A Life Amid Spies

In part two of her series, former State Department official and human rights advocate Roberta Cohen recalls her effort to stop a CIA op in Ethiopia that risked the life of a friendly local official

Mengistu Haile Mariam served as the murderous pro-USSR Ethiopian head of state from 1977 to 1991, when, with the help of the CIA, he fled to Zimbabwe, where he still lives today despite an Ethiopian court verdict in absentia that found him guilty of genocide.

Author’s Note: If you choose a career in international human rights, expect the intelligence community to show up at your doorstep. Sometimes their agents will wine and dine you if they think you could serve their interests. Other times, they will intimidate and harm you if they think you could be a threat. Usually they are indifferent to the consequences of their actions. These are my stories.

THE ONLY PERSON I EVER THREATENED IN MY LIFE was the CIA station chief in Addis Ababa, back in the 1980s.

The Reagan administration, which took office in January 1981, spoke of “unleashing” the CIA worldwide, which I would soon see led to reckless programs in Ethiopia.

Its government was a Marxist-Leninist military dictatorship aligned with the Soviet Union. Posters of Lenin hung everywhere and security was tight. My husband, David A. Korn, was the chief of mission (or permanent chargé d’affaires—there was no ambassador) and the political environment was hostile.

The regime had expelled the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), the soft power arm of U.S. foreign policy that used cultural exchanges to promote a friendly view of America by local populations. Nonetheless, I soon witnessed something that made me think an American public affairs program could flourish amid the official chill.