The Daily Beast  (rightly, in my opinion) has castigated congressmen for upping their travel at a time of serious financial strain. However, in her haste to criticize two congressmen for a junket to Istanbul, writer Laura Colarusso may have missed a larger story. Colarusso writes:

“…The Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians paid for Republican Reps. Ted Poe of Texas and Scott Garrett of New Jersey to go to Turkey with their wives to meet with members of the Turkish House of Representatives. The trip, which cost more than $21,000, included a boat tour of the Bosphorus and visits to several major Turkish landmarks like the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. Poe, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, defended the trip, saying, ‘I only participate in foreign trips that I deem relevant and beneficial to my work’ and that the focus on Turkey is appropriate because it belongs to ‘a region that is in turmoil.’”

Colarusso does not ask, however, what exactly the Turquoise Council is and who is behind it?  The answer, apparently, is Islamist cult leader Fethullah Gulen. (Like Iran’s Mujahedin al-Khalq, the Gulenists sponsor a number of front organizations with which to approach politicians and policymakers.) Gulen, who fled Turkey after a video surfaced of him endorsing overthrow of the Turkish Republic, now resides at a shadowy compound in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania which are guarded by submachine-wielding gunmen. His followers sponsor the Turkish newspaper Zaman and its English counterpart Today’s Zaman, both of which play host to virulent anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. A brief background on Gulen’s ideology and reach is here. Perhaps someone might ask the honorable representatives why they, in effect, endorsed Gulen by accepting the Turquoise Council’s junket.. If they did not intend to make such an endorsement, they should respond to why they and their staffs did not ask the origin of the money–which they, in effect, accepted.