The delinquent 95 Libyan soldiers’ story is real life imitating art

Hell, this reminds me of the book THE GARGOYLE CONSPIRACY by Marvin H. Albert that I read every festive season.

By Jojokhala Mei

For over a month our heads swirled to the frenzied news that 95 unruly Libyan soldiers blew their own cover in a military-style training camp conveniently tucked under our thick Bushveld.

 Eventually what stuck to me was Media24’s headline screaming: Arrested soldiers were Libyan army’s ‘PROBLEM CHILDREN’. Then part of the article read:

When [The head of Libyan opposition forces, General Khalifa Hafter’s] soldiers succumb to substance abuse or other misconduct, he sends them elsewhere for rehabilitation. … However, … they began selling their belongings to the local community for alcohol or drug money. When the police raided the camp, they seized drugs such as cocaine.

 Only last Tuesday parliament heard that the group were official Libyan soldiers, but whatever the ever- twisting truth turns out to be, it brought back to mind a hefty political thriller I’d picked up a decade or so ago from a second-hand pavement bookseller blocking my way down bustling Joubert Street in the Johannesburg Central Business District. Not too far from the drill hall where I recently caught a capital city- bound taxi to end up at our National Weather Services observatory on a farm.  But the Drill Hall is better known for hosting the first 1960s political treason Trial salvo, and no one should blame the next generation if the squalor is demolished, because we dropped the heritage ball first.

 Hell, I’ve read THE GARGOYLE CONSPIRACY by Marvin H. Albert each and every festive season downtime ever since. That’s how well-plotted and paced it is, not mention how generously riveting all the background political history is dished out; the publishers had to encase it to last a lifetime in hardcover, plus a cheeky dustcover.

The story’s obsessively neat throat-slasher, Bel Jahra, assembles a Libyan commando to assassinate both the US State Secretary and the whole King of Jordan at a single secret night party on the French Riviera.

Bel Jahra’s reconnaissance made sure the first guerilla :

Was an expert marksman with a revolver, Two of the members would have to be equally expert.  … the fifth guerilla would have to be, like Driss Hammou,  capable of killing a child without an instant’s hesitation.

Marvin H. Albert notes:

The five members of Bel Jahra’s first commando unit arrived in Nice over the next two days. They settled in five furnished rooms which Driss Hammou had rented for them, and in a different part of the Old Town. … A large part of the population is North African. The five guerillas had no trouble blending into the general atmosphere.

With the stage set, magician Marvin H. Albert continues:

Bel Jahra began rebriefing Hammou and the five guerillas in the mountains twenty miles from Nice. For three straight hours he hammered questions at each of them in turn – making certain that each knew exactly every step of his individual job, and had a detailed mental image of the place in which he would have to accomplish it.

 The same goes for the second guerilla group:

One by one the five guerillas in Bel Jahra’s second commando group came down the ladder going quickly to the [yacht] Shalimar’s big cockpit . Each had a canvass pack stripped on his back, containing weapons, ammunition,  grenades, a 24 hour supply of dry food rations, and water. Plus quick energy pills to be taken before the moment of the assault the following night ….: Beel Jahra silently gripped each guerilla\s hand in turn, poking into their faces.  In each he saw an eager, nervous excitement.

 What had brought the second commando group onto the scene was a classic thriller twist  of  misfortune, reminiscent of  John le Carr and Mandla Langa, when the first commando  group came under  the sharp police eye: 

Bel Jahra could feel unknown forces closing in around him.  … Where was the leak? … It was for some such eventuality afterall, that he had insisted on having a second commando group prepared. … On rue France the Arabs entered the alley leading to the rear of the garage. . … when the white Simcat left the garage it was  loosely bracketed by the two surveillance cars . No one in the Simca seemed to notice. … At the Mid-East Airlines counter they picked up six tickets that were waiting for them. Half an hour later all six were airborne in a 707 jet on its way to Beirut. There was nothing anyone could do to stop them.

LIKE YOU DID LAST SUNDAY SOUTH AFRICA, LIFT YOUR HANDS A WAVE. SMILE. PLEASE.