Charles McCarry - The Miernik Dossier

However, it appears to me that another purpose is to remove Miernik from Switzerland while his Polish passport is still in force. Collins suggests that Khatar will be able to obtain a Sudanese travel document for Miernik once he is in that country, where the Khatar family has great influence. The date of departure, according to what Collins told Bentley, will be approximately 15 June, but perhaps sooner.

Bentley continued to press Collins to arrange for her to come along. “If you ask Kalash, he will say yes.

“I’m not going to ask him.”

“Then maybe I’ll find a way to ask him. Would you prefer that?”

Collins by this time was wholly exasperated. “What are you going to do, Ilona, when your bottom wears out? How will you live?”

Then Bentley said something so extraordinary to Collins that I can only believe it was part of the wounding game they seem to enjoy playing with one another. She told him, in her clear voice, that she had been sleeping with Miernik. She described Miernik’s body, covered with hair and giving off a strong odor, and in the most minute detail listed the sexual uses to which she had put it.

Collins rose from the table, threw down some money, and left the restaurant. After he had gone, Bentley had a ladylike chat with the waiter. She explained that her friend had suddenly become ill. Sympathy from the waiter.

“Have you any wild strawberries?” Bentley asked. She ate a large portion, with whipped cream, and drank a cup of coffee. Then she paid with Collins’ money and walked to the door. She turned and lifted her hand to me. “Bon soir, Léon!” she cried, with a reckless smile. She must have known I had heard everything. She really is extraordinarily beautiful.

H.R.H. Kalash el Khatar has demanded that visas for entry into Sudan be issued forthwith to the following persons: Collins, Nigel Alexander Spencer (British subject); Christopher, Paul Samuel (U.S. citizen); Miernik, Tadeusz (Polish citizen).

In an interview with the consul, Prince Kalash demanded also that this Miernik be issued with a valid Sudanese passport. The prince furnished photographs of Miernik. The consul explained that Sudanese passports can be issued only to Sudanese nationals, but Prince Kalash was insistent that an exception be made.

The consul, aware of the influence of the prince’s family, has instructed me to issue in Miernik’s name not a passport but a laisser-passer. The consulate possesses no such document. Indeed, I have never heard of such a document.

On instructions by the consul, issued after I vainly protested this improper giving of documents to a non-Sudanese, I am arranging to have a laisser-passer printed by a local printer. Because only one such document is being printed, the cost is enormous, and there is no authorization in the consulate’s budget for such an expense. The consul, when informed of this fact, chose to ignore it. He told me to “find a means to pay this trifling sum.” My own pocket is the only means.

The consul is hardly less arrogant with me than is the prince with the consul. Khatar regards the Sudanese government as a mere convenience to gratify his every whim. He never takes into account the difficulties he creates for us with his behavior. I have written of the insult he gave to the Ambassador of Egypt at an official function last week, when he remarked that the appellation “United Arab Republic” was a “joke.” In the prince’s view, as he expressed it with the utmost contempt to the Ambassador of Egypt, “Egyptians are not Arabs, they are the descendants of loose females like Cleopatra who offered themselves to a thousand conquerors.

So long as my country continues to give respect and homage to such relics of the exploiting class it will not be free! Meanwhile, in anger, I must issue these visas, falsify this laisser-passer. Such deeds do not humble me, they feed my hatred, increase my thirst for retribution.

(The consul would not tell me why these visas, etc., are wanted by Prince Kalash. Probably he does not know himself, though of course he makes a show of being in the confidence of the great Highness.)

1. WE NOTE WITH INTEREST HEADQUARTERS DISPATCH CONCERNING IMMINENT ARRIVAL HERE MIERNIK, KHATAR, CHRISTOPHER, ET AL.

2. REFERRING TO OUR OWN DISPATCH CONCERNING ANOINTED LIBERATION FRONT’S SEARCH FOR SUITABLE FIGUREHEAD WE ADVANCE FOR HEADQUARTERS DISCUSSION AND ADVICE IDEA THAT PRINCE KALASH EL KHATAR MIGHT WELL FILL THE BILL.

3. KHARTOUM REALIZES YOUNG KHATAR HAS NO GREAT REPUTATION FOR ENERGY AND STABILITY BUT THIS SHOULD MATTER LITTLE TO ALF’S SOVIET MASTERS AS HE HAS GREATEST NAME IN SUDAN.

4. FROM OUR VIEWPOINT INSERTION OF KHATAR AS TITULAR HEAD ALF MAKES GREAT OPERATIONAL SENSE: WE KNOW KHATAR DOES NOT SYMPATHIZE WITH ALF OR ANY REBEL GROUP AND WE HAVE EXCELLENT ACCESS TO HIM THROUGH HIS FATHER AND THROUGH CHRISTOPHER.

5. KHATARS FATHER WOULD PROBABLY AGREE SO LONG AS HIS SON’S SAFETY COULD BE GUARANTEED. WE ARE IN POSITION TO MAKE THIS GUARANTEE BECAUSE OF OUR CONTROL OF FIRECRACKER WHO INCREASINGLY EMERGES AS STRONGEST FIGURE IN ALF LEADERSHIP AND COULD THEREFORE EFFECTIVELY PROTECT YOUNG KHATAR FROM BODILY HARM.

6. SUDANESE SECURITY SERVICE WOULD HAVE TO BE INFORMED IN ADVANCE OF KHATARS ROLE AS AGENT PROVOCATEUR TO PROTECT HIM FROM SUSPICIONS AND REPRISALS FROM HIS FAMILY’S ENEMIES IN SUDANESE ESTABLISHMENT. AFTER DESTRUCTION OF ALF YOUNG KHATAR COULD BE REVEALED IN PRESS AS HERO SHARING CREDIT WITH SUDANESE POLICE. THIS FORMULA SHOULD RECOMMEND ITSELF EQUALLY TO KHATAR FAMILY WHICH NEEDS CREDIT WITH GOVERNMENT AND TO GOVERNMENT WHICH NEEDS CREDIT WITH NUMEROUS AND INFLUENTIAL BAKHENT SECT.

7. ALF ALREADY AWARE IMPENDING VISIT YOUNG KHATAR THROUGH REPORTING OF ALF FOLLOWER IN GENEVA CONSULATE. FIRECRACKER STATES HIS COLLEAGUES REGARD YOUNG KHATAR AS LIKELY FIGUREHEAD AS THEY BELIEVE HE HAS QUARRELED WITH HIS FATHER AND NEEDS MONEY.

8. SCENARIO WE ENVISAGE WOULD INVOLVE RECRUITMENT OF KHATAR AS ALF FIGUREHEAD BY FIRECRACKER. NEITHER OF COURSE WOULD BE MADE AWARE OF THE OTHER’S CONNECTION TO US. IF GENEVA AGREES WE WOULD USE CHRISTOPHER WHO HAS ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUNG KHATAR AS CUTOUT BETWEEN LATTER AND THIS STATION FOR DURATION OF OPERATION.

9. WE FEEL SOME URGENCY ON BASIS FIRECRACKER’S REPORT THAT ALF IS UNDER INSTRUCTIONS TO INSTALL FIGUREHEAD LEADER BY MID-JULY. TERROR CAMPAIGN WOULD BEGIN IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER. STEPS TO PREVENT THIS CAMPAIGN MUST BE TAKEN SOONEST IF THEY ARE TO BE TAKEN AT ALL.

10. WE ATTACH IMPORTANCE TO INSTALLATION OF FIGUREHEAD WE CAN CONTROL. VALUE OF SUCH INSURANCE SHOULD FIRECRACKER BECOME NONOPERATIONAL THROUGH ACCIDENT OR EXPOSURE IS OBVIOUS.

1. Christopher, in a verbal report delivered to the undersigned on 9 June, states that Miernik has abandoned his pretense of reluctance with respect to the trip to Khartoum. He is now ready to accompany Khatar and Christopher. The date of departure is 12 June.

2. Per instructions, I sounded Christopher out on possibility of recruiting Khatar as short-term asset for a specific operation. No details of this operation were communicated to Christopher. Christopher says as follows: “You are out of your minds.” He does not believe that Khatar would place himself in the position of working under the discipline of a foreign intelligence service. He does not believe that Khatar has any political motivation whatsoever, apart from a desire to maintain the position of his family in Sudan. Money would be no temptation to Khatar, who has an apparently inexhaustible supply of cash from the Bakhent faithful wherever he goes. (Christopher has heard him call up a follower, demand five thousand Swiss francs, and have the money delivered in an hour’s time.) Christopher objects, finally, to revealing himself as a U.S. agent to Khatar. If instructed to do so, he would naturally comply, but with serious misgivings.