In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Kinshasa
(IOI]
ity. * Probably most worrisome was the knowledge that every step I
took would be watched by jealous colleagues. St. Martin and some
officers in Kinshasa station would be especially critical. To them
I would be a headquarters staff officer intruding in their territory.
CIA lore is full of incidents which have happened to case officers
while they traveled the world. Case officers are subject to the same
embarassments any tourist suffers-snarled schedules, lost passports,
lost money and luggage, and getting off the plane at the wrong
destination. In addition, case officers have been known to lose secret
notebooks or be recognized by agents from their operational past and
blow their new covers and missions. More often than one would
believe, they have chatted indiscreetly with total strangers and had
the conversation reported to other CIA officers. Professional reputations,
if not careers, are seriously damaged by such incidents.
Airports are especially hazardous to case officers. Customs and
immigration officials are trained to detect the unusual. In some
countries they are especially alert to CIA officers. They can arrest,
search, and detain anyone they choose under the pretext of suspected
smuggling. I once watched an angry Zairian official very nearly strip
and search the person of a CIA GS 17 who had forgotten to speak
politely.
During a four-hour lay-over at Kennedy I had briefed the communicators
on our mission. They had been "volunteered" so abrupty
they scarcely had time to assemble the necessary gear, much less
think of where they were going. Neither had ever been to Africa or
knew much about Angola. Once in Kinshasa they would disappear
into the closed world of the embassy communications center, while
I was busy with St. Martin, the FNLA, and UNIT A. And inside
Angola I would be immersed in my mission while they monitored
the radios. In the privacy of a crowded restaurant we had talked
about Angola and then gossiped, establishing the bonds of under-
•Actually, at least in more routine operations, case officers most fear the U.S.
ambassador and his staff, then restrictive headquarters cables, then curious, gossipy
neighbors in the local community, as potential threats to operations. Next would
come the local police, then the press. Last of all is the KGB-in my twelve years
of case officering I never saw or heard of a situation in which the KGB attacked
or obstructed a CIA operation.