Spycraft - Melton [186]
Crown was briefed on the situation and instructed to go to Ethiopia. With the Ethiopian visa in his passport, he then sought a tourist visa from a Sudanese consular clerk in Washington. Since he would be in the neighboring country, Crown implored, he would like to take a few additional days as a tourist to visit the Sudan and experience its culture, history, people, and land. It was his lifelong dream to walk in the footsteps of the Great Mahdi who had slaughtered General Gordon in Khartoum in the 1880s. In return for the performance, Crown received a tourist visa and checked into Khartoum’s Acropole Hotel a few days later.
Unnoticed by Sudanese officials, Crown was introduced to U.S. Chargé d’Affaires George Curtis Moore, who had a reputation for being less than friendly to CIA activities. However, Moore’s apprehension evaporated as the two discovered a common sense of humor along with the realization that Crown’s expertise might resolve a difficult problem. Moore arranged for Crown to examine the goat herders’ find at Major Hamdallah’s private residence.
There Crown found the Limpet bomb, a pen gun, ammunition, and a typewritten note set out on a small table. After greeting the examiner, Hamdallah gave instructions to his servant and left the house along with Moore. “Have the servant call me when you’re finished,” said Moore, “and I’ll come back to pick you up.”
“Great idea,” Crown remembered thinking. “Here I am by myself, an American on an irregular tourist visa in a country the United States doesn’t have diplomatic relations with, unable to speak the local language and sitting in the Minister of Interior’s house handling deadly devices. If something happens, I don’t even know how to use the phone. If a couple bad guys come through the door, I’m in deep trouble.”
There was little to do except get to work. The servant offered the examiner bottles of Coke and Fanta. Based on briefings he received prior to his trip, Crown, although not an explosives expert, identified the Limpet mine as a U.S. device, probably recovered by the Cubans from the Bay of Pigs and subsequently given to the Soviets. The pen gun was of Pakistani manufacture and easily available in the Horn of Africa region.
Major Hamdallah’s servant brought another round of Coke and Fanta.
Crown examined each letter on the typewritten note under a microscope and referred often to his typewriter key classification. He eventually concluded the note had been written on an Olympia typewriter of recent manufacture. While American government officials were not known to use that model of Olympia typewriter, it was widely available in both West Germany and East Germany. These findings, although limited, were based on solid data and professional examination.
That evening Moore, Crown, and Hamdallah sat on red vinyl cushions in the Minister’s green curtain-draped living room. In presenting his findings and his conclusions, Crown described the typewriter involved, talked about how the U.S. government produced its official documents, and offered the determination that the circumstances of the find, the origin of the materials, and the content of the document itself pointed to a covert plot by the Soviets or their allies.
Hamdallah listened politely, said little, and offered no commitment to cooperate. He did consent to a request by Crown to pose for a photo, while Moore expressed appreciation for Crown’s work, which, he believed, had been sufficient to instill doubt in Hamdallah. The case was closed.
Crown’s visit had an unexpected impact on both Moore and Hamdallah. Within two months, Major Hamdallah requested to see Crown again. This time Sudan would welcome the examiner as an official visitor and Moore would insist that Crown stay at his residence. Hamdallah wanted more details about typewriter markings and other forgeries in Africa at the time. From Moore’s