Permanent Interests Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: James Bruno
Gangs").
His conversation with his wife earlier in the day had gone badly. No surprise really. He phoned in to check on things. Davey had the flu. She was working double shift this week. When would he be back? No Hello darling!
How's Rome? How's the food? How's the investigation going? Innes had been wanting to take the family off to Mazatlán for a week. Somehow, it kept being put off. He had to work things out with Carolyn. Start off with a nice dinner at the Balkan Crown, their favorite, the night after he got back. Just the two of them. Line up a babysitter, call in sick on the night shift…hmmm.
He sat slumped at a desk in the political section of the embassy, mulling this over, sipping a warm coke. Colleen McCoy, Ambassador Mortimer’s staff aide, entered to shred the day's classified traffic.
28 JAMES
BRUNO
"Hi, your cable went out okay. It was the last for the day," she said, more as small talk than to inform.
"Last and useless," Innes said sharply, regretting too late his sarcastic slip.
"What do you think, will this investigation get anywhere? You may as well see this now. It just came in."
She showed him a Nodis telegram from the Department.
Nodis -- No Distribution -- was the channel reserved for sensitive correspondence between the Secretary of State and his ambassadors. In actual practice, however, quite a number of bureaucrats had access to Nodises, but photocopies were strictly forbidden. Staff aides, like Colleen, as controllers of the information flow to their bosses, saw most everything they saw.
SECRET/NODIS
TO: AMEMBASSY ROME, IMMEDIATE
FROM: SECSTATE WASHDC
FOR SCHER
ALSO FOR CHARGE
SUBJECT: MORTIMER INVESTIGATION
1. SECRET - ENTIRE TEXT.
2. DEPARTMENT AND WHITE HOUSE REMAIN
CONCERNED OVER LACK OF PROGRESS ON THE
MORTIMER INVESTIGATION. HOUSE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN OPERATIONS IS
PLANNING TO SCHEDULE HEARINGS. MEDIA ATTENTION CONTINUES TO BE STRONG.
PRESIDENT HAS DECIDED TO FORM AN
INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP TO
RESTRUCTURE INVESTIGATION.
PERMANENT INTERESTS
29
3. FOR SCHER: IN LIGHT OF LACK OF EVIDENCE
AND APPARENT INABILITY OF GOVERNMENT OF
ITALY TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS CASE, YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO PREPARE YOUR FINAL
REPORT AND RETURN TO WASHINGTON BY END
OF THE WEEK.
4. FOR CHARGE: IN LIGHT OF CONTINUING LACK
OF RESULTS, REQUEST THAT YOU RAISE USG'S
CONTINUING CONCERNS AT THE HIGHEST
LEVELS OF THE GOI. TALKING POINTS WILL BE
FORWARDED VIA SEPARATE TELEGRAM.
DENNISON
"The papers and the networks are all over the administration on this thing," Colleen said as she handed Innes the daily wireless file, a compilation of headline stories in the major U.S. papers.
"U.S. Envoy's Murder Still a Mystery," declared The New York Times . "State Department Bungles Murder Investigation," announced The Washington Post .
Innes shook his head as he read. "This is bad, real bad.
But you know, they're right. This whole so-called investigation is a total farce. Both we and the Italians are barking up the wrong trees."
Colleen looked at him with a start, her ear-length chestnut hair falling forward on her cheeks. "Do you know something that the rest don't?"
"No. But they're going in the wrong directions. Scher seems to have some political agenda. In any case, he's obsessed by terrorists, and the Italians have Africans on the brain. Kobalski doesn't know what he's doing except to try frantically to cover his fat behind. If everybody is so well aware of Mortimer's meanderings, even though they've kept 30 JAMES
BRUNO
some kind of conspiracy of silence about them, then why not just go to his haunts and start asking questions? The guy's dead, for Christ sake. Who cares about his reputation now?"
"Maybe that's just it. Maybe the Secretary and the White House are more concerned with keeping any whiff of scandal from the administration. Next year the President's up for re-election, right? Which headlines would you prefer if you were him? 'Al-Qaida Assassinated U.S. Ambassador' or
His conversation with his wife earlier in the day had gone badly. No surprise really. He phoned in to check on things. Davey had the flu. She was working double shift this week. When would he be back? No Hello darling!
How's Rome? How's the food? How's the investigation going? Innes had been wanting to take the family off to Mazatlán for a week. Somehow, it kept being put off. He had to work things out with Carolyn. Start off with a nice dinner at the Balkan Crown, their favorite, the night after he got back. Just the two of them. Line up a babysitter, call in sick on the night shift…hmmm.
He sat slumped at a desk in the political section of the embassy, mulling this over, sipping a warm coke. Colleen McCoy, Ambassador Mortimer’s staff aide, entered to shred the day's classified traffic.
28 JAMES
BRUNO
"Hi, your cable went out okay. It was the last for the day," she said, more as small talk than to inform.
"Last and useless," Innes said sharply, regretting too late his sarcastic slip.
"What do you think, will this investigation get anywhere? You may as well see this now. It just came in."
She showed him a Nodis telegram from the Department.
Nodis -- No Distribution -- was the channel reserved for sensitive correspondence between the Secretary of State and his ambassadors. In actual practice, however, quite a number of bureaucrats had access to Nodises, but photocopies were strictly forbidden. Staff aides, like Colleen, as controllers of the information flow to their bosses, saw most everything they saw.
SECRET/NODIS
TO: AMEMBASSY ROME, IMMEDIATE
FROM: SECSTATE WASHDC
FOR SCHER
ALSO FOR CHARGE
SUBJECT: MORTIMER INVESTIGATION
1. SECRET - ENTIRE TEXT.
2. DEPARTMENT AND WHITE HOUSE REMAIN
CONCERNED OVER LACK OF PROGRESS ON THE
MORTIMER INVESTIGATION. HOUSE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN OPERATIONS IS
PLANNING TO SCHEDULE HEARINGS. MEDIA ATTENTION CONTINUES TO BE STRONG.
PRESIDENT HAS DECIDED TO FORM AN
INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP TO
RESTRUCTURE INVESTIGATION.
PERMANENT INTERESTS
29
3. FOR SCHER: IN LIGHT OF LACK OF EVIDENCE
AND APPARENT INABILITY OF GOVERNMENT OF
ITALY TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS CASE, YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO PREPARE YOUR FINAL
REPORT AND RETURN TO WASHINGTON BY END
OF THE WEEK.
4. FOR CHARGE: IN LIGHT OF CONTINUING LACK
OF RESULTS, REQUEST THAT YOU RAISE USG'S
CONTINUING CONCERNS AT THE HIGHEST
LEVELS OF THE GOI. TALKING POINTS WILL BE
FORWARDED VIA SEPARATE TELEGRAM.
DENNISON
"The papers and the networks are all over the administration on this thing," Colleen said as she handed Innes the daily wireless file, a compilation of headline stories in the major U.S. papers.
"U.S. Envoy's Murder Still a Mystery," declared The New York Times . "State Department Bungles Murder Investigation," announced The Washington Post .
Innes shook his head as he read. "This is bad, real bad.
But you know, they're right. This whole so-called investigation is a total farce. Both we and the Italians are barking up the wrong trees."
Colleen looked at him with a start, her ear-length chestnut hair falling forward on her cheeks. "Do you know something that the rest don't?"
"No. But they're going in the wrong directions. Scher seems to have some political agenda. In any case, he's obsessed by terrorists, and the Italians have Africans on the brain. Kobalski doesn't know what he's doing except to try frantically to cover his fat behind. If everybody is so well aware of Mortimer's meanderings, even though they've kept 30 JAMES
BRUNO
some kind of conspiracy of silence about them, then why not just go to his haunts and start asking questions? The guy's dead, for Christ sake. Who cares about his reputation now?"
"Maybe that's just it. Maybe the Secretary and the White House are more concerned with keeping any whiff of scandal from the administration. Next year the President's up for re-election, right? Which headlines would you prefer if you were him? 'Al-Qaida Assassinated U.S. Ambassador' or