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The Turkish government’s connection to retired general Michael Flynn’s client was first reported by the Daily Caller. | Getty
A company tied to Erdogan’s government hired retired general Michael Flynn’s lobbying firm.
With the election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president, many are waiting to see him take serious steps towards implementing his most outstanding foreign policy promise which is to form a coalition with Russia’s President Putin to defeat terrorism in Syria. Trump has told The Wall Street Journal that he intends to replace the Obama administration’s policy of supporting Syrian opposition groups against President Assad with a possible rapprochement with Russia to resolve the conflict.
In an interview with Press TV, Alfred Lambremont Webre, a war crimes lawyer, noted that Trump’s presidency would deal a heavy blow to the regime change policy followed by the previous US administration, especially Hillary Clinton.
“I think the recent American election has dealt a below to the Atlanticists which have come in and were the originators of the irrational regime change policy and now both President-elect Donald Trump and [President] Vladimir Putin of Russia have both made declarations that their foreign policies are essentially the same, especially with regard to Syria,” Webre said.
He further reiterated that “we all have to hold incoming president Donald Trump’s feet to the fire and really this is one of the most outspoken policies on which he was elected president and that is to join forces with Vladimir Putin. He has said that on his first date in office, he is going to call together his military commanders and ask them to bring him a plan within 30 days to bring to defeat Daesh and all of these terrorists in Syria in conjunction with Russia.”
Webre also highlighted the United Nations’ role in providing a platform for the US and Russia to reach a unified stance regarding Syria and the fight against terrorism.
In the context of the UN following an early meeting between Trump and Putin, Webre said, it seems that they could begin to have a consensus and arrive at a joint strategy.
“I think that the United Nations is going to play a central role. We know that within the last several weeks Syria’s permanent representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari has specified that terrorists are taking civilians in eastern Aleppo as human shields to prevent them from leaving the city and also they are using snipers and launching shells to prevent civilians from leaving the city. The UN provides a platform for the world community really to begin to arrive at consensus.”
Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies. Backed by Russian air cover, the Syrian military is engaged in an operation to rid the country of Daesh and other terrorist groups.
Chris Christie and Donald Trump laugh together during a commercial break in the midst of the February 6 Republican debate in New Hampshire. (photo credit:REUTERS)
(jpost.com) Report Sources who spoke to Politico said that clashes between Christie aides and Kushner have also emerged in recent days, leading to deeper fissures inside the Trump camp.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was removed from Donald Trump’s White House transition team following clashes with Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, according to a report from Politico Friday.
Jared Kushner, husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was also behind Christie being pushed off a list of potential vice-presidential contenders, according to the Politico report, after tensions between the men reached a crescendo shortly after Trump secured the US Republican nomination in May.
Christie, then attorney-general of New Jersey, prosecuted Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, in 2004 on numerous charges, including illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering, according to the New York Times. Charles Kushner subsequently served one-year in prison after settling on a negotiated plea agreement.
Sources who spoke to Politico said that clashes between Christie aides and Kushner have also emerged in recent days, leading to deeper fissures inside the Trump camp.
“The Christie people are from New Jersey, they act like they’re in charge, and Jared Kushner is like, ‘You’re not really in charge,’ ” the source said.
Trump’s pick for vice-president, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, now heads the transition team.
Kushner, who is Orthodox, advises Trump on issues involving Israel and worked on a draft of Trump’s speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March.
But Kushner was criticized numerous times during the US election campaign for not speaking out against antisemitic attacks directed toward journalists who have written critically of Trump, including editors at the publication he owns, The New York Observer.
Observer entertainment writer Dana Schwartz published “An Open Letter to Jared Kushner, From One of Your Jewish Employees” on the paper’s website in July.
Schwartz’s piece was a response to a tweet from Trump’s official Twitter account that juxtaposed a picture of Hillary Clinton with a six-pointed star reminiscent of a Star of David over a background of dollar bills. Trump deleted the image, but many found the image to be the latest in a series of messages from his campaign with anti-Semitic undertones.
The then presumptive Republican presidential nominee said that the image was a “Sheriff’s Star” and that the media was “dishonest” for trying to portray it as a Star of David, although a millennial news site found that the image had been created for and previously shared on anti-Semitic internet message boards.
“You went to Harvard, and hold two graduate degrees,” Schwartz wrote to Kushner. “Please do not condescend to me and pretend you don’t understand the imagery of a six-sided star when juxtaposed with money and accusations of financial dishonesty. I’m asking you, not as a ‘gotcha’ journalist or as a liberal but as a human being: how do you allow this? Because, Mr. Kushner, you are allowing this.”
Trump has since made strides with the Jewish community, extending an invitation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after securing the presidency following his shocking upset victory on Tuesday.
JTA contributed to this article.
By CHUCK ROSS, Reporter
An intelligence consulting firm founded by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s top military adviser,
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/11/trumps-top-military-adviser-is-lobbying-for-obscure-company-with-ties-to-turkish-government/#ixzz4PoMC8Lcr
An intelligence consulting firm founded by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s top military adviser, was recently hired as a lobbyist by an obscure Dutch company with ties to Turkey’s government and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The revelation of that new lobbying contract, which has not been previously reported, raises several questions given that Trump is said to be considering Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), to take over as either Secretary of Defense or National Security Advisor.
It also raises questions about disclosure.
Flynn wrote an op-ed for The Hill on Tuesday, just before Trump’s stunning upset of Hillary Clinton, in which he heaped praise on Erdogan and called on the next president, whoever that would be, to accede his request to extradite the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen back to Turkey.
“Gülen’s vast global network has all the right markings to fit the description of a dangerous sleeper terror network,” Flynn wrote in the op-ed, in which he called Gulen a “shady Islamic mullah” and “radical Islamist.”
Erdogan has accused Gülen, who has lived in exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, of masterminding a violent coup in Turkey in July. Gülen has denied doing so, but Erdogan has pressured President Obama to review evidence that the 76-year-old imam was behind the uprising, which left nearly 300 soldiers and civilians dead.
“From Turkey’s point of view, Washington is harboring Turkey’s Osama bin Laden,” Flynn asserted.
The piece does not include a disclosure that Flynn Intel Group, the consulting firm that Flynn founded in Oct. 2014, just after leaving DIA, was recently hired to lobby Congress by a Dutch company called Inovo BV that was founded by a Turkish businessman who holds a top position on Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board.
A review of Dutch records shows that the company was founded by Ekim Alptekin, an ally of Erdogan’s who is director of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council, a non-profit arm of Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board. Members of the Foreign Economic Relations Board are chosen by Turkey’s general assembly and its minister of economy. In the role, Alptekin helped coordinate Erdogan’s visit to the U.S. earlier this year.
A lobbying disclosure report filed with Congress lists Inovo BV’s address but not the name of anyone affiliated with the company. There is also little information about the firm online. But The Daily Caller tracked down Dutch business registration records which show Alptekin founded the company in 2005. The financial consulting firm, which Alptekin does not acknowledge on his bio, also has an affiliate, Inovo Turkije.
The lobbying disclosure does not say how much Inovo BV is paying Flynn’s firm. It lists former congressional aide Robert Kelley as the lobbyist who is handling the contract and says that he is working on “organizational consulting” for Inovo BV.
Flynn’s recent op-ed appears to be at odds with some of his past comments about Turkey and its role in the war against ISIS. In the op-ed he refers to the Islamic nation, which is a member of NATO, is “vital to U.S. interests” and is the U.S.’s “strongest ally” against ISIS.
But he told journalist Seymour Hersh for an article published earlier this year that Turkey was doing little to stop foreign fighters and weapons from crossing the border into Syria.
“We understood ISIS’s long-term strategy and its campaign plans, and we also discussed the fact that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State inside Syria,” Flynn told Hersh for the article.
It is unclear whether the Trump administration will side with Erdogan on the Gülen issue. The men were allies until recent years, when some of Gülen’s followers, called Gülenists, opened corruption investigations of some of Erdogan’s government allies.
Erdogan has since then assailed Gülen and his network, which he refers to as a “parallel government” because Gülen’s followers are scattered throughout Turkey’s judiciary, police force and military.
The tension peaked in July when a group of mid-level Turkish military officials attempted to overthrow the government in a battle that hit several of Turkey’s major cities, including Ankara, the capital, and Istanbul.
Erdogan immediately blamed Gülen. And though the mysterious cleric denied any involvement, Erdogan began to pressure the U.S. to return him back to his homeland to face charges pending against him. While the State Department has said it is reviewing evidence presented against Gülen, the Obama administration has appeared less than eager to extradite him.
In a statement to TheDC, Gülen’s lawyers said they hoped that Flynn’s op-ed is not indicative of the Trump administration’s position towards the cleric.
“We hope that Mr. Flynn’s op-ed on Mr. Gülen and Turkish-American relations, published before the results of the election were known, is not a statement of policy for President-Elect Trump,” Gülen’s legal team at the Washington D.C. firm Steptoe & Johnson told TheDC.
They also accused Erdogan’s regime of “propagating false information” about Gülen.
Turkish diplomatic sources tell TheDC that they “are pleased” that one of Trump’s top advisers “is aware of the danger that Fetullah Gulen and his terrorist organisation” pose to Turkey.
“Our main expectation is still that Fetullah Gülen is extradited to Turkey as soon as possible,” said a source with the Turkish embassy.
Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, criticized Flynn’s op-ed in a post at the think tank’s website on Thursday.
“Flynn gets Erdogan wrong, whitewashes recent Turkish behavior, fails the logic test, and proposes a policy prescription that would make matters worse,” argues Rubin.
He asserted that “regardless of what Erdogan says publicly,” intelligence exists which shows that Erdogan supports ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates operating inside Syria.
“That makes Turkey a source of instability in the region, not its remedy,” Rubin writes, also noting that Erdogan has embraced leaders of the terrorist group Hamas.
“Should Gülen he be extradited? If Turkey can provide proof of his involvement in the events of July 15, then yes,” Rubin says. “But almost four months after the coup, Turkish authorities have failed to provide the United States with anything other than accusations and demands.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did Flynn Intel Group.
As for Alptekin, he appears to be on board the Trump train.
In an interview with CNN’s Turkish franchise, he said that he believes Trump will be good for U.S.-Turkish business relations. He also referred to Flynn’s op-ed.
And on Twitter, Alptekin is heavily critical of Gülen. In one tweet, he compared the cleric to bin Laden, similar to Flynn’s rhetoric in his op-ed. In other tweets, Alptekin has praised Trump. In September, he wrote that a Trump presidency will be a boon to U.S.-Turkey relations. And in a post from the day after Trump’s election shows him standing next to a cardboard cutout of the president-elect.
Jim Costa, a State of California Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, told the Voice of America Armenian service that he does not believe that President-elect Donald Trump has relevant information on Armenian Genocide, and we need to see whom he will appoint as the new US Secretary of State.
To note, Congressman Costa was re-elected in Tuesday’s elections.
When asked whether Armenian Genocide recognition at the level of the US President is possible during Trump’s term in office, he responded that the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues should raise this matter sooner or later.
As per Jim Costa, it is very important as to what US foreign policy team Trump will select.
The congressman, for his part, pledged to continue the ongoing efforts—together with his colleagues in the US Congress—toward recognition of Armenian Genocide, deepening of US-Armenia relations, and resolving matters with respect to several other important issues for Armenia.
After Brexit and the victory of Republican Donald Trump, many in France wonder if the next stunning upset could be in their country. The presidential vote is just five months away and the far-right is polling strongly.
Marine Le Pen, head of France’s far-right National Front party, has been tweeting up a storm, morphing effortlessly from congratulating US President-elect Donald Trump even before US election results were announced to skewering her rivals at home.
“We can make possible that which was impossible; what the people want, the people can do,” was one of the far-right leader’s latest warnings to a French political mainstream that may be the next target of voter ire.
After the Brexit referendum for Britain to leave the European Union and the US elections, many wonder if the next stunning upset could be in France, where the presidential vote is just five months away and Le Pen has been polling strongly for months.
She is not the only one who may potentially gain ground. Politicians from far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon to center-right former-President Nicolas Sarkozy are all trying to tailor their political message to the outcome of the American campaign.
“It’s interesting to see how politicians here are turning Donald Trump’s victory into arguments that go in their direction,” said analyst Bruno Cautres, of Science Po’s Centre for Political Research, in Paris.
WASHINGTON, DC – Over 93% of the Congressional candidates backed by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) prevailed in yesterday’s hard-fought elections, as U.S. voters elected Donald Trump President and maintained Republican majorities in the Senate and House.
“We congratulate Donald Trump on his victory, commend Secretary Clinton on a hard-fought campaign, and thank Armenian American voters who went to the polls in record numbers to back federal, state, and local candidates who champion issues of special concern to our community,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We look forward to getting to work right away in engaging with the Trump Administration and the incoming Congress to make progress on the full range of the Armenian American community’s public policy priorities.”
“We were greatly gratified to see such a large percentage of our Congressional endorsees win their races, including powerful advocates such as Maryland Senator Elect Chris Van Hollen, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, Representatives Adam Schiff, Frank Pallone, David Valadao, Jackie Speier, and many others.”
On the Senate side, 7 out of 11 ANCA endorsed candidates emerged victorious, including Senior New York Senator Charles Schumer, a long-time advocate of Armenian Genocide justice, who is slated to replace the retiring Harry Reid (D-NV) as Senate Democratic Leader.
On the House side, the ANCA endorsed 122 candidates, of which only 5 were reported to have lost their election bids. Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Jackie Speier (D-CA) and David Valadao (R-CA) won their elections comfortably, while Illinois Congressman Robert Dold (R) lost re-election in a tightly contested race. Armenian Caucus Vice-Chairs Adam Schiff (D-CA) and David Trott (R-MI) won re-election handily.
The two Armenian American Members of Congress – California Democrats Anna Eshoo and Jackie Speier – each won broad support of the electorate, but Republican Danny Tarkanian, who sought election in Nevada’s third Congressional district fell short by 1%.
YEREVAN. – The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, on Wednesday sent a congratulatory message to President-Elect Donald Trump of the United States of America.
“Honorable Mr. Trump,
“Please accept my warmest congratulations on your election as the President of the United States.
“The American people has enthusiastically voted in support of your outstanding leadership qualities, your experience and vision, thus entrusting you with the honorable responsibility to lead the nation. I have no doubt, that under your able leadership the United States will achieve further progress and advancement in the years to come.
“As the United States and Armenia prepare to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. I seize this opportunity to express my gratitude for the substantial support extended by the United States, over the last quarter of a century, to help Armenia build democratic institutions and strengthen its economy.
“In Armenia, we highly value the important role played by the United States, in its capacity as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group, in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.
“I am confident that under your presidency, the Armenia-US close partnership would continue to develop dynamically – expanding and reaching new heights in diverse areas. I also believe that we can continue to count on the active engagement of the Armenian-American community – a strong bridge between our nations.
“As you embark upon your new responsibilities, I would like to assure you and the people of the United States of our continued friendship and sympathy and wish you utmost success in leading your country and the American people to progress and prosperity.
“Please accept, Honorable Mr. Trump, the assurances of my highest consideration,” the Armenian President’s message reads.
Donald J. Trump, who ran an improbable campaign against the establishment, prevailed against Hillary Clinton and was elected the 45th president of the United States by winning several crucial battleground states, including Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.
The results upended months of polling that had given the advantage to Mrs. Clinton, and reaction to a Trump presidency swiftly rippled across the globe, with financial markets abroad falling.
Republicans maintained control of the Senate, fending off numerous Democratic challengers who polls showed were leading going into Election Day. Incumbents were pulled along by Mr. Trump’s unanticipated strength in several key battleground states.
No matter whom you supported, The New York Times invites you to take advantage of our original reporting, analysis and commentary with unlimited access to all of our digital platforms through Wednesday.
The Bushes and the Clintons, the two “political dynasties” expect that Hillary Clinton will maintain the established status quo, if elected, and do not want Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to occupy the Oval Office, US-based journalist and editor-in-chief of News Junkie Post Gilbert Mercier told Sputnik.
The US’ 2016 presidential election resembles nothing so much as a reality show, Gilbert Mercier, a US-based French journalist, author and editor-in-chief of News Junkie Post, deems. However, to understand the underlying “forces” that drive today’s election one should look back into the US’ history. “Just like in the mafia crime families whose influence reached its apex between the 1920s and the late 1950s, to fade away in the late 1970s, the US rival political families are in many ways organized in clans with their own structure of don, capo, consigliere and hatchet men. The Rockefellers and Kennedys operated like this. Since the election of Reagan, the two dominating clans have been the Bushes and the Clintons,” Mercier suggested in his interview with Sputnik.
In his book “The Orwellian Empire” Mercier noted that the rise of George H.W. Bush — the founder of the Bush political dynasty — started in 1980 when he officially became Vice President to Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Previously, Bush served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency between 1976 and 1977. “The Clinton dynasty came along in 1992,” the author wrote. After inking the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and reversing the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking from investment banking, Bill Clinton “became a favorite of Wall Street’s investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs,” he pointed out. Interestingly enough, in his recent interview with Sputnik Canada-based political analyst Oussama El-Mohtar suggested that there appear to be a number of “policy centers” in Washington. The clashes of interests between them, according to the scholar, could have been behind the US’ inconsistent policy in Syria and the collapse of the US-Russian agreement. “That might have been the case, but the notion of ‘centers of power’ is getting more and more diffuse. It started with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and has become increasingly monolithic,” Mercier noted, commenting on the issue. “In the early 1990s, their [the Bushes and the Clintons’] interests sometimes still clashed, but very quickly, as Bill Clinton became in Bush Sr.’s eyes ‘almost a son,’ their interests started to coincide almost always in an implicit agreement to pass the baton of power from one clan to another every four or eight years,” the journalist assumed.
Mercier argues that the year 1980 was the beginning of the end of the US as a republic with a two-party system.
“It is when the US became a full-fledged empire with two mafia-type dynasties taking turns in power,” he suggested. “John Kerry was part of the Kennedy clan, and for this reason a bit of an outsider. Informed observers hoped that he would offer an alternative and challenge Hillary Clinton during the primary. He had the intelligence, the poise and the credentials to do so; however, he made the choice to join the Clinton clan instead,” Mercier told Sputnik. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that George H.W. Bush, his daughter-in-law Laura Bush and his granddaughter Lauren Bush Lauren, signaled that they will most likely vote for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “Former President George H.W. Bush said Monday that he will vote for Hillary Clinton in November, according to sources close to the 41st President — an extraordinary rebuke of his own party’s nominee,” CNN reported on September 21. For his part, Michael A. Cohen of The Boston Globe highlighted that “for a former Republican president, the father of a two-term Republican president, the son of a Republican senator, and Ronald Reagan’s vice president, to vote for a Democratic candidate for president is extraordinary.”
Remarkably, on October 12 The Hill reported that 12 former Republican officials who served top roles in President George W. Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) claimed that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “is not qualified to hold the office.”
It looks as if the two powerful political clans do not want an “outsider” to come out on top. “The two leading political clans are not in conflict at all. In their power sharing agreement everybody gets a very nice share of the pie,” Mercier explained, “It has worked well for the Bushes under Clintonite Obama, and of course ‘Empress Hillary’ would maintain the status quo.” “This form of government is corrupt to its core, and this is why somebody like Trump appeals to anti-establishment voters. People are fed up. They do not precisely know what they want, but they are certain that the system is rigged and are ready to reject it,” the journalist stressed. Gilbert Mercier is the author of The Orwellian Empire and the editor in chief of News Junkie Post.
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/politics/201610151046367745-clintons-bushes-political-clans/