Bush Administration Offers (Turks) Support on Kurdish Rebels

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAAKI6N2QD.html

Bush Administration Offers Support on Kurdish Rebels but Urges Erdogan to Expand Amnesty Program
By Barry Schweid
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Turkey's prime minister has been given assurances of U.S. support in that country's campaign against Turkish Kurdish rebels holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, a Turkish diplomat said Friday.

But it was not immediately clear whether U.S. troops in Iraq were prepared to use force against the Kurdistan Workers Party, which now operates under different names.

Turkish newspapers reported U.S. forces had raided an office of the Democratic Solution Party Wednesday while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was meeting with President Bush at the White House.
The Turkish diplomat told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the United States promised to take serious action against the rebels, holed up in the Qnadil mountains on the Iraqi-Iranian border.

At the same time, administration officials asked Erdogan to extend an offer of amnesty to the Kurdish rebels, promising they would not be harmed if they disarmed and returned to Turkey, the official said. <snip>
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAAKI6N2QD.html

[Cooley Hurd]

1. How does this fly with our only ally in Iraq, the Iraqi Kurds?

Maybe I don't possess a great deal of knowledge about the Kurd situation, but wouldn't this undermine our relationship with the only allies we have in Iraq?

[xray s]

2. That's a nice kettle of fish Bush has boiling there

Good gawd.

Maybe Bush should dust off this daddy's strategy of dealing with those pesky Kurds from the 80's.

Gas attacks? Look the other way.

[Barrett808]

3. AP describes American Enterprise Institute as "a research group"

That's so misleading it's practically a lie of omission.