Kurdistan and Turkish money in America

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jun 27, 2010 at 07:40

Barry Black wrote :

"The recent bombing of the Kurds in northern Iraq by Turkey took a great deal of wind out of the sails of Turkey regarding Israel's blockade of Gaza."

If I am not mistaken , all previous Turkish bombings and raids into Iraqi Kurdistan have been coordinated with and approved by the US which provided free airspace and valuable intelligence for the Turks . The most conspicuous example of this US-Turkish collusion against the Kurds took place in December 2007 when the Turks sent troops into Northern Iraq .

Paradoxically enough , the Kurds are the only relevant ethnic group - except for the Jews - friendly to America in the Near East . One might therefore rather expect that the US should have supported them instead of unleashing the Turkish bloodhound upon them . But somehow choosing between an ex-friend and a friend the US prefers the former consistently helping the Turks with repressing and eliminating the Kurds . It might look like a contradiction and folly , might it not ? But , of course , it turns out on closer examination that there is no contradiction or folly involved . All clears up when we consider how cleverly the Turks have managed to buy political influence in the US to steer decisions made by America in the direction favourable to rather Turkish than American interests .

There is a highly interesting article on the hidden connections between the US power elite and the Turks . First , the Turkish government spends millions of dollars each year on " well-connected Washington lobbying firms-- including those employing former House leaders". Then , a "private" intiative was launched by a well-connected Turkish engineer educated in America Yalcin Ayasli to achieve the same goal with different means . In 1985 Yalcin founded 'Hittite Microwave' with a grant from the U.S. Air Force . It was a success and two years ago teh Turkish company in America had $ 180 mln in revenue . "Since 2004 'Hittite Microwave' has received roughly $30 million in contracts directly from the US government doing business with Lockheed Martin and other major contractors . [...] In 2007 Ayasli transferred $30 million in stock to fund [...] the nonprofit 'Turkish Coalition of America' with its headquartered in a Washington suite that has also been listed as the address for the Turkish Coalition USA PAC, the lobbying firm of Lydia Borland (who has represented the Turkish government) , and the law firm of Bruce Fein and Associates (Fein comprises half of the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund). [...] The family of Hittite founder Ayaslin contributed nearly half a million dollars to federal politics in 2007-2008, donating near the maximum amount to the House campaign committees for both parties, but largely neglecting the Senate.

TCA is headed by Lincoln McCurdy, who served as a U.S. diplomat in Istanbul from 1980 to 1984, and also functions as treasurer of the political action committee; he draws an additional retainer as Ayasli's "personal advisor" on "political matters," in his own words. From 1989 to 2004, McCurdy led the American Turkish Council, a lobbying organization funded by membership dues from defense and energy companies with an interest in Turkey, and whose executive ranks include Borland.

In addition to the advocacy done through the ATC (which also funds trips to Turkey for congressional staff), a handful of its members--Citigroup, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Chevron, Textron, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, which spent a combined $80 million lobbying Washington last yearlobbied Congress directly on the genocide resolution and other issues important to Turkey; the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade group, helped coordinate the effort."

Well, bearing all that in mind are the vagaries and folly of US policy towards Turkey like allowing the Turks to bomb American-friendly Kurds so hard to understand now ? In America all is for sale and if the Kurds one day get enough money to buy American minds and hearts bribed now by the Turkish gold and contracts , then the US Turkish policy will change too .

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