COMMENT: In FTR #739, we took a brief look at the powerful international organization of the Pennsylvania-based Turkish Muslim cleric and author Fetullah Gulen. Being investigated by the FBI and excoriated by numerous sources for Machiavellian gambits to destroy political opponents, the organization has a significant presence in 80 countries, including sponsorship of charter schools here in the United States.
Suspicions and reservations about the Gulen organization include: fears in Central Asian republics that the group is Islamist and/or pan-Turkic in nature; convictions among journalists like the estimable Sibel Edmonds and intelligence and military officers in Turkey and elsewhere that the Gulenists are fronting for CIA agents; that the Gulenist cadre engage as a matter of course in illegal acts to destroy their opponents, including numerous incidents of forgery and perjury, as well as libel and propaganda.
In Gulen’s native country of Turkey, the organization has become a key ally of the supposedly “moderate” Islamist government of Tayyip Erdogan. A significant and growing body of documentation suggests that the Gulenists have been instrumental in forging evidence used by the Erdogan government to stage trials of military officers allegdly involved in a coup plot against the government.
(Historically, the military has served as a bulwark in modern Turkey against Islamization, preserving with the gun the secular tradition established by Kemal Attaturk following the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. Far from being “moderate,” the Erdogan government is, as we have seen in FTR #737, derived from the Islamofascist al-Taqwa milieu.)
It is worth noting that the Erdogan government’s “moderate” Islamist nature is belied by the fact that Turkey currently has more journalists in prison than China and Iran combined! Hey, that is SOME moderation, no?!
Of even greater significance is the fact that the Erdogan government is seen as an appropriate template for “moderate” Islamist regimes currently taking form in places like Egypt, where the clit-cutters of the Muslim Brotherhood are ascendant. The Brotherhood, of course, was allied with the Axis in World War II and has been used by numerous intelligence services, including elements of CIA, as a vehicle for covert action and repression in the postwar period.
In addition to supporting Muslim Brotherhood, elements of CIA have also supported the Pan-Turkist movement in the past. Pan-Turkists have also allied historically with the Third Reich, as we have seen in FTR #720, among other programs.
In connection with the Fetullah Gullen organization, a number of considerations suggest themselves:
- If the allegations concerning CIA involvement with the Gulenists are accurate, what might be the goal of the CIA/Gulen alliance?
- Might the GOP/petroleum industry/Underground Reich element of CIA be aiming to use Islamists and/or Pan-Turkists against Russia and/or China?
- As preposterous as it may seem at first glance, might that same element of CIA and other Western intelligence services be promoting a “neo-Ottoman Empire” as a vehicle for gaining control of resource-rich parts of the “Earth Island,” petroleum-producing areas in particular?
- Might such a “neo-Ottoman Empire” be a key element in the ongoing “Earth Island Boogie?”
- The brand of Islam embraced by the Gulen organization is generally represented as moderate. Ms. Edmonds and, apparently, some of the group’s critics in Central Asia allege that the group is, in fact, extremist. If that is, in fact, the case, might the alleged CIA/Gulen alliance be part of the same political manifestation as the “Arab Spring” that we looked at in FTR #‘s 734 through 739?
- The tactics apparently pursued by the Gulen organization suggest that its true nature is anything but moderate.
- The Turkish foreign minister is indeed pursuing a “neo-Ottoman,” Pan-Turkist agenda.
- What might be the agenda/goal of the considerable Gulenist presence in the United States?
- Is the FBI investigation of the Gulenist activities in the U.S. another example of the bureau cutting across an operation by elements of CIA?
- Is the Underground Reich a player in this scenario?
EXCERPT: That is apparently the claim of former top Turkish intelligence official Osman Nuri Gundes, who has published a memoir alleging that the Fethullah Gulen movement has been sheltering CIA agents in Central Asia since the 1990s. According to the Washington Post’s SpyTalk blog, “in the 1990s, Gundes alleges, the movement “sheltered 130 CIA agents” at its schools in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan alone.”
. . . . Anyway, Sibel Edmonds, the FBI-translator-turned-whistleblower, says that account doesn’t go far enough, and the Gulen movement is an extremist Islamist one — and that the CIA is cooperating with them nevertheless: “. . . Based on what I personally know, US Islamization Operations in Central Asia via Gulen started in late 1997, early 1998 . . .”
EXCERPT: In what is probably the country’s most important court case in at least five decades, hundreds of Turkish military officers are in jail and on trial for allegedly having plotted to overthrow the then newly-elected Justice and Development Party back in 2003. The case also happens to be one of the most absurd ever prosecuted in an apparent democracy. The evidence against the defendants is such an obvious forgery that even a child would recognize it as such. Imagine, if you can, something that is a cross between the Moscow show trials and the Salem witchcraft hysteria, and you will not be too far off.
The government’s case rests on a set of documents (mostly Word files) that describe in gory detail preparations for the coup (codenamed Sledgehammer), including false-flag operations to set the stage for the takeover and a list of cabinet members to be appointed. These are unsigned digital documents on electronic media (CDs, a detached hard drive, a flash drive) that have never been traced to actual military computers or otherwise authenticated. The military has vehemently denied that such plans ever existed.
Most tellingly, a torrent of evidence has come out since the documents first emerged that points to their fraudulent nature. The documents contain hundreds of anachronisms – names of NGOs, military installations, or firms that did not yet exist – that make clear beyond any reasonable doubt that they were produced years later and backdated to implicate the officers on trial. Some of the defendants have shown that they were outside the country at the time they are alleged to have prepared these documents or attended planning meetings.
An American forensic specialist has determined that the “hand writing” on the CDs was actually produced by mechanically replicating individual letters from the notebooks of one of the defendants. Deviations from military formatting suggest the documents were prepared by individuals not fully familiar with the army’s style requirements. As long-time Turkey analyst Gareth Jenkins put it to the New Yorker: “It’s absolutely clear that these documents have been forged.” . . . .
. . . . The Turkish military has a history of political intervention and has often clashed with the Islamists. So the allegations have been a godsend for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has exploited the trial to gain control over military promotions and to break the army’s political power.
But the real moving force behind this and a number of other similar trials is the Gülen movement, a key ally of the Erdoğan government made up of the followers of the Pennsylvania-based Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen. Gülenists have a long track record of framing their perceived opponents and engaging in judicial dirty tricks. Their control of key positions in the national police and judiciary enables them to mount targeted operations disguised as legal investigations. Prosecutors scrutinizing them, whistleblowers revealing their activities, critical journalists, and even businessmen have been among their victims, in addition to military officers. As Ahmet Şık, a journalist who wrote an expose about the movement and then found himself facing preposterous charges of helping terrorists even before the book was published, exclaimed on his way to jail: “he who touches [them] burns.”
The police and prosecutors who have staged the coup plot trial are known Gülen sympathizers. And Gülenist media have worked overtime to shape public opinion, whipping up hysteria against the defendants and producing a steady stream of disinformation about the case. The occasional judge who has ruled in favor of the officers and commentators pointing to problems with the prosecutors’ evidence (including me) have become targets of Gülenist defamation. . . .
Martin Borman, Nazi in Exile
I followed that line of enquiry myself when I was a listener of Ms Edmonds’ Boiling Frogs Show. I wrote an article in French about it, if you can read it, but all references are in English, published on her website at BoilingFrogs.com. And especially, there is an interview with Aland Mizell that you don’t want to miss. He has a strong accent (like me!) but the witness account information that he presents to Ms Edmonds and co-host Peter B. Collins is invaluable. There is also a short documentary in French about Gulen. Check that out folks, it’s worth it!
http://lys-dor.com/2012/02/19/le-reseau-scolaire-de-fethullah-gulen-lorsque-les-operations-de-renseignement-et-lislamisation-vont-de-pair/
Great post Dave. This has been one of my personal areas of research. I hope to find the time to post some more on the subject. The Gulen org (not to be confused with the Gehlen org), really embodies what you have dealt with in FTRs 27 & 681 Specialized Knowledge & Abilities. They arguably have their tendrils reaching through all sectors of Turkish society, and are completely deniable.
Here is a seminal article on Gulen from the Middle East Quarterly, which documents, among other things, that Gulen sits on top of slush fund valued at $25 billion.
http://www.meforum.org/2045/fethullah-gulens-grand-ambition
But don’t worry, Gulen doesn’t have to use his own money, because Bill Gates recently gave him more than $10.5 million to establish Gulen Islamic schools in the USA.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6307/pub_detail.asp
And more from Walmart’s Walton Family foundation.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7149/pub_detail.asp
I appreciate investigative journalists; they really work hard when they write a story. But this story has so many mistakes. In addition, many experts wrote about so called Gulen charter schools. Either he did not read them or he is not unbiased.
This one, for example, argues that Islamophobia is one reason to attack those charter schools: http://www.hizmetnews.com/index.php/columns/item/3...
You may find more articles here on the same matter: http://www.hizmetnews.com/index.php/latest-news/itemlist/tag/Gulen%20charter%20schools
I hope you check some of these stories to reach the truth.
[...] Who and/or What is Behind the Fetullah Gulen Organization? [...]
Sorry Levent Koc,
The articles you link to are all Gulen publication. They offer no serious rebuttal to the information presented.
Islamophobia is a rather lame, PC, red herring to bring up, when serious concerns are presented.
What connections do you have Hizmet/Gulen?
Freed Turkish Journalist at European Parliament
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Journalist Ahmet Şık sharply criticized Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws and the religious Fethullah Gülen community while addressing the Liberal Democrat Group in the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday, only 16 days after his release from prison.
“Many a journalist who assumed a critical stance toward the AKP [Justice and Development Party] and the Gülen community, the government’s invisible partner, [or] attempted to maintain a dissident outlook toward their policies either lost their job or had to keep quiet through auto-censure,” journalist Şık told his audience at the European Parliament...
...An explanation is warranted as to why the Gülen community is so eager to organize within the police and the military, Şık said, adding that he had also been targeted by the community because he asked such questions. “This system has to distort everything, as it has been enslaved by its own lies. It distorts the past. It distorts the present. It distorts the future,” Şık said,...
...The Gülen community is both avenging the past and trying to destroy its political opponents by organizing within the judiciary and the police, according to Şık. “The Anti-Terrorism Law [depicts] everyone who is a dissident or exhibits unfavorable behavior as a ‘terrorist,’ through a mentality that is based on protecting not the interests of citizens but of the state.
A recent list of 105 Turkish Journalists currently in prison for reporting the news can be found here...
http://www.theglobetimes.com/2012/03/07/list-of-journalists-in-jail-in-turkey/
FBI & Dept of Labor Investigating Gulen Schools
http://articles.philly.com/2011–03-20/news/29148147_1_gulen-schools-gulen-followers-charter-schools
...But federal agencies — including the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education — are investigating whether some charter school employees are kicking back part of their salaries to a Muslim movement founded by Gulen known as Hizmet, or Service, according to knowledgeable sources...
...Gulen schools are among the nation’s largest users of the H1B visas. In 2009, the schools received government approvals for 684 visas — more than Google Inc. (440) but fewer than a technology powerhouse such as Intel Corp. (1,203)...
...Ruth Hocker, former president of the parents’ group at the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School in State College, began asking questions when popular, certified American teachers were replaced by uncertified Turkish men who often spoke limited English and were paid higher salaries. Most were placed in math and science classes...
...Other school parents described how uncertified teachers on H1B visas were moved from one charter school to another when their “emergency” teaching credentials expired and told of a pattern of sudden turnovers of Turkish business managers, administrators, and board members...
...Further evidence of the ties comes from a disaffected former teacher from Turkey who told federal investigators that the Gulen Movement had divided the United States into five regions, according to knowledgeable sources. A general manager in each coordinates the activities of the schools and related foundations and cultural centers, he told authorities. Ohio, California, and Texas have the largest numbers of Gulen-related schools. Ohio has 19, which are operated by Concept Schools Inc., and most are known as Horizon Science Academies. There are 14 in California operated by the Magnolia Foundation. Texas has 33 known as Harmony schools, run by the Cosmos Foundation...
Kickbacks
...And the disaffected teacher who described the five regions gave authorities a document called a tuzuk, which resembles a contract and prescribes how much money Turkish teachers are supposed to return to Hizmet...
Note, Hizmet, which means “action” in Turkish, is also the name of a branch of the Gulen org. All previous poster Levent Koc’s links are Hizmet websites.
@Vanfield: Interesting. Sad thing is, though, if this ‘Levent Koc’ person really is connected to Hizmet and not just one of their biggest fans....then his statements might prove harmful to those exposing actual Islamophobia(Just as a reminder, it is indeed sometimes used as a cover but real examples do unforunately exist. Please don’t forget that, especially since there’s been a recent murder in Calif. in which an Iraqi immigrant lady was murdered simply for being of foreign origin. No offense meant, just wanted to point that out.)
@Steven L.: If I read you correctly, your talking about a ‘boy who cried wolf’ meme.
Here is a link that shows more information on the Gulen Schools in Arizona. The Pima Counta IDA has given millions in Az. tax dollars to support these schools. They have donated money to Tom Horne to prtect themselves from his wrath of auditing teachers with accents and his anti ethnic studies bill.
http://azstarnet.com/search/?l=50&sd=desc&s=start_time&f=html&q=Gulen
The Turkish Gulenists will often times as you can see on this thread pretend to be happy parents and attack those that post about Gulen and his objectives. It is there attempt to derail the conversation.
As a parent who’s daughter attended one of these schools I can tell you first hand just how dangerous these schools really are. I would love to interview with you as I have done with other radio shows in the past about Fethullah and his objectives. I am also doing speaking engagements on the dangers of Gulen Charter Schools and to educate parents and the community about this issue.
Hey Steven L. weren’t you just on the Washington Post Blog story about your Hocaefendi TRYING to post the SAME stupid story about the Iraqi woman who was killed. The only thing is, you posted under “Jason Tuff“
Are you also hearing voices in your head, poor little Gulen Lighthouse school boy. They are so brainwashed, all this truth about Fetos is hard for them to process.
So they make a feeble attempt to create straw man arguments while deflecting the glaring question about the 130+ charter schools in the USA that are owned, managed/operated by known followers of the Gulen Movement (Hizmet)
Lousy attempt, and the Gulen Movement has nothing to do with religion as it is a CULT. One that is mixed with commerce, social controls, education, and politics.
Make no bones about it, they are not wanted in Turkey where their coward leader fled after his famous anti-secular speech about “getting into the arteries of the system, until you reach all power centers“
We have heard it all:
“We have no organic connections“
“Your children are getting a private education for free“
“Your children will be taught by Turkish Scholars“
“Our teachers may be Gulen Inspired, but we are not a Gulen School<—-what the hell is that suppose to mean?
I had sex but didn’t ejaculate?
These Gulen Lighthouse boys are virgins. Taught to guard secrets like they guard their chastity. They are instructed to not marry until they reach 50 years of age.
They have issues with women and treat them horrible within their movement. Conversely, the American females teachers have filed many EEOC discriminatory lawsuits against this group. The best one was Chesapeake Charter where the Turk male principal forbid them to use the Internet, was very controlling to the point the local police had to escort him off campus.
With this group of Gulen Lighthouse boys there is always drama and scandals. It follows them from school to school, country to country.
Enjoy reading some of them here:
http://www.gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com
http://www.charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com
http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com
(make sure you read the entry “teachers with guns”)
@Parent: I’m so sorry to hear about your experience with them. These Gulenist charter schools really need to be investigated and I do wonder just how far down the proverbial rabbit holes go.
Thankfully, we have intrepid researchers like Dave Emory blowing the whistles on stuff like this. =)
@Dr. Kaz: I’m sorry, but what? I have no such alias as ‘Jason Tuff’. I didn’t even know that name existed until today, to be honest.
BTW, the Iraqi woman I was referring to, was one Shaima Alawadi, who was living El Cajon, Calif.
http://utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/24/el-cajon-woman-dies-after-beating-earlier-week
The only reason I brought her up because I got the impression that Vanfield might have been thinking that real Islamophobia doesn’t exist, when in fact, it still does.
In all honesty, Dr. Kaz, I never once argued against the content put forth in this post, and I have my own suspicions about these people myself.
And, I’m sorry if this ‘Jason Tuff’ character was particularly noxious to you but I had no knowledge of this person’s existence until you brought him up, and quite frankly, I really didn’t appreciate being falsely conflated with this person, nor your quite frankly semi-libelous comment calling me a ‘Gulen Lighthouse school boy’ and claiming I was hearing voices in my head(seriously?).
This isn’t the place to be doing such things, Doctor. I will gladly study the links you have posted but will also request that you refrain from such unfounded accusations in the future. This is serious stuff, and we need not be fighting each other when we could be spreading the word and waking people up.
Best regards,
–Steven L.
Adnan Oktar is a Turkish cult leader, who looks like the Devil, out of central casting, sees himself as a candidate for Madhi, ruling over a reformed Ottoman Empire. Old friend’s with Erdogan, he is trying to claw his way to the top, while running a sex cult.
Stand for Peace, an interfaith group, as an interesting report on Oktar, which can be downloaded at the site below.
It’s well worth checking out.
V.
http://standforpeace.org.uk/adnan-oktar-and-the-islamist-sex-cult/
Adnan Oktar and the Islamist sex cult
Download Report Here
Israeli politicians and Jewish media across the World have excitedly embraced the efforts of Turkish television channel A9 to effect and encourage interfaith dialogue – or, as the channel itself puts it, promote “peace and love” between all peoples.
The programme is part of a hardline group run by Turkish Islamist Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya), an extremist with a history of promoting Holocaust Denial and who fuses Ataturk nationalism with Turkish Islamism in his attacks upon Jews, Darwinists and Atheists. His group of followers is best described as a cult; one accused by a number of critics of using sexual abuse and blackmail to achieve political leverage.
A9 is falsely perceived by a number of media outlets as an example of a moderate Islamic voice that is working to bring Jews and Muslims closer together. While this is indeed the declared purpose of A9, it is a facade that shrouds a hostile Islamist agenda. Just as democracy was a useful means for Turkish Islamists to propagate their anti-democratic views, so too is A9’s declared devotion to interfaith dialogue a sanitising veneer that distracts from its more sinister ideas.
Jewish media outlets, from the Los Angeles Jewish Journal to Arutz Sheva and the Jerusalem Post, have published opinion pieces by Oktar and a number of his disciples. Israeli politicians, including former cabinet ministers, have appeared on Oktar’s television show. By embracing Oktar, they risk burying the truth about Oktar’s anti-Semitism and will legitimise Oktar and his group as a respectable organisation.
Summary
Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya), a Turkish author, fuses Ataturk nationalism with Turkish Islamism in his attacks upon Jews, Darwinists and Atheists. His group of followers is best described as a cult; one accused of using sexual abuse and blackmail to achieve political leverage.
Oktar’s claim, after 2001, to abhor anti-Semitism and to be a voice of peace and moderation is, in our opinion, a charade designed to bring him greater influence and respectability. His websites are replete with anti-Semitic ideas and references to anti-Semitic works that Oktar claims he did not write.
Likewise, the A9 television channel’s interfaith programme is a front for Oktar’s hardline Islamist ideology, designed to earn Oktar legitimacy.
Jewish media and Israeli politicians have mistakenly latched on to Oktar as a moderate; without grasping the truth about Oktar’s ideology. By engaging with him and his cult, Jewish leaders run the risk of betraying bona fide liberal Muslim groups and legitimising Oktar as a pro-peace and anti-terror voice.
Oktar’s group is typical of Turkish Islamism, which increasingly seeks to adopt and exploit Western processes in order to propagate its ideological values. Just as the AKP has used democratic methods to promote anti-democratic ideas, so too is Oktar using interfaith dialoue to both sanitize himself and propagate anti-Western and anti-Semitic tropes.
@Vanfield and Pterrafractyl–
Kudos to both of you. Please do check out the extent to which your recent posts (3 in all, two by Vanfield) complement and supplement one another.
Turns out the Marathon bombers’ uncle is married to Graham Fuller’s daughter.
Fuller was former station chief for CIA in Kabul, was a strong advocate of alliance between the U.S. and the Muslim Brotherhood and also runs interference for the Fetullah Gulen organization!
Brings the Earth Island politics about which I’ve been speculating for so long, into focus.
THIS is what I’ve been trying to get across to people.
It is NOT that these guys are doing this at behest of CIA to establish a “police state”–the standard “Truther” line. (Though a police state certainly lies ahead and will be welcomed by significant elements of the power elite.)
The point is that the transnational corporations, the GOP and the Underground Reich that controls both of them have tabbed the Islamists as footsoldiers to: drive a wedge into the Earth Island, getting hold of the Russian and Chinese mineral-rich, Muslim-inhabited lands; finish off Israel and the Jews; harass and/or attack/subjugate the United States and residua of the British Commonwealth as needed; tar Obama with the “terror brush,” thereby assuring GOP ascendance in the next election.
In this context, recall my observations about Michael Morell and the Petraeus scandal.
I STRONGLY suspect we’re looking at a complex situation involving double or triple agents.
It will be interesting to see if Obama’s reboot of relations with Russia is damaged by the fallout.
It is obvious that the alleged perps were on the radar screens of various intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.
The fact that these elements have been tabbed as “corporate combatants”–to coin a term–assures that the tracks of their handlers will remain obscured, past a point.
Think of this as an extension of World War II, which it is, to an extent.
Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen fought a very real and bloody, stressful conflict against an enemy whose anti-communist, anti-labor and racist/anti-Semitic ideology endeared it to the powerful U.S. economic and political interests who financed it in the first place.
As documented in so many of the books, interviews and posts available here, de-Nazification failed as a matter of policy, as the fascist were returned to power in the countries occupied by the Western allies as a bulwark against communism.
What we are looking at here is a similarly janus-faced entity.
Best,
Dave Emory
Interesting note re: Graham Fuller. I’m surprised Mr. Emory doesn’t reference “America’s Nazi Secret” by former State Department lawyer John Loftus, as it fills in the background to a story that includes such characters as Reinhard Gehlen, who Mr. Emory was speaking about way back when his “Hard Rain” show played on KALX radio in Berkeley.