‘And how is Baghdad this morning, sir?’
‘Hotting up as usual, Ashe. Now let’s leave small-talk for small people. I’ve recently had the pleasure of a meeting with Lee Kellner at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.’
‘Big talk, sir?’
‘Amusing but irrelevant, Ashe. Time is of the essence. Among other things discussed was my concern that your friend Sherman Beck is not sharing candy. Lee assured me he doesn’t let Beck in on everything, so what I have to say to you…’
‘Understood, sir.’
‘Right. First question. Did the CTC have a lead on al-Qasr’s current whereabouts? Kellner tried fobbing me off with some drivel about four different sightings of a stranger with a bearded kidnap victim.’
‘Bearded? Hardly a distinction in the East!’
‘Quite. I warmed him up after that: possible sighting in south Waziristan; another in Aiwaz, Pakistan; another near Kandahar; and one on the Iraqi–Syrian border. None confirmed, but all being followed up. I thanked Lee politely. We then proceeded to the business of the day: tracking down bin Laden. He’s still top of the list, Ashe. In this matter, British and US cooperation has proved fruitful. You may recall Brigadier Radclyffe from your nasty experience at the Tower. He was on hand to observe US special forces training. Something was being cooked up with Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence. Kellner couldn’t be entirely open with the ISI. In some respects, the ISI is a security liability. So Kellner looked to me for support there.’
‘Anything come out of that, sir?’
‘You’re ahead of me, Ashe. Kellner informed me about mobile phone intercepts linking bin Laden with a certain “al-Qasr”. This revelation should add a fresh dimension to your investigation.’
‘I should say so, sir.’
‘One last thing. It didn’t pass by me what Kellner let slip to you in Washington.’
‘About Israeli intelligence, sir?’
‘Mati Fless. Name mean anything to you?’
‘Matthias Fless of the Mossad? Old acquaintance.’
‘And recently released from CTC custody.’
‘Custody? Where held, sir?’
‘Chicago. Arrested in California while on a mission. The Mossad deny all knowledge of course. And some mission, Ashe! Seems Fless was trying either to kill or kidnap Professor Sami al-Qasr.’
‘Why the hell didn’t Beck tell me?’
‘You didn’t ask. That was the reason Lee gave. And I had to accept it, and so will you. Keep up the good work, Ashe!’
Karla slapped a note down onto Ashe’s desk.
‘Right, I’ll take it.’ Ashe picked up the phone. ‘That you, Julian?’
‘Sorry ’bout the delay, Toby. I found a few things. Could be useful. By the way, if the line goes funny, it’s because I’m walking up Drury Lane. I couldn’t make this call from inside Grand Lodge.’
‘Understood. Julian, I’ve read the copy of the speech.’
‘Nice, isn’t it?’
‘Why do you think the Grand Sec sat on it?’
‘You should see the draft memo I found.’
‘Found?’
‘You could say that. From the Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England to the current Grand Master of the Grand Temple of Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey. Hold on a second.’
Julian Travers stopped outside the box office for Cats and manoeuvred a packet of Silk Cut towards his mouth.
‘And?’
‘Just a second.’
Travers lit the cigarette. ‘Phew! Now, to cut a long story short, our Grand Secretary concluded, after discussion with the Librarian of UGLE and others, that, first, the history outlined in the Baba Sheykh’s speech was highly spurious—’
‘Spurious? It’s bloody good!’
‘And, second, that it might be bad news for the Masonic status quo in Turkey.’
‘Why?’
‘Masonic politics. Except, Toby, in Turkey, Masonic politics has, in the past, overlapped with state politics.’
‘In what sense?’
‘Freemasonry is controversial in Turkey. There’s a population of 70 million, and only about 14,000 Masons. Nevertheless, Turks know what small numbers of well-organised people can do. In the minds of some people who resent the secular Turkish state, modern Turkey is the product of a kind of Masonic-influenced coup.’
‘You’re just saying that Masons are associated with secularism. But Masons, as Masons, have no political position at all.’
‘We know that, Toby. But try explaining that to the Islamists. Look, before 1909, Turkey was ruled by a sultan, who ran a Muslim caliphate. Then the so-called “Young Turks” kicked him out. Twenty years later, Turkey had become a secular state, supported mainly by educated metropolitan people, and by the army. Ideas about liberty, equality, fraternity and all that appealed to the educated as being progressive and European: something to work towards in a national context.’
‘Right.’
‘But these same ideas were also enshrined in Grand Orient Freemasonry as Masonic ideals.’
‘So there is a link between secular ideals, Masonry and Turkish politics!’
‘Tricky one. The Young Turks set up a “Committee of Union and Progress” to achieve a new, progressive Turkey. It was from that committee that Mustapha Kemal – Atatürk, father of the Turks – emerged. As far as I know, Atatürk was a Mason.’
‘Jurisdiction?’
‘Atatürk was associated with Italian Grand Orient Lodges in Thessalonica. And it was from members of these Lodges that political opposition to the old sultan, Abdul Hamid, came. Most of the committee were Freemasons, initiated into Grand Orient Freemasonry, based in France and Italy.’
‘And the United Grand Lodge of England does not recognise Grand Orient Freemasonry, does it?’
‘Right, Toby. Because the Grand Orient has been associated with political movements. Also, the Grand Orient system doesn’t require members to believe in God. So, anti-Masons in the East argue that Freemasonry is atheistic and materialistic. In Turkey’s case, Freemasonry’s opponents insist Masonry is political, driving the split between state and faith. Whereas, as I needn’t tell you, Toby, in British Lodges and recognised Lodges abroad, political and religious argument is forbidden, even though belief in the Supreme Being is required.’
‘So, Grand Orient Freemasonry’s secular tendency makes it a natural target for some Turkish Muslim opponents. And they tend to lump all Masonry in with it.’
‘Right, Toby. They see secularism as a calamity for traditional Islamic Turkey. They’d like to turn the clock back. Now, all this conflict over Turkey’s future was vexing for Atatürk, modern Turkey’s founder-hero. So Atatürk side-stepped the issue of Turkey’s religious past by promoting pre-Islamic Turkish identity. He declared that the ancient Turkic peoples were the original Aryans.’
‘The WHAT?’
‘Yeah. He reckoned the Turks were the original Aryans. He reckoned the ancient Greeks got their culture from ancient Turks. Atatürk had a group of selected scholars write this book—’
‘What book?’
‘A book called History. Taught in all Turkish schools. You can still meet people in Turkey familiar with its basic idea.’
‘Which is?’
‘That the Turks are the heroes of world history. The book insists the Turks grew from the first race of scientists and philosophers in the world. In short, Aryan Turks are the source of civilisation. Atatürk transformed the appellation “Turk” into something glorious, something to be proud of. Turkish identity had been a glorious secret that only needed to be uncovered and revived. Well, Masonic ideas of ancient hidden knowledge, and universal brotherhood, can easily get mixed up in all of this. And the United Grand Lodge of England knows this only too well. It does its best to foster the kind of nice, friendly, charity-giving Freemasonry we’re familiar with.’
‘So what’s all this got to do with the Baba Sheykh’s speech?’
‘Look Toby, I can only give you my opinion. You know how important recognition policy is. It’s the only means the United Grand Lodge of England has to exercise a measure of restraint over quasi-Masonic waywardness or error. Freemasonry’s been through a lot of changes in Turkey since the days of the Young Turks. In 1935 Atatürk himself closed the Masonic Lodges because of widespread fears of foreign interference. But after the Second World War, Masons met in their old buildings, though unofficially. Lodges were officially re-opened in the sixties and operated in a national association.
‘But in 1965 this national association split. Some of its members founded the now larger Grand Temple of Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey. This jurisdiction is recognised here in London. It conforms to the English Masonic pattern, and it supports an openness policy. The Lodge attacked in March, in Kartal District, Istanbul, was under this recognised jurisdiction.’
‘I wonder if that was a factor in the bombing? Any other jurisdictions in Turkey, Julian?’
‘I was coming to that. There’s the Liberal Grand Lodge of the Freemasons of Turkey. The Liberal Grand Lodge is in amity with the Grand Orient of France. It doesn’t require any religious statement from its members. They say such a requirement hinders the universality of the aims of Freemasonry. It’s an interesting argument—’
‘It is. But why did London sit on the Baba Sheykh’s speech?’
‘OK. My opinion is that London believed the Baba Sheykh’s speech could be used to undermine the authority of the recognised Grand Temple of Turkish Freemasons.’
‘And presumably of England, too.’
‘I… I suppose so. Hadn’t thought of that.’
‘The reason being, dear Julian, that the Baba Sheykh regards developments in Freemasonry after the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England as deviations from a more profound tradition that stems from the East.’
‘It’s a view. And I’ve got to say, Toby, I have sympathy with the Grand Secretary’s decision to dissociate regular Masons from the speech. This whole question opens up a vast can of worms. Every unrecognised Grand Lodge in the world would love it to be proved that it had as much right to reform itself according to some ancient principle as any other. While some Grand Lodges appear indifferent to London’s claim of premiership, they would not be indifferent to new evidence suggesting the Grand Lodge of England was illegitimate. It could get very messy – and who, really, would benefit?’
‘Not the Grand Lodge, that’s for sure.’
‘Exactly. At the moment, it all works fairly cosily. The Grand Lodge of England doesn’t claim jurisdiction over any other Grand Lodge. If Grand Lodges abroad balls things up, that’s their problem, and London can always – and often does – remove recognition.
‘Look at Turkey, Toby. There, Freemasonry is problematical. Members of the army are associated with it. What if an internal Masonic conflict in Turkey got out of hand? This would be ammunition for every critic and enemy of Freemasonry in Turkey. Anything which puts Freemasonry into the newspapers makes Masons in the army uncomfortable. On the other hand, there are other members of the army, I believe, who are anti-Masonic, associating Masonry with foreign interference. Do you follow me, Toby?’
‘I am experiencing enlightenment, Julian.’
‘Good. I can do no more. At least, I hope you can see that my employers are not entirely to be condemned.’
‘Check.’ Ashe thought for a second. ‘Just one thing, Julian.’
‘Shoot.’
‘From what you’re saying, if the Grand Lodge of England had been able to have everything its own way from its establishment until now, there would never have been a Grand Orient Freemasonry, French or Italian, and therefore, there would never have been a modern, secular Turkish state.’
‘It’s a thought, Toby.’