Niceties & Treachery. - Comments (0)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 14th September, 2006 @ 04:55:15 AM

At the first, solicting help from Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel was confusing and complex, to say the least. It took a whole series of calls, and perhaps a couple of weeks to get any attention to my problem. After a few weeks passed without formal protest to the Kenyan government, I knew I was in trouble. In fact, the battle was 90% lost by then.

To this day, the US Government has not protested to the Kenyan government about the expropriation. In fact, it seems to have joined the Kenyan government in covering it up.

I was finally received by Senator Hagel’s office, because I met, by telephone, a young woman from Nebraska whose father competed against my small high school in sports back in the day. She saw to it that my matter was escalated to Senator Hagel’s Chief of Staff Lou Ann Linehan, who – apparently grudgingly – assigned it to Dr. Andrew Parasaliti, Senator Hagel’s legislative assistant for foreign affairs. He is regarded academically as one of the foremost experts on the subject of Iraq.

Parasiliti is a very likeable fellow, despite being a Red Sox fan. He has none of the ostentation and arrogance regularly exercised by accomplished acedemics, and so probably would be the kind of Professor from whom a good student would learn much.

Parasiliti and I seemed to bond well, despite my overt Christianity, and Yankees partiality. He worked as a liaison between Hagel and the State Department. Little did I know, however, how inextricably linked to the State Department Hagel was (is), and how much more likely it was that the efforts of his office be more about sustaining its bad behavior than redressing my grievance when it came to a choice.

As a student of the Bible, I have become aware of exactly how these matters develop, simply because I {pay attention to the Scriptures|Psa 119:99}, specifically to the book of Daniel.

When Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrack, Meshach, and Abed Nego) were thrown into the fiery furnace, it was the work of congressional aides. when Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, it was the work of congressional aides. A gallows was prepared for Mordecai by a congessional aide.

The lesson: you can’t trust congessional aides. The trappings of power and influence attract the petty smiling Iago’s, who perversly affect meaner men than Othello.

“Hypocrisy,” is a word poorly understood. Many misuse it to castigate moral failure, so one is called a “hypocrite” if one teaches to tell truth, and yet lies. That is not what a hypocrite is, at least in the Bible sense. That is merely a sinner.

A “hypocrite” is one who pretends to be an ally – a play actor – when in fact an enemy. The behavior itself is demonic. Certainly not all of Senator Hagel’s office fit this bill: in fact, few did. But when one or two adopt this stance, and othes fear, it dictates a relationship.

Parasaliti was no hypocrite with me. In fact, his genuineness often outshined his brightness. Only now do I realize the effort he must have exerted to balance sincerity with me against the mendacity of Luann Linehan, the State Department apologist. But Parasaliti’s agenda was neither mine, nor his own. In retrospect, I can see that his work was to keep me “manageable” why plying the Kenyans with powerless “tact” and “reason.”

Through Parasaliti, Hagel’s office was being nice. Ineffective, but “nice.” The treachery would show up when Parasaliti left.

Parasaliti did his best to comprehend the issue, but was substantially fragmented. I called him and mailed him countless times to stimulate activity. He liaised with the State Department, which, except for a single person, opposed me with vehemence. They did this partly, in my view, due to my Christianity. The rest of the reason was to cover up their own failure. To this they were committed.

When I finally met Parasiliti in person, he arranged a meeting at the Kenyan Embassy withe the Kenyan Ambassador, a fellow named Ngaithe. Ngaithe was an extremely rude fellow who spoke with contempt concerning the United States. Due to my experience in Kenya, I knew him to be of the “lewd fellow(s) of the baser sort” – a parking boy quality thug with connections.

He was a guy with a phony education, a political reward, and little integrity. And, for a very short while, he was the Kenyan ambassador to the US, and a couple other North American countries.

He was exactly the sort of fellow the drunken Kenyan President Kibaki, who I used to watch drown himself at the Ngong Hills Hotel with a series of mid-afternoon beers, surrounded himself following his election. Ngaithe was recalled from his post last year for sexually harrassing an embassy worker.

While Parasaliti went through the motions of establishing Kenyan intransigence in his own mind – something I had already concluded – a fellow in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, Don Yamamoto, the Deputy Assistant Secretary, was seeing things clearly.

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