The Hidden Assassins

20

Casablanca-Wednesday, 7th June 2006, 08.03 hrs

The plane touched down just after 8 a.m. Spanish time, two hours ahead of Moroccan time. They were met by a Mercedes, which contained a member of the Spanish embassy from Rabat, who took their passports. They were driven to a quiet end of the terminal building and after a few minutes they were through to the other side. The Mercedes drove to where the rental cars were parked. The man from the Spanish embassy handed over a set of keys and Falcon transferred to a Peugeot 206.

'We can't have an embassy vehicle turning up at his residence,' said Pablo.

The diplomat handed over some dirhams for the tolls. Falcon left the airport and joined the motorway from Casablanca to Rabat. The sun was well up and the heat haze was draining the colour from the dull, flat landscape. Falcon sat back with the window open and the moist sea air baffling over the glass. He overtook vastly overloaded trucks farting out black smoke, with boys sitting on top of sheet-wrapped bales, their legs hooked around the securing ropes. In the fields a man in a burnous sat on a bony white donkey, which he tapped and poked with a stick. Occasionally a BMW flashed past, leaving a flicker of Arabic lettering on the retina. The smell was of the sea, woodsmoke, manured earth and pollution.

The outskirts of Rabat loomed. He took the ring road and came into the city from the east. He remembered the turning after the Societe Marocaine de Banques. The tarmac gave out immediately and he eased up the troughed and pitted track to the main gate of Yacoub Diouri's walled property. The gate-man recognized him. He swung up the driveway, lined with Washingtonian palms, and stopped outside the front door. Two servants came out in blue livery with red piping, each wearing a fez. The hire car was driven away. Falcon was taken inside to the living room, which overlooked the pool where Yacoub swam his morning lengths. He sat down on one of the cream leather sofas, in front of a low wooden table inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The servant left. Birds fluttered in the garden. A boy dragged a hose out and began spraying the hibiscus.

Yacoub Diouri arrived, wearing a blue jellabah and white barbouches. A servant set down a brass tray with a pot of mint tea and two small glasses on the table and left. Yacoub's hair, which he'd allowed to grow long, was wet and he now had a close-cropped beard. They embraced with an enthusiastic Arabic greeting and held on to each other by the shoulders looking into each other's eyes and smiling; Falcon saw warmth and wariness in Yacoub's. He had no idea what was readable in his own.

'Would you prefer coffee, Javier?' asked Yacoub, releasing him.

'Tea is fine,' said Falcon, sitting on the other side of the table.

Falcon's question was humped up in his mind. He felt an unaccustomed nervousness between them. He knew for certain now that Spanish directness was not going to work; a more spiralling, philosophical dynamic was called for.

'The world has gone crazy once again,' said Diouri wearily, pouring the mint tea from a great height.

'Not that it was ever sane,' said Falcon. 'We've got no patience for the dullness of sanity.'

'But, strangely, there's an unending appetite for the dullness of decadence,' said Diouri, handing him a glass of tea.

'Only because clever people in the fashion industry have persuaded us that the next handbag decision is crucial,' said Falcon.

'Touche,' said Diouri, smiling and taking a seat on the sofa opposite. 'You're sharp this morning, Javier.'

'There's nothing like a bit of fear for honing the mind,' said Falcon, smiling.

'You don't look frightened,' said Diouri.

'But I am. Being in Seville is different to watching it on television.'

'At least fear provokes creativity,' said Diouri, veering away from Falcon's intended line, 'whereas terror either crushes it or makes us run around like headless chickens. Do you think the fear people experienced under the regime of Saddam Hussein made them creative?'

'What about the fear that comes with freedom? All those choices and responsibilities?'

'Or the fear from lack of security,' said Diouri, sipping his tea, enjoying himself now that he knew Falcon was not going to be too European. 'Did we ever have that conversation about Iraq?'

'We've talked a lot about Iraq,' said Falcon. 'Moroccans love to talk to me about Iraq, while everybody north of Tangier hates to talk about it.'

'But we, you and I, have never had the original conversation about Iraq,' said Diouri. 'That question: Why did the Americans invade?'

Falcon sat back on the sofa with his tea. This was how it always was with Yacoub when he was in Morocco. It was how it was with Falcon's Moroccan family in Tangier; with all Moroccans, in fact. Tea and endless discussion. Falcon never talked like this in Europe. Any attempt would be greeted with derision. But this time it was going to provide the way in. They had to circle each other before the proposal could finally be made.

'Almost every Moroccan I've ever spoken to thinks that it was about oil.'

'You learn quickly,' said Diouri, acknowledging that Falcon had acquiesced to the Moroccan way. 'There must be more Moroccan in you than you think.'

'My Moroccan side is slowly filling up,' said Falcon, sipping the tea.

Diouri laughed, motioned to Javier for his glass, and poured two more measures of high-altitude tea.

'If the Americans wanted to get their hands on Iraqi oil, why spend $180 billion on an invasion when they could raise sanctions at the stroke of a pen?' said Diouri. 'No. That's the facile thinking of what the British like to call "the Arab street". The tea-house huffers and puffers think that people only do things for immediate gain, they forget the urgency of it all. The invention of the Weapons of Mass Destruction pretext. Haranguing the UN for more resolutions. Rushing the troops to the borders. The hastiness of the planned invasion, which made no provision for the aftermath. What was all that about? Where was Iraqi oil going to go? Down the plug hole?'

'Wasn't it more about the control of oil in general?' said Falcon. 'We know a bit more about the emerging economies of China and India now.'

'But the Chinese weren't making a move,' said Diouri. 'Their economy won't be larger than America's until 2050. No, that doesn't make sense either, but at least you didn't say that word that I have to listen to now when I go to dinners in Rabat and Casablanca and find myself sitting next to American diplomats and businessmen. They tell me that they went into Iraq to give them democracy.'

'Well, they did have elections. There is an Iraqi assembly and a constitution, as a result of ordinary Iraqi people taking considerable risks to vote.'

'The terrorists made a political mistake there,' said Diouri. 'They forgot to offer the people a choice that didn't include violence. Instead they said: "Vote and we will kill you." But they had already been killing them anyway, when they were walking down the street to get some bread with their children.'

'That's why you have to swallow the word democracy at your dinners,' said Falcon. 'It was a victory for the "Occupation".'

'When I hear them use that word, I ask them-very quietly, I should add-"When are you going to invade Morocco and get rid of our despotic king, and his corrupt government, and install democracy, freedom and equality in Morocco?"'

'I bet you didn't.'

'You see. You're right. I didn't. Why not?'

'Because of the state security system of informers left over from the King Hassan II days?' said Falcon. 'What did you say to them?'

'I did what most Arabs do, and said those things behind their backs.'

'Nobody likes to be called a hypocrite, especially the leaders of the modern world.'

'What I said to their faces were the words of Palmerston, a nineteenth-century British prime minister,' said Diouri. 'In talking about the British Empire he said: "We have no eternal allies and no perpetual enemies. What we have are eternal and perpetual interests."'

'How did the Americans react to that?'

'They thought it was Henry Kissinger who'd said it,' said Diouri.

'Didn't Julius Caesar say it before all of them?'

'We Arabs are often derided as impossible to deal with, probably because we have a powerful concept of honour. We cannot compromise when honour is at stake,' said Diouri. 'Westerners only have interests, and it's a lot easier to trade in those.'

'Maybe you need to develop some interests of your own.'

'Of course, some Arab countries have the most vital interest in the global economy-oil and gas,' said Diouri. 'Miraculously this does not translate into power for the Arab world. It's not only outsiders who find us impossible to deal with-we can't seem to deal with each other.'

'Which means you're always operating from a position of weakness.'

'Correct, Javier,' said Diouri. 'We behave no differently to anyone else in the world. We hold conflicting ideas in our heads, agreeing with all of them. We say one thing, think another and do something else. And in playing these games, which everybody else plays, we always forget the main point: to protect our interests. So a world power can condescend to us about "democracy" when their own foreign policy has been responsible for the murder of the democratically elected Patrice Lumumba and the installation of the dictator Mobutu in Zaire, and the assassination of the democratically elected Salvador Allende to make way for the brutality of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, because they have no honour and only interests. They always operate from a position of strength. Now, do you see where we are?'

'Not exactly.'

'That is another one of our problems. We are very emotional people. Look at the reaction to those cartoons which appeared in the Danish newspaper earlier this year. We get upset and angry and it takes us down interesting paths, but further and further away from the point,' said Diouri. 'But I must behave and get back to why the Americans invaded Iraq.'

'The half of my Moroccan family that doesn't think it was about oil,' said Falcon, 'thinks that it was done to protect the Israelis.'

'Ah, yes, another notion that seethes in the minds of the tea drinkers,' said Diouri. 'The Jews are running everything. Most of my work force thinks that 9/11 was a Mossad operation to turn world opinion against the Arabs, and that George Bush knew about it all along and let it happen. Even some of my senior executives believe that the Israelis demanded the invasion of Iraq, that Mossad supplied the false intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, and that Ariel Sharon was the commander-in-chief of the US forces on the ground. Where the Jews are concerned, we are the world's greatest conspiracy theorists.

'The problem is that it is their rage at the Israeli occupation of Palestine that blinds them to everything else. That fundamental injustice, that slap in the face for the Arab's sense of honour, brings up such powerful emotions in the Arab breast that they cannot think, they cannot see. They focus on the Jews and forget about their own corrupt leadership, their lack of lobbying power in Washington, the pusillanimity of almost all dictatorial, authoritarian Arab regimes…Ach! I'm boring myself now.

'You see, Javier, we are incapable of change. The Arab mind is like his house and the medina where he lives. Everything looks inward. There are no views or vistas…no visions of the future. We sit in these places and look for solutions in tradition, history and religion, while the world beyond our walls and shores grinds relentlessly forward, crushing our beliefs with their interests. People will look back on the twentieth century and gasp. How was it, they will say, that a race that held the world's most powerful resource, oil, the resource that made the whole system run, allowed most of its people to live in abject poverty, while its political, cultural and economic influence was negligible?

'You know the last people in the world who should be sent to talk to the Arabs are the Americans. We are polar opposites. In becoming an American, part of the pact is to walk away from your past, your history, and totally embrace the future, progress, and the American Way. Whereas, to an Arab, what happened in the seventh century or 1917 is still as vivid today as it was when it first occurred. They want us to embrace a new future, but we cannot forsake our history.'

'Why is it that, when you talk about the Arabs, sometimes you say "we" and sometimes "they"?'

'As you know, I have one foot in Europe and the other in North Africa, and my mind runs down the middle,' said Diouri. 'I perceive the injustice of the Palestinian situation, but I can't emotionally engage with their solutions: the intifada and suicide bombings. It's just a terrifying extension of throwing stones at tanks-an expression of weakness. An inability to draw together the necessary forces to bring about change.'

'Since Arafat has gone, things have been able to move forward.'

'Stagger forward…lurch from side to side,' said Yacoub. 'Sharon's stroke signified the end of the old guard. The vote for Hamas was a vote against the corruption of Fatah. We'll see if the rest of the world wants them to succeed.'

'But despite all these misgivings, you still have no desire to live in Spain.'

'That's my peculiar problem. I've been brought up in a religious household and I've benefited from the daily discipline of religious observance. I love Ramadan. I always make sure I am here for Ramadan because for one month of the year the workings of the world drift into the background and the spiritual and religious life becomes more important. We are all joined together by it in communal fasting and feasting. It gives spiritual strength to the individual and the community. In Christian Europe you have Lent, but it has become something personal, almost selfish. You think: I'll give up chocolate or I won't drink beer for a month. It doesn't bind society like Ramadan does.'

'Is that the only reason you don't live in Spain?'

'You are one of the few Europeans I can talk to about these things, without having you laugh in my face,' said Diouri. 'But that is what I have learnt from my two fathers, the one who forsook me, and the one who taught me the right way to be. That is the difficulty for me in both Europe and America. You know, there's been a big change here recently. It was always the dream to get to America. Young Moroccans thought their culture was cool, their society much freer than racist-bound Old Europe, the attitude of Immigration and the universities more open. Now the kids have changed their minds. They were attracted to Europe, but now, after the riots in France last year and the disrespect shown in Denmark, their dreams are of coming home. For myself, when I'm alone in hotel rooms in the West and I try to relax by watching television, I gradually feel my whole being dissipating and I have to get down and pray.'

'And what's that about?'

'It's about the decadence of a society consumed by materialism,' said Diouri.

'To which you yourself make a considerable contribution, and from which you derive great benefit,' said Falcon.

'All I can say is, if I lived anywhere other than Morocco, I would be drained of will within a few weeks.'

'But then you rage against the lack of progress and the inability to change in the Arab world.'

'I rage against poverty, the lack of work for a young and growing population, the humiliation of a people by-'

'But if you give a young guy work, he'll make money and go out and buy a mobile phone, an iPod and a car,' said Falcon.

'He will, once he has made sure that his family is taken care of,' said Diouri. 'And that is fine, as long as the materialism doesn't become his new God. A lot of Americans are profoundly religious whilst being driven by materialism. They believe it goes hand in hand. They are wealthy because they are the chosen people.'

'Well, that's confused everything,' said Falcon.

'Only the extremist polarizes through simplification,' said Diouri, laughing. 'Extremists understand one thing about human nature: nobody wants to know about the complexity of the situation. The invasion of Iraq was about oil. No, it wasn't. It was all about democracy. The two extremes are a long way from the truth, but there's enough in both statements to make people believe. It is all about oil, but not Iraqi oil. And it is about democracy, but not the strange beast that will have to be cloned in order to hold Iraq together.'

'I think we've come full circle,' said Falcon. 'We must be close by now.'

'Oil, democracy and the Jews. There's truth in all of them. It was part of the brilliance of the plan,' said Diouri, 'to create such a colossal diversionary arena that the world would look nowhere else.'

'The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they always award phenomenal intelligence and foresight to people who've rarely exhibited those qualities,' said Falcon.

'This action didn't require huge intelligence or foresight, because it simplified all complexities down to a single perpetual interest. There's also a terrifying logic to it, which conspiracy theories always lack,' said Diouri. 'I told you that it was all about oil, democracy and protection, but none of it was to do with Iraq.

'For the Americans to maintain their world domination they need oil in a continuous supply at a competitive price. Democracy is a very fine thing, as long as the right person wins, and that means the person who will look after American interests most ably. Democracy in the Arab world is dangerous, because politics is always bound up with religion. It is only promoted in Iraq because the installation of another, more pliable, despot than Saddam Hussein would not be acceptable to the outside world.'

'At least it introduces the concept of democracy.'

'There have been attempts at democracy in the Arab world before now. It breaks down when it becomes clear that the winners in the elections would be the Islamic candidates. Democracy puts power in the hands of the most numerous, and for them Islam will always come first. That doesn't offer much security to American interests, which is why the democratically elected Iraqi assembly and their constitution have had to be…wrestled into position.'

'Do you think that's the case?'

'It doesn't matter whether it is or not. It's the common perception in the Arab world.'

'So who are the Americans seeking to protect with all this activity in the region, if it isn't the Israelis?'

'The Israelis can take care of themselves as long as they have American support-which they are guaranteed, because they're so powerfully represented in Washington. No, the Americans have to protect the weak and the flabby, the decadent and the corrupt, who are the guardians of their greatest and most sacred interest: oil. I believe-and I'm not a mad, lone conspiracy theorist-that they invaded Iraq to offer protection to the Saudi royal family.'

'It's not as if Saddam Hussein had shown himself to be the most accommodating neighbour.'

'Exactly. So a perfect pretext was invented on the basis of past performance,' said Diouri. 'Anybody could see that after the first Gulf War in 1991 Saddam was a spent force, which was why Bush senior left him there, rather than create the unknown quantity of a power vacuum. Fortunately, Saddam still strutted about on his little stage with all the arrogance of a great Arab icon. He was cruel and genocidal: gassing the Kurds and massacring Shias. It was easy to create the image of an evil genius who was destabilizing the Middle East. I mean, they even managed to frame him for 9/11.'

'But he was cruel, violent and despotic,' said Falcon.

'So when are the coalition forces going to turn their attention to, say, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe?' said Diouri. 'But that's how the Americans play the game. They confuse the picture with elements of truth.'

'If Saddam was a spent force, why did the Saudis believe they needed protecting?'

'They were scared of the militancy that they themselves had created,' said Diouri. 'To maintain credibility as the guardians of the sacred sites of Islam, they bankrolled the medressas, the religious schools, which in turn became hotbeds of extremism. Like all decadent regimes, they are paranoid. They sensed the antipathy of the Arab world and its extremist factions. They couldn't invite the Americans in as they had done in 1991, but they could ask them to install themselves next door. The double reward for the Americans was that they not only secured their perpetual interest, the oil, but also drew the forces of terror away from the homeland by offering a target in the heart of Islam. Bush has repaid his corporate debts to the oil companies, the American population feels safer, and it can all be dressed up as the forces of Good crushing those of Evil.'

'Silence, while Diouri lit his first cigarette of the morning and sipped some more tea. Falcon sucked on the sweet, viscous liquid in his own glass, his question crammed tight in his chest.

'Tea, cigarettes, food…they're all negotiating tools,' said Diouri, mysteriously.

Falcon studied Yacoub over the rim of his tea glass. Spies were necessarily complicated people, even those with a clear motive. The worrying and yet crucial aspect of their personality was their need, and therefore ability, to deceive. But why spy? Why did he himself provide information for Mark Flowers? It was because he had begun to find the illusion of life tiresome. The supposed reality of tussling politicians, beaming businessmen and fatuous pundits was exhausting to watch on TV when its veneer had been worn so thin. He spied, not because he wanted to exchange one facile illusion for a slightly more knowing one, but because he needed to remind himself that acceptance was passive, and he'd already discovered the dangers of denial and inaction in his own mind. But what he was asking his friend Yacoub to do was real spying, not just giving Mark Flowers some detail to fill in his little pictures. He was asking Yacoub to pass on information that could result in the capture, and perhaps death, of people that he might know.

'You're thinking, Javier,' said Diouri. 'Normally, at this stage, Europeans are writhing in their seats with ennui at having to talk about Iraq, the Palestinian question and all the rest of the insoluble horror. They have no appetite for polemic any more. In my world of fashion, all they want to talk about is Coldplay's new album or costume design in the latest Baz Luhrman movie. Even business people would rather talk about football, golf and tennis than world politics. It seems that we Arabs have created an interest that nobody wants. We've cornered the market in the most boring conversations in the world.'

'It's riveting to the Arabs because you haven't got what you want. The comfortable never want to talk about stuff that will make them feel uncomfortable.'

'I'm comfortable,' said Diouri.

'Are you?' said Falcon. 'You're wealthy, but do you have what you want? Do you know what you want?'

'I associate comfort with boredom,' said Diouri. 'It might be to do with my past, but I cannot bear contentment. I want change. I want a state of perpetual revolution. It's the only way I can be sure that I'm still alive.'

'Most Moroccans I've spoken to would like to be comfortable with a job, a house, a family and a stable society to live in.'

'If they want all that, they'll have to be prepared for change.'

'None of them wanted terrorism,' said Falcon, 'and none of them wanted a Taliban-type regime.'

'How many did you get to condemn acts of terrorism?'

'None of them approved…'

'I mean outright condemnation,' said Diouri firmly.

'Only the ones who had persuaded themselves that the terrorist acts had been committed by the Israelis.'

'You see, it's a complicated state, the Arab mind,' said Diouri, tapping his temple.

'At least they didn't find terrorism honourable.'

'You know when terrorism is honourable?' said Diouri, pointing at Falcon with the chalk stick of his French cigarette. 'Terrorism was considered honourable when the Jews fought the British for the right to establish their Zionist state. It was considered dishonourable when the Palestinians employed extreme tactics against the Jews in order to reclaim the land and property that had been stolen from them. Terrorists are acceptable once they've become strong enough to be perceived as freedom fighters. When they are weak and disenfranchised, they are just common bloody murderers.'

'But that's not what we're talking about here,' said Falcon, fighting back his frustration at how the conversation had spiralled off again.

'It will always be part of it,' said Diouri. 'That hard pip of injustice scores at the insides of every Arab. They know that what these mad fanatics are doing is wrong, but humiliation has a strange effect on the human mind. Humiliation breeds extremism. Look at Germany before the Second World War. The power of humiliation is that it is deeply personal. We all remember it from the first time it happened to us as a child. What extremists like bin Laden and Zarqawi realize is that humiliation becomes truly dangerous when it is collective, has risen to the surface and there's a clear purpose in venting it. That is what the terrorists want. That is the ultimate aim of all their attacks. They are saying: "Look, if we all do this together, we can be powerful."'

'And then what?' said Falcon. 'You'll be taken back to the glory days of the Middle Ages.'

'Forward to the past,' said Diouri, crushing out his cigarette in the silver shell of the ashtray. 'I'm not sure that's a price worth paying to have our humiliation assuaged.'

'Have you heard of an organization called VOMIT?' asked Falcon.

'That's the anti-Muslim website that people here get so enraged about,' said Diouri. 'I haven't seen it myself.'

'Apparently the site enumerates the victims of Muslim attacks on civilians, not just in the Western world but also Muslim-on-Muslim attacks such as the suicide bombings of Iraqi police recruits, women murdered in "honour" killings, and the gang-raping of women to inflict shame…'

'What's your angle, Javier?' asked Diouri, through narrowed eyes. 'Are you saying this organization has a point?'

'As far as I know, they are making no point other than keeping count.'

'What about the name of the website?'

'Well, "vomit" expresses disgust…'

'You know, Muslim life is regarded rather cheaply in the West. Think how valuable each of the 3,000 lives was in the Twin Towers, how much was invested in the 191 commuters in Madrid or the 50-odd people who died in the London bombings. And then look at the value of the 100,000 Iraqi civilians who lost their lives in the pre-invasion assault. Nothing. I'm not sure they even registered,' said Diouri. 'Was there a website that enumerated the victims of Serb slaughter in Bosnia? What about Hindu attacks on Muslims in India?'

'I don't know.'

'That's why VOMIT is anti-Muslim. It has singled out the acts of a fanatic few and made it the responsibility of an entire religion,' said Diouri. 'If you told me they were responsible for blowing up the mosque in Seville yesterday, it wouldn't surprise me.'

'They've established a presence,' said Falcon. 'Our intelligence agency, the CNI, are aware of them.'

'Who else are the CNI aware of?' said Diouri, uneasy.

'It's a very complicated situation,' said Falcon. 'And we're looking for intelligent, knowledgeable and wellconnected people who are willing to help us.'

Falcon sipped his tea, grateful for the prop. He'd finally got it out into the open. He almost couldn't believe he'd said it. Nor could Yacoub Diouri, who was sitting on the other side of the ornately decorated table, blinking.

'Have I understood you correctly, Javier,' said Diouri, his face suddenly solid as a plastic mask and his voice stripped of any warmth. 'You have presumed to come into my house to ask me to spy for your government?'

'You knew from the moment I called you last night that I wasn't coming here on a purely social visit,' said Falcon, holding firm.

'Spies are the most despised of all combatants,' said Diouri. 'Not the dogs of war, but the rats.'

'I would never have thought of asking you if for one moment I took you to be a man who was satisfied with what we are being asked to believe in this world,' said Falcon. 'That was the point of your discourse on Iraq, wasn't it? Not just to show me the Arab point of view, but also your appreciation of a greater truth.'

'But what has led you to believe that you could ask me such a question?'

'I ask it because, like me, you are pro-Muslim and pro-Arab and anti-terrorism. You also want there to be change and to make progress rather than a great regression. You are a man of integrity and honour…'

'I wouldn't normally associate those virtues with the amorality of spying,' said Diouri.

'Except that, knowing you, your purpose would not be financial reward or vanity, but rather a belief in bringing about change without pointless violence.'

'You and I are very similar people,' said Diouri, 'except that our roles have been reversed. We have both been wronged by monstrous fathers. You have suddenly discovered that you are half Moroccan, while I should have been brought up Spanish, but have become Moroccan. Perhaps we are the embodiment of two entwined cultures.'

'With messy histories,' said Falcon, nodding.