Page:Documents from the Den of Espionage.djvu/34

 Tehran, Iran November 29, 1978

The Honorable T. L. Eliot, Jr. 6601 Virginia View Ct, Washington, D.C. 20016

Dear Ted:

Thanks for your letter of November 20. I have referred to the consular business of Lou Goelz and assume that he can be helpful to your Afghan friend. I gather, however, that all these Afghan displaced persons have to be handled through the INS office in Athens. Therefore, she will probably be referred to Athens in order to ? the proper processing to carry her onward.

Speaking of Afghans, we recently saw Ambassador Malikiar and one of his daughters. As you may know, the one who had been married to Daoud's son has arrived in Tehran and will have to undergo additional surgery because she apparently still has at least two bullets lodged in her body. It seems to have been a minor miracle that she survived the machine-gunning which killed all the rest of her family. Unfortunately, Leila is still in Kabul and it is questionable whether she will be permitted to leave in order to join the rest of the family.

I am sure, at this stage, that you are busy in your preparations to move to Medford and take over Fletcher. As I have told you before, I consider Fletcher very fortunate in having you as the new boss. At the same time, I am more than a little dismayed to learn about the casual manner in which the Foreign Service let you go. I am glad that at least Henry had the good sense to share my sense of loss at your departure.

We are currently facing the test of strength which we expect to emerge from Moharram. I personally have confidence in the good sense of the Persian people and don't