What are the odds that Russian pranksters would deceive Sen.
Lindsey Graham into having a faux phone conversation with an ersatz Turkish
defense minister only weeks before Turkey became an international pariah for
its offensive against the formerly US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria? Believe
it or not, in this case, the odds are 100 percent because, in another case of
truth being stranger than satire, it happened.
Politico
reports that Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, two Russian hoaxers with
suspected ties to Russian intelligence succeeded in getting Sen. Graham on the
phone back in August, not once but twice. The pair, who go by the names “Lexus
and Vovan,” convinced Graham that he was speaking to Turkish Defense Minister
Hulusi Akar. The duo’s call might have gone unnoticed except for the
inconsistencies in their conversations with Graham and his public statements
since the White House agreed to pave the way for the Turkish offensive by
removing US troops.
Where Graham has been very critical of President Trump’s
treatment of our Kurdish allies and calling for congressional action to sanction
Turkey, the senator’s private comments to the fake Turkish minister
conveyed a different message.
In the call, Graham called to the Kurds as a “threat” and
expressed sympathy for Turkey’s “Kurdish problem.” Graham referred to Kurdish
military units that had been allied with the US in the fight against ISIS,
saying, “Your YPG Kurdish problem is a big problem.” Turkey has labeled the
Kurdish fighters terrorists because they want a separate Kurdish state.
“I told President Trump that Obama made a huge mistake in
relying on the YPG Kurds,” Graham continued. “Everything I worried about has
come true, and now we have to make sure Turkey is protected from this threat in
Syria. I’m sympathetic to the YPG problem, and so is the president, quite
frankly.”
President Trump expressed similar sentiments this week,
telling reporters, “If you read today — a couple of reports saying that when
President Obama started this whole thing. As you know, it was started by
President Obama; he created a natural war with Turkey and their longtime enemy,
PKK. And they’re still there.”
The PKK,
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, is a separate marxist Kurdish group that has
been fighting a separatist war against the Turkish government since 1984. Both
Turkey and the US consider the PKK a terrorist group.
In the second call, Graham also referred to the “Turkish
bank” case of Reza
Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian businessman arrested in 2016 for helping Iran to
violate sanctions. Zarrab’s release has been a high priority for Turkish
president Erdogan. It was reported this week that President Trump
pressured then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to interfere with the DOJ
case on Zarrab’s behalf in 2017. Zarrab was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to
32 months in prison. Zarrab was also a client of Rudy Giuliani, President
Trump’s personal attorney.
“And this case involving the Turkish bank, he’s very
sensitive to that,” Graham said of Trump during the prank call. “The president
wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power.”
“We want a better relationship with Turkey. That’s exactly
what he [Trump] wants,” Graham said, also asking that Turkey rethink the NATO
ally’s purchase of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia. Graham
also discussed getting Turkey added back as a customer of the US F-35 fighter
aircraft program. Turkey was dropped
as an F-35 customer in July after it accepted the Russian missile system.
A spokesman for Graham confirmed that the recording of the
call was genuine, saying that it “slipped through the cracks” and “they got
him.”
“It’s no secret Senator Graham has often traveled to Turkey
and continued to speak with many members of Turkish government, including
President Erdogan, about the relationship between our two countries,"
Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop added. "He has been clear he wants a
stronger relationship and often talked about the importance of maintaining
peace in northern Syria to prevent the reemergence of ISIS.”
"With Turkey’s invasion into northern Syria the drive
for better relations between our two countries has suffered a body blow,”
Bishop said. “Turkey should immediately withdraw their military forces and
America should reinstitute the safe zone concept to keep the peace in the region.
Until this is done, Senator Graham will continue to push for severe, biting
sanctions against Turkey."
While I applaud Sen. Graham’s tough words to Turkey
following Trump’s ill-considered retreat, I am concerned that Graham may have
encouraged both Trump’s withdrawal and Turkey’s offensive by acknowledging that
the Kurds represented a threat to Turkey. As to the discussion of Reza Zarrab,
that seems very swampy.
Originally published on The
Resurgent
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