When Dave left the office Dan's first thought was
that if the Somalis pulled this off without a coup or
some other kind of internal struggle that resulted in
violence, he and Liliana could make a trip to Nairobi
together before they left Africa for good. With more
than one airline flight a week, they could both leave
within a day or two of one another without causing a
major scandal, he mused. Then his tendency to reason
and look for significance when there was none crept in,
and he projected his own way of thinking into other
people. Dan thought everyone would still put two and
two, and the two of them together, but he was beginning
to care less what people thought. Dan was mentally
planning a trip to Treetops and Outspan with Liliana
when the telephone buzzed. He picked it up and his
secretary said that Pete Stuart, an officer in the USAID
Mission and his regular tennis partner, had an urgent
matter he wished to discuss with Dan. Dan told her to
tell Pete to come right over.
A half an hour later Pete and Dan sat in the chairs
in the corner of the office sipping coffee. "We have
what may be a serious problem over in the USAID Mission,
sir, and the Director asked me to come over and talk to about it," Pete said, then told Dan that one of the employees in the USAID Mission, Kurt Conrad, had been
charged with illegal hunting. His guns had been
confiscated and Kurt was being threatened with arrest,
none of which looked good for Kurt or the American
Embassy.
Kurt was what in the Foreign Service they call a TCN, a
Third Country National, which meant that while he was a
U. S. Government employee he was not a local or U.S.
Citizen. His position title was End Use Officer and it
was his job to verify that the commodities and equipment
which the United States Government brought into Somalia
as a part of the foreign aid program were used as they
were supposed to be used. Although Kurt was an
Austrian, he had been an officer in the German Army and
he had a Prussian, commitment to discipline and order.
When WW II ended Kurt had tried to settle down to
an ordinary life, but like a lot of ex-soldiers he had
not been able to find his place in the slow tedious
process of rebuilding Europe. He had drifted down to
Africa and had knocked around in Libya, Kenya, and the
Sudan before finally settling in Somalia. He was
trained in accountancy, was thorough and methodical, and
he had tracked down some bizarre and flagrant diversions
of equipment. In one case he had discovered that a Volkswagen
"Bug" which had been financed by the U.S. and was
intended for use on a public health project was actually
being used by and was registered in the name of the
Somali Minister of Health. The embassy confronted the
Minister, who of course denied any intention of wrong
doing, and eventually the car was turned over to the
project. In another incident Kurt found that some heavy
duty air conditioning equipment that had been imported
and paid for by the U.S. for a public safety project had
been installed in the personal residence of General
Hussein, the Deputy Commandant of the Somali National
Police. The air conditioners were supposed to have been
used to cool some expensive radio gear that was part of
a national police communications network that the
Americans were helping to set up, but one of General
Hussein's four wives had convinced him that they could
be better used to cool the heat that was generated in
their bedroom. Once again Dan confronted the Somali
Government and the air conditioners were moved to their
proper location.
Aside from the issue of bad publicity and just
another thorn in the side in so far as American
relations with the Somalis was concerned, Dan felt the
Americans owed Kurt as much protection as they could give him.
"You're right about the possibility of this
becoming serious, as least serious for Kurt," Dan said.
"I was at a cocktail party last night and General
Hussein was there talking about trying to control
illegal hunting, and especially the slaughter of
leopards. But General Hussein is actually taking his
cues from his boss, General Aden Ossman. I don't think
Hussein gives a damn about anything, but Aden is serious
about trying to control illegal hunting. Fortunately I
have a lot of rapport with Aden, and we may be able to
work something out. I can't say the same for Hussein,
and there is probably nothing he would like better than
to send someone to jail just to set an example. The
fact that it would be an employee of the American
Embassy would just be the frosting on the cake. Hussein
is anti-American."
"You know, sir, that Kurt was the one who found
those aid financed air conditioners installed in General
Hussein's bedroom," Pete said.
"I remember that incident," Dan replied. "All the
more reason for him to take a personal interest in this
case. He's the kind who never forgets. He knows he
could never send an American to jail because of our
diplomatic immunity. The most he could get is to have one of us P N G'd, declared persona non grata, but with
Kurt being a Third Country National he's got a sitting
duck. Did you know that "Papa Doc" tried to get me P N
G's out of my last ambassadorial post?" Dan said feeling
a rush of excitement. Dan was glad to have something on
which he could focus his energy.
"No, sir, I didn't know that." Pete said.
"Yes," Dan said, "but he couldn't pull it off. In
the end he had my wife kicked out. He said she was a
threat to the internal security of the country. Can you
imagine my timid little wife being a threat to the
internal security of any country?" Dan stood up. "I'll
look into this, Pete, and see what we can do. In the
meantime, tell Kurt to relax. I'll be damned if I'm
going to let one of my employees go to jail. I've had
pissing contests with skunks before, and when I get in a
pissing contest I like to win."
General Ossman Dan found out was in the north of
the country making preparations for the President's
forthcoming visit, and the earliest appointment he could
get with him was on the following Friday. In the
meantime Dan asked Dave Winters to see what he could
find out about Kurt's case.
The Somali National Police was a para-military force that was, in the internal political balance, a counter-force to the Army. The police were pro-western and
equipped and trained by British and American public
safety technicians. The army, on the other hand, was
under the influence of the Russians. Most of the army
officers had been trained in the Soviet Union, their
hardware was all Russian, and the Russians had a huge
military training mission in Somalia.
General Aden Ossman, the Commandant of the Police,
was one of Dan's most valuable contacts, and Dan
frequently used him as a go between to convey important
messages that the embassy wanted to send to the
government. Ossman had good solid political connections
to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister,
and the political bosses in the SYL, the Somali Youth
League, the ruling political party. He was Sandhurst
educated and held very pro-western political views.
Ossman was slim, elegant, clean shaven and very much a
British officer and a gentleman. When he wasn't wearing
his cool, tailored, khaki colored gaberdine uniform he
chose white linen suits, and he drove himself around
town in a white Mercedes, three hundred something,
convertible.
General Hussein was actually an army officer who
was detailed to the National Police as Ossman's deputy, probably to keep and eye on Ossman, and he presented the
macho image of a hard hitting, combat seasoned soldier.
He had a big black handle bar moustache, always wore his
olive drab combat fatigue uniform with rolled up sleeves, a wide
military web belt from which a pearl handled revolver
hung, and a red beret. He rode around town in a
chauffeur driven black Mercedes sedan with a three star
general's flag snapping on the right front fender.
By late Monday afternoon Dave Winters had given Dan
a report on Kurt's case, and Dan called Pete over to his
office.
General Hussein, Dan had learned, had some weeks
ago put out the word that he would like to nail Kurt on
any trumped up charge. Just what the General was
offering in exchange for Kurt's head was not clear, but
with the police having as much power as they did in
Somalia, it never hurt to have a high ranking officer
indebted to you. Hussein had no difficulty getting
people to cooperate with him. In the case of Kurt,
Hussein claimed that he had hundreds of witnesses who
would swear under oath that Kurt had been involved in
the slaughter of leopards and other wild animals for
years. "Kurt Conrad is an ex-Nazi. He belongs in jail
and that's exactly where I intend to put him," General
Hussein was reported to have said. Dan's plan was to try and go around Hussein and
take the matter up directly with General Aden Ossman
when he returned on Friday. Dan's hope was that he
could get Ossman to drop the charges and allow Kurt to
leave the country. Dan asked Pete if he thought he
could find a job for Kurt in another Mission somewhere
in Africa. "For the time being" Dan said, "I'll let
Ossman figure out how to deal with Hussein."
Pete agreed to send a cable to other African posts,
and later in the week Dan saw a copy of what Pete had
drafted and sent out in the embassy reading file. The
rest of the week was quiet, both on the diplomatic front
and at home.
Dan and Liliana enjoyed the more relaxed pace with
fewer parties, and they slipped gently into a new phase
in their love affair. Everything was less urgent, but
the intensity of their love for one another deepened.
They were both looking forward to Marlisa's departure on
the next Sunday and the time when they would no longer
feel that they had a spy in their midst.Gene McCoy © July 1998
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© 1997 ginofso@gte.net
