Haggai Harmon - The Chameleon Conspiracy

I seated myself at a table with a place card saying anthony p. blackthorn. Next to me, in a black evening dress, sat my blonde female driver. Her place card said NICOLE A. BLAIR.

“Hi, Ms. Blair,” I said smiling. “Am I late for anything?”

“No. Call me Nicole. We’re just having dinner.” The setting was perfect.

A waiter came to our table and served us with terrine maison, a molded dish with smoothly ground meat and mushrooms. He poured Merlot into our crystal goblets.

A tall, distinguished-looking, gray-haired man in his mid-fifties rose from his chair, holding his wine goblet, while the waiters were clearing the table. The staff that served us in the dining room and later on in the winter garden could never have guessed that the attendees weren’t gathered to hear lectures about art, but rather were (most of them) agents of the world’s largest spy agency.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Arnold Kyle, and I’m the chairman of this convention. Welcome to the annual meeting of the Arizona Chapter of the American Association of Impressionist Art Lovers. Cheers!” The men and women around the beautifully set tables raised their glasses and “cheered.”

“One house keeping notice before dinner. We start our day tomorrow at nine a.m. with a lecture on post-Monet French Impressionists given by Dr. Louise Guillaume, a lecturer at the Institut Francais. At ten thirty, after a short coffee break, we’ll have a general meeting of our chapter to elect a new board and president. I know you consider these matters boring, but we must go ahead with our agenda and approve a new bud get, so I ask all of you to attend. After lunch we will continue with our deliberations concerning the future of our chapter. In the late afternoon we will tour the Fondation Monet and the Musee d’Art Americain and return here for dinner. After dinner we will have a closed meeting to discuss the proposed merger of our chapter with the California chapter.”

I was appreciative of the idea-a disguised meeting in the heartland of Impressionism. The legend was perfect. It effectively masked the identities of a bunch of clean-shaven Americans in Europe. Bring one or two lecturers from town to talk about Monet, display a welcome banner, and we were in business. The rest of the time spent behind closed doors would be dedicated to far craftier, but less artistic, matters.

The main course was gigot d’agneau roti aux herbes gratindauphinois, a roasted leg of lamb with herbs. For dessert we had plateau de fromages -a plate of French cheeses-and coffee. I skipped both.

I made small talk with Nicole. She was as much “Nicole” as I was “Anthony.” She was rather attractive and friendly, but I had other things on my mind than getting friendlier, and I knew that the same went for her. So after a few drinks and non-revealing conversations, we retired to our respective rooms.

The following morning we had an illuminating lecture about Monet, to satisfy the appearance of a convention. Immediately after the lecturer left, two young men went and sat outside the closed doors, while two others continued patrolling under the windows, all in a seemingly relaxed mode. When we returned, Arnold Kyle rose and addressed the small audience. I counted the participants. There were nine men and two women. Nobody looked younger than twenty-five or older than fifty-five. There was one African-American woman. Two of the men looked Hispanic.

“We are here in connection with our continued effort to combat terrorists by drying up their funding. This particular meeting focuses on Iran’s role in terror financing. In addition to a new member from the FBI’s Counterterrorism Unit, Matt Kilburn, we’ve another new member from the Justice Department’s Office of Asset Recovery and Money Laundering, Anthony Blackthorn. Matt and Tony, please identify yourselves.”

All eyes turned to me and to Kilburn, who sat across the room. Both of us nodded. Kyle continued.

“Matt has been working with us during the past two months in connection with our investigation of the affairs of Nada Management. Tony is a money-laundering expert who is currently investigating bank fraud perpetrated by an individual who may be helping finance Iran’s clandestine terrorist activities. Iran continues, behind a curtain of strict confidentiality, to promote terror through proxies. You can find details in the notes we handed you earlier. Please read and return them to me before the conclusion of this meeting. No written material leaves this room.” He paused to sip from his goblet. “Now, just as we sought cooperation with other nations to join a coalition to fight an overt war against Saddam, we are seeking collaboration in the covert war against terror. As you’re well aware, terror is stateless, but its sponsors are not. Our role here”-he circled his hands as if to grasp us-“is to break the lifeline between terror and its sponsors. In one word, money.”

He sipped again from his water goblet and continued. “Among the foreign intelligence organizations with which we’ve a history of mutual cooperation is the Israeli Mossad. Israel has a clear interest in joining our combat. This isn’t only because we are close allies, but because Israel has been, and continues to be, victimized by terror. Some of it, and it is growing in frequency and severity, is Iranian backed. To make things worse from Israel’s perspective, Iran is leveling direct threats against Israel by announcing that it is starting to enrich uranium, and that it has long-range missiles that could reach Europe. In case anyone missed the hint, Israel is situated halfway between Iran and Europe. So,” he concluded, “we’ve asked the Israeli Mossad to send their representative to brief us and explore ways in which we can collaborate in combating terror financing as one battle of many against terrorism and its backers. Although much smaller than us, the Mossad is one of the big guys when we talk about Arab terrorism.”

Kyle signaled a person at the door, and Benny Friedman walked in, escorted by a sleek young woman in her late twenties. Benny smiled at me when he sat next to Kyle. The woman who came with him sat near him.

“Let me introduce Mr. Benjamin Friedman, head of the Foreign Relations Division of the Mossad, and his assistant.” Kyle then pointed at me. “And I’m sure you know Tony.”

I nodded at Benny with a smile. He was too experienced to give any hint that Tony was an alias. Just for a moment I wondered why we would need to use aliases in a secret meeting, when all participants were government agents and the two foreign representatives were there to cooperate, not to snoop. But I knew the answer. The identities of U.S. covert agents and their relationship with the U.S. intelligence community are protected by a special federal statute, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, enacted in 1982. If any of the participants in the meeting ever defected, or were captured and forced to talk, he or she would be unable to identify other agents by name, since no names are ever revealed, and aliases always change. Flies never visit an egg that has no crack.

Benny cleared his throat, drank soda water from a crystal goblet that had probably always been used before for wine, but not for Benny, who’d drink only kosher wine, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen. I’ll be brief. The United States and Israel have a joint enemy: terror.” He paused. “We’ve long realized that the battle against world terror cannot be complete or won unless we cut their lifeline-money to finance their operations.”

Benny then commenced with a brief history of Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism, saying that world terror is the Iranians’ illegitimate son. He said that the Iranians make terror a strategy, not a tactic. They’re the masters of implementing the slogan, “Hit and weep.” They have managed always both to be the assassin and to claim to be the victim or assume the role of the good neighbor showing sympathy, and have reaped the benefits of all positions. He talked about Iran’s nuclear aspiration to help them become the kings of the oil-rich region. He described the good relationship Israel once had with Iran, which had stopped when fanatic Islam took over and friends became foes.