CHANCE ENCOUNTERS

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS

This account has been fictionalized to protect the identity of the various characters–the good, the bad, and the ugly.


CHANCE ENCOUNTERS: A MOLE, A COMPROMISED COMPUTER, MONITORED ONLINE ACTIVITIES, UNMITIGATED HARASSMENT, ISRAEL, SAUDI ARABIA, AND SO MUCH LESS.



1. I’M DOOMED TO CHANCE ENCOUNTERS. . . WITH UGLY GUYS.

Recently I’ve gone through a spree of consulting with friends who are former FBI and former CIA. I’d give each the facts and he would laugh. “No, you’re not paranoid,” they all seemed to agree. You’ve been set up. The chance encounters are not. And each would go on to detail what can happen next, involving multiple possibilities and the defensive measures I could take.

The source of these chance encounters was a friend. Being the second child, I’m good with friends. They say that the first child is the star, so the second has to look for stardom outside the family–to make friends. A good reason for my enduring friendships is that I never cross a friend. Of course, I expect the same.

Then I made friends with a younger person–we’ll call him Faith–, a social worker. He is the youngest in his family. These, from a birth order perspective, can lack a strong personality, replacing it with knee-jerk stubbornness, their way of fighting off their older siblings’ control and, later, the world. Soon after, I started issuing SaudiPolitics. Then a couple of years ago, I noticed a pattern of chance encounters. I was able to identify them (maybe only some) relatively fast thanks probably to the interpreting I’ve done at security seminars. But some were likely meant for me to notice, anyway.

You’re aching, aren’t you? You want to know why the former spies and special agents had laughed at my lot.

The answer: Faith , and those behind him, would possibly have done so much better had they sent attractive women to do the chance encounters. But they must not be able to secure attractive women. So, instead, they’ve been sending unattractive guys.

It made sense. Faith isn’t exactly a women magnet. If his network is anything like him, I’m doomed (sex wise) as their target. I’d have to deal with chance encounters with ugly guys.

But is there harassment and intimidation? Yes, said one former special agent. We’ll monitor where this is heading and we should get a better picture.


2. HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The first time I had a chance encounter was in my once-vacation haunt. I had forwarded my itinerary to my sister (for family reasons) and to a “friend” who I had met at a Maronite church, and who lived in my once-favored vacation haunt.

When I arrived at the airport I proceeded to the public bus area. (I’m cheap: A taxi would cost me around $25; the bus: $1.50.) As I waited for my bus, an unattractive young guy, wiry and affecting hyperactivity, came up to me and asked me what bus to take to the same location where I was heading. I told him I was taking the same bus, and gave him instructions. He asked where my accent was from, I said Lebanon; he said he was from Israel. “Come give me a hug, you crazy neighbor.” He started telling me about the women in Columbia , South America, how stunning and friendly they were.

This talk would be the closest I ever got to a sex-minded chance encounter.

I boarded the bus and he wanted to sit with me. Politely, I asked him not to. I was reading and writing and I wasn’t interested in fantasizing with a male about the gorgeous women of Columbia. He tried again, more than once. Having interpreted at countless security seminars, I became suspicious.

We left the first bus to transfer to another. He tried to join me and I said that I wanted to have lunch. He said we’d have it together. I said no, politely again. I split, hailed a taxi and made my escape.


2A. THE WITHERING MARONITES

In the late afternoon, I met up with my Maronite “friend.” He had fought in the Lebanese civil war. Many like him had trained in Israel. I never asked him whether he had. But I was aware that he was friends with a Maronite fellow who many among the Maronites saw as working for Israel.

I confronted my Maronite friend. " When you send me an Israeli spy," I said, "please have the courtesy and common sense to send me an attractive Israeli woman, not an ugly Israeli guy.” He smiled. I’ve always thought he had class. Sure he failed in his test in recruiting an...what/who are they trying to recruit? But he didn’t seem to be serious about it, anyway.


I cut off all communication with him. A couple of times, he tried to refer pro bono (in effect) cases to me, but I didn’t act on his referrals or return his phone calls. He got the message. These guys can’t even send you cases that make money!

The question: Was he or his “cell” in touch with Faith’s circle?


2B. USELESS AGENTS

These guys–the Maronites who are beholden to Israel–are now useless to that state, since their community in Lebanon has become marginal and therefore of no use to Israel and its supporters.

The Maronite General Aoun has even concluded a memorandum of understanding with Hizbullah. This man and his followers are the more popular among the Christians in Lebanon. That he would reach an understanding with Hizbullah means that a majority in the Maronite community has come to realize that Empire wants them marginal and that only an alliance with Hizbullah could save them of that fate.

(Empire is betting on Sunni money in Lebanon, i.e., Saad al-Hariri. This bet will fail since Saad doesn’t have the troops, and his money should be balanced out by Iranian and Russian--through Syria--money.)

Competing with Aoun was Geagea and his Lebanese Forces. One can safely presume that Saad al-Hariri (a [floating] state within a [bankrupt] state) is now financing these. But they are significantly less popular among the Maronites than Aoun. Six thousand of their former members and sympathizers live in exile in Israel. (These would like to emigrate to North America or Australia, but the governments of these countries refuse to grant them visas.) One can rest assured that Hizbullah is monitoring each and every move by Geagea and his followers especially that Saad al-Hariri travels often to Jordan, which Hizbullah and its sponsors perceive as an American-Israeli base.

In short, the Maronite Israeli “cell” of my old vacation haunt probably has become useless to Israel, though anything goes when it comes to feeling communal solidarity, Jewish and exiled Maronites, against the Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, Syrians.

But that’s no longer how the Maronites of Lebanon feel. Trying to show me off to their Israeli handler indicated that these guys were now desperate to prove their usefulness to Israel.


3. THE SECOND ENCOUNTER: AN OLD MAN WHO THINKS PROBABLY THAT HE IS A CELEBRITY


Faith and I decided by telephone to meet at a Starbucks and do work. I arrived first. After I set up my computer, I turned to the crossword puzzle. The old man was sitting at a counter facing the outside, though his body faced in my direction. He rushed to me and said, Number 6 Down, pointing to the crossword, yes, you’re right, it is Moses. I smiled at him. Faith showed up soon after.

Only afer I left Starbucks did I realize that this was probably a planned chance encounter. That the old man probably was some sort of celebrity. And that Faith, after agreeing by telephone to meet, sent him over, and waited to arrive later.

(I had so many other chance encounters–the one with a former soldier of the Israel Defense Forces who probably took my photograph using his cell phone; the one who was taking my photograph on I street, not far from Pennsylvania Avenue, outright, as I exited a work place where I had served a subpoena on a witness in one of my upcoming trials.)


4. THE THIRD ENCOUNTER: THE UNLOVED CELEBRITY.

My mother was (and still is) dying. After I had overcome the original shock, I went through (and still am) a period of sadness. Unconsciously, I await her phone call every afternoon. The phone doesn’t ring, and I realize it’ll never. It happens again on Sundays, as I await her call to take her to the Lebanese church.

I got myself busy with work and SaudiPolitics.

Faith called me and asked whether I wanted to meet. Sure, I said, anything to get out and dodge the sadness. And drive my second old car that is meant for the 20 year-olds, but which I bought at an auction on an impulse.

I had earlier published an article titled, “An Imperial Blind Spot...” The article spoke about two celebrities and their intellectual mediocrity: the President of the Johns Hopkins University and the current President of the World Bank. One of these showed up at the meeting place. Faith feigned ignorance.

I left there and dropped in on a former FBI agent. He said that the appearance of the celebrity very likely was an engineered chance encounter. He warned me that Faith might be taping our conversations and passing them on to those motivating him. And they, in turn, were passing them on to their foreign contact, then to the Saudis–to score points. I didn’t give a f..., I said. He agreed They might have broken into your email and compromised your computer, he said, providing details... I didn’t give a f..., I said. He agreed. Faith may have bugged your apartment, he said. I didn’t give a f..., I said. He agreed.


4A. CONFRONTING FAITH

There's a proverb in Arabic which says, "The one who doesn't confront you doesn't like you." (Yalli ma bey3atbak, ma biy3izzak.) I liked Faith; so I needed to confront him. Give the friendship a chance.

A couple of days later, while at Starbucks working on cases, I confronted Faith. I’ve never seen anyone lose composure as he. He offered dinner. Being as cheap as I, that was an amazing feat. His frugality with me told me that this chance encounter business was amateurish. If an intelligence service was behind it, you’d think Faith would be spending big time on me. Not so.

But this had become irksome and very annoying. Adding harassment by an organized group to the sadness borne out of my mother’s slow death was a prescription for clinical depression. I was now considering ending this friendship.

I consulted with a friend, a seasoned psychologist. “Honey,” she said, “People are not perfect. Faith is looking for relevance in his life. You’re right; he’s no Andrew who has a terrific ability to compartmentalize his worlds and insulate the one part from the other; Faith is a weakling, a very insecure individual, ,whose torments are probably many. But honey, seriously, how many Andrews do you find in a life time?” (Andrew was a common friend.)


4B. THE BATMITZVAH STORY

I tried to communicate the message to Faith to save the friendship and stop the harassment.

I had gone to a the Batmitzvah of a friend’s daughter. A real friend, I intimated with little subtlety. When there, my friend, call him Andrew, would come to me and warn me. “This guy is coming to talk to you; be careful; he’s a religious zealot.” Andrew’s brother, a principled man always, a progressive, would stay nearby to come to my help anytime he would feel one of the right wing zealots’ voice raised even a tad.

Faith–the setter of the chance encounters–feigned ignorance. What’s he getting out of it?


5. ANOTHER UGLY GUY; THE HARASSMENT CONTINUES; MY COMPUTER IS COMPROMISED.


I made reservation online for a car, and the car rental agency sent me confirmation to my Yahoo address. I was heading to Pennsylvania with my father. I was to return the car at 8:00 PM on a Sunday. I never really conversed by telephone about the time I was returning the car, though Faith had been to my apartment and could’ve placed a bug.

On that Sunday, I returned the car to Reagan National Airport. I proceeded to the metro and boarded a car. I took over a two-seat-bench and was leafing through Consumer Reports, looking for their take on the Saturn Ion, the car I had rented.

Sat behind me a rather unattractive and big guy. He was eager to strike a conversation with me. The car issue of Consumer Reports provided him an excuse.

He said he just bought this car, and he has that car, and he drives this car in L.A., and that car in Dallas. He was a nice guy, but not the woman who I expected these chance encounters by now would produce.

He said that he and his family had missed their flight in Dallas, that his wife and daughter made it on standby, but that he and his son or sons flew to Philadelphia instead and drove to D.C.–and now he had just returned the rental car.

I shook his hand, bid him goodbye, and left the train. Who was he? An extremely minor personality on a public television show which I watch once or twice a year, possibly. When home I emailed Faith and asked him, once again, to please not send ugly guys my way. That if he wanted to dispatch subjects for chance encounters, that they be attractive Swedish women. What I meant was: Stop the harassment. Now I was certain Faith’s circle had compromised my computer. How else would it have known about the car rental, the return date, the return time ?


5A. FAITH TURNING MORE INTO A ZEALOT--THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US GROWS WIDER.

I ran into Faith the day after at one courthouse. He didn’t comment on my email. Later, he showed up at the courthouse again and was antsy and a tad aggressive. Who did the Abqaiq attempted bombing? He asked. Then he answered his own question. “The Saudis themselves did it,” he asserted. No, they didn’t, I said. Patiently, I explained what country I thought could have been behind it and why.

He was either wearing a bugging device or he was hoping to sway me in the newsletter. (Many people had tried, to no use. It’s an INDEPENDENT newsletter. My inspiration for the newsletter, other than September 11, was and continues to be the spirit of a graduate student: Irreverence towards authority that is compromised by so many interests and no longer represents the public good.)

Obviously, Faith was completely mobilized, at a neurotic emotional state that didn’t lend itself to reasoning. He was the counterpart of an Islamic Jihad militant. He and his circle of harassment probably were angry that Saudi Arabia wouldn’t scorn Hamas. Mobilized, he couldn’t (and wouldn’t) comprehend that the Saudis had their own security to consider.

At any rate, and generally speaking, one would have to account for one important motivational factor in Israel’s behavior and that of its unquestioning supporters: Its competition with other protectorates. In other words, Israel would like to monopolize’s Empire’s connection. Other protectorates, including eventually a Palestinian one, would stand in the way of this hope. On a practical level, I couldn’t expect Faith to understand all of this. Hamas’s electoral win seemed to turn him into a zealot, and farther away from being a political analyst.


6. SPIES: THE OLDER THEY GET THE MORE THEY LAUGH–AT ME.

One former CIA laughed as never before. I nearly turned yellow from shame. These guys, he said, not only are they losers when it comes to women, they’re also so damn cheap. You’re describing me, I said. He didn’t hear me and went on laughing. I walked away.

He later apologized.