A Deceit to Die For (55 page)

“That’s right.”

“Do you have any idea why he would get mixed up in this?”

“Look,” said Gilbert, “the man was a good friend of my father’s. I believe he’s sincerely trying to help.”

“No offense, Gil,” continued Matt, “but there’s no such thing as sincerity in the world of intelligence. And, Turkish intelligence is renowned for its disinformation campaigns, its false flag attacks, and its psychological warfare. Their perception management strategies are byzantine in the extreme though I’m sure they would bristle at the adjective. You know that I’ve captured two of the Muslim ring leaders involved in human trafficking and spent a fair bit of time among them trying to get leads. I’m afraid I’ve developed a serious aversion to their attitude.”

“I don’t follow,” said Gary.

“For starters, I’m sick of the American imperialism bullshit. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not so keen on American intervention in the Middle East, but these guys are borderline lunatics. They claim that America caused the 1999 earthquake in Izmit to destroy Turkey’s industrial capacity. They say that the tsunami in the South Pacific was our doing, as if we could shake the earth’s crust at will.”

“Well,” said Gary, “That’s the world they live in. That’s the paradigm ingrained in them since birth.”

“Yeah, ingrained in them as part of the psychological warfare and perception management waged by their intelligence community. Well, in twenty years, when there are Chinese soldiers keeping the peace in the Middle East instead of American ones, we’ll see if they don’t pine for the good ol’ days. Anyway, back to this friend of your father’s, what do you know about his connections and activities?”

“Nothing. Where are you going with this?” asked Gary.

“How much do you know about operation Gladio?” asked Matt.

“Never heard of it,” said Gilbert.

“I know about it,” replied Gary, taking a deep breath. “It is supposed to have been a stay-behind clandestine paramilitary structure in NATO countries after WWII. The goal was to prevent the spread of communism. The modus operandi was ‘strategy of tension’, which is basically governing through fragmentation and chaos, creating an environment that makes it easier for governments to manipulate and control their citizens.”

Gilbert’s surprise was unfeigned.

“Did you pick up a degree in political science during your travels?”

“I do a little reading in my spare time.”

Gilbert shook his head in unbelief. “Well, I do a bit of reading myself, and I have never heard of it.”

“I guess we haven’t been reading the same stuff,” said Gary indifferently.

Matt put his head back and stared at the ceiling.

“Let me see if I can give you two a primer in how these things work. In the end, this crap is the reason I decided I had to resign from State. You probably don’t know that Turkey is generally regarded as the most active member of the Gladio network, which, by the way, was officially condemned by the EU on November 22, 1990. Even though a number of generals and intelligence officials have confirmed its existence, the CIA has responded to FOIA requests with its classic Glomar bullshit. ‘We can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of records responsive to your request.’ In Turkey, right-wing groups, such as the fascist Grey Wolves, were trained and financed to stop communism and to implement the ‘strategy of tension.’ Do you remember the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981 by Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish operative?”

“Are you suggesting there is a connection with our document?” responded Gilbert dubiously.

“Not directly, no. I am just using this as an example of rule number one: ‘Nothing is what it appears to be’. Never forget that. Do you remember how the attempted assassination was portrayed?”

“Yeah, it was a supposed to be a KGB plot to stop the Pope’s support for Solidarity in Poland.”

“We’ll see if you still believe that in ten minutes.”

“Fire away.”

“The assassin, Agca, was a member of the Grey Wolves, a right-wing ultra-nationalist group. He was personally responsible for the killing of Abdi Ipekçi, a left-wing journalist, after which he was apprehended, convicted and placed in a military prison. A few months later, he miraculously escapes with the help of Abdullah Çatli, another Grey Wolves Counter Guerilla. Then, Agca shoots the Pope four times, is arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

“The investigation showed that he had travelled to several countries on the Mediterranean in an alleged attempt to hide his point of origin, which was Bulgaria. After the failed assassination attempt, Agca said he did it because ‘the Pope is the incarnation of all that is capitalism.’ Later, several sources claimed the assassination attempt was the work of the KGB. It seemed plausible given Agca’s stated motive, the fact that John Paul was a staunch anti-Communist and the fact that he was linked to operatives in Bulgaria, which, at the time, was a communist country.”

“Wait a minute, why would a right-wing operative like Agca target an outspoken opponent of communism like Pope John Paul?” asked Gilbert.

“Aha, you are asking the right questions.”

“Nothing is what it appears to be,” said Gary.

“Exactly,” continued Matt. “Would a NATO-controlled Gladio operative, an avowed right-wing fascist who had murdered a left-wing reporter in cold blood suddenly turn into a dedicated communist? No, he was a right-wing operative, so why would he try to assassinate an anti-Communist pope at the height of the Cold War?”

“He wouldn’t,” replied Gilbert.

“But, he did try, and the reason is as convoluted as it is simple. The shooting of the Pope aroused nationalist sympathies in Italy and other European countries with significant Catholic populations, many of which had developed strong leftist movements that sympathized with the Soviet Union. Pinning the foiled assassination plot on the KGB turned the sentiments of the people against the communists, obviously a key objective of the western elite. If you remember, John Paul II supported the Solidarity strikes taking place in Poland at the time, and this plot only served to strengthen the resolve of the staunchly Catholic Polish population against their communist leaders as a show of support for the first Polish Pope.”

“So, Agca’s comments and the Bulgarian connection were carefully crafted to make it look like the KGB was involved,” remarked Gilbert.

“Exactly,” said Matt.

“Maybe,” continued Gilbert, “He was just a hired gun ready to work for the highest bidder.”

Matt was ready for this logical possibility.

“It’s possible. Anything is. But does anyone think that the Soviets really believed killing the Catholic pontiff would demoralize Solidarity and the Polish opposition? The ‘martyr effect’ is a well-known psychological phenomenon. The Soviets would never have been so stupid, and that’s who the alleged employer would have been.”

“Of course, you’re right,” said Gary, “Heightened religious devotion is almost invariably the response to persecution.”

“Plus, the fact that the assassin was a Muslim added even more intrigue, raising the specter of religious conflict. At first, Agca claimed to be working for the Marxist-leaning Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. But his story changed constantly, which, I’m sure, was a tactical decision. It was an attempt to create confusion through complexity. I am simplifying it, but you get the idea. In short, the incident created a chaotic situation and uncertainty, offering endless possibilities for exploitation. In fact, I believe that chaos or the appearance of chaos is a critical strategy in the control of democratic societies.”

“So, was his escape from the military prison in Turkey arranged with help from the government?” asked Gary.

“That is one of the most amazing aspects of the whole story. He was connected with a man named Abdullah Çatli, who allegedly broke him out of prison. Çatli was also a member of the Counter Guerilla Grey Wolves, and MIT was rumored to have paid the man in heroin. He was arrested in Paris on October 24th 1984 for drug trafficking. He spent seven years in a French prison, which, to be honest, doesn’t sound too bad, and was then transferred to Switzerland in 1988 to serve a sentence on drug charges there as well. In March 1990, however, he inexplicably escaped and was subsequently recruited by security forces in Turkey. His death in a car accident in November 1996 rocked the establishment in Turkey because he was traveling with a member of parliament and a well-known police officer. To make matters worse, he had diplomatic credentials issued by the Turkish government, a weapons permit, a stash of US dollars, narcotics and a fake passport issued to Mehmet Özbay, the same alias Agca was known to have used.”

Gilbert whistled lowly. “So, numerous state or supra-state actors were clearly involved in all of this.”

“Absolutely,” said Connor, “My point is that Turkey employed considerable counter-guerilla resources. Their intelligence agencies have supported or conducted more strategy of tension operations than you can imagine. The goal? Chaos. Fear. Suspicion. Turkish national psychology has been shaped by a distrust so deeply ingrained that it is a proverb, ‘The Turk has no friend but the Turk.’ There is nothing as valuable to a government as having an enemy.”

“Then the Turkish government is sitting on the mother lode,” said Gary.

Gilbert interjected, “How is it that you know so much about all of this?”

Matt merely shrugged. “One of my political science professors said he believed Turkey would rise to lead the Muslim world. Turkey has ethnic connections to almost all of the oil-rich Central Asian republics, and it’s also the most industrially developed and politically stable Muslim country. Historically, it has maintained very close ties both in terms of trade and finance with Europe. More importantly, the Ottoman sultan was also the last Caliph of Islam.”

“But that’s a thing of the past.”

“For us, yes. For them, bringing back the Caliph is the only way forward. If it were revived, the Turks would naturally be a leading candidate for the position. I think it is difficult for westerners to understand this part of the Muslim psyche, but just imagine the Catholic Church being without a Pope since 1923.”

“I see your point. Every Catholic would be clamoring for the office to be filled.”

“Anyway,” continued Matt, “This professor convinced me to do my master’s thesis on what is known as the ‘deep state’ in Turkey.”

“Wait a minute,” said Gilbert excitedly. “Didn’t Zeki refer to that in our conversation with him?”

“Yes, he did,” replied Gary. “He said that the people we were dealing with were the deep state. I don’t know how he knew that. He referred to them as the shadow of Allah’s shadow, the same thing, except that it refers to one of the Ottoman Sultan’s titles, the Shadow of Allah.”

Matt closed his eyes and tried to get his mind around it all.

“You know,” he said finally, “The Islamic state is reemerging in Turkey. NATO has been in denial for a decade. In Turkey, that power is now wearing a turban inwardly if not outwardly. There’s a power behind the throne in every country, and all the talk about justice is a façade. It’s a power struggle and the only rule is to win. It doesn’t matter who pays, or how many promises you break. There are no friends or allies, just business partners looking for a way to shaft each other. That’s why I left State. There are no statesmen anymore.

“Of course, I knew most of this before I got in. I decided that I would be willing to play by a different set of rules too, if it was in the best interests of the country. But, after a few years, I started to realize that the game we were playing wasn’t Axis and Allies but Monopoly. I realized it was all about money. Sure, it was always spun as national security or the balance of power, but it’s all a smokescreen for increasing profit margins via access to cheaper labor and cheaper raw materials or restricting the access of your rivals to the same.

“To make it worse, the whole thing is based on value-neutral multiculturalism. The cardinal sin in national building is to destroy the sense of national unity. If a nation’s identity becomes fragmented, it doesn’t survive. The West is ignoring this fundamental rule. I lost faith in the system and my ability to change it. Besides, I couldn’t stomach the corruption. Anyway, enough of this. When do you expect Gwyn and Zeki to arrive and how will they contact you?”