Modin looked up at Gun Hellberg. She looked a little pathetic when trying to defend her predecessors.
“What choice did they have?” she asked, knowing what Modin was thinking. “A few weeks before a planned visit to Moscow in 1986, Palme asked for a thorough review of Sweden’s submarine defenses. What do you think that implies, Modin? Just imagine if he had revealed the existence of the secret U.S. installations in the Baltic Sea. His giant dream of a nuclear weapon-free zone around the coasts of that sea would have meant an end to the nuclear umbrella provided by NATO. We’d have been left on our own, alone with Norway and Denmark.”
“Assassinating a prime minister is a drastic move,” Modin said
“I can’t disagree. But things like this have happened before.”
“I realize that Palme once was a U.S. agent,” Modin said. “He was what they call an agent of influence. He built Special Ops and was responsible for their cooperation with NATO and the U.S. And he was involved in creating the Stay Behind network, including Crack of Dawn. All at the directive of the CIA. When he finally gained the insight and understood that NATO’s influence on this nation was doing more harm than good, because of the encroachment of submarines in our national waters, he wanted to pull Sweden out. That’s why he gave the orders to burn all the papers referring to the lifeline in the west, the nuclear umbrella provided by NATO. He knew that for every nuclear submarine we allowed to sail around in Swedish waters, the Soviets would come up with a countermove. This meant Golf class subs, carrying nuclear weapons, as well as mobile nuclear weapons in the Baltic States. The Soviets threatened to deploy mines throughout the Swedish archipelagoes—nuclear mines. This was a high stakes game that—in the long run—threatened to destroy the whole world. That’s why he wanted a nuclear weapon-free zone throughout the Scandinavia. Not because he was a Soviet agent, but because he cared about ordinary people. He knew better than to believe in tit-for-tat defense policies. He knew the Russians would never back down. Palme was intelligent. He could see war in his mind’s eye. The Last Battle.”
Gun Hellberg bend down on a small stone at the waterline, squatted as she ran her fingers through the water.
“Something always goes wrong,” she said.
Modin looked up at the sky and was almost blinded by the strong light of dawn. Suddenly he felt dead tired. He was freezing and his legs were shaking as the feeling of nausea was washing over him.
CHAPTER 100
“However you rate Gordievsky’s information, like the suggested attempt by the KGB to influence Palme, it would seem that such claims (i.e., that Palme was a Soviet agent) came to the knowledge of Swedish intelligence and security functions, by way of the bilateral exchange of intelligence data with Great Britain, during the fall of 1985.”
(Peace and Fear, Wilhelm Agrell )
Anton Modin could not let go of the thought that Olof Palme was a double agent. The Security Service must have had more than just a vague suspicion; otherwise they never would have planned a government-sanctioned murder. Or would they? He remembered the dossier marked “P4647 Sven Olof Joachim Palme” he had read in the Security Service archive.
Olof Palme had been studying in the U.S., in the state of Ohio, in 1948 and 1949, which is where he first met his mentor, a future professor at Ohio State University, Professor X, who had worked for U.S. Naval Intelligence between 1940 and 1945. Professor X was a specialist in the field of signals and communications surveillance. After that, he carried out a long list of assignments for the American government.
The dossier contained the essay Suspicions of Crimes against National Security. Professor X ended up working for the CIA after the war as a talent scout for potential agents, and one of these tasks involved influencing the young and promising Olof Palme, who was said to have a brilliant political career ahead of him in Sweden. According to the document, Palme may have become a double agent as soon as he became a successful politician. The defected KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky said as much. It meant that Professor X may also have been working for the KGB.
In a memorandum from MI6, dated October 1985, just a few months before the murder took place, Oleg Gordievsky, who had been a double agent for MI6 and the CIA from 1974 and 1985, reporting to British intelligence while officially working for the KGB, mentioned that Olof Palme was an agent of influence who had been working for the KGB for many years. According to Gordievsky, in the 1970s, Palme was one of the highest ranking operatives they had in Europe. His KGB-contact was a Latvian journalist stationed in Stockholm, Nikolai Neilands. It was all there in the file he had read at the Security archives.
One analyst, Peter MacKay of MI6, had written a full examination of Olof Palme’s life from birth to death, and came to the conclusion that Palme indeed must have been a KGB agent.
CHAPTER 101
“I would strongly call into question the fact that the bullets found after the Palme murder were the ones that killed him. […] They had, in all likelihood been planted. And in that case the man behind the murder can hardly have been a lone lunatic. Quite the contrary. The murderers must have been a unified group of professional killers.”
(Vincent Lange, Head of Swedish Forensics during the Palme murder investigation, in: Kvällsposten, October 29, 1988)
Modin thought about what he had read in the archive. There was no doubt about the fact that the information the Security Service and Special Ops had was sensational. It was a sensation that Palme had been a U.S. agent, but it was an epic earthquake that he also was suspected to have been a KGB agent. What did this mean for his decision-making after 1982 when he became Prime Minister for the second time? Did the Soviets have a hold on him? If so, was it possible for Palme to maintain objectivity in major questions of security policy? Clearly, there had been doubts about his true allegiance, and the situation must have seemed unsustainable. When Palme announced that he was going to visit Moscow in April 1986 to talk to Gorbachev, the military leadership must have felt cornered.
The Minister of Justice had gotten up and walked away. Modin watched her walking over the red sunlit cliffs. She became a dark shadow against the morning sun; a shadow from the Cold War?
But distrust was just that—distrust— and did not prove that Palme had been a conscious traitor. He simply wanted to do good, wanted a better and more peaceful world. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, and many others.
He went over to the bathing ladder near Julia’s sauna, and leaned against it. Palme may never have cared that people thought he was a double agent. Instead, he learned to use these attitudes to his own advantage, as a springboard for his own career, a piece of litmus paper that tested the color of politics at the time. And both, the East and the West helped him. Like a true idealist.
CHAPTER 102
Shall we discuss the metal box now? Where is it? Can I take it with me?” Gun Hellberg squinted up into the sun as she looked at him standing at the ladder.
Modin sat down on the rock near the water’s edge. The water splashed gently and reassuringly against the rocks.
“I want permission to dive down to the wreck of the M/S Estonia.”
“I think that can be arranged,” Minister of Justice Hellberg said, betraying no obvious emotion. “I just have to check with the Estonians and the Finns.”
“That’s not the only thing,” Modin said. He picked up a pebble and weighed it in his hand, not knowing how to put it. “In addition to the money and the permission to dive, I want the tip of Chris Loklinth’s right-hand ring finger in an envelope, sent by certified mail to my address before Midsummer.” He slung the pebble into the water as far as he could. “That’s for Julia. That’s the price for Julia.”
“Excuse me? A finger?”
“A fingertip for Julia’s life. That’s not too much to ask. What I really want to do is kill him, so from my perspective, he’s getting off easy. If he wants his fucking metal box back, this is the price he’ll have to pay. It’s not negotiable.”
Modin got up and walked b
ack to the helicopter without turning around.
“You will get the box back when my demands have been fulfilled.”
CHAPTER 103
GRISSLEHAMN, FRIDAY, JUNE 19
“A top secret intelligence unit within the western military alliance NATO was behind the murder of Olof Palme.”
(Dagens Nyheter, April 28, 1992)
John Axman and Modin were walking toward the kiosk in the center of Grisslehamn on their way to The Rock to eat a herring lunch with some friends.
“How’s your arm, John?”
“It’s okay. I can move my fingers.”
“Good.”
The sun broke through the thick rain clouds; it had a strange yellow color. The air was humid and the ground wet after the recent showers.
This was typical Midsummer weather in Sweden, rain mixed with sunshine. The village was beginning to fill up with young people eager to celebrate, and older mostly retired men eager to have a quiet glass or two of beer. The sidewalk cafés and pubs round the harbor square were crowded with people, and a constant stream of cars cruised along the narrow village road. A police officer was directing the traffic at the crossroads. Most of the people were on their way to the ferry, which had just docked, across to the Åland Isles. Exhaust fumes and damp air mixed with the smell of smoked fish from the stalls and the smell of the honeysuckle bushes that had come into bloom. In the distance, someone was playing tennis and the sailing clubs in the harbor had begun a big party, the highlight of the year for those clothed in white.
“Do you regret what we did, Modin? I mean going after the SOSUS system.”
““I miss Julia,” Modin said. “But what good do regrets do? Julia was a soldier. Followed orders. We tried our best, John—fuck I want to know about the Estonia ferry now. How sick is that?”
“It’s not sick at all, Modin.”
When Modin and Axman were passing the kiosk, Modin read the newspaper placards:
Kayak with man aboard floats ashore in Grisslehamn. Man’s head eaten by fish.
Modin shook his head. Axman snorted. They stopped and looked at Axman’s new motorcycle, a Harley Davidson Night Rod Special, which Modin had brought to him when Axman was released from the hospital.
The black custom built motorcycle was surrounded by young boys. Axman got his fifteen minutes of fame before hunger caught up with them and they entered the restaurant. They could already hear the jukebox when they climbed the stairs to the restaurant. It was playing “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses.
A lump formed in Modin’s throat. He stopped in the doorway. He didn’t know whether he would be able to listen to the whole song: Julia’s song,
Bergman’s daughter Astrid came rushing up to him.
“Anton, come on. We’re eating smoked flounder. Mom’s here.”
They were all there. Modin hugged Ewa hard, then Bill Bergman and Nuder.
Modin felt faint. He could see he had come to a memorial evening for Julia Steerback, his childhood sweetheart and friend, his summer lover and mentor in intelligence.
His inside pocket held a certified letter from Special Ops. In it was Chris Loklinth’s bloody fingertip. It was wrapped in plastic foil so it would not leave a stain on his summer jacket.
Soviet stamp released after the murder in 1986
“Olof Palme was, as I judged it, a double agent, a so-called agent of influence for both the CIA and the KGB. First the CIA, then double agent for the KGB.”
(Interview with Olof Frånstedt,
head of Swedish counter-espionage, Security Service 1967-78)
“I don’t think he (Palme) was fully recruited at the time of his death. That was supposed to take place in Moscow in April 1986; a month after his death.”
(2012 interview with Security Service officer Stig Bergling,
convicted GRU spy.)
“The Swedish policy of neutrality should be non-negotiable. You have to be able to trust the Swedish alliance free policy.”
(Speech by Olof Palme a few years before his death)
Please visit www.jallai.com for background information.
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Deep State
The most secretive organization in Sweden operates without any accountability to the Swedish people, hiding in the shadows: the Deep State.
Anton Modin, a former Military Intelligence Special Ops officer, is obsessed with exposing his former employer and boss, the ever present and enigmatic Lieutenant Colonel Chris Loklinth. Modin lost loved ones, his two children and beloved wife, in the M/S Estonia ferry disaster in 1994. In great despair, even 14 years later, he still accuses his former department, Special Ops, to have had a part in the accident. What he doesn’t know is that since the end of World War II, Special Ops has been cooperating closely with both the American CIA and the British MI6; together these organizations represent the Deep State. Something deeply secret in the kingdom of Sweden.
Under Water
“The scars had not healed, and for that reason he thought it was right and necessary. He wanted to have another shot at what went wrong in 1994, when he asked his family to stay in the cabin while he went to see what was happening up on deck. Once he had left, there had been no return. He would make good for it now, after 16 years of pain, nightmares, and anxiety. He was going to check out the hole the explosion had made in the bow of the ferry, so he’d finally know why the ship sank so fast—faster than he could have imagined.
This was going to be his first mission. The briefcase was second.
One hundred and sixty feet. His diving computer beeped. They would soon be able to make out the wreck. He shone his flashlight straight downward, then forward, and for a moment, he thought he could make out an orange lifeboat.” (Under Water, chapter 139)
Under Water, is the third and final book in Anders Jallai’s Anton Modin trilogy. Often compared to Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, many call Anders Jallai’s Under Water the best political thriller ever written in Sweden.
Enemy of the State (Anton Modin Book 2) Page 38