In The Kill Zone: The Life and Times of Willie Merkerson (Part 5)

Part 5: Desert Deliverance

The Ethiopian Jewish village of Balankab in the 19th century. The Jewish population of Ethiopia had been there for centuries but suffered greatly during the famines of the 1970s and 1980s.

It was long past midnight when Hume Horan, the U.S. ambassador to Sudan, drove out to Khartoum International Airport, hours after it had officially shut down for the evening. 

The capital was silent. CIA paramilitary case officer Willie Merkerson described it as the time of night when, in a Muslim city, “you can hear a rat licking ice.” 

Almost every night that month at the airport, something extraordinary had been occurring. Now Horan wanted to see it for himself. 

The ambassador’s car pulled into a position from which the noted Arabist could observe the flight line, where a single Boeing 707 from an obscure, Belgium-based charter airline was parked. As Horan watched through his car window, four buses emerged from the darkness…