7. In accordance with instructions, this officer refrained from giving Christopher a full briefing on the situation in Sudan concerning the Anointed Liberation Front. Khartoum should note that Christopher knows nothing of (a) interception of Soviet radio traffic; (b) the existence of Firecracker; or (c) the proposal to co-opt symbolic leadership of the ALF through the use of Prince Kalash as an agent provocateur.
57. REPORT BY COLLINS.
As arranged, Prince Kalash el Khatar and I went on the morning of 1st July to the Splendid Garage in Heliopolis to take delivery of the weapons. I should have preferred to make this journey in a hired car, but Prince Kalash insisted on travelling in his Cadillac, which attracted a great deal of attention. While waiting to be admitted to the garage the car was surrounded by a troop of boys begging for money. Even Prince Kalash was unable to disperse them, and they hung about peering through the dirty windows of the garage even after we had driven inside. I have no doubt they were able to see the loading of the weapons, which were not wrapped, and the ammunition boxes. It was altogether a sloppy operation. I found your man still asleep and unshaven; he gave off a distinct odor of arak. The weapons, three Sten guns, two Walther pistols, and several hundred rounds of ammunition, were lying loose under his bed. There were traces of rust on all the weapons, and the bores of two of the Sten guns were clogged with grease. We took delivery of the weapons and ammunition and concealed them in the Cadillac. This motorcar is equipped with a “secret” compartment behind the rear seat, a fact I had not hitherto been aware of. Prince Kalash, at least, is delighted with the firearms transaction. The exact amount I paid over to the gun dealer was 8oo United States dollars. We returned to the hotel and joined our companions without further incident.
2. Prince Kalash has informed me that he has invited Ilona Bentley to accompany us to the Sudan. He says that he admires Miss Bentley’s pluck in following us all the way to Cairo. I had not been aware that this was her intention when we parted in Naples, but I cannot say that I am surprised that she turned up. She travelled by air in company with Miernik. This turn of events is at worst an inconvenience, and although I would prefer that no passengers be added, I am unable to prevent Prince Kalash from carrying whomever he pleases in his own car.
3. We depart early on 2nd July. There is some dispute over the route. Prince Kalash wishes to take the shorter coastal road along the Gulf of Suez. Miernik argues in favor of the highway along the Nile, which would take us through the Valley of the Kings. He desires to see the tombs and funerary temples there. I expect that this controversy will not be resolved until we are under way, but in any case I will make contact as arranged on arrival in Khartoum, probably on 6th or 7th July.
4. In our conversations I have given you as many details as are known to me concerning the actions of Miernik and his “sister.” There has been nothing in their behaviour that would lead one to think that they are along on this journey for any reason other than pleasure. They have not so far responded to my questioning on any matter of substance. I shall take your advice and abandon my attempts to reach them through the methods I have been using. For the balance of the journey I shall be as matey as possible with a view towards establishing an atmosphere in which confidences can be exchanged.
58. REPORT BY CHRISTOPHER.
2 July. Ilona Bentley is a natural mimic. She does a very funny Winston Churchill, and as she emerged from the Hilton this morning to see the Cadillac groaning under the camping gear Kalash has lashed on its roof, she paused and puffed up her body like a fat man’s. In Churchill’s voice she asked, “Is this the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end?”
A good question. We started for the desert in a spirit of amity, if not of gaiety, and arrived at the Pyramids only a few minutes after dawn. Much wonderment on everyone’s part: how did they do it without pulleys and geometry? Miernik, of course, turns out to be an amateur Egyptologist able to quote dimensions, angles, and the exact number of dressed stones in Cheops’s Pyramid. In the shadow of the Sphinx, Kalash gave us more Shakespeare; he played Antony as well as Othello for the drama society before he was expelled from Oxford. “I was found by a languid don with three unclothed English girls in my college room,” says Kalash, explaining his dismissal. “Poor fellow never imagined that heterosexuality existed on such a scale.”
Miernik’s wishes prevailed, as they usually do, and we followed the road along the west bank of the Nile to the Valley of the Kings, and afterward went to Karnak (Thebes, you know). These ruins have no operational importance, so I won’t linger over a description. Even Miernik was struck dumb by the Temple of Amen Ra at Karnak and broke silence only to decipher a few of the enormous hieroglyphs on the broken columns and on Thotmes’s obelisk. Even when these buildings were whole, five thousand years ago, they must have known the stealthy footfall of spies; some Hittite Miernik undoubtedly was watched through peepholes by agents of the pharaoh. (He cannot be what he seems. . . . He seems to be what he is not. The knife! says one. Not until we know his purpose, says another.) It’s a very old profession.
We were all in favor of staying at a hotel in Luxor, but Kalash was anxious to camp out. He shipped an elaborate outfit from Geneva—tents, sleeping bags, folding tables and chairs, stoves, and so on. “As for me, I need nothing but a burnoose and a gun,” says Kalash. “But I wanted you white explorers to have some of the comforts you’re used to.” Kalash does not believe in maps, but I am keeping track of our route as best I can on a big Michelin map. We turned east just south of El Kab and in a few minutes were passing through the empty desert. This is fairly hilly country; the land is the color of old bones.
Night comes very quickly in the desert, as you’ve no doubt heard, but Kalash seems to know exactly when this is going to happen. He stopped near a place called Soukari (before we got to the town: “If the Egyptians don’t know we’re here they won’t come creeping out to steal our shoes”) and we made camp about an hour before the sun disappeared. Kalash has barred all alcohol while we are in the desert, but he has laid in a huge supply of oranges, lemons, and limes. Zofia squeezed some of the fruit and made drinks with the last of the ice from the Hilton. Kalash fished the ice cubes out of his tin cup and threw them into the sand. “You’ll be less thirsty if you learn to drink tepid fluids,” he said. He issued warnings about deadly six-inch scorpions and imparted other desert lore. He is dressed as a sheik for the trip, and his warnings, issuing out of a white headdress, are very believable.
We dined on canned goods heated by Ilona on an alcohol stove and afterward sat around in the light of a gasoline lantern, listening to Zofia’s guitar. She was well taught by Sasha Kirnov—she can play almost any tune after it’s hummed to her. Ilona knows a great many Russian songs, learned from her grandfather. The language suits her well; she looked wild and melancholy in the lamplight with her black hair falling over her breasts. Her hair was the color of the night behind her, so her white face seemed suspended in air, like the face of a girl in a dream. Miernik was hypnotized. So were we all.
It grew very cold shortly after nightfall, and we put on jackets. There were three small tents, each big enough for two persons. The girls decided to share one of these, and Miernik and Collins paired off in another—they want to keep an eye on each other because of Ilona, I suppose. Kalash, after the guitar had been put away, walked beyond the edge of the lamplight and lay down on the ground, drawing an end of his costume across his face. That left me alone in the third tent.
I couldn’t sleep, but it was too cold to get up, so I lay on my stomach in the sleeping bag, looking out at the stars through the open flap of the tent. Kalash was an unmoving white shape a few feet away. At about midnight I heard a slithering sound next door, and then I saw Miernik sliding out of the mouth of his tent. He stood upright, looked around, and then walked straight for the Cadillac. He opened the door softly and the interior light went on briefly. There was a pause before light showed again, this time in thin streaks around the edges of the window
shades. There are blinds on all the windows. Of course there is no way to cover the windshield, but the car was pointed away from camp, so the pool of light on its hood was unlikely to disturb anyone.
I got up and put on my boots. Kalash, still not moving a muscle, said, “What is that imbecile doing in the car at this time of night?”
“I’ll ask him,” I said. “Maybe his wounds are bothering him.” (Miernik has removed his sling, but he still moves rather stiffly.)
Kalash said nothing more, and I assumed he went back to sleep at once. I walked to the car and looked in through the windshield. Miernik was sitting in the back seat with his thick Mont Blanc fountain pen in one hand and a smallish book in the other. He turned the pages of the book, ran his finger down the edge of the page, counted the lines to the point where his finger stopped, and then wrote a number on a sheet of paper. Then he repeated the process.
I guess I don’t have to tell you folks that he was writing a message, using a book code. I moved back out of the light but kept watching. Miernik was absorbed in his work. He went at it rapidly, with none of the fussiness and hesitation he usually displays. He’d find a word, note the number of its line on the pages, and enter it with the page number in a five-digit group. Judging by the place at which he’d opened the book, he was using three-digit pages. Therefore the first three digits are the page number and the last two the line number. I suppose he uses the first word on the line cited. The book had a gray cover with red lettering.
After five minutes or so, I started back to my tent. “What is he doing?” Kalash asked from the floor of the desert.
“He’s reading,” I replied.
Miernik came creeping back about ten minutes later. Kalash did not speak to him, and I was glad I didn’t have to. Catching him red-handed bothered me less than I might have expected. There is a certain satisfaction in being a successful Peeping Tom; otherwise no one would do this sort of work. But Miernik’s damn foolishness annoyed me. Why did he choose this time and this place to mess around with a book code? Where would he get rid of it? Not even the Soviets use natives with cleft sticks as moving dead-drops, and in the desert Miernik would certainly find no other way to get rid of his clandestine message. It would be typical of the man to entrust it to the Egyptian mails in the next small town we come to. The whole scene—sneaking out to the car at night, pulling down the shades, scribbling away in circumstances that offered a 99 percent chance for detection—was so amateurish. It made me angry that Miernik could be such a fool.
3 July. Two things to record in connection with the events of
last night:
1. Miernik’s book is Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, World’s Classics edition No. 496 (Oxford University Press, 1959). He left it lying on his sleeping bag when he came out for breakfast.
2. This morning, in Marsa Alam, he did mail a letter at the post office.
59. DECODED VERSION OF MIERNIK’S MESSAGE.*
JOURNEY IN FINAL STAGE. MUCH TROUBLED YOUR FAILURE COMMUNICATE, GREATLY HOPE THIS MEANS NO CHANGE IN PLANS OR DIMINUTION HOPES FOR SUCCESS. COMPANIONS AMIABLE. HAVE ADDED ENGLISH GIRL (B)ALTIMORE (E)XCELLENCE (N)OWHERE (T)RIUMPHANT (L)OVE (E)XCELLENCE (Y)OUNG. EXPECT REACH DESTINATION TWELFTH OR THEREABOUTS. MONEY GIVEN COURIER VERY GENEROUS. HER PAPERS SUPERB. MY HOPE IS FOR SAME AFTER PRESENT VENTURE. TRUSTING FRIENDS TO PROVIDE AS FINAL FAVOR. NEXT MESSAGE FROM CAPITAL OF DESTINATION COUNTRY. AFTER THAT SILENCE UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.
60. REPORT BY A POLISH NATIONAL CONTROLLED BY A WESTERN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (EXCERPT).
. . . Colonel Puszinsky of the Intelligence Service reported to the deputy foreign minister on 26 June that the requirements laid down for a joint Polish-Soviet operation in Africa had been fulfilled. The deputy foreign minister declined to be told full details of the operation and asked for an outline report only. Colonel Puszinsky assured him that a suitable Polish citizen, trained in intelligence work, had been assigned as a liaison between the Soviet Embassy in an East African country and an organization of freedom fighters in a different but neighboring country. The agent was en route to his assignment and on arrival would fall under control of the responsible Soviet officials. An official expression of gratitude on the part of the Soviets had been received by Colonel Puszinsky for communication to the deputy foreign minister.
61. DISPATCH FROM THE AMERICAN STATION IN VIENNA (EXCERPT).
In the hope of allaying Geneva’s anxiety over the apparent confusion surrounding Christopher’s border-crossing operation, we have conducted a full debriefing of the Czech officer in command of Point Zebra. He states that the crossing by Christopher and Zofia Miernik was authorized by the Czech counterintelligence arm. The Czech CI officer who made the authorization was accompanied by a Russian known to our source as “Major Shigalov.” Our source believes that Shigalov is an officer of the KGB. It was Shigalov who instructed our source to create a diversion and permit the crossing by Christopher and the Miernik woman. There were no instructions to hold fire if Christopher and Zofia Miernik were discovered by the troops. Chances of that happening were regarded as minimal by Shigalov. Our source assumes that the crossing was a KGB operation designed to infiltrate personnel into the West with the credibility that accrues from a hazardous escape across the frontier. He has taken part in a number of other episodes that followed a similar operational script. We tend to agree with his judgment, assuming that his version of events is accurate. He has in the past been highly reliable.
62. INTERCEPTED TRAFFIC FROM SOVIET TRANSMITTER IN DAR ES SALAAM (DECODED 5 JULY).
1. Initiate Golgotha 7 July.
2. Rendezvous 0147 15 July [map coordinates for a point 48 miles west-northwest of El Fasher] with Richard. Recognition code: Heaven is far away. Reply: Allah awaits us near at hand.
3. Long live the brave fighters of the Anointed Liberation Front and the great cause of the workers.
63. CABLE FROM THE AMERICAN STATION IN KHARTOUM.
1. AT DAWN ON 7 JULY THE BODIES OF THREE OFFICIALS OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT WERE FOUND IN MARKETPLACES OF EL OBEID, OTBARA, AND KASSALA, THREE IMPORTANT TOWNS LYING IN A CRESCENT AROUND KHARTOUM AT AN AVERAGE DISTANCE OF 200 MILES.
2. IN ALL CASES VICTIMS WERE MUTILATED INCLUDING CASTRATION AND CRUCIFIED HEAD DOWNWARDS ON X-SHAPED CROSSES.
3. FIRECRACKER CONFIRMS ALL THREE MURDERS WERE CARRIED OUT BY CELLS OF ANOINTED LIBERATION FRONT AS FIRST STAGE OF “OPERATION GOLGOTHA.”
4. “OPERATION GOLGOTHA” IS TERROR CAMPAIGN LONG PLANNED BY ALF. MURDERS, WITH MUTILATION AND CRUCIFIXION OF VICTIMS, ARE INTENDED TO DEMONSTRATE THAT ALF CAN STRIKE ANYWHERE AND ANYTIME IT PLEASES AGAINST CENTRAL GOVERNMENT AND ITS OFFICIALS.
5. MURDERS WILL CONTINUE WITH CRUCIFIED VICTIMS BEING DISPLAYED PROGRESSIVELY CLOSER TO KHARTOUM. OPERATIONAL PLAN OF “GOLGOTHA” CALLS FOR CRUCIFIXION OF NEXT VICTIMS TEN DAYS HENCE AT POINTS 20 MILES CLOSER TO KHARTOUIN ON MAIN ROADS EAST NORTH AND WEST OF THE CAPITAL.
6. FIRECRACKER WAS UNABLE FOREWARN US OF THIS ACTION AS ITS LEADER IS “AHMED” (TRUE NAME UNKNOWN), THE OTHER PRINCIPAL ALF FIGURE TRAINED IN THE USSR. DETAILS OF “GOLGOTHA” WERE COMMUNICATED TO “AHMED” BY A SOVIET CASE OFFICER WHOM HE MET IN LATE JUNE (DATE UNCERTAIN) IN KHARTOUM. INSTRUCTIONS TO INITIATE “GOLGOTHA” WERE SIGNALED BY SOVIET CLANDESTINE RADIO ON 5 JULY. (WE INTERCEPTED AND DECODED BUT WERE UNABLE DETERMINE DETAILS “GOLGOTHA” UNTIL AFTER IT WAS LAUNCHED.)
7. WE EMPHASIZE TO FIRECRACKER IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND COMMUNICATING DETAILS NEXT PHASE “GOLGOTHA” BEFORE THIS TAKES PLACE.
8. REQUEST HEADQUARTERS CLEARANCE TO BRIEF SUDANESE POLICE LIAISON ON DETAILS KNOWN TO US INCLUDING SOVIET INVOLVEMENT BUT NOT REPEAT NOT INCLUDING DISCLOSURE OUR CONTROL OF FIRE-CRACKER
9. FOLLOWING IS TEXT OF ALF HANDBILL POSTED AFTER ASSASSINATIONS IN MARKETPLACES PRINCIPAL SUDANESE TOWNS (TRANSLATION FROM ARABIC):
BELOVED BELIEVERS!
O BELOVED OF ALLAH! TODAY THREE CURSED LICKSPITTLES OF THE KHARTOUM CLIQUE THAT OFFENDS GOD AND THE TEACHING OF HIS PROPHET HAVE BEEN SENT TO ETE
RNAL PUNISHMENT. GOD IS GREAT. YOU WILL FIND THEM IN YOUR MARKETPLACE WITH THEIR FACES IN THE DUST. OTHERS WILL DIE AS THEY HAVE DIED. O BELOVED OF ALLAH! IT IS WE THE ANOINTED LIBERATION FRONT WHO HAVE TAKEN GOD’S VENGEANCE ON THESE MEN WHO SELL OUR BIRTHRIGHT TO THE IMPERIALISTS! THE HOUR COMES NEARER WHEN ALL THESE VICTIMS IN KHARTOUM SHALL DIE OR FLEE OUR VENGEANCE! NEXT TIME WE STRIKE CLOSER. WE SHALL STRIKE EVER CLOSER!
64. DISPATCH FROM WASHINGTON TO THE AMERICAN STATIONS IN KHARTOUM AND GENEVA (8 JULY).
1. Khartoum is instructed to inform the Sudanese authorities of the details of “Operation Golgotha,” and to brief the head of the Sudanese Special Branch on the activities, membership, and plans of the Anointed Liberation Front.
2. No operation is authorized that involves any risk to the life of Prince Kalash el Khatar. Khartoum may suggest the infiltration of Prince Kalash into the ALF to Special Branch and to the Amir of Khatar. Any decision to utilize Prince Kalash in this manner must, however, be made by the Amir and by the appropriate Sudanese officials. Khartoum may assure all parties of its cooperation, but it may not assume operational responsibility, which belongs to the Sudanese. Not only the appearance but also the reality of noninterference in the internal affairs of Sudan must be preserved.
The Miernik Dossier Page 15
