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Turkey, Europe’s Little Problem

August 11, 2016

Turkey, Europe’s Little Problem, Gatestone Institute, Burak Bekdil, August 11, 2016

♦ Europe is giving signals, albeit slowly, that it may be waking up from the “Turkey-the-bridge” dream. Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier said that his country’s relations with Turkey have grown so bad the two countries have virtually “no basis” for talks.

♦ “Italy should be attending to the mafia, not my son,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Typically, he does not understand the existence of independent judiciary in a European country. He thinks, as in an Arab sheikdom, prosecutors are liable to drop charges on orders from the prime minister.

♦ “We know that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify [Turkey’s] accession [to the European Union].” — Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern.

Nations do not have the luxury, as people often do, of choosing their neighbors. Turkey, under the 14-year rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist governments, and neighboring both Europe and the Middle East, was once praised as a “bridge” between Western and Islamic civilizations. Its accession into the European Union (EU) was encouraged by most EU and American leaders. Nearly three decades after its official bid to join the European club, Turkey is not yet European but has become one of Europe’s problems.

Europe’s “Turkish problem” is not only about the fact that in a fortnight a bomb attack wrecked a terminal of the country’s biggest airport and a coup attempt killed nearly 250 people; nor is it about who rules the country. It is about the undeniable democratic deficit both in governance and popular culture.

In only the past couple of weeks, Turkey was in the headlines with jaw-dropping news. In Istanbul, a secretary at a daily newspaper was attacked by a group of people who accused her of “wearing revealing clothes and supporting the July 15 failed coup.” She was six months pregnant.

Also in Istanbul, a Syrian gay refugee was murdered: he had been beheaded and mutilated. One social worker helping LGBT groups said: “Police are doing nothing because he is Syrian and because he is gay.”

Turkey is dangerous not only for gays and refugees. A French tourist was left bloodied and beaten by Turkish nationalists after he refused to hold a Turkish flag. Grisly footage shows the gang, encouraged by Erdogan to patrol the streets on “democracy watch,” telling the man “You will be punched if you don’t hold the flag.” The tourist is alone and does not appear to speak Turkish.

Meanwhile Europe is giving signals, albeit slowly, that it may be waking up from the “Turkey-the-bridge” dream. Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier said that his country’s relations with Turkey have grown so bad the two countries have virtually “no basis” for talks. He said that Germany has serious concerns about mass arrests carried out by Turkish officials. According to Steinmaier, Turkey and Germany are like “emissaries from two different planets.” Steinmaier is right. He is also not the only European statesman who sees Turkey as alien.

1777Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier (right) said that his country’s relations with Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan have grown so bad the two countries have virtually “no basis” for talks.

Erdogan recently threatened Italy that its bilateral relations with Turkey could deteriorate if Italian prosecutors investigating Erdogan’s son, Bilal, for money laundering, proceeded with their probe. “Italy should be attending to the mafia, not my son,” Erdogan said. Typically, he does not understand the existence of independent judiciary in a European country. He thinks, as in an Arab sheikdom, prosecutors are liable to drop charges on orders from the prime minister.

Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, answered Erdogan in language Erdogan will probably will not understand: “Italy has an independent legal system and judges answer to the Italian constitution and not the Turkish president.”

In unusual European realism, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that he would start a discussion among European heads of government to end EU membership talks with Turkey. He rightly called the accession talks “diplomatic fiction.” Kern said: “We know that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify [Turkey’s] accession.”

Even Turkish Cypriots on the divided island fear that Erdogan’s Islamization campaign may target their tiny statelet. On August 3, about 1,500 people from 80 groups spanning the political spectrum took to the streets in Nicosia to protest against “Turkey’s attempt to mold their secular culture into one that’s more in tune with Islamic norms.”

All of that inevitably makes Turkey an alien candidate waiting at Europe’s gates to join the club. According to a European survey, Turkey is the least-wanted potential EU member — even less wanted than Russia. Opposition to Turkish membership ranges from 54% (Norway) to 81% (Germany).

Celal Yaliniz, a little-known Turkish philosopher, likened Turks in the 1950s to “members of a ship’s crew who are running toward the west as their ship travelled east.” The Turks were not alone. Erdogan’s “liberal” Western supporters have been no different.

Categories: Erdogan, European Union, German - Turkish relations, Turkey and human rights, Turkey post-coup
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Christians Forced to Hide Bibles Amid Migrant Muslim Death Threats

August 11, 2016

Christians Forced to Hide  Bibles Amid Migrant Muslim Death Threats, Breitbart, Virginia Hale, August 11, 2016

(Please see also, Pope Francis and the Decline of the West. — DM)

A-worshiper-holds-a-small-Bible-640x480STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images

Bundestag member Erika Steinbach and Iranian-born pastor Mahin Mousapour called for much stronger sanctions for Muslims who abuse Christians in Germany at a press conference on Monday.

Highlighting the fact Christians suffer violence, harassment, and death threats in migrant lodgings, Ms. Mousapour criticised Germany for granting Islam “too much respect”.  Declaring anti-Christian hate attacks an affront to German values, politician Erika Steinbach advocated the government deport migrants who insult or attack Christians.

At the press conference Ms. Mousapour, who converted to Christianity more than 25 years ago, reported that Christians face various forms of persecution in migrant housing.

Ms Mousapour warned that Christians living in migrant housing are told they are “impure as a dog” and deserved death for rejecting Islam.

“Toys of Christian children are being destroyed, Christian asylum seekers are told not only to wash their dishes after eating but also that they must clean the entire kitchen as it would otherwise be ‘unclean’. Many Muslim asylum seekers call all Christians unclean. Church services are held in secret, bibles and crucifixes have to be hidden,” she explained.

Ms Mousapour, pastor of the Evangelical Free Church, disclosed that even converts who no longer live in migrant housing attract Muslims’ ire, and recounted her experience of being threatened at knifepoint on the street.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician called the anti-Christian hate crimes “horrific attacks on our fundamental values and our Constitution.

“This kind of crime weighs on me more heavily than shoplifting. If we do nothing about it we will lose our foundations in this country,” she added.

Ms. Steinbach advocated deportation for Muslims who attack or insult Christian migrants on the basis of their religion.

A vocal critic of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy to open Germany’s borders, Ms. Steinbach called for the European Union to set up refugee camps outside the bloc’s external borders. Here, the popular MP said, migrants would “stay until the war is over, then go back home”.

The pastor said she felt that a “misconceived tolerance” had led Germany to be overly respectful to Islam, pointing to Ramadan arrangements as a “disastrous” example of this.

During the Islamic month of fasting, migrant shelters in Germany catered to Muslim eating schedules, with Christians receiving only leftovers. The timing saw Christians disturbed by Muslims eating and reciting surahs before sunrise and then staying up very late for dinner.

Ms. Steinbach called for the system to be overhauled for next year. She suggested migrant housing serve “”breakfast, lunch and dinner as usual”, and that people who want to fast can save their meal to eat later on.

Ms. Mousapour commented: “We are here in Germany, in a Christian country! We must not allow others to change that.”

Categories: Germany, Islam and Christianity, Islamic integration, Islamic invasion, Islamic jihad, Islamic tolerance, Islamisation
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Pope Francis and the Decline of the West

August 11, 2016

Pope Francis and the Decline of the West, Front Page Magazine, Dennis Prager, August 11, 2016

pope_francis_malacanang_7

Pope Francis made comments last week that reveal the most important single thing you need to know about the modern world: The most dynamic religion of the last hundred years has been leftism. Not Christianity, and not Islam, but leftism.

Leftism has taken over the world’s leading educational institutions, the world’s news media and the world’s popular entertainment, and it has influenced Christianity (and Judaism) far more than Christianity (or Judaism) has influenced anything.

On July 26, two Muslims slit the throat of a French Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Jacques Hamel, 85, while he was saying Mass in his church.

Five days later, during his flight returning to Rome from World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Pope Francis gave a press conference. He was asked about the French priest and Islam by Antoine-Marie Izoard, a journalist with I.Media, a French Catholic news agency. Izoard said:

“Catholics are in a state of shock — and not only in France — following the barbaric assassination of Father Jacques Hamel in his church while he was celebrating Holy Mass. Four days ago … you told us once again that all religions want peace. But this holy priest, eighty-six years old, was clearly killed in the name of Islam. So I have two brief questions, Holy Father. When you speak of these violent acts, why do you always speak of terrorists but not of Islam? … And then, … what concrete initiative can you launch or perhaps suggest in order to combat Islamic violence?”

Pope Francis responded:

“I don’t like to speak of Islamic violence because every day when I open the newspapers I see acts of violence, here in Italy: someone kills his girlfriend, someone else his mother-in-law…and these violent people are baptized Catholics! They are violent Catholics…If I spoke about Islamic violence, I would also have to speak about Catholic violence.”

The pope of the Roman Catholic Church, when asked about Islamic terror and the slitting of the throat of a Roman Catholic priest by Islamic terrorists, responds that there is also Catholic terror — that a man who was baptized Catholic who “kills his girlfriend” is the moral and religious equivalent of Muslims who engage in mass murder in the name of Islam.

How can anyone compare:

—A person who happens to have been baptized Catholic as a child — and may have no Catholic identity as an adult — with an adult who affirms a religious identity?

—The murder of a girlfriend (most likely a crime of passion) with the ritual murder of a Catholic priest because he was a priest?

—Individual murders that have nothing to do with any ideology with mass murders committed in the name of an ideology?

Pope Francis then added:

“Terrorism is everywhere! … Terrorism … increases whenever there is no other option, when the global economy is centred on the god of money and not the human person, men and women. This is already a first form of terrorism. You’ve driven out the marvel of creation, man and woman, and put money in their place. This is a basic act of terrorism against all humanity. We should think about it.”

Terrorism grows “when there is no other option”?

The implication that Islamic terrorism is a desperate act arising from poverty is widely held on the left. But it is false. Most Islamic terrorists come from the middle class or above. In the recent case of the Bangladeshi terrorists, for example, nearly every one of them came from some of the wealthiest families in Bangladesh. And, as is well-known, most of the 9/11 hijackers came from middle- and upper middle-class families.

Islamic terrorism doesn’t come from economics; it comes from its theology.

Terrorism grows “when the global economy is centred on the god of money”?

The pursuit of money and terror have nothing to do with each other. Terrorism grows only when some ideology preaches it. All this statement does is provide an excuse for Islamist terror by blaming the “global economy” and the “god of money” instead of the terrorists and their god of death.

A “first form of terrorism” is when “the global economy is centred on the god of money”?

It is a bad thing when money becomes a god, but there is no comparison between the “god of money” and the horrors of Islamic terror. Yazidi women weren’t gang raped and burned alive because of the “global economy” and its “god of money.”

The only explanation for these statements is that Pope Francis has inherited his theology from Catholicism, but unlike his immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, he has inherited much of his moral outlook from leftism.

The Western combination of Judeo-Christian morality and political liberalism — with its doctrine of moral accountability, moral absolutes, confronting evil, and political and social freedom — has produced the most moral societies in world history.

The pope of the Roman Catholic Church should be its greatest advocate. But because of leftism, he isn’t.

Categories: Christian violence, Islam - causes of terrorism, Leftist perspectives, Pope Francis
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Compromised: Justice Dept. Refused FBI Probe of Clinton Foundation

August 11, 2016

Compromised: Justice Dept. Refused FBI Probe of Clinton Foundation, Front Page Magazine, Matthew Vadum, August 11, 2016

(Please see also, Report: Justice Department declined FBI request to investigate Clinton Foundation. — DM)

gty_ap_loretta_lynch_hillary_clinton_jt_150726_16x9_992

The highly politicized Department of Justice swatted down pesky FBI requests to investigate the Clinton Foundation earlier this year, CNN reported yesterday.

CNN buried the lede, as it frequently does on news stories that make Democrats look bad. The online version bears the innocuous-sounding headline, “Newly released Clinton emails shed light on relationship between State Dept. and Clinton Foundation.”

It is not until the 25th paragraph that the article states that an unidentified law enforcement official gave CNN a heads-up earlier this year. As the probe of Clinton’s private email servers was ramping up “several FBI field offices approached the Justice Department asking to open a case regarding the relationship between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation.”

At that time, the article continues, the Justice Department “declined because it had looked into allegations surrounding the Clinton Foundation around a year earlier and found there wasn’t sufficient evidence to open a case.”

Not even enough evidence to look into the foundation’s affairs?

Not more than a year after the publication of Peter Schweizer’s blockbuster book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, opened the floodgates for investigative reporters to dig into the matter.

As I’ve written before, various lawyers have told me there is already a strong legal case against Mrs. Clinton. The fact that she destroyed email evidence — evidence subject to a congressional subpoena, no less — is already evidence in itself that she obstructed justice through spoliation of evidence. Spoliation means you can take as evidence the fact that evidence has been destroyed. Courts are entitled to draw spoliation inferences and convict an accused person on that basis alone.

The only reason FBI Director James Comey didn’t recommend she be prosecuted is because, well, he lacks a spine and he’s corrupt. He said there was no evidence of Clinton’s “efforts to obstruct justice,” a requirement that does not actually appear in the Espionage Act.

Evidence of corruption at the Clinton Foundation is everywhere, yet CNN and much of the mainstream media are still doing everything they can to ignore, misrepresent, or downplay the questionable things Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton did through the foundation.

The congenitally corrupt Clintons created their private email system to frustrate Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) requesters, shield Hillary’s correspondence from congressional oversight, and steer money to their corrupt foundation, which, amazingly enough, still enjoys tax-exempt status.

These illegal, insecure private email servers Clinton used while at the State Department are at the heart of the scandal over her mishandling of an Islamic terrorist attack in militant-infested Benghazi, Libya on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 that left four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, dead. Even now, four years after the assault, the Obama administration has failed to provide an autopsy report about Stevens who was initially reported to have been ritualistically sodomized before being murdered by Muslim terrorists.

Every few days Judicial Watch has been releasing emails obtained under FoIA that may ultimately lead to evidence of political interference at the highest levels that provided cover for the anticipatory presidential bribe processing vehicle known as the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

“No wonder Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin hid emails from the American people, the courts and Congress,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “They show the Clinton Foundation, Clinton donors, and operatives worked with Hillary Clinton in potential violation of the law.”

On Tuesday the watchdog group published emails sent to Abedin, Clinton’s longtime aide with generational ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, seeking favors. Abedin now vice-chairs Clinton’s presidential campaign. She also worked at the State Department with Clinton and with her at the Clinton Foundation.

“The new documents reveal that in April 2009 controversial Clinton Foundation official Doug Band pushed for a job for an associate,” according to a Judicial Watch summary. “In the email Band tells Hillary Clinton’s former aides at the State Department Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin that it is “important to take care of [Redacted]. Band is reassured by Abedin that “Personnel has been sending him options.” Band was co-founder of Teneo Strategy with Bill Clinton and a top official of the Clinton Foundation, including its Clinton Global Initiative.”

Emails also show Abedin left then-Secretary Clinton’s daily schedule, presumably a  sensitive document, on a bed in an unlocked hotel room.

“An email on April 18, 2009, during a conference in Trinidad and Tobago, from aide Melissa J. Lan to Huma Abedin asks for the Secretary’s “day book binders.” Abedin replies: “Yes. It’s on the bed in my room. U can take it. My door is open. I’m in the lobby. Thx.” Moreover, the emails show the annoyance of another Clinton aide that the schedule was sent to an authorized State Department email address and not to an unsecured non-state.gov account.”

Other emails show Clinton campaign adviser and pollster Mark Penn provided Clinton advice on NATO and piracy. Clinton fundraiser Lana Moresky asked Clinton to have the State Department hire someone. Clinton asked Abedin to follow up and “help” the applicant and asked Abedin to “let me know” about the job.

Meanwhile, the Left is trying to take the focus off the Clinton Foundation.

A high-profile watchdog group controlled by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock is demanding the IRS investigate Donald Trump’s personal foundation for allegedly aiding his presidential campaign.

The call by CREW, or Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, has to be the most obvious political hit job of this election cycle.

CREW is a member of what some in the conservative think tank community call the “Brocktopus,” that is, the network of groups the disgraced former journalist runs, which spends oodles of money defending all things Clinton. An admitted serial liar, Brock’s empire of sleaze also includes “conservative misinformation” watchdog Media Matters for America, pro-Hillary disaster-control spin site Correct the Record, and American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC that promotes Hillary and attacks her critics.

CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder asked the IRS to investigate the Donald J. Trump Foundation, a tiny nonprofit founded by Trump decades ago to give away profits from his book, The Art of the Deal.

How the foundation, which ranked 4,347th in the FoundationSearch “Top Foundations by Assets for the state of New York” list would help the Trump campaign isn’t clear. “The Trump Foundation has no full-time staff, and gave away just $591,000 in 2014 — the last year for which records are available,” the Washington Post reports.

It’s possible the Trump Foundation has been helping the Trump campaign but the philanthropy is so anemic it is difficult to imagine it doing much to help its benefactor’s political career. Even if the IRS takes up this piddling little case not much is likely to come of it. It’s a political stunt by CREW, a nakedly partisan group under the boot of one of Hillary’s biggest backers.

It’s the wheeling and dealing Clinton Foundation with its involvement in billion-dollar transactions, its ties to shady figures, and the debt it owes to the unsavory governments of countries around the world that needs to be properly and thoroughly examined.

Categories: 2016 elections, Clinton Cash film, Clinton cover ups, Clinton Foundation, Clinton obstructions of justice, Clinton unsecured server, Corruption, Department of Justice, Department of State, Donald Trump, Media and Donald Trump, Media and Hillary Clinton
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Urgent Israeli Navy order for new US coastal craft

August 11, 2016

Source: Debka: Urgent Israeli Navy order for new US coastal craft

The Mediterranean is fast filling up with bigger and more sophisticated warships than ever before, leaving the Israeli Navy lagging behind and short of the new kind of vessels needed to meet the changing challenges to its shores and marine assets, notably from seaborne terror.
Israel’s naval edge has melted down rapidly in the past year.
Egypt took delivery in June of the first of two advanced French Mistral-class helicopter carriers, the Gemal Abdel Nasser, with the second due in two months. Each carries 46 attack helicopters. And Russia has moved over to the Mediterranean its aircraft carrier, as well as a fleet of cruisers and nuclear surface and submarine vessels.
Israel’s small and dated fleet is less than ready for the kind of asymmetrical warfare posed by new enemies, such as terrorist organizations, including Hamas’ naval commandos from the Gaza Strip, Hizballah’s rubber rafts from Lebanon and the small submarines operated by various jihadist organizations in the Red Sea. The jihadists acquired them from South American gangs which used them to smuggle drugs and upgraded them to carry terrorists with their weapons and equipment, or be rigged like a car bomb.
The Israel Navy, in addition to defending Israel’s shores, is responsible for protecting commercial ships heading to and from Israel; defending drilling platforms, gas pipelines and undersea optic cables; enforcing the blockade on Gaza; and securing Israel’s ports.
In a hurry to restore the IDF’s naval edge, the Defense Ministry and the Navy are pressing US defense contractor Lockheed Martin to produce the results for the tender it won in July to evaluate the operational viability of a new battleship, in terms of its compatibility with Israel’s military needs, suitability to its naval theater of operations and ability to contend with the types of threats Israel faces in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

The high price set for this evaluation (about $5.2 million) and the short timeline (nine months) given Lockheed Martin researchers to come up with results attest to the urgency of the Israel Navy’s need for a new type of vessel, namely the littoral combat ship (LCS), which the United States has introduced to guard its shores.
These ships have a minimal radar signature and are capable of high speed relative to their size. They can also land and store helicopters, transport troops, operate drones and carry and store armored vehicles.
These LCSs are armed with artillery, missile and electronic warfare systems.
The LCS would fill the gap in Israel’s defenses against asymmetrical threats to its shores.
At present, the Israel Navy’s most sophisticated and costly craft are three Dolphin-class submarines. Two more of them are scheduled to join the fleet in 2018 and 2019. They are the spearhead of the Israel’s secret warfare capabilities. According to foreign media, some of those subs carry missiles with nuclear warheads.
Their shortcoming is that they run on diesel engines which are outdated compared to nuclear-powered subs.
The Navy also uses a wide range of other vessels of various sizes and capabilities in terms of speed, visibility, troop transportation, weaponry and intelligence systems.
None provide an adequate response to the new type of terrorist warfare that could threaten Israel’s shores. Israel tends therefore forego the additional two Dolphin subs on order from Germany and instead update its Navy with the purchase of a pair of the littoral combat ships that are better suited to its changing needs.

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Krauthammer’s Take: Improper Clinton Foundation E-mails ‘Could Destroy Her Candidacy’

August 11, 2016

Krauthammer’s Take: Improper Clinton Foundation E-mails ‘Could Destroy Her Candidacy’ Fox News and National Review via YouTube’, August 10, 2016

Categories: Clinton e-mails, Clinton Foundation, Clinton unsecured server
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Attempted Suicide Bomber Shot and Killed in Canada

August 11, 2016

Attempted Suicide Bomber Shot and Killed in Canada, Clarion Project, August 11, 2016

Aaron-driver-canadian-suicide-bomber-screenshot-640-320Aaron Driver being arrested in 2015. (Photo: © Screenshot from video)

An Islamic State sympathizer armed with an explosive device was shot and killed by Canadian police on Wednesday evening, reported CBCNews.

Aaron Driver, 24, detonated an explosive device which injured himself and one other person in the town of Strathoy, Southern Ontario. Police responded to a terror threat reported earlier in the day and confronted Driver.

Police said he had another device which he planned to detonate on a suicide mission in a public area.

“A suspect was identified and the proper course of action has been taken to ensure that there is no danger to the public’s safety,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

“As this is still an unfolding matter and that the investigation is still underway, we are not able to provide further comment at this time.”

Driver had been arrested previously on terror charges by the police in June 2015 and was released on a peace bond in February this year.He signed the peace bond agreement, meaning he was “consenting or acknowledging that there are reasonable grounds to fear that he may participate, contribute — directly or indirectly — in the activity of a terrorist group.”

The terms of his peace bond were that he had to register his address with the police and inform them of any change to his address. He also had a curfew of 9pm to 6am and could not have a computer or smartphone or log onto social media accounts.

Driver was also reportedly under police surveillance.

He had drawn the attention of Canada’s spy agency CSIS when he tweeted in support of the Islamic State under the alias Harun Abdurahman. Among other things, Driver said that the 2014 terrorist attack on Parliament Hill in which a Canadian soldier was killed was justified.

“I’m OK with soldiers or police officers being targeted for what they’re doing to Muslims” he told CBC in an interview in July.

“I think it’s a little hypocritical that people would take issue with people retaliating against them … when it’s the police and the military who are killing Muslims.”

He also downplayed suggestions he posed a terrorist threat in the interview, adding “I don’t think I’m a threat, and I don’t think there’s a reason for Canadians to think that I’m a threat.”

Categories: Canada, Islamic State
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Erdogan ultimatum: ‘US has to choose between Turkey & Gulen’

August 11, 2016

Erdogan ultimatum: ‘US has to choose between Turkey & Gulen’

Published time: 11 Aug, 2016 10:39 Edited time: 11 Aug, 2016 11:03

Source: Erdogan ultimatum: ‘US has to choose between Turkey & Gulen’ — RT News

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan © Umit Bektas / Reuters

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued an ultimatum to the US, saying it must choose between Turkey and the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara believes was behind the failed July 15 coup attempt.

“Sooner or later the US will make a choice […] Either the coup-plotting terrorist FETO [Gulenist Terror Organization, term used by non-Gulenists] or the democratic country Turkey. The [US] has to make this choice,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara on Wednesday, as quoted by the state-run Anadolu Agency.

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© Francois Lenoir Turkish FM: West failed test following coup attempt, in danger of losing Turkey

“Those who follow the Pennsylvania-based charlatan who sold his soul to the devil, or Daesh [Arabic pejorative term for Islamic State/IS], which shed Muslim blood, or the PKK that also has shed blood for 30 years to divide the country and the nation, will all lose in the end,” the Turkish leader warned.

Erdogan’s statement comes after Turkey’s repeated calls to the US for Gulen’s extradition. The 74-year-old cleric was a popular preacher and former imam before setting up his own movement. He was a firm ally of Erdogan as the Turkish leader rose to power, but the two fell out and have become bitter rivals.

Ankara claimed Gulen created a “parallel state” in Turkey in the form of a network of supporters among Turkish officials. Erdogan also accused Gulen of masterminding a corruption scandal involving senior government figures in 2013, and launched a crackdown against his organization, Hizmet. Gulen now lives in self-imposed exile in the US state of Pennsylvania, facing a life sentence back in Turkey.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of orchestrating the July 15 coup, when a faction of the Turkish military attempted to topple the government overnight, but failed. The violence left over 260 people dead and many injured. The government has responded to the coup by launching a massive purge in the country’s military and academic spheres.

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© Kenan Gurbuz Erdogan dismisses 1,400 army staff, announces sweeping overhaul of Turkish military

Gulen has fiercely denied accusations that he was behind the coup, and has alleged that the Turkish president could have staged it himself for his own personal gain – a claim which Erdogan has called “nonsensical.”

“I do not see any country that would stand behind [Gulen], this leader of the terrorist gang, especially after [the night of July 15]. The country that would stand behind this man is no friend to Turkey. It would even be a hostile act against Turkey,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters the morning after the failed coup. The same day, President Erdogan publicly demanded Gulen’s extradition during a televised government meeting.

The US has repeatedly refused to hand over the cleric, saying Turkey would need to provide “evidence, not allegations” against Gulen in order to have him extradited.

“We fully anticipate that there will be questions raised about Mr Gulen, and obviously we invite the government of Turkey to present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny and the United States will accept that and look at it and make judgments appropriately,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said following Gulen’s extradition demands.

The West has also been concerned with the Turkish government’s post-coup crackdown, which so far has seen some 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service, and education detained, suspended or placed under investigation due to having perceived links to Gulen.

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August 9, 2016. President of Russia Vladimir Putin (right) and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the news conference following the Russian-Turkish talks in the Konstantinovsky Palace. © Sergey Guneev ‘Turkey gave up EU membership hope, seeking other partners’

In an effort to bar people who fear prosecution on coup-related charges from fleeing the country, some 50,000 passports have been canceled by the Turkish authorities. Erdogan also signed a decree ordering the closure of hundreds of institutions associated with Gulen, or run directly by Hizmet, as well as some 130 media outlets. At the end of July he also promised to reinstate the death penalty in the country.

In response to these measures, Western politicians have warned Erdogan his attempts to make Turkey an EU member are doomed if the purges don’t stop.

“No country can become an EU member state if it introduces the death penalty,” EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said. While EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker recently told broadcaster France 2 that he believes “Turkey, in its current state, is not in a position to become [an EU] member any time soon and not even over a longer period.”

Turkey responded angrily to these remarks, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lashing out at the EU for its reaction to the failed coup, while adding that if the West “loses” Turkey, it will be due to its own mistakes, not due to the fact that Ankara was seeking allies elsewhere, such as Russia or China.

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Ex-CIA Chief’s Comments Reflect ‘What US is Secretly Doing in Syria’

August 11, 2016

Ex-CIA Chief’s Comments Reflect ‘What the US is Secretly Doing in Syria , from Sputnik News, August 10, 2016

(??????????????????????????? — DM)

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who has recently endorsed Hillary Clinton, has caused a firestorm when he said that the United States should covertly kill Russians and Iranians in Syria, with Russian lawmakers denouncing the remarks as “monstrous” and experts saying that he merely confirmed what Washington has secretly been doing.

Vladimir Vasilyev, a senior research fellow at the Moscow-based Institute of US and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, maintained that Morell’s comments should be taken at face value.

This is “what the United States has secretly and surreptitiously been doing and most importantly what Washington will do if Hillary wins presidential election,” he told RIA Novosti. “Russia should understand who it is dealing with. In fact, Moscow could thank Morell for leaking important informationon Washington’s true goals in Syria.”

“Monstrous remarks”

Russian MP Irina Yarovaya, the head of the State Duma Committee for Security, echoed these sentiments, saying that Morell made “monstrous remarks.” He essentially confirmed that Washington is capable of carrying out “covert killings … to pursue its own devastating plans.”

Yarovaya also noted that Morell’s comments point to a hidden agenda in Washington’s counterterrorism activities. “The US State Department must issue a clear statement on the issue. Otherwise, there are grounds to assume that the former CIA deputy director inadvertently revealed an existing top secret CIA plan.”

Morell’s remarks are meant to “fuel tensions between Russia and the US,” Dmitry Gorovtsov, the deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Committee for Security, told RIA Novosti, adding that such rhetoric is unacceptable. He also called Morell’s plan “extremist” and “akin to fascist ideology.”

Morell “does not understand what he is talking about”

First deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the Federation Council of Russia Franz Klintsevich referred to Morell’s remarks as “absurd.”

“I think that Michael Morell does not understand what he is talking about. Modern surveillance equipment that covers all Syria renders any ‘covert’ killings impossible,” he said. Russia’s cutting edge technologies allow Moscow to determine the name, the date, the place and the goal of any such activity if it took place.

Moreover, Morell’s advice “would automatically lead to an open confrontation between Russia and the US, which the Americans, as far as I understand, do not need,” Klintsevich added.

On Monday, Michael Morell, who served as CIA’s acting director twice, told talk show host Charlie Rose that the US “must make” Russia and Iran “pay a price” in Syria by “covertly” killing their nationals. “You don’t tell the world about it, right? You don’t stand up at the Pentagon and say, ‘we did this.’ Right? But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran,” he added.

Morell also suggested “scaring” Bashar al-Assad by bombing government offices and presidential guard positions, but added that he did not urge to assassinate the Syrian president.

Journalist and political commentator Murtaza Hussain pointed out that the former CIA deputy director championed “efforts that later helped incubate al-Qaeda,” referring to a strategy that the United States employed in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

He also warned that if Morell’s plan is given the green light, it “would entail a massive escalation of American covert military involvement in Syria that would bring the United States much closer to direct confrontation with Russia and Iran.”

Categories: Assad, CIA, Clinton campaign, Department of Defense, Foreign policy, Hillary Clinton and Russia, Iranian military, Islamic terror groups, Michael Morell, Russia - Syrian war, Russia and Iran, Russian military, U.S. - Syrian war, U.S. Military
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Physician: Mainstream Media ‘Strangely Silent’ About Hillary Clinton’s Health

August 10, 2016

Physician: Mainstream Media ‘Strangely Silent’ About Hillary Clinton’s Health, Breitbart,  Dr. Susan Berry, August 10, 2016

hillary helpMark Makela/Getty Images

“Obviously, it would be very dangerous for a person subject to symptoms like this to be dealing with foreign leaders or making critical decisions,” she states. “The President of the United States may have to make world-changing decisions on a moment’s notice. For example, should we launch nuclear-armed missiles? And if the Commander in Chief is confused, who will make the call?”

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The executive director of a physicians’ organization questions how the mainstream media can ignore signs of what could be a traumatic brain injury in the Democrat nominee for president.

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, observes that “strangely silent is the mainstream media about the fitness” for presidential office of Hillary Clinton. At AAPS’ website, Orient summarizes the concerns about Clinton’s health that she says are growing:

There’s the photograph of Secretary Clinton’s difficulty walking up some steps. Now inability to climb stairs does not necessarily disqualify a person for public office. However, neither she nor people with her apparently anticipated a problem. The people helping her seem to be preventing a fall. Did she simply trip? Or was it a seizure or a stroke?

Videos widely circulated on the internet are, if authentic, very concerning. One shows prolonged, inappropriate laughter; another, strange head movements. In a third, she appeared momentarily dazed and confused, and lost her train of thought.  Reportedly, she has a volcanic temper. (This is probably not new.)

A man who stays close to her, who is reportedly not a Secret Service officer, was photographed carrying something in his hand that purportedly might have been an autoinjector of Valium.

While we don’t have Mrs. Clinton’s medical records, it is widely stated that she experienced a fall that caused a concussion. Since then, she is sometimes seen wearing eyeglasses with prisms, as are used to correct double vision.

Orient explains that serious concussions can often cause traumatic brain injury that is not always detected on standard medical tests such as a CT or MRI.

“Many of our veterans who experienced blast injury from improvised explosive devices suffer from it,” she continues, adding:

These are some symptoms: difficulty thinking, attention deficits, confusion, memory problems, frustration, mood swings, emotional outbursts, agitation, headaches, difficulties with balance and coordination, and seizures. Many veterans with such an injury cannot hold a job or interact normally with their families.

“Obviously, it would be very dangerous for a person subject to symptoms like this to be dealing with foreign leaders or making critical decisions,” she states. “The President of the United States may have to make world-changing decisions on a moment’s notice. For example, should we launch nuclear-armed missiles? And if the Commander in Chief is confused, who will make the call?”

In November of last year, watchdog organization Judicial Watch reported its review of pages of email from Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin, in which Abedin advised a State Department staffer that it was “very important” to review phone calls with Clinton because she was “often confused.”

Abedin had emailed Monica Hanley, a State Department Clinton aide and companion, from her Huma@clintonemail.com address to alert Hanley about the need to review phone calls with the then-Secretary of State.

According to the report, on January 26, 2013, Abedin had the following email exchange with Hanley:

  • Abedin: Have you been going over her calls with her? So she knows singh is at 8? [India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh]
  • Hanley: She was in bed for a nap by the time I heard that she had an 8am call. Will go over with her
  • Abedin: Very imp to do that. She’s often confused.

Breitbart News asked Orient if the Judicial Watch report of Abedin’s emails is consistent with the signs she notes in her article.

“It is,” she responds, adding:

There are some very concerning things on Twitter #hillaryhealth. For example, that she naps at 5 p.m. and can’t be aroused, or that her Mini-Mental State exam – which you use to screen patients who might have an organic brain syndrome – has deteriorated since 2013.

“Scurrilous lies? Or sign that somebody unknown is acting for her? Could she pass a random drug screen that might be required of a crane operator?” Orient asks.

Orient then poses what is perhaps the most obvious question of all.

“Is it conceivable that Hillary supporters would really be voting for Huma Abedin, Clinton’s top aide, or for the First First Husband President, Bill Clinton?” she asks. “The American people are entitled to know the objective medical facts about Secretary Clinton.”

Categories: Hillary Clinton's health
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