Michael Flynn was acting as a foreign agent

Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has officially admitted to working as a foreign agent during last year's election campaign, and was paid over half a million dollars by a close political ally of the president of Turkey, Erdogan. This is significant.

Former Trump aide Flynn says lobbying may have helped Turkey

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was fired from his prominent White House job last month, has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for $530,000 worth of lobbying work before Election Day that may have aided the Turkish government. Paperwork filed Tuesday with the Justice Department's Foreign Agent Registration Unit said Flynn and his firm were voluntarily registering for lobbying from August through November that "could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey." It was filed by a lawyer on behalf of the former U.S. Army lieutenant general and intelligence chief.

Here is where I posted about that:
http://ift.tt/2m8Kylc

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About that Op-Ed: http://ift.tt/2m8Rlel Quote: I wrote on Thursday about Gen. Michael Flynn’s sudden about-face on Turkey, both with regard to his assessment of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s helpfulness in the war against terror and with regard to exiled Islamic theologian Fethullah Gülen, a one-time ally of Erdogan whose exile and perhaps execution the Turkish president now demands. What raised so many eyebrows was how sharply the op-ed diverged from his previous positions and how it appeared to be in complete conformity with the Turkish government’s positions. Now, it appears there is more to the story. From the Daily Caller: Quote: An intelligence consulting firm founded by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s top military adviser, was recently hired as a lobbyist by an obscure Dutch company with ties to Turkey’s government and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan… The piece does not include a disclosure that Flynn Intel Group, the consulting firm that Flynn founded in Oct. 2014, just after leaving DIA, was recently hired to lobby Congress by a Dutch company called Inovo BV that was founded by a Turkish businessman who holds a top position on Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board. A review of Dutch records shows that the company was founded by Ekim Alptekin, an ally of Erdogan’s who is director of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council, a non-profit arm of Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board. Members of the Foreign Economic Relations Board are chosen by Turkey’s general assembly and its minister of economy. In the role, Alptekin helped coordinate Erdogan’s visit to the U.S. earlier this year.

I said at the time that this is a much bigger deal than speaking to the Russian Ambassador.

Here is the Op-Ed in question:
Our ally Turkey is in crisis and needs our support

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We must begin with understanding that Turkey is vital to U.S. interests. Turkey is really our strongest ally against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as a source of stability in the region. It provides badly needed cooperation with U.S. military operations. But the Obama administration is keeping Erdoğan’s government at arm’s length — an unwise policy that threatens our long-standing alliance. The primary bone of contention between the U.S. and Turkey is Fethullah Gülen, a shady Islamic mullah residing in Pennsylvania whom former President Clinton once called his “friend” in a well circulated video.

It's basically a hatchet job on Gülen, who Turkey wants extradited. He all but calls for the government to extradite him, comparing him to Osama bin Laden:

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It is time we take a fresh look at the importance of Turkey and place our priorities in proper perspective. It is unconscionable to militate against Turkey, our NATO ally, as Washington is hoodwinked by this masked source of terror and instability nestled comfortably in our own backyard in Pennsylvania. We need to adjust our foreign policy to recognize Turkey as a priority. We need to see the world from Turkey’s perspective. What would we have done if right after 9/11 we heard the news that Osama bin Laden lives in a nice villa at a Turkish resort while running 160 charter schools funded by the Turkish taxpayers? The forces of radical Islam derive their ideology from radical clerics like Gülen, who is running a scam. We should not provide him safe haven. In this crisis, it is imperative that we remember who our real friends are.

Note that before Turkey was paying him, his position was quite different:
http://ift.tt/2m8RnTv

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In the midst of a military uprising against the Turkish government on July 15, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn told an audience that the coup attempt was “worth clapping for” and that Turkey’s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was a close ally of President Obama’s. But those are different positions than the ones Flynn staked out in an op-ed he published on Nov. 8, Election Day. In that piece, Flynn, who was named Donald Trump’s national security adviser last week, denounced the coup attempt. He also said that Obama was not doing enough to help Erdogan and Turkey. So what caused Flynn to change his position on Turkey in those intervening months? “This is Turkey under Erdogan, who is actually very close to President Obama,” said Flynn, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration. “If the military succeeds, one of the things that the military immediately said is, ‘We recognize our responsibilities with NATO, we recognize our responsibilities with the United Nations, we want to make sure that the world knows, we are, we want to be seen as a secular nation,'” continued Flynn, who appeared to believe at the time that secular members of Turkey’s army were carrying out the coup. “That is worth clapping for,” he added.

So he went from "Erdogan is very close to President Obama" to "the Obama administration is keeping Erdoğan’s government at arm’s length — an unwise policy".

And he went from a military coup to oust Erdogan would be a good thing "worth clapping for" to this is Turkey's 9/11 and Gulen is Osama bin Laden.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2mH9Ny3