by Frank Perry
other terrorist attacks loosely blamed on groups affiliated with Al Qaeda. They were planned by this man, Hasan el Razzaq.” She showed several pictures in Arab dress and in western attire. “Razzaq is a top Hezbollah operative known to aspire to be its leader. He recently entered the US and his entry coincided with the seavan shipment you are investigating. He is believed to be working with an Islamic terror cell centered here in Villa Park. The western suburbs of Chicago have a large Muslim population. It’s believed that Razzaq is coordinating a major attack. Given his entry and the evidence uncovered by the FBI, we believe a nuclear attack is probable.” She let this information settle in.
A man raised his hand and said, “Ms. Aston, I’m Kevin Kohl, DHS/ICE. Are you sure this fellow is in the Chicago area?”
“Yes, we’re certain that he’s in the area.”
Spank continued, “Ah, why don’t we bring him in? As a minimum, he’s guilty of false entry.”
“We could do that. On the other hand, if we’re dealing with nukes, he could lead us to the weapons.”
Another question was asked, “Ms. Aston, Julia Crow, DHS/SS. If you know where this guy is, maybe we can squeeze him in interrogation, leaving him free could risk losing him.”
“I can’t tell you how, but we have had a good way to track him for several weeks.”
Someone said, “People slip away from surveillance all the time, we should definitely put this guy away.”
”We’re not relying on human monitoring, but that’s all I can say at this point.”
Luke decided to ask a question, “So Rachael, what can you tell us that will help locate the weapons?”
This segued into her next slide, “This is a satellite image of the Chicago area.” A monochromatic picture appeared. In the next slide, yellow lines overlaid the image.
“We can plot Razzaq’s travels since he arrived in Chicago; which was only a few days before the Seavan got to Kenosha.”
“You recorded all of his moves?” Angela asked
“Actually, we’ve also tracked his cell phone calls and some bank transactions. I believe we can prove circumstantial connection with the Curran and Limo driver murders.”
“So, was he at the Kenosha building?” Luke asked.
She showed another slide entitled Kenosha, Wisconsin, with the date and time stamped on it. The slide showed a yellow line over interstate 94 leading directly to the building. She said, “Actually, we can show him at the building for most of three days.”
“Ah, Ms. Aston, Ray Britton, DOS, can you show all the activities at the site, trucks entering, etc.?”
“No, unfortunately we can only show you Razzaq’s whereabouts. The tracking process is linked to his location only.”
Angela asked, “Do you have anyone else under this type of surveillance, anyone associated with Razzaq?”
“No, this technology is unique to him.”
Angela continued, “If he’s here in the Chicago area, should we have visual surveillance assigned?”
“At some point we may all decide to start following him; but for right now, we don’t want to risk his knowing we’re tracking him."
Luke asked, “All right, so we can place Razzaq with the Seavan in Kenosha for several days. Do you think it’s possible that he could lead us to all the bombs? We believe there are up to ten nuclear devices here.”
Rachael answered, “He’s our best possibility right now.”
The rest of the afternoon was spent laying out an action plan. Some of the tasks consisted of retracing Razzaq’s travels by car, checking out phone numbers called, understanding the money flow.
Luke and Angela agreed to retrace Razzaq’s travels, since he arrived in Chicago. The plan was to backtrack along each travel route he’d used, beginning at his first day in Chicago. Retracing all of the routes taken by Razzaq and documenting each fixed location would take time.
Luke drove his personal car along the first path. Rachael had re-run the first two tracks showing more detail, including time tags to gauge where Razzaq stopped. She did not show the starting location.
The first day Razzaq was in Chicago, he traveled from the western suburbs to downtown Chicago, taking interstate 90, exiting at Washington Street. He drove over to Michigan Avenue, paralleled the lakefront for a few blocks, then he turned into the city and took LaSalle Street, first going south until outside the high-rise region, then east to Lincoln Park. He had stopped several times. This path went through the heart of Chicago’s tallest buildings. He then backtracked toward the suburbs, stopping along the way at a Middle Eastern restaurant.
They returned to the office in the evening, just in time for dinner. Everyone was still at work and Chinese food had been delivered. After eating, they went out on the second track Rachael had prepared. The route maps were colored and time-tagged. Following the maps was like being in a road rally.
The second track traveled northwest almost fifty miles outside Chicago. The track started in Schaumburg near a vast shopping mall, Woodfield, and headed non-stop along route 14, the Northwest highway, to Woodstock, IL. Woodstock is a developing community that is attracting manufacturing companies leaving the expense and congestion of the city. Located in the middle of farmland and dairies, there are several areas of the region undergoing economic redevelopment, or awaiting renovation. The track led to an old area of the village with mostly-abandoned agricultural storage sheds. The area was originally intended to store large equipment. At night, the whole area was void of people and traffic. Investigating at night would be difficult without being detected.
They ended after midnight. Over the next two days, they traced all the tracks, in order. This process began to show a pattern.
Active Duty
The following morning, the task force was beginning to operate efficiently. Rachael got a message asking her to call Paul Woolerman, the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for Counterterrorism. Following the call, she told Luke that Woolerman wanted to have a conference call at ten o’clock.
The call originated in the SAC’s office using his speakerphone with the door shut. When it rang, an assistant answered the phone in Washington. Sam Lee stated the purpose of the call and the Secretary picked up; “Woolerman...to whom am I speaking?”
“Sir, this is Sam Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago FBI office.” Sam then introduced the other members on the call.
Woolerman said, “Okay, I am making this call after coordinating with the Army Chief of Staff and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau. We would like to offer the services of a specialist in the National Guard. The officer is being assigned to the Illinois Adjutant General, but is actually an Army reservist with special training.”
Lee responded, “What would this fellow provide to the team?”
Woolerman answered, “He’s a unique person. He specializes in counter terror warfare. His active duty career has involved several missions against terrorist interests around the world. He also knows quite a bit about the bad guy you’re following.”
“Mr. Secretary, this is Rachael Aston, I’m with Army intelligence. Is this guy someone who will work with civilians? I mean the military has a little different way of doing things and we need to follow the rules.” At her core, Rachael was an attorney.
“Hi Rachael. He’s a good guy according to the 3-star who recommended him.”
“Can I ask about his background?”
“Well, from what I know, he’s recently joined the Illinois National Guard after several years of active duty.”
“What? Did he get married or something? Why join the guard?”
“Look, all I know is that this guy is the best the Army has...or had. I don’t know his history. Lots of guys move between the active forces and reserves. The Guard is kind of like the reserves.
“He became aware of your situation somehow, and asked to be reclassified to active reserve. We agreed, and transferred him to the Illinois National Guard. He will
assist you as long as you need him. He’s been brevetted, temporary promotion, from Major to Lieutenant Colonel, to give him senior officer status. I think you’ll find that he can be a tremendous addition to your team.”
Rachael interjected, “Mr. Secretary, this officer will need special access clearance to get read into our team.”
“That’s no problem; you’ll have his clearance shortly.”
Sam said, “Okay then, sounds like this will be a good move, when will he join us?”
“He’s currently moving into an apartment near your location and will report in shortly.”
After the call, everyone dispersed to resume his or her assignments. Luke went to his desk to retrieve phone messages and check email. He took notes about the phone messages and was about to grab Angela to resume driving when his cell phone range. He answered, “Gallagher.”
“Agent Gallagher, this is Peter Shields, remember we met at the Cary police department? I was the guy who the shooter tried to kill.”
”Yeah, sure, I remember you.”
“Good, I’d like to meet with you as soon as possible. I was just activated with the National Guard to assist you.”
Arms Merchant
In late 2003, Al Qaeda began formulating plans and assembling funding for another major attack against the United States. They often relied on other Muslim extremist organizations for logistics and personnel for their operations. One of the most resourceful arms merchants supplying terrorists was