WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- The Bush administration has dispatched J.D. Crouch, deputy to national security adviser Stephen Hadley, to Turkey to update the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Washington's policies regarding Iran's nuclear program.
Cumhuriyet reported 6 that Crouch reportedly told Ankara on Sunday about an embargo to be imposed on Iraq as well as possible economic sanctions in the event that Iran does not abandon its nuclear enrichment program.
Crouch also asked Turkey urge Iran to consider carefully the recent U.S. and European Union incentive package. During the meetings Crouch told Turkish officials in the event that sanctions would be imposed on Iran, the most important would cover oil and oil products.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana delivered the incentive proposals to Teheran. Despite the political opening Crouch nonetheless told his Turkish hosts that sanctions were quite likely, and Turkey should be prepared for the eventuality.
Cumhuriyet wrote that Turkish government officials reportedly told Crouch that if an economic embargo was imposed on Iran, Turkey and a large part of the Middle East would also suffer from it.
Former Serbian Minister of Justice Vladan Batic, who now leads the opposition, has acknowledged that former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic laundered money through financial institutions in Greek Cyprus.
"The Milosevic administration dispatched their money to Greek Cyprus in bags and suitcases," he said. He added that eight Serbian off-shore companies founded with the support of Greek administration leader Tasos Papadopoulos were also legalized by the Greek Cypriot government.
Milosevic, who was standing trial in The Hague for war crimes, was found dead in his cell on March 11.
Zaman newspaper reported on June 7 that $4 million had been transferred to Greek Cyprus using the offshore companies.
A 2002 United Nations investigation concluded that Milosevic's government used laundered funds to purchase arms, raw materials, fuel and spare parts for its wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
On June 6 a court in Greek Nicosia opened its first session in the trial of Andexol Trade Co. and Greek Laiki Trapeza, controlled by the Papadopoulos administration, which are being sued by the Serbian Genemp Trading Co. It was during the opening session that Batic Party made his statements, telling the court that the Milosevic administration's money was delivered to Greek Cyprus in sacks and travel bags.
Batic said that while the money was expected to be deposited in the Greek Cyprus branch of the Serbian Beogradska bank, it was transferred instead to the Andexol Trade Co., which was under the control of the Papadopoulos administration, through Laiki Trapeza.
Batic told the court that during the 1992-1995 U.N. embargo on Serbia, all money belonging to the state, state-owned and private companies and that of certain wealthy individuals were deposited in Beogradska bank and that Milosevic had instructed Beogradska manager Bohra Mucic to open a new branch in Greek Cyprus.
Batic told the court that Greek Cyprus Central Bank and Greek customs officials knew of the Serbian transfer of funds and assumed that the money transactions were legitimate.
Questions are beginning to mount over last weekend's arrest of 17 men by Canadian security forces as the country's Muslim community braces for reprisals.
A Canadian agronomist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Pakistan's Daily Times that the three tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that the suspects had ordered to blow up the Canadian Parliament and other buildings is unavailable in such quantities even in Saskatchewan, a major agricultural province. Reports are circulating in the Canadian media that that the ammonium nitrate had only been ordered but never delivered, as the security agencies had replaced it with inert material.
The Canadian press is reporting that several of the suspects to have become overly religious in the last couple of years.
Canada's small Muslim population fears reprisal incidents in the wake of the arrests. After the men were taken into custody a Toronto mosque was vandalized.
Islamic Foundation of Toronto president Mohammad Alam said that the vandalism may have been the beginning of religiously motivated reprisals against Canada's more than 700,000 Muslims. Alam said, "We are committed to the safety and security of Canada and Canadians. We of all Canadians are shocked at the recent arrests of young Muslim men and teenagers and the very serious allegation against them."
Muslim Canadian Congress spokesman Tarek Fatah, said that he felt "a mixture of shock and relief" following the arrests, which began late on Friday. "It's too close to home," he said.
Toronto's Salaheddin Islamic Center imam Ali Hindy, took a harder line, saying, "Are we now the enemy within? We completely reject that. Since Afghanistan is closed, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Canadian intelligence agency, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are targeting young Canadian Muslims to justify their budgets."
Hindy said that he knew about half of the defendants, mostly from the times when they used to pray at the center, conceding that while there might be one or two troublemakers among the suspects, he believed that most of the accused would be acquitted.
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