There are 50 senior agents in Turkey, ex-spy says

There are nearly 50 high-ranking intelligence agents on Turkey's Syria border, including agents from the United States, France, Germany, Britain and "perhaps Greece," former CIA agent Philip Giraldi told Tolga Tanış of daily Hürriyet in an interview.

The former agent said there would be numerous spies working under the high-ranking spies and "many" informants working under them.

Giraldi said he thought there were 15-20 high-ranking CIA agents in Turkey working on the Syrian conflict alone.

"They would be paramilitary agents," Giraldi said. "They would be based at the consulate in Adana or the İncirlik Air Base, but could operate in the field as well," Giraldi said, adding that the agents would not cross into Syria but would direct intelligence operations from within Turkey in collaboration with Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MİT).

"The CIA probably has only 10 agents who are fluent in Arabic and maybe five who can speak Turkish fluently. For this reason, they need to rely on MİT agents when dealing with Syrian rebels," Giraldi said.

Source and full story: Hurriyet, 17 Sept 2012