While publicly, President Trump has said he is developing serious opinions about the Saudi murder of reporter Jamal Khashoggi, in reality the administration’s goal is just to get Turkey to back down and leave the Saudis alone.
Turkey isn’t going to just ignore the murder for free, however, and the White House is said to be exploring pretexts to expel exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a long-time rival of the Turkish president, in hopes that would make Turkey so happy they’ll forgive and forget about Khashoggi, and all the uncomfortable implications it would have for US foreign policy.
Gulen has been living in exile in the US since the 1990s, and Turkey has sought his extradition for years, blaming him for a failed military coup. The US has refused to extradite him without Turkey providing evidence of wrongdoing, at least in the past.
Now, Khashoggi may be just as good as evidence Gulen did anything. Career officials are said to be pushing back against the White House plans, and Turkey is insisting there should be no connection between their Gulen demands and the Khashoggi murder.
The administration seems pretty sure it’s worth a try, however, and that kicking Gulen out, assuming they can find a justification, would do something worthwhile for US-Turkey relations.
Maybe not so much because of implications for US policy as for Israel’s.
Gulen might have made the mistake of failing to get naturalized. He is a legal “green carder” which may mean that the executive can extradite him more easily. However if he had been a US citizen extradition would have required that a court must first void his US citizenship which can be a lengthy process.
Has he been in the US long enough to apply for citizenship?
Yes, he has lived here for about 20 years as a legal immigrant. After five years he could have applied for citizenship. 15 years ago that did not take much longer than 6 months.
Well – Trump is the author (sort of) of the “Art of the Deal”, and that is a deal – dealing a possibly innocent man over to his enemies, who will probably kill him, in return for noninterference in a multi-billion dollar arms sale. It is altogether fitting that a money-driven country have a money-driven President
What a killing it makes.
And what will Erdogan do to Gulen I wonder, once he’s in his hands…
The same thing the Saudis would have done to Kashoogi had they been able to get him back to Saudi Arabia.
The problem for Trump is possible CIA involvement in the failed coup attempt.
Trump might be invited up to the thirteenth floor to watch that 1963 video on Dealey Plaza.
Killing an innocent guy to get the Turks off the Saudis backs for killing an innocent guy, so that the US can continue their part in killing millions of innocent people in Yemen? I guess that does have a certain consistency to it.
We won’t extradite Gulen without Turkey “providing evidence of wrongdoing”. Didn’t the Taliban tell Bush the same thing regarding bin laden? Too bad we weren’t such hypocrites, maybe Afghanistan wouldn’t be a 17 year nightmare.
Extradite, or Render? I’m sure the Turks could simply grab him, put him on a boat, and take him to Turkey if they get cooperation from the Administration.
Better run this one past Bloody Gina. She will have the last word, maybe in a torture chamber at some undisclosed location? So much is going on under the table in this Khashoggi affair it’s impossible to know what the real story is.
Evidence? The US knows exactly what happened with that coup, that operated out of the same base as the CIA HQ in Turkey.
We the readers don’t know, but they our government know. Very likely they are covering up their own involvement, since they failed (yet again).
Gulen was a US asset. Now he’s being abandoned. Therein must be a very good story, if somebody could get a leaker inside to tell us.
The good news that this political fugitive has multiple laws protect him not to mention the Constitution of the United States. So if you think about it, it’s all dog and phony show. Also, if this guy was in fact a real threat to Erdogan, he would have had him killed in the U.S.
Gulen is not an innocent angel. His activities in Turkey during the golden era of “secular” generals executing all inconvenient politicians, and in the apex of their bloody rule killed hundreds of thousands, jailed and disappeared another 500,000, and cotizenship taken away from millions — Gulen sat pretty in supporting Islamists in Russia and Central Asia. That was the plan for Turkey — organize Islamic cults from Caucases to China — and let US intervene. Gulen was fake Islamist, Soros style, organizing so called civic society groups with the aim of taking over the Government with Islamic flavor, and minimize the need for military brutality. Since we approved of that brutality, never made much news. Erdogan had same ideas, but hus was not to serve a master but to make Turkey sovereign. Thus, Erdogan and Gulen clashed, Erdogan won politically and Gulen moved to US. With sho knows whise money — his foundation funded schools and universities in Turkey, Central Asia and Europe. Subsidized Bosnian Moslems, and had his fingers in Kosovo. HE ALSO RAN DIRECTLY OR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OTHERS HUNDREDS OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN US, specializing in science. Gulen has only elementary school. As parents protested, number of schools dwindled, but still has many. As his foundation was expelled from Russia ling time agi, later from Central Asia, but still present in Germany to influence Turkish population there.
Gulen has lost politically to Erdogan on every front. He has noblonger followers and lost media jn Turkey that was a bullhorn fir neocon version of reality. I used to follow them — snd was glad when they were taken over or shuttered. Losing Gulen at this point will not be a great loss to US — he is a spent commidity. But ut is not likely. For that Turkey will have to mive into anti-Russia camp, and that will not happen. Will have to accept Kurdish entity in Syria — not likely at all. And ditch Shanghai Cooperation club, the only pillar of economic security, chances are nil. But US may try to get support from Turkey’s Republican Party former supporter of generals hunta. They will take credit for Gulen extradition and benefits of alliance with US — portraying Erdogan as extremist. But it will not work. In Turkey today, this cannot sell. They see the coup of 2016 as US organized, they experienced US sanctions and know that only Eurasian link will save them. Anf Erdogan is a cat with 99 lives, and will get on the top here as well. It is nit Saudis that want Kadhoggi of the front pages, it is US. It wants stiry to dissaoear out if fear where it may lead, but it wants to have the story alone, not share with Turkey, using it to spank Saudis. But I am afraid it is premature. Turkey will keep it alive — as Saudis want ut as well. Internal investigation will eventually point to Saudi intelligence and/ or Interior Ministry elements. Final shiwdown with former Crown Prince supporters loom. This is jnevitable, as the Ritz Carlton treatment dud not deter MbS enemies. And those enemies had a ruch history of ties to CIA in the name of counterterrorism. Just listen to Erdogan. He is saying that the murder was irdered from high circles, but is adamant it is not MbS.
Gulen offering is not worth much to Turkey. It will take him, but without strings attached.
The Trump admin is in a panic over Erdogan and Turkey.
Turkey sits in a key geographical position as the gateway between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia; and sitting astride the Bosphorous, the only water link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. That means Turkey controls Russia’s only access from a year-round ice-free port and naval base in Crimea, to the World’s oceans. Turkey is also the only all-land pipeline route, other than via Russia, for oil and natural gas to come from Asia or the Middle East, into Europe.
Turkey has long been a member of NATO, again holding key territory to hem in Russia, and is host to the Incirlik air base that is key to FUKUSIS/NATO operations in the Middle East.
Erdogan has revived Sunni Islam in Turkey, repealing its secular status brought in by Ataturk after WW1 to bring Turkey into the modern world after the Ottoman Empire was defeated and dismembered by France and the UK. Erdogan appears to want to don the mantle of Caliph of a revived Sunni Muslim Empire, and is in competition with the Saudis for that mantle – hence Erdogan jumped at the chance to embarrass Mohamed bin Salman over the blatantly gruesome killing of Kashoggi.
Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan, has long been a CIA/State Department asset, useful particularly because his organization runs Muslim schools throughout much of the Muslim world, and can be used for propaganda and intelligence gathering.
Turkey, in its southeast area bordering Iraq, houses part of what is called Kurdistan, traditional home of the Kurds. Kurdistan lost out at the end of WW1, not being recognized by France and the UK as deserving their own country. The Kurds have long been a thorn in Turkey’s side, and 34 years ago started an armed uprising against Turkish rule. This has cost Turkey a great deal of blood, treasure, and political capital, as Turkey was blamed for human rights abuses and denied its long-sought entry to the EU on that basis. Syria, a typically hostile neighbor in the ME, gave refuge to the Kurd rebels, and earned the Assad regime Erdogan’s enmity. Hence, Erdogan was happy to join in the FUKUSIS/NATO operation to depose Assad and replace him with a puppet. It appears that Erdogan saw this as an opportunity to eliminate much of the support for the Kurish separatists, to take away much of Syria’s territory and oil fields, and to enable Turkey to host oil and natural gas pipelines from the Middle East into Europe.
The US embraced the Kurds and used them as allied forces in Syria, and Erdogan and his son allegedly made $Millions by buying oil from the Kurds in Syria and Iraq and exporting it via the Mediterranean, until Russia bombed much of that activity in Syria.
Then, the Syria takedown faltered, and Turkey stuck to its agreement to host the expanded Turkstream natural gas pipelines from Russia into the EU (frustrating the EU attempt to take control of Russia’s natural gas supplies) Erdogan’s loyalty to FUKUSIS/NATO came into question. Turkey also supported the ruling dynasty in Qatar against the Saudi/US blockade after Qatar dumped the FUKUSIS/NATO Syria op and partnered with Iran to get natural gas from the shared Qatar/Iran gas field into Europe via Iran.
The CIA and State Department made a huge blunder in the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Erdogan and replace him with Gulen. Worse, the Russians were listening to the US communications, so the Russians were able to make themselves heroes to Erdogan by warning him in time for him to escape and mobilize the Turkish public against the coup (via electronic media that the CIA and Turkish military plotters failed to shut down). Erdogan then increased his steps away from the FUKUSIS/NATO camp and into the arms of Putin and Russia, and demanded that the US hand over Gulen for prosecution in what would no doubt be a show trial staged by Turkey for Erdogan’s political benefit.
FUKUSIS/NATO has tried to force Erdogan back into line by monetary bribes to subsidize the cost of housing migrants headed for the EU, by causing the Turkish lira to fall, by further threats to eliminate him, then by sanctions. All this has pushed Erdogan ever closer to Putin and Russia. Erdogan also sees potential advantages in joining into China’s Belt and Road Initiative, as a key link to Europe, so he has warmed to China.
The extent of rising panic in the Trump administration over Erdogan’s escape from the reservation, the failure of the Assad takedown, and waning US influence in the ME, is now evidenced by Trump seeking a way to hand over Gulen, to the horror of the CIA and State Department.
Gulen’s PA pad..
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/08/02/Others/Images/2016-08-02/RTX12O7E1470147672.jpg&w=1484
Then there are the Afghans, Iranians and Koreans running wild, along with Russians and Chinese. . .being Leader Of The Free World™ isn’t what it used to be.
“The US has refused to extradite him without Turkey providing evidence of wrongdoing, at least in the past.” Fancy that. In 2001 Afghanistan refused to hand over Osama bin Laden without some evidence of his involvement in the attack on the USA, but POTUS GWBush said that was not needed.
Look where that has led.
Did I miss the part where this man has “rights”? You know a hearing, an impartial judge, that kind of stuff.
And now comes the CIA into the picture, the company wishing to give Trump a little heartburn.
WaPo: “CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination“. .here