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302 TURBULENCE AND TERROR
Here the Americans constructed two huge intelligence radar
systems, one for detection and the other for tracking. Even more
secret were several small intelligence stations on the outskirts
of the Turkish capital Ankara. Here the USAF base at Belbasi
hosted a seismic intelligence station that captured the vibrations
from underground atomic explosions at the Soviet weapontesting
facility at Semipalatinsk. Nearby were other sensitive
posts eavesdropping on the diplomatic traffic generated by
Ankara, hidden within America's Military Mission headquarters
and known as 'TUSLOG'. (This stood for US Logistics
Organisation ill Turkey, and its inconspicuous name provided
the cover for many intelligence activities.) Here the Americans
successfully bribed a Turkish code clerk to hand over his own
government's cyphers.8
In short, Turkey was to the American NSA what Cyprus was
to GCHQ, hosting a vast network of aerial farms, dishes and
monitoring stations. There was overlap: just as NSA had some
small bases on Cyprus, GCHQ had some small stations in Turkey.
As early as 1952 the two countries had agreed to 'concert Anglo­
American operations in the field' with regard to Turkey. EM.
Smith, the GCHQ officer in charge of the British units in Turkey,
worked with local US Army Security Agency units to agree on
a suitable division of labour. 9 Britain also carried out many of
its sigint and imagery flights from Cyprus over Turkey or Iran,
following the border and going out over the Black Sea or the
Caspian Sea. In the mid-1960s Britain was carrying out more
than a thousand overflights a year across Turkey, many of them
for intelligence purposes.1O
The rising tide of leftist violence and the large foreign intelligence
presence inside Turkey was a volatile combination. In
the 1960s the sigint facilities were protected by their extreme
secrecy. Although large and visible with their domes and dishes,
few knew of their real purpose or importance. Instead, the brunt
of leftist anger was borne by the CIA, which radicals asserted
was exerting a malign influence over the Turkish government,
and was behind the growing efforts to repress the left. The