Gulen Politician warning, "You touch it you burn" another Gulen politician steps down

 

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2012/may/11/sixty-minutes-to-air-report-on-turkish-charter-sch/

60 Minutes" to Air Report on Turkish Charter School Cleric Tied to Bob Filner

Just in time for the final stretch of San Diego's race for mayor, the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes is airing a report this coming Sunday about a controversial Turkish spiritual leader, followers of whom, records show, have contributed money to the mayoral campaign of Democratic congressman Bob Filner.

The Muslim scholar, Fethullah Gulen, leads a worldwide movement that has been heavily involved in creating high-tech charter schools around the world and has both backers and detractors.

As we reported in March of last year, Filner visited Turkey in late December 2010, courtesy of a nonprofit corporation called the Pacifica Institute:

"Highlights, according to the itinerary, included a stop at Topkapi Palace, lunch at Sultan Ahmet Square, a visit to the Karakoy Jewish Foundation Museum, capturing '700 years of amiable relations between Jews and Turks,' and a December 25 shopping tour of the Grand Bazaar, 'one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1200 shops.… Many of the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather coats, gold jewelry and the like.'"

Filner took another tour paid for by Pacifica, this one with stops in Istanbul and northern Iraq, in April 2011, according to a travel disclosure he filed with the House a year ago this month.

That trip was said to be worth a total of $3,700, the filing said.

The congressman subsequently wielded a pair of scissors at the 2011 ribbon-cutting for the new Washington headquarters of the Turkic American Alliance, an event videoed and posted on the group's YouTube page.

Read more: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2012/may/11/sixty-minutes-to-air-report-on-turkish-charter-sch/#ixzz2huaIsKbD

A LESSON LEARNED FOR ALL AMERICAN POLITICANS THAT ACCEPT BRIBE MONEY FROM THE TURKISH GULEN MOVEMENT AND LOBBYING.  BOB FILNER HAS HAD TO STEP DOWN AS MAYOR OF SAN DIEGO

BECAUSE OF SCANDALS AMONG THEM IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT. 

EX San Diego Mayor Bob Filner charged with Felony and false imprisonment

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/15/ex-san-diego-mayor-bob-filner-charged-with-felony-false-imprisonment-battery/

Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to felony false imprisonment and two misdemeanor counts of battery involving three women, just weeks after he left office amid a storm of sexual harassment allegations.

The plea came in California state Superior Court. Prosecutors did not elaborate on the details of the allegations to which Filner pleaded guilty. The victims were identified only as Jane Does. Filner's attorney, Jerry Coughlan, said none of the victims were employees.

Filner, 71, did not address reporters but Coughlan said the former mayor "profusely apologizes" for his behavior.

"I think he wants to redeem his original legacy, which was a wonderful one, and put this behind him," Coughlan said.

YET THIS LOSS OF THE GULEN MOVEMENT’S TOOL IN SAN DIEGO DIDN’T STOP THEM FROM APPLYING FOR A NEW CHARTER SCHOOL IN San Diego county called “Magnolia Science Academy-Next Generation”

See petition to the SDUSD here

http://www.sandi.net/page/380

http://www.sandi.net/cms/lib/CA01001235/Centricity/Domain/54/Magnolia%20Science%20Academy-Next%20Generation%20Charter.pdf

 

Gulen Charter School in Texas submits application ...

Harmony Parent the TRUTH: Gulen Charter School in Texas submits application ...: Sharif Salim M.ed is listed on page 393 of the charter application as a board member of the proposed Harmony School of Excellence in Washi...

Americans voice your concern about the Gulen Movement cult in US Education SIGN PETITION

Remind American Politicians and our President that they work for American tax payers not the Gulen Movement
Send this petition to 5 of your friends to stop the Gulen Movement in our education and in our policy making.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-135-gulen-inspired-charter-schools-are-be-funded-taxpayer-funds/6rPf3Pwv

Gulenists donate to local politicians but also to President Obama's 2012 campaign

Chicago's Turkish Solidarity Action

at 3:00 he mentions how the islamic government of Turkey is destroying secularism and is supported by the USA.  at 3:19 he speaks about Fethullah Gulen's control of Turkey.

Turkish Groups Offer Free Foreign Trips For Tennessee Lawmakers

Turkish Groups Offer Free Foreign Trips For Lawmakers

by Phil Williams
Chief Investigative Reporter

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Who's providing free foreign trips to state lawmakers -- and what do they want?

A group of Tennessee legislators will soon be packing their bags and heading overseas for what most Tennesseans would consider an exotic trip.

But those lawmakers will not be picking up the tab -- and few seemed to know anything about the group that is.

In the waning days of this year's legislative session, lawmakers debated whether proposed changes to the state's campaign finance laws would open the door to foreign influence.

"If you want to know who contributes to my campaign, it's as easy as the click of the mouse," said Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, a Smith County Republican.

Still, what you won't find online -- and what Weaver did not mention -- is that, in late May, a select group of state lawmakers will be jetting off for a 12-day, all-expenses paid trip, landing first in Azerbaijan, then heading a few days later to nearby Turkey.

The invitations came from a group called the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeast -- with the money coming from a sister group called the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians.

Both groups have ties to a movement headed by a moderate Muslim imam named Fethullah Gulen.

"You have accepted the invitation to go on the trip?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Rep. Mark White.

"I would like to look into going on that, yes," the Memphis Republican answered.

"Why is that?"

"Because it's an educational experience."

White is one of the nine lawmakers who have accepted the invitation to go on the trip.

Others, according to a list provided to NewsChannel 5, are:

Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville; Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown; Rep. Vance Dennis, R-Savannah; Rep. Roger Kane, R-Knoxville; Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis; Rep. Joe Towns, D-Memphis; Rep. Johnnie Turner, D-Memphis; and Terri Lynn Weaver.

Tennessee Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons has also agreed to go, as has his assistant commissioner David Purkey.

"Does it matter to you who is paying for this trip?" we asked White.

"Yeah, we'll find that out," he answered on the last day of the legislative session. "Like I say, I just have not had a chance to -- we've been so busy in session -- just haven't had a chance to look into that yet."

Fethullah Gulen has generally drawn praise for his moderate religious views and his message of tolerance. Time Magazine just named him to its lists of the 100 most influential people in the world.

But a U.S. State Department cable published by Wikileaks describes his movement as being one that "officially professes to be interested in ecumenical understanding, but whose roots are intensely Islamic."

As 60 Minutes reported last year, the movement is also behind a secular network of science and math charter schools that began in Turkey and has now spread to the U.S.

One of those is in Memphis.

In fact, our NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered that the president of the Turkish American Chamber, Ayhan Korucu, is also the president of a Gulen school, the Fulton Science Academy, in Atlanta.

And the president of the Turquoise Council, Kemal Oksuz, is -- according to the New York Times -- a principal in a company that has built Gulen schools in the U.S. Oksuz also has served as chairman of the Gulen Institute in Houston and was interviewed for a PBS story on the imam.

The trip comes at a time that some lawmakers, like White, are pushing legislation to make it easier for charter schools to get approval to open across the state.

"You're telling me something that I haven't heard before," White said.

"Should you have asked who was providing the funding before you accepted?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked.

"Well," the lawmaker answered, "it's been done for so many years I didn't see any problem with it."

House Education Committee Chairman Harry Brooks, a Knoxville Republican who has been helping to coordinate the upcoming trip, keeps in his office mementos from both Azerbaijan and Turkey from a trip he accepted last year.

Brooks said that there were five Tennessee lawmakers on that trip.

Other lawmakers, according to Brooks, were: Sen. Reginald Tate, D-Memphis; Rep. Joe Armstrong, R-Knoxville; Rep. Josh Evans, R-Greenbrier; and Rep. Gary Odom, D-Nashville.

It was trip that Brooks described as part economic development, part goodwill.

"What we gain is, one, an understanding of a society that wants to be a friend to this country," he added.

But Brooks insisted that charter schools were never discussed.

"That has never been an item of discussion," he said.

And Tennessee isn't alone in getting attention from the Turkish groups.

According to a news report, some lawmakers have had second thoughts about such trips in Texas, where there's a whole chain of Gulen schools.

But even if the ultimate goal is to curry favor with lawmakers, Brooks still doesn't see a problem.

"If you're a legislator in the state of Tennessee and if you don't have the courage to vote your conviction -- whether someone has given you a donation or not -- you don't need to be down here -- simple fact," he said.

One of those invitees, Rep. Johnnie Turner, insisted that she is a staunch charter school opponent and has never discussed the issue with her hosts.

Under Tennessee law, if the hosts had hired lobbyists, these trips would be illegal.

But, as is, they are entirely legal -- and no one has to disclose them to the public.

Late Monday, NewsChannel 5 Investigates heard from Kemal Oksuz -- and he put the cost at close to $4,000 a person. He said lawmakers from several states were being invited.

Still, Oksuz insisted the goal is about establishing opportunities for partnerships, not about charter schools.

E-mail: pwilliams@newschannel5.com http://www.newschannel5.com/story/22111765/free-foreign-trips-for-state-lawmakers

 

View selected State Department cables (via Wikileaks):                        
Turkey's Invisible Man Casts Long Shadow
Turkish Gulenist Movement in Turkmenistan
Turkish Fethullah Gulen Network's Presence in Azerbaijan
Turkish Gulenist Schools: Be Everywhere or Be Nowhere
Fethullah Gulen: Why Are His Followers Traveling?
Verdict Suspended In Case Against Islamic Leader Fethullah Gulen

 

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