In the aftermath of 9/11, the Agency had funneled over twenty million U.S. dollars into Somalia, initially funding the Warlords through the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism only to see them all disappear by the end of the decade with the arrival of the Islamic Courts Union, which then in turn disintegrated and re-formed as Al Shabaab. The idea had ended in disaster because the Agency didn’t put into place a strategic framework. This also meant, albeit unwittingly, the United States had assisted in the creation of Adwalland through the fact that they had forced the tribal leaders to become proactive to protect their own areas.
Having failed in that program and now facing a collective of mini self-governing states within the failed nation they then began funding the Somali National Security Agency directly, an organization who had worked out collectively that having the intelligence agencies around the world funding them was better than relying on the aid agencies. Not to mention the pay was better.
All this led Navjot and his team to the same conclusion: “The moment we attempt to use assets on the CIA platform they will brief the SVR and the mission would be over.”
So having reviewed the outline with Ali, the team subsequently recommended that the Agency establish a completely new platform using the Interior Minister as the lead on his return from Borama.
“It cannot cause embarrassment to the service or the administration by being able to trace it back if it goes wrong,” said Young to Ali during the approval oversight meeting in the Cube. Nobody spoke about it but collectively they all knew that meant ‘plausible deniability,’ a term coined by the CIA during the Kennedy Administration and what they were doing now was it in its purest form and hadn’t been practiced by the Americans since the Reagan Doctrine had ended the Cold War signaled by the fall of the Berlin Wall. That doctrine had been originally been designed to diminish Soviet power in the regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia as part of the Administration’s overall Cold War strategy.
The new Director was now dusting off the plan and re-activating it but not using a marketing message to the voting public of America fighting an “ideology” that threatens not only your “freedom” and your “way of life.”
The outline put together by Ali and team once the regime change had been completed was simple in design.
GSG, as the exclusive partner of the in country asset, was going to swiftly enter into partnerships with American natural resources corporations who then in turn would then reimburse and create a profit sharing model with the CIA for its new counter-intelligence platform.
“A self-funding platform ‘off the books’ for future counter-intelligence operations of the CIA using GSG as the funnel,” Navjot had said with a shake of his head once he had finished reading the proposal when he had been given his new orders by Ali.
“Private Sector Intelligence,” Ali had said joking. Navjot had seen it as immoral.
“Invest and resell making a profit in the process. Was that really what I signed up for when I was younger?” Navjot had questioned himself as he privately struggled with the direction the Agency was now asking him to take in the future.
“Maybe it’s time to get out?” Navjot had asked himself.
Fighting terrorists on the basis of faith was easier to process than that of material gain. Changing governments, potentially killing hundreds and affecting thousands of people on the basis of next year’s mobile phone or being able to build and sell next year’s car was, he had reflected, becoming harder and harder to process.
It wasn’t until Ali had convinced him over a lot of coffee in the planning room back at Langley that the strategy would ensure that the United States of America had access to the essentials of life that he had begun to feel more comfortable with what his team’s new management would be taking it’s ‘raison d’etre’ in the new secret war of the twenty-first century.
“The Energy Security Doctrine,” the Director had coined it when he had presented the paper to the Secretary of State and the President.
As the Indian closed his eyes, he wondered somewhat cynically whether the Director had called in an advertising agency to come up with that new brand identity.
“I wonder how Don Draper would brand it?” he half-jokingly asked himself in reference to the Mad Men character of the show that Lori always recorded for him to watch when he got home when he was unwinding.
Unfortunate as it was, the news he had just received from both Wilson and Ali had proved to him that they had been right to create such a buffer. With the Russians now on their tails plus the upgrading of their presence in the country; Navjot knew he needed to make sure that the train didn’t derail at the first turn with the end game in sight.
He just hadn’t planned for what Wasir would do to up the ante.
39
Aden Isaaq International Airport
A still fuming Wasir and the resigned pair of Andrew and Tony met the Indian as he reached the bottom step of the G-4.
“Gouramangi, I am glad you’re here my friend!” said the Interior Minister as he hugged and kissed him on both cheeks expressively. His embrace provided Navjot with a whiff of extra strong perfume that was general in the Middle East plus a rather unsavory deposit of damp sweat from the minister’s linen shirt onto his.
“These idiots have placed great pressure on us!” he added waving his hands towards the Englishmen at his side.
Yesterday when Wasir had ranted and raved about them letting him down, at that point Navjot hadn’t committed to traveling into Borama due to the rest of the plan progressing well. The two hundred Turaeg soldiers had arrived over the last week entering variously through Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia respectively and were covertly being taken to a camp just outside the city. There, the Ukrainians were going through their weapons training with the Non Commissioned Officers and finally the armored vehicles that had arrived in Addis Ababa from China and were being loaded for transportation through Ethiopia and onto Adwalland.
Having been briefed by Ali to make sure there weren’t any problems with the arrival of vehicles Navjot had ordered, in somewhat colorful language, the resident in Addis Ababa made sure that was the case.
“There was a time when a bribe was only a couple hundred bucks here or there!” the resident had said to the Indian as it was now costing them ten thousand U.S. dollars.
Again the reliable Reza had made the transfers to relevant accounts in Dubai and sent some money to the resident, so he didn’t have to go to the Ambassador for petty cash, thus avoiding the need to fill in about twenty-five forms of paperwork, the absolute scourge of every officer since the austerity measures of the Obama Administration.
“Don’t worry my friend these things happen; that is why I am here,” Navjot replied lying to the Interior Minister as he caught sight of the look of thunder on Andrew and Tony faces. He did have some sympathy although he didn’t show it. Working with amateurs like Wasir was never easy, as he knew through bitter experience during his time working with the ISI in Pakistan.
“Tell me what else has been happening?” Navjot asked in keeping with his cover. A question he would also ask his team later but first, he needed to hear it from his expensive pair of contractors having caught sight of Litchfield’s large private BBJ already parked up to the side of the runway as they were taxiing in.
“Litchfield and Jawari are going to have a meeting with the chieftains from Lughaya and Saylec this afternoon,” Wasir said with authority. He had been briefed by one of his men who kept tabs on the different Clans for him.