US-NATO Border Confrontation with Russia Risks Nuclear War and Loss of European Partners — Jessica Desvarieux interviews Michael Hudson

And all throughout Europe — I've been in Germany twice in the last two months, and they're really worried that somehow America is telling Europe, let's you and Russia fight. 

Real News Network
US-NATO Border Confrontation with Russia Risks Nuclear War and Loss of European Partners

Jessica Desvarieux interviews Michael Hudson

Turkey's Attempted Coup With Hillary Involved With Iman Accused

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen b: 1941 in Turkey is a Turkish preacher, former imam, writer, and political figure. He is the founder of the Gülen movement. He was an Iman at age 17, having studied with Sufi masters.  He currently lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, residing in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

We just witnessed an attempted coup by some of Turkey's military on Friday.  President Recept Tayyip Erdogan has accused an Iman in Pennsylvania of being the catalyst for this and wants the USA to return him to their government, probably for trial.

This is an important event.  Turkey is very important to the USA. "Turkey is a member of NATO and a key US ally in the region, providing its airbase for the ongoing military campaign in neighboring Syria. It also hosts American nuclear weapons, with an estimated 50 to 90 B61 bombs stored at the Incirlik base."   This coup has caused the death of 265 so far with 1440 injured.  2,800 have been arrested, soldiers who participated in the coup.  Their grievance is that Erdogan has been taking over positions; not a very democratic thing to do.  However, with Erdogan's popularity, the head generals were not involved in this.

There are lots of Turkish Americans around his home right now planning to demonstrate in Washington who think that this Iman's plea of innocence is a lie.  The Iman is Fethullah Gulen.  "While in the U.S. in 1999 for medical treatment, he was charged in Turkey with attempting to create an Islamic state— anathema under Turkey's secularist constitution. He stayed in Pennsylvania, where he now lives on a 25-acre estate in the Pocono Mountains. Over the years, he said, he has left the estate twice." 

"Alliance For Shared Values  (AFSV) is a New York-based nonprofit umbrella organization and major part of the Gülen movement according to Wikipedia. Having been inspired by Turkish preacher,  Fethullah Gülen, their stated goal is to "[serve] as a voice for civic, culture and service organizations around the U.S dedicated to promoting community service, education and interfaith dialogue. The president of the organization is Alp Aslandogan." 

"In 2014. the AFSV released a statement in which they condemned what they called "politically-motivated attempts to crackdown on law-abiding citizens" by then-Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against members of the organization, including defaming Gülen and demanding his extradition without any charges or legal case against him. They also accused him of taking advantage of Turkey’s strategic relationship with the US."
                                                                                                   

Hillary Clinton, Presidential Candidate

The Daily Caller, conservative from USA, " alleged in 2016 that they had found connections between Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Gülen Movement, including the Alliance for Shared Values. They accused the AFSV of hiring the Podesta Group, a group co-founded by Clinton’s current campaign chairman and his brother, to lobby Congress on its behalf. They also claimed the AFSV's president, Alp Aslandogan, had formerly donated money to Clinton’s campaigns.  The article was referred to by the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, which is itself accused of being close to Erdogan."
                                                                   

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, in power since 2002 

This is the group's comment today after the President of Turkey's accusations. "News media reported about developments in Turkey today regarding actions of Turkish Armed Forces.

For more than 40 years, Fethullah Gulen and Hizmet participants have advocated for, and demonstrated their commitment to, peace and democracy. We have consistently denounced military interventions in domestic politics. These are core values of Hizmet participants. We condemn any military intervention in domestic politics of Turkey. Events on the ground are moving quickly and it would be irresponsible for us to speculate on them. We remain concerned about the safety and security of Turkish citizens and those in Turkey right now."Comments by pro-Erdogan circles about the movement are highly irresponsible."

Erdogan has said that "“Any country that protects Fethullah Gulen will be an enemy to Turkey,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday, naming the imam who Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asserts is the mastermind behind Friday’s failed coup."

So here's the conundrum:  the president of Turkey thinks Iman Gulen brought about an attempted coup and wants him returned to him or else-all troubles fall on the USA.  Hillary Clinton is involved with the group that has been defending Gulen from these accusations.  What will Obama do?   This is not the first time that Turkey has wanted him back.

Who is this Iman?  He's been put on trial 3 times in absentia in Turkey already.  He was noticed in Turkey about 50 years ago who taught a philosophy that blended mystical Islam with democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.  He had many supporters who started 1,000 schools in more than 100 countries and included about 150 charter schools that were taxpayer -funded in the USA.  In Turkey they run universities, hospitals, charities, a bank and media of all types.

Erdogan's history has been that of a problem for Israel when Israeli sailors had to board a ship they brought in loaded with boxes for Gaza and had to be inspected.  The inspection was not welcomed and Turks were killed when Israeli sailors had to defend themselves. This was in 2010 when Turkey was in a flotilla of ships disregarding the Israeli blockade of Gaza receiving goods not inspected which many have had ammunition in them to use against Israel.  .  Iman Fethullah Gulen was against Turkey sailing to Israel and breaking their law.   "Mr. Gülen said organizers' failure to seek accord with Israel before attempting to deliver aid "is a sign of defying authority, and will not lead to fruitful matters." It certainly didn't.    Just recently the two countries finally settled things and are on good terms.  Erdogan himself has been leaving a secular outlook and has become much more religious.  Turkey is very important to the USA militarily, but they are having their own problems with rebels and with ISIS.

Gulen has been found to have ties with  John Esposito, an apologist for radical Islamists including the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  Gulen has had some surprising motivation.  " Gulen's efforts to make Turkey an Islamic state have brought him into conflict with the nation's military, which has long been a bastion of support for modern Turkish secularism as conceived by Kemal Ataturk." 

 "According to Rachel Sharon-Krespin of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Gulen is a bitter foe of Turkish secularism. In a detailed account of his public career, she portrayed Gulen (who has had well-publicized interfaith meetings with Christians and Jews) as an Islamic supremacist who wants Turkey ruled by Sharia."  

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Shared_Values
http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/16/turkey-warns-america-hand-over-exiled-cleric-or-else/
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Alliance-of-shared-values-444891
https://www.rt.com/news/351537-turkey-coup-attempt-fails/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704025304575284721280274694
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1996/turkish-imam-criticizes-flotilla-bashes-israel#

Turkish coup: if Erdogan is removed that's good, but how will the Washington neocons and NATO react? That's the real question.

If the coup results in the permanent removal of Erdogan then it's a good thing. Erdogan was a creep who enabled ISIS and terrorism. He gave them sanctuary, the ability to sell oil and safe transit between Turkey and Syria. Erdogan gave the order to shoot down that Russian jet fighter and in so doing, backed NATO efforts to provoke Russia and maybe draw it into a war. Erdogan was dangerous.

The question is, what will be the reaction of the crazy neocons in Washington and NATO? They used Erdogan for their subversive purposes. Erdogan was a key player in the NATO's designs on Russia so if he is gone what will their reaction be?

That is the real, and very serious, question. I don't know this for sure, but if we take the coup plotters' statements, which are now emerging from the chaotic situation in Turkey, it seems that they had enough with Erdogan's subversive and autocratic rule. That's good for anyone who is against ISIS and terrorism and NATO "adventurism."

But will they succeed? Will NATO, the CIA and the neocons let them succeed? This could get very messy.

Paul Robinson — The persistence of bad ideas

Turns out that retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who is on Trump's short list for VP is a super-hawk who thinks that war is the usual state of humankind.

The introduction to Flynn’s new book suggests something different, however. Flynn writes that his purpose is:

To show you the war being waged against us. This administration has forbidden us to describe our enemies properly and clearly: they are Radical Islamists. They are not alone, and are allied with countries and groups who, though not religious fanatics, share their hatred of the West, particularly the United States and Israel. Those allies include North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba, and Venezuela.…

‘Most Americans mistakenly believe that peace is the normal condition of mankind, while war is some weird aberration. Actually, it’s the other way around’, Flynn says. He recommends that the United States wage unrelenting war against its enemies and their allies, and warns that this war may last a very long time. ‘I dare say that most Americans don’t realize that the religious and political transformations of Europe that we call the Reformation entailed hundreds of years of very bloody struggle’, he writes, adding that, ‘The world badly needs an Islamic Reformation, and we should not be surprised if violence is involved.’

If this sounds like a return to some of the crazier policies of the Bush years, that should come as no surprise. Flynn’s co-author Michael Ledeen is a well-known neo-conservative who was an outspoken supporter of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Looking at the chaos that the Americans have created in the Middle East, Russians often charge that this is deliberate policy. I have always maintained that it is more a product of stupidity. But Ledeen is the sort of person who makes me think that the Russians might have a point. According to Wikipedia:

In 2002 Ledeen criticized the views of former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, writing: ‘He fears that if we attack Iraq “I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a cauldron and destroy the War on Terror.” One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. … That’s our mission in the war against terror.’…

Assuming Flynn was vetted, better rethink Trump as a peacenik. Flynn is actually worse than Hillary and her people.

Irrussianality
The persistence of bad ideas
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

See also

As NATO wraps up its summit meeting in Warsaw, it will no doubt be patting itself on the back for displaying ‘unity’ and ‘resolve’ in the face of ‘Russian aggression’, in particular by agreeing to station a semi-permanent garrison of four battalions in Poland and the Baltic States. If we are to believe NATO’s former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Sir Richard Shirreff, such displays of strength are exactly what are needed to ‘deter’ Russia and prevent war. That is the message of a novel he has just published, entitled 2017. War with Russia. An Urgent Warning from Senior Military Command.…

Book Review: War with Russia

Pepe Escobar — NATO Paranoia Versus Eurasia Integration

The Great Game of geopolitics and the global economy.

Sputnik
NATO Paranoia Versus Eurasia Integration
Pepe Escobar

See also

The Duran
The Warsaw Summit and NATO’s Reckless Bluff

Alexander Mercouris

Does NATO Affect Israel In Any Way?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

NATO has kept the peace in Europe

The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, said in 1949 that the goal was "to.keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.  It's creation can be seen as the primary school of thought called Atlanticism which stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation against an armed attack against any one of them in Europe or North America.  It would be an attack against all.   

At present, NATO (North Atlantic Alliance) has 28 members. In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia (2004), and Albania and Croatia (2009).

• Dialogue and cooperation with Ukraine started after the end of the Cold War, when newly independent Ukraine joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (1991) and the Partnership for Peace programme (1994).

NATO is presently weighing the job of sending  4 battalions in Eastern States to deter Russia.  Donald Trump would like to get rid of NATO because the USA pays most of its expenses and he thinks its rather outdated, now.  Trump's timing of getting rid of NATO is bad because Russia has been displaying "increasingly aggressive behavior that is challenging the international norms.  They are often in violation of international law.

The Baltic state of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO in 2004.  They have asked for greater presence of the NATO Alliance because they fear a threat from Russia after it annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.  Maybe they saw something brewing back in 2004.
                                                                                 

The Connected Forces Initiative (CFI) aims to enhance the high level of interconnectedness and interoperability Allied forces have achieved on operations and with partners. CFI combines a comprehensive education, training, exercise and evaluation programme with the use of cutting-edge technology to ensure that Allied forces remain prepared to engage cooperatively in the future.NATO Naval Drills Began in Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean in 2014. 

NATO is weighing the decision to rotate 4 battalions of NATO  troops through the Eastern member states  which means 4,000 troops. They will come from the USA and its allies and will be sent to the Baltic states and to Poland.   It's their latest proposal to guard against the aggressive behavior of Russia.

This information came from the testifying of US Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 28, 2016.  He was there testifying on operations against the ISIS.  Carter is now on a 3 day trip to Germany.
                                                                             

Deputy Commanding General, US Army Europe and Commander, US Army NATO General Richard C Longo, right, shakes hands with Polish general Adam Joks, left, ...

The USA budgeted to boost military training and exercises and announced last month about deploying continuous rotations of US based armored brigade combat teams to Europe.

Army General Curtis Scaparrotti will take over as the next NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.  He will be succeeding US Air Force General Philip Breedlove.

NATO  is based on the North Atlantic Treaty signed back on April 4, 1949.  The member states have agreed to a mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.  The headquarters of NATO is in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, where the Supreme Allied Commander lives.  Belgium is one of 28 member states across North America and Europe.  Albania and Croatia are the newest who joined in April 2009.  22 more countries participate in their NATO's Paretnership for Peace program.  15 other countries are involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes.  The combined military spending of all NATO members is over 70% of the global total.  Members' defense spending is supposed to amount to 2% of the GDP (Gross domestic product (GDP) is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period).  Since the USA's GDP is probably the highest, they have been carrying the highest amount that goes into their treasury.                                                
                                                                  

Afghan security forces are dying at five times the rate of NATO soldiers as Taliban insurgents step up attacks ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014, the latest figures show.

Here's a problem.  Only 5 member states of the 28 meet the defense spending goal.  They are Poland, USA, Great Britain, Greece and Estonia.  Overall, six countries are raising and six are cutting their military spending as a proportion GDP this year when compared with 2014, and the rest are staying the same.   Russia invaded and annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization spending is set to decrease by 1.5%, to roughly $893 billion.Some of these countries, including Latvia and Lithuania, are among those that increased their spending this year.  With USA officials, the military has for a long time found this financing problem a sore spot, so it hasn't been that Trump thought this one up all by himself out of the blue.  He got it from those he spoke to.  

U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James was in Brussels last week to confer with NATO officials, and she urged America’s allies to reverse the trend.
                                                                                

Israel is not a member of NATO.  "Israel might become a NATO member-state if its neighbours also joined.   Alternatively, Israel might become a NATO member-state if NATO somehow became an alliance aimed against the Arab and/or Muslim world. Failing those scenarios, Israeli membership is a non-starter.  There is no alliance group except the USA for Israel.  She stands pretty much alone against a large Arab alliance.  However, she is a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue of 7 States .  I'm glad to see her close neighbors of Egypt and Jordan standing with her.  
                                                                                 

NEGEV DESERT, Israel — U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, National Guard Bureau chief, meets Israeli Soldiers who were training in urban warfare techniques at the Israeli Defense Force’s National Center for Ground Training here Nov. 21, 2005. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Bob Haskell)

" Among NATO's partners are the Mediterranean Dialogue states, consisting of 7 countries:
Israel, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Mauritania and Morocco. There is constant and ongoing connection between Israel and NATO, and Israel is regarded a Major non NATO ally, alongside Australia, South Korea and Japan."

Once upon a time, there was another force that was supposed to be protecting Israel.  "After the Suez Crisis in 1956, the United Nations Emergency Force deployed in the Sinai Peninsula in order to serve as a buffer between Israel and Egypt.   But in 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser demanded that the U.N. forces leave - which they did immediately. Nasser then threatened Israel with annihilation. The Six-Day War followed soon after."   So you can't put 100% of your faith in these outside forces.  Sadly, the NATO forces didn't help  Crimea.  

By May 13, 2015, "NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg added: "We are deeply concerned by statements of possible future stationing of nuclear weapons and development systems in Crimea."  Russia  had annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that was widely condemned by the international community but was greeted as a great patriotic victory at home.

NATO also warned President Vladimir Putin to waste no time in implementing a fragile peace deal to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, after the Russian strongman's meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday raised hopes of a slackening in tensions. 

The latest news in April 2016 is that  "NATO has moved to bolster its forces in its east European member states as a result of the Crimea-Russian fiasco.  Russia is widely accused of covertly backing the rebels who now control much of eastern Ukraine after a bloody armed conflict with the government in Kiev, "  and Ukraine is a NATO member.  "A national security paper was updated to say that NATO's recent build-up of military potential around Russia's borders constituted "violations of norms of international law".

"Tension between NATO and Russia, which both possess huge nuclear arsenals dating back to the Cold War, has clouded international relations since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine following the peninsula's disputed referendum on self-determination." 

  
This thing is too big.  Trump will not be able to give it up.  It's standing for peace, even though they failed already when bucking Russia.  The problem is money.  Other's have to shell out their fair share.  Some are already shook up and are doing it.  The right words may have been enough already  spoken by Trump in thinking that the biggest pockets are thinking of pulling out. 

On the other hand, can or will NATO do anything more about Russia's handling of Crimea and Ukraine?  Is it their role to do so?  If not, what are they paying for?  Can a WWIII start right here? 

Resource: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_52044.htm
 http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/nato_weighs_four_battalions_in_eastern_states_to_deter_russia
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28972878
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-calls-for-rise-in-defence-spending-by-alliance-members-1434978193
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-calls-for-rise-in-defence-spending-by-alliance-members-1434978193#:rwD_SInY51KWwA
http://jcpa.org/why-israel-opposes-international-forces-in-the-jordan-valley/
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/02/donald-trump-tells-crowd-hed-be-fine-if-nato-broke-up/?_r=0
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_37750.htm
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/europe/2015/05/13/nato-worried-by-russia-crimea-build-up/27272341/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35999657