Another Gulenist lobbying firm bites the dust Week in Review October 12, 2018 Al Monitor
Pro-Fethullah Gulen groups continue to wind down their lobbying push in Washington. Fidelis Government Relations, which had been working as a subcontractor for Sexton's Creek Consulting, terminated its involvement at the end of August. Sexton’s Creek for its part is still registered as an active lobbyist forWashington Diplomacy Group, a Gulenist firm that told Politico it was shutting down in July.
The Fidelis termination comes amid speculation that Gulen’s movement is cash-strapped amid a clampdown on its activities in Turkey and internationally. Washington Diplomacy Group itself stopped lobbying at the end of June 2018, three months after dropping five Gulen-affiliated clients. According to an Al-Monitor analysis, pro-Gulen groups spent $886,000 on lobbying in 2017.
Over the past three months, Fidelis was paid $22,000 — its largest quarterly take to date — to lobby Congress, Vice President Mike Pence’s office, the White House and the State Department (the firm was paid $77,000 over the past 15 months). According to its website, Fidelis “operates in partnership” with Sexton’s Creek, which is run by William Smith, the chief of staff to Pence when he was a congressman from Indiana.
Turkey spent $5.6 million lobbying Washington in 2017. Much of that effort, led by Amsterdam & Partners, aims to discredit the Gulenists and their chain of charter schools throughout the United States. Turkey accuses Gulen of being behind a failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
What happened to all your trips to the white house?
New sheriff in town (Trump)
Bilal Eksili, Faruk Taban, Emre Celik....you
can always go back to teaching ...... after all Faruk Taban did he is
at North American University in Texas
