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Security So Tight at the G20 Even a Gnat Couldn’t Get In … Oh, Wait
So yesterday, the heads of the Group of 20 leading world economies arrived in the resort city of Antalya, in Turkey, for a two-day summit. The hotels housing the attendees were separated from the rest of the neighborhood by thousands of barricades. Only accredited visitors were given access to the area. The governor of Antalya, Muammer Türker, proudly announced they’d installed more than 350 new security cameras, and had also inaugurated license plate and facial recognition systems to prevent unauthorized access. The Coast Guard was deployed off the coast of Antalya to interdict threats from sea. Officials were considering establishing a no-fly zone over the area. Some 12,000 police and soldiers were deployed, and the Turkish military promised ’round-the-clock air defences. Presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın, who is coordinating the summit, affirmed that security was at its highest level:
“As some 35 or 36 delegations, including the world’s 20 most prominent countries, as well as heads of state, will be at the summit, we don’t see any security weakness.”
Moreover, according to Today’s Zaman,
Within the scope of the efforts to heighten security in the province, police have stepped up operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in a number of provinces across Turkey. Local police detained more than 60 people suspected of having links to the militant group throughout the past week.
Two indoor sports stadiums in Antalya have been turned into temporary police stations [Editor’s note: please pause to visualize that] and one of the international arrivals terminals within the Antalya Airport has been allocated for G-20 participants. The Belek resort has been declared a “high-security Red Zone area” until the end of the summit.
In addition to the police force, both the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) are on alert. The participants will also be protected by Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) and Turkish jetfighters.
Counterterrorism units carried out simultaneous raids in three districts of Antalya province early on Friday, finding what they described as ISIL materials, with two of those detained Russian and two of them women. Twenty ISIL suspects were detained. On the same day, police also detained 41 people at İstanbul Atatürk Airport on suspicion that they were going to join ISIL after a tip-off from a fellow passenger on their flight from Morocco. Twenty of them were deported and 21 are still being held.
In light of this, I choose to see the following video as utterly charming. But I warn you that you can see it another way, and if you do, you’ll just give in to total despair. We are helpless. They can get through anything. So don’t think about that. Just get on with your lives. If they get through, they get through; if you’re lucky, they’ll be sweet little furry Turkish terrorists, and your life, like mine, will be full of terrorist-cat love — even if the last time you wear an item of clothing without a trace of cat fur or cat barf will have been in your early 30s, and even if you wake up every morning at 5:00 am with seven fat balls of Turkish terrro-cat love sticking fourteen fat fore-paws in your face insistently because to hell with your other worries, Claire, breakfast is soooo late.
As for the summit itself, I’m not there, but it sounds as if what happened on the sidelines will determine all of our futures.
Hope it went well.
Photo credit: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the opening session of the G-20 summit in Antalya, Turkey on Sunday. RIA-Novosti / Kremlin Pool via AP
Published in General, Islamist Terrorism, Military
Yet another public disruption by #blackcatlivesmatter.
I was hoping for some hijinks with a guard dog arriving on the scene.
I can’t bear to hear Obama speak. That empty ratchet-jawing…
But no rats, right? I mean, other than the foursome in the second photo. There should have been a warning posted on that one.
Who’s the person with her back turned to us?
Claire those are special commando cats assessing the situation and providing extra security.
Looks like Susan Rice.
Well, we can take solace in the fact that since it was cats, they weren’t doing so at anybody’s bidding but their own :)
Are those the Polonium-210 Delivery Cats I’ve been hearing about?
Caption: US President Obama meets Russian President Putin. Also pictured are a senior Russian adviser and some unidentified Slavic-looking guy.
The video is utterly charming. However, I’ll need some therapy after seeing the photograph. Perhaps an adult beverage. After all, it’s five o’clock somewhere, right?
I wish those world leaders were as committed to our security as they are to their own.
And the reason this meeting takes place in a Muslim country is…
Evil always finds a way in.
What with the Climate Crisis, security crisis, and budget crisis, can’t these people use Skype or Go-to-Meeting? Seems to me like a big waste of jet fuel, money, and police just to puff up their important big-shot status.
Since Obama promised the Russians in 2012 he’d have more flexibility in dealing with them after his reelection he’s really just fulfilling a campaign pledge. You have to respect him as a man of his word.
He keeps his word to tyrants perhaps, and his far-left backers. Not to the people. To us, he lies brazenly and breaks his promises routinely.
^This. Especially when the Moron in Chief uses that condescending, professorial voice to say things that everyone but him has known for years, as if he was explaining a truth to small children who don’t understand it. “This was not an attack on Paris alone, but on all civilization.” Well no bat guano, Sherlock! The jihadists have been waging a war on all civilization since they emerged in the 90’s. Just because you never noticed it, doesn’t mean that the rest of us haven’t.
Obama just finished his G20 speech I just watched CNN’s Christiane Anampour, a committed liberal, rip Obama for ignoring reality and insisting we are winning against ISIS. It was quite a hammering and surprising given the source.
Yes but we don’t count as we are on the wrong side of history!
Here is something Islamists and leftists have in common: Lying is a morally acceptable political strategy, and a desired political end justifies any means.
Yeah. If security is so tight, how did Obama and Putin get in?
Well it all depends on how you look at it.
The only time in his speech that Obama seemed really engaged was when he was insisting the U.S would continue with its plans to admit Syrian refugees. The rest he was saying words but in his normal, flat recitation style. That thing in Paris was apparently more random folks killing random folks just like at that grocery story in Paris back in January – you know, the one that apparently coincidentally just happened to be kosher.
Putin can understand and speak some English. I doubt he would rely on it in such a setting, but it would probably be good enough. Obama doesn’t listen to anybody other than Valerie Jarrett, and there is no need to pay attention to anything he says (“if you like your plan”, “ISIS has been contained”). So there is no need for an interpreter. Could be anybody.
Claire,
Listen Claire this is serious. These cats are everywhere. I don’t trust them they are taking over.
Aw c’mon it’s just my imagination.
Whoa!
Regards,
Jim
No, you’re thinking about the X-15C cruise basselope.
The cats should be in charge. They have fearless contempt for their enemies.
The opposite of Obama, whose enemies have fearless contempt for him.
Claire,
Single woman held hostage by group of cats
Claire! Claire! Are you OK?!!!
Regards,
Jim
Grumpy Cat for president.