According to ex-CIA director James Woolsey, Michael Flynn discussed having a Muslim Cleric wanted by Turkey removed from the United States. Mr. Flynn is President Trump’s former National Security Adviser. The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the attempted coup in the country that occurred last July.
The former CIA Director told the Wall Street Journal about how he had attended deliberations that involved various members of the government at the time. The meetings had the participants discuss how Gulen would be removed from the United States in processes that were beyond legal extradition.
Woolsey says that the meeting occurred last in September last year at a hotel in New York. The attendants included Flynn, who was President Trump’s campaign adviser at the time. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son in law and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Notably, the former director of the CIA said that there were probably limitations that he might not have heard about due to his lateness to the meeting. “What I saw and heard was sort of the end of the conversation — it’s not entirely clear what transpired because of that,” he explained to CNN.
During his interview with the Wall Street Journal, Woolsey cited that despite these actions being illegal, the participants in the meeting were discussing them intensely. To reporters, he said, “There was a serious discussion of finding some way to move Mr. Gulen out of the US to Turkey. You might call it brainstorming. But it was brainstorming about a very serious matter that would pretty clearly be a violation of law.”
However, Woolsey also pointed out that the discussions did not ultimately lead to a plan to remove the cleric in the long-run. Reiterating these sentiments, he said, “It was a serious and troubling discussion, but it did not, repeat not, in my portion of being in the room, rise to a level of being a specific plan to undertake a felonious act.” Despite his apparent sentiments that the discussions did not reach any conclusion, the former director called the meeting “suspicious” and “concerning.”
Flynn, on the other hand, denies he participated in any of these discussions and refuted the former director’s statements. A statement concerning Woolsey’s interview was made by a spokesman for Michael Flynn. In the release to the press, she said, “The claim made by Mr. Woolsey that General Flynn, or anyone else in attendance, discussed physical removal of Mr. Gulen from the United States during a meeting with Turkish officials in New York is false. No such discussion occurred. Nor did Mr. Woolsey ever inform General Flynn that he had any concerns whatsoever regarding the meeting, either before he chose to attend, or afterwards.”
Mr. Gulen has resided in the state of Pennsylvania since 1999. With the occurrence of the attempted coup in Turkey, the Turkish government has repeatedly called upon the United States government to hand him over since they believe he was in charge of the coup’s organization and execution. As such, relations between Ankara and Washington have continuously dwindled.
