CIA’s Illegal Operations in Central Asia Using Islam & Madrassas

Sibel Deniz Edmonds is a former FBI translator who says she saw evidence of “criminal activities involving U.S. officials. Sibel grew up in Iran and  Turkey, later worked for the FBI, witnessing serious misconduct among her co-workers, and discovering that senior State Department and Pentagon officials were seemingly involved in corruption and Turkish elements of the nuclear black market.

·

Court Documents Shed Light on CIA Illegal Operations in Central Asia Using Islam & Madrassas

·

Sibel is a former FBI linguist and the founder of the National Security Whistleblower Coalition. It’s a group made of former employees of law enforcement, intelligence agencies and the military. They push for reforms of whistleblower protections and increased accountability for government agencies.

Last year Sibel spoke with Worldview producer Jonah Meadows and explained what an FBI employee is supposed to do when she witnesses criminal activity on the job.

Last year, during an immigration court case involving Turkish Islamic Leader, Fetullah Gülen, US prosecutors exposed an illegal, covert, CIA operation involving the intentional Islamization of Central Asia. This operation has been ongoing since the fall of the Soviet Union in an ongoing Cold War to control the vast energy resources of the region – Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan – estimated to be worth $3 trillion.

COURT CASE

The scene for these dramatic disclosures was an application for a Green Card in the Eastern District Court in Philadelphia by “controversial Islamic scholar” Fetullah Gülen. Gülen, who has been living in the United States since 1998, argued that he qualified for the Green Card as “an extraordinarily talented academic.”

The court case was covered extensively by the Turkish press. Leading Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported: 

Gülen’s financial resources were detailed in the public prosecutor’s arguments, which claimed that Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Turkish government, and the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, were behind the Gülen movement. It stated that some businessmen in Ankara donated 10 to 70 percent of their annual income to the movement and that it corresponded to $20,000 to $300,000 per year per person. It added that one businessman in Istanbul donated $4-5 million each year and that young people graduating from Gülen’s schools donated between $2,000 and $5,000 each year.”

Another leading Turkish newspaper reported (translated by Rastibini)

Among the reasons given by the US State Department’s attorneys as to why Gülen’s permanent residence application was refused, is the suspicion of CIA financing of his movement.

[ . . . ]

“There is even CIA suspicion “Because of the large amount of money that Gülen’s movement uses to finance his projects, there are claims that he has secret agreements with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkic governments. There are suspicions that the CIA is a co-payer in financing these projects,” claimed the attorneys.

[ . . . ]

Among the documents that the state attorneys presented, there are claims about the Gülen movement’s financial structure and it was emphasized that the movement’s economic power reached $25 billion. “Schools, newspapers, universities, unions, television channels . . . The relationship among these are being debated. There is no transparency in their work,” claimed the attorneys.”

WHO IS GULEN?

Fetullah Gülen is “a 67-year-old Turkish Sufi cleric, author and theoretician,” according to a recent profile in the UK’s Prospect magazine. Prospect ran a public poll last month to find the world’s greatest living intellectual. Gülen ‘won’ the poll after his newspapers alerted readers to the poll’s existence. Gülen is also the leader of the so-called ‘Gülen Movement’ which claims to have seven million followers worldwide. The Gülen Movement has extensive business interests, including “publishing activities (books, newspapers, and magazines), construction, healthcare, and education.”

GULEN AND THE CIA

The fact that the prosecutors in the court cite documents that claim that Gülen has been financed in part by the CIA is remarkable for a number of reasons, even though there have been strong suspicions about the CIA’s involvement in the Gülen Movement for years. The Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, has repeatedly taken action against the Gülen movement for acting as a front organization for the CIA. In December 2002, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported: 

“Russian secret service claims: Turkish religious brotherhood works for CIA

The FSB, the Russian intelligence organization formerly called the KGB, has claimed that the ‘Nurcus’ religious brotherhood in Turkey has engaged in espionage on behalf of the CIA through the companies and foundations it has founded. FSB head Nikolay Patrushev has mentioned the names of these companies and foundations, saying, ‘The brotherhood engages in anti-Russian activities via two companies, Serhad and Eflak, as well as foundations such as Toros, Tolerans and Ufuk.’

Patrushev has accused the brotherhood of conducting pan-Turkish propaganda, of trying to convert Russian youths to Islam by sowing the seeds of enmity, and of engaging in certain lobbying activities. These companies and foundations have turned up in the internet site of Fethullah Gülen [alleged leader of the Nurcu religious community currently living in the United States who is a defendant in several court cases in Turkey, accused of engaging in anti-secularist activities.]”

Russia has banned all of Gülen’s madrassas, and in April of this year, banned the Nurcu Movement completely.

GULEN’S MADRASSAS

The Gülen Movement founded madrassas all over the world in the 1990’s, most of them in the newly independent Turkic republics of Central Asia – Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan – and Russia.

These madrassas appear to be used as a front for enabling CIA and State Department officials to operate undercover in the region, with many of the teachers operating under diplomatic passports.

WHY CENTRAL ASIA? 

Central Asia, with its vast energy wealth, is of major interest to US oil and gas companies. The region is also of key strategic interest in the ‘Great Game’ as Russia, China and the US compete for dwindling energy supplies. The US government has been using Turkey as a proxy to gain control over Central Asia via Pan-Turkic nationalism and religion.

SIBEL EDMONDS CASE

Twenty six people wrote reference letters supporting Gülen’s application for a Green Card – most notably ex-CIA agent George Fidas, former Turkish ambassador Morton Abramowitz, and former CIA Deputy Director Graham Fuller who appears in Sibel Edmonds’ State Secrets Privilege Gallery.

I called Sibel Edmonds to comment on the latest revelations. She said: Twenty six people wrote reference letters supporting Gülen’s application for a Green Card – most notably ex-CIA agent George Fidas, former Turkish ambassador Morton Abramowitz, and former CIA Deputy Director Graham Fuller who appears in Sibel Edmonds’ State Secrets Privilege Gallery.

I called Sibel Edmonds to comment on the latest revelations. She said:

“You’ve got to look at the big picture. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the super powers began to fight over control of Central Asia, particularly the oil and gas wealth, as well as the strategic value of the region.

Given the history, and the distrust of the West, the US realized that it couldn’t get direct control, and therefore would need to use a proxy to gain control quickly and effectively. Turkey was the perfect proxy; a NATO ally and a puppet regime. Turkey shares the same heritage/race as the entire population of Central Asia, the same language (Turkic), the same religion (Sunni Islam), and of course, the strategic location and proximity.

This started more than a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex, using Turkish operatives, Saudi partners and Pakistani allies, furthering this objective in the name of Islam.

This is why I have been saying repeatedly that these illegal covert operations by the Turks and certain US persons date back to 1996, and involve terrorist activities, narcotics, weapons smuggling and money laundering, converging around the same operations and involving the same actors.

And I want to emphasize that this is “illegal” because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities.

And one last thing, take a look at the people in the State Secrets Privilege Gallery on my website and you will see how these individuals can be traced to the following; Turkey, Central Asia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – and the activities involving these countries.

Many of the people in Sibel’s State Secrets Privilege Gallery are closely connected to Gülen, and each other, as well as the operations that Sibel mentions. Many of them have actively advocated for using Muslims to further their own needs – from Turkistan to Albania and Central Asia.

Marc Grossman, former State Department #3 and former Turkish ambassador, and one of the key named individuals in Sibel’s case, is currently receiving $1.2 million per annum from Ihlas Holding, a Gülen-linked Turkish conglomerate. Sibel has previously referred to Ihlas as ‘semi-legitimate‘ and ‘alleged shady‘– and emphasized that Grossman’s current payoff is a result of services performed while he was in office.

Grossman’s predecessor as ambassador in Turkey was Morton Abramowitz – in fact, Grossman actually worked under Abramowitz in Ankara for a number of years. During that period, the US opened an espionage investigation into activities at the embassy involving Major Douglas Dickerson, a weapons procurement specialist for Central Asia. Dickerson and his wife, an FBI translator, later became famous when they tried to recruit Sibel to spy for this criminal network.

Abramowitz, who is not listed in Sibel’s State Secrets Privilege Gallery, wrote a letter in support of Gülen for his immigration case. He has long advocated the use of Islamic fighters in furtherance of US interests, including the Afghan Mujahideein against the Soviets and the Kosovo Liberation Army during the war in the Balkans, acting as an advisor to the Kosovar Albanians.

Another player from Sibel’s Gallery is Enver Yusuf Turani – Prime Minister of East Turkistan, a ‘country’ recognized by only one country, the United States. East Turkistan, aka Xinjiang, is officially a part of China, and home to the Uyghur people and the “Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement,” a UN-nominated terrorist organization “funded mainly by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and received training, support and personnel from both the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan.” In fact, the Uyghurs constitute a significant percentage of detainees – at least 22 – at Guantanamo Bay since 2001. Five of those have been set free, and were eventually sent to Albania, amid much controversy.

According to TurkPulse: 

“One of the main tools Washington is using in this affair in order to get Turkey involved in the Xinjiang affair is some Turkish Americans, primarily the Fetullah Gülen team who are prosecuted in absentia in Turkey for trying to found a theocratic State order in this country because he runs his activities from the United States, his protégé. Another Turk used in this affair is Enver Yusuf Turani, who is the self styled Foreign and Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in exile.

He has been an American citizen since 1998. Enver Yusuf is in close cooperation with Fetullah Gülen… Their activities for the government in exile are based on a report entitled “the Xinjiang Project” drafted by Graham Fuller in 1998 for the Rand Corporation and revised in 2003 under the title “the Xinjiang Problem.” It emphasises the importance of the Xinjiang Autonomous region in encircling China and provides a strategy for it.”

In fact, Abramowitz and Fuller were key players in the establishment of ‘East Turkistan,’

“proclaiming the government in exile within 4-5 months, starting in May (2004) and completing the proclamation in mid- September. The ceremony was held at Capitol Hill under American flags in Washington.”

Two others from Sibel’s gallery, Sabri Sayari and Alan Makovsky, have been similarly involved with Gülen, Fuller, and Abramowitz – co-authoring books and articles, making joint appearances, dinners etc.

ILLEGAL OPERATIONS

Earlier I quoted Sibel saying “And I want to emphasize that this is “illegal” because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities.”Where does this funding come from? 

Where does this funding come from?  Narcotics trafficking, nuclear black market, weapons smuggling, and terrorist activities. As Sibel makes clear in her The Highjacking of a Nation article,the management of the heroin industry from the farms in Afghanistan to the streets of London and elsewhere “requires highly sophisticated networks,” from the protection of the convoys from Afghanistan through Central Asia to their final destination, to the laundering of the billions of dollars in proceeds in Central Asian casinos and financial institutions in Dubai and Cyprus.

“So, who are the real lords of Afghanistan’s poppy fields?” Sibel asks. The heroin trade finances Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but they aren’t the real lords of the poppy fields. Journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia”and other similar books about these issues recently noted on Democracy Now that a “cartel” controls Afghanistan’s heroin, which supplies 93% of global heroin supply. 

Sibel has been trying to tell us about these operations for years, but has been gagged by the State Secrets Privilege which was invoked citing certain ‘sensitive foreign diplomatic and business relationships.’ These ‘sensitive relationships’ have now been exposed to a degree, thanks to the immigration case against Mr Gülen – one of the Turkish operatives who have been fronting for the CIA in the Islamization of Central Asia, incorporating drug trafficking, money laundering, and the nuclear black market, and the convergence with terrorism.

ONE LAST QUESTION 

At the end of our interview, Sibel asked me to leave you with this question: 

“After 911, the US Government engaged in mock investigations and shut down many small Islamic charities and organizations, giving the appearance of action in the so-called ‘War on Terror.’ Why did they harbor, support and resource Fethullah Gülen’s $25 billion madrassa-and-mosque-establishment efforts throughout the Central Asian region and the Balkans?”

—

Source, Cross posted

Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article.

YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults. 

We do not claim exclusive rights on all articles, images or videos published on this site. The sources we use to create our articles, images, videos etc. are credited with a proper linkback. However, we do host material from unknown authors we receive via mails, from friends and our readers.

If you own copyrights to some material and you want us to remove it from our pages, contact us to claim your ownership and we will either credit you, or if you wish – completely remove the content.