The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames (70 page)

100
“After Sabra and Shatila …”:
Geoffrey Kemp, interview, March 29, 2011.

101
“A limited Beirut mission is too risky”:
Shultz,
Turmoil and Triumph
, p. 109.

102
“It soon became clear”:
Geoffrey Kemp, interview, March 29, 2011.

103
“The Israelis did nothing …”:
The Reagan Diaries
(New York: HarperPerennial, 2007), p. 155.

104
“The decision on the entry …”:
Eban,
Beirut Massacre
, p. 104.

105
“The Israelis had assumed …”:
Bruce Riedel, interview, March 30, 2011.

106
“I don’t know …”:
David Crist,
The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Three-Year Conflict with Iran
(New York: Penguin Press, 2012), p. 125.

107
“I don’t think there was any real understanding …”: Lindsay Sherwin
, interview, March 22, 2011.

108
death squads:
Robert Fisk, a correspondent at the time for the
Times
of London, reported on these autumn murders: Fisk,
Pity the Nation
, p. 386. See also the memoir by the Lebanese Phalangist Robert Hatem,
From Israel to Damascus
(La Mesa, CA: Pride International Publications, 1999), pp. 23, 29.

109
Mughniyeh himself was injured:
Hala Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), p. 115.

110
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad:
Nicholas Blanford,
Warriors of God: Inside Hezbollah’s Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel
(New York: Random House, 2011), p. 45.

111
Asgari hired Mughniyeh:
Mustafa Zein, interview, October 8, 2012, Amman. Zein says that Mughniyeh told him about his 1982 meeting with Asgari. Asgari was initially an intelligence officer stationed in Baalbek, but later in the 1980s he became the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps in Baalbek. “Mr Asgari was the commander in the 1980s of a small group of Revolutionary Guards sent to Lebanon to train and organize opposition to the Israeli occupation.” Gareth Smyth, “Mystery of Former Iranian Minister Deepens,”
Financial Times
, March 11, 2007. See also Jaber,
Hezbollah
, p. 82.

112
“I’m off to India …”:
Robert Ames to Adrienne, October 1, 1982, courtesy of Yvonne Ames.

113
“very pessimistic assessment …”:
Geoffrey Kemp, diary, January 11, 1983, courtesy of Geoffrey Kemp.

114
Reagan’s “talking points”:
William P. Clark, National Security Planning Group Meeting, February 4, 1983, secret, declassified November 15, 2005, NSPG 0051, Lebanon, Box 91306, Ex Sec, NSC, Reagan Presidential Library.

115
Clark wrote Ames a thank-you note:
William P. Clark to Robert Ames, February 22, 1983, MC 003 Box 18, #128971, Reagan Presidential Library.

116
Shamir “cannot leave without hearing from me …”:
“Talking Points for the President,” 3/11/83, NSPG 0058, Lebanon, Box 91306, Ex. Sec. NSC, Reagan Presidential Library.

117
“I’m a little more optimistic …”:
Robert Ames to Helen Ames. This was Bob’s last letter to his mother.

118
“Distinguished Intelligence Certificate”:
Yvonne Ames, e-mail to author, April 11, 2012.

119
“I saw Ames in early 1983”:
Clair George, interview, March 23, 2011.

  
1
The Little Drummer Girl:
The novel had an advance print run in the United States of 450,000 (
Monday Morning
, April 1983).

  
2
Ames told his NSC counterpart:
Geoffrey Kemp, diary, April 19, 1983, courtesy of Geoffrey Kemp.

  
3
“ground truth”:
Bob Layton, interview, September 20, 2011.

  
4
“We Israelis said, ‘This is a Gemayel era’ ”: Hillel Katz
, interview, Tel Aviv, November
11, 2012.
Katz
rose to become a high-ranking Mossad officer and was deeply involved in brokering Israel’s relations with the Maronite warlords.

  
5
“Oh, you have to drop by the station”:
Sam Wyman, interview, March 28, 2011.

  
6
“We had our differences”: Lindsay Sherwin
, interviews, March 22 and September 15, 2011.

  
7
“We think we can smooth the whole thing over …”:
“Local Mother Mourns Hero Dead in Blast,” Philadelphia newspaper clipping, ca. April 1983.

  
8
“He told me he thought, ‘Things are falling apart’ ”:
Bruce Riedel, interview, March 30, 2011.

  
9
“Keep your head down”:
Thomas Braman, e-mail to author, August 25, 2011.

10
“He had this way about him”:
“Local Mother Mourns Hero.”

11
“He coached their basketball teams”:
Yvonne Ames, civil suit testimony, April 15, 2003, Washington, DC,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, Civil Action No. 01-2224, vol. 5.

12
“He was exhilarated to be back”:
Weiner,
Legacy of Ashes
, p. 391.

13
“delighted to see Bob”:
Susan M. Morgan, “Beirut Diary,” Studies in Intelligence, CIA, Summer 1983, classified secret, declassified April 2003, p. 1.

14
a dozen or more explosions:
Charles Allen Light Jr., civil suit testimony, April 10, 2003,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 9.

15
“over my dead body”:
Richard Halloran, “A Marine, Pistol Drawn, Stops 3 Israeli Tanks,”
New York Times
, February 3, 1983.

16
On his very first day in Beirut:
Charles Allen Light Jr., civil suit testimony, April 10, 2003,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 9.

17
a car bomb exploded and knocked him flat on his back:
Earl Vincent McMaugh, civil suit testimony, April 10, 2003,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 59.

18
someone fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the embassy:
Robert Dillon, civil suit testimony, April 7, 2003,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 112.

19
“There was a lot of socializing”:
Anne Dammarell, testimony, February 4, 2004,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, hearing, p. 34.

20
“first real love …”:
Arlette Johnston, e-mail to author, September 6, 2012, with attached diary notes.

21
“I spoke Arabic”:
Arlette Johnston, e-mail to author, September 10, 2012.

22
“She was a lovely woman”:
Clair George, interview, March 23, 2011.

23
“very vivacious young woman”: Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, hearing, February 4, 2004, p. 11.

24
“this guest
[
Ames
]
seems to have bad news …”:
Arlette Johnston, e-mail to author, September 6, 2012, with attached diary notes.

25
“for a visiting dignitary from Washington”:
Anne Alison Haas, testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, hearing, February 4, 2004, p. 35.

26
Arlette didn’t sleep very well:
Arlette Johnston, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, February 4, 2004, p. 12.

27
“Maybe you can come home …”:
Arlette Johnston, e-mail to author, September 6, 2012, with attached diary notes.

28
“I’ll give you three hundred Lebanese lira …”:
Ronnie Tumolo, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, February 6, 2004, p. 86.

29
“These are very thick papers …”:
Zein, “Deceit with Extreme Prejudice,” p. 318; Mustafa Zein, interview, Amman, October 4, 2012.

30
“contentious”:
Anne Alison Haas, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, February 4, 2004, p. 37.

31
“That was a big one”:
Ibid., p. 38.

32
It’s almost believable:
David Ignatius, “A Blast Still Reverberating: 25 Years Ago a New Kind of War Began in Beirut,”
Washington Post
, April 17, 2008.

33
A green Mercedes sedan was parked:
Karsten Tveit, interview, Beirut, October 20, 2012. Tveit, a Norwegian journalist, lived just three hundred yards from the embassy. He was sliding his key into his car door when he saw the explosion. Like a good reporter, he started running toward the embassy.

34
She died with him:
Karsten Tveit met with John le Carré two days after the embassy bombing. Le Carré autographed a copy of
The Little Drummer Girl
for him. See also Judy Huskey, “Tribute Paid to Venice Woman,”
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
, November 1, 1984.

35
It would be five hours:
Ambassador Robert Dillon, interviewed by Martin Smith and Peter Taylor in their BBC documentary
States of Terror
.

36
Anne Dammarell thought she was dead:
Anne Dammarell, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 7, 2003, p. 38.

37
Ambassador Dillon saw her:
Ambassador Robert Dillon, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 7, 2003, p. 115.

38
Staff Sgt. Charles Light had just left:
Charles Allen Light Jr., civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 10, 2003, p. 17.

39
A Lebanese army tank that had been parked on the corniche:
Cheryl Lee Sheil Pienkowski, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, February 10, 2004, p. 57.

40
“momentary feeling of vertigo …”:
Ignatius, “Blast Still Reverberating.”

41
“I was watching them bring out dead bodies”:
Cheryl Lee Sheil Pienkowski, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, February 10, 2004, p. 55.

42
“It was the only time I felt completely speechless”:
Nora Boustany, interview, Beirut, October 19, 2012.

43
“The day seemed night”:
Arlette Johnston, e-mail to author, September 6, 2012, with attached diary notes.

44
the grim story of
how
he’d been found:
Ted Gup,
The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives
(New York: Anchor Books, 2001), p. 280.

45
“They were not mangled”:
Ibid., p. 281.

46
“He looked like he’d just probably been leaving …”:
Karen Ames, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 15, 2003. Nevertheless, for years afterwards, a far more gruesome story became part of the Ames legend inside the CIA: it was said that Ames’s severed hand was found floating in the Mediterranean Sea, and that it was identified by the wedding band on his finger. Baer,
See No Evil
, p. 67. Pete Gallant, a thirty-four-year-old security expert, arrived in Beirut the next day from Athens. Gallant says that navy divers found the hand and that it probably belonged to another victim. He confirmed that Ames’s body was intact. Pete Gallant, interview, April 23, 2012.

47
“I retrieve Bob’s wedding ring …”:
Morgan, “Beirut Diary.”

48
“I really, really lost it that day”:
Mustafa Zein, e-mail to author, July 11, 2012.

49
“The smoke had cleared”:
Pete Gallant, interview, April 23, 2012.

50
“He was standing straight up, bent over”:
Brian Korn, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, January 26, 2004, p. 148.

51
It was Mustafa Zein:
Yvonne Ames, e-mail to author, January 23, 2013; Zein, “Deceit with Extreme Prejudice,” p. 320.

52
Kristen, eighteen, was upstairs watching television:
Kristen Ames, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 15, 2003.

53
“It’s the kind of scream you hear”:
Kevin Ames, “Remembering Bob Ames,”
CBS News
, April 17, 2003.

54
“ ‘Does anyone know what to do?’ ”:
Clair George, interview, March 23, 2011.

55
“I broke down”:
Sam Wyman, interview, July 27, 2010.

56
“And then I had to turn around and go home”: Lindsay Sherwin
, interview, March 22, 2011.

57
“The word spread that there had been an explosion”: Dov Zeit
, interview, Tel Aviv, October 10, 2012.

58
“Bob Ames among the dead in Beirut”:
Geoffrey Kemp, diary, April 19, 1983.

59
“It was a moving experience”:
Reagan,
Reagan Diaries
, p. 219.

60
“There was definitely a marked sadness …”:
Karen Ames, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 15, 2003.

61
“We lost
[
name deleted
]
our top research man …”:
Reagan,
Reagan Diaries
, p. 218.

62
Mustafa Zein had hastily flown in:
Yvonne Ames, e-mail to author, January 22, 2013.

63
“I was there in body …”:
Yvonne Ames, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 15, 2003.

64
“I guess the way we put it in our minds”:
Kristen Ames, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, April 15, 2003.

65
3,100 diplomats, government employees, and private citizens:
Ken Ringle, “Thousands Honor Beirut Dead at Memorial Services,”
Washington Post
, April 27, 1983.

66
“The
[
1979
]
Iranian revolution …”:
civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, John D. Bates, U.S. District Judge, Memorandum of Opinion, Findings and Conclusions, September 8, 2003, courtesy of Stu Newberger.

67
“We were very much identified with the Israelis”:
Ambassador Robert Dillon, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, quoted in John D. Bates, U.S. District Judge, Memorandum of Opinion, Findings and Conclusions, September 8, 2003, courtesy of Stu Newberger.

68
“I was not astonished”:
Robert B. Oakley, civil suit testimony,
Anne Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, March 31, 2003, p. 15.

69
“vicious … cowardly act”:
Naftali,
Blind Spot
, p. 130.

70
“Lord forgive me for the hatred I feel …”:
Reagan,
Reagan Diaries
, p. 146.

71
“the closest thing to an irreplaceable man”:
William Casey, “Remarks of the Director of Central Intelligence at the Memorial Ceremony held at Headquarters on 29 April 1983,” Studies in Intelligence, CIA, Summer 1983, classified secret, declassified April 2003, p. 11; Persico,
Casey
, p. 315.

72
“his men had come out here John Wayne–style …”:
Morgan, “Beirut Diary,” p. 6.