Barre tried and failed to recruit Hussen as a spy against fellow politicians

Evidence

As they boarded the bus one of Barre’s guards called Hussen back to see the general. The others left, and Hussen felt the recall was deliberately designed to drive a wedge between him and others. Barre stated that he did not trust these thieves (other politicians) and asked how they were treated while in prison. Hussen expected to hear him apologize for imprisoning them, but he recognized that this statement was a ploy. He asked the general if this was all he had called him back for. Hussen added that if the general expected him to break ranks with his colleagues, he had picked the wrong person. The former prisoner emphatically told the general that he had never been a spy in his life and did not intend to be one now. Barre asked him why he refused to have his hair cut, and this statement demonstrated to Hussen that Somalia’s military leaders had followed the details of their life in prison. In the end Barre told Hussen that he had not realized how honest a prime minister Hussen was; the military investigation had discovered only $500 in his bank account. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1055