Officials deny Israeli claims weapons were onboard

Today's Zamann | June 1, 2010

Turkish officials have denied claims leveled by Israeli authorities that weapons were onboard one of the six aid ships attacked by Israel on Monday. Officials from the Customs Undersecretariat said every passenger was searched before getting on the ship with the help of X-ray machines and metal detectors. Senior officials from the undersecretariat said Israel's allegations were tantamount to “complete nonsense.”

Officials from the Customs Undersecretariat said all passengers that boarded the Mavi Marmara ship were screened and that not a single passenger was in possession of any weapon. “Forty-two passengers boarded in I˙stanbul and 504 passengers got on the ship here. They were screened. We spotted no weapons and there is no such record in our logs. We did not notice anything suspicious about the Mavi Marmara. Had our officers had any suspicions, they would have reported it,” an official, speaking under the condition of anonymity, said.

The undersecretariat has cutting-edge technology at all ports and airports. In addition to advanced detectors and X-ray scanners, the undersecretariat uses highly trained sniffer dogs. In fact, there has been a great increase in the capture of criminals by teams of the Customs Undersecretariat, which uses the vessel monitoring system of the Marine Undersecretariat. Previously, the National Intelligence Organization (MI˙T) was the only agency with access to this system.

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