Kemal Oksuz Gulenist leader of Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan not mentioned in latest lavish "gifts" to lawmakers

A simple search would have revealed to 'THE HILL the connection of AFAZ (Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan) with Kemal Oksuz and the Gulen Movement.  Why did "The Hill" leave out the names "Gulen" and "Kemal Oksuz"

Lawmakers who took a trip secretly funded by the government of Azerbaijan turned over jade earrings, tea sets, silk scarves, woven rugs and other gifts to the government after a watchdog report called the trip improper.

The list of gifts returned to the General Services Administration (GSA), which was obtained by The Hill through a Freedom of Information Act request, fills in more details about the trip to a 2013 conference in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku.

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In all, nine current member of Congress and 32 staff members attended the conference, each receiving thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts, according to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Some of the lawmakers also went to Turkey after the conference in Baku and received additional gifts on that stop.

The OCE report on the trip was submitted to the House Ethics Committee on May 8, 2015, but was leaked to The Washington Post, which revealed the details of the report days later. 

The watchdog said Texas-based nonprofits filed false statements saying they were paying for the trip, when, in reality, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as Socar, helped fund the conference and trips by funneling $750,000 to the nonprofit corporations.

Socar has denied all wrongdoing and said the nonprofit involved in helping lawmakers make arrangements, the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, failed to follow disclosure rules.

Both the OCE and House Ethics Committee found lawmakers and aides had no way of knowing the trip was being funded improperly.

Roughly a week before the House Ethics Committee released its report detailing its findings in July 2015, members of Congress who had taken the trip began returning the gifts they had received.

Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) and Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas) all turned over gifts to the House clerk, who then handed them over to the GSA in October 2015, according to records obtained by The Hill.

Other gifts from the Azerbaijan trip that were returned include paperweights, pens, leather diaries, a DVD box set about the president of Azerbaijan and two rugs, one large and one small. Multiple lawmakers reported that the small rug appeared in their hotel rooms during the conference. 

In most cases, when a House member accepts a gift not allowed by ethics rules, they must either pay “fair market value” for it or return it to the person or entity that gave it to them. A member can also give gifts to the House clerk, who then transfers it to the GSA for disposal or sale.

Ethics rules for members of Congress say members may, in some cases, accept gifts valued at less than $50. Gifts from foreign governments and international organizations are allowed if they are valued at less than $350. 

Several members told the OCE that they believed the gifts had fallen below those reporting thresholds. 

The GSA spreadsheet of the gifts provided to The Hill lists Oct. 13 and Oct. 20 as the dates the gifts were received by the agency, though the House clerk apparently received them from members’ offices months earlier. 

Lujan Grisham, whose fiancé had  gone on the trip to Azerbaijan and Turkey with her, told the OCE during the investigations that many of the gifts she received were kept in her office. The earrings, a crystal tea set and a large rug were at her home in Washington, the report said, and another tea set was kept at her home in New Mexico.

The congresswoman ultimately surrendered 34 items to the House clerk, by far the most of any member, GSA records show. While her office said the gifts were given to the clerk on July 23, 2015, they did not arrive at the GSA until Oct. 13 and Oct. 20.

Those items included three briefcases, two decorative plates, paperweights, multiple sets of teacups, a DVD box set about the president of Azerbaijan, earrings, a map of Azerbaijan, a scarf, leather notebooks and two bottles of cologne.

According to the OCE report, Bridenstine had the two rugs he was given appraised and was told they had a value of $3,500 and $2,500. His chief of staff then found the source of the rugs and returned them to the donor in 2013.

Bridenstine gave his six-cup tea set to the House clerk for disposal on July 17 last year, his office told The Hill. The OCE report says he looked up the cups online, finding them to be worth $84.99. The GSA did not receive them from the House Clerk until Oct. 13, records show. 

The GSA received a large rug from Hinojosa and, from Clarke, a small rug and a purple silk scarf.

Two additional members — Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Danny Davis (D-Ill.) — donated rugs they had received on the trip to a charity and a local school in his district, respectively, their offices told The Hill. The House Ethics Committee approved the donations because of the  entities’ tax statuses. Davis also gave a leather briefcase from the trip to a volunteer in his office.

Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas), Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Fla.) also went on the trip but did not talk to the OCE during the investigation, so it is not known what gifts they received. Lance’s office told The Hill that the congressman did not take any gifts.

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Gulen Movement linked to US House Ethics probe of lawmakers bribe and trips to Azerbaijan benefiting SOCOR oil

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/05/lawmakers-who-traveled-to-azerbaijan-urged-action-benefiting-state-oil-company-that-funded-trip/

Natural gas wells in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Sergey Ponomarev/AP/dapd)

Several lawmakers caught up in an investigation of their participation in a lavish overseas trip introduced legislation that would benefit the alleged host of their spring 2013 junket – the state-owned Azerbaijani oil company. Additionally, these lawmakers — and others on the trip — have received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a network of individuals with close ties to two nonprofit organizations to which the oil company allegedly funneled money to pay for the trip.
The official actions of the lawmakers to encourage energy development in the Caspian Sea and the clusters of contributions from people linked to the nonprofits that facilitated the trip have not been previously reported. The trip itself has been scrutinized by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which found that the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to the two nonprofits to pay for the 10 lawmakers to attend a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, at which the development of natural gas pipelines through the Caucasus region and Turkey were discussed, according to the Washington Post. Earlier reports on the trip said it was paid for by two Texas nonprofits closely affiliated with followers of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ).
A representative of SOCAR confirmed to OpenSecrets Blog that his company provided the money to AFAZ. According to a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing from 2014, AFAZ was working on behalf of SOCAR. Travel disclosures by the lawmakers who went to Baku indicate the travel and other costs were paid by the Turquoise Council or one of several Turkic-American groups with close ties to the Council.

Members of a Congressional delegation to Baku in May 2013, pictured with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. (AFAZ website).

But the journey was only one of the benefits the lawmakers received from parties involved in planning the event. At least five of the lawmakers who attended the conference received tens of thousands of dollars since 2011 from board members and employees of the two nonprofits as well as individuals affiliated with several other Texas-based organizations linked to Gulen. Two of them sponsored bills that appear to benefit Azerbaijani natural gas interests and efforts to build a pipeline through the region.
The trip to Baku was not a secret, nor was it on its face unusual. Lawmakers may take trips at others’ expense — as long as those picking up the tab aren’t foreign governments or lobbyists. The House Ethics Committee must approve the trips in advance, and did so in this case. But the nonprofits misrepresented themselves to the Ethics Committee and were actually funded by SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, according to the Post‘s account of the ethics report. The lawmakers who took the trip – and whose travel costs ran into the tens of thousands of dollars each, including gifts like carpets and tea sets — have denied knowing the true source of the funding.
Rauf Mammedov, SOCAR’s representative in the United States and a board member of AFAZ, told OpenSecrets Blog that it is true that his company funded AFAZ, but insisted it was never a secret.
“SOCAR gave funds to AFAZ in 2013 and those funds were intended to help facilitate the conference,” Mammedov said. “In return, AFAZ was to ensure that SOCAR would be publicly and prominently identified as a main sponsor of the conference.” Mammedov also said that SOCAR does no lobbying.
But Chris Rizek, an attorney representing AFAZ, said in a statement that AFAZ did not fund the congressional trips, and on travel disclosure forms it appears the Turquoise Council paid for the lawmakers to go to Baku. Representatives of the Turquoise Council did not respond to multiple requests seeking an interview as to the source of the money.
Most of the members of the congressional delegation, including those whose travel was not covered by the nonprofits, seem to have had a long and friendly relationship with the Gulen movement and those interested in expanding oil and gas interests in the Caspian Sea region. OpenSecrets Blog analyzed donations made by board members of the two foundations, along with any identifiable family members, and directors and employees of several other nonprofit organizations with ties to the Gulen movement, and found hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to Congress and at least $196,000 to the campaigns of five members of the delegation to Baku since 2008.
Taking an interest in Azerbaijan
The development of natural gas fields in the Caspian Sea involves an intersection of Turkish and Azerbaijani interests. While the conference was held in Baku, where SOCAR is based, the gas would have to travel via a pipeline through Turkey in order to make it to markets in Europe or elsewhere. In fact, many members of the congressional delegation traveled on to Turkey after the conference.
The overlap between those involved in the two nonprofits that shuttled members of Congress to Baku and donors to the lawmakers adds a further element of intrigue to the story. Many of the donors, as well as the two nonprofits, appear to be affiliated with the religious and political movement associated with Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam who went into self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania in the late 1990s. Gulen, whose followers number in the millions worldwide, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have had an antagonistic relationship, particularly in the wake of a  corruption scandal that has weakened Erdogan’s administration.
Shortly after returning from the conference, which took place on May 28-29, 2013, Rep. James Bridenstine (R-Okla.) sponsored an amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill that would have required the Department of Defense to issue reports on the strategic importance of natural gas interests in the Caspian Sea area and the value of building a pipeline out of the region.
On June 13, a mere two weeks after the conference, his office issued not one, but two press releases proclaiming his support for the amendment.
“Full exploitation of Caspian resources and pipeline diversification could have big implications for both NATO energy security and the political independence of the post-Soviet world,” Bridenstine’s press release claimed.
The amendment — which was included in the final version of the bill passed by the House, but not the version ultimately signed into law — specifically called for the Department of Defense to submit “a detailed report on the implications of new energy resource development and distribution networks, both planned and under construction, in the areas surrounding the Caspian Sea for energy security strategies of the United States and NATO.”
In December 2013, Bridenstine took a flurry of further actions to promote the idea of developing Caspian Sea natural gas interests.
On Dec. 10, he published an op-ed in the Washington Times, in which he railed against Russia and declared that “rather than capitulate to Moscow’s bullying, Baku builds oil and gas pipelines that specifically avoid the trap of crossing into Russian territory.”
“Fortunately, Azerbaijan’s energy boom – a genuine partnership with private enterprise – provides an additional way to ensure energy security,” Bridenstine wrote. “The United States should fully support Azerbaijan’s energy development so that Baku is not forced to choose between integrating with the West or being coerced into Vladimir Putin’s dreams of a new Russian imperium.”
Bridenstine also argued that Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act of 1992 should be repealed. That language bans Azerbaijan from participating in a number of aid and economic programs open to other former Soviet republics. A waiver of the ban has been in place since 2001.

Rep. James Bridenstine (R-Okla.) with Irada Akhoundova, AFAZ board member and president of Houston-Baku Sister City Association. (via HoustonBaku.org)

On Dec. 15, Bridenstine visited the Azerbaijan Center in Houston for an event sponsored by the Houston-Baku Sister City Association — an organization run by Irada Akhoundova, a board member of AFAZ.
On his disclosure forms, Bridenstine valued the Baku trip at more than $14,100. But that’s not all that came his way. In the 2014 election cycle alone, the Oklahoma congressman also received $29,000 from donors in the network associated with AFAZ or the Turquoise Council, an OpenSecrets analysis shows. There were 11 different donors, and all the money came in on three dates: three weeks before the Baku trip, on May 7, 2013; nine days after his op-ed, on Dec. 19, 2013; and Oct. 27, 2014.
Bridenstine’s office said it did not have time to respond to questions on the subject. But others on the Baku trip also tried to bring Congress’s attention to development of natural gas interests in the Caspian Sea after their return.
Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), who attended the conference but, according to his office, was a speaker and did not have his expenses paid by AFAZ or Turquoise Council, has sponsored two House resolutions “[e]xpressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect to promoting energy security of European allies through opening up the Southern Gas Corridor.” Specifically, the resolutions highlight the value of the pipeline sought by organizers of the Baku conference. The first iteration was sponsored on June 27, 2013, one month after the Baku conference.
Seven of the 10 other members on the Baku trip, including Bridenstine, signed on as cosponsors to the first version, and four of the 10 signed on to the more recent one, which Turner sponsored in March.
According to an OpenSecrets Blog analysis of Turner’s campaign finances, he has received at least $38,200 over his career from donors linked to AFAZ, Turquoise Council or the other Gulen-affiliated groups. Again, many of the donations came on the same date.
For example, on Dec. 20, 2012, several months before the Baku trip, Kemal Oksuz, the chairman of the Turquoise Council and AFAZ donated $2,500 to Turner. The same day, a Houston man named Tarik Celik, the head of a group called the American Turkic Business Council, which uses the same mailing address as the Turquoise Council, also donated $2,500, as did his wife.
Turner’s office refused to answer questions about donations to his campaign.
Odd couple?
Reps. Ted Poe and Sheila Jackson Lee could hardly be more ideologically at odds or represent districts that are more demographically different. Poe is a conservative Republican and a member of the Tea Party Caucus; he represents the northern suburbs of Houston. Jackson Lee is a liberal Democrat elected by the voters of inner city Houston, and in 2010 generated a ruckus by comparing the Tea Party to the Klu Klux Klan at the NAACP annual convention.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. (AFAZ website)

But they do have some things in common. Both went on the Baku trip as paid guests of the Turquoise Council. And both have received significant campaign money from board members of that group and AFAZ, as well as from board members or employees of a slew of Gulen-linked organizations, mainly in Texas. Those organizations include the Harmony Public School charter school system, a sprawling and fast-growing chain with a heavy emphasis on STEM education, and North American University, a relatively new school in Houston with a similar focus on science. Neither is officially affiliated with Gulen, but followers of the movement fill many of the top leadership roles and a number of those involved with both of the educational institutions have ties to various board members of AFAZ or Turquoise Council.
Since 2011, Jackson Lee has received more than $78,000 from donors identified by OpenSecrets as associated with AFAZ, the Turquoise Council or other nonprofits in the Gulen orbit, and Poe has received $39,200. And in a strange bit of ideological dissonance, a number of these contributors gave to both lawmakers — including the wife of the founder of AFAZ and the Turquoise Council and eight staff members of Harmony Public Schools.
Jackson Lee, the top recipient of money from the donors identified by OpenSecrets, declined to answer any questions about the donations. A spokesperson told OpenSecrets Blog only that her campaign obeys all campaign finance laws.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) with the president of Azerbaijan in Baku in May 2013. (AFAZ website)

In total, OpenSecrets Blog found this group of donors has donated more than $482,000 to federal candidates since 2011. While the OpenSecrets Blog analysis focused primarily on donors from Texas to politicians on the May 2013 trip to Baku and those most closely linked to AFAZ and the Turquoise Council, a 2014 investigation published by BuzzFeed found pockets of Gulen donors in New York City as well. While some of those donors overlapped with those identified by OpenSecrets Blog, Buzzfeed found donations from Gulen groups to a sixth member of the May 2013 Baku delegation, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.).
The Kemal Oksuz nexus
Among the most generous of these donors is Kemal Oksuz, a Houston businessman and the founder of both the Turquoise Council and AFAZ. In 2013, Oksuz was also listed as a board member of the Turkic American Alliance, the nonprofit which claims to bring together the various Turkish American organizations that paid for the travel that was not picked up by the Turquoise Council. Oksuz and his immediate family members have donated more than $103,000 to federal politicians since 2011, according to OpenSecrets.org data.
That includes $26,200 they gave to four members of the Baku delegation, including $5,000 to then Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), just six days before the event – which Okusz attended as well. They increased their giving to Stockman by another $7,000 later in the summer of 2013.

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) center, with AFAZ board member Arada Akhoundova in blue and white. AFAZ founder Kemal Oksuz at far right. (HoustonBaku.org)

Oksuz is the former executive director of the Niagara Foundation, a Chicago-based nonprofit that lists Fethullah Gulen as its chairman. Oksuz, who did not return calls or emails seeking comment, was also the co-owner of Target Design Management, a Houston construction firm, which has done work worth tens of millions of dollars for a small, close-knit group of organizations with strong links to the Gulen movement. According to the firm’s website, its current projects include a $13 million contract with Harmony Public Schools and a $59 million contract with North American University. In fact, the ties between Harmony and Oksuz’ firm are so close, and the relationship so lucrative, that the firm attracted national attention soon after it was established.
Okusz appears to have multilayered political connections. Milla Perry Jones, the sister of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is on the AFAZ board. Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign received at least $25,000 from this network of donors. And Okusz’ social media accounts are littered with photos of him with prominent American politicians — including numerous shots of him in Baku on the 2013 trip, with, among others, Bridenstine and Turner. Oksuz also appears in pictures from the 2013 visit by Bridenstine to the Houston-Baku event.
Oksuz declined to comment. AFAZ’ attorney, Chris Rizek, said in a statement that he “believes the conference served as a forum to advance shared goals and greater understanding between the United States and a key ally in an important region of the world.” He did not respond to questions about whether Oksuz knew of a coordinated effort to raise funds for members of Congress who might help develop gas interests in the region.
In 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fethullah Gulen told followers they may not visit him at his estate in Pennsylvania without first donating to their local member of Congress; Gulen denied saying that.
Ethics Investigation
The question of who really paid for trips remains unanswered, but may not for long.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the House Ethics Committee launched a formal investigation into the matter in March.
Rauf Mammedov, a board member of AFAZ and the representative of SOCAR in the United States, told OpenSecrets Blog that it was no secret that his company funded AFAZ. But he disavowed any knowledge of the details of how the trip was paid for.
“SOCAR gave funds to AFAZ in 2013 and those funds were intended to help facilitate the conference. In return,” Mammedov said, “AFAZ was to ensure that SOCAR would be publicly and prominently identified as a main sponsor of the conference. You’d have to speak with the trip organizers to get more information about how things were paid for.”
Although he’s a board member of AFAZ, Mammedov said his day-to-day interaction with the organization was “nonexistent.”
Mammedov also denied any knowledge of an effort to encourage donors to give to members of Congress.
Rizek, the AFAZ attorney, complained that the report leaked to the Washington Post had made it difficult for the truth to come out.
“The government disregarded due process by leaking a preliminary report to the press outside of congressionally mandated procedures,” he said in a statement to OpenSecrets Blog. “A full and legitimate process would have revealed the preliminary report’s inaccuracies … Contrary to the assertions of the preliminary report and related press stories, for example, AFAZ did not underwrite congressional travel expenses and any donations AFAZ received therefore did not fund congressional travel.”
Rizek did not respond to questions about Oksuz’ other group, the Turquoise Council, which the lawmakers reported as the main underwriter of the trip.

Gulen Movement King of the Junkets Kemal Oksuz and 5 Non Profits behind 2013 "lawmakers" trip to Azerbaijan

August 6th will be the date the House Ethics Committee will discuss the findings of their investigation on the 2013 US lawmakers trip to Azerbaijan.  As you recall, this trip was paid for by the SOCOR oil of Azerbaijan (Gulenists operated) but the money was funneled to 5 non-profits in the USA operated by known members of the Gulen Movement.  With the junket hosted and facilitated by non other than Gulen money man Kemal Oksuz.  Kemal Oksuz started Niagara Foundation in Chicago, then started Turquoise Council of Turkic Asians based out of Texas, and is now the directors of the oil money greed group AFAZ (American Friends of Azerbaijan) 

Will Kemal Oksuz, the Gulen money man be the fall person for the politicians?  It's very likely he will fall under federal indictments of money laundering, civil RICO and other organized crime as the other Gulen money man Adem Arici who sits in Federal prison. 

The other scenario playing out is a statement released by the Ethics Committee that thinly "shoots the messenger" which is the great investigative journalists who broke this story.  Obtaining paperwork, that was key in this bribe trip which resulted in the lawmakers coming back to the USA and voting on lifting Iranian sanctions for the Deniz pipeline partnership with Azerbaijan.  If the "messengers" are shot, then we know there is no justice and freedom of good investigative journalism. 

House Ethics Committee Statement
http://ethics.house.gov/press-release/statement-chairman-and-ranking-member-committee-ethics-regarding-matter-allegations
Pursuant to House Rule XI, clauses 3(b)(8)(A) and 3(r), and Committee Rules 17A(b)(1)(B), 17A(c)(1), and 17A(k)(1), the Committee has voted to extend its review of the matters regarding Representative Jim Bridenstine, Representative Yvette Clarke, Representative Danny Davis, Representative Rubén Hinojosa, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Representative Leonard Lance, Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham, Representative Gregory Meeks, and Representative Ted Poe, which were transmitted to the Committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics on May 8, 2015.
The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee.  In light of the extraordinary circumstances here, the Committee has determined it is appropriate to provide additional information.
In these matters, a newspaper obtained materials transmitted by OCE to the Committee.  The newspaper then published a story about aspects of the materials and related allegations.  Other news outlets then reported on the newspaper story, apparently without having access to the materials transmitted by OCE to the Committee.
Although the Committee is required to make public the materials transmitted to it by OCE in certain circumstances, the Committee did not authorize the public release of those materials.  Such an unauthorized release may have violated House Rules and other standards of conduct.  Moreover, the unauthorized disclosure of the materials has directly impacted the Committee’s investigation, which began well before OCE transmitted the materials to the Committee.
Materials transmitted to the Committee by OCE are not intended to be the resolution of a matter.  Instead, they are intended to support OCE’s recommendation to the Committee about whether allegations in a particular matter should be investigated further or should be dismissed.  An OCE referral is expressly precluded from containing any conclusions regarding the validity of the allegations upon which it is based or the guilt or innocence of the individual who is the subject of a review.  In addition, the Committee is required to review a referral from OCE without prejudice or presumptions as to the merit of the allegations.
The Committee’s investigation and the materials sent to the Committee by OCE involve privately-sponsored, officially-connected travel to Azerbaijan.  Each of the nine Members sought the Committee’s review and determination whether they could accept the invitation.  In each case, the Committee reviewed the materials submitted by the Member and sponsor and approved the Member to accept the travel before the trip began.  Subsequently, questions arose about whether the trips complied with the requirements for such travel.
The Committee’s review of these matters is ongoing.  Every Member has fully cooperated with the Committee’s review.  In order to comply with Committee Rule 7 regarding confidentiality, out of fairness to all respondents, and to assure the integrity of its work, the Committee will refrain from making further public statements on this matter at this time.  The Committee’s next public statement with regard to the Azerbaijan Trips will occur on or before Thursday, August 6, 2015.

Foreward by http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com
Charter school “overseer” and public schools consultant, Denis Smith recently wrote about a Washington Post investigative story published on May 24, 2015, -- which chronicled a 2013 all-expense paid trip of 10 members of Congress along with their 32 staffers to Azerbaijan (our Congress seems to travel like royalty, with an entourage of 3 “staffers” per person). According to the Post, “The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, known as “SOCAR,” allegedly funneled $750,000 through non-profit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet republic…”(The Washington Post).

Smith makes an interesting analogy to the 2013 Congressional junket to Azerbaijan -- and to the practices of other American politicians who likewise greedily participate in “quid pro quo” practices – hands out and eyes closed approach – accepting free trips, campaign contributions, and gifts from Gulenists -- and in exchange for what?

What indeed! Exactly what are our legislators giving in exchange for receiving Gulenist gratuities? What’s a free trip to Istanbul or a Turkish rug worth these days? Is it worth the continuing violation of American educators’ civil rights, the abuse of American tax payer funding, and usurping of American jobs in order to bolster Gulenist ranks with H1-B visa holders?

While our legislators complacently stuff their mouths with free dinners, our public school funds, have – for the past 13 years, been methodically siphoned off to finance the 147 “Gulen-inspired,” charter schools, that among other things -- pay for the Gulenists’ graduate degrees, hire and pay H1-B visa holders’ higher prevailing wages (versus their American and more experienced educators and administrators), and whatever other follies the Gulenists manage to think up to divert our tax funds.

Instead of jetting off to places like Azerbaijan or Istanbul, perhaps our jet-setting politicians could take a trip over to their local unemployment offices and check out how many unemployed American educators and administrators are standing in line – and maybe just maybe – have something more to offer their constituents than tea and baklava --  like a job.

Below is Denis Smith’s article:

Published on May 24, 2015, by Denis Smith and reprinted with permission

Should Scrutiny of Legislative Foreign Travel be Part of Needed Charter School Reform?

On May 14, the Columbus Dispatch carried a Washington Post story about a 2013 congressional junket to Azerbaijan that has come to light recently. According to the Post, 10 members of Congress and 32 staffers, part of a group of more than 300 well-connected Americans, received  all-expense paid trips to this oil-rich former Soviet Republic and returned with exotic gifts.

In order to provide cover for the congressional junketeers, lest they fall afoul of (heaven forbid) law and regulation, some voodoo accounting was deployed. “The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, allegedly funneled $750,000 through non-profit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet republic…,” according to the Post story.

In as much as current laws prohibit foreign governments from engaging in activities that might influence the formation of national policy, one wonders if there are similar examples of junketeering on the state level that might raise questions about seeming influence on state law and regulation.

As Sarah Palin would say, you betcha.

For Ohio, the Niagara Foundation might provide an example, as it seems to show some similarities with the activities of SOCAR, though it has no apparent government ties.  A non-profit, Chicago-based Niagara is an organization whose honorary president is Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish exile and religious leader living in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Niagara shares close ties with Concept Schools, also based in Chicago, a regional charter school management company linked to Gulen and his adherents.

As part of the larger Gulen network, Concept manages charter schools in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Concept operates 19 charter schools in Ohio, and there are currently 147 schools that are part of the Gulen network, making it the second largest of the national charter chains.

Like SOCAR, Niagara and other Gulen-related organizations have offered elected officials and state regulators free trips to Turkey and sponsored receptions for state legislators. The following link details the travel sponsorship activities of these organizations on a state-by-state basis. It should be of some interest to Ohio residents that Cliff Rosenberger, currently Speaker of the House, is one of the legislators identified as the recipient of a trip to Turkey sponsored by Niagara.

In a post from April 2012, the Niagara Foundation’s website also identified three Ohio legislators that made a trip to Turkey, including Rosenberger. The group’s itinerary included Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Kayseri, and Antalya, according to Niagara’s website.

A 2013 report, “Concept Schools, Illinois, and the Gulen Movement,” found that the organization’s strategies are to “seek access to public officials, academics, and other influential people and VIPs, usually to offer a gift, an invitation to a special event or honorary dinner, a trip to Turkey, etc.” That same report contains this statement from the American Foreign Policy Council: “Gulen himself lives in the Poconos, a rural tourist hub in northeast Pennsylvania. He inspires his followers from America, making him, among other things, the most powerful figure in the world of American charter schools.”

In absorbing all of this, gentle reader, what can we take from these statements, other than the fact that the most powerful American charter school figure is not even an American?

Could it be that private, non-profit foundations (Niagara) exist to work in cooperation with charter school operators (Concept) to promote cultural understanding by offering all-expenses paid or largely subsidized trips to Turkey? Or could it be that the best way to achieve cultural understanding is to invite legislators, state policymakers, and perhaps even charter school authorizers on guided trips?

If you are skeptical about the real purposes of these trips – or junkets, as they are labeled when it comes to describe some congressional travel – then what should be in place in state law and regulation to ensure that transparency and accountability are present and that the public interest is served?

The tool that should help the public is probably already in place:

No public official shall use a position of authority or influence or office to secure anything of value or the promise or offer of anything of value that may manifest a substantial and improper influence with respect to his/her duties. R.C. 102.03(D)

This section of the Ohio Revised Code has served as one of the core features of the state’s ethics law. But in light of the activity of the Niagara Foundation and its allied organization, Concept Schools, state ethics law needs to be strengthened to include everyone that makes a living in the charter school industry, including employees of for-profit management companies, as well as non-profit organizations that serve as charter school authorizers. Whether state, school district, corporate or non-profit, the principle needs to be the same – by having access to public funds, no one can use a position of authority or influence to secure a gift or benefit as the result of their position. Certainly, there would be major pushback on expanding the language defining a “public official” to everyone who otherwise benefits directly from working in the charter school industry. But if we want to start on real reform of these so-called schools of choice, current ethics law needs to be greatly revised.

Since it is known that the current speaker, one among many others in positions of authority or influence, has benefited from a trip to Turkey while serving in the state legislature that supposedly monitors the operation, condition and performance of charter schools, what does the public need to know so that individuals can be held more accountable in the future due to increased transparency requirements in state ethics laws?

Here are some questions that need to be addressed:

• How can “anything of value” not include the cost of an overseas trip by legislators?
• What other members of the legislature have accepted anything of value from the Niagara Foundation and Concept Schools? Since legislators regularly vote on charter school policy and funding, would this constitute a conflict-of-interest for some members in light of the state ethics laws? If other current members have accepted trips, do any serve on such key committees as education and finance?
• Have invitations for travel been conveyed to employees of private agencies that work in the charter school industry, inasmuch as Ohio law allows non-profit organizations to serve as charter school authorizers? If this has occurred, shouldn’t there be voluntary disclosure as part of the charter school clean-up and reform process?
• Have third-parties, like the SOCAR example with the congressional delegation, been used to extend invitations and pay for travel so that other, more well-known organizations, have some cover and avoid the limelight?
• Has any member of the legislature or any other public agency ever disclosed the approximate cost of a trip sponsored by any organization that has an interest in the continued development of privately operated, publicly funded charter schools?
• Has any member returned with any gifts, and if so, has the value been accurately reported? This question is posed in light of the work of the Office of Congressional Ethics and its findings. The Post story contains this interesting passage: “Investigators also said lawmakers received a number of gifts, including crystal tea sets, briefcases, silk scarves, turquoise earrings, gold-painted plates and Azerbaijani rugs. Some congressional staff members told the investigators they thought that the rugs were worth about $300 — $50 below the reporting threshold — and that they didn’t need to disclose them on their forms filed with the Ethics Committee.”

These questions are raised in light of the ethics probe underway in Washington that is centered on foreign travel and the need for full disclosure and transparency regarding the trip, its sponsors, and any intended influence on the legislative process.  But they are also only the tip of the iceberg.

Like the Titanic, the for-profit charter school industry has for too long been sailing in dangerous, murky, non-transparent waters, on a zigzag course to disaster. Addressing these legitimate questions is important in the continuing work of delivering systemic charter school reform. After all, we have these questions in search of answers.

But there’s one more thing. Since we have been talking about ethics law and regulation, it should be understood that the very people who write and enact such laws should start leading by example. For the very people who champion these so-called schools of choice by the creation of law and regulation, there is no other choice.

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session,” Mark Twain once observed. For the citizens of Ohio, however, the ironic thing might be that we in fact may be safer when the legislature is in town rather than on an overseas junket sponsored by some organization unknown to us.

So is it time for the legislature to investigate itself (snicker)? As Sarah Palin would say, you betcha. 

NOTE:  Since this article was written, a reception for members of the legislature sponsored by the Niagara Foundation was held in the Statehouse Atrium on May 20.

Denis Smith is a retired public school administrator who has worked as a charter school consultant for an Ohio charter school sponsor organization and as a staff member in the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Community Schools.  As such, he is a charter school watchdog and has also served as a director of communications for several organizations.

http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/05/24/should-scrutiny-of-legislative-foreign-travel-be-part-of-needed-charter-school-reform/

 

Ten Reps being probed under ethics code for Gulen sponsored junket to Azerbaijan

Maybe we’ve got a gang of simpletons running our government who would never think to ask why somebody is giving them as much as $20,000 worth of free airfare and gifts. Maybe it’s more realistic to conclude that they knew something was expected in return but wanted a luxury vacation and thought they could get away with it.
Either way, the cat is now out of the Congressional bag and ten lawmakers have some serious explaining to do.
An ethics investigation is underway into a 2013 luxury junket in which ten members of Congress were treated to a lavish vacation and gifts by SOCAR, an Azerbaijan state-run oil company. The money, roughly $750,000 was run through non-profits in the United States, allegedly to avoid detection, as reported by the Washington Post.
Allegations include the filing of false statements with Congress by the non-profits, in which they stated that they were the sponsors of the “conference.” Federal law as well as congressional rules prohibit foreign governments from purchasing favorable treatment from American lawmakers.

The famous inept Shiela Jackson Lee

 
It just so happens that SOCAR was seeking an exemption from U.S. Iranian sanctions in order to build a $28 billion gas pipeline project in the Caspian Sea.
Those under investigation and the amounts of airfare received in addition to other gifts are:

• Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) Member of Financial Services Committee – $19,961.80
• Danny K. Davis (D-IL) Member of Ways and Means Committee – $16,972.00
• Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) Member of Armed Services Committee – $13,997.70
• Former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) Member of Foreign Affairs Committee – $13,430.60
• Ted Poe (R-TX) Member of Foreign Affairs Committee, chairman, subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade – $13,376.60
• Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) Member of Homeland Security Committee – $13,222.90
• Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) Member of Ethics Committee – $7,260.60
• Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) Member of Budget Committee – $7,050.90
• Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY) Member of Foreign Affairs Committee – $5,741.60
• Leonard Lance (R-NJ) Member of Energy and Commerce Committee – $1,884.70
• Mike Turner (R-OH) Member of Armed Services Committee – Turner attended while under a separate delegation

  

We can understand the Democrats being involved in this. For many it’s all they can do to raise their arms and parrot “hands up don’t shoot.” They truly may not understand that there is no such thing as a free ride, that somebody always fays the fare. Sheila Jackson Lee may have thought SOCAR was an acronym for Slave Owning Caucasians And Racists and assumed that it was merely their white guilt compelling them to pay her what she was, by virtue of her ancestry, rightfully due. SOCAR could have probably gotten away with just a couple of scarves in Lee’s case, but it’s too late now. The inappropriate enticements have been awarded.
It is interesting to note that one Democrat, Rep Yvette Clarke of NY, is herself a member of the House Ethics Committee. Perhaps a reassignment to another committee would place her somewhere where the mission better matches her character.
Ted Poe, as a former chief felony prosecutor in Harris County should have and likely did know better. Perhaps there’s a reasonable explanation and the offenses aren’t as bad as they appear but nobody is going to spend that kind of money and expect nothing in return. If Poe didn’t recognize the problem, perhaps that is because it is just one instance of many, of the nature of purchasing influence in Washington DC.
How was he or anyone to know that this would be the one of many that would happen to gain the public’s eye? The total of $750,000 is much more than the indicated amounts of airfare and trinkets. There must be more accounting to be done and with it, will come more accountability

Is oil rich Azerbaijan ready to give up on their US lobbying via the Gulen Movement?

Turkish theologian Fethullah Gülen has during the past three decades built a network of schools, businesses, media-outlets, and civil-society organizations. The closing of schools in Azerbaijan based on his principles could affect Turkey’s relations with the US.

Azerbaijan’s recent crackdown on institutions and individuals allegedly linked to the influential Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen may not have halted promotional work by Gülen-associated organizations in the United States for the Azerbaijani government.

Baku’s wariness toward the elderly Turkish cleric, now living in Pennsylvania, first surfaced last December, whenTurkey, Azerbaijan’s closest ally, claimed that Gülen planned to overthrow the government of then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a formerly close Gülen ally.

Following an April meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Erdoğan, a few influential Azerbaijani officials, tagged by media as sympathetic to Gülen, lost their positions, and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) took over private high-schools, university-exam-preparation courses and a university run by a company linked to the so-called Gülen-movement. Some of the facilities were later closed.

Azerbaijani media had claimed that the movement, which advocates moderate Islam coupled with globalization, interfaith dialogues and “betterment of the individual,” had “infiltrated” Azerbaijan’s secular government.

But this supposed concern may not have extended to the movement’s lobbying efforts for Azerbaijan in the US.
In reality, noted Fuad Aliyev, a researcher into Islam in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani government has “a close relationship” with the Gülen network, which “helps the government to lobby itself in Washington.”
Lobbying both local and national American politicians is a top priority for Azerbaijan, which, at just under $2.3 million, ranked among the top ten foreign countries for such expenditures in the US in 2013, according to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundations, a Washington, DC-based advocate for government-accountability.
As the South-Caucasus country sees its international profile rising – whether as a strategic energy hub or partner in the West’s anti-terrorism campaigns – that priority will remain intact.
But Azerbaijan also uses less overt lobbying methods.
One of the chief among them appears to be the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE), a Houston,Texas-based non-profit umbrella group that describes its aim as “pursuing the interests of Turkic Americans and friends of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Houston, Washington and beyond.”
TCAE’s president and chief executive officer, Kemal Oksuz, formerly served as executive director of the Niagara Foundation, a Chicago-based network of non-profits that promote the teachings of Fetullah Gülen, the Foundation’s honorary president. Oksuz himself also has worked as head of the Gülen Institute, a Houston research organization that shares a similar goal.
Aside from cultural outreach programs within the US, the TCAE organizes trips for US congresspersons to Azerbaijan, US-Azerbaijan conventions and dinners with US officials. It also has promoted statewide recognition of the 1992 massacre of ethnic Azeris in Khojaly, during Azerbaijan’s war with Armenia over breakaway Nagorno Karabakh, as well as Azerbaijan’s oil and gas-pipeline projects.
The reason for that interest is clear: Oksuz serves as the president of the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ), another Houston-based non-profit organization. Rauf Mammadov, head of SOCAR USA, serves as the group’s treasurer.
Whether SOCAR’s takeover of the Gülen-linked educational facilities in Azerbaijan affected that relationship is not known. Neither AFAZ nor the Turquoise Council was available for comment.
In late April, though, after the warnings about a supposed Gülen-directed “infiltration” of the Azerbaijani government had begun, the Turquoise Council went ahead with promotions for the AFAZ-hosted, annual US-Azerbaijan Convention.
No Turquoise Council public events involving promotion of Azerbaijan are known to have occurred since then, however.
But those who have followed the Gülen movement’s activities in both Azerbaijan and Turkey doubt that Baku will want to call it quits – barring, that is, fresh pressure from now Turkish President Erdoğan, who recently received Azerbaijan’s highest honor, the Order of Heydar Aliyev.
“I don’t think that this is something [that] Azerbaijani diplomacy can easily refuse because [the] Azerbaijani community and lobby capacities in the US are weak, whereas [the]Turkish-Gülenist associations are very well implemented,” commented Bayram Balci, a scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Russia and Eurasia Program who formerly worked in Baku for the French Institute of Anatolian Studies.
A dozen US state legislatures have passed resolutions or adopted citations related to the Khojaly massacre since 2011. The measures have been publicized heavily by Gülen-sympathetic Turkic or Turkey-related organizations.
The promotion, however, works both ways, commented Aliyev.
“That lobby help was a guarantee of safety for Gülen schools and Gulen-linked entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan.”
But why the Gülen movement would continue to promote Azerbaijani causes in the US despite the takeover of Gülen-associated educational operations in Azerbaijan remains unclear.
As yet, small and mid-size Turkish businesses in Azerbaijan identified by researchers as run by Gülen sympathizers do not appear to have been similarly targeted.
Aliyev attributes that immunity to the movement’s importance for the Azerbaijani government. The Turquoise Council, in particular, is believed to have warm ties with the Azerbaijan American Alliance led by Anar Mammadov, son of Azerbaijani Transportation Minister Ziya Mammadov, and a member of one of the country’s most politically influential families.
But, ultimately, what long-term return Azerbaijan can find from such lobbying groups, whether paid or unpaid, is uncertain, noted Richard D. Kauzlarich, a former US ambassador to Azerbaijan who now teaches at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy.
“The fact that they can assemble a group of former officials and members of Congress is not unusual. If you spend enough money. . .,” Ambassador Kauzlarich wrote in an email interview with EurasiaNet.org. “From Baku, the participants may appear to be ‘important,’ but, in the context of Washington politics . . . it’s not who shows up at receptions and dinners, but who can get things done . . . that determines one’s ‘importance.’”
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/70271

Meanwhile at the Kennedy center in Washington DC, Azerbaijan Lobbying celebrates the "Contract of the Century"

 



Azerbaijani News in U.S., Oil & Gas

20th Anniversary of “Contract of the Century” Celebrated in Washington, DC

September 18, 2014 •    from Texas Azerbaijani Organization

http://texasazerbaijanis.com/20th-anniversary-contract-century-celebrated-washington-dc/

WASHINGTON, D.C.
“Contract of the Century”, signed on September 20, 1994, marks the beginning of independent Azerbaijan’s policy of energy diversification, initiated by late President Heydar Aliyev and symbolizes the success, gained by Azerbaijan in regional and international partnerships. The contract signed in Baku with the participation of major energy companies and partner countries is still important and relevant after 20 years.
To honor the success of the contract and the international partnership that guaranteed this success, Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to United States, BP, SOCAR and USACC organized a reception at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, one of the most prestigious cultural centers of the capital. The event was attended by the representatives of Obama Administration, top officials of U.S. State Department and Department of Energy, congressmen, representatives of diplomatic corps, academic circles as well as members of the business community.
Opening the ceremony, the speakers highlighted the historical significance of the deal, its successful implementation and achievements to date. Ambassador Elin Suleymanov underlined the signing of the “Contract of the Century” under Heydar Aliyev’s strong leadership as an important step to export the hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian to international markets. Ambassador Suleymanov noted that the event honoring the 20th Anniversary of the “Contract of the century” that will be held in Baku on September 20 will mark yet another date in the history of the contract. He informed the audience about the groundbreaking ceremony of Southern Gas Corridor to be held in Baku on September 20 and said he believes this event will be the beginning of a new era for all the region and participant countries. Bill Delahunt, former Congressman and new USACC Co-Chairman and Susan Sadigova, USACC Executive Director spoke about the contribution the contract had made to the development of Azerbaijan and the whole region.
Members of U.S. Congress – Jim Moran, Ruben Hinojosa, Andre Carson, Henry Cuellar and Donald Payne – expressed their support for the development of U.S.-Azerbaijan relations, stressed the leading role of Azerbaijan in the region and congratulated it with the success of “Contract of the Century”.
Reflecting on his firs trip to Azerbaijan before the “Contract of the Century” was signed 20 years ago, Jim Moran commended on the enormous development Azerbaijan made during this period and recommended everyone to visit Azerbaijan.
Ruben Hinojosa highlighted the work implemented under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic with the focus on turning “black gold into human capital”.
Andre Carson praised the contribution Azerbaijan was making in the energy security of Europe.
Congressmen Pete Gallego, Mike Fitzpatrick and Steve Stockman also attended the event and expressed their support to Azerbaijan.
Joe Murphy, Vice President of Southern Corridor for Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey and Michael Hoffman, External Affairs Director for Trans-Adriatic Pipeline reminded the pessimistic views expressed about the “Contract of the Century” in the past and added that the success of the contract proves that Southern Gas Corridor groundbreaking ceremony to be held in a few days will be as successful.
Amos Hochstein, Acting Special Envoy of U.S. Department of State, Jonathan Elkind, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs of Department of Energy and Eric Rubin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Department of State reminded the crucial and consistent support the U.S. government extended to the “Contract of the Century” and its role in the strong cooperation between U.S. and Azerbaijan. Amos Hochstein, who will be attending the event honoring 20th Anniversary of the Contract of Century in Baku and Jonathan Elkind, who was the participant of the signing ceremony of the contract in Baku 20 years ago, spoke about the future perspectives of Southern Gas Corridor. Deputy Assistant Secretary Rubin stressed the importance given to Azerbaijan by the U.S. and said he believed these relations are based on constructive partnership, mutual respect, understanding and support.
The event continued with the performance of Azerbaijan’s talented jazz pianist Emil Afrasiyab and the national dances performed by Silk Road Dance Group.