And tell us where our money is going?
On May 13, 2012, 60 Minutes ran a segment on Fetullah Gulen and his Gulen- inspired schools. But of course – Gulen’s representatives denied that Gulen had any direct affiliation with the schools – as was expected and -- old news.
Instead, the public was left to gaze at the holy grail chair that the puppet master sits in when he comes out his sacred room and televises his messages to his brainwashed cult members.
So here’s our question, if the great Imam is really that sick, who’s going to count all of our tax dollars that he and his cult members are money-laundering once he dies? Sure hope it’s not the Turkish teacher that Stahl asked how long he had been teaching at the American publicly funded charter school, because we are still trying to figure out what his response was. Hate to imagine him taking our tax dollars to the bank (or wherever that money is going…).
We have to give 60 Minutes some credit, at least they had the guts to bring up the Tuzuk money (in an indirect way), the H1-B visa scam (at the expense of American teachers), and the fact that there is an elusive Turkish Imam living in the United States – and for what purpose? We know his purpose and have for the past four years and expect that as time goes by, the rest of the world will also finally figure out what he and his Gulenites are really up to.
But there is still that silly little matter of discrimination, in particular – the fact that the guys running the 130 Gulen-inspired schools have been systematically violating Equal Employment Opportunity Laws for the past 11 years. It’s not hard to find evidence of those discriminatory violations and maybe one of the many news media outlets will actually post some of that evidence (we can provide it should anyone need it).
We realize that there is not a whole heck of a lot that can be told in 12 minutes, but perhaps someone can actually devote some real time to developing a more comprehensive expose.’ After all the boys have been pillaging our tax dollar accounts for 11 years – seems only fair that we get equal air time?
And as a side note, check out the San Diego article about another American politician who has developed a keen taste for baklava, Turkish lobbying money, and free trips to Turkey (ummm, didn't our parents tell us that there was no such thing as free baklava -- oops, we mean lunch?)
Below is the link to 60 Minutes and a few other stories related to its’ airing:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57433131/u.s-charter-schools-tied-to-powerful-turkish-imam/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/151363985.html#!page=1&pageSize=10&sort=newestfirst
Two Milwaukee charter schools tied to Turkish Islamic cleric By Erin Richards of the Journal Sentinel
May 14, 2012
CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday aired a segment about a network of charter schools in the United States that are linked to Fethullah Gulen, a powerful and reclusive Turkish imam who lives in Pennsylvania.
There are about 130 of these charter schools in 26 states, according to the report. And two of them are in Milwaukee, according to this list: the Milwaukee Math and Science Academy, at 110 W. Burleigh St., and Wisconsin Career Academy, 480 S. 2nd St., which has been chartered by Milwaukee Public Schools.
The Milwaukee School Board voted this school year to end its charter agreement with Wisconsin Career Academy, so the school is changing its name to Wisconsin College Preparatory Academy and entering the private Milwaukee Parental Choice Program for the 2012-'13 year, leaders there said recently.
The 60 Minutes segment points out that many of these schools linked to Gulen are high-achieving, and focus on math and science. But it also suggests the operation lacks transparency, and questions why Turkish immigrants linked to a powerful religious leader are building so many schools in the U.S.
"Sixty Minutes" to Air Report on Turkish Charter School Cleric Tied to Bob Filner Matt Potter, May 11, 2012
Just in time for the final stretch of San Diego's race for mayor, the CBS news magazine Sixty Minutes is airing a report this coming Sunday about a controversial Turkish spiritual leader, followers of whom, records show, have contributed money to the mayoral campaign of Democratic congressman Bob Filner.
The Muslim scholar, Fethullah Gulen, leads a worldwide movement that has been heavily involved in creating high-tech charter schools around the world and has both backers and detractors.
As we reported in March of last year, Filner visited Turkey in late December 2010, courtesy of a non-profit corporation called the Pacifica Institute:
"Highlights, according to the itinerary, included a stop at Topkapi Palace, lunch at Sultan Ahmet Square, a visit to the Karakoy Jewish Foundation Museum, capturing '700 years of amiable relations between Jews and Turks,' and a December 25 shopping tour of the Grand Bazaar, 'one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1200 shops.… Many of the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather coats, gold jewelry and the like.'"
Filner took another tour paid for by Pacifica, this one with stops in Istanbul and northern Iraq, in April 2011, according to a travel disclosure he filed with the House a year ago this month.
That trip was said to be worth a total of $3,700, the filing said.
The congressman subsequently wielded a pair of scissors at the 2011 ribbon-cutting for the new Washington headquarters of the Turkic American Alliance, an event videoed and posted on the group's YouTube page.
Turkic American Alliance opens new headquarters in Washington D.C.
"California Congressman Bob Filner, who had just returned to the US after a TAA-sponsored trip to Turkey, indicated that the nature of the relationship between Turkey and the US has changed as it was a more military-based tie before," according to a description of the event on YouTube.
"'Now we have to have a people-to-people relationship,' Filner said, adding, 'What you [the TAA] are doing is extremely important, and that is establishing real people-to-people talk.'"
Also in 2011, Filner was featured at a Gulen Institute-sponsored essay awards ceremony for college students, according to the movement's website.
Mayoral campaign finance disclosure data posted online by the San Diego city clerk show that on February 21 of this year Ilker Yildiz of Irvine, listed as "outreach coordinator" for Pacifica, gave Filner's campaign $200; Ferdi M. Ates of Tarzana, California, Pacifica's chief financial officer, gave the Filner bid a total of $400 last June.
(Pacifica's role in Gulen's outreach is chronicled by UC Santa Barbara history professor Nancy Gallagher in her January 2012 book, "The Gulen Hizmet Movement and Its Transnational Activities: Case Studies of Altruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam.")
On February 29, Mesut Inci, branch director of Pacifica's Mira Mesa offices in San Diego, contributed $100 to the Filner cause.
In a video posted last year on the People's Post website, Inci talks about his life's work and inspiration, and Gulen's role in the Pacifica Institute.
"There was a man who inspired me...His name is Fethullah Gulen," Inci says in the video.
Reached at Pacifica's offices today, Inci confirmed he had made the campaign contribution reported by Filner, then said he was too busy to discuss the matter further.
Inci said he would call back within an hour, but did not. We'll update here when he does.
(UPDATE: Inci has called back to say that though he was aware of Filner's Pacifica-sponsored tours of Turkey and Iraq, nobody with the institute had asked him to make a contribution to the congressman's mayoral campaign. The Pacifica branch director says he was motivated to contribute because he liked Filner's position on various local issues.)
In an online preview of Sunday's 60 Minutes story, correspondent Lesley Stahl goes in search of Fethullah Gulen himself, currently an exile living in seclusion on an estate in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania, in an attempt to interview him.
"Will he come out? Will we get to see him?" Stahl asks a Gulen aide.
We left messages with Filner's campaign and congressional offices this morning and will update when he gets back to us
Instead, the public was left to gaze at the holy grail chair that the puppet master sits in when he comes out his sacred room and televises his messages to his brainwashed cult members.
So here’s our question, if the great Imam is really that sick, who’s going to count all of our tax dollars that he and his cult members are money-laundering once he dies? Sure hope it’s not the Turkish teacher that Stahl asked how long he had been teaching at the American publicly funded charter school, because we are still trying to figure out what his response was. Hate to imagine him taking our tax dollars to the bank (or wherever that money is going…).
We have to give 60 Minutes some credit, at least they had the guts to bring up the Tuzuk money (in an indirect way), the H1-B visa scam (at the expense of American teachers), and the fact that there is an elusive Turkish Imam living in the United States – and for what purpose? We know his purpose and have for the past four years and expect that as time goes by, the rest of the world will also finally figure out what he and his Gulenites are really up to.
But there is still that silly little matter of discrimination, in particular – the fact that the guys running the 130 Gulen-inspired schools have been systematically violating Equal Employment Opportunity Laws for the past 11 years. It’s not hard to find evidence of those discriminatory violations and maybe one of the many news media outlets will actually post some of that evidence (we can provide it should anyone need it).
We realize that there is not a whole heck of a lot that can be told in 12 minutes, but perhaps someone can actually devote some real time to developing a more comprehensive expose.’ After all the boys have been pillaging our tax dollar accounts for 11 years – seems only fair that we get equal air time?
And as a side note, check out the San Diego article about another American politician who has developed a keen taste for baklava, Turkish lobbying money, and free trips to Turkey (ummm, didn't our parents tell us that there was no such thing as free baklava -- oops, we mean lunch?)
Below is the link to 60 Minutes and a few other stories related to its’ airing:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57433131/u.s-charter-schools-tied-to-powerful-turkish-imam/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/151363985.html#!page=1&pageSize=10&sort=newestfirst
Two Milwaukee charter schools tied to Turkish Islamic cleric By Erin Richards of the Journal Sentinel
May 14, 2012
CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday aired a segment about a network of charter schools in the United States that are linked to Fethullah Gulen, a powerful and reclusive Turkish imam who lives in Pennsylvania.
There are about 130 of these charter schools in 26 states, according to the report. And two of them are in Milwaukee, according to this list: the Milwaukee Math and Science Academy, at 110 W. Burleigh St., and Wisconsin Career Academy, 480 S. 2nd St., which has been chartered by Milwaukee Public Schools.
The Milwaukee School Board voted this school year to end its charter agreement with Wisconsin Career Academy, so the school is changing its name to Wisconsin College Preparatory Academy and entering the private Milwaukee Parental Choice Program for the 2012-'13 year, leaders there said recently.
The 60 Minutes segment points out that many of these schools linked to Gulen are high-achieving, and focus on math and science. But it also suggests the operation lacks transparency, and questions why Turkish immigrants linked to a powerful religious leader are building so many schools in the U.S.
"Sixty Minutes" to Air Report on Turkish Charter School Cleric Tied to Bob Filner Matt Potter, May 11, 2012
Just in time for the final stretch of San Diego's race for mayor, the CBS news magazine Sixty Minutes is airing a report this coming Sunday about a controversial Turkish spiritual leader, followers of whom, records show, have contributed money to the mayoral campaign of Democratic congressman Bob Filner.
The Muslim scholar, Fethullah Gulen, leads a worldwide movement that has been heavily involved in creating high-tech charter schools around the world and has both backers and detractors.
As we reported in March of last year, Filner visited Turkey in late December 2010, courtesy of a non-profit corporation called the Pacifica Institute:
"Highlights, according to the itinerary, included a stop at Topkapi Palace, lunch at Sultan Ahmet Square, a visit to the Karakoy Jewish Foundation Museum, capturing '700 years of amiable relations between Jews and Turks,' and a December 25 shopping tour of the Grand Bazaar, 'one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1200 shops.… Many of the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather coats, gold jewelry and the like.'"
Filner took another tour paid for by Pacifica, this one with stops in Istanbul and northern Iraq, in April 2011, according to a travel disclosure he filed with the House a year ago this month.
That trip was said to be worth a total of $3,700, the filing said.
The congressman subsequently wielded a pair of scissors at the 2011 ribbon-cutting for the new Washington headquarters of the Turkic American Alliance, an event videoed and posted on the group's YouTube page.
Turkic American Alliance opens new headquarters in Washington D.C.
"California Congressman Bob Filner, who had just returned to the US after a TAA-sponsored trip to Turkey, indicated that the nature of the relationship between Turkey and the US has changed as it was a more military-based tie before," according to a description of the event on YouTube.
"'Now we have to have a people-to-people relationship,' Filner said, adding, 'What you [the TAA] are doing is extremely important, and that is establishing real people-to-people talk.'"
Also in 2011, Filner was featured at a Gulen Institute-sponsored essay awards ceremony for college students, according to the movement's website.
Mayoral campaign finance disclosure data posted online by the San Diego city clerk show that on February 21 of this year Ilker Yildiz of Irvine, listed as "outreach coordinator" for Pacifica, gave Filner's campaign $200; Ferdi M. Ates of Tarzana, California, Pacifica's chief financial officer, gave the Filner bid a total of $400 last June.
(Pacifica's role in Gulen's outreach is chronicled by UC Santa Barbara history professor Nancy Gallagher in her January 2012 book, "The Gulen Hizmet Movement and Its Transnational Activities: Case Studies of Altruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam.")
On February 29, Mesut Inci, branch director of Pacifica's Mira Mesa offices in San Diego, contributed $100 to the Filner cause.
In a video posted last year on the People's Post website, Inci talks about his life's work and inspiration, and Gulen's role in the Pacifica Institute.
"There was a man who inspired me...His name is Fethullah Gulen," Inci says in the video.
Reached at Pacifica's offices today, Inci confirmed he had made the campaign contribution reported by Filner, then said he was too busy to discuss the matter further.
Inci said he would call back within an hour, but did not. We'll update here when he does.
(UPDATE: Inci has called back to say that though he was aware of Filner's Pacifica-sponsored tours of Turkey and Iraq, nobody with the institute had asked him to make a contribution to the congressman's mayoral campaign. The Pacifica branch director says he was motivated to contribute because he liked Filner's position on various local issues.)
In an online preview of Sunday's 60 Minutes story, correspondent Lesley Stahl goes in search of Fethullah Gulen himself, currently an exile living in seclusion on an estate in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania, in an attempt to interview him.
"Will he come out? Will we get to see him?" Stahl asks a Gulen aide.
We left messages with Filner's campaign and congressional offices this morning and will update when he gets back to us