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EXTRACT 8 FROM MY MEMOIR
The Spy Who Fell to Earth: My Relationship With the Secret Agent Who Rocked The Middle East
CHAPTER 5: OUR RELATIONSHIP
IT IS COLD AND WET, and I am in the garden, wearing my boots and sweeping the fallen leaves. My wife is in the kitchen cooking, and through the steam, I can see her banging on the French windows with her fist while holding her right hand to her ear to signal that someone is on the line for me. I walk inside, lift the receiver, and say `Hello,’ to which the person at the other end of the line says, with a thick Arabic accent, `How are you?’ I frown, trying to recognize the voice. `I am fine,’ I finally say, `and who is this?’ `I am the person you’ve written about,’ he replies. I am taken aback. Is it really Ashraf Marwan on the line, or is it a prank?`And how can I be sure you are who you say you are?’ I reply. The voice says: `You’ve sent me the book with the dedication.’
This is the first time we speak to each other, and we both struggle to carry the conversation away from our too-often repeated `How are you’? He complains that he is ill (`just had three major operations’) before he turns to what sounds to me like a well-rehearsed little speech. `Listen,’ he launches, `I want to say three more things to you: first, I am not challenging you [regarding my claims that he was a double agent working for Egypt]. Second, you have your enemies, and I have mine - don’t listen to my enemies. Third, we should meet when I am better …. but don’t listen to my enemies’. He clearly suspects that his so-called `enemies,’ perhaps journalists, are trying to drive a wedge between us and squeeze from each of us statements that make up good newspaper stories. He also, quite clearly, wants the entire affair to calm down. A long silence! We have so much to say to each other, but it feels like we cannot put it all into words. So, wishing each other (one a Jew, the other a Muslim) Merry Christmas, we end the conversation and ring off.
We began a stuttering relationship, mainly short phone exchanges. When I put the phone down, I often felt as if he was just calling me to check that I was still there and that I would not do any more silly things that could hurt him. He was always polite, always asking about the family—my children and wife—speaking slowly and deliberately in broken English.
And the more he phoned and showed interest and asked personal questions, the more I became concerned for him. For as long as he had been a distant spy with no face - `the Son-in-Law’ - I did not care much about him as a human being, but now that I could hear his voice, him breathing heavily on the other end of the line, learned about his health problems, his operations, the pains, his sons (`don’t speak to them’), then the spy was no longer a spy, but he was real, an ordinary mortal - `Ashraf’ I called him, his first name. I spent sleepless nights, deeply concerned that something might happen to him, that perhaps the Egyptians might not buy my story about him being their national hero, their double agent who misled the Israelis and hurt him. Or that the Mossad might do something stupid. Or both: that the Mossad, in an attempt to show that rather than being a double agent, Marwan was a genuine spy, might release incriminating information about him and that the Egyptians, acting on this information, might exact their revenge on Marwan for betraying them. So, ironically, from trying to uncover this most important spy in Middle Eastern espionage history, I now shifted to trying to protect him, constantly - obsessively, as is often the case with me - keeping an eye on any relevant piece of information which might affect his safety and reporting it to him. My work, the writing, teaching, family - all was put aside.
We developed a sort of unofficial working relationship conducted through Marwan’s Cairo office, where his private secretary, Oweida - or perhaps Gaza was her name - was in charge of his private fax machine, which Marwan instructed me to continue using, as I had hitherto, to contact him. The process was quite simple: I would phone Marwan’s secretary from London and alert her that I was about to send a fax. A minute or so later, I would send my message, and she’d collect it at the other end and somehow deliver it to Marwan or, if he was abroad, forward it to him. The messages I sent him were mainly about items written about him in the Israeli press or elsewhere, which I thought might affect his safety. He always got back to me promptly, even if the information did not require any immediate response, often within a few moments of faxing. He was intuitive, and he recognized my growing guilt about unmasking him and my concern about his safety, and I often felt that he was taking advantage of it.
From my diary: part of a message I sent to Marwan:
22 January 2003
Dear Ashraf,
I was very sad to hear that you were unwell when we last talked, and I do very much hope you feel better now. After more than four years of work on this story, I feel that I know you quite well, and I sympathize with you very much and feel quite guilty that the publication of my book, and in particular the follow-up interview with Al Ahram, came at a most inconvenient time for you ….
Marwan had strange habits, those of a real spy. He would phone and keep quiet, just listening to my voice on the other end of the line; I sometimes heard him breathing on the other side. He would then put down the phone, ring me again, and start a conversation. He identified himself, but he rarely used his real name. He would say, `This is your friend,’ or `This is the person you’ve written about,’ or `This is about the book.’ He was always polite, but I also sensed a certain distance, impatience, toughness, and perhaps even anger behind his politeness. `The ruthless good manner of a spy,’ I often thought to myself.
Private & Confidential
12 February 2003
Dear Ashraf,
I hope my letter finds you in good health and that you feel much better now. Why am I writing again? To say that my literary agent is now in talks with publishers in America to secure me a contract to write a full-length book on the Son-in-Law … will you cooperate with me (confidentially) on this project? Will you tell me your side of the story? I can see two main reasons why you might want to do so. 1. Somewhere in the future, books on this story will be published. So why not do it now and with me …. and thus ensure that the Son-in-Law is portrayed in the best possible light and as a hero of Egypt? 2. In return for cooperating with me, I’ll allow you almost full control over the list of people I intend to interview and then let you see and comment on the final product before publication. I can’t, I’m afraid, guarantee you full control over the material … but I’ll try my best - and that’s a lot - to always take your views on board.
Let me be honest and make it crystal clear: my decision whether or not to go ahead with this book is not dependent on your cooperation or non-cooperation …. I do not want to upset you, Ashraf, and I’ll listen very attentively to your reservations - if any. But I do hope that you will agree to help with this project, which I strongly believe is in your interest, and with your help, we will secure the good reputation of the Nasser-Marwan family for many generations to come.
In the meantime, an American producer from CBS’s flagship show, 60 Minutes, kept nagging me about a TV program he was producing on Ashraf Marwan. I thought it was a unique opportunity to give a big push to the Marwan double-agent story, so I told Marwan to contact me.
From my diary (a summary of a telephone conversation with Marwan):
6 June 2003
Ashraf Marwan phoned today at 11.22. The conversation lasted some fifteen minutes. He talked from a cab (according to him), obviously in London. The following is based on notes taken during the conversation:
AM: `Dr Bregman?’
AB: `Yes, who’s calling?’
AM: `Ahron?’
AB: `Yes, speaking. And who are you?’
AM: `I received your fax [in which I had asked to talk to him to discuss 60 Minutes]
AB: `How are you?’
AM: `I am fine … some complications …’
AB: `Oh Dear. Have you been contacted by the American author?’
AM: `What American?’
AB: `Howard Blum … They do a television program to promote his book …. 60 Minutes … Have they approached you?’
AM: `No’
AB: `Will you participate if they do?’
AM: `No’
AB: `Why not?’
AM: `I want [this story] to die …’
AB: `It will not …’
[Marwan now switches the conversation to talk bout the Mossad, who, he believes, are orchestrating an entire campaign against him]
AM: `Why do they [Mossad] want to take this revenge?’
AB: `It’s not revenge …’
AB: `Will you appear on the show?’
AM: `No … I’ll have to contradict you’ [if he appears saying that he didn’t spy]
AB: `I am not asking for your permission … but what would be your view if I decided to appear on the show?’
AM: `Yes, it’s OK … you can do it … you go …’
AB: `I’m writing a book on the Son-in-Law … I need your help …’
AM: `I’ll sort out my health first, and then we’ll meet … but don’t talk to them … to the Egyptians’.
AB: `OK. best of luck’
AM: `To you too …’
TO BE CONTINUED ….