THE EVIDENCE 2

Here is the photo from PUK Media that is supposed to be of the bodies of Kani Yilmaz and Sabri Tori, but there is something strange about it.

Notice the bodies. They are both in one piece. Without a doubt they are burned, but they are in one piece each.

According to PWD's 14 February statement, Veli Çat was in the possession of "a case containing the explosives," which he had received "just before the murders" from Serdar.

On February 11th, Numan traveled from Seyid Sadiq Camp to Suleymaniye with Kani Yilmaz in his car. While in the car with Kani Yilmaz and Sabri Tori, Numan carefully placed the case containing the explosives and he was dropped of at the entrance of Suleymaniye, Rizgari District, at the industrial intersection of Highway 60. Once the car was about 700 meters away, he detonated the explosives with a remote control and immediately after the explosion Numan and PKK Military Intelligence member Serdar has disappeared.

Again, we have the convenient "bird perspective" of the story. Veli Çat "carefully placed the case containing the explosives." Did no one see Veli Çat carrying this case? Specifically, did neither Kani Yilmaz nor Sabri Tori see him carrying the case? If they saw it, did they not know what it contained? How would Veli Çat explain receiving a case from Serdar "just before the murders?" Didn't Kani and Sabri notice that Veli Çat left the case behind when he exited the car? Did Kani and Sabri know Serdar? Had Serdar also been part of the PWD camp at Sayid Sadiq? Again, for a group of people who believed themselves to be on an alleged PKK hit list, this is all pretty lousy internal security.

What is it that happens to human bodies when they are at ground zero of an explosion? It all depends on the amount of explosives used, the carrier of the explosive, how the explosive is shaped, etc. In an article published right after the Mount Lebanon Hotel bombing in Baghdad, March, 2004, we find the following:

When that car bomb detonated in front of the Mount Lebanon Hotel on Wednesday night any humans close by were subjected to a multiple assault, swift, withering and summary. Those within a few feet of the car were probably torn to small pieces and those pieces were horribly barbecued in a literal flash. Others, perhaps in the hotel itself, were killed by piercing bomb fragments traveling at thousands of feet per second, or thrown at tremendous speed against walls and pillars. Others may have had parts of the hotel structure driven into and through them.

"Those within a few feet of the car were probably torn to small pieces. . . " If there were a case containing explosives inside the car in which Kani Yilmaz and Sabri Tori were sitting, they were certainly within a few feet of the source of the blast, but it doesn't look like they were torn into small pieces. From the photo, one might conjecture that a small amount of explosives had been placed in such a way as to create more fire than blast, thus leaving the bodies intact, but according to PWD's statement, a case of explosives were used. How much explosive was in that case? Perhaps Asayîş has a report all written up on that, to go along with the transcripts of the phone taps.

Less than a pound of C4 will kill several people. The standard military issue C4 block weighs 1.25 pounds (half a kilo) and can destroy a truck. It is interesting to note that the recent Turkish special warfare operations in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan featured C4 from Iraq, so the stuff is definitely available. Was C4 used in this explosion and, if so, how much? How much C4 would have fit into Veli Çat's case? If it contained one standard military issue block of C4, then there was more than enough power there to shred the bodies, as well as the car.

Referring to PUK Media's photo again, notice the body that appears to have been in the driver's seat. It looks halfway pushed out of the car. Is that a result of the blast, perhaps indicating that the case was behind the driver? So why isn't that body in pieces?

In PWD's 12 February statement claims that "Although the photographs of the aftermath of the attack are in our possession, at present we do not consider it appropriate to publish them." But the PUK did publish them and one picture alone raises plenty of questions about the nature of the bomb itself if, in fact, a bomb existed, a bomb that was remotely detonated from a distance of almost one kilometer, after the bomber ran the distance in a minute, setting the world's record for the fastest sprint, while talking on a cell phone most of the morning with a guy he just received the explosives from right before the bombing, while Kani Yilmaz and Sabri Tori observed everything. And all of this information was allegedly handed to PWD by PUK.

But the more I look at the photo of the bombing, the more I'm inclined to believe it was a fire. A car fire. It makes me wonder if the bodies were already dead when they started to burn. This, in turn, brings up another question. Was an autopsy performed? After such an extensive investigation of one day, complete with bomb experts, did anyone bother with an autopsy? Probably not, because the body of Kani Yilmaz was rushed to Turkish-occupied Kurdistan in time for his family to take him across the border on Sunday night, at least that is according to PWD's statement dated 12 February.

In the meantime, PWD maintains that all of its "incontrovertible evidence" shows who was behind the murders. I will agree that PWD knows who is behind the murders, but it isn't who PWD claims is behind them. With that, however, we move from the realm of evidence to that of motive.