If there is a new assault in Turkey, the Obama administration will be complicit for having failed to stop Gülen from spreading his message
Since the July 15 coup attempt, millions of Turks have been asking the same questions: Did Washington have advance knowledge of Fethullah Gülen's effort to overthrow Turkey's democratically elected government? If yes, had the United States actively supported or merely kept silent about the upcoming putsch?
The most popular assessment is that Washington knew about the assault and offered support to the coup plotters. When asked for evidence, advocates point out that Gülen, the failed coup's mastermind whose extradition Turkey formally requested from the United States, continues to live in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. They also find the idea that the U.S. government does not monitor the activities of a high-profile foreign national, whose network of charter schools had been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the past, unrealistic.
The situation is further complicated by insights offered by former U.S. officials including Ambassador Arthur Hughes, who suggests that there is a close dialogue between Gülen and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - a claim corroborated by testimony offered by former high-ranking members of the Gülenist terror cult, FETÖ. Many find it difficult to imagine that the CIA would not keep an eye on a foreigner who runs his empire from rural Pennsylvania.
"The question is whether Fethullah Gülen, a man under 24/7 surveillance, could have pulled the trigger without the U.S. government knowing about it," an expert familiar with the U.S. intelligence community remarks. "If the CIA and the FBI simply missed orders issued by Gülen to his people on the ground, it would go down in history as the biggest security lapse since 9/11. There is no room for those kind of coincidences in this line of business."
The less popular view in Turkey is that the U.S. government did not know about Gülen's plans. Visiting the Turkish capital last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden made the same point by repeatedly telling reporters that the administration had not supported the coup attempt. In other words, what Mr. Biden effectively meant was that Gülen, whom James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara, accused of orchestrating the coup attempt, had jeopardized Turkey-U.S. relations without consulting with the U.S. government first.
Neither Gülen nor one of his people met with representatives of the host country to discuss their plan. Committing a crime that could potentially lead to his extradition to Turkey, the man had no second thoughts about hurting U.S. interests in the region or annoying his hosts. In the end, he got away with it - or so the story goes.
If Washington had advance knowledge about Gülen's coup attempt, it means that the Obama administration risked losing Turkey, a strategic ally in the region, to side with the coup plotters. To prevent further deterioration of bilateral relations, the U.S. has no choice but to extradite Gülen to Turkey.
If Gülen indeed acted alone, that should be an even bigger problem for the U.S. It would be unacceptable for the man in rural Pennsylvania to orchestrate a coup attempt in a NATO member country and hurt American interests in the process. If true, the lone-wolf theory also raises questions about the credibility of the CIA and the FBI - which failed to realize that a foreign national based in the U.S. would take certain steps that could inflict potentially irreparable damage to Turkey-U.S. relations. As such, the U.S. authorities must either punish Gülen themselves or send him back home to Turkey to face justice.Instead, the Obama administration has opted to argue that a federal court would have to rule in favor of Gülen's extradition to Turkey. In a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in China, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to support Ankara's efforts to bring the coup plotters to justice. However, the problem is that the U.S. is not even honoring the extradition treaty with Turkey.
Article 9 of the treaty stipulates that a criminal like Gülen must be taken into custody as soon as the U.S. receives an extradition request. Although the paperwork was submitted to U.S. authorities weeks ago, action is yet to be taken.
The U.S. government's failure to put Gülen behind bars makes it possible for him to issuing new orders to his people on the ground. Last week, the man in Pennsylvania broadcast a new video message to his followers in Turkey to call for a new attempt to overthrow the government. Supposedly talking about brain cells, Gülen is seen in the video as saying: "How many young cells are there in our brains? Ten billion. These 10 billion cells in the brain are waiting for a warning, an order to get in motion. Provided that Allah placed them there, that there are so many soldiers, maybe you could conquer a lot of things with them. But I believe they, too, are asleep. They are asleep because they aren't challenged."
Although Gülen's messages are always cryptic, his instructions are quite clear here: There are his loyal followers within the military who have not yet been identified. By telling them they could "conquer many things," Gülen calls for a second wave of attacks.
Like all terrorist groups, Gülen's network has sleeper cells - which have just been asked to wake up. The fact that the orders were issued from rural Pennsylvania leaves the U.S. no choice but to part ways with the failed coup's leader. If there is a new assault in Turkey, the Obama administration will be complicit for having failed to stop Gülen from spreading his message.
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