Charles McCarry - The Miernik Dossier

Q. We’d like to know a little more about the boat trip. Did anything happen that you thought was important?

A. No, nothing. It was a dreadful trip from the viewpoint of the food and the surroundings. A dirty ship, awful food. Kalash was sick most of the time. He complained about the bunk, which of course was too short for him. I believe he had to sleep on the floor. Nigel kept to himself a great deal. He was very moody, even short-tempered. When we got to Cairo I understood why. Paul and I were together a lot-most of the time. I played the guitar he had given me. He told me about his home in America. He comes from the mountains. Also, he wrote me a poem every night. He writes lovely poetry, but only when he has been drinking. It’s odd how sad his poems can be, when on the surface he is such a happy person.

Q. Was it on the ship that you and he…?

A. That’s not really your affair, is it? The answer is no. Everything happened much later. On the ship I knew what would happen eventually. We were young and together. From the start there was feeling between us. The details belong to Paul and to me.

Q. Of course they do. Our interest is not salacious. We are trying to understand the relationships, that’s all. Now, can we talk about Cairo? What happened there?

A. Not a great deal. There was the situation with Ilona. Nigel and Tadeusz began at that time to feel like friends again, I think. They realized neither of them was to blame. Ilona loved every minute of it. I make her sound cruel. It’s not that. She is amoral. What others feel does not affect her. I stopped detesting her when I learned about her past. How could she be a whole person after Belsen? But whatever the reasons, she is what she is, and she causes great, great pain. Things went on more or less as before-it was a holiday. It started out as a holiday. We had jolly times.

We went to the museum and saw the mummies. We found restaurants-life for these people takes place mainly in restaurants. We swam in the hotel pool. We drank big glasses of alcohol, various kinds of gin drinks. Except for Kalash, who is a strict Moslem. He drank lemonade.

We stayed only two days. On the first morning, Kalash and Nigel went off together somewhere in the car. Ilona left the hotel before any of us were awake and did not come back for breakfast. Nigel and Tadeusz were in a state. Where could she be? Nigel asked Kalash at breakfast if he had spent the night with Ilona. He made it into a joke, but it was no joke. Kalash said no, he had not seen her since the night before. When she came back she had a beautiful amber necklace she said she had bought in a bazaar. She tried it on for us; it was a necklace for a queen. She told a very amusing story about her bargaining with the Egyptian who sold her the necklace. She mimicked him, she mimicked herself. All the time I knew she was lying. I had seen the very same necklace in a shop in the hotel. Later I went by and asked if they still had it. “Ah, miss! Your dark-haired friend, the beautiful girl, bought it last night!” Why tell such a story? Paul too went off by himself and was gone for a long time. Everyone scattered, it was noticeable.

Tadeusz and I were left by ourselves. I bought a bathing costume and sat by the pool in the sun. Tadeusz sat with me, writing in his diary. He kept watching the door for Ilona. For once he had no brotherly advice to give me. He asked me a few questions about Paul. When I said I liked him Tadeusz beamed. He loved Paul Christopher. He kept telling me what a kind and honest boy Paul was. The others he liked-he was loyal to his friends. Paul he loved. A man can love a man, you know. Their friendships, when they are deep as Tadeusz’s and Paul’s seemed to be, are almost love affairs. They forgive each other and trust each other much more easily than they can do with any woman. A great romantic, Tadeusz. He was born into the wrong age. He was the ugly knight, Paul the beautiful knight. The ugly always think they owe something to the beautiful. Hence Ilona. And Paul.

Q. You never found out where everyone went?

A. I never asked.

Q. And the next day you left in the car? That was July second.

A. The next day we left in the car. We started down the Nile. After we had driven out to the Pyramids and the Sphinx. We all had our pictures taken on a camel in front of the pyramids. All except Tadeusz, of course.

Q. Why not Tadeusz?

A. He always hated being photographed. It amounted to a psychosis. He believed himself to be the ugliest man alive. Even now I have no picture of him. Once he told me, “If you have no photograph of me, you’ll remember my actions instead of my face. I don’t want you to be reminded each time you look at a photograph what a poor piece of work God made of me.”

1 July, 0745: Subject (Ilona Bentley) emerged from Nile Hilton Hotel and entered taxi at curb. I followed by car. Because of light traffic, pursuit presented no difficulty, but there was relatively high risk of detection. Subject kept watch through rear window of taxi. I used other vehicles in line of traffic as shield whenever possible. 0810: Subject left taxi in Khalili Bazaar. She carried a hand purse and a camera equipment bag on a shoulder strap. Until 0820 subject moved casually through bazaar area, taking photographs. 0823: Subject, after looking around her, presumably to spot possible surveillance, entered a curio shop (Akhbal’s: the red-fronted shop at the top of the steps at the entrance to the bazaar). 0827: Second European female entered curio shop. She carried a camera equipment case identical to first subject’s (i.e., Bentley). 0828: As view was impossible from outside the shop, I entered and observed Bentley and second female exchanging camera cases. 0832: Subjects broke contact. Bentley continued to saunter through the bazaar to no apparent purpose until 0945, when she returned to the Nile Hilton in a taxi.

(Note: From photo files I subsequently made tentative identification of second female subject. She is believed to be Olga Borosova, a clerk in the Soviet Embassy, Cairo, and a known operative of the Soviet intelligence service.

Throughout remainder of surveillance, which terminated at 0645 hours 2 July when Bentley departed Nile Hilton in a Cadillac limousine (Swiss license X-3675), Bentley carried her camera on her person at all times. Lack of necessary manpower precluded any attempt to enter her hotel room for a search of her personal effects.

1. Christopher reported to this officer at 0820 on 1 July at the safe house provided by the Cairo station. He observed no surveillance en route to our meeting. I found the agent in good condition, but in only fair spirits. He delivered written reports (attached) and a lengthy verbal report, which is summarized below.

2. Christopher reports that Miernik has made no move to take him into his confidence concerning the latter’s assumed mission in Sudan. Christopher expressed reservations about Headquarters’ theory that Miernik is in fact a Soviet/Polish agent with any specific mission in Sudan. Christopher stated: “I think you guys ought to consider the one possibility you haven’t considered-that Miernik is not telling an elaborate cover story, but the truth.” I assured Christopher that this possibility had been thoroughly considered and had not yet, in fact, been rejected.

3. Christopher bases his doubts on his observation of Miernik in the course of the journey. Miernik seems, in Christopher’s words, a much less suspicious character outside of Geneva than in it. He is given to emotional outbursts (see Christopher’s report on the incident with a group of German tourists in Verona, Italy) and to a general carelessness of behavior that is not, in Christopher’s view, characteristic of a professional agent. Christopher now has almost no doubt that Zofia Miernik is, in fact, Miernik’s sister: “No one could fake the affection he obviously has for her.” Christopher was advised to bear in mind that Miernik’s seemingly uncontrolled behavior may in fact be a device to divert suspicion. This would be consistent with the weakness of Polish operatives for elaborate role-playing.