The story of Mike Flynn

The retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the former director of Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), who called Fethullah Gülen a "shady Islamic mullah" in an op-ed he wrote on the U.S. Election Day, is the subject of this article.

He was appointed as a vice chairperson of Trump's transition team last week. Now he assembles Trump's national security team. And after Jan. 20, he is speculated to be Trump's national security advisor or the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

The story of Flynn, who will be a key figure in Turkey- U.S. relations in the following period, is also a summary of how Trump was elected president.

He was the director of DIA when I heard about him. He was a legend in Pentagon because of the intelligence operations he directed in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he was also a short-tempered person who did not abstain from saying anything that crossed his mind. For this reason, he was dismissed from his position in 2014. The person behind his dismissal was the DNI, James Clapper, who also said the accusations that Fethullah Gülen masterminded the July 15 coup did not pass the "smell test."

I have always wondered why Flynn was dismissed, what was the discussion in Pentagon that caused his dismissal. I had answers in 2015 when I saw the DIA report on the 2012 Benghazi attack against two U.S. government facilities by radical groups, resulting in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three American personnel. 

When I examine the report in detail, I realized that DIA under Flynn's direction had designated what happened that night really well despite then-Secretary of the State Hilary Clinton's efforts to cover it up. In addition, I realized that he also foresaw the collapse in Syria and Iraq earlier in...