42 AMERICAN SPYBut later, in July 1994, I learned that Peter Galbraith, the US ambas-
sador to Croatia, had quietly suggested to Croatian president Franjo
Tudjman that he should permit Iranian arms shipments to transit Croatia
en route to Bosnia. This suggestion violated official US policy, as well as the
UN arms embargo on the whole of the former Yugoslavia, but since the
orders had apparently come from President Clinton and National Security
Adviser Anthony Lake, Galbraith complied in implementing this secret
and arguably illegal policy.
I inadvertently found out about this secret order from my principal
contact in Zagreb, who was then head of the new Croatian security service.
A philosophy major in college, “Ivan” was a quiet, mousy, sad-eyed “book-
worm” who mumbled so softly when he spoke that I had to lean in to
within inches of his face in order to understand him. This was especially
challenging if our meeting was held in a noisy, smoke-filled Zagreb restau-
rant or when driving in a car.
Our conversations were in Croatian, which is nearly but not quite
identical to Serbian, which I spoke fluently. When Ivan became head of
the security service, he automatically became a general in the Croatian
Army, so the professorial Ivan was typically and incongruously attired in
a military uniform. He was bright and capable, and always kind and hos-
pitable to me (as were all of his Croatian security service colleagues), but
it struck me that if ever there was a fish out of water, it was General Ivan.
During one meeting in Zagreb in the summer of 1994, when I was
there TDY for a few weeks, Ivan dropped a bombshell. He trusted me—I
was his first CIA contact when we established our first official relationship
during the war. The CIA also educated the new Croatian service in how to
operate a security service in a democracy, a novel concept for the former
Communist and generally authoritarian Croatians.
“H. K., there’s something I need to tell you,” Ivan whispered in Croa-
tian one night during a car meeting. “Remember how we worked together
to intercept that Iranian arms shipment? Well, Ambassador Galbraith just
told our president [Franjo Tudjman] that Croatia should now quietly permit
Iranian arms shipments to pass through our country to Bosnia, undisturbed.”
“Ivan,” I said, “I believe there must be some misunderstanding. Our
ambassador would never recommend a policy that was not only illegal, but
idiotic. Is it possible President Tudjman misunderstood?”