CHAPTER 3
SREBRENICA MADNESS
Y
ou are about to read a fictional but realistic cable exchange between
a lone CIA operations officer, behind enemy lines in Sarajevo, and
CIA headquarters, in the wake of the horrific Srebrenica massacre of July- The exchange is based in part on actual secure satellite phone com-
munications I had with CIA headquarters during my TDY to Sarajevo
before, during, and after the fall of Srebrenica, and also on other actual
cable exchanges throughout my CIA career. I reported on the Srebrenica
massacre from Sarajevo, relying on Bosnian sources. “Cables” are what
the CIA calls secret, encrypted “emails” between/among field stations
and CIA headquarters. The CIA has utilized cables since long before the
internet and email were available to ordinary civilians.
I do not possess and cannot publish actual CIA cables, but I’ve created
this exchange for two reasons. One, the first cable’s reported details of
what transpired at Srebrenica are largely factual and not widely known or
remembered by the public. This will serve as a reminder and shed some
unpleasant light on the worst atrocity committed in Europe since World
War II. (For those readers who want a visual reminder, a New Zealand–
based Bosnian rapper known as Genocide captured the horror in a music
video called “Srebrenica—Never Again.”) Two, the cable exchange is real-
istic, in form and in substance, and illuminates the bureaucratic madness
that often accompanies covert operations of historic importance. Sure,
you may be risking your life in a war zone to report critical intelligence to
Washington, but you’ll need to go back and get a receipt if you want reim-
bursement for the black-market gasoline you purchased from a roadside
vendor en route to the killing fields.
What follows, then, are the two cables.
The first cable is from the chief of station (COS) in Sarajevo to CIA
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