Questions About The Miernik Dossier (Paul Christopher, #1)
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Answered Questions (1)
This question contains spoilers...
(view spoiler)[I really enjoyed the MIernik Dossier. Does anyone have a theory about who is the Soviet agent "Richard"? I have re-read the book picking up small clues, and now I have an idea. I would like to hear others' ideas and bounce my hypothesis off of other readers. (hide spoiler)]
Roger
I believe Kalash was RICHARD. See below for character summary:
K – Kalash, M – Miernik, Q – Qasim of Sudanese Special Security
M was afraid to be recall…moreI believe Kalash was RICHARD. See below for character summary:
K – Kalash, M – Miernik, Q – Qasim of Sudanese Special Security
M was afraid to be recalled to Poland without a new assignment having already been given him, because he was an agent of the Soviets. (The Soviets were likely concerned that he had been doubled)
Initially M was relieved because he believed he was going to be infiltrated into ALF as his new assignment since he spoke Arabic; however, the Soviets were just using him to determine if their ALF operation was known to the CIA and/or infiltrated. (M did not know the real contact call-response signal for meeting with ALF so he was not RICHARD) Apparently M was expendable from the beginning.
Zofia and M may or may not have been brother-sister; but they were both Soviet agents. M acted like he thought he was her mentor. She was really overtly the money courier; but clandestinely she was sent to make inroads with Christopher for his possible recruitment or having him unknowingly get her into the U.S. as a deep cover agent. (because the Soviets arranged to make sure the border crossing went smoothly. Also, Zofia refused to follow Christopher’s altered border crossing intructions because she knew they might get caught accidently; whereas, if they followed her plan she knew the Soviets would make sure they got across.)
Cannot determine if Zofia and M were the assassins mentioned in the police report. (Maybe the Soviets ordered M to kill Tanner as a test of his loyalties.) M did trust Sasha. M said in a letter to Sasha that the money delivered by Zofia was payment for his past services. (By having M use Sasha to find Zofia and use her as courier, it gave the Soviets an easy way to get to Sasha and kill him in the east block.) Also Sasha knew the Russian-British double-agent that was assassinated in Vienna. (So maybe the Soviets thought that M, Sasha and Tanner were all double agents. But wouldn’t they have interrogated Sasha first to make sure before killing him?)
K, his father the Emir, and Qemal of the Special Sudanese police were all U.S. agents. The CIA configured and delivered the Cadillac. K knew how to use its secret audio collection system (because he was the only non-smoker resident when the unnamed person sent CIA a note telling them that using a cigarette lighter as activation device was not consistent with his being a non-smoker.) Q overtly mentioned to Christopher that he new the American in charge at Khartoum (also there were numerous reports of meetings with Q)
K coordinated the attack on the travellers in the desert with the attackers via his walkie-talkie. (he was the only one of the travellers ever seen with a radio) The attackers were provided by Q. (The only real purpose of the attack was to make M look guilty as a Soviet spy in the eyes of the CIA and therefore add more protection to K’s cover.)
K was RICHARD. Soviets knew that K was receiving a Cadillac that needed to be delivered to Sudan so they decided to use it as a means to get him covertly into ALF. M was just a cover-for-action ruse to confuse the western Intel services. The Soviets were using K as an agent (there was no indication the Soviets knew he was a double agent). The Americans did not know K was a double agent. Once the CIA and Emir decided to overtly use K as ALF leader, the M ruse was no longer needed. (K told everyone to go back home; but had a change of heart when Christopher pressed him.)
K had M killed because it protected his cover. He took only M and two security people with him to the dessert meeting with FIRECRACKER. He dropped M off at the ruins, proceeded to the meeting then had the two security people take the Land Rover back and kill M while he met with FIRECRACKER. The later interrogation report saying ALF killed M was fake. (This confirmed to the west that M had been RICHARD and removed any suspicion on K. There was no other reason for meeting with ALF leadership since K already new that the Sudanese were going to wrap up the entire operation with CIA’s approval.)
K never made an approach to ALF as RICHARD because it would’ve a) gotten him killed by ALF, and b) revealed he was a Russian agent to the CIA mole in ALF (FIRECRACKER). Also for this reason he did not respond to repeated attempts by Soviets to contact him via radio after the meeting with ALF leader. K knew that the Sudanese were going to attack ALF and destroy it so there was no point in his continuing his operation. He went back to Geneva.
Zofia did successfully hook up with Christopher. He took her back to Geneva, introduced her to the CIA for debriefing, and got her on track to immigrate to the U.S. After several months she realized that Christopher was no longer enamored with her so she immediately left; however, she kept going to the debriefings (so she could get her green card.)
In the end both the Americans and Soviets achieved an objective. The Americans stopped ALF. The Soviets successfully infiltrated an officer into America with the help of the CIA!
(less)
K – Kalash, M – Miernik, Q – Qasim of Sudanese Special Security
M was afraid to be recall…moreI believe Kalash was RICHARD. See below for character summary:
K – Kalash, M – Miernik, Q – Qasim of Sudanese Special Security
M was afraid to be recalled to Poland without a new assignment having already been given him, because he was an agent of the Soviets. (The Soviets were likely concerned that he had been doubled)
Initially M was relieved because he believed he was going to be infiltrated into ALF as his new assignment since he spoke Arabic; however, the Soviets were just using him to determine if their ALF operation was known to the CIA and/or infiltrated. (M did not know the real contact call-response signal for meeting with ALF so he was not RICHARD) Apparently M was expendable from the beginning.
Zofia and M may or may not have been brother-sister; but they were both Soviet agents. M acted like he thought he was her mentor. She was really overtly the money courier; but clandestinely she was sent to make inroads with Christopher for his possible recruitment or having him unknowingly get her into the U.S. as a deep cover agent. (because the Soviets arranged to make sure the border crossing went smoothly. Also, Zofia refused to follow Christopher’s altered border crossing intructions because she knew they might get caught accidently; whereas, if they followed her plan she knew the Soviets would make sure they got across.)
Cannot determine if Zofia and M were the assassins mentioned in the police report. (Maybe the Soviets ordered M to kill Tanner as a test of his loyalties.) M did trust Sasha. M said in a letter to Sasha that the money delivered by Zofia was payment for his past services. (By having M use Sasha to find Zofia and use her as courier, it gave the Soviets an easy way to get to Sasha and kill him in the east block.) Also Sasha knew the Russian-British double-agent that was assassinated in Vienna. (So maybe the Soviets thought that M, Sasha and Tanner were all double agents. But wouldn’t they have interrogated Sasha first to make sure before killing him?)
K, his father the Emir, and Qemal of the Special Sudanese police were all U.S. agents. The CIA configured and delivered the Cadillac. K knew how to use its secret audio collection system (because he was the only non-smoker resident when the unnamed person sent CIA a note telling them that using a cigarette lighter as activation device was not consistent with his being a non-smoker.) Q overtly mentioned to Christopher that he new the American in charge at Khartoum (also there were numerous reports of meetings with Q)
K coordinated the attack on the travellers in the desert with the attackers via his walkie-talkie. (he was the only one of the travellers ever seen with a radio) The attackers were provided by Q. (The only real purpose of the attack was to make M look guilty as a Soviet spy in the eyes of the CIA and therefore add more protection to K’s cover.)
K was RICHARD. Soviets knew that K was receiving a Cadillac that needed to be delivered to Sudan so they decided to use it as a means to get him covertly into ALF. M was just a cover-for-action ruse to confuse the western Intel services. The Soviets were using K as an agent (there was no indication the Soviets knew he was a double agent). The Americans did not know K was a double agent. Once the CIA and Emir decided to overtly use K as ALF leader, the M ruse was no longer needed. (K told everyone to go back home; but had a change of heart when Christopher pressed him.)
K had M killed because it protected his cover. He took only M and two security people with him to the dessert meeting with FIRECRACKER. He dropped M off at the ruins, proceeded to the meeting then had the two security people take the Land Rover back and kill M while he met with FIRECRACKER. The later interrogation report saying ALF killed M was fake. (This confirmed to the west that M had been RICHARD and removed any suspicion on K. There was no other reason for meeting with ALF leadership since K already new that the Sudanese were going to wrap up the entire operation with CIA’s approval.)
K never made an approach to ALF as RICHARD because it would’ve a) gotten him killed by ALF, and b) revealed he was a Russian agent to the CIA mole in ALF (FIRECRACKER). Also for this reason he did not respond to repeated attempts by Soviets to contact him via radio after the meeting with ALF leader. K knew that the Sudanese were going to attack ALF and destroy it so there was no point in his continuing his operation. He went back to Geneva.
Zofia did successfully hook up with Christopher. He took her back to Geneva, introduced her to the CIA for debriefing, and got her on track to immigrate to the U.S. After several months she realized that Christopher was no longer enamored with her so she immediately left; however, she kept going to the debriefings (so she could get her green card.)
In the end both the Americans and Soviets achieved an objective. The Americans stopped ALF. The Soviets successfully infiltrated an officer into America with the help of the CIA!
(less)
Unanswered Questions (1)
This question contains spoilers...
(view spoiler)[OK, from what I've read the gimmick here is that in the end you get two different takes on Miernik -- he's a Soviet spy or just a doofus -- and you get to decide which it is.
But if that's true, I understand the spy narrative. But I don't understand the counterspy narrative (see the Mad Magazine thing I did). What the hell is he doing in Sudan, writing in his diary about his mission, if he's not a spy? (hide spoiler)]
But if that's true, I understand the spy narrative. But I don't understand the counterspy narrative (see the Mad Magazine thing I did). What the hell is he doing in Sudan, writing in his diary about his mission, if he's not a spy? (hide spoiler)]
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