by Daniel Kemp
“The disciples of the Druze religion maintain a lifestyle of isolation where no conversion is allowed, either out of, or into, the religion. When Druze live among people of other religions, they try to blend in, in order to protect their religion and their own safety. They can pray as Muslims, or as Christians, depending on where they are.
“Under the terms of an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, the Chief of the General Military Staff must be a Druze. In August last year the head of the Maronite Catholic Church met with the Druze leader of the General Staff, Walid Jumblatt and the two of them reconciled the differences between their denominations after the bloody war they fought against each other in the early 80s. After extensive discussions with a highly respected Egyptian American journalist based in New York who shares Mayler's Druze faith and his Rosicrucian morality, it has become Henry Mayler's objective to take what he considers to be his ancestral race of people, the Assyrians, to a higher and more materialistic plain assisted by the Chief of the General Military Staff of Lebanon. And if I can have your attention for a little while longer I will try to explain how he means to accomplish that and where we fit in.”
His last sentence left me with an ominous foreboding feeling but coupled with a sense of relief, as I think I always knew we, the intelligence service of GB, would have a hand in the unveiling.
“In the 1830s, Armenians who occupied high diplomatic posts within their country joined masonic lodges during their trips to Europe and did not conceal this fact. The motive for that was to use close ties with the European intellectuals in order to solve various issues of concern for the Armenians inside the Ottoman Empire. In fact, during those years it was common practice for Armenians to form their own Masonic Lodges as a protest against the Turkish rule. At around the time of this happening an English company called The Levant Company was trading in many cities and on many fronts within the Ottoman Empire. Not only was it concerned with commercial trade, it was used as an instrument of the British government to spread its gospel throughout the region. As far back as the collapse of the Ottoman Empire it was this country's policy to establish itself in Azerbaijan as well as Armenia. Our policy advocated that all of what is now known as Karabakh should be part of Azerbaijan until the boundaries could be decided upon peacefully. Surrounding regions listened to us. It was that kind of brawn that forced Great Britain's foot inside the Armenian Masonic Lodges and one of the reasons why the intelligence services of this country became home for Henry Mayler.
“It is difficult and perhaps even impossible to find Henry's connection to Assyria. He was a great student of history when at Oxford so it could have started in those hallowed libraries, but the only certain place I can point to where it may have gained a foothold in his mind was when he first met and worked with the journalist in New York that I've already mentioned. At this point of time I will not name her. It's not necessary, and it may influence your opinion as I believe you have some damaging information on the presidential candidate, Tucker Stoneman, who is a personal friend of hers. She backs Stoneman's campaign using a trust fund from the Cayman Islands. It is her husband's money. He is a leading Assyrian in the Assyrian Democratic Movement who has been a target of the Saddam Hussein Iraqi Ba'ath regime for many years. He is also one of those I suspect to be in the circle of eight. Here is an opportunity to add another hypothesis—perhaps this Assyrian funding could be one reason to explain the current President of America's thinking towards Iraq. After all, the Bush family are certainly not far removed from my inner circle by their accumulated wealth. By now, Patrick, you can see part of the complexity of this international defining affair.
“The policies of Hussein's Bathists have long been mirrored in Turkey, whose governments have refused to acknowledge the Assyrians as an ethnic group and have attempted to Turkify the Assyrians living inside Turkey's borders by calling them Semitic Turks and forcing them to adopt Turkic names. In Syria too, the Assyrian/Syriac Christians have faced enormous pressure to identify as Arab Christians and not Assyrian Christians for centuries. It could be that Henry formed an affinity to those being persecuted through the books that he read, and it was in Oxford that he began to focus on forming an autonomous area known as the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenians and Assyrians alike.”
“It's the second time you have mentioned it and I know that name of Karabakh. Henry was sent to Syria to follow a man by that name, was he not?”
“Not quite, no, Patrick. That was the name he gave you and Hardballs before you, but that was not the man's name. Karabakh was just another sign or semiotics integrated into Rosicrucian symbolism. And as you should know by now all branches of Freemasonry has a myriad of symbolism, some old some new. And then we come to biggest symbol of all; the nucleus of worldwide Masonic Fraternity—
We speak unto you by parables, but would willingly bring you to the right, simple, easy and ingenuous exposition, understanding, declaration, and knowledge of all secrets.
“What the bloody hell does that load of tosh actually mean, Fraser?” I asked, feeling the effects of the drink more than I would normally.
“That's where we are heading, laddie. Be assured of that.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I'm just a good listener, Patrick, haven't you noticed?”
Chapter Thirty-Three: The First Third of The Finale
The Henry Mayler Story
Henry Mayler drove the knife through Fyodor Nazarov Razin's left eye and into his brain whilst the Russian slept. There was no spark of suspicion in Fyodor's mind that Mayler harboured vicious thoughts towards him; after all had he not answered his Rosco's friend's call for help in escaping from the English? Why should he be wary? But fate has a way of playing the cards that are hiding from the view of mortals, slamming them down onto the baize to win the hand.
Razin's withdrawal from the game was going to end this way ever since Henry saw the murderous stiletto blade shimmering in the dancing flame at the press corps camp when Fyodor pretended to be Oban Raikkonen from Finland. Razin had been good at keeping his identity unknown to Mayler up till that point. He had to be good as nobody knew then what Henry's true convictions were when it came to politics. Henry was unsure of them himself. He was aware that he was different from others around him from the time he began to form a memory. One of his first recollections was always being surrounded by older people rather than children of his own age, whom he was seldom allowed to mix with. His education came in the shape of elders teaching him the meaning behind images for the construction of his body, mind and soul. The triangular threefold that God is one God, but three coeternal consubstantial persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit was the uppermost teaching in his education.
If that was not enough to concentrate on, there was the mystical ideas preached by a fraternity called Rosicrucians who stood and applauded when a Rosey Cross was tattooed on his hand. His embryonic inspiration was drawn from the simple symbols of the tools of stonemasons—the square and compasses, the level and plumb rule, the trowel, and others on a mesmerising list. A moral lesson was attached to each of these tools and the meaning behind the symbols was continually taught and explored through the Masonic rituals and levels. Numbers were coated in divinity only to be mentioned in a solemn voice with respect etched on each multiple of three.
An image of a skull with crossed bones underneath was not the representation of toxic waste it became, it was Henry's symbol of mortality and his very own hourglass pointing to the brevity of his mortal existence. Bread and water indicated simplicity to his mortal soul. And a painted rooster standing proud above them all, symbolised the alchemical principle to the philosopher's stone which represented the other trinity of faith, hope and charity. These lessons had to be learned before tackling anything of an academic nature. Henry's only understanding of the word groomed, was in regard to clothing. However, his tutors understood a different meaning, one whe
re it was their choice of his fate.
* * *
Oxford became his place of adjustment from a follower of the mystical to a devotee of an ancient faith and the Egyptian teachings of an age called Zep Tipi. So were sown the first seeds of the madness that remained fertile inside Henry Mayler's mind, waiting to be saturated by more demonic visions of massacres shown to him in a superlative fashion which turned words into pictures and pictures into destiny. The roots of Henry Mayler's genesis lay in the holocaust of Armenians by the Turks and the genocide of Assyrians by Turks allied to Arab nations, learned not just from the prosaic history books in Oxford libraries, but later from the lyrics of a Lebanese journalist his preordained path was designed to meet.
* * *
Henry signed with British Intelligence because it seemed to be the easiest of ways for him to obtain more knowledge and secrets of the outside world. He liked Fraser Ughert and he especially liked Bernard Higgins. Lovely Bernard with his colourful braces and spotty bow ties. He was almost blind without those beefy spectacles of his and he was cheap. Ate like a mouse, did Bernard, and as he visualised his ex-lover, Bernard began to resemble one.
'Funny that,' he thought. 'It never occurred to me when he was alive. Mind you, mouse or not, I had no trust in Bernard from the start. I knew he had a Russian contact whom he was feeding the stuff I meant for Ughert only, but what the hell. I liked him, and after all the Russian fought against the Ottoman Empire in the war and protected the Armenians after it finished. I owe them something. But Bernard had no loyalty. Along comes a husky American Afrikaner and Bernard jumps into his bed as soon as say whistle. Yes, I'm pleased I told the Americans about Bernard and, what's more, I have no regrets about them both being dead. Had I known that Bernard's Russian was the same Fyodor Nazarov Razin I ran into when he was pretending to be a Finnish war correspondent, then maybe things might have been different had it not been his bullet that slammed into my leg at Al Hasakeh. Yes, I knew it was he who shot me. And I knew from that day that I would have to kill him.
'I made up the story I told to the English because I wanted to see where the Russian would lead me and where the English would abandon me. The Russian told me that he could have killed me either inside the bazaar or outside in the streets of Al Hasakeh, but didn't feel like it. Shot me as a warning, he said. But I think it was because I fell over just as he fired. He'd said he could have let the suicide bomber deliver the bomb and blow me to kingdom come that day in Khost, but he added he didn't want to—it was a bad vibes day. Said he might kill me later, the arrogant fool. It was always, later, little Rosco, with him. But later never arrives for fools. He had served his usefulness to me by the time I killed him. I knew what he wanted, and once you know what a fool wants you can string him along until you've had enough fun. He knew I had a friend in America who was a candidate to become President and he knew I had a journalist friend whose husband supported that American. He also knew I had heard of a secret file named Gladio B.
'I hadn't been told by London to follow a man named Karabakh when I arrived in Syria. The name I had was Abel Hassad. I substituted the name of Karabakh to see who out of the two British Josephs I saw knew the significance of the word. The first Joseph, the English queer, did not take much to entice and once I had him I simply dangled sex in his face to get the phone I wanted and everything else he could provide. He was easy, but Elijah was not. I could tell he knew the name of Karabakh. The second Joseph was not a man to turn. That too was obvious. With him there was no way I was going to leave England peaceably. He was one of those who cuts open the toothpaste tube to scrape it all out.
'Fydo, the Russian, came as fast as the car he had would go when I phoned him. He was tripping over his waggling tongue on the way to where I knew a photographer lived and I needed to buy time. Tell me this, tell me that, tell me it all, little Rosco, and I'll put you in the first-class seat next to me on the plane to Canada. Why would I want to go to freezing Canada? Why would I want to go with a Russian bear like him? That was just another story for a pair of Josephs to believe and an Elijah to know better. No, I wanted the warmth found in revenge. The new era for Assyrians and Armenians, they would be the receivers of the world my friendship with the watchers would build.'
* * *
Over the years of the association Henry enjoyed with his Lebanese, American born and New York based war correspondent, the pictures she planted in Henry's mind were the ones he used as his cornerstone of his own Solomon's Temple to the Rosicrucian fraternity. The concentration she evolved inside Henry's psyche towards the cruelty of the Ottoman Empire was swayed by her references to newspaper reports of the English fight against the oppressor whilst the Americans sat in their consulates in Turkey looking on and complaining of the slaughter of one and half million Armenian Christians but lifting not one finger to alter the course of history. Worse was to follow in her rhetoric. Some ambassadorial Germans who watched the atrocities made notes to use when butchering Jews in a similar, barbarous way twenty odd years on. Surely someone had to pay? he asked of the wise and influentially placed newswoman who responded with her interpretation of the meaning to the Masonic word Vitriol—
Look within yourself to find the truth my little Rosicrucian.
He peered deep inside, inviting the Unitarian side of his ancient Druze faith to take control of his earthly soul, turning inwards to construct his conviction towards the persecuted Assyrians and fellow Armenians not recognised by other countries.
Henry Mayler may have found the temporal home for the purpose to his life from the tools and drawings his journalist mentor provided to solve the puzzle that racked his brain and ate at his soul, but they came with a heavy price. Her husband supported a rival to the incumbent President of the country he hated; however her husband was a wanted man by a mad dictator of another country. But, said our worldwide journalist, if Henry Mayler was to align with her husband, it would be his money that built the bricks to the visionary Elysium field that Henry dreamt of for his displaced Assyrians. Before he could deliver the final part required for an invasion and death to the pretender's enemy, Mayler's teachings told him he needed a Russian out of the way.
* * *
Tucker Stoneman was the man with access to the Panamanian bank accounts waiting to oust the incumbent and sit behind the White House desk, unfolding the pages of Gladio B as did so. The opening page of Tucker's version was entitled Iraq, and there Henry would find the oil on which the green pastures of Nagorno-Karabakh would be founded.
* * *
Henry caught a flight to Istanbul then one to Erbil. From there he was escorted to the Iraqi Kurdish village of Sharanish, close to the border of south-eastern Turkey.
“I will remain here in the Church of The East until they all come to celebrate with me as I receive the truth of the thirty-third degree next month on the third day when all the numbers fall into place.”
The Second Third: Fraser Ughert's Story
“Two meetings in New York were the turning point for Henry Mayler. I'm going to start at the second one. The one at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York on the Saturday following Razin and Mayler's exchange of words in Kabul. This was where he met up again with Tucker Stoneman, but met the Russian oligarch Bohdan Dimitriyevich Valescov for the first time. It was from them he received the assurances he wanted for the formation of his version of paradise, his Nagorno-Karabakh. That idea had been planted in his mind ever since he worked on a journalistic assignment as the cameraman to Judith Simonin, a native New Yorker with an Egyptian background who was married to an ambitious Lebanese Assyrian before any of them had a real significance on the world we live in.
“For reasons unclear to me Aaron Simonin, Judith's husband, denounced Saddam Hussein when he return to Iraq in 1963 after a failed assassination attempt on the previous leader of the country. That leader's death prompted Saddam to return whereupon he was arrested because of Simonin's testament. Despite his imprisonment Saddam's stay in prison led to his subsequent rise
in fortune and position, but when he emerged he had not forgotten whose indictment had put him behind bars.
“Judith Simonin's effect on Henry was immense. They worked together on six projects until his last meeting with her on the same weekend as he'd met Valescov and Stoneman. Her husband, Aaron, was present at both meetings. It was he who brokered the deal for the stolen Russian munitions between the Shariat Jamaat group, the militant followers of Zep Tepi in Egypt, and with the Hizbul Mujahideen in Afghanistan. It was through his wife's influence within the journalistic world that rumours of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction first started to circulate in the year 2001, following on closely from the whispers she generated about the nuclear ambitions of the Saddam Hussein regime.