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I realize this might be worthy of a separate thread, but...
Turkey has found a connection between Mevlut Mert Altintas, the police officer terrorist who assassinated the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, and Hizmet, a network of businesses and non-profits with close ties to Fetullah Gulen. Gulen was the imam believed to be responsible for a failed coup in Turkey and is now residing in Pennsylvania where the US government is resisting all efforts to deport him to stand trial in Turkey.
One of the alleged groups that is tied with Hizmet is the Fetullah Terrorist Organiation (FETO), and in Altintas' apartment, which was owned by a fugitive member of FETO, Abdullah Bozkurt, materials written by Gulen were found. His sister had also shared pro-FETO materials on her social media page.
Now you might be wondering why the assassination of the Russian Ambassador might be warranting this wall of text. The answer came with
this Washington Post article where the Obama Administration was planning to announce a series of measures to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the Presidential Election. The scope of the alleged punishments would include economic sanctions and diplomatic censure, according to U.S. Officials. So here's a thought, if the Obama administration is willing to go that far in retaliation for something that we have done countless times in the past, what is stopping him from doing wet work on the side, especially if it is to protect Gulen?
The answer may come from Gulen's alleged ties to Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. in a April 1, 2009 email to Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Gokhan Ozkok, a known Gulen follower, asked for the then deputy chief of staff's help in connecting one of his allies [presumably Gulen] to the President. Ozkok is a founder of the Turkish Cultural Center and is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, where he has given between $500,001 to $1,000,000 to the Clinton charity. Ozkok also served as the national finance co-chair of the pro-Clinton Ready PAC, where he gave $10,000 in 2014. Finally, he donated $2,700 to Clinton's campaign last year [Note: it is entirely possible that he gave more. Just need to go through the campaign disclosure forms.]
Another link between Gulen and Clinton was revealed in a lobbying registration
disclosure filed in June with the Senate. It shows that a Gulen-aligned group called the Alliance for Shared Values hired the Clinton-connected Podesta Group to lobby Congress on its behalf. The group seeks to lobby for the "promotion of peace, tolerance and interfaith dialogue." The group's director is Alp Aslandogan, a former professor at universities in Texas, and has also donated to Clinton's political endeavors, according to campaign finance records.
The Podesta Group is a natural choice for those seeking influence with Clinton. The firm was co-founded by John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, and his brother Tony, a major Clinton campaign bundler.
The Turkish government is trying to unlock the assassin's phone to access his text and voice messages. It is believed that he did not act alone and that others are complicit in the attack, which intelligence officials believe
is an effort to get the Obama administration to grant asylum to Gulen.