'It hasn't got us far.'
'Ross, I believe that with time and patience we will succeed. But if we get involved in bribery we no longer have a case!'
Perot turned to Coburn. 'How do we
'We don't know,' Coburn said. 'His argument is, we don't pay until we get results, so what do we have to lose?'
'Everything,' Howell said. 'Never mind what is legal in the United States. This could seal our fate in Iran.'
Taylor said: 'It stinks. The whole thing stinks.'
Perot was surprised by their reactions. He, too, hated the idea of bribery, but he was prepared to compromise his principles to get Paul and Bill out of jail. The good name of EDS was precious to him, and he was loath to let it be associated with corruption, just as John Howell was; but Perot knew something Howell did not know: that Colonel Simons and the rescue team faced risks more grave than this.
Perot said: 'Our good name hasn't done Paul and Bill any good so far.'
'It's not just our good name,' Howell persisted. 'Dadgar must be pretty sure by now that we aren't guilty of corruption--but if he could catch us in a bribe situation he could still save face.'
That was a point, Perot thought. 'Could this be a trap?'
'Yes!'
It made sense. Unable to get any evidence against Paul and Bill, Dadgar pretends to Deep Throat that he can be bribed, then--when Perot falls for it--announces to the world that EDS is, after all, corrupt. Then they would all be put in jail with Paul and Bill. And, being guilty, they would stay there.
'All right,' said Perot reluctantly. 'Call Deep Throat and tell him no, thanks.'
Coburn stood up. 'Okay.'
It had been another fruitless day, Perot thought. The Iranians had him all ways. Political pressure they ignored. Bribery could make matters worse. If EDS paid the bail, Paul and Bill would still be kept in Iran.
Simons's team still looked like the best bet.
But he was not going to tell the negotiating team that.
'All right,' he said. 'We'll just try again tomorrow.'
3___
Tall Keane Taylor and short John Howell, like Batman and Robin, tried again on January 17. They drove to the Ministry of Health building on Eisenhower Avenue, taking Abolhasan as interpreter, and met Dadgar at ten A.M. With Dadgar were officials of the Social Security Organization, the department of the Ministry that was run by EDS's computers.
Howell had decided to abandon his initial negotiating position, that EDS could not pay the bail because of American securities law. It was equally useless to demand to know the charges against Paul and Bill and what evidence there was: Dadgar could stonewall that approach by saying he was still investigating. But Howell did not have a new strategy to replace the old. He was playing poker with no cards in his hand. Perhaps Dadgar would deal him some today.
Dadgar began by explaining that the staff of the Social Security Organization wanted EDS to turn over to them what was known as the 125 Data Center.
This small computer, Howell recalled, ran the payroll and pensions for the Social Security Organization staff. What these people wanted was to get their own wages, even while Iranians generally were not getting their social-security benefits.
Keane Taylor said: 'It's not that simple. Such a turnover would be a very complex operation needing many skilled staff. Of course they are all back in the States.'
Dadgar replied: 'Then you should bring them back in.'
'I'm not that stupid,' Taylor said.
Taylor's Marine Corps sensitivity training was operating, Howell thought.
Dadgar said: 'If he speaks like this, he will go to jail.'
'Just as my staff would if I brought them back to Iran,' said Taylor.
Howell broke in: 'Would you be able to give a legal guarantee that any returning staff would not be arrested or harassed in any way?'
'I could not give a formal guarantee,' Dadgar replied. 'However, I would give my personal word of honor.'
Howell darted an anxious glance at Taylor. Taylor did not speak, but his expression said he would not give two cents for Dadgar's word of honor. 'We could certainly investigate ways of arranging the turnover,' Howell said. Dadgar had at last given him something to bargain with, even though it was not much. 'There would have to be safeguards, of course. For example, you would have to certify that the machinery was handed over to you in good condition--but perhaps we could employ independent experts to do that ...' Howell was shadowboxing. If the data center was handed over, there would be a price: the release of Paul and Bill.
Dadgar demolished that idea with his next sentence. 'Every day new complaints are being made about your company to my investigators, complaints that would justify increases in the bail. However, if you cooperate in the turnover of the 125 Data Center, I can in return ignore the new complaints and refrain from increasing the bail.'
Taylor said: 'Goddammit, this is nothing but blackmail!'
Howell realized that the 125 Data Center was a side-show. Dadgar had raised the question, no doubt at the urging of these officials, but he did not care about it enough to offer serious concessions. So what
Howell thought of Lucio Randone, the former cellmate of Paul and Bill. Randone's offer of help had been followed up by EDS manager Paul Bucha, who had gone to Italy to talk to Randone's company, Condotti d'Acqua. Bucha reported that the company had been building apartment blocks in Tehran when their Iranian financiers ran out of money. The company naturally stopped building; but many Iranians had already paid for apartments under construction. Given the present atmosphere, it was not surprising that the foreigners got blamed, and Randone had been jailed as a scapegoat. The company had found a new source of finance and resumed building, and Randone had got out of jail at the same time, in a package deal arranged by an Iranian lawyer, Ali Azmayesh. Bucha also reported that the Italians kept saying: 'Remember, Iran will always be Iran. It never changes.' He took this to be a hint that a bribe was part of the package deal. Howell also knew that a traditional channel for paying a bribe was a lawyer's fee: the lawyer would do, say, a thousand dollars' worth of work and pay a ten-thousand-dollar bribe, then charge his client eleven thousand dollars. This hint of corruption made Howell nervous, but despite that he had gone to see Azmayesh, who had advised him: 'EDS does not have a legal problem--it has a business problem.' If EDS could come to a business arrangement with the Ministry of Health, Dadgar would go away. Azmayesh had not mentioned bribery.
All this had started, Howell thought, as a business problem: the customer unable to pay, the supplier refusing to go on working. Might a compromise be possible, under which EDS would switch on the computers and the Ministry would pay at least some money? He decided to ask Dadgar directly.
'Would it help if EDS were to renegotiate its contract with the Ministry of Health?'
'This might be very helpful,' Dadgar answered. 'It would not be a legal solution to our problem, but it might be a practical solution. Otherwise, to waste all the work that has been done in computerizing the Ministry would be a pity.'
Interesting, thought Howell. They want a modern social-security system--or their money back. Putting Paul and Bill in jail on thirteen million dollars' bail was their way of giving EDS those two options--and no others. We're getting straight talk, at last.
He decided to be blunt. 'Of course, it would be out of the question to begin negotiations while Chiapparone and Gaylord are still in jail.'
Dadgar replied: 'Still, if you commit to good-faith negotiations, the Ministry will call me and the charges
