The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

Chapter 4:Kabul Hotel. The Mystery of Room 117In the early morning of Wednesday, February 14, KGB operative Leonid Biryukov,working undercover as a TASS correspondent, arrived in the center of Kabul to meet hisAfghan friend. The friend was not his agent, but he eagerly shared information withBiryukov, as did most other Afghans, who were sincerely attracted to Soviet citizens. It ispossible that those Afghans thought that all Soviet citizens living in Kabul were intelligenceoperatives and therefore believed that assisting them in any possible way was almost apersonal duty. You help the all-powerful Soviets and they in return would help you.Leonid’s friend was one of the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Information whomonitored the Afghan Information Agency. However, as soon as the two settled down inthe office near Hotel Spinzar and started an unhurried morning tea ceremony, the Afghanhost was called away to take an urgent telephone call. He returned in an agitated state.“Please forgive me, Comrade Biryukov,” the Afghan apologized, “but the Americanambassador Adolph Dubs has just been captured by unknown persons. He is being heldhostage at the Kabul Hotel.”Biryukov issued a whistle. “Well, this is quite some news.” He dialed the number ofthe Soviet embassy. They had no knowledge of the incident with Dubs.That morning, the head of the American embassy had exited his residence, located inthe elite district of Shahr-e naw, and walked towards his car as usual. Dubs was anexperienced bureaucrat who had jumped through all the necessary hoops to become theAmerican ambassador to Kabul. The KGB believed that he had a certain relationship with289