THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Federal investigation into the Gulen Movement’s charter schools

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Federal investigation into the Gulen Movement’s charter schools

REVISED ON 3/9/2011

An article exposing a federal investigation into the Gulen Movement's involvement in charter schools (>30,000 students) has just been published in Il Sole 24 Ore (considered to be The Wall Street Journal of Italian newspapers): Un imam alla conquista degli Usa.

Yet still, the U.S. public remains uninformed about this whole situation because the American press has revealed very little to them.

Here are excerpts from a translation previously posted at

http://gulenforeignmedia.weebly.com/feb-20-2011-italy.html

An imam in the conquest of the United States -
by Claudio Gatti - Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy)

February 20, 2011

...Il Sole 24 Ore has been able to determine that for months, the FBI, Department of Justice and Department of Education have been investigating the possible illegal use of these education funds, a criminal conspiracy, extortion, and violation of immigration laws. "The suspicion is that, behind an educational effort, there is a giant conspiracy" a federal officer, requesting anonymity, explained to our newspaper. "The plan is as simple as it is brilliant: to use public funding for schools to educate a new generation of Americans favorably inclined to Turkey and thus indirectly to the Gulen movement, and also to spend some of that money to fund foundations and cultural centers."

Federal authorities have identified at least 120 schools opened in recent years by the movement in some twenty U.S. states, all charter schools, which are outside the loop of public education but financed by states and the federal government. Since each of these schools receives from 1.5 to 3 million dollars each year in public funds, it is a matter of hundreds of millions of dollars a year...

Gulen declined to answer our questions, but when Il Sole 24 Ore asked Beksir [sic- should read Bekir] Aksoy, chairman of the spiritual center of Pennsylvania where the onetime imam lives, if the founder has any relationship with these schools, the response was an emphatic no. And the school administrators themselves have always denied any formal relationship with the movement.

But federal authorities have documents and emails that prove the link...

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Want to learn more? Visit

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: Learn about the latest myths about the so called Gulen Charter Schools; February 23, 2011 at 5:57 AM
Gulen is a Fraud said...: Hey Anonymous are you getting worried because your precious Hizmet / Cemaat is being watched?

Keep posting your "myth" comments all over the Internet - even if you post it 100 times the facts remain. You are one of the brainwashed cult members.

Gulen Charter Schools
http://www.gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com

http://www.gulenschoolsworldwide.blogspot.com; February 23, 2011 at 7:30 AM
Anonymous said...: Gulen movement has hidden agenda. They are against the secular system in Turkey and as of today, there are more than 200 secular army personel and journalists imprisoned due to their opposition. You need to be a dump to beleive they are here stealing your tax money just to provide good schools in US? Why would a Turkish islamic fugutive ran to US, start opening schools and help US for education? just ask questions - open your eyes!; March 9, 2011 at 11:07 AM
Anonymous said...: Anonymous, you are so busted! Youre nothing but a bitter Turk/Kurd whose father or uncle is one of those corrupt ones that got jailed in Turkey.

Why dont you open your eyes and see the reality. Your lie infested propaganda wont stick for any longer...

So long sucker :); March 10, 2011 at 3:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Hi, I have news for you, in case you missed it :)

Charter Schools 101

paul williams Unholy war against Fethullah Gulen

And the best part
Sibel Edmonds and Osman Nuri Gundes - Boiling Frogs; March 18, 2011 at 9:12 AM
Anonymous said...: Even though I have right-wing views concerning issues relating to Turkey, as a Turkish-American, I believe the FBI needs to further investigate the realities of the Gulen movement and not be fooled by the "mask" which the Gulen movement is trying to portray. They think they can fool people with their Interfaith Dialogues, Turkish Olympiads, and trying to build bridges with other groups in society. But in reality, they are serving as a 2nd column to transform Turkey into a 2nd Iran. Since 2002, anti-West sentiment in Turkey shot up, you see people waving Hamas, Hezbollah flags, you even see pro-Bin Laden proests in Turkey. Also, human rights, civil rights and free speech has substantially gone down the drain in Turkey thanks to the Gulen movement. People need to stop being fooled and the world, both Turkish and non-Turkish need to work on exposing the Gulen movement and how they want to spread Sharia Law around the world. Do not believe one single word the Gulen Movement states, period!; November 6, 2011 at 10:18 PM

Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. LISTEN to my interview with At The Chalk Face , slide marker to 32:00 min. (5/19/2013)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

WE CAN DO IT!

Jim Hightower on populism:

"... what populism is at its essence is just a determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government."

Jim Hightower on plutocracy:

"Plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

More Jim Hightower HERE.
Read his Lowdown newsletter HERE.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.

On Bill Gates' ed reform

Joel Shatzky's comment on Huffington Post:

The inferior "test-prep" agenda which bases the pedagogically fraudulent "data" standardized test scores serves as a way of diverting the concerns of working parents who hope that better test scores will lead to better job opportunities for their children. If they realized that they were being given a con job, they might consider other, more "active" forms of political and social protest than simply lobbying for more money for charter and public schools.

New wealth gap report

Research and Policy Brief from the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University, May 2010:

"New evidence reveals that the wealth gap between white and African-American families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation."

You absolutely must click on this link to view the graph.

Now compare that graph to the one you'll see here.

Now read this entry.

And if you are a person who blames the schools, or believes they are responsible for fixing these problems, you can stop that type of thinking right now.

A Keeper

Posted on the Oakland Public School Parents listserv by a member:*

As a public health nurse, I am working with a generation of young parents who were drug-exposed, who are now having children who are drug-exposed, and it's a whole new ballgame. Many who were premature and will carry some deficits for life.

There are also many other families who have several generations of all kinds of abuse, not enough to eat, violence in and out of their homes, as well as chronic exposure to pollution and nutritional deficits. And there are regular people in the same neighborhoods who are just trying to live, but are poor and can't get ahead.

And there is major grief, and continuous LOSS. So many folks have lost so many folks, people around them dying, of one thing or another, every month almost. Young people (cousins, brothers, friends) dying from violent means, the elders dying too young of chronic disease and disparities in health care, among other things.

What we know about learning and development is that stressed nervous systems CANNOT learn, and that's what we have. Children with many major stressors. Abandonment, attachment disorders, fear, post traumatic stress, sadness, inability to trust or sleep. Many children. Many.

Resulting in: Lack of impulse control, lack of executive function, difficulty in expressing and controlling emotions, difficulty in sleeping, holding still, and paying attention, not to mention following directions and prioritizing tasks.

Our teachers will (perhaps already do) need more training, support, and smaller class sizes. They need major support and help with mental health issues. We really need some kind of expanded vocational track for those who can't perform even at the community college level.

We can't expect teachers to undo years and years of living. The availability of universal preschool would help. Sometimes a classroom is the first kindly, safe, structured, stimulating environment a child encounters.

Wise insights such as these are never uttered by people like Eli Broad, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Joe Williams, or any others who are of this type of school reform ilk. And this is why I know for certain that they just don't "get it." Maybe they don’t want to, OR maybe they don’t care.

* Thank you, B.R.

What Children Need

From Playing to Learn by Susan Engel (New York Times, 2/1/2010):

"Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

…Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

And to tag onto that, check out this video about the wood shop at one of Oakland's middle schools.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Federal investigation into the Gulen Movement’s charter schools

6 comments: