1. ConOff’s Suspicions are Aroused
- Author:
- Michael Mates
- Publication Date:
- 02-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- American Diplomacy
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- As a newly minted vice consul at Embassy Islamabad, I interviewed high-ranking generals, scholars, and artists as well as those from the other end of the spectrum—the peasant with no English planning a marketing survey for local sandals in the USA, the convicted rapist who wanted a refusal in order to avoid a court summons, the oily types with no bank statements and dollops of gold nestling on their chest-fur. The cool mendacity of some applicants took the breath away. But it was the multifaceted complexity of fraudulent efforts to gain undeserved benefits via fiddled documents that fascinated us most. One of the most fascinating was the case of a drug-smuggler who claimed to have been born in Montana to a Sierra Leonean mother.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Memoir, and Smuggling
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan and United States of America