Booking a nonstop from Casablanca to NYC turned out to be the easy part, thought sixty-two-year-old Air Force veteran Randall Drake.

The challenge was to work out the right time to leave his post, even briefly. Randall’s position in the Foreign Service required constant meetings with Moroccan government officials.

Things had settled down over the past few years as the government implemented the security measures recommended by Randall, as the top US Senior ...