US considering expelling Turkish cleric in US to get Turkey to ease up on Saudis

[Borealis]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/white-house-weighs-booting-erdogan-foe-u-s-appease-turkey-n933996

WASHINGTON — The White House is looking for ways to remove an enemy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist
Jamal Khashoggi, according to two senior U.S. officials and two other people briefed on the requests.

Trump administration officials last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen in an attempt to persuade
Erdogan to ease pressure on the Saudi government, the four sources said.

The effort includes directives to the Justice Department and FBI that officials reopen Turkey's case for his extradition, as well as a request to the Homeland Security Department for
information about his legal status, the four people said.

They said the White House specifically wanted details about Gulen's residency status in the U.S. Gulen has a Green Card, according to two people familiar with the matter. He has been
living in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s. Career officials at the agencies pushed back on the White House requests, the U.S. officials and people briefed on the requests said.

"At first there were eye rolls, but once they realized it was a serious request, the career guys were furious," said a senior U.S. official involved in the process.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council initially declined to comment on this story but after it published, said in a statement: "The NSC has not been involved in nor aware of
any discussions relating the extradition of Fethullah Gulen to the death of Jamal Khashoggi."

The kingdom, after initially denying any role in Khashoggi's disappearance, reversed course and admitted that Saudi officials were responsible for the killing. On Thursday, Saudi
Arabia's top prosecutor recommended the death penalty for five out of the 11 suspects charged with killing Khashoggi. A total of 21 suspects have been arrested in connection with
the case, according to Saud al-Mojeb.

Trump and Erdogan also recently discussed another option to relieve tensions — the release of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was sentenced in May to 32 months in prison
by a U.S. federal judge for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, two people familiar with the discussion said. Erdogan has criticized the case against Atilla as a
political attack aimed at undermining his government.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for almost two decades, denies any involvement in the failed coup in Turkey in 2016. A one-time ally of Erdogan, he's become an
influential cleric with a wide network of followers known as "Gulenistas." His movement includes a host of nonprofit organizations, businesses and schools, in the U.S., as well as South
Africa.

[gman003-main]

So to placate a tyrannical country that just murdered a critic of its government, we're going to hand a critic of a government over to an increasingly-tyrannical country that will probably just murder him.

[Mr. Someguy]

Bunch of morally blackened criminals, all of them. Why are we defending SA for the admitted murder and dismemberment of a journalist? Why are we willing to send people to their doom to appease Turkey and protect SA? Fuck everyone involved in this evil bullshit, the White House, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

[elix]

Hey while you're at it, if you want to deport Justin Bieber back to Canada we'll probably murder him for you. obviously a fucking joke