The Cairo Affair (27 page)

“Do you need a doctor?”

Stiffly, she shook her head. “Just sleep.”

“Who are you?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. “Sofia.”

“Sophie Kohl?”

She nodded.

He stared at her a moment more, then got out and closed her inside. Pausing beside the driver’s door, he heard a distant sound on the warm desert breeze: two gunshots. He jumped into the Mercedes and started it up, turned the car around, and raced away as fast as he could.

SOURCE: Constitution Protection Office, Hungary (
Alkotmányvédelmi Hivatal
)

“Transcript report of meeting between Emmett Kohl, USA diplomatic staff, and Michael Khalil, American”

AUTHOR: Varga Tamas

4 March 2011

ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTE:

The following transcript records a conversation from the afternoon of Wednesday, 2 March. Later that evening, Emmett Kohl was assassinated in Chez Daniel, a restaurant in Pest (Szív utca 32). At the time of the recording there was no suggestion that Mr. Kohl’s life was in danger, which is why the recording was not transcribed until after the event.

As background, Mr. Kohl’s Audi A5 was wired on 26 February following concerns voiced by Kiraly Andras over Kohl’s meeting with an American agent (see: Aziz, Jibril) who was later seen in suspicious company. I suggest that any complaints concerning the perceived delay in producing this document be directed at Mr. Kiraly, who was responsible for the operation.

TECHNIQUE:

The following consists of two sources: the above-mentioned microphone installed in Mr. Kohl’s automobile, within the radio/CD-player, and another microphone, shotgun, held by one of Mr. Kiraly’s two agents, who witnessed the scene. The text has been marked to reflect the change in sources, observational notes in italics.

PRE-TRANSCRIPT:

Mr. Kohl was attending a scheduled lunch at Menza (Liszt Ferenc tér 2) with Linc Gabor, of Danubian Games Kft. Their subject: the export of Danubian Games products to the American market. Mr. Kohl was the first to leave, followed by a previously unnoticed stranger from another table, who had been drinking coffee. Description: approximately 180 cm, 80 kg. Well dressed. Dark hair and skin, brown eyes, Arabic characteristics. He identified himself as Michael Khalil, American.

Mr. Kohl crossed Liszt Ferenc tér, heading toward his automobile. Mr. Khalil hurried to catch up.

TRANSCRIPT:

Source: Shotgun microphone

Michael Khalil (MK):
Emmett?

Kohl glances back, not recognizing the man
.

MK (smiling):
Emmett Kohl. I
knew
it was you!

Kohl slows but does not stop. The man approaches and offers a hand; they shake.

Emmett Kohl (EK):
I’m sorry, do I…?

MK:
Michael Khalil. We met at that party … (Pause.) How’s Sophie? I always thought she was a stunner.

EK:
Listen, Michael, nice to see you again, but I’ve got an appointment.

MK:
Emmett, I just need a moment to talk. It’s important.

EK:
But I have to—

At this point Khalil reaches into his jacket and takes out out a small leather wallet, opening it for Kohl to read. From a distance we are able to make out large blue letters: “FBI.”

(
NOTE
: Queries to the local FBI office have met with denials: They claim they have no local agent with Khalil’s name or description. Kiraly Andras believes the identification is a forgery; we are undecided.)

EK:
What’s this about?

MK:
Isn’t everything about the security of Americans? (Pause.) Listen, Emmett, I’d prefer not to talk out in the open.

Khalil motions toward Kohl’s gray Audi, two car-lengths away.

MK:
I swear I’ll just be five minutes.

Kohl takes out his car keys and walks around to the driver’s side door, then pauses before opening it.

EK:
We’ll talk outside, or we won’t talk at all.

MK:
Emmett, this stuff is private. Some of it concerns your wife, Sophie.

EK:
What about her?

MK:
Not the kinds of things you want passers-by hearing.

After another pause, Kohl unlocks the car, and both men sit inside.

Source: Microphone installation

MK:
First things first. I need to ask you about a meeting you had last week with one Jibril Aziz.

EK:
Who?

MK:
Let’s not play around. This is serious business.

Pause.

EK:
But he’s one of us. (Pause.) He
is
CIA, isn’t he?

MK:
Yes, Mr. Kohl. He is.

An audible sigh, assumedly from Kohl.

MK:
So?

EK:
We discussed an old operation. A
theoretical
operation. From my time in Cairo.

MK:
Stumbler.

EK:
You know about Stumbler?

MK:
Of course. The Bureau had a look at it as well.

EK:
Well, I … (Pause.) It was never put into motion, only discussed.

MK:
Then why did Mr. Aziz fly to Budapest to talk to you about it?

EK:
Because he’s delusional.

MK:
Oh?

EK:
He’s convinced that the plan wasn’t buried. He’s convinced it’s been started up again.

MK:
What makes him think that?

EK:
Disappearances, first of all. In New York, Mohammed el-Keib and Abdel Jalil of the FLO; and in London, Yousef al-Juwali of the ADLF. Other disappearances, too—Paris and Brussels. Names I don’t remember.

Pause.

MK:
Right—that was the initial phase of the operation, wasn’t it? Leaders of these exile groups are plucked off the street. They convene in Marsa Matrouh and Medenine, set their watches, and cross into Libya to spark the uprising. (Pause.) Wait a minute—are you saying that Aziz believed
we
started what’s going on in Libya?

EK:
That’s just the point. According to him, they disappeared days
after
the protests started in Benghazi. So, no. He doesn’t believe we started it. What he believes is that we’re trying to hijack the revolution now that it’s already under way.

MK:
Is he angry about this?

EK:
He’s livid.

MK:
But he came to you. Why does he think a deputy consul in Hungary can help?

EK:
Because I’m one of the people who rejected the plan in Cairo.

MK:
So did Harold Wolcott. So did Stan Bertolli. And they’re Agency.

A pause, and through the windshield we can see a large smile on Kohl’s face. Pride?

EK:
That’s because I’m the only one, among the two dozen who looked at the plan, who made a moral argument against it. I sent my assessment separately, in a direct to the Office of Collection Strategies and Analysis. I said that our country had made the moral error of trying to unilaterally bring about regime change in Iraq, and that the new administration should learn from the mistakes of the previous one. I said that in my line of work I’m called upon to defend my country, and while I can cite economic and military reasons for people to support the United States, the moment I’m unable to fall back on our moral strength, my arguments will fall on deaf ears.

MK:
So you were against Stumbler on moral grounds.

EK:
Primarily, yes.

MK:
And this convinced Aziz that his plan was wrong?

EK:
Not at all. But he
respected
my position. He knew that I was the one person he could come to with a moral problem and expect an honest answer.

MK:
And what did you tell him?

EK:
I told him that if the American government was putting Stumbler in motion in order to thwart the popular revolution in Libya, then I would find a whistle and blow it.

MK:
Is that true?

EK:
Absolutely, but it’s beside the point now. Because Jibril is wrong. I tried to tell him that. We simply wouldn’t do it. Forget the moral reasons—the risks are too great. But I promised to look into it myself. Which is what I did. And, no, we’re not running Stumbler. (Pause.) Someone else is.

MK:
What?

EK:
Jibril’s partially right—someone
is
working off of the Stumbler blueprints, but it’s not us. Yesterday, London ID’d the man who took away Yousef al-Juwali. His name is Mutassim Jallud. He’s not an exile, and he’s not one of us. He’s a member of
Mukhabarat el-Jamahiriya
.

MK:
Gadhafi’s intelligence service?

Kohl nods
.

MK:
What do you think this means?

EK:
Maybe you should talk to the embassy.

MK:
I’m talking to you.

Kohl shakes his head.

EK:
I’ve given you enough. You said you had information about my wife.

MK:
I did.

EK:
Well?

MK:
Tell me what you suspect first.

EK:
Don’t be an ass.

MK:
I’m just doing my job.

Pause.

EK:
Look, okay? Stumbler isn’t happening. What we’ve got is someone worried it’s
going
to happen. And by someone, I mean Muammar Gadhafi. He’s sending people to get rid of the central players in the plan. The real question is: How did he find out about Stumbler?

MK:
Maybe he’s just getting rid of exiles who hate him. It wouldn’t be the first time.

EK:
But these
exact
exiles? The ones listed in the original plan? No, Gadhafi’s people have a copy of the Stumbler documents. The question is: How? Who gave it to him? It leaked—for a variety of reasons I won’t go into, I’ll lay odds it leaked from the Cairo embassy—but to whom? And how did it then make its way over the border to Tripoli?
That’s
what we need to be worrying about.