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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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132 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONleader if he had a kerplunk machine. He didn't, so they <strong>of</strong>fered tobuild him one for $25 million. When a huge arm, nearly 1,000 feetlong and over 600 feet high, hovering over the water, wascomplete, its creator went back to the leader and said he'd needanother $5 million to finish it. He then devised an elevatorapparatus under the arm that held a huge stainless steel ballmore than 60 feet in diameter. All the leader's subjects and visitingdignitaries from other African countries gathered at the river bankon "launch" day to see the wonderful machine in action. When itwas turned on, the elevator moved slowly along to the end <strong>of</strong> thearm, it opened, and the giant ball fell into the water and went"kerplunk."It's just a joke, but it's not so far from the truth.I never saw so much money changing hands so quickly andamong so many people as during my time with Amy. The Mossadregarded all these contracts as initial contact with various placesthat someday would bring diplomatic relations, so money was noobject. And the businessmen, <strong>of</strong> course, were looking at it from apr<strong>of</strong>it point <strong>of</strong> view. They were all getting their healthy percentages.My last assignment with Amy was a four-day trip around Israelwith a man and a woman from Communist China who wanted tobuy electronic equipment.They were angry at being shown equipment <strong>of</strong> lesser quality thanthey already had. They complained saying, "What are they tryingto sell us, socks?", which I found really funny, because I used tosay that if we could sell socks to the Chinese army, we'd beeconomically sound. Everybody would be knitting.But the Chinese couple were badly treated, and that was becauseAmy thought they weren't high-ranking enough. He was makingforeign-affairs decisions by himself, without asking anyone. It wasastonishing. All his life Amy worked for government at agovernment salary, yet he lived on this acreage north <strong>of</strong> Tel Aviv ina huge villa with a small forest <strong>of</strong> his own. We'd stop theresometimes for a drink when we were working on the weekendsand there were always businessmen wandering around the lawns,and a barbecue going. I

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