Connection Between Memorandum and Gülen "Libelous"
Acting upon the publication of a memorandum classifying Turkish journalists on the basis of their views vis-à-vis the armed forces by Nokta weekly, the Office of the Military Prosecutor has announced that the said document was stolen from the General Staff headquarters and subsequently sent to Utah in the US.
Some daily newspapers implied a connection between the theft and respected Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, whose attorney Orhan Erdemli made a statement by which he underlined that the allegations were "legally libelous," not based on good faith and recalled Gülen's supportive stance toward the armed forces.
Erdemli elaborated that Mr. Gülen has always been supportive of the armed forces and opposed plots staged to erode its power and legitimacy. "Most recently, my client has announced that the allegations posted on some Internet sites about some of our high level commanders were rude and degrading. The reiteration of the allegations despite this is irreconcilable with good faith."
In a statement he made to Sabah daily, Nokta weekly correspondent Ahmet Şik, who revealed the memorandum, said it was wrong to discuss the origin of the memorandum rather than its content. Şik called for a thorough public discussion of the memorandum content and asserted that whoever stole the documents was a matter that should be handled by the General Staff internally.
US presence not necessary for memo's leak in Utah
Information technology experts say that the leak via the US of the media memorandum prepared by the General Staff classifying journalists in Turkey has no special meaning.
Anybody in the world is able to purchase domain and hosting services from a US-based company, doing so does not require a presence in the country, technology experts noted. Alleging that the owner of a Utah-based Web site lived in the US is indicative of the technology illiteracy of those making the allegations, the same experts added. Furthermore even when an e-mail transaction takes place between the two adjacent computers the e-mails are first sent to a computer in the US and then delivered to the actual receiver.
Chair of the Internet Technologies Association Mustafa Akgül noted that Utah has no significance in the leakage of the media memorandum. Akgül said: "The Internet has 13 giant servers throughout the world. Ten American states formed a Network Access Point (NAP) to facilitate information exchanges between Internet service providers. Utah could be one of those; but it is not that important. The Internet broadcast from Utah does not mean somebody physically went there to make this broadcast. It only means he or she has purchased service from a Utah-based ISP (Internet service provider)."
Mainframe computers are kept at different points across the world to ensure Internet security against hacker attacks. Utah hosts one of those points. Utah-based Internet companies are preferred for their reasonable price offers for Web hosting and domain services, for instance while running a Web site in Turkey with comprehensive content costs $80 a month, one-year service can be purchased for this amount in the US.
Internet technology experts noted the IP address used in the incidents would be easily detectible, recalling that the owners and users of the Web sites featuring child porn were brought to justice using this method.
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