Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 05 by Shadows of Steel (v1.1)

Author:Shadows of Steel (v1.1) [Steel, Shadows of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

1 Lafayette square, Washington, D.C.

THAT SAME TIME

The gentleman being escorted by the tuxedo-dressed bellman through the cherry-paneled corridors of the luxurious Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington already had his jolly, glad-handed face on when he entered the small, secluded dining room. His contact and another man, probably an assistant or aide, were already waiting for him. The double doors were closed behind him; the warm room enveloped him like a calfskin glove. Nothing like this in Tehran these days, he thought. “Ah, my friend Robert, it is good to be here with ...” But his politically practiced visage changed abruptly when the man in the room turned to him.

“Mr. Sahin, please come in,” Philip Freeman, the President’s National Security Advisor, said. It was obvious that his presence was a complete shock to Sahin. He extended a hand in greeting, but Philip Freeman did not accept it. Then Sahin looked for a chair and did not find one. It was obvious this was not going to be a civil sociable meeting.

Businessman and professor Tahir Sahin was one of a rare and unusual breed, vital to governments all over the world—a well-spoken, well-traveled, educated man welcomed and employed by all sides of a dispute. A son of a wealthy landowner in eastern Turkey, Sahin’s Muslim family had escorted and guarded the Ayatollah Khomeini during his exile to Iraq via Turkey in 1963. A young Tahir Sahin had then accompanied Khomeini to the holy Shi’ite city of Najaf in Iraq and spent several years with him, acting as interpreter and bodyguard.

Sahin had seen firsthand the transformation of Khomeini and his vision of a worldwide Islamic revolution, and in time Sahin had become infused with much of the same burning passion as Khomeini. When Khomeini had been deported from Iraq and moved to France in 1978, Sahin had returned to his native land and become instrumental in spreading the word about Khomeinis impending revolution to Turkey and everywhere else he traveled in his business. When Khomeini had made his triumphant return to Iran and established his Islamic republic, Sahin had been an honored guest many times. With his Turkish passport and Iranian identity papers, signed by Khomeini himself, Sahin could travel anywhere in the world with complete safety and security.

It was after the closing of all diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran following the U.S. embassy siege in 1979 that Tahir Sahin’s real worth had stood out. Sahin had been part of the secret “arms for hostages” deals with the United States to the benefit of the Iranians, but had also helped secure the release of British, French, Italian, and American hostages held captive by pro-Iranian radicals in Lebanon. Although not credentialed with the U.S. State Department or recognized professionally by any country, Sahin had been acting as an unofficial messenger between the two governments, keeping the lines of communication open between two countries who did not have embassies in each others country.

The downside to having a pro-Iranian, pro-Islamic fundamentalist man like Sahin

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