On Pattaya Radio

I was in Pattaya over the weekend, partly to watch the Pattaya Rugby Tens and partly because I'd been asked to appear on the local cable TV station with presenter Johnny Diamond. Johnny also has a radio show so we killed two birds with one stone. It was good fun, especially as my mate Dave Collier, who runs the Canterbury Tales Cafe And Bookstore came along. Dave sells a lot of my books, especially Private Dancer!

I was impressed with Johnny Diamond's name, but I'm sad to report that it's not real. I am so lucky that Stephen Leather is my real name... it looks good on the cover of a book and puts me next to Le Carre and close to Ludlum on the bookstore shelves. Most people assume it's a made up name! Once when checking into an hotel in Los Angeles and I said my name was Leather and they asked me if that was my first name or my family name!




Johnny Diamond (Clive!), Dave Collier, and Me!



Oh, and somebody else wants to give me millions of dollars. This time it's an Arab, which is a nice change from Nigerians I suppose! His name is Ahmed Farid Abdula and I think I'll use him as a character in the new book... a mad suicide bomber perhaps!


UN Refugee Office, Cairo
2 Dar el-Shifa Street, Garden City, Cairo
Postal address: POBox 227, Cairo, Egypt
Reply at khadijajassim@egyptmailserver.com

Sir,

With warm heart I offer my friendship and greetings and I hope this mail
meets you in good time. However strange or surprising this contact might
seem to you as we have not met personally or had any dealings in the past,
I humbly ask that you take due consideration of its importance and immense
benefit. My name Ahmed Farid Abdullah. A supervisor at the United Nations
Refugee camp in Cairo. I arrived in UK in search of a prospective oversea
partner for an important business.

The current spate of bombings and crisis in the Middle East and Gaza has
triggered a mass exodus of people (or better say refugees) to Egypt.

I am in charge of the affairs of Iraq refugees in UNRWA Office, Cairo. I
am contacting I am contacting you in respect of one of the refugees in our
custody. I would appreciate if you could consider this offer both as a
business prospect and also as a form of assistance to someone in urgent
need of business assistance. A bomb blast killed almost an entire family
of Mohammed Jassim, a successful oil contractor in Baghdad. His 2 sons and
2 daughters all perished in this suicide bomb blast.

The only survivors in this gruesome murder are the wife and her newly born
child Mrs Khadija Jassim and . The reason why I am contacting you is that
Mrs Khadija Jassim managed with the help of the coalition forces to
smuggle herself and the little kid out of Iraq into Lebanon with the sum
of 9million United States dollars belonging to the late contractor.

We are seeking your help to receive this amount in your oversea account.
Mrs Khadija Jassim intends to invest and settle down in your country and
with the UN passport; she would be able to travel and accomplish this.
Please kindly accept this offer in good faith. I have worked out the
strategies of transfer and compensation. 60% of the total money shall be
reserved for the lady and her child, 30% shall be your compensation for
your assistance and 10% shall be for mapped out for all possible expenses
that shall accrue in the course of this transaction.

Due to the condition of the family we encourage maximum confidentiality.
kindly contact Mrs Khadija Jassim drectly at the email addresses:
khadijajassim@egyptmailserver.com
To ensure that your replies gets to her uninterrupted please also send
your reply to the fax numbers
Telefax: +20-3-399-1347 or
Facsimile: +20-23-536-5745

In your replies please ensure that you provide her your mobile phone
number as she would like to follow up our dealings with a telephone call.
After sending her your email message and fax please call me at
+44 7024093626

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

Ahmed Farid Abdula
PLEASE REPLY TO khadijajassim@egyptmailserver.com
Telefax: +20-3-399-1347
or Facsimile: +20-23-536-5745 and call me at +44 7024093626