Spycraft - Melton [191]
While that portion of Jameson’s report was ignored, other pieces of a U.S.-proposed counterterrorism program began falling into place. The general understood the vulnerability presented by the example of the unidentified automobile parked near his office and a few weeks later a commercial airplane with its windows covered with blackout paper landed at a covert CIA training site. The passengers were members of a special counterterrorism and VIP-protection team sent by the general for a month of intense training by OTS specialists. As the team disembarked, Jameson personally greeted each one. Now having proved himself a friend of the country, he began having regular meetings with the general to offer advice and planning assistance.
In the mid-1970s, after completing one of his now frequent meetings with the general, Jameson headed home. During a stopover, as he approached the boarding gate to catch a connecting flight, he was surprised to see another CIA officer waiting for him. The general was demanding that Jameson return immediately. The country’s leader had been assassinated.
“Let me guess. He was holding an audience, the people were standing in line and he was sitting there talking to one of them and they shot him in the head,” Jameson said.
“How do you know that?” the colleague asked, taken back by the specific details.
“I told the general six months ago that could happen. I didn’t have a premonition. But I saw how the petitioners approached and how he was unprotected from his inner circle, the risk was obvious.”
“You were right. The assassin was a relative.”
Jameson knew he was in a delicate situation. Not only had the assassination occurred uncomfortably soon after his report, but he had just departed the country hours before the shooting. If the general believed he was somehow implicated in the murder, Jameson could be arrested the instant he stepped off the plane. On the other hand, if Jameson didn’t honor the request to return, they might assume that he, along with the CIA, was guilty of something.
Jameson spent a sleepless night in limbo as cable traffic was exchanged with Headquarters. All eventually agreed that it would be best for the OTS officer to go directly to the general, tell what was known, and offer personal as well as Agency assistance.
It was not a comfortable meeting. The general launched a tirade about the ineffectiveness of CIA counterintelligence training while implying that Jameson might have had some connection with the assassination. Letting the accusations pass without comment, Jameson replied, “I told you how I would go about doing this, I didn’t say I was going to do it. I told you what was needed to correct the situation, but you didn’t correct it. What has happened is past. Where do we go in the future?”
“You stay here for now,” the chief ordered, concluding the meeting.
After several days of being under virtual house arrest, Jameson requested another meeting. The general had calmed down and conceded that no blame for the assassination lay with Jameson or the CIA. He was free to leave the country. However, for the remainder of his career, Jameson would be part of CIA’s counterterrorism mission and within a few months tragedy struck first hand. In December 1975, Jameson’s CIA chief in Athens, Richard Welch, died from a