Raid on the Sun(18)

Halim was paid generously, but his new friends were much pushier than Donovan. They began demanding more details about the building of the reactor: its capacity, a timetable of shipments. Where were the parts stored before shipping? What was the date Osirak would go “hot”? Did Iraq have other nuclear facilities? Increasingly worried, Halim struggled to supply the men with answers to their endless questions. The fact was, Halim was too afraid not to. Something about these men was far too menacing for them to be simply businessmen. What had he gotten himself into? the Iraqi chided himself. A few weeks later Halim read in the French papers about the mysterious explosion at La Seyne-sur-Mer. Halim realized immediately that he had passed on the exact information about the date and place from where the cores would be shipped: information that the two Germans had been so interested in the previous month. The final straw came when the Germans asked, or rather demanded, that he introduce them to Yahia al-Meshad.

Meshad, an Egyptian-born senior nuclear physicist, had come to al-Tuwaitha from Alexandria University. He was in his mid-forties, dark and stocky, with a finely honed sense of irony and deadpan style of humor. By 1980, many of the young Iraqi scientists who had gone abroad to study were refusing to return to Iraq, especially the ones in the United States, where they began applying for asylum or appealing to the State Department. So Meshad, who had a reputation for brilliance and thoroughness, was considered quite a catch at the Nuclear Research Center, where he began working under Khidhir Hamza.

Hamza began to use Meshad as a liaison with the French engineers, sending him regularly to the Sarcelles nuclear plant to inspect the manufacturing of Iraqi reactor parts and equipment. When Chirac announced that France was going back on their deal and supplying Iraq with lower-grade caramelized uranium, Hamza assigned Meshad the task of ensuring that only the enriched U235 was sent to al-Tuwaitha. Weapons-grade uranium had to be 93 percent enriched. Caramelized uranium was enriched far below the enrichment required to extract plutonium. The substitute low-grade would be worthless to Iraq’s atomic bomb program. Mossad was not certain how Hussein was going to respond to the new French dictum. Hofi, who opposed a military raid on Osirak, was especialy anxious to know if Iraq would accept the caramelized uranium. If so, then the threat posed by Osirak would be considerably less and perhaps Begin could be argued out of a military attack. The “Germans” were assigned to get the information out of Meshad—one way or another.

By now, Halim figured the German businessmen had to be spies. He prayed that Donovan could help him. After all, he knew these men. Halim telephoned Donovan in London and sheepishly relayed the entire story to him, including the part where he had been paid money behind Donovan’s back.

Donovan feigned concern. According to Ostrovsky, Ran then set Halim up.

“I think Itsik and Goldstein may be CIA,” Ran/Donovan replied.

“Oh, my God, they’ll shoot me!” Halim panicked.

“No. No they won’t,” he assured him. “At least it’s not the Israelis. The CIA won’t hurt you. They just want information. Maybe I can help get you out of this. When are you meeting Meshad?”

“Tomorrow night,” Halim replied. “For dinner.”

“Good. I’ll fly to Paris. Leave the name of the restaurant at my hotel. I’ll stop by and pretend to run into you at your table.”

The next evening Donovan happened by the bistro table. Halim invited him to sit down and introduced him to Meshad. He praised his friend profusely and, with an awkward, insinuating intimacy, explained to the physicist that Donovan was an amazing businessman who could buy and sell many things that were useful to them. He would pay generously for any “help” Meshad could supply. Cautious and arrogant, Meshad refused to take the bait. The dinner ended with Donovan suggesting they could perhaps meet again. Meshad was noncommittal. Donovan watched him leave the restaurant. He was frustrated. He would have to depend on Halim.

Later at Meshad’s hotel, Halim, anxious to satisfy Donovan and get the Germans off his back, again tried to recruit the Egyptian. Following Donovan’s suggestion, he suggested the two have some fun and dialed Marie-Claude Magalle to join them. Meshad was perfectly open to Magalle’s charms and retreated to his bedroom with her. But as far as doing business with the Germans, the Egyptian rebuffed all of Halim’s approaches.

He was forced to call Donovan the following morning and give him the bad news.

First the cores had been sabotaged, and now he was supposed to deliver Meshad. Halim’s head whirled. He actually had heart palpitations, he was so frightened. For the next month he tried to avoid the Germans and Donovan. He just wanted out. Finally in June, his wife, Samira, returned to Paris. Halim immediately confessed to her everything he had been doing.