ETHIOPIA & PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR
0374 - SIS 2 – Special Intelligence Services - Ethiopia
My contacts with the intelligence services really came to a head when I was at the Open University, and especially when I was working in Ethiopia.
It seems a silly statement to say that I don't really know whether or not I was a spy. But MI6, for example, uses a range of informal agents. In my case I offered the intelligence they, or the FCO, wanted without any incentive, or even request; so there was no need for them to ever formalise the arrangement.
The briefing from the foreign office was, though, very direct. Our job, and in particular mine, was to ensure that the Ethiopian government moved from Marxism to social democracy without too many problems. We achieved that, as a team, without great deal of difficulty -- because the Ethiopian government wanted to do this. I worked very hard to make sure that the team handled this assignment very carefully: and indeed my main management job was to make certain that they weren't too heavy-handed in indoctrinating the government. This was partly because I believed that Ethiopian people had every right to choose their own form of government and politics, but it was also because I knew the members of the government were bright enough that they would recognize if we were laying it on too heavy.
As you will see elsewhere, I soon also became the contact between the Ethiopian government and the western embassies. This was by force of circumstances. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The Ethiopian government were paranoid about exposing themselves to the corruption which they saw affecting the rest of Africa. Accordingly, they kept themselves within their small family of 50 or so leaders. I just happened to be invited into their family, and hence was the only route the western ambassadors -- in particular the FCO -- had to government thinking. I like to think that I was invited into the inner circle quite simply because they trusted me. When I first came into contact with them I didn't have the faintest idea about diplomatic niceties and I decided to play it absolutely straight and honest. This was something of which they possibly were, unlike anyone else (and certainly not foreign office), appreciative.
By this method, I suppose, I became some form of double agent; though I didn't see myself as some James Bond like figure. But I suppose I was acting in the way that the highest level double agents operate. Having said that, both sides were well aware of what I was up to. The intelligence services in the UK certainly were well aware. They briefed me before I went out to Ethiopia, albeit in the form of my desk officer at the FCO, and I fed information back to the ambassador; and in the absence of the ambassador to the head of mission.
For a long time I thought the head of mission was the deputy ambassador, though of course he wasn't but was the head of the intelligence services in the embassy.
Furthermore I actively sought out information on behalf of the ambassador. I well remember going to see Seeye Abraha, the Minister of Defence, and asking him on behalf of James Glaze (the ambassador) what exactly did they mean by ‘Marxism’; since the western ambassadors couldn't understand where they were coming from. Seeye Abraha thought this was hilarious, and eventually summarized their creed as “We want to do the best for our people – and we will sell our souls for bread which the people can eat”. Some of the information I fed back was, I suppose quite, sensitive. Thus I remember meeting with the ambassador and pointing out that although Addis Ababa was the home of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), and the FCO thought that would be the focus of Ethiopian government activities, they actually were interested in setting themselves up as one of major players in the Middle East. This was a revelation to the foreign office, though I don't think it has yet come to its final fruition. They saw themselves as offering a counterweight to the Saudi Arabians who they thought were distinctly unstable.
I suppose I was nervous while I was working in Ethiopia. In retrospect I believe that both sides recognised that I was some form of double agent; and this must have made me a potential target. Also, in retrospect, my palace car, with its unique number plates but no armour plating, must also have made me an easy target -- fortunately without any actual incident.
Within the Ethiopian government I moved freely and talked freely. I asked questions of everyone, at every level up to the President, and discussed all the key issues; as you will see elsewhere. I also in effect acted as the arbiter of some activities. I was their adviser (in turn ‘advised’ by the FCO!) on their approach to the World Bank and IMF -- getting a very successful outcome for them. Even more directly, I set the rules of engagement for the renewed civil war. This was an usually high level of involvement, even for a double agent.
On the British side, as I already described elsewhere, in the main I reported back to the ambassador, but also to the head of mission. But every time I came back from Ethiopia I also reported to my desk officer in the FCO. It was, I suppose, a powerful position. I well remember putting him into taxi in St Martin's lane, outside the restaurant where we had been having lunch together, and yelling an answer to him as he sped off. His question was "Can you vouch for the President?", and my simple reply was that I trusted him absolutely; which must have been fed somewhere into the intelligence machine.
My other contact with MI6, more directly, was through my two handlers at the University. I have already described them, so it will suffice to say that one had a boyfriend who was the arms manufacturer trying to sell nuclear devices to Iraq and the other one was the one that I smuggled into St. Petersburg! In any case, the FCO have their own agents, so maybe I was one of these; at times on loan to MI6!
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