In the evening, I had dinner with a man of rank in the Department of Defense. We've been friends for the past year. It's an intermittent friendship - we meet once every month or two. We walk, and eat and drink wine and whisky, and talk about books and philosophy and we practice Dutch because he was once a senior defense official for the U.S. in the Netherlands and likes the chance to take the Dutch out for a stroll. I've been working on my Dutch recently as well, and I enjoy the challenge of trying to understand it conversationally.
Last night, I told him about my writing project. He was disparaging when he believed it was a personal memoir - but he became interested when he realized that this is a data-driven reconstruction of events: that my intention was to contribute meaningful information to the dialogue about the scope and latitude of the Intelligence community.
During dinner, he wanted to know about the events. I told him.
I talked about the privacy violation, the subsequent confrontation; the criminal complaint I had made in the Italian courts, and the informative messages I sent to MIVD and the Netherlands MoD Inspector General. I described my work with the Dutch planners, and the backlash by the Dutch Intelligence community: the slander that had significant consequences for me.
My friend was shocked. "I didn't know," he said. Then he considered for a moment.
"I know the former head of MIVD," he told me. "I'm going to the Netherlands in January. Would you like me to speak to him for you?"
I sat stunned. I didn't know what to say. What would I have this man know? What sort of closure could I get? Would it make a difference or would it make the situation worse?
I have some time to think about it. I think I will ask him to have a conversation. But I don't want to do this unless I have a specific objective I think I can achieve. Would it even be possible to begin to undo the damage that has been done? I really can't hope so - but what a strange coincidence.
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