The Cash of Civilizations, Part 1

There has been a good deal of coverage of recent events in Turkey, largely couched in terms of a struggle between secular nationalists and Islamists. We're quite familiar with the structure of this story - a democracy on the brink, clash of civilizations and all that - but the case of Sibel Edmonds suggests that there is more to that country's politics than a struggle between Western modernity and Eastern irrationalism.

Edmonds is a Turkish-American translator who was fired from the FBI in 2002 after she raised concerns over the questionable, even treasonous, activities of certain US officials. A series of gagging orders means that Edmonds can only describe what she found out in very general terms, but the suggestion seems to be that illicit cashflows were set up and managed by individuals in the Turkish and American defence/security establishments. There is a long interview with Ms Edmonds here and you can read a Vanity Fair piece about her case here.