Noble Cause

By Jack Kassinger

Mike Shocklee is an operations officer sent to Somalia as part of a CIA element providing intelligence support. His mission is to locate and reactive former CIA assets who can provide intelligence on rival clan elements that are actively opposing their efforts. He manages to locate and reactive the cell, but an unfortunate turn of events cause him to initiate a risky gambit.

Without proper authority, he moves his team from the CIA’s base of operations to a safe house, a move he deems necessary to take control of his dysfunctional intelligence cell. Their cover is eventually blown and Shocklee was wounded during a hasty getaway. After a period of convalescence, he returns to work at CIA headquarters with a permanent limp and a chip on his shoulder. He is given command of an Anti-Terrorism Center.

With no reward for his performance, he strikes out at the Agency and his immediate superior by developing a clandestine plan to recruit a group of men to hijack an oil tanker and hold it and the crew for a large ransom.

Shocklee uses his access to the CIA’s infrastructure to refine the details of his hijacking operation. When things go terribly wrong, he turns to an ally to take care of the problem, and he does. The man responsible for building the CIA base camp is called in to investigate and learns that Shocklee has been on an unsanctioned CIA operation. He begins to put pieces of the puzzle together and that’s when the real problems begin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brighton Publishing LLC
• Release date: Oct 8, 2011

Jack Kassinger

In terms of spy genre, Jack Kassinger, as an author, is one of the best there is. His novels include: Noble Cause: A CIA Spy Thriller, Storms Over Zimbabwe, and The Hunt for Njonjo and each provides the reader suspense and drama based on real life experiences. PURSUED is his fourth novel to be published, and is a continuation of his masterful writing.As a former United States Marine and CIA veteran, Jack Kassinger spent his formative years growing up in the small rural town of Livermore, Kentucky. After high school, he joined the Marine Corps and served in Viet Nam. He was wounded in action on Memorial Day 1969. Following his tour with the Marines he joined the Central Intelligence Agency and served overseas in various locations. He retired from the CIA in 1995 as a Senior Intelligence Officer.During his service with the CIA, he received numerous awards for valor and heroism. His awards include the Intelligence Medal of Merit, twice awarded, the Intelligence Star for Valor, and certificates of appreciation from the Joint Special Operations Command.He currently resides in Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas with his wife Cherie. They have two married children.

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Part I

Chapter One

CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia

November 1992

It was midmorning Friday, and Goodman was just returning from the weekly staff meeting with the Deputy Director for Operations (DDO), Ted Peterson. It was a long walk from Peterson’s office on the sixth floor of the original headquarters building to the suite of Africa Division (AF) offices located in the new section of the headquarters (HQS) complex. Normally, Goodman would have stopped in the courtyard located between the two buildings for a quick pull on a stogie, but this morning he had been given a mandate by Peterson, and he needed to huddle his deputies for a quick briefing while the details were still fresh in his mind.

Goodman snarled at Lila, his secretary, as he walked into the AF Division front office, Get me some coffee and get the BOSC team together for a meeting. We’ll meet in the conference room in fifteen minutes, we’ve got to get a new program initiated and we are late getting into the game.

Okay, she said, but the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa at the Department of State is holding for you on line one. He’s been calling every thirty minutes since eight-thirty this morning.

Come on, he said, I just got back from the DDO staff meeting; does he think I’m going to have an answer for Eagleburger overnight? I’ll take the call, but get the team together anyway.

***

The BOSC team, as it was known, was composed of Brandon, O’Hearn, Sandowski, and Casey.

Gerald Gerry Brandon was the latest addition to Goodman’s front office staff. He was short in stature, sported a black mustache, and weighed about 165 pounds. He, too, was a seasoned ops officer with several overseas tours under his belt. He was born in Shawneetown, Illinois. He served in the 101st Airborne after graduating from high school. He left the military and went back to school obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Illinois. He was recruited by the CIA in 1969. Brandon served in Beirut, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Mogadishu as the Chief of Station before being selected by Goodman as his Chief of Operations (COPS). It was Brandon’s work ethic and his handling of the embassy evacuation in Mogadishu in January 1991 that most impressed Goodman.

Brandon had accurately assessed the pending downfall of the Siyad Barre government in Somalia and had warned policymakers in Washington with his spot-on reporting. His AARDVARK report (senior field chief assessment) sent in mid-December 1990 described the type of chaos that would engulf the city of Mogadishu with the fall of the central government. Still, the ambassador was reluctant to issue a drawdown of embassy personnel. Thus, when it became necessary to close the embassy as a result of the violent street fighting which erupted a mere two weeks later, it was deemed too much of a security risk to try and evacuate the embassy using an overland convoy. As the situation worsened, Brandon talked repeatedly with the Ops Center at CIA and with the folks at the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) about a plan the National Security Council (NSC) would later approve to effect an air evacuation of embassy personnel. It was a dangerous evacuation but it worked. The military was able to safely evacuate the embassy much to the credit of Brandon’s ground preparation in Mogadishu and his cool demeanor under an extremely hostile situation. Goodman knew then that Brandon was the officer he wanted to manage the day-to-day operations of the division. He would make a good COPS, an officer capable of dressing down and providing clear direction to a COS when there was an obvious lack of leadership in the field.

John O’Hearn was the Executive Officer (XO). He was a tall sapling man whose Irish heritage was recognized as soon as he opened his mouth to speak. He was given the job by the previous Division Chief, and Goodman was inclined to leave him there. O’Hearn had topped out, grade-wise; he would never be promoted into the senior ranks of the Directorate. In 1985, a Cuban DGI recruitment operation directed against his secretary while they were posted in Freetown, Sierra Leone, ruined his career as a field operations officer. Although eventually detected and reported to HQS by O’Hearn, he was never allowed to serve overseas again. He returned to HQS and, over the years, served as the branch chief in virtually every component of the division. His effort to provide outstanding support to field operations earned him the respect of many division officers and Goodman was the recipient of that support on more than one occasion. In fact, it was Goodman’s lobbying that eventually earned O’Hearn a promotion and assignment as XO for the division. In Goodman’s eyes, O’Hearn knew the division and its cadre of ops personnel better that any of the existing branch chiefs.

Scott Sandowski was currently the Deputy Chief of Africa Division (DC/AF). A Ukrainian by heritage, his parents immigrated to the United States when he was a just small boy. He attended Ohio State University, majored in political science, and graduated with honors. He was fluent in Ukrainian and English, and thus a highly desirable recruit by the CIA. He attended the Directorate of Operations (DO) clandestine tradecraft course specializing in Soviet Bloc operations. After graduation he spent a year working a desk job in SEEB, the Soviet East European Bloc Division, and was subsequently posted overseas. He completed two back-to-back two-year tours before being rotated back to HQS as an Africa Division desk officer. His subsequent assignment to Bangui, Central African Republic, where he served as Goodman’s deputy, was a key assignment in terms of his development as a DO operations officer.

Jack Casey stood five foot ten and weighted about 185 pounds. He was in excellent physical condition. He worked out regularly and was an avid golfer. He was the Admin Executive, more commonly known as the Chief of Support, for the division. Casey was a former marine who had been recruited into the Agency as a civilian foot soldier for the DO. He was believed to be of little value to the Directorate once CIA paramilitary (PM) operations in Laos were phased out. Just prior to his release from the Agency, he was picked up by the Directorate of Support (DS), where he served in several low-level positions. After completing the ops support officer curriculum at the Farm, CIA’s clandestine training facility, he was promoted and given an overseas assignment to Europe. The support officer cadre was made up of officers specifically trained to provide administrative support to DO Stations overseas. Duties typically entailed financial and logistical work. The more exciting aspect of the job entailed recruiting Support Assets to provide ops vehicles and safehouses for the real spy guys. Support officers only seldom worked an operation with an ops officer, but in Casey’s case, he was very adept at providing countersurveillance.

Casey rose through the ranks of the support cadre and was promoted with each new assignment. He was fortunate to have served with Goodman in East Africa as a midlevel support officer providing regional support to Africa Division operations. His ability to get the job done, no matter the degree of difficulty, impressed Goodman who often wondered why someone of Casey’s operational smarts had not been recruited into the DO. Administrative support is a vital part of field operations, but it seemed to Goodman that Casey’s talent was not being fully utilized—which is why Goodman used him, in many instances, for operational requirements not well suited for one of his ops officers. In the summer of 1990 when presented the chance, Goodman orchestrated the assignment of Casey as the Africa Division Chief of Support—a highly sought after position by some of the more senior cadre officers.

***

Casey was late arriving, having just returned from a meeting with the Executive Director (ExDir) for African Affairs, his counterpart at the Department of State. He had learned during the meeting that the U.S. military was about to be thrown into the middle of the U.N. relief effort in Somalia. From what he could tell, it was destined to become a major military operation.

Goodman waved Casey in and continued with his discussion on the situation in Somalia. We don’t have the money, but Peterson said that he can tap into the DCI’s reserve. He wants a program in place no later than next week, even if it’s just in name only.

Brandon chimed in, Excuse me, boss, but we haven’t had a viable collection program in Somalia since the embassy was closed and evacuated. We don’t even have enough people in the field to maintain an effective liaison program with the Kenyans to support the airlift being run out of Mombasa.

Casey laughed to himself as Goodman shot back, That may be the case, but the jackass you picked for our COS in Nairobi should’ve done a better job getting the ambassador to agree to my request to place more officers in Kenya. It’s not like this thing hasn’t been bubbling up for the past six months.

Now don’t go blaming the operational shortfalls in Kenya on the COPS, retorted Sandowski. You know as well as we do that we were forced to put someone out there with little or no operational experience, part of the change management dictate handed down by the new Agency Executive Director.

I’m all for broadening the experience of senior CIA officers, Goodman said, "especially those who can carry their own weight. The guy may be a good analyst from the Directorate of Intelligence, but this is his first operational rodeo, and he should have been more forthcoming with regard to his shaky relationship with the ambassador. Hell, I could’ve gone to the Assistant Secretary to plead our case, had we known the management situation was as bad as it is out there. Now we’re caught with we our pants down, and the military will be crying foul, slamming the CIA again for our inability to provide real-time intelligence on the ground situation in Somalia. Anyway, it pisses me off. I told Peterson a month ago we needed funding to get an operation going. Now, we’re weeks away from the deployment of U.S. forces and scrambling to put together a program."

Well, I don’t intend to let the situation get completely out of control, exclaimed Goodman as he began to issue orders to the team. Scotty, you take the lead with Gerry and formulate an ops plan. I have some thoughts on how we can support the military, but first we need to formally initiate the operation and get Peterson’s approval. This is supposed to be a noble cause, so that might as well be the program designation—NOBLE CAUSE. John, you and Jack work out the funding and support requirements, when you guys are finished, coordinate your effort and have the general details of a plan that I can take to Peterson by first thing next week," concluded Goodman.

***

It was late Sunday afternoon by the time Sandowski had finalized his review of the NOBLE CAUSE ops plan. He and the rest of the AF management team had spent the entire weekend organizing people and generally outlining the operational details of the proposed program. Once Peterson approved the operational concept, a HQS Somalia Task Force would be responsible for coordinating all ongoing activity in the region, which included taking control of the ongoing effort in Mombasa to support the USAF flying food-relief flights into Mogadishu. These flights had been temporarily suspended due to a complete a lack of control resulting from the lawless situation at the airport in Mogadishu.

O’Hearn and Casey had worked together identifying the analysts, communicators, and reports personnel that would accompany the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) staging out of Camp Pendleton. Brandon had selected the service of a salty but seasoned ops officer by the name of James Argentino to head up the CIA support team. Argentino had served in Somalia many years before Brandon as the Chief of Station.

Goodman would be proud of the plan, thought Sandowski, as he closed the folder and leaned back in a well-used executive swivel chair. Moments later, he found himself reflecting on the circumstances that brought him to his current position. He had known Goodman for most of his career at CIA and it was Goodman who had the biggest impact on the advancement of his career within the clandestine service.

Years earlier, Sandowski was a young ops officer stationed at HQS supporting West African operations. After two years in the assignment he was offered the position as Deputy Chief of Station in Bangui, Central Africa Republic. He would be working for William M. Goodman, a man he knew only by reputation as an outstanding Chief of Station. He vividly recalled the details of his two year posting to Bangui. It was a make-or-break assignment in terms of advancement within the service. On the eve of Goodman’s final weeks in Bangui as the Chief of Station, Sandowski recalled being concerned that his work would not be fully appreciated by his peers back at HQS. He had been targeted for recruitment by another government’s intelligence service, something that would surely be viewed as a negative by members of his career board. Further, he had failed to recruit a local KGB Resident after working the case for over a year. To his credit, he had successfully recruited another hard-target candidate, a high ranking Chinese official.

His worries began to fade as he slowly read each line of the performance appraisal that Goodman had handed to him. The anxiety he held before the meeting was gradually replaced by a deep sense of pride that materialized through glistening eyes and a broad smile that slowly spread across his face. As he finished reading the report, Sandowski looked at Goodman without saying a word. His eyes said it all. Then he said, Bill, thanks a lot. You don’t know how good this makes me feel. I’ve learned so much from working with you. I sure hope that I get the opportunity to work with you again at some point in the future.

Sandowski recalled Goodman’s final words, You’ve worked hard, Scotty; you have turned in a remarkable performance here in Bangui. I’m proud of your accomplishments, he said, reaching out to shake Sandowski’s hand. You have a bright future and I look forward to working with you again.

Sandowski never forgot the confidence Goodman had shown him during their Central African assignment. Now, years later, in March 1990, he was serving as Goodman’s deputy in one of the more tumultuous divisions within the Directorate of Operations.

Chapter Two

Office of the Deputy Director for Operations, CIA Headquarters

Goodman walked into Ted Peterson’s office suite at 0830 the following Monday. His secretary, Dottie, looked up. Good morning, Mr. Goodman. You’re here a little early today. That’s okay, she said, as Goodman stood hovering over her desk, his next appointment isn’t until ten. Want some coffee?

Sure, replied Goodman, coffee would be great.

As Dottie turned and walked to the credenza where the coffee and cups were, Goodman glanced down at her appointment book and noticed Mike Shocklee’s name penned in for a 1000 appointment. The name momentarily caught Goodman’s attention, but he put it out of his mind as Dottie handed him his coffee. She stepped behind the desk, picked up the handset, and hit the intercom button. Mr. Goodman is here, she said after a few seconds had passed. Can I send him on in? A moment later, Dottie put down the handset and motioned toward Peterson’s door. He’s all yours, she said. Go on in.

Thanks for the coffee, Goodman said, as he turned from her desk and headed into Peterson’s office. Peterson was looking at his computer, and didn’t look up as Goodman said, Good morning, Ted.

Morning, Bill. Be with you in just a second. After a few more clicks on the keyboard, Peterson turned away from his computer and looked up and over at Goodman, who had planted himself at a small table in the corner of his office. What have you got for me?

The staff worked pretty much around the clock and through the weekend putting a program plan together. No surprises; it’s pretty much along the lines we discussed last week.

My weekend was probably as screwed up as yours, injected Peterson, I would much rather have been doing your job than mine. It’s a constant burden responding to congressional inquiries that more often than not hinder our ability to get the job done. In the grand scheme of things, the political battles being fought here in Washington are sometimes far more difficult to fight than the ones we take on in the field. Bill, you wouldn’t believe me, never mind, he said, it’s too early to be discussing congressional politics. Sorry for the disruption, go ahead, give me the plan, I’ll see the DCI later on this afternoon and he’ll want to know what we are doing.

The DCI? Why would the Director of Central Intelligence want to hear about an embryonic operation that has yet to produce anything? queried Goodman.

Because there’s high interest on the Hill and in the White House. ‘Let’s see if you boys can’t get this one right!’ That’s what the chairman of the HPSCI told the DCI during last week’s oversight briefing, moaned Peterson regarding the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The guy’s a dickhead. He may have been an ops officer here in the DO at one time, but I’ve lost any respect I had for his operational acumen. He believes that we’re a bunch of old Cold War warriors that can’t fight our way out of a paper bag. ‘The operational culture needs to change and I’m the guy responsible for making that happen.’ I’ve heard that line over and over since taking the job, and it’s becoming a real thorn in my side. Anyway, it’s my problem, not yours, so let’s move on. We’re wasting time on issues that likely will need to be discussed again once you get the operation up and running.

Okay, Ted, here’s the required paperwork for you to sign. We’ll be operational by the time I get back to the office. Goodman handed Peterson two copies of a four-page document—a cover page, two additional pages describing the program, and a signature page. The signature page contained Goodman’s signature as the originator and responsible program officer and a section for Peterson to sign as the approving authority.

Peterson’s was the only authority required to initiate such operations at CIA. He glanced at the cover, which was a red-striped border page stamped TOP SECET. The words NOBLE CAUSE were printed in red in the middle of the page, followed by A CIA INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION PROGRAM ON THE HORN OF AFRICA.

As Peterson scanned through the document, Goodman began to describe the operational aspects of the CIA’s plan to support the U.S. Marine deployment into the war-torn environs of Somalia.

We’re just barely ready to support the military’s planned deployment—that was Goodman’s subtle reminder to Peterson that he had wanted to initiate something sooner—when they land in Mogadishu in two weeks’ time. The diagraph for the program is NC-derived from the words NOBLE CAUSE. Rather than limiting our effort to just supporting the military, we believe a regional collection effort, initiated now, could position us in the future to tackle the growing terrorism problem that seems to be heating up in the region.

Goodman paused momentarily to collect his thoughts.

I’m listening, Bill. Give me some details.

Goodman lifted his coffee, took a sip, and set the cup down, thinking that Peterson was anxious to get through the briefing and on to something else.

Our ground activity in country will be referred to as Operation FORWARD DEPLOY, and the HUMINT assets, when recruited or re-activated, will be designated as HAMMERHEADS—a code word randomly selected from the DO asset database, Goodman said. All classified command message correspondence pertaining to NOBLE CAUSE will be sent via the CIA’s RESTRICTED HANDLING communications network and carry the slugs EYES ONLY NOBLE CAUSE.

We’re short on HUMINT assets, he continued, but I don’t think we need to worry about providing that type of intelligence until we can get a handle on how the U.N. operation is going to run and how it’ll affect our ability to move around the city. Personally, in the near term, I think our PM teams will make the biggest contribution to the overall effort. In that regard, we plan to send an intel support team to Camp Pendleton to deploy with the marines. We’ll also insert three PM teams covertly into major areas where our military is planning to deploy personnel. One team will work the environment around Mogadishu, one will be deployed to the Kismayo area, and the last near Baldoa. We plan to deploy our teams to Kenya and covertly drop them into the designated areas by this time next week.

Each team will use a call sign with a numeric sequence attached to the team name. For example, EAGLE EYE/1 will be responsible for gathering tactical information to support the initial marine landing at the Port of Mogadishu. EAGLE EYE/2 will support the amphibious landing being planned for Kismayo, and EAGLE EYE/3 will work the Baldoa area in support of the same operation. The information these teams collect will be sent via an NRO satellite downlink to our intel support team, who’ll pass the information directly to the military planners. With real-time tactical information on the ground situation in Somalia, the marines can adjust their deployment strategy accordingly. Once the marines land in Mogadishu, General Johnson, the Commanding General, or CG, for the initial phase of the U.N. operation, will locate his HQS at the abandoned U.S. embassy compound.

Peterson flipped through the document and quickly scribbled his signature in the proper location.

You need to sign both copies, Ted, one for the Division’s records and one that Dottie can copy and distribute to the appropriate offices.

Peterson complied and handed a copy back to Goodman.

Okay, Bill, you’re approved to move forward with the operation. Keep me posted. I want a phone call on any significant events planned or unplanned. I don’t want to be blindsided by something that I should’ve known in advance.

Will do, Ted. Hopefully there won’t be any calls at 0200 in the morning.

Goodman took his copy of the approved plan and rose to leave. While turning to leave, he glanced over his shoulder, but Peterson had already turned his attention back to his computer screen.

Goodman headed back to Africa Division where he knew Sandowski would be waiting to be handed the approved copy of the NOBLE CAUSE program. Sandowski has turned out to be a great deputy, thought Goodman, as he exited the DDO’s office and headed down the corridor to the elevator bank. His survival as a DO Officer, was in jeopardy years earlier, recalled Goodman. A mole hunt initiated under the auspices of James Jesus Angleton’s infamous Counterintelligence (CI) Staff had identified Sandowski, along with a number of other officers with immigrant parents, as individuals to be carefully scrutinized and watched to ascertain their complete loyalty to the United States. None of the affected officers were aware that they were being closely monitored by the CI Staff.

In Sandowski’s case, he was reassigned to Africa Division at Langley HQS where he could continue to work as an ops officer, could continue to be watched, and where he could do little harm to the national intelligence collection effort if ultimately identified as the KBG mole believed to be buried deep inside the clandestine service. After two years at HQS as a desk officer supporting West African operations, Sandowski was released to serve overseas. He had ostensibly been cleared by the CI Staff and was posted as the Deputy Chief of Station in Bangui, Central Africa Republic. Goodman, the COS at the time, had agreed to Sandowski’s assignment when the case was presented to him by a visiting member of the HQS CI Staff. The Russians have a small detachment here, and you can have Sandowski initiate a recruitment operation directed against the local KGB resident. In the process, we’ll be able to clear or confirm our suspicion of him.

These were the