Istanbul Still Center for Smuggling, Secrets

Feb. 5, 2003 -- The remote hills and dusty back roads of Turkey have long been a playground for smugglers and spies, and if you know the right people, and come with cash, there is nothing you can't find.

"You can buy anything — nukes, drugs, arms, scientists, viruses," said Mustafa Kibaroglu, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. "Anything goes."

The city of Istanbul has historically been a key market for contraband, secrets and lies. The reason that Turkey remains a key crossroads for spies and smugglers? Location.

Turkey borders eight countries, allowing smuggled goods and secret agents to move clandestinely across borders. Cigarettes and liquor used to be the primary contraband, but the stakes today are much higher.

"There was smuggling of Marlboro cigarettes and J&B whiskeys," Kibaroglu said. "Well, who would care about it?"

But now, there is the possibility nuclear weapons could be changing hands.

"It's deadly weapons. It can cause damage, so it can terrify or terrorize people," Kibaroglu said. "The biggest danger is the free flow of very sensitive material. That can really cause catastrophe."

So while the merchandise may change, the object of the game in Turkey remains the same: to sell anything, anytime, to anyone.

Spies and the Snakepit

Istanbul has long been the exotic backdrop for international intrigue, both real and imagined. It was a scene-setter in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, and it's been featured in the James Bond 007 thrillers.

But the history of espionage in this city goes far beyond moviemaking. At one time as many as 17 countries had secret agents here, battling it out in the complex game of international espionage.

"Istanbul was a center of all sorts of conspiracies and plots," said Altemur Kilic, a journalist in Istanbul who was a reporter there during World War II.

Enemy spies mingled side-by-side at a bar called the Snakepit. He remembers one agent in particular.

"He was a charming man," Kilic said. "He even wrote songs. 'Boo Boo baby, I am a spy,' was one of them. He used to play it on the piano."

Istanbul author Barry Rubin corroborated the story about the song.

"There was actually a song about this that was often played in Istanbul called 'Boo Boo Baby I'm a spy,'" Rubin said. "When the head of the American intelligence would walk into the ballroom of the Park Hotel, the band would strike up this song."

Crossroads of War

During the Cold War, the CIA used Turkey as a listening post to eavesdrop and monitor movements of the Soviets. When U.S. spy pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down from Russian skies in 1960, he had flown out of Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey.

Then in 1972, the world watched as terrorism unfolded live on television at the Munich Olympics. Israeli athletes were targeted and killed.

Out of that tragedy, Turkey formed a lasting partnership with Israel that endures today. Turkey teamed with Israel's fearsome secret service Mossad inside its borders, sharing intelligence.

Now that the Muslim nation is in a vital strategic position for the United States in any conflict with Iraq, Turkey is becoming a key listening post again. Here, amid the palaces, mosques and marketplaces is the center of the crossroads of war.

ABCNEWS' Chris Cuomo reported this story from Istanbul.