{"id":179737,"date":"2017-11-11T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-12T02:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/11\/11\/just-when-i-thought-that-it-could-not-get-any-weirder\/"},"modified":"2017-11-11T21:04:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T02:04:00","slug":"just-when-i-thought-that-it-could-not-get-any-weirder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/11\/11\/just-when-i-thought-that-it-could-not-get-any-weirder\/","title":{"rendered":"Just When I Thought That It Could Not Get Any Weirder\u2026\u2026\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

We now have allegations that Michael Flynn, Trump’s former NSC Advisor, tried to cut a deal with representatives of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan to kidnap dissident cleric Fethullah G\u00fclen and transport him to Turkey<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is under investigation for involvement in an alleged plot to kidnap a Turkish dissident cleric living in the US and fly him to an island prison in Turkey in return for $15m, it was reported on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

The new allegation, that Flynn and his son engaged in a conspiracy to arrange the rendition of Fethullah G\u00fclen<\/a> to the Erdo\u011fan government \u2013 which accuses the cleric of plotting an abortive coup<\/a> in July 2016 \u2013 could if confirmed result in even more serious charges. <\/p>\n

In September, the Wall Street Journal reported a meeting about the plan, in which former CIA director James Woolsey is said to have participated. Friday\u2019s report describes a second meeting involving both Flynns at the 21 Club restaurant, a prohibition-era New York speakeasy patronised by Trump<\/a>, in mid-December. According to \u201cpeople familiar with the investigation\u201d, it was at this encounter that the $15m payment was discussed.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even if this were legal, and it might be under a legal precedent from the late 1800s<\/a>, this is SERIOUSLY<\/b> f%$#ed up.<\/p>\n

Even for Flynn, a man who typifies the flying monkey faction of modern conservatism, this is off the charts.<\/p>\n

Once again, reality outstrips the most outlandish products of my imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We now have allegations that Michael Flynn, Trump’s former NSC Advisor, tried to cut a deal with representatives of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan to kidnap dissident cleric Fethullah G\u00fclen and transport him to Turkey: Donald Trump\u2019s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is under investigation for involvement in an alleged plot to kidnap a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[368,435,697,421],"class_list":["post-179737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-corruption","tag-crimes","tag-near-east","tag-weird"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}