State of Siege: A military coup against the president of Turkey appears to have failed after a night of political intrigue, the deaths of 265 people, and the arrest of nearly 3,000 military personnel suspected of involvement in the attempt to topple the government.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was missing for several hours, returned to public view and announced that, “What is being perpetrated is a rebellion and a treason. They will pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey.” He declared martial law.

An announcement from the military rebels said they had acted “with the aim of reinstalling the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms.”

Erdogan is an elected autocrat with a lot of internal opposition, but unfortunately he is head of state for a major NATO ally of the United States. He’s an Islamist whose country has been the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists.

The attempt began at about 2 am when military units seized two key bridges in Istanbul. Erdogan used video messages from his cellphone to urge supporters into the streets, and thousands answered. By 2 am, the military withdrew.

Erdogan said that fighter jets had been used to destroy tanks in the streets of Ankara and that a military helicopter operated by rebels had been shot down.

The incident leaves the Erdogan government shaken and likely to become more repressive.

28 Pages: Congress has released the infamous 28 pages of the 9/11 investigative report that had been withheld because they might show connections between Saudi Arabia and the terrorist attack. The pages detail connections some Saudi officials had with the airplane hijackers and draw a distant connection to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then the Saudi ambassador to the US.

Quoting from the document itself, White House spokesman Josh Ernest said, the report “does not change the assessment of the U.S. government that there’s no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded Al Qaeda.”

But, a big but, the report states, “While in the united States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi government.”

Nice: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice. An ISIS Statement said, “The man behind the running-over operation in Nice, France, is a soldier from the Islamic State, and he carried out the attack to answer the calls for targeting the nationals of countries in the coalition that is fighting Islamic State.”

Eighty-four people were killed. Among the dead were 10 children and teenagers. Of the 202 people wounded, 52 had serious injuries and 25 were in intensive care.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Friday morning after a cabinet meeting led by President François Hollande. “The times have changed, and France is going to have to live with terrorism.”

The Paris prosecutor, identified the attacker as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a delivery-truck driver born in Tunisia who had a record for burglary and theft but was not on the radar for terrorism.

Politi-Salad: Donald Trump confirmed via Twitter that his Republican running mate will be Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Trump cancelled the formal announcement because of the Bastille Day deaths in Nice, France. He has scheduled a news conference for this morning.

Gridiron Blues: New England quarterback Tom Brady has admitted defeat before the last play of the game. Rather than appeal his four-game suspension to the Supreme Court, Brady will take the penalty for the NFL’s determination that he was a party to illegally underinflating footballs. Although, it would have been entertaining to see the court come to a politically partisan 4-4 split on the issue, thereby setting no precedent on deflating footballs.

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