 One of the Gulen-linked charter schools |
The operations of Turkish expatriate Fethullah Gulen, who previously was revealed to be linked to Islam-influenced schools run at U.S. taxpayers’ expense, reportedly now are under investigation for visa fraud.
Ruth Hocker, the former head of a parents group of the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School in State College, Pa., says she became curious about the qualifications of the school’s teachers and ended up getting confirmation about the alleged fraud case.
“I … began filing Freedom of Information Requests to find out about the teachers’ qualifications,” she told WND.
She said it was the formal information demands that prompted the U. S. attorney’s office in Pennsylvania’s Middle District to contact her about the visa fraud investigation. The Philadelphia Inquirer also has been investigating Gulen school-related issues.
WND previously reported on the large network of jihad-preaching schools in the organization that is being paid for by taxpayer dollars.
There are more than 100 facilities in 27 states now, the result of the work of Gulen, who lives in a heavily guarded compound near Saylorsburg, Pa.
Terrorism analyst, author and Family Security Matters contributing editor Paul Williams explained that Gulen left Turkey under a cloud and came to the United States carrying an agenda.
“Fethullah Gulen is a chap who fled Turkey in 1998. He was attempting to avoid prosecution from the secular government at that time; he wanted to set up an Islamic government,” Williams said.
The school organization had no comment, and a spokeswoman in the U.S. attorney’s office, Heidi Havens, said she could not comment on the allegations of visa fraud.
But Williams said he believes it was the large number of visa applications that drew federal attention.
“We have tens of thousands of teachers that are unemployed, and then Gulen for his schools imports thousands of teachers into this country,” Williams told WND.
“In the beginning, when I first started looking into this, and looking at Gulen, and that was about a year ago when I first visited his compound, I believe at that time there were 60 or 70, and now there are over 150,” he said.
“And all of these schools, and the administrators I looked at, every one, came from Turkey. If you look at the directors of the schools, by and large, if there are five directors, four are from Turkey,” said Williams.
“One would be the wife of a Turk with an American sounding name, but with Turkish ancestry. But, by-and-large, if you look into the schools, the directors, are Turkish,” he said.
His comments:
It was the the U. S. consul general in Istanbul who several years ago brought attention to the number of visa applications from Gulen’s followers.
In the classified cable posted on a Greek Wikileaks site, Consul General Deborah K. Jones wrote in the message summary that Gulen “sits at the center of a vast and growing network.”
His work, she said, encompasses “more than 160 affiliated organizations in over 30 countries, including over 50 in the U.S. As a result, Gulen supporters account for an increasing proportion of Mission Turkey’s nonimmigrant visa applicant pool,” Jones wrote.
Williams said he began his investigation of Gulen’s operation over a year ago, and he, too, is alarmed.
And, according to sources, federal authorities from the FBI to the U. S. attorney’s office in Pennsylvania took notice because of the excessive number of visa applications.
“So many of them, you have to realize that more than any university, more than any school system in the United States, more than any college, more than any education agency in the United States, Gulen imports two or three times more than anyone else,” Williams said.
A private investigator who has asked to not be identified for security reasons
backed Williams’ assessment, explaining most faculty members, administrators
and board members of Gulen schools are of Turkish origin.
“The Gulen movement has brought in over a 1,000 teachers in the United States since 2001,” the investigator said.
Researcher Peyton Wolcott and a website called Charter School Scandals both verify the information from Williams and the private investigator.
Charter School Scandals reports in the section on characteristics of Gulen schools that they are known for “excessive use of H1-B Visas to fill staffing needs.”
A chart on Wolcott’s website shows that of the 18 board members of the Gulen operated Cosmos Foundation, 15 are from Turkey.
The website H1Base.com reports the qualifications for an H1-B visa.
“The requirements to qualify for an H1B visa are: You must have ONE of the following 1) A Bachelor’s degree or Masters Degree (or the foreign equivalent degree from your Country), OR 2) 12 years work experience, OR 3) A mix of further education (e.g 2 year Degree/Diploma) plus six years work experience.”
The site says the requirements are the same for everyone.
“The H1B visa requirements are the same for everyone, from every country. The general H1B visa qualification rule is: for every 1 year of studies at university or college = 3 points, for every 1 year of work experience = 1 point. 12 points in total are required to qualify for the H1B visa program.”
The State Department website explains that the H1-B visa is for people with expertise is specific fields.
“H-1B Persons in Specialty Occupation which requires the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge requiring completion of a specific course of higher education. (65,000). This category also includes fashion models and Government-to-Government research and development, or co-production projects administered by the Department of Defense (100).”
Williams points out that federal authorities also may have taken note of the fact
that many of Gulen’s imports don’t have the required “specific course of higher education.”
“They come from Turkish universities. Very few people in immigration and naturalization understand Turkish and they’re not qualified to look into the educational backgrounds of the people he is bringing in,” Williams stated.
“That’s a huge problem and most of them are coming from Gulen universities in Turkey,” he said.
The prevalence of Turkish faculty members raises the issue of the dynamics of faculty-student relationships.
Montana resident Bill Thacker says his daughter went to a Gulen school in Arizona, but he took her out of the school when he found out a teacher allegedly was harassing his daughter.
“I pressed for the principal to be accountable for this in not notifying me about it,” Thacker said.
“Something didn’t sit right with me so I decided to do a little bit more investigating and I saw a news article about another charter school in Utah involving Kelly Weyment. That’s when compared notes and made the connection between these schools,” Thacker observed.
Thacker said that in the schools he has observed, the administration of the schools is solidly Turkish as well as most of the math and science teachers.
“They try to control that as much as possible,” Thacker said.
His interview:
Thacker added that his experience was with the Sonoran Science Academy when he lived in Arizona. He said that when he asked about how the school was started, he was told that it was by a very enterprising teacher.
“They said that the teachers noticed that we needed help in math and science when they were in college, and they decided to open a charter school,” Thacker added.
He noted that he was expected to accept the explanation and not pursue the issue any further.
“I thought it was very unique to the area. What I thought was interesting was that I was reading a Comments Section about the Gulen Movement and another parent said, ‘My child also attended one of these Gulen Charter Schools,'” Thacker quoted from the comment section.
“‘At first the teachers were great and I loved the international flavor of the school. Eventually the good teachers, Turkish and American, left and sometimes you had several new teachers throughout the school year, many of which couldn’t speak English,'” Thacker quoted.
Private investigator Williams and Thacker say that a characteristic of the schools is that many of the principals and administrators will deny any knowledge of Fethullah Gulen.
“The writer said that when first confronted, the principal denied even knowing who Gulen was, then within days he changed his story to, ‘Of course everyone in Turkey knows who he is and has been influenced by him,'” Thacker said.
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