Third letter exposes further military plans against nation

The officer, who refused to disclose his identity, also attached a CD to his letter, which included 590 folders of confidential military documents. In his letter, the officer defined himself as “among a team that examined computers at the Information Support Unit [of the General Staff] as part of a military investigation launched into a military plot of Col. Dursun Çiçek.”

According to the officer, military prosecutors did not give enough time to the team to search 14 hard drives at the unit. “Fourteen hard drives from the computers at the Information Support Unit were unplugged and searched. Those computers were requested back after a superficial search in a day. It was impossible to search 14 hard drives in a day even if the search only includes getting a snapshot of the disks. Only keyword searches were conducted on the documents in the hard drives. Neither deleted files nor encrypted files were searched,” read the letter.

The officer was referring to a military examination of computers at the General Staff’s Information Support Unit, launched after a plot believed to have been drafted by Col. Çiçek made its way into the media in June. The plot included TSK plans to undermine the power of the AK Party and the faith-based Gülen movement.

Çiçek was arrested last week for suspected membership in a clandestine organization, but was released after a brief detention. He was also arrested and released in July. In the meantime, six members of the military were brought to the Beşiktaş courthouse yesterday to testify as part of the plot probe.

The team was subjected to psychological pressure by Col. Sedat Özüer, who also works for the Information Support Unit and was commissioned by the investigation team managers during the search of the hard drives, according to the officer. “The official documents were stored in a main server at the command. I knew the files in the server were searched four to five days later after the incident. Of course, after the required clean-up was done.”

The officer also claimed that the notebook computer allotted to Col. Çiçek was investigated four or five days after the incident. “During this investigation, some file names caught my attention, and I tried to recover some deleted files from some hard drives. I copied the files which I was able to recover.

However, I could not open some files. Although I could not find the file which was signed by Col. Çiçek, I saw there were many works of the same kind. … I am sending you the copies of those documents in a CD,” he said.

He sent the copies to civilian prosecutors conducting an investigation into a criminal organization known as Ergenekon, President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli. Erdoğan, however, said on Monday that he had not received such a letter or CD.

The officer said he decided to share the documents with the Ergenekon prosecutors as he was afraid to share them with his superiors. “I did not mention my discoveries to my superiors because I was afraid. I was told to look for the document that is believed to have been drafted by Col. Çiçek. I did not share my discoveries with anyone till now out of fear that they would put pressure on me. I believe it would be more appropriate for you to examine these documents,” he noted.

Sunday’s letter was the third of its kind. Another unnamed military officer sent two other letters to Ergenekon prosecutors in October and early November. In his first letter, the officer mailed the original of Col. Çiçek’s military plot, and mentioned TSK activities aimed at monitoring a large number of Web sites and their method of categorizing visitors to those sites on the basis of their political and religious views in the second one. The officer also called on all members of the military to share documents they had with the public.

The third letter sparked a huge public outcry, with coup opponents taking to the streets on Monday in İzmir. The group, affiliated with a coalition known as “70 Million Steps Against Coups” complained that the claims put forward in the three letters by unnamed military officers had remained uninvestigated.

“All those who plotted to overthrow an elected government, destroy the Democratic Society Party [DTP,] foment chaos among Alevis and Sunnis, and set up the necessary atmosphere for a military coup are still on duty,” stated the group.

Akın Birdal, a pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputy, said the armed forces’ plots were an extension of a military mindset to undermine the credibility and power of all groups, which stand as opponents to the TSK.

“In all plots, the TSK aims propaganda against groups or institutions which do not stand on the same side or line as themselves. This has been the case since the first plot was revealed in 1998. The latest plot is an extension of this mindset,” Birdal noted.

General Staff categorized Cabinet members, Erdoğan’s advisors

Two documents titled “Intelligence Information about Individuals [Personal Intelligence]” and “Some Individuals” included on the officer’s CD reveal that the Information Support Unit of the General Staff categorized members of the Cabinet and advisors to Prime Minister Erdoğan in accordance with their backgrounds and ideological tendencies.

Economy Minister Ali Babacan, State Minister and chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış, aide to Erdoğan Cüneyd Zapsu, aide to Erdoğan and Adana deputy Ömer Çelik and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu were among the names on which the General Staff had collected information.