Military Coup in Turkey: Former CIA Officials Give Turkish Coup Plotters Advice On CNN

(Since I mentioned this interaction on CNN the other day when writing about the failed coup in Turkey, I thought I would add this little link to a write-up about it.)

from the Huffington Post

Oh, for the good old days ― when the CIA regularly assisted military coups d’états in foreign democracies.

Several former spooks appearing on CNN Friday night to discuss the attempted military coup in Turkey had more than a few pointers for the seemingly amateurish military officers leading the takeover efforts. And at least one contributor seemed more disappointed in their performance than relieved that the coup has thus far failed to topple a democratically elected government.

Leading the pack was Robert Baer, a veteran former CIA officer and author ― and, apparently, a former coup participant.

Baer told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper that the Turkish coup was “not professionally done.”

“I have been involved in coups before,” he said. “They should have taken CNN Turk and closed it down the first minutes, the radio station, social media, the internet. Even if they didn’t arrest [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, they should have taken care of all of that right at the beginning.”

Baer also revealed that he had discussed the possibility of a coup with Turkish military officers in the past few months.

[read more here]