Turkey’s Spymaster: The Making of a Hero
An impressive campaign by Hakan Fidan’s media team has made almost an entire nation worship him.
I received a text message from my Persian yoga teacher asking, “Is Hakan Fidan the new [Mohammad] Mossadegh for CIA and Mossad?” I was baffled by the comparison between the head of the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) and the former Iranian prime minister toppled by a coup initiated by British MI6 and the CIA.
In the last couple of weeks, the focus on Fidan has sharpened immensely. Indeed, Fidan was the subject of a Wall Street Journal article on Oct. 9 and an opinion piece by David Ignatius of The Washington Post on Oct 16.
In The Wall Street Journal article, there are two critical points. The first is US officials’ belief that Fidan shared US intelligence with his Iranian counterparts. The second is the suspicion that the Turkish government aids Syrian rebels, including al-Qaeda-affiliated radicals, through MIT.
Ignatius, making several references to The Wall Street Journal article, contends that Fidan, and thereby MIT, has provided the names of 10 Iranian spies who were in contact with Israeli intelligence agents on Turkish soil.
