 when her parents divorced in 1927 and she was sent with her sister to live with their paternal grandparents in Alhambra, Calif. Her grandmother could be cruel when not ignoring young Dorothy, Clinton wrote.
Rodham left her grandparents’ home at 14 when she found room and board as a mother’s helper to another family. After graduating from high school, she returned to Chicago on her mother’s promise of helping to pay for a college education if she lived with her and her new husband. After that promise was unfulfilled, Rodham supported herself with a job in an office.
“I’m still amazed at how my mother emerged from her lonely early life as such an affectionate and levelheaded woman,” Clinton wrote.
She met Hugh E. Rodham, a native of Scranton, Pa., who had found work in Chicago as a traveling salesman. They courted for several years before marrying in 1942. Besides their daughter, they raised two sons, Hugh and Tony.
Dorothy Rodham was a homemaker in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge but for years took a variety of college courses even though she never completed a degree. A Democrat, she was a counter to the conservative Republicanism of her husband, who became a successful businessman.
The Rodhams moved to Little Rock, Ark., in 1987, to be near their daughter and her husband, then the state’s governor, and their granddaughter, Chelsea. Dorothy Rodham’s husband died in 1993. A Washington Post profile in 2007 noted that she moved to Washington to live with her daughter’s family after Hillary Clinton’s election to the Senate in 2000.
In a debate during the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton called her mother her inspiration.
“I owe it to my mother, who never got a chance to go to college, who had a very difficult childhood, but who gave me a belief that I could do whatever I set my mind,” she said.
The Clinton family plans a private memorial service. The family statement said any donations should be made to George Washington Hospital, where Rodham “received excellent care and made terrific friends over many years”; or to the Heifer Project ), her Christmas gift of choice in 2010.
Or, the statement said “to a local organization that helps neglected and mistreated children, a blight Dorothy was determined to remedy until her last day because she knew too well the pain too many children suffer.”
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
The US administration agreed in principle almost two months ago for the transfer of information over software source codes of US Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighters to Turkey.
Once the agreement is completed, and if approved by the US Congress, Turkey will have the capability to automatically modify the software source codes of the fighters’ weapons systems with national software source codes, said US sources who asked not to be named.Turkey will become the first nation among 26 to have the F-16s in their inventories and have the ability to receive information on the F-16 fighters’ software source codes — primarily their weapons systems — thereby enabling it to replace them with national software source codes whenever necessary.
Once Turkey and the US complete around 50 pages of technical details over the nature of the US transfer of technology, an agreement should be signed, pending US congressional approval.
The US Congress has long prevented arms transfers to NATO member Turkey, mainly in reaction to its strained ties with Israel.
However, the US administration has as of late sought US congressional authorization for the sale of three AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters to Turkey. This indicates a softening on the part of the congress toward Turkey.
Turkey has a long-standing request for Super Cobras. It has a shortage of these helicopters, required in its ongoing fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists, who have increased their violent attacks as of late.
Meanwhile, it is not clear whether the US administration will seek US congressional authorization for another long-standing Turkish request for the sale of four Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and two armed Reaper UAVs.
However, some of the weapons, including Predators that the US reportedly pledged to transfer to Turkey as it withdraws from Iraq in December of this year, are said to not be subject to the approval of the US Congress. These are weapons the US used during its war in Iraq.
Missile defense link
US sources stated that Washington has agreed in principle to transfer the information mainly concerning the weapon systems of the F-16s so that Turkey can integrate by itself the national software source codes because Turkey has pursued a very persistent policy on the matter.
However, Turkey’s approval to deploy a radar system of the US-supported NATO Missile Defense System on its soil is understood to have played an important role in Washington’s agreement to in principle transfer the software source codes of mainly the weapons systems of the F-16s to Turkey. Turkey agreed last month to host a powerful US-supplied radar system to act as advanced eyes for a layered shield against ballistic missiles coming from outside Europe.
The AN/TPY-2 surveillance radar in Turkey will boost the shield’s capability against Iran, which Washington alleges is seeking to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
“By agreeing to transfer information on F-16 weapon systems so that Turkey could automatically integrate them with national software source codes, the US sought to ease tensions with its NATO ally, which is important in safeguarding US interests in the Middle East. The US also puts strong emphasis on seeing Turkish-Israeli relations normalize,” said the US source.
50 weapons systems on each F-16
Lockheed Martin this year began supplying Turkey with 14 F-16C variants and 16 F-16Ds under a deal signed in May 2007. The total cost of 30 additional F-16s to Turkey is $1.78 billion.
Under a separate agreement signed in April 2005 between Turkey and the US, 213 Turkish F-16s are being upgraded at a cost of $1.1 billion at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in Ankara. Turkey will be able to change the software source codes of the weapons systems on a total of 204 F-16s with national software source codes if a final agreement is reached with the US.
There are 50 different types of weapons systems on each F-16 that are classified.
via Turkey to rewrite software source codes of 204 F-16 fighters.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) closely monitors Muslims who change their names to sound more American, and Muslims who take on Arabic names.
“The NYPD monitors everyone in the city who changes his or her name… For those whose names sound Arabic or might be from Muslim countries, police run comprehensive background checks” Associated Press reported.
Police background check includes reviewing travel records, criminal histories, business licenses and immigration documents.
All this is recorded in police databases for supervisors, who review the names and select a handful of people for police to visit.
The program is believed to be a tripwire for police to identify homegrown terrorists.
An AP investigation showed that since August the NYPD has been behind intelligence efforts targeting the Muslim community since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The NYPD has surveilled entire Muslim neighborhoods, collecting information on the daily activities of Muslims such as eating and praying which are all behavior protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution.
It should be noted that the NYPD is not the only institution discriminating against Muslims, the FBI has its own ethnic mapping program that spies on Muslim communities, especially prayers and other community leaders.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will begin airlifting blankets, sleeping bags, hygiene kits and other supplies to Turkey in the next day or two to help victims of the powerful earthquake that struck Sunday.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is authorizing U.S. European Command to begin providing humanitarian assistance after receiving a request from the Turkish government.
The 7.2 magnitude quake leveled about 2,000 buildings in eastern Turkey, killing at least 575 people and leaving about 2,500 injured and thousands of homeless.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby says the U.S. will assist in any way possible. He says Turkey continues to work with local authorities and other international relief agencies to cope with the aftereffects of the earthquake.
via Turkey Earthquake: U.S. Military Provides Humanitarian Aid To Victims.
(Reuters) – The Obama administration is consulting Congress on an unusual proposal to transfer U.S. Marine Corps attack helicopters to Turkey, U.S. officials said on Thursday, as Ankara tries to exact revenge for a major attack by Kurdish separatists.
Turkey, a NATO ally, has been seeking AH-1 SuperCobra helicopters to replace those lost in its long struggle against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Under the administration’s plan, the Marines would get two new, late-model Textron Inc Bell AH-1Z SuperCobras in exchange for the three AH-1W aircraft that would be transferred to Ankara from current inventory, a congressional official said.
The officials declined to be identified because of the matter’s sensitivity and because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The idea to take weapons from the U.S. arsenal was rare, they said.
The proposal has been held up amid lawmakers’ questions about increasingly distant relations between Muslim-majority Turkey and Israel, a key U.S. ally, among other matters.
The AH-1W has sold previously for about $10 million. Turkey bought 10 of them in the 1990s. The larger, twin-engine AH-IZ may sell for about $30 million, according to industry sources.
Under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, the executive branch must provide 15 days’ formal notice to Congress before going ahead with significant arms transfers to a NATO partner. It was not immediately clear when such notice might take place, with informal congressional consultations continuing.
Turkey last week launched air and ground assaults on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, vowing to exact “great revenge” after 24 Turkish troops were killed on October 19 in one of the deadliest Kurdish attacks in years.
The PKK is designated a terrorist group by the United States. It is waging a 27-year-old war from bases inside Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. The administration’s proposal to transfer the helicopters pre-dates the October 19 attack on Turkish forces near the border with Iraq.
The United States and Turkey have a strong tradition of military cooperation, both bilaterally and inside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Turkey agreed last month to host a powerful U.S.-supplied radar system to act as advanced eyes for a layered shield against ballistic missiles coming from outside Europe.
The AN/TPY-2 surveillance radar in Turkey will boost the shield’s capability against Iran, which Washington alleges is seeking to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
via Exclusive: U.S. considers unusual arms deal for Turkey | Reuters.
