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Tag: CIA

  • FETULLAH’s Islamic group is CIA front, ex-Turkish intel chief says

    FETULLAH’s Islamic group is CIA front, ex-Turkish intel chief says

    fetos CIA1SPY TALK
    By Jeff Stein
    The Washington Post
    A memoir by a top former Turkish intelligence official claims that a worldwide moderate Islamic movement based in Pennsylvania has been providing cover for the CIA since the mid-1990s.
    The memoir, roughly rendered in English as “Witness to Revolution and Near Anarchy,” by retired Turkish intelligence official Osman Nuri Gundes, says the religious-tolerance movement, led by an influential former Turkish imam by the name of Fethullah Gulen, has 600 schools and 4 million followers around the world.
    In the 1990s, Gundes alleges, the movement “sheltered 130 CIA agents” at its schools in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan alone, according to a report on his memoir Wednesday by the Paris-based Intelligence Online newsletter.
    The book has caused a sensation in Turkey since it was published last month.
    Gulen could not be reached for comment.
    But two ex-CIA officials with long ties to Central Asia cast doubt on Gundes’s charges.
    Former CIA operative Robert Baer, chief of the agency’s Central Asia and Caucasus operations from 1995 through 1997, called the allegations bogus. “The CIA didn’t have any ‘agents’ in Central Asia during my tenure,” he said.
    It’s possible, Baer granted, that the CIA “turned around this ship after I left,” but only the spy agency could say for sure, and the CIA does not comment on operational sources and methods.
    A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said Gundes’s “accounts are ringing no bells whatsoever.”
    Likewise, Graham Fuller, a former CIA station chief in Kabul and author of “The Future of Political Islam,” threw cold water on Gundes’s allegations about Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
    “I think the story of 130 CIA agents in Gulen schools in Central Asia is pretty wild,” Fuller said by e-mail.
    “I should hasten to add that I left CIA in 1987 — nearly 25 years ago — and I have absolutely no concrete personal knowledge whatsoever about this. But my instincts tell me the claim is highly improbable.”
    Fuller added, “I cannot even imagine trying to credibly sell such a scheme with a straight face within the agency. As for Nuri Gundes, I am not aware of who he is or what he has written. But there is a lot of wild stuff floating around in Turkey on these issues and Gulen is a real hot button issue.”
    Imam Gulen, “whose views are usually close to U.S. policy,” according to Intelligence Online, favors toleration of all religions, putting his movement in direct competition with al-Qaeda and other radical groups for the affection of Muslims across Central Asia, the Middle East and even Europe and Africa, where it has also expanded its reach.
    Gundes, who was Istanbul station chief for Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, “personally supervised several investigations into Gulen’s movement in the 1990s,” according to the newsletter’s report on his memoir, which has not been translated into English. The purpose of Gundes’s investigation was not immediately clear. His own religious views could not be determined, but the influence of radical Islamist forces in Turkey swelled in the 1990s.
    The imam left Turkey in 1998 and settled in Saylorsburg, Pa., where the movement is headquartered. According to Intelligence Online, he obtained a residence permit only in 2008 with the help of Fuller and George Fidas, whom it described as head of the agency’s outreach to universities.
    Fuller says that’s wrong.
    “I did not recommend him for a residence permit or anything else. As for George Fidas, I have never even heard of him and don’t know who he is.”
    “What I did do,” Fuller explained, “was write a letter to the FBI in early 2006 …at a time when Gulen’s enemies were pressing for his extradition to Turkey from the U.S. In the post 9/11 environment, they began spreading the word that he was a dangerous radical. In my statement to the FBI I offered my views…that I did not believe he posed a security threat of any kind to the U.S. I still believe that today, as do a large body of scholars on contemporary Islam.
    “I do not at all consider Gulen a radical or dangerous.” Fuller continued. “Indeed in my view–and I have studied a lot of Islamist movements worldwide–his movement is perhaps one of the most encouraging in terms of the evolution of contemporary Islamic political and social thinking…”
    Fidas could not be reached for comment, nor would the CIA answer questions about him. George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs lists him as a visiting professor and “Director for Outreach in the Office of the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production.”
    But the title was abolished when the Directorate of National Intelligence was created several years ago, an informed source said.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/, 05/01//2011

  • Is The CIA Hosting A Wikileaks Mirror?

    Is The CIA Hosting A Wikileaks Mirror?

    from the honeypot-or-not? dept

    Whatis42? points us to an interesting post on Reddit, which is initially just highlighting a Google heatmap showing the locations from which people are searching for the term “wikileaks.” Not surprisingly, the hottest spot on the heatmap is the Northern Virginia, Washington DC area. Shocking, I know.

    But, perhaps more interesting is a comment on the thread, which notes that it appears at least one of the Wikileaks mirrors appears to be hosted by the CIA, or at the very least a company associated with the CIA using (for a time) a CIA netblock. The address, wikileaks.psytek.net no longer appears to be hosting anything (right now it just leads you to a standard Apache install page that says “It works!”). There’s an interesting discussion in the Reddit comments over what this means — ranging from everything to someone suggesting this is just a joke, to the “honeypot” question, to the one that seems most plausible to me: as a mirror that is quickly updated as Wikileaks puts up new documents, it allows the CIA to get access to what’s being released as quickly as possible. Updated: And, as noted in the comments, it appears the answer is “no.” Or, at least, if it is, it ain’t this particular site.

    via Is The CIA Hosting A Wikileaks Mirror? [Updated] | Techdirt.

  • United States laid ground for Ergenekon “Deep State” in Turkey

    United States laid ground for Ergenekon “Deep State” in Turkey

    WMRWMR has discovered a formerly Secret document from the U.S. Department of State that confirms the United States not only supported the Turkish military coup that ousted the nation’s democratically-elected government in 1980 but actively supported the military-imposed Turkish Constitution as “reformist.”

    The citizens of Turkey recently voted in a referendum and approved 26 constitutional amendments that will transform Turkey into a democratic state without the threat of the military and national security state-affiliated judiciary trumping the power of the Parliament and the people. Neocons have condemned the referendum as a threat to secularism in Turkey and a move to an Islamic state. However, the neocons and their allies in Israel are concerned that a Mossad -and CIA-imposed Turkish “Deep State” has finally seen its power largely destroyed with the impending adoption of a new Turkish Constitution. The referendum, which passed with 58 percent of the vote, is a victory for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Many of the roots of the creation of the most recent variant of the Turkish Deep State, known as Ergenekon, can be seen in the State Department policy paper dated September 5, 1981, and titled “USG Policy toward Turkey.” When the State Department document was drafted, Turkey’s military junta leader, General Kenan Evren, was drafting the present Turkish Constitution. The 1981 Turkish military draft Constitution’s “reforms” were referred to in the State Department policy document’s author Lawrence Eagleburger, the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs: “It is too early to judge whether the fundamental GOT reforms, now in place or in prospect, will succeed.” The document also talks about the “relief” provided to the United States by the 1980 military coup: “The military takeover of September 1980 brought temporary relief and for the moment broke the back of radical movements — including pro-Islamic ones — which had come to the fore in the 1970s.”

    Eagleburger signaled his and the Reagan administration’s support for the Turkish junta because of the same bogus reasons that neocons today criticize the Erdogan government: the bogeyman of Turkish Islamic political power. Eagleburger warned that Turkey could “drift away from NATO and Western-style government; alignment with Middle East states which supply oil and markets; possibly even neutralism growing out of accommodations with the USSR.” Today, the neocons, Israelis, and their Ergenekon allies in Turkey argue the same points in demonizing the Turkish government: that Turkey is drifting from NATO, that it is turning to oil suppliers and markets like Iran, and has a growing relationship with Russia.

    Eagleburger then outlines how the Reagan administration would cement U.S. ties with Turkey to prevent the above scenarios from being realized. He writes: “ . . . the Turkish-American relationship has no natural constituency in terms of shared history, economic interdependence, ethic or family ties. The absence of a ‘Turkish lobby’ in the United States is indicative.” Two of the recipients of the Eagleburger document would later help fill the void and help create the American Turkish Council (ATC), a lobby group patterned after their friends at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Those two recipients of the Eagleburger document were Richard Perle, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, and Paul Wolfowitz, Director of Policy Planning at the State Department. Other recipients of the Eagleburger policy document on Turkey included Robert Hormats, the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs [and who is now the Undersecretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs under Hillary Clinton]; Ronald Spiers, the director of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 1977 to 1980; and the prospective U.S. ambassador to Pakistan; Richard Burt, the Director of Politico-Military Affairs for the State Department; and Nicholas Veliotes, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.

    The nature of the bilateral U.S.-Turkish relations were described as a “best effort” to help Turkey in all respects, including an “understanding” of Turkey’s position in Greek-Turkish issues and dealing with “Armenian terrorism.” In 1981, Armenia was a constituent republic of the USSR. Today, it is “Kurdish terrorism” that plagues Turkey since Armenia is now an independent state with a natural and politically-powerful constituency in the United States. The Eagleburger document describes the Evren junta as perceiving the Reagan administration as making a “best effort” in providing financial support to Turkey from Washington’s “weighing in” on the “International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Saudis, and other potential donors.”

    Eagleburger also warns of “nettlesome” issues that could adversely affect U.S. relations with the Turkish junta, for example, “Congressional badgering on Cyprus, on relations with Greece, on the pace of return to democracy, and an Armenian niche in the proposed Holocaust Museum.”

    The United States, through an alliance with Israel and its influence peddlers in Washington, would ensure that the Turkish pace of democracy would not return to normal until the recent approval by the Turkish people of a new constitution that will eradicate the Turkish junta’s military “reforms” championed by Eagleburger and his band of proto-neocons in the Reagan administration in 1981. Attempts over the past eight years by Ergenekon to overthrow the AKP government failed and with the new constitutional changes, Ergenekon’s and Israel’s ability to influence events in Turkish politics have been curtailed, save for the continuing threat of covert Israeli provocation of terrorism involving the Kurds.

    Source: Wayne Madsen Report,  Sept 18, 2010

  • Mossad/CIA Involved in Turkish Bank Deal

    Mossad/CIA Involved in Turkish Bank Deal

    adabank israelISRAEL – IRAN FIGHT OVER TURKEY’S ADABANK

    Adabank is to be sold, in a tender [offer], on October 19 by Savings Deposit Insurance Fund.

    Bank Hapolaim of Israel, who owns the majority of the shares of Turkey’s Bank Pozitif, was announced his interest to buy Adabank.

    Since Iranians entered the negotiations for Adabank, Mossad and CIA started to follow the deal.

    The main concern of the Americans and Israelis is if Iran Government buys a bank in Turkey, they might launder money for their nuclear targets through an internationally recognized bank.

  • Clinton’s Visit to Genocide Monument Necessary but not Sufficient

    Clinton’s Visit to Genocide Monument Necessary but not Sufficient

    sassounian3

    During her visit to Armenia on July 5, U.S. Secretary State Hillary Clinton placed a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Monument at Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan. Regrettably, however, the U.S. Embassy in Armenia issued a press release describing the visit as “private.” By using such a characterization, U.S. officials were trying to preempt any backlash from the Turkish government.   In my opinion, the State Department mishandled Secretary Clinton’s visit to the Armenian Genocide Monument. Here are the reasons why:

    • There was no need to downplay the visit by characterizing it as “private,” since such visits are standard procedure for foreign dignitaries visiting Armenia.
    • Paying a visit to the Genocide Monument does not necessarily imply recognition of the Armenian Genocide, as all previous and current U.S. Ambassadors have visited this site every April 24.
    • Secretary Clinton’s visit to the Genocide Monument could not have been described as “private,” since it was a part of her “official” visit to Armenia.
    • The characterization of the visit as “private” was contradicted by the fact that the ribbons on the wreath she laid at the Genocide Monument carried the inscription: “From Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
    • Clinton’s visit the day before to the “Alley of the Martyrs” in Baku was not described as “private,” creating the disturbing impression that U.S. interests in Azerbaijan’s oil weigh heavier than its humanitarian concerns for victims of genocide.
    • Another double standard was Clinton not allowing any Armenian government officials to accompany her to the Genocide Monument in Yerevan, while she was accompanied to the “Alley of Martyrs” in Baku by a Deputy Minister of Azerbaijan!
    • Clinton permitted neither the international press traveling with her nor the local Armenian media, except Armenian Public TV, to report on her visit to the Genocide Monument. Her action undermines her advocacy for media freedom.
    • There was no reason for Secretary Clinton to be coy about Genocide recognition, since Pres. Reagan had acknowledged it in 1981, and the U.S. House of Representatives had recognized it in 1975 and 1984.

    Even though the State Department downgraded Secretary Clinton’s visit to the Monument, Armenian officials did their best to publicize it as much as possible! This time they acted more decisively than last May, when Mevlut Cavusoglu — Turkish President of Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly — refused to visit the Genocide Monument. They insisted that the Secretary add to her itinerary a stop at the Genocide Monument. They then arranged for Armenian Public TV and other TV stations to repeatedly air the video of Clinton’s July 5 visit to the Monument.

    In addition, the website of the State-owned Armenian Genocide Museum prominently featured Clinton’s visit by displaying photos of her wreath with ribbons that carried a visible inscription of her name and title, and an authentic medal issued by the American Near East Relief Committee that Museum Director Hayk Demoyan presented her.

    Pointing across the Turkish border, Demoyan told Secretary Clinton that Mount Ararat is “a symbol of Armenia.” In addition to explaining the basic facts of the Armenian Genocide, Demoyan told her that the graves of heroes fallen in Artsakh (Karabagh) were located near the Monument, since Armenians consider that war to be a continuation of the Armenian Genocide. The Secretary was also given a historical photo in which Armenian children in the American orphanage of Alexandropol (Gumri) were standing in formation that spelled out the words: “AMERICA, WE THANK YOU.”

    Clinton’s visit was both praised and criticized by Armenian-American organizations. The Armenian National Committee of America took Clinton to task for her “secret” visit to the Genocide Monument, while the Armenian Assembly of America commended her for the visit. Former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, told The California Courier that “Clinton’s visit was a small, but positive step forward.” The last Secretary of State to have visited Armenia was James Baker in 1992, who did not, however, make a stop at the Genocide Monument.

    In my view, Secretary Clinton should be commended for making such a positive gesture, but also blamed for going to such lengths to downplay her visit to the Genocide Monument. Why was she so concerned about offending Turks who have brazenly undermined every major U.S. foreign policy initiative in recent months?   Unfortunately, Secretary Clinton, Vice President Biden and Pres. Obama have drifted far away from their campaign promises to recognize the Armenian Genocide! Clinton’s brief stop at the Genocide Monument on July 5 is a welcome first step that fell short of her solemn commitment to support recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

    ================== COMMENT —- YORUM ================================================

    Democrats are in serious trouble. They need every vote they can get in November so that is why they are posturing around.
    I would like to see the day when Turkey can care less and shrug off  the American and Armenian clamors, resolutions etc  about this farce of genocide.
    Turkey and Azerbaijan should unite more and defy this idiotic nonsense..
    Almost 80 million Turks being manipulated by a 2 million weakling nation and its masters in Washington…Disgusting….

    .. Oya Bain [oyabain@gmail.com]

  • Turkey opposition gains ground amid eastward drift

    Turkey opposition gains ground amid eastward drift

    By SUZAN FRASER (AP) – 23 hours ago

    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey rallied behind Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his blistering condemnation of Israel after its commando raid on an aid ship to Gaza.

    But as dust settles from the May 31 attack, Turkey’s resurgent opposition seems to be gaining traction by articulating fears that Erdogan is steering NATO’s only Muslim member away from the West, jeopardizing EU membership efforts, and even undermining a long-running battle against separatist Kurds.

    The views of the Republican People’s Party — which considers itself a guarantor of secular values and enjoys a power base among Western-leaning urban elites — are increasingly important.

    The movement has a popular new leader following the resignation of its chairman over a sex scandal and many have high hopes that he can rejuvenate the party, presenting a viable alternative to Erdogan and anchoring Turkey firmly back in its Western orientation.

    Kemal Kilicdaroglu made a name for himself by exposing corruption within Erdogan party’s that led to two senior officials stepping down.

    While condemning the Israeli assault that killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American and calling on Jerusalem to end its Gaza blockade, Kilicdaroglu’s party has also criticized Erdogan’s confrontational style against Israel and accused the prime minister of trying to use outrage to win elections due next year.

    “We are witnessing a serious crisis of confidence between (Erdogan’s party) and the West … This crisis must end immediately,” Kilicdaroglu said in a speech.

    A recent opinion poll shows that the Republican People’s Party has made gains since Kilicdaroglu took the party reins, although Erdogan’s Justice and Democracy Party remains more popular.

    The survey, conducted by the Konsensus research company for Haberturk newspaper and published Saturday, shows 38.8 percent backing Erdogan’s party against 31.3 percent for Kilicdaroglu’s Republicans — up from the 25 percent support for the party under the previous leadership. No margin of error was given.

    “The belief that there is no alternative to (Erdogan’s party) has ended with Kilicdaroglu becoming chairman,” Konsensus general manager Murat Sari was quoted as saying.

    The survey, however, showed that Kilicdaroglu gained support from a nationalist party, not from Erdogan’s ruling party, suggesting that skepticism about the opposition remains widespread.

    The Republican Party has long projected a strict — and some say intolerant — form of secularism that has opposed among other things, young women wearing Islamic-style headscarves at universities.

    It claims to be the heir to the legacy of Turkey’s modernizing founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But its coziness with the military, elitist attitudes toward rural Turkey, and opposition to some reforms designed to boost Turkey’s EU membership chances have driven many liberal supporters away. Many also accept that Erdogan’s party, in power since 2002, has been a better steward of economic and social reforms.

    For his part, Erdogan has alarmed liberals with his threats to scuttle Turkey’s longstanding alliance with Israel, his questioning of Washington’s international leadership, and his willingness to cultivate friendships with hardline Islamic nations like Iran and Syria.

    Increasingly, analysts who praised Erdogan for raising Turkey’s standing in the Middle East are now warning that the government is acting out of emotion not reason in its dealings with Israel and the West.

    “Unless someone says stop, the present atmosphere threatens to marginalize Turkey in the long term,” wrote Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist for liberal Milliyet newspaper.

    Overwhelming support for Erdogan in elections in 2007 “were not for Hamas but for a ‘western Muslim’ Turkey that increased its global weight both in the East and in the West,” Aydintasbas said.

    Military analysts have voiced concerns that Turkey’s new foreign policy is harming its interests, undermining its fight against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels.

    The United States has been providing intelligence on Kurdish rebel movements in northern Iraq, where a bulk of the rebels are in hiding, while Turkey uses drones recently purchased from Israel to spy on the guerrilla group.

    On Saturday, about 60 rebels attacked a military outpost on the Turkish-Iraqi border, killing nine soldiers, according to the military.

    The attack raised questions as to how they were able to reach the outpost undetected and some speculated that the United States may have withheld crucial intelligence.

    But Maj. Gen. Ferit Guler, secretary-general of the Turkish military, insisted that a successful intelligence cooperation with the United States was still in place.

    The military has long supported Turkey’s military alliance with Israel, which has provided crucial military equipment, such as the drones and modernized Turkish fighter jets and tanks.

    Erdogan insists it is committed to its alliance with the United States and NATO and that his government still seeks EU membership, although he has also accused European countries of having a “secret agenda” to keep Turkey out.

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