While Fetullah Gulen stays safely secluded in his United States’ Poconos refuge, his opponents in Turkey are busy usurping his long-armed authority. Granted, Gulen has the upper-hand with his extensive media operation that continually espouses his twisted brand of patriotism and slanted political propaganda, but the people are speaking out – up front and in person against his one-man dictatorship and his brainwashed followers. The anti-Gulen movement is active both in Turkey and the United States, leaving Gulen’s true agenda -- to annihilate Turkey’s secular government, replacing it with an Islamic-governed country. However, with the tide turning, Gulen’s agenda has become increasingly exposed and more vulnerable to attack. The once impenetrable Gulen fortress is showing signs of stress fractures and erosion led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayipp Erdogan.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hardly a fan of Gulen, which for Gulen adversaries has led to political suicide, or worse – imprisonment by the Gulenists through their collective shady dealings and police alliance which has catered to Gulen’s commands of suppression and intimidation. Anyone who dared speak out against the great Iman was either sued or imprisoned – or both, creating an atmosphere of apprehension and terror, effectively silencing his weaker opponents – until now.
That’s not to discount the many hundreds if not thousands of Gulen antagonists that have already paid a profound price for exposing Gulen and his thugs, because in fact, many journalists and political opponents have made that treacherous trip only to find them sitting in Turkish jail cell.
But Erdogan has one up on Gulen because unlike Gulen, Erdogan is front and center, standing on Turkish soil with Turkish citizens who are fed up with Gulen’s influence and corruption. They are no longer willing to allow Gulen’s thugs to run its corrupt police force, imprisoning their fellow citizens, nor are they willing to allow his cronies to systematically infiltrate the armed forces or Turkish parliament. So while Erdogan is standing tall in the public eye and gathering momentum, Gulen is lying low in his bedroom in the Poconos.
Over 12 years ago Gulen figured out that while he cannot randomly throw people in jail over here in the United States, he could instead hit Americans where it hurts most – using our children and tax dollars to promote his warped agenda. His operation of over 140 United States tax funded charter schools has laid a rock-solid foundation for immigration and H1-B visa fraud, discriminatory practices (against Americans), tax evasion, money laundering, extortion, and political bribery.
Let’s hope that once the Turkish citizens rid themselves of Gulen’s influence that the American government will finally rid us of Gulen’s cult and criminal enterprise.
It make one wonder why Gulen is choosing to live in the United States instead of Turkey…could it be that he’s worried that if he returns to his homeland that he will be the one sitting behind bars in a Turkish jail, bunking right next to all of the innocent people his “regime” has framed.
As a postscript, the Expose the Iman movement will be holding another protest rally against Fetullah Gulen in Saylorsburg on December 28, 2013 at 2:00 PM.
Below is a blog written by Claire Berlinski and published in US News on December 17, 2013. The article describes in closer detail the current rivalry between Prime Minister Erdogan and Gulen.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/12/17/turkeys-political-civil-war#comments
Turkey's Political Civil War By Claire Berlinski
December 17, 2013
A power struggle is brewing in Turkey. It is a contest not among the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and the country's secularists, but between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the populist religious movement of expatriate cleric Fethullah Gulen. It is not about elections or democracy. Rather, it is a struggle for control of the Turkish state itself.
From his self-imposed exile in the Poconos, where he has lived since 1999, Gulen has explicitly declared that he wishes his followers to control the state to encourage a kind of a cargo-cult Westernization, one that may be described as bringing to Turkey what he views as the good part of the West – technology and global commerce – without the bad: liberal democracy's inherent resistance to Islamic conservatism. Superficially, there is no huge difference between Gulen's and Erdogan's worldviews. Gulen presents himself – nowadays – as more liberal, reasonable and friendlier to the United States. But he has not always done so, and unlike Erdogan he enjoys the luxury of being unaccountable to the electorate.
The Gulen movement has spent the past three decades aggressively expanding its presence in the education sector, both in Turkey and abroad. It is one of the largest players, for example, in the American charter school market. The movement seeks to create a well-educated "Golden generation," friendly to the movement and possessed of the technical skills to assume high positions in strategic sectors of the economy, government and armed forces.
The contemporary Gulen presents himself as an elderly, humble champion of interfaith dialogue, and perhaps this is now true. Age, after all, mellows many a man. But Gulen has never unequivocally reversed his early teachings, on which his senior cadres have been raised, including his early sermons, which are replete with bracing exhortations to Muslims to "become bombs and explode," and "tear to pieces the heads of the infidels."
Initially, the AKP and the Gulen movement formed an alliance of convenience aimed at dislodging the old, "Kemalist" establishment in Turkey. But like any alliance of convenience, it reached a natural conclusion. Today, the old guard is safely in prison or silenced for fear of arrest. As a result, what we are witnessing now is a fight among the new, ostensibly pious ruling elites about how to divide the spoils of power.
Erdogan's wing of the AKP is mainly in charge of the military, and the Gulenists in control of the police and judiciary. But the state isn't big enough for them to share. The split had been papered over for years, but broke into the open when Gulenist prosecutors attempted to arrest Hakan Fidan, Erdogan's intelligence chief. It exploded during the Gezi protests this past summer, when the movement issued an 11-article communiqué to dispute "accusations and charges" that it claimed came from AKP quarters.
The most recent flashpoint was Erdogan's decision to abolish the dershanes – something like private university crammer schools, and a major source for Gulen's recruits. The movement correctly perceived this as an attempt altogether to eradicate their influence. While they're fighting, of course, the actual business of governing has been crowded out.
Erdogan is unlikely to encounter serious obstacles in the three approaching elections: municipal in March 2014, presidential in August 2014, and general in 2015. His support in the polls remains high, and he has no serious challengers. Unable to throw his weight behind a serious political alternative, all Gulen can do is grumble and sabotage. This may make some difference at the margins, but will not result in Erdogan's removal via democratic means. The crucial question is who will take over the ruling party after Erdogan – and whether the Gulen movement will remain influential.
For those still friendly to the idea of Western-style democracy in Turkey, there are two ways to look at this. In the optimistic view, any counterweight to the growing authoritarianism of Erdogan's government is a positive development. If the Gulen movement is the last meaningful barrier to one-man rule, at least it's a barrier. In the alternative view, a balance of power only serves a nation well if it is a legitimate one. No one has elected Gulen, he and his movement did not come to power transparently and there is no mechanism by which they may be peacefully and transparently removed.
The optimist and Turkophile in me focuses on the former. The pessimist and Turkophile in me sees the latter and despairs.
Claire Berlinski is senior fellow for Turkey at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hardly a fan of Gulen, which for Gulen adversaries has led to political suicide, or worse – imprisonment by the Gulenists through their collective shady dealings and police alliance which has catered to Gulen’s commands of suppression and intimidation. Anyone who dared speak out against the great Iman was either sued or imprisoned – or both, creating an atmosphere of apprehension and terror, effectively silencing his weaker opponents – until now.
That’s not to discount the many hundreds if not thousands of Gulen antagonists that have already paid a profound price for exposing Gulen and his thugs, because in fact, many journalists and political opponents have made that treacherous trip only to find them sitting in Turkish jail cell.
But Erdogan has one up on Gulen because unlike Gulen, Erdogan is front and center, standing on Turkish soil with Turkish citizens who are fed up with Gulen’s influence and corruption. They are no longer willing to allow Gulen’s thugs to run its corrupt police force, imprisoning their fellow citizens, nor are they willing to allow his cronies to systematically infiltrate the armed forces or Turkish parliament. So while Erdogan is standing tall in the public eye and gathering momentum, Gulen is lying low in his bedroom in the Poconos.
Over 12 years ago Gulen figured out that while he cannot randomly throw people in jail over here in the United States, he could instead hit Americans where it hurts most – using our children and tax dollars to promote his warped agenda. His operation of over 140 United States tax funded charter schools has laid a rock-solid foundation for immigration and H1-B visa fraud, discriminatory practices (against Americans), tax evasion, money laundering, extortion, and political bribery.
Let’s hope that once the Turkish citizens rid themselves of Gulen’s influence that the American government will finally rid us of Gulen’s cult and criminal enterprise.
It make one wonder why Gulen is choosing to live in the United States instead of Turkey…could it be that he’s worried that if he returns to his homeland that he will be the one sitting behind bars in a Turkish jail, bunking right next to all of the innocent people his “regime” has framed.
As a postscript, the Expose the Iman movement will be holding another protest rally against Fetullah Gulen in Saylorsburg on December 28, 2013 at 2:00 PM.
Below is a blog written by Claire Berlinski and published in US News on December 17, 2013. The article describes in closer detail the current rivalry between Prime Minister Erdogan and Gulen.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/12/17/turkeys-political-civil-war#comments
Turkey's Political Civil War By Claire Berlinski
December 17, 2013
A power struggle is brewing in Turkey. It is a contest not among the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and the country's secularists, but between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the populist religious movement of expatriate cleric Fethullah Gulen. It is not about elections or democracy. Rather, it is a struggle for control of the Turkish state itself.
From his self-imposed exile in the Poconos, where he has lived since 1999, Gulen has explicitly declared that he wishes his followers to control the state to encourage a kind of a cargo-cult Westernization, one that may be described as bringing to Turkey what he views as the good part of the West – technology and global commerce – without the bad: liberal democracy's inherent resistance to Islamic conservatism. Superficially, there is no huge difference between Gulen's and Erdogan's worldviews. Gulen presents himself – nowadays – as more liberal, reasonable and friendlier to the United States. But he has not always done so, and unlike Erdogan he enjoys the luxury of being unaccountable to the electorate.
The Gulen movement has spent the past three decades aggressively expanding its presence in the education sector, both in Turkey and abroad. It is one of the largest players, for example, in the American charter school market. The movement seeks to create a well-educated "Golden generation," friendly to the movement and possessed of the technical skills to assume high positions in strategic sectors of the economy, government and armed forces.
The contemporary Gulen presents himself as an elderly, humble champion of interfaith dialogue, and perhaps this is now true. Age, after all, mellows many a man. But Gulen has never unequivocally reversed his early teachings, on which his senior cadres have been raised, including his early sermons, which are replete with bracing exhortations to Muslims to "become bombs and explode," and "tear to pieces the heads of the infidels."
Initially, the AKP and the Gulen movement formed an alliance of convenience aimed at dislodging the old, "Kemalist" establishment in Turkey. But like any alliance of convenience, it reached a natural conclusion. Today, the old guard is safely in prison or silenced for fear of arrest. As a result, what we are witnessing now is a fight among the new, ostensibly pious ruling elites about how to divide the spoils of power.
Erdogan's wing of the AKP is mainly in charge of the military, and the Gulenists in control of the police and judiciary. But the state isn't big enough for them to share. The split had been papered over for years, but broke into the open when Gulenist prosecutors attempted to arrest Hakan Fidan, Erdogan's intelligence chief. It exploded during the Gezi protests this past summer, when the movement issued an 11-article communiqué to dispute "accusations and charges" that it claimed came from AKP quarters.
The most recent flashpoint was Erdogan's decision to abolish the dershanes – something like private university crammer schools, and a major source for Gulen's recruits. The movement correctly perceived this as an attempt altogether to eradicate their influence. While they're fighting, of course, the actual business of governing has been crowded out.
Erdogan is unlikely to encounter serious obstacles in the three approaching elections: municipal in March 2014, presidential in August 2014, and general in 2015. His support in the polls remains high, and he has no serious challengers. Unable to throw his weight behind a serious political alternative, all Gulen can do is grumble and sabotage. This may make some difference at the margins, but will not result in Erdogan's removal via democratic means. The crucial question is who will take over the ruling party after Erdogan – and whether the Gulen movement will remain influential.
For those still friendly to the idea of Western-style democracy in Turkey, there are two ways to look at this. In the optimistic view, any counterweight to the growing authoritarianism of Erdogan's government is a positive development. If the Gulen movement is the last meaningful barrier to one-man rule, at least it's a barrier. In the alternative view, a balance of power only serves a nation well if it is a legitimate one. No one has elected Gulen, he and his movement did not come to power transparently and there is no mechanism by which they may be peacefully and transparently removed.
The optimist and Turkophile in me focuses on the former. The pessimist and Turkophile in me sees the latter and despairs.
Claire Berlinski is senior fellow for Turkey at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C.
It seems that there is a double standard when it comes to the prosecution of foreign nationals with regard to United States’ immigration fraud. In this particular case, an Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, was indicted and arrested for “submitting falsified documents to obtain a work visa for her nanny.” According the to the US Attorney’s office out of the Southern District of New York, Khobragade promised to pay the nanny $4500.00 per month, but instead, paid her $573.00 a month.
Khobragade’s defense is that she was sending the difference in the nanny’s pay directly to the nanny’s family in India (as per the nanny’s request). Whether or not that is true, the fact that the US Attorney’s office indiscriminately picks and chooses which visa fraud applicants to prosecute is an entirely different can of worms that needs to be opened.
For the past 5.5 years this website had published a litany of flagrant visa immigration violations perpetrated by the Gulenists as it relates to their falsification of H1-B visa and green card applications. In particular, this website has published a series of email correspondences between governing school board members, attorneys, and applicants where they seek out ways to deceive the US government (immigration services), by falsifying immigration documents.
Further, these crooks were investigated by the Department of Labor and forced to repay at least one former Turkish employee the difference in funds that they “promised” to pay him on his H1-B visa and what they actually paid him. And why were these Turkish gangsters allowed to simply pay back the wages instead of being arrested for their premeditated abuse of US immigration laws?
So why the double standard? Why do the feds pick and choose who they prosecute instead of rounding up the Gulenists? It makes me wonder if the federal government is purposely allowing the Gulenists to openly and brazenly flaunt their illegal activities, thumbing their noses at the United States while they continue their immigration related scam at our expense.
Conspiracy theorists believe that the United States’ government is in fact protecting Fetullah Gulen and his cult, turning a blind eye to their illegal activities because Gulen is a strategic pawn in some sort of political game between the United States and Turkey. Whatever reasons the US government has in developing a case of selective amnesia when it comes to reviewing and enforcing immigration law violations as it relates to Gulen and his merry band of thieves, the means are not enough to justify the end – which is that American citizens are paying a heavy price for the government’s lackadaisical attitude.
It use to be that if someone was committing an obvious crime and there was a witness to it, the witness or victim could make a “citizen’s arrest” in lieu of an actual police/peace officer being present. The arresting citizen could actually “detain” the criminal until a police officer could cart the offender off to jail. Maybe that’s what we need to do… if the government will not do the job, maybe we should start enacting a series of "citizen's arrest," before the statute of limitations runs out.
For a review on the some of the criminal activities perpetrated by the Gulenists via our US tax funded charter schools (immigration fraud, tax payer funding misuse, education board irregularities, extortion, discrimination, HI-B violations), revisit some of our previous blogs:
A Solution or a Crime, You are Cordially Invited to an Audit, The Tax Man Cometh, $53,00 in Immigration Fees, Let’s Change the Board Minutes, Friends and Visas, Identity Crisis, Identity Crisis Part 2, News at 11, Hey, Can You Loan Us Some Money Too?, Calling All Auditors, Lie, Apply, Deny, and Move, Security Sleuths, The Tenth Round, Dear Friends, As the Breeze Blows, Oops, I Guess he Forgot this One, Telling a Fib, Let’s Change the Rules, Identity Crisis Continued, Man, Hate it When this Happens, And You Get to Work More Too!, Losing Blood, How to Get a Turkish Teaching License, Tuzuk, a Contract to Steal, Holy Toledo, Is Blackstone Legally Blackstone?, Pass the Motion, The Turkish Bank of America, Think this is Made Up Too?
Below is an article about Devyani Khobragade:
http://gma.yahoo.com/arrested-indian-diplomat-insists-she-did-nothing-wrong-202803328--abc-news-topstories.html
Arrested Indian Diplomat Insists She Did Nothing Wrong
By AARON KATERSKY | Good Morning America – Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:28 PM EST
The "diplomatic nightmare" touched off by the arrest in New York of an Indian consular official is all a big mistake, a defense attorney told ABC News even as the prosecutor issued a strongly-worded defense of the arrest.
Devyani Khobragade, her attorney Dan Arshack said, did nothing wrong, is entitled to immunity from prosecution and believes the State Department will make her case disappear before her next court appearance in January.
"From the beginning this was a diplomatic nightmare," Arshack said.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Khobragade "clearly tried to evade U.S. law designed to protect from exploitation the domestic employees of diplomats and consular officers."
Khobragade, 39, was accused of submitting falsified documents to obtain a work visa for a nanny, promising to pay $4,500 per month but in reality paying just $573 per month, little more than three dollars an hour.
She faces one count of visa fraud and one count of making a false statement.
Arshack said the Diplomatic Security Service agent who reviewed the visa application misread it. He said the monthly $4,500 is Khobragade's salary. According to the attorney the nanny was to be paid $9.75 per hour. She was paid $3.31 per hour because she had asked the balance be sent directly to relatives in India.
Khobragade was arrested outside her daughter's Manhattan school after she dropped off her daughter for class. Indian officials have complained she was strip-searched and held in a cell with common criminals, procedures in line with the policies of the United States Marshals Service.
The crisis has reached the highest levels of American government. Secretary of State John Kerry has tried to smooth things over by "expressing regret."
"As a father of two daughters about the same age as Devyani Khobragade, the secretary empathizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from India," the State Department said in a statement.
But Bharara gave no indication he would back down.
"One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse," he said.
The Indian Embassy issued a statement in response to Bharara's comment saying, "We need to keep in mind the simple fact that there is only one victim in this case. That victim is Devyani Khobragade - a serving Indian Diplomat on mission in the United States."
According to sources familiar with the case the nanny disappeared in June after she told the family she was going shopping. Khobragade tried to file a missing persons report with police. The nanny surfaced in July at the nonprofit Safe Horizons where an attorney asked Khobragade to pay money, let the nanny out of her job and arrange a new visa that would allow her to stay in the country on her own, requests the diplomat refused. Khobragade then called the State Department because the terms of the nanny's visa required her to work as a domestic employee or return to India.
Khobragade was released last week on $250,000 bail. Defense attorney Arshack said she is immune from prosecution.
Khobragade’s defense is that she was sending the difference in the nanny’s pay directly to the nanny’s family in India (as per the nanny’s request). Whether or not that is true, the fact that the US Attorney’s office indiscriminately picks and chooses which visa fraud applicants to prosecute is an entirely different can of worms that needs to be opened.
For the past 5.5 years this website had published a litany of flagrant visa immigration violations perpetrated by the Gulenists as it relates to their falsification of H1-B visa and green card applications. In particular, this website has published a series of email correspondences between governing school board members, attorneys, and applicants where they seek out ways to deceive the US government (immigration services), by falsifying immigration documents.
Further, these crooks were investigated by the Department of Labor and forced to repay at least one former Turkish employee the difference in funds that they “promised” to pay him on his H1-B visa and what they actually paid him. And why were these Turkish gangsters allowed to simply pay back the wages instead of being arrested for their premeditated abuse of US immigration laws?
So why the double standard? Why do the feds pick and choose who they prosecute instead of rounding up the Gulenists? It makes me wonder if the federal government is purposely allowing the Gulenists to openly and brazenly flaunt their illegal activities, thumbing their noses at the United States while they continue their immigration related scam at our expense.
Conspiracy theorists believe that the United States’ government is in fact protecting Fetullah Gulen and his cult, turning a blind eye to their illegal activities because Gulen is a strategic pawn in some sort of political game between the United States and Turkey. Whatever reasons the US government has in developing a case of selective amnesia when it comes to reviewing and enforcing immigration law violations as it relates to Gulen and his merry band of thieves, the means are not enough to justify the end – which is that American citizens are paying a heavy price for the government’s lackadaisical attitude.
It use to be that if someone was committing an obvious crime and there was a witness to it, the witness or victim could make a “citizen’s arrest” in lieu of an actual police/peace officer being present. The arresting citizen could actually “detain” the criminal until a police officer could cart the offender off to jail. Maybe that’s what we need to do… if the government will not do the job, maybe we should start enacting a series of "citizen's arrest," before the statute of limitations runs out.
For a review on the some of the criminal activities perpetrated by the Gulenists via our US tax funded charter schools (immigration fraud, tax payer funding misuse, education board irregularities, extortion, discrimination, HI-B violations), revisit some of our previous blogs:
A Solution or a Crime, You are Cordially Invited to an Audit, The Tax Man Cometh, $53,00 in Immigration Fees, Let’s Change the Board Minutes, Friends and Visas, Identity Crisis, Identity Crisis Part 2, News at 11, Hey, Can You Loan Us Some Money Too?, Calling All Auditors, Lie, Apply, Deny, and Move, Security Sleuths, The Tenth Round, Dear Friends, As the Breeze Blows, Oops, I Guess he Forgot this One, Telling a Fib, Let’s Change the Rules, Identity Crisis Continued, Man, Hate it When this Happens, And You Get to Work More Too!, Losing Blood, How to Get a Turkish Teaching License, Tuzuk, a Contract to Steal, Holy Toledo, Is Blackstone Legally Blackstone?, Pass the Motion, The Turkish Bank of America, Think this is Made Up Too?
Below is an article about Devyani Khobragade:
http://gma.yahoo.com/arrested-indian-diplomat-insists-she-did-nothing-wrong-202803328--abc-news-topstories.html
Arrested Indian Diplomat Insists She Did Nothing Wrong
By AARON KATERSKY | Good Morning America – Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:28 PM EST
The "diplomatic nightmare" touched off by the arrest in New York of an Indian consular official is all a big mistake, a defense attorney told ABC News even as the prosecutor issued a strongly-worded defense of the arrest.
Devyani Khobragade, her attorney Dan Arshack said, did nothing wrong, is entitled to immunity from prosecution and believes the State Department will make her case disappear before her next court appearance in January.
"From the beginning this was a diplomatic nightmare," Arshack said.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Khobragade "clearly tried to evade U.S. law designed to protect from exploitation the domestic employees of diplomats and consular officers."
Khobragade, 39, was accused of submitting falsified documents to obtain a work visa for a nanny, promising to pay $4,500 per month but in reality paying just $573 per month, little more than three dollars an hour.
She faces one count of visa fraud and one count of making a false statement.
Arshack said the Diplomatic Security Service agent who reviewed the visa application misread it. He said the monthly $4,500 is Khobragade's salary. According to the attorney the nanny was to be paid $9.75 per hour. She was paid $3.31 per hour because she had asked the balance be sent directly to relatives in India.
Khobragade was arrested outside her daughter's Manhattan school after she dropped off her daughter for class. Indian officials have complained she was strip-searched and held in a cell with common criminals, procedures in line with the policies of the United States Marshals Service.
The crisis has reached the highest levels of American government. Secretary of State John Kerry has tried to smooth things over by "expressing regret."
"As a father of two daughters about the same age as Devyani Khobragade, the secretary empathizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from India," the State Department said in a statement.
But Bharara gave no indication he would back down.
"One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse," he said.
The Indian Embassy issued a statement in response to Bharara's comment saying, "We need to keep in mind the simple fact that there is only one victim in this case. That victim is Devyani Khobragade - a serving Indian Diplomat on mission in the United States."
According to sources familiar with the case the nanny disappeared in June after she told the family she was going shopping. Khobragade tried to file a missing persons report with police. The nanny surfaced in July at the nonprofit Safe Horizons where an attorney asked Khobragade to pay money, let the nanny out of her job and arrange a new visa that would allow her to stay in the country on her own, requests the diplomat refused. Khobragade then called the State Department because the terms of the nanny's visa required her to work as a domestic employee or return to India.
Khobragade was released last week on $250,000 bail. Defense attorney Arshack said she is immune from prosecution.
