Sheik connection causes some trouble

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 The effort to secure release of the hostage takes many twists and turns. By PETER GRIER CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR As editor of the Monitor, Richard Bergenheim was the person who spoke to contacts who required special handling. That meant, for instance, that if FBI Director Robert Mueller called, he answered. And Mueller did call, early on, to ask if the Monitor was getting the help it needed. It also meant that as the Jill Carroll hostage crisis dragged on, Bergenheim found himself at the center of the strange case of Daphne Barak and Sheik Sattam Hamid Farhan al-Gaood (also spelled Gaaod). The Monitor was simply pursuing every lead, but this would be quite a rabbit hole. On her Web site, Daphne Barak describes herself as "one of the few leading A-list interviewers in the world." An Israeli-American syndicated television journalist, her interviewees have included everyone from Hillary Clinton to members of pop star Michael Jackson's family. Gaood, to some U.S. officials, isn't so much a celebrity as he is notorious. "One of Saddam Hussein's most trusted confidants in conducting clandestine business transactions," according to the CIA's 2004 report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The same report said Gaood was once the director of El Eman, the "largest network of Iraqi front companies" that smuggled oil out of Iraq and foodstuffs into Iraq in violation of the U.N. oil-for-food program, but "he has stated that he believed this to be legitimate business." Gaood interview Sometime in late January, a source at a U.S. television network told the Monitor that Barak was trying to sell an interview she'd conducted with Gaood — and that Gaood had mentioned helping get Carroll out. So Bergenheim called Barak. The story was true — or, at least, the part about the interview was. Gaood had said, in an offhand way, that kidnapping was wrong, and Carroll should be released. Pressed, he'd said something to the effect of, yes, he could arrange her freedom, he'd even use his own money, if needed — but so far, no one had asked him to. The prospect of help from Sheik Gaood raised hopes at the Monitor's offices in Boston at a time when other tracks of investigation seemed to be drying up. But it quickly became a serious source of tension at the paper and among the U.S. agencies who were supposedly cooperating to find Carroll. The Monitor's Baghdad correspondents Scott Peterson and Dan Murphy didn't trust Gaood's motives. Was Gaood trying to win favor with the U.S. government — as it investigated violations of the U.N. oil-for-food sanctions program? And the FBI wasn't happy about it either. They wanted to keep Gaood out of the picture. U.S. and foreign intelligence sources, on the other hand, said that Gaood had indeed been a powerful figure under Saddam Hussein. And, the CIA's report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction described Gaood as linked to an insurgent network near Fallujah that "actively sought chemical weapons for use against Coalition forces" in 2004. It was possible he had the contacts to release Carroll, they said, but there were no guarantees. Which government agency was right? How should the Monitor advise the Carroll family? And how much should the Monitor invest in pursuing this track? FBI vs. CIA According to intelligence sources, the CIA checked with the FBI, the lead agency in the Carroll case, before providing the Monitor with more background on Gaood. The FBI replied with a blistering e-mail: The CIA should stay in its own lane and stop talking to the Monitor about the Carroll case. (Today, the FBI says no such message was sent. But Gaood "was assessed as a complete 'X' factor, which means undemonstrated credibility," says FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.) To try to settle this intergovernmental dispute, Bergenheim called Mueller, the head of the FBI. You asked if we were getting the help we needed, he said, in effect. Well, we aren't. The FBI response? The Monitor was given two new, higher-level contacts within the bureau, but from then on, the paper's editor was given less information about the government's efforts in the case. Bergenheim decided to tell the Carroll family about the Barak/Gaood connection. Bad move, said the Baghdad Boys. But on Feb. 9, Jim and Mary Beth Carroll went on "Good Morning America" and asked for the help of the "powerful sheik," without naming him. A few days later, Gaood issued a statement from his exile in Jordan, calling for Carroll's release to prove that the Iraqi insurgency "does not kill innocents." Nothing happened. And the days dragged on. The Monitor and the family still talked almost every day, but they had less to say to each other. There were fewer leads and less information to share. More problems In Baghdad, a new case officer from the British security consultants had arrived and was proving difficult to work with. Correspondents Murphy and Peterson were irritated by prodding from Boston to rotate out for a rest. Neither Peterson nor Murphy considered themselves particularly religious. But as Peterson notes, "there are no atheists in foxholes." From the beginning, he drew strength from the book of Psalms, and this passage: "Truth brings the elements of liberty. The power of God brings deliverance to the captive," written by Mary Baker Eddy, who founded this paper. Some nights, at the end of the last conference call with Boston, the pair would listen to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" performed by Jeff Buckley. It filled the apartment and lifted their spirits, with a song that Murphy knew to be one of Carroll's favorites. Eventually, reluctantly, Peterson took a two-week break with his family in Istanbul, Turkey. In mid-February, Jim Carroll notified the Monitor that he had opened a new channel with someone claiming to be an intermediary for the kidnappers. Hopes rose again. An Arabic interpreter was brought into his home. But under FBI advice, Jim Carroll refused to tell Team Jill in Boston or the Baghdad Boys any of the details. Even more frustrating to Murphy and Peterson, Jill Carroll's father told them to shut down any other tracks they were pursuing, including talks with Jordanian officials who had just said they would try to help. The Monitor reporters didn't want to be working at cross-purposes to Jim Carroll, so they reluctantly sat on their hands. But after the bombing of the Askariya Shrine, fighting surged between Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents, prompting more curfews. Jim Carroll's Iraqi contact stopped answering his phone. Days dragged into a week, two weeks. Another dry hole. Discouraged, Jim Carroll sent word that Murphy and Peterson could resume their efforts in Iraq. By now, Murphy needed a break and left for Cairo.