Goose Network - Deciphering Vicious Bloggers

Goose Network 101

A smear campaign has been going on about Fethullah Gulen, charter schools and some non-governmental, non-profit organizations, they are being labeled as Gulen charter schools. It is very strange that this campaign has recently started even though Fethullah Gulen, charter schools and NGOs have been around for more than a decade.

Taking a look at its sources, I see that some people try to establish a connection between certain charter schools in the US and Fethullah Gulen(The New York Times article) by naming them “Gulen Charter Schools”. Those numerous sources are apparently different-titled, same-looking blogs whose sources are other blogs and again whose sources are some other sister blogs. It is hard to find a credible source other than amateur blogs. Even academic-looking articles that are employed for the same purpose lack the required credibility. Let’s take the example of the article in Middle East Forum (one of the mother-ships of Goose network). That article is based 50% on newspapers, %30 on TV and the rest on various websites. At FG Forum, I found out a quite a good academic response to that groundless article.

This Goose Network is very quick to defame when they come across any key word such as “Fethullah”, “Gulen”, “charter school” or “Turkish”. They quickly spread the news to their peers in different states and they start bombarding the cyberspace in the blink of an eye. Whenever there is a piece of good news about some charter schools on the internet, they visit that website, going through a copy-paste process (copying the information from their own websites and posting it under different nicknames).

I have also discovered that in many cases, a specific person could use more than one nickname to strengthen his/her claims!

On a website where they added their comments, I have come across an organization named CASILIPS  - Citizens Against Special Interest Lobbying in Public Schools. But when I Google the long name of this quasi-organization, I found out that they are nowhere except for the Goose Network websites. There is not even a homepage for this fake organization. This proves that CASILIPS is only serving to the interests of those who are quick to defame Fethullah Gulen and charter schools, combining them as Gulen charter schools. You know, normally, an organization puts its effort against the things they are built for. For example, if you are against abortion, you would exert your effort against pro-abortion organizations. You don’t set up an organization to be against a specific abortion organization. However CASILIPS looks like it was founded just to attack so-called Gulen charter schools.

Who is pulling your strings?

There are plenty of discourse problems inherent in Goose Network websites. They seem to be against radicalism, but at the same time they are attacking Fethullah Gulen, famous for opposing the idea of radical Islam. Fethullah Gulen is also well known for his apolitical way of service to society and his firm stance against proselytizing people to Islam. Another discourse problem is that they are also not against whole charter school system, but only “a certain portion” of charter schools that they call “Gulen charter schools”. The officials of these schools, on the other hand, are saying that they have no relationship with Fethullah Gulen. Then why are those bloggers of the Goose Network launching their attack on these schools? Looks like there are wheels within wheels…

Goose Network definitely hates Fethullah Gulen. This is no-brainer. They can’t stand seeing Fethullah Gulen residing in the US. So, they are looking for ways of sending him out of country. How are they going to do that? They need to trace the footprints of Fethullah Gulen’s followers or sympathizers. When they come across some people who happen to read some of Fethullah Gulen’s books, they label them as “Gulenist” and their school (where they work) as Gulen charter school. Since Fethullah Gulen is a popular personality in Turkey, it is not hard to find someone who adopts Gulen’s ideas. But the irony here is that those people work not only in charter school, but they also work in business sector, private schools, colleges and many other walks of life. They could run a school, a restaurant, a café or a million dollar company. 

Another striking point is that they constantly repeat the same pattern by claiming that those “Gulen” charter schools are not successful, most teachers are Turkish and many similar untrue claims. After a quick research on the schools in question, it can be seen that that they are quite successful in their respective cities claiming the highest prizes in the competitions they participate. As a result, they also receive grants from charitable foundations such as Gates Foundation and Dell Foundation. The ratio of Turkish teachers as compared to the American teachers is also very low.

Links to Charter school success stories, from their own websites (or Gulen charter schools as they are being referred to): KIPP charters schools, Harmony charter schools (a.k.a Cosmos Foundation), Concept charter schools.

Goose Network websites exist for one and only “holy” purpose: ostensibly accusing Fethullah Gulen and charter schools and defaming everyone involved with them including Sam Walton and even Bill Gates! Bill Gates, who financially contributes to several charter schools, is seen as the reviver of Ottoman Empire! In terms of making connections among the unrelated things, Goose Network is very talented!

Three things are to be taken into consideration when someone makes such a groundless claim:

1- Are these schools or any other charter schools in the nation officially affiliated with Gulen? In their charter proposals, is there any such affiliation?

2- Do the school officials confirm any sort of official connection with Fethullah Gulen? If so, is it something really bad to have connections or ties with Fethullah Gulen?

3- Is Fethullah Gulen a criminal? Is he a dangerous person? Can someone explain why he was granted permanent residency by the US authorities if he is dangerous?

All these questions should meticulously be answered before accusing charter schools of being Gulenist and Fethullah Gulen of infiltrating the US through these carter schools. There are certainly more things that require a close look about this Goose Network.

(Information below has been provided for your convenience from my Characteristics of a Goose. Fraud in blogs - Gulen charter schools page. Instead of going through numerous links, I thought it’d be easier for you to read if I put it all on a single page.)

How to identify a Goose. These are the common patterns found in typical Goose network websites:

1. They talk only about specific charter schools, calling them Gulen charter schools. You won’t find anything useful regarding how to make our education system better, and make sure our children aren’t falling behind those in Europe or China. Sometimes, in order to give an impression that they are not after charter schools they associate with Fethullah Gulen, they mention other charter schools.
2. They tend to multiply in blogs. There is a great chance a website will be a blog (not a typical .com website address). Among the blogs geese like the most are  blogspot.com, weebly.com.
3. They wont disclose their true identity: no real name, job title, address or a phone number to be reached at. This is why they use blogs. That’s how they stay private. because with a regular internet website you need to have it registered under your name and personal information for the whole world to see. 
4. Secrecy is a priority. They open hundreds of blogs, with the same articles (mostly gibberish). Each blog looks like a separate blog, while in fact it isn’t; article is launched from the mother-goose ship and links are given to the same Big-Goose sister web  addresses. Why not just tell that you are altogether on this? Why trying to keep it such a secret, when it is so obvious?
5. They hate Gulen. They can’t stand the guy.
6. They are using several disinformation techniques (read my Goose Network 101 article), they assure readers that Gulen runs charter schools and tells teachers to teach from muslim books, and not the ones that are approved by state (it’s not even possible by law, because charter schools are government owned schools, like public schools; but who cares right? Goose network has its own law system:) )
7. Most of their blogs are hate oriented, and filled with racism/nationalism. Sometimes a Goose member will say he/she hates muslims, sometimes Obama, America. They call president Obama a “secret son of Malcolm-X”
8. Goose network blogs link to Middle East Forum (MEForum) a lot. Meforum is an openly anti-muslim organization, that spends thousands every month just on Google ads, to make sure everyone hates Fethullah Gulen (try searching on google for fethullah gulen, and you’ll see MEForum ad on the right side, or follow this link to see all the ads Meforum runs.)
9. They are well financed and have a lot of free time on their hands: to run ads online, to have several websites, to send people emails with links to their websites.
10. They extensively use fake organization names, to make them look more credible. CASILIPS is one of them, a ghost organization.
11. They like using the following phrases in their blog names: charterschool, watchdog, gulen, truth / truths.
12. They claim they are the only ones who are true about what they say, and everyone else is wrong.

For the list of their websites read our Goose Network websites page.

Hopefully, now you understand the whole Goose concept, Goose Network and why they label schools as Gulen charter schools.