The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

get inside his car? How can his calmness and confidence in a favorable outcome of thekidnapping affair be explained?“There are questions for his colleagues, as well. Why did the CIA resident displaysuch criminal indifference to the incident? Why did our people, who watched what washappening at the hotel, report that the Americans were acting strangely, as if they hadsomething to hide?“Finally, how can the unnecessary cruelty towards the terrorists be explained? Thewounded were executed and their representative, who turned himself in, was quietlyeliminated. Could he have been somebody else entirely, that negotiator? It’s likely thatTarun, either acting on his own or fulfilling someone’s order, had rushed to sweep anyevidence of foul play under the rug. Lots of questions were emerging. There will be a lot tothink about.”***On Thursdays, in advance of weekends, Starostin typically didn’t makeappointments with agents. The reasons were twofold. For one, Starostin thought that afterhaving worked all week, the agents would rather spend time with their friends andrelatives than with an intelligence operative. Rest was sacred, and Starostin didn’t want tobother people by interrupting it. Second, he noticed that the anticipation of the arrival ofthe weekend reduced the “creative potential” of the agents, and they tended to get easilydistracted and avoided thinking about more serious matters.So as not to waste time on those days, Starostin would normally meet withforeigners who would be useful for his work but who were not themselves agents. For316