Turks, Saudis Foil Obama Assassination Attempt

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2009 3:08 PM CDT
Turks, Saudis Foil Obama Assassination Attempt
Leftist students shout anti-US slogans as they lay an effigy of President Barack Obama on the ground minutes before he addressed the Turkish parliament in Ankara.   (AP Photo)

Turkish police have arrested a Syrian man who planned to try to assassinate President Obama, CBS News reports today. The Turks moved on the man, who appears to have been impersonating an Al-Jazeera correspondent, based on information from Saudi intelligence services. The plot was to be carried out in Istanbul, with the help of three accomplices.

The man told police he planned to stab President Obama at the Alliance of Civilizations summit. The man was a regular attendee at conferences and events pertaining to the Middle East in Istanbul, using Al-Jazeera credentials, though the news organization denied he was an employee. “He most certainly forged our ID card,” said Al-Jazeera’s Turkey bureau chief, noting that no one there knew anything about him. (More President Obama stories.)

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