Globe Trot: Turks imprison American pastor

TURKEY: Authorities today imprisoned Andrew Brunson, the 48-year-old American pastor detained two months ago and slated for deportation. Overnight, Brunson was transferred to Nolu T Tipi Prison in Izmir and heard for the first time the charges against him: terrorism. A judge accused Brunson of ties to the Fetullah Gulen movement, which authorities in Ankara accuse of instigating a failed military coup against the Turkish government in July. Officials prohibited Brunson, who has worked in Turkey for 23 years, from seeing his attorney until today, and the court has ruled against allowing the attorney to see evidence. Brunson’s wife Norine was released from detention in October and was allowed to remain in the country.

In other news out of Turkey, emails obtained illegally and released by WikiLeaks show a top aide (and son-in-law) to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had links to ISIS oil trade, mixing oil exported by the terrorist group from Syria.

“The people of Turkey need a free media and a free internet,” said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. “The government’s counter-coup efforts have gone well beyond their stated purpose of protecting the state … and are now primarily used to steal assets and eliminate critics.”

IRAQ: Iraq’s Christians hang on with “a fraying thread of private aid,” despite declarations of their genocide by the United States and the European Parliament this year. With reconstruction needed in places liberated from ISIS in recent weeks, most Christians have been effectively shut out of the $1.1 billion U.S. humanitarian aid program for Iraq.

A continuing resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday included a provision for the funding, but as Hudson Institute’s Nina Shea told me:

“There is no specific language in the $1 billion aid provision about the minority groups. There is no reporting requirement about specific minority communities either. These are consequential omissions. Many U.S. funds go through the UN, which doesn’t recognize the genocide. Iraq’s Christian community will likely continue to be marginalized from U.S. humanitarian aid and reconstruction funding programs in Iraq. It is also shameful that the congressional leadership allowed Rep. Chris Smith’s bill HR 5961 on these matters to die without a vote.”

According to Scott Flipse, a spokesman in Rep. Smith’s office, “That bill will be reintroduced in the next Congress, but Mr. Smith wanted to make sure that Christians and other genocide victims got as much immediate assistance as possible.”

SOUTH KOREA: “I solemnly accept the voice of the Parliament and of the people,” said South Korean President Park Geun-hye, after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly today to impeach her. They cite constitutional violations stemming from criminal allegations in an influence-peddling scandal.

CUBA: Fidel Castro’s reputation is not in dispute. Ask Reinaldo Arenas.

Castro’s dying wish was that no monuments be erected in Cuba in his honor.

VATICAN: Is it weird to anyone else that the pope makes much of lighting a Christmas tree?

NOTE: I’m in Tacoma, Wash., speaking this weekend at Faith Presbyterian Church about the disappearing Christians of the Middle East. And I’m reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.