Harvath and Levy had gone through Khuram Hanjour’s entire Palm Jumeirah condo and had stacked anything of potential intelligence value at the front door. Cowles packed all of it, along with the contents of the hidden bed safe, in a set of designer luggage Hanjour had in one of the guest bedrooms.
Driving Hanjour’s Mercedes out of the Oceana complex, Harvath and Levy had met up with the CIA assault team parked nearby. They transferred the luggage and traded cars while Levy handed over Hanjour’s key card and explained how to enter the building in order to retrieve Cowles and the prisoner. Harvath and Levy then set out for the ninety-mile drive up the coast to the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Abu Dhabi.
What would have normally been an hour-and-a-half drive, Harvath completed in forty-five minutes as Levy worked on her cell phone the entire way. The State Department, as well as the CIA, maintained accounts with private jet companies around the world, and with that in mind, Harvath had made two requests. He needed the fastest plane they could get, plus Ambassador Conrad’s cooperation in coming along for the ride. With a United States ambassador in tow, none of the other passports in the entourage, particularly Harvath’s, would receive additional scrutiny. That went double for their baggage.
Harvath had suggested creating a phony family emergency back in the U.S. that would require Conrad to leave the UAE immediately. But without knowing Conrad’s family situation, Harvath could make only a few general suggestions of how to handle things. Levy had taken it from there.
Levy relayed everything to her boss, Chuck Godwin—a seasoned CIA veteran—who then coordinated with CIA headquarters in the U.S. Langley pulled Conrad’s file and decided to use the ambassador’s aging mother in Carmel, California, as the source of the emergency.
After assembling the plan, CIA Director Bob McGee contacted the Secretary of State for sign-off. With the green light in place, Godwin was told to wake the ambassador.
Conrad was told that his “family emergency” would be cover for getting a U.S. intelligence operative and some highly sensitive documents and other materials back to the United States. The ambassador had asked what the documents and other materials were, but was politely told that the information was of national security importance and classified above his clearance. Conrad asked Godwin who the intel operative was and what he had been doing in the UAE without his knowledge, only to be told that was also classified above his clearance. That was when Conrad had lost it.
The best term Chuck Godwin could come up with to describe it was “hissy fit.” The ambassador was incensed that a covert operation had been carried out in his backyard without his approval. He didn’t like being kept in the dark. And not only had he been kept in the dark, but now the CIA wanted to rope him in as cover to help get whatever they had out of the country. He announced that he was not only “personally and professionally insulted,” but had no intention of cooperating.
Chuck Godwin hated the ambassador’s guts. He was a feckless dilettante who had bought his way into the ambassadorship and was doing it only because of his love of parties, not love of country. In his estimation, the ambassador was worthless.
So when Conrad pushed back on helping to provide cover for Harvath and transporting the luggage as his own, Godwin simply thanked him, stepped out of the room, and called the seventh floor back at Langley. Three minutes later, the Secretary of State himself had called the ambassador’s home and begun to read him the riot act. Within a half hour, Conrad was in his armored Suburban headed to the airport. Harvath was there, too, riding shotgun and posing as part of the ambassador’s security detail. Wherever the bags went, Harvath was going. He had been instructed not to take his eyes off them.
Conrad’s staff alerted the Emiratis to the ambassador’s family emergency, and the convoy was met at the airport by an Emirati official who sped them right out to the tarmac and their waiting Gulfstream G650. The passports were handled planeside and every courtesy was extended to the ambassador and his retinue.
When the crew offered to stow the luggage in the belly of the plane, Harvath explained that the ambassador preferred to have access to his bags during the flight. The crew explained where the luggage could be stored in the cabin and