Secret police: more shadow of politics

[Guest guest]

I remember my one and only experience with a secret police...

I was in Istanbul. This was my very first trip outside North America.

I've since traveled all over the world many times including to many

third world countries, so I'm not sure I would be as surprised today as

I was on this day by the same confrontation.

I arrived Saturday night and my very first look at Turkey was of the

dark buildings and shacks with no electricity and the fires burning in

the oil drums on the street corners and the kids running through the

dark streets, and people huddled in small groups, as I made the

harrowing 20 mile cab ride into the city from the airport. I was uneasy,

on edge, nervous. This is probably what attracted the police to me.

It was a beautiful Sunday in Istanbul. Across the street from the

Swisshotel there is a beautiful park that fills an entire hillside from

the lovely upper class street of hotels, restaurants and shops where the

Swisshotel is located, a half a mile down to the soccer stadium. I was

walking into the park, having stepped out of the hotel only moments

before, when this unmarked older model Mercedes pulls up next to me.

These 2 guys in business suits jumped out, and without showing any

identification of their own, said they were from the police and demanded

identification. I gave the guy my passport, he held on to it and I

thought that would be the last I ever saw of that...I had to empty my

pockets...all I had were a few dollars, people in Turkey liked to do

business in dollars, as the Turkish Lire was practically

worthless...When I emptied my pockets and he saw I didn't have any $100

bills, he asked me 3 or 4 times, did I have any $100 bills...when I was

adamant that I did not...when they had frisked and had found

nothing...and when I convinced him that I was staying at the Swisshotel

(a classy joint), in town on business and was affiliated with Microsoft

(fortunately I had the name, address and phone of my local Microsoft

host), he let me go...yes, got the passport back, didn't have enough

cash on me for him to worry about...

I found out later that US $100's are the common currency of the drug

trade in Istanbul and that the Turkish police mark $100's and that if

you have a marked $100 in your possession, that's it, off you go...

This one incident is nothing in retrospect, but it scared me like crazy

at the time...I had never experienced police not being required to show

ID and to just stop and frisk...visions of Midnight Express dancing

through my head...and, remember, this was my first time outside North

America...I hadn't even been to someplace like Mexico City at the time

and so was not jaded by the common sight of rent-a-cops on street

corners with automatic weapons (get ready we're about to experience it

in the US)...

This incident is nothing compared to what some have experienced, and so

the magnitude that others who are killed or tortured for their concepts

is not lost on me. Nor is the fact that we continue to support these

kinds of activities, because the US has done just as much killing and

torturing as anybody for the furthering of its concepts....and that's

what all this killing is all about, no matter by whom it is perpetrated,

no matter in what context, the idea that " my concepts are better than

your concepts... "

Sad.

The next time I went to Europe it was to Oslo. Talk about going from the

ridiculous to the sublime. The contrast was not lost on me. Going from a

world where everybody needs to be police everywhere because " nobody can

trust anybody " to a world where there is much more of the attitude of

" we're all in this together. "