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Flynn-Turkey Connection: Trump WH Doesn’t Do Its Homework
BY LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD // FAMILYSECURITYMATTERS.ORG
Everyone is shocked, shocked.
According to the Voice of America: “President Donald Trump was not aware that his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had worked to further the interests of the government of Turkey before appointing him.”
“I don’t believe that that was known,” said press secretary Sean Spicer.
Vice President Pence said that he also did not know about Flynn’s paid work.
Well, I knew and lots of other people did too because it was all out there on the internet.
On September 15, 2016, the Flynn Intel Group Inc. filed a lobbying registration form (submitted Sept 30th) to represent a Dutch company called Inovo BV for “organizational consulting.”
Just three days after submitting the form, on October 3, 2016, information was published connecting Inovo BV with Turkey, that is, a “company called Inovo BV was founded in 2005 by Dutch and Turkish politicial [sic] figures to attract Dutch investors in Turkish businesses.”
One can speculate that Inovo BV was used as a cut-out to hide or downplay the fact that the Flynn Intel Group was being paid to represent the Turkish government.
On election day, November 8, 2016, I was astonished to see an article written by Flynn for The Hill, an obvious “puff piece” supporting Turkish interests. On election day for God’s sake.
The Hill has now published a clarification:
“Editor’s Note: On March 8, 2017, four months after this article was published, General Flynn filed documents with the Federal government indicating that he earned $530,000 last fall for consulting work that might have aided the government of Turkey. In the filings, Flynn disclosed that he had received payments from Inovo BV, a Dutch company owned by a Turkish businessman with ties to Turkey’s president and that Inovo reviewed the draft before it was submitted to The Hill. Neither General Flynn nor his representatives disclosed this information when the essay was submitted.”
On November 11, 2016, one week before Flynn accepted then president-elect Trump’s offer to be National Security Advisor, Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller wrote an extensively researched article, presenting vivid details of Flynn’s Turkish connections.
Politico repeated the story on November 14, 2016 and the Intercept on November 18, 2016.
Given all the publicly-available information, it is disingenuous to now say no one knew.
And while we are on the subject of sloppy staff work, why is Obama-appointed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen still on the job? Koskinen is a central figure in the battle against a corrupt and lawless IRS “that wrongly targeted grassroots conservatives during the Obama administration.”
And why did President-elect Trump ask 50 senior Obama appointees to remain on the job and why are there still 1,200 other Obama holdovers in the Trump Administration?
It can’t be from a lack of applicants because over 100,000 people applied to work for the Trump Administration through the greatagain.gov website. You mean to tell me that a mere 1% of that total are not qualified for the positions now held by probably less-qualified Obama supporters?
And why has John Kerry’s apprentice and Obama sycophant, Michael Ratney, universally praised by the unofficial anti-Israel lobby, been hired to be President Trump’s point man at the State Department for the Israeli-Palestinian portfolio?
There is something wrong, not only when insufficient staff work is done, but worse, when people are retained or hired, who do not reflect the will of the American people and the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election.
Is it that the Trump Administration just didn’t do its homework or did the dog eat it?
Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. Colonel Sellin is the author of “Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution ”. He receives email at lawrence.sellin@gmail.com.
Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/flynn-turkey-connection-trump-white-house-doesnt-do-its-homework#ixzz4awDJqfoU
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