I have enormous respect for the work of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. They work in conflict regions to teach the basic principles of journalism to local journalists, including citizen journalists. They really do get right in to the most difficult situations, and have access to knowledge on the ground that western media organisations often lack. I worked closely with their office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where Michael Andersen did a great job.
The fact that IWPR accesses direct first hand knowledge of what really happens during conflicts, almost certainly holds the key to the death of Jackie Sutton. She was killed for something she knew. The official Turkish story that she killed herself in the airport in despair at missing a connecting flight, is risible.
I cannot claim to any idea at present what it was she knew that caused her to be killed. It follows from that I do not know who killed her. But the speed of the Turkish authorities to promote a suicide narrative must in itself raise suspicions.
Yup soon as I heard about this I thought it stank.
IWPR statement <a href="https://iwpr.net/global-voices/death-jacky-sutton-iwpr-iraq-chief"here
and in the last paragraph:
Jacky was returning to Iraq full of plans for innovative new work, including projects to counter violent extremism that threatens a country to which she was so committed. Our condolences go out to her family and all those who knew her.
hmmph sorry about that, tried to be clever linky below
https://iwpr.net/global-voices/death-jacky-sutton-iwpr-iraq-chief
Craig – great minds think alike. Definitely suspicious. I see her colleague got blown up in a bomb blast a few months ago, in Iraq. With her, was it neurotoxin in ear? Whodunnit? NATO? Saudi? Russia? Iran? Israel? If it was not a sudden natural death (such things do occur, of course though the alacrity of the Turkish Police to call out, ‘suicide!’ makes one think that it was not a natural death). If it was a murder, this sounds like a state assassination.
Christian Bluer, close friend and colleague isn’t buying the suicide line, neitheir is Iraqi journalist and friend of Sutton, Mazin Elias.
Not surprisingly the security cameras at Istanbul-Attaturk, were malfuctioning when Sutton died.
Whatever she found out, it would seem she paid for it, with her life.
Sutton’s death comes just five months after previous IWPR director Ammar Al Shahbander was killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad.
Jackie Sutton has joined the ranks of the others; Gaby Rado, Terry Lloyds, Jala al-Abadi, ….
May their names never be forgotten.
See the difference b/w this and the Al Hilli murders. if this was murder then it was highly professional. Nothing will be found at PM, since the neurotoxins degenerate quickly. The Al Hilli murders seem merely semi-professional by comparison, messy, sloppy, incomplete.
This is a shocking question to ask at this time, and I apologise in advance for raising it, but looking at all avenues, one must consider the possibility in the context of such a death that activists/journalists are not always what they seem. Who would want her dead, and why?
I may be way off base here, but maybe Jackie Sutton had irrefutable proof of Turkish attacks on the Kurdish population linked possibly to the double suicide bombing in Ankara.
At least 105 people were killed and 400 injured, the kurds were protesting about their missing sons and daughters since 1990’s.
According to sources the Turkish police delayed medical treatment to the Kurds, instead they fired tear gas into the crowds, and pepper sprayed women and children.
Maybe Sutton uncovered the culprits behind the suicide explosions.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6711/turkey-attacks-kurds
Some reports are saying she was found hanged in a toilet cubicle. Proper postmortem and toxicology tests should identify the cause of death but if it was murder and if she was hanged how was it done in the close confines of a cubicle without attracting attention in what must be a busy airport?
As I understand, this brave woman was travelling to the city of Erbil, which is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. I believe this holds the key… Kurdistan.
Doing some detective work using airline websites, I reckon she must have caught the TK1966 flight at 12:35 from London (LGW), she was flying from London, correct? It gets in at 18:25 at Istanbul (IST) and was only due to leave IST at 00:15 (TK804).
Online resources state that the flight landed at 18:29 EEST, i.e. on schedule. There was then SIX HOURS until the connecting flight!
Would be interesting to know if Jacky went outside the airport at all in that time, met anyone…
[Please feel free to check that I have got the flight details correct, I am only going by press reports]
She could have very well been made to miss her connecting flight by airport officials at passport control. This would have the added advantage of making her flustered, upset or angry, good evidence to have on CCTV (she probably didn’t, though, as they say the security cameras were “broken”).
And how do you commit suicide using your shoelaces in a public bathroom, especially in a crowded airport? I presume it would be done in a cubicle, but how could this be done and could it be done unseen? Hanging from a coat peg on the back of the door?
[I don’t want to be ghoulish, but I would like to know the psychology of those who hang themselves, this is the sort of scenario — even if it existed — when I would imagine someone slashing their wrists, but hanging themselves?]
“if it was murder and if she was hanged how was it done in the close confines of a cubicle without attracting attention”
Quickly and efficiently, by professionals, presumably. I’ve worked in mental health for 35 years, have looked after many suicidal people- but I doubt I’ve ever met anyone who’d kill themselves because they’d missed a plane. And even if someone was that disturbed, it’s inconcievable that they could have held down a responsible and very stressful job.
The very obviousness of this seems like a message in itself- “we can do anything we like and no one, certainly not the likes of David Cameron, is going to stop us.”
So, she was found hanging, was she?
Yes, the hard state, or deep state, in Turkey must be the top suspect.
So they are saying the security cameras were “broken”? Now, where have we heard that before?
She probably knew they were after her and that might have been why she was upset at ‘missing’ her flight.
Maybe she knew details of Turkey’s support for ISIS and other Jihadist groups? Or Saudi support for the same? Or CIA support for the same?
“I doubt I’ve ever met anyone who’d kill themselves because they’d missed a plane. And even if someone was that disturbed, it’s inconcievable that they could have held down a responsible and very stressful job.” Pete, above.
Yes, I agree totally. This simply is not credible. They must imagine that the world and the woman’s colleagues, are stupid.
Interesting that this has happened to coincide with the German Chancellor’s visit to Turkey. Not sure whether there might be a link.
But it seems that someone very badly wanted her silenced, and quickly – to have done it in an airport. Was she quickly tranquillised? Or was there neurotoxin and the hanging was a facade?
* I read a newspaper account saying she flew from LHR, but according to the Turkish Airlines timetable it is only the Gatwick flight which can link up with the 00:15 flight to Erbil (last information reported by RT).
She was found “in the early hours of Sunday morning” (RT).
And if she was flying on Turkish Airlines all the way through, then she would know she would have been put on the next flight to Erbil by TA (a very professional company, by the way).
Unless she flew out to IST with another airline, possibly British Airways. But BA0680 gets in at IST at 23:40, so only 35 minutes to make the connection, even if the flight is on time — would anyone seriously attempt that plus the BA + TK combination? The gates close about 30 minutes beforehand anyway, so 5 minutes… The BA flight before that is BA0676, which gets in at 16:20.
“Proper postmortem and toxicology tests should identify the cause of death” Kempe
I doubt it.
I’m quite surprised her ulnar artery wasn’t cut, and a childhood fruit-knife found beside her.
No doubt we will discover that she fell off her tricycle aged three, fell out with a friend aged seven and walked over a line in the pavement aged 21 and that this is why she killed herself.
“But it seems that someone very badly wanted her silenced, and quickly – to have done it in an airport.”
Possibly the only chance when she would be on Turkish soil. Don’t forget, all airline data are obtainable very easily…
Is IWPR a front shop for any of the Western SIS?
The pathetic narrative about Jacki Sutton’s death is adding to this suspicion.
Jonathan Moyle, British journalist/editor, Chile. Allegedly uncovered arms shipments.
“He was found hanging in a wardrobe with a pillow case over his head. But a needle mark on his leg and blood on the bed were not considered in the first police analysis.”
***************
If Turkey did it, that means NATO/CIA.
What, precisely, in terms of money and training, are the links b/w the CIA/Saudi/Turkey and ISIS/ other Jihadist militaries/paramilitaries? Why exactly was the Moazzam Begg trial stopped by MI6? What arew the links b/w MI6 and the Jihadists? This is a question I have been asking repeatedly over the past several years.
Fedup, at 8:47pm, my thought too. hnece my apology, as it seemed disrespectful. But these NGOs in eastern Europe, the Middle East and across the world, are basically fronts for imperialism. It has been alleged that lots of spies are embedded in charities too.
Turkey, eh. And this is the country that Merkel is even now pushing (on behalf of the Americans) to gain entry in the EU, as a reward for their great assistance in the refugee crisis, according the the BBC.
It would be useful to see these reports on the suicide angle questioned more thoroughly – did local police say that’s what they concluded, or did some local rag take it upon itself to arrive at same? Or was it “official sources”?
The quickest and surest way to commit suicide in an airport these days, would be to brandish an umbrella/ broom handle etc., covered with a coat, and announce loudly that everyone is being taken hostage. The first volley of shots (which come in ‘volleys’ – bullets come in ‘hails’) would assure instant death, far more reliably and quickly (and with less suffering) than hanging oneself with shoe-laces.
Found this when research who
19 October 2015 – Jacky Sutton – A Life – Amanda Whitley
“In late 2014, I asked her if I could video a conversation with her to share on the website…and she agreed, providing a detailed account of her life so far for print and film…but the final product was never published, as she headed back to the frontlines and ‘went dark’ on social media…
“We won’t meet again. Jacky was found dead at Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport on the weekend and my heart breaks at the thought that this intelligent, passionate, driven woman is no longer of this world. Her words, however, will live on…so there’s perhaps no better tribute than letting Jacky share her own incredible story. This is her life, in her words.”
http://hercanberra.com.au/cppeople/jacky-sutton-a-life/
Glenn, perhaps all the umbrellas were sold out that day? Perhaps they were being fixed with poison tips? Just as all the cameras in that area were not working. A toilet is the one place where there are no cameras – it is where spies/diplomats/negotiators often met to discuss stuff. Harold McMillan commented on this often when he visited Moscow. Was she meeting someone, or expecting to meet someone, in the toilets. And did that someone, or someone else pretending to be that someone, kill her? Was she lured in to a trap?
Office in Washington.
Christiane Amanpour on the board. She is married to James Rubin.
‘Stance on Syria
During the height of the Syrian crisis, in mid to late 2013, Amanpour started a push for the case of war with Syria. She traveled to the UK and appeared on several news programs, not as a journalist, but as an “expert” on the Middle East, and pushed the Obama administration line for war in Syria. Her advocacy for US military intervention in Syria was criticised by Michael S. Lofgren in The Huffington Post.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiane_Amanpour
Plus (Sir) David Bell as Chair. Well he’s everywhere isn’t he.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bell_(publisher)
And not a dicky bird about Palestine on the website for years. I would have thought that reporting from there qualified as ‘war reporting’.
‘Nuff said.
NGOs – deeply suspect, all of them.
http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/12659
You see, as I said on another thread here, all these influential public people – agents of influence – pugging the ‘attack Syria’ line. Amanpour is meant to be anti-Islamist, that what she has become famous for being, it seems to me, but there she is, urging the destruction of a (yes, oppressive, but so is Saudi Arabia) secular Syrian regime in favour of Jihadists. Agents of influence.
I suspect Jackie Sutton was killed because she knew too much about Erdogan flip-flopping over Turkey being a moderate independent Muslim state to becoming a stooge for the Yanks and the Israelis, thanks to the Pentagon-induced earthquakes at Lake Van which got the Kurds going after him, and he capitulating.
Erdogan knew too much about how Clinton got rid of Turkish nationalist Ecevic this way: spying for Milosevic during the NATO bombing of Kosovo did the trick.
Not stupid. This was meant as a warning, for others.
Same reason JFK was killed spectacularly, out in the open. When they could have used some unobtrusive means like an undetectable poison.
Who/what funds IWPR? Does anyone know? Are their funders easily available on their website? Liberal foundations are basically fonts of gold for imperialism.
IWPR focusses on Cuba in the whole of ‘Latin’ America. Look at where they work across the world. if you were the CIA, where would you want people to be? IWPR seems to be in all these places. How interesting. Might be coincidence – zones of conflict attract spies and journalists, that is no surprise. Oh, look, they are active in Ukraine. Now isn’t that a little surprise?
I wonder if the IWPR was a registered NGO in Turkey, some countries like Egypt for example are deeply suspicious of non-registered NGO’s in their country.
http://www.crescent-online.net/2013/05/egyptian-ngos-fronts-for-western-manipulation-ayman-ahmed-3779-articles.html
Suhayl: You could make a fine living, giving “official sources” the sort of wiggle-room that allows a dismissal of the obvious 🙂
Very true what you say, though. She may have thought the airport was one place where she was unlikely to be (most regrettably, of course) caught up with some terrorist’s bombing, rampaging or general death-dealing activities, during her meet-up with some contact; nor is one likely to meet with a fatal accident while simply hanging around in an airport. Nor is such a location likely to raise official suspicion for a meet-up if you’re on the way out of the country anyway. I hadn’t thought of voluntarily entering the toilet block in order to have a secret discussion, makes sense though.
I was wrong about bullets, on reflection – they only ever seem to come in a hail, singular, as in a one-off event.
More evidence is coming out that ISIS was behind both the Suruç and the Ankara bombings. Today’s Zaman: Prosecutor’s office confirms one of Ankara suicide bombers was Suruç attacker’s brother:
Now, if Turkey was somehow assisting ISIS, they might not want that to come out. And the victims of the bombings were largely Kurds, like the people in Erbil.