Friday, 1 July 2005
Turkey is famous for the advocates of conspiracy theories over logical reasoning. In this country the real events is always discussed with conspiracies rather than real data. The latest example of this is a suicide bomber’s attempt to enter Ministry of Justice on Friday, June 1st 2005. Our media is handing the incident with the questions reaching the fantasy level like whether it is legal to kill the suicide bomber who is running towards the public while trying to detonate his bomb.
Before answering this question, it is a must to find an answer to this question : “How come he could find a way to reach Ministry of Justice’s entrance”. The close relationship between gathering intelligence and analyzing the risk of terrorism is discussed previously. The importance of the surveillance of terror suspects before a possible attack is obvious. However, the widespread suspicion to the intelligence organizations has prevented the state from legalizing preventive intelligence. This situation has formed a gap regarding how a bomb entered the country and to which plots it has been moved.
The close inspection of the intelligence organizations is obligatory. This inspection should never aim to block their work, but forcing them to be held responsible for whatever they do. From this point on, the priority of a state, namely to preserve the security of its citizens can not be risked. Freedoms can not be hooked with the fear of security. So what has to be done? The persons who are committed to carry suicide bomb attack and those aiming to do so must held under close surveillance. Here, the balance between freedom and security must be preserved by keeping the intelligence personal accountable for their actions in front of the law. In short, they must be under close observation in terms of how they execute the law.
Turkey is experienced in combating terrorism however the experience should not be handed over to conspiracies and should not be wasted. Why the bomber reached to the door of Ministry of Justice is the result of the people those prefer thinking more conspiracy than trusting security experiences. Also the misleading of their intelligence sources is another important point. It is obligatory to trust security personal for preserving security, but this should not be turned into a platonic love story.
Let’s come back to the suicide event on Friday. The incident’s life cycle is : The alerting of the control machinery while the bomber was passing through Ministry’s entrance; Due to the warning by the police the panicking of the bomber to detonate the bomb; the failing of the suicide bomber to detonate the bomb and police handcuffs him; During this, the running away of the bomber from ministry to crowd outside the ministry. At this point, the high risk bomber who run towards the crowd with bombs ready to detonate, has been shot dead from a region of his body that is free from a bomb or bomb mechanism. In short, the sudden, spontaneous and rapidly happening event which causes a very high risk for the civil people has been solved by police using his weapon. So why is it a matter of criticism to pacify this bomber with gun instead of another way? The only explanation to these criticisms can be ignorant behavior of these people that there were no alternatives in this incident in terms of security levels and extreme skepticism. Because the police related to the incident are not a member of an anti terror team or bomb experts. They do not have time to wait. There is one alternative for them, to neutralize the bomber who has a big risk to end lots of peoples life, without harming people but bomber. And this is to kill bomber. When one considers that the police in the incident is not special security unit or has any special equipment, the operation is quite a success. Only the bomber has lost his life, but the crowd has been secured in a timely action.
Regarding this subject, one may speculate that there may be other ways to stop the terrorist. But it a must to carefully considering the emergency of the event and the security personal in this incident. In real life, events like this do not happen as it is in the movies. Also even the film scenarios can be perfected after several mistakes(takes). Instead of fabricating fantasies, there is no alternative but to thank the police. Turkey will be a successful and secure country in combating terrorism, as long as it remains committed to its real experiences, and analyzing the rule of law and human rights in a rational manner
Ihsan Bal is the Head of Security Studies at USAK/ISRO, he is also Prof. at Turkish Police Academy.
The original article in Turkish can be reached from the following website
http://www.stratejikgundem.com/yazarlar.php?type=1&id=76
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