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he needed special medical treatment, ZULU travelled to Turkey on a mis-
sion for DSO, while informing the LIBERATORS that he was travelling
on their behalf to contact Qassim. Not only did he succeed in doing so,
but he even managed to infiltrate KONO and meet Paul Leverkuehn, who
provided him with a considerable amount of money and a good deal of
valuable information.^50 This is the only instance on record of CICI’s send-
ing an agent into Turkey to penetrate the Abwehr; it was a bold, high-risk
counterintelligence offensive, and it was entirely successful. Having served
their purpose, the LIBERATORS were all rounded up and interned.
In the trial of the nine suspects which began on 29 January 1944, a
robust defence was mounted, leading to a legal impasse.^51 The group had
allegedly imported the W/T set from KONO in December 1942; how-
ever, Iraq did not declare war against the Axis until 16 January 1943. The
Iraqi treachery laws were so framed that it was not necessarily a crime for
an Iraqi subject to indulge in espionage activities on behalf of a foreign
power in time of peace. Unless, therefore, it could be proved that the
LIBERATORS suspects had worked on behalf of the Germans after 16
January 1943, no case could stand against them. The trial was therefore
adjourned indefinitely, seven of the accused were interned at Amara but
never sentenced, and two against whom there was little evidence were
released.^52 It was known, however, that Erich Vermehren of KONO was
aware of the LIBERATORS; therefore it was hoped that it might be pos-
sible to obtain a sworn statement from the defector about the Iraq opera-
tion.^53 In the autumn, the Iraqi legal authorities decided to reopen the
case because they had evidence that Abdullah Ahmed, to whom the W/T
set had originally been supplied by KONO, had committed acts that
would complete the crime of treason after Iraq’s declaration of war.
Therefore, Ahmed’s associates who had conspired with him—even though
before the declaration of war—had to be held equally guilty.^54
(Narrative 10 [KONO]) The Robert College connection. The only other
case involving a German W/T set was that of two young Iraqi men, Louis
Bakos and Robert Bahoshy, both studying at the prestigious Robert
College in Istanbul.^55 Under interrogation and ‘singing like a canary’ after
his capture, Rashid Ramzi, the Kurdish guide/interpreter dropped with
the MAMMUT mission near Mosul in June 1943, had indicated that he
had reason to believe that the two students were working for the Abwehr.
Bakos, who happened to be in Baghdad at the time of Ramzi’s interroga-
tion, was promptly arrested but subsequently released for lack of any hard
evidence against him. Meanwhile, on his way back to Iraq, Bahoshy was
A PLACE IN THE SHADE