CIA Affair:
Spy Exchanges In The Making
The PNDC government has been credited with being the first Third World country to have broken a CIA spy network. It looks like Ghana is chalking another first whereby the US will make a spy exchange.As we went to press, there were strong indications that an historic deal was in the process of being made between the United States’ CIA and the PNDC Government of Ghana. Months of delicate negotiations appear to have brought to fruition and a spy-swap deal has been struck between Ghana and the CIA.
Well-placed sources indicate that Michael Agbotui Sousoudis, the cousin of the Ghanaian Head of State, Flt-Lt. Rawlings, who has been on trial in the US on espionage charges as part of the CIA spy scandal, might be about to gain his freedom and be returned to Ghana in exchange for a number of Ghanaians due to be sent to the US.
Last Monday when Michael Sousoudis was brought before the court, the proceedings took a dramatic turn when an Act normally invoked when matters of state security are being discussed before the US Senate, was invoked and the court was cleared of the public and reporters.
When the prosecutors and defence lawyers emerged later, reporters gathered that the proceedings had been suspended pending the outcome of "certain moves" and the case would only be resumed on December 9, 1985 if those "certain moves" did not go according to plan. The dramatic turn of events in the court lent credence to the increasing rumours of a spy-swap deal whereby Sousoudis would be released and some alleged Ghanaian CIA spies would be sent to the USA.
The United States has reportedly given a list of 15 Ghanaians to the authorities and Sousoudis was due to be released in exchange for those 15 people and their families. The US was due to send a plane to the Ivory Coast to collect the people while Michael Sousoudis would be released into the custody of a senior Ghanaian diplomat in Washington DC, who would accompany him to Accra where he would undoubtedly receive a hero's welcome.
Readers would recall that this affair broke out with the announcement that the CIA had arrested Miss Sharon Scranage, a clerk in the CIA, and her Ghanaian lover Mr Michael Sousoudis, thus setting in train a whole chain of events.
As the story went, Miss Scranage was posted to the Accra office of the CIA - i.e. the American Embassy in 1983, and after a while, started a romantic liaison with Mr Michael Sousousdis, who happens to be a first cousin of Flight- Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. The Ghanaian security supremo, Captain Kodjo Tsikata, is reputed to have immediately recognised a golden opportunity and got Michael Sousoudis to "turn" Sharon Scranage. Others say that the CIA tried to 'plant' Sharon Scranage on Sousoudis to get "inside info" from the inner workings of the PNDC and it blew in their faces! Whichever way it was, Miss Scranage is alleged to have revealed to Mr Sousoudis the full list of Ghanaians who are CIA agents.
The details of Miss Scranage's activities supposedly became known to the CIA on her return to the USA when she was subjected to a lie-detector test as part of her debriefing, and under interrogation she broke down and revealed all. Michael Sousoudis was subsequently lured to the US and arrested in a motel in Virginia. Miss Scranage, who had been charged on 15 different counts, was released on bail into her parents' custody and later pleaded guilty to the charges as part of a plea bargaining arrangement whereby she would cooperate with the American authorities.
I am told that the only hitch holding up this outrageous scheme is the position of Miss Scranage.Michael Sousoudis appeared in court four weeks ago and was remanded in custody, bail having been refused in spite of the Ghana Ambassador to the US having appeared in court to offer to stand as surety.
As we went to press it was being said that a swapping deal is in the making and Sousoudis was reportedly in high spirits in his Virginia jail and was hoping to be released soon as part of a deal whereby the US government has asked that the Ghanaians release alleged CIA agents being held in Ghana.
In the wake of the Sousoudis/Scranage affair a number of Ghanaians have been arrested and even though they have not been accused officially as being part of the CIA network, the popular feeling in Ghana is that they were arrested because of it, the timing of the arrests leading credence to the theory. Among such detainees are Tommy Thompson, the managing editor and proprietor of the Free Press; Sammy Okudzeto, president of the Professional Bodies Association: Johnny Botsio, a freelance journalist and columnist of the Echo; and Obeng Manu, a lawyer and inveterate critic of the PNDC. Two prominent officials also reportedly fled the country in the wake of the disclosures - Mr Joe Edusei, a Principal Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and Commander Oppong, the Navy Commander.
Now it is being said that the Americans have given a list of 15 Ghanaians to the PNDC who they are willing to exchange with Sousoudis. The terms being that if these 15 Ghanaians and their families will be allowed to leave Ghana to be taken to the USA, Michael Sousoudis will be re- leased. I hear that the plans include a swap along the lines of the type normally done between the Eastern and Western bloc countries at the Berlin Wall. The Americans are expected to send a plane to Ivory Coast to collect the 15 Ghanaians and their families around the same time as Michael Sousoudis will be making his way from the US through Britain to Ghana.
I am told that the only hitch holding up this outrageous scheme is the position of Miss Scranage. The Ghanaians are said to have asked that she be part of the swap; they say that her chances of leading a normal and happy life in the USA have been ruined by the CIA scandal and she should therefore be sent to live in Ghana.
I understand that if all goes according to plan, Michael Sousoudis should be in the UK this weekend on his way to Ghana. What is not clear is whether the 15 Ghanaians allegedly on the American list have been consulted about what is intended for them and whether they have agreed to the fate planned for them.
Last Friday, two more people appeared before a Tribunal in Accra bringing to four the number of people currently being tried in Ghana accused of having supplied information to the CIA. I am unable to determine whether the four of them form part of the list of 15, but one thing is definite, the Ghanaian authorities are reportedly in a state of shock brought upon by the identities of some of those on the list of 15.
