The Baghdad Set_ Iraq through the Eyes of British Intelligence, 1941–45

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intercepted by SIME at Aleppo and taken to Maadi for interrogation.
There he admitted that he and Bakos were associated with the Abwehr,
who had trained them in W/T and secret writing. He also revealed that
Bakos had been sent to Iraq on an economic espionage mission in June
1943, around the time of Operation MAMMUT, though it is unclear
from the records if the two missions were related. Bahoshy further stated
that he himself had intended to follow Bakos a little later to undertake
W/T transmissions from Baghdad. However, the news of Bakos’s arrest
had caused the abandonment of this plan. Bahoshy had therefore remained
in Istanbul to assist KONO by providing them with economic intelligence
on Iraq. While the Germans had believed that he was acquiring his prod-
uct from Iraqi visitors to Istanbul, Bahoshy was actually obtaining his
information simply by listening to radio broadcasts from Baghdad.
Dissatisfied with the quality of his information, the Abwehr first reduced
his pay and then cut him off entirely. In trouble with his school and pen-
niless, Bahoshy had decided to return home, where he was arrested by
SIME.^56 On 10 March 1945, Bahoshy and Bakos were acquitted by the
standing military court on the grounds that they had not actually
committed any act of treason or espionage. Nevertheless, the Iraqi interior
minister subsequently issued an order for their internment at Amara.^57
(Narrative 11 [KONO]) OMAR. In January 1943, when Gottfried
Müller was attempting to locate Achat Khan while planning Operation
MAMMUT, he came across a letter from Paul Leverkuehn at KONO
addressed to Werner Eisenberg, informing him of an offer made by a Kurd
codenamed OMAR from Kirkuk, who apparently either wanted to work
for the Abwehr or was already working for KONO. Thinking he might
recruit him for Operation MAMMUT, Müller asked KONO for a photo-
graph of OMAR. When it arrived, Müller was astonished to see an elderly
man, in bed, with a policeman standing over him. Needless to say, he was
rejected by Müller.^58
(Narrative 12 [KONO]) Nasret. According to Art Dayton of the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS), who interrogated her and prepared her
for her role as a double, Su’ad Saadet Fatma Nasret was an attractive
24-year-old Iraqi woman who had lived in Istanbul for three years before
being recruited by the Abwehr when they learnt that she was returning to
Iraq to visit her sister in January 1944. Paul Leverkuehn himself gave
Nasret a mission to carry out in Iraq, to which she consented. Once in
Baghdad, beginning in February–March 1944, she was to act as a cutout
for data, reports, and communications from Persia and Basra destined for


ADRIAN O’SULLIVAN

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