Anti-terrorist squad keeps
watchful eye on Izmir

By Terry Boyd
Turkey bureau

IZMIR, Turkey — Two weeks after the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, civilian anti-terrorist squad members from the Turkish National Police are watching over Izmir, ready to react to any terrorists’ attacks.

With U.S. military operations in free-standing downtown buildings, Izmir is vulnerable, perhaps more so than the politically sensitive, high-security Incirlik Air Base at Adana in south central Turkey. At the small base at Izmir, U.S. personnel come and go often. They still take smoke breaks outside the Akin Building, the main building for the 425th Air Base Squadron.

On Monday, CNN reports quoted Pentagon officials saying that Incirlik is at Threatcon Delta, the highest level of alert, because of "specific threats."

Not so, said Air Force Capt. John Haynes, public affairs chief for the 39th Wing at Incirlik, the base for Operation Northern Watch no-fly mission over northern Iraq.

"I [won’t] tell you what we’re in ... but we’re not in Delta," said Haynes, who added that it was the base’s policy not to discuss specific threat conditions or security measures the base takes.

Threatcon Delta essentially means that a base is at war readiness.

However, during a Pentagon briefing Tuesday, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley confirmed that U.S. forces in Incirlik were placed on Threat Condition Charlie following the Oct. 12 bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen.

U.S. military officials have decided to put forces on bases in two Middle Eastern countries on the highest possible alert status following the receipt of specific threats of terrorism against Americans, Quigley said Tuesday.

Haynes and other U.S. officials won’t discuss details of threats to Americans in Turkey, and indeed, no one in the know said that the threat here is as high as in other Middle Eastern countries.

"This is not Qatar," said one U.S. officer.

Sources in Ankara said that the only alert from the State Department to U.S. citizens living in Turkey was related to House of Representatives Resolution 596, which would have recognized Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Otherwise, state department officials are only telling U.S. travelers in Turkey to keep a low profile and avoid crowds.

But there have been incidents in Turkey following the attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 sailors, injured 39 and nearly sank the 500-foot-long missile destroyer.

Sources in Izmir told Stars and Stripes that there has been at least one threat against Incirlik since the Cole attack. On Oct. 16, someone sent a bomb threat to the Izmir American School, those sources say. Izmir sources added that U.S. officers believe that someone is monitoring the military shuttle buses as well.

Whether the threats are related to the Cole, to alleged Saudi Arabian terrorist Osama bin Ladin or indigenous terrorists groups, such as Hezbolah is irrelevant, U.S. officials said. However, many officials will acknowledge that for many reasons, this is an unstable time that calls for special measures.

Izmir investigators still don’t know if the school bomb threat was terrorist related, said Col. James Chamberlain, 425th ABS commander.

Chamberlain declined to comment on the bus surveillance, but added, "That’s something that a terrorist organization would do, certainly."

Whatever the case, "I’m responsible for force protection for all the Americans in Izmir," Chamberlain said. And it’s his call "to do everything we can to protect our personnel here," he said.

That includes calling in back up. U.S. anti-terrorist officers, notified of a possible attack, called the Turkish National Police, looking to augment base security just after the Cole attack, said a supervisor for the Turkish National Police’s anti-terrorism division.

That request was sent to Izmir governor, said the supervisor, who asked that his name not be used for security reasons. Now, civilian police teams watch all U.S. buildings. "Even I don’t know where groups go and when," the supervisor said.

Additionally, regular TNP officers said the TNP has ordered the number at each of the posts around the 425th building be doubled and tripled.

"As you know, Turkish police are taking seriously this bin Laden threat," the supervisor said.

Chamberlain confirmed that 425th officials requested police to augment the normal force. But he said that this isn’t out of the norm when there are unstable international events. "We have a close working relationship, day-to-day relationship, with the Turkish National Police and other government agencies," he said.

In Izmir, some of the base facilities are closed, including the base exchange and commissary. But otherwise, there are few overt signs of nervousness in the community.

The only facility closed at Incirlik is the base theater.

"We’re avoiding mass gatherings at predictable times and places," Haynes said. "Video rentals are skyrocketing," he added. The BX, commissary and other facilities are operating normally, he said.

However, Incirlik is a hard target. The high security base is controlled by Turkish Air Force personnel, who have security devices such as total video surveillance of the single gate in and out of the base. In the past year, U.S. forces have added mortar barriers around the runways and other areas, and the base even has its own sanitized taxi fleet, said Master Sgt. Tracy Alvey, head of force protection for the 39th Wing at Incirlik, in an interview earlier this year.

Right now the biggest challenge at Incirlik is getting out accurate information to counter flying rumors, Haynes said. Incirlik command is using base radio and television to get force protection messages out. "And if something happens we think is important, send it out e-mail. We’re even stuffing flyers into mail boxes," he said.

"Obviously, not sharing our deepest intel with everyone in sight," he added.

"But, we have rumors about everything, from we’re sending all the families home right now to that we’re in Threatcon Delta, the sky is falling and everything in between," Haynes said.

Chamberlain said that the toughest part of the ordeal is finding a balance between keeping personnel alert and informed, but not making the situation sound more dire than it is.

Staff writer Sandra Jontz contributed to this report.