by Tom Clancy
He was hardly the type that turns to Islamic terror.
But the act al-Matari was preparing at the moment was one hundred percent out of the brain of Sami bin Rashid, and though it had begun for al-Matari only right after the two men met in an ISIS safe house in Kosovo, the plot came to bin Rashid after he lucked into access to a treasure trove of intelligence several months prior.
Sami bin Rashid had never killed anyone in his life. He had done some time in the Saudi military as a young man, but during the first Gulf War he had been a low-ranking intelligence officer, hundreds of kilometers removed from any battle lines.
After his military duty he remained in the Saudi government but moved into the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources, working in a secret department that collated intelligence from Saudi intelligence and incorporated it into Saudi energy policy.
And then, after twenty years in quasi-corporate intelligence, bin Rashid left the Saudi government with the blessing of the House of Saud, the monarchy that ruled the nation. They placed him in a consultancy position at the Gulf Cooperation Council, located in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh. Here, he worked as a de facto intelligence chief, toiling behind the scenes developing initiatives to better integrate all the intelligence agencies of the GCC member states—a difficult task, considering that some of these nations had gone to war with one another at various times in the past.
As his purview changed over the years, bin Rashid had become something of a fixer for the GCC. A problem solver. A quiet man in a quiet office staffed with analysts and operatives who made problems disappear and dirty wars flare if they served the interests of his homeland. He became so good at what he did, in fact, that he was moved out of Riyadh and over to Dubai, set up in a private office that was, in fact, a shell for his real work, all to add another layer of deniability to the House of Saud that any of his actions were done in their name.
He funneled money, intelligence, and equipment to corporate interests, revolutionaries, and enemies of the the Saudis, and he did it without drawing attention to himself or his benefactors. He had friends in the American oil sector and in the Middle Eastern intelligence agencies, and contacts in the terror groups that would kill his friends in America—kill Sami himself if they knew the extent of his associations with infidels or his desires to manipulate jihadists to serve the King in Riyadh.
He’d conspired with Nigerian revolutionaries to bomb oil-processing plants, paid off Russian gangsters to enforce strikes at ports to slow crude shipments, and concocted a hundred other ops to help Saudis’ fortunes on the global market.
But as much as he accomplished, he was just one man, and the problems were bigger than he could combat because, to put it simply, Saudi Arabia was failing as a nation.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was a wealthy country, of course, but its fortunes, both in real dollars and in future prospects, had been plummeting in recent years. When oil was trading around US$100 a barrel, Saudi Arabia earned $240 billion a year in oil revenue. Now oil was less than half that and the nation was running a budget deficit of $150 billion a year.
This was a country that could not rein in its spending because there was so much discord in the kingdom that massive subsidies for the poor were the only way to ensure the survival of the rich. The nation would devolve into a riotous civil war in months if the House of Saud ever pulled the plug on the largesse it gave the masses living outside the palaces.
It was clear to people like bin Rashid that the kingdom could not live on oil alone for much longer. U.S. reserves were reported to be larger than Saudi reserves for the first time, and this sent a shock wave through the House of Saud, with reverberations that were felt in Sami bin Rashid’s hidden but pivotal office. He was their miracle man, and the House of Saud made itself clear that they expected a miracle from him.
And their problems were not limited to money.
Regionally, the Saudis were fearful of Iran’s growth, and the spread of Shia fundamentalism, much more than the spread of Sunni fundamentalism. They took it as given that any new Shia-controlled land would simply become a puppet for Iran.
Iran’s increased oil output was a problem, too, and it was expanding its extraction at the same time Iran was expanding its influence in the Middle East.
Bin Rashid’s days and nights were filled with worries about falling oil prices, and about Iran becoming the hegemon of the Middle East.
He had a solution to both worries, if only he could come up with a way to make it happen.
War.
Not a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. That would be a disaster. The Saudis could not stop Iran alone, and all the Sunni nations’ militaries put together were no match for the Shia nations, if the Shia nations were formed in a tight coalition. And bin Rashid knew that a Shia coalition brought into a war with the Sunnis, run by the Saudis, would do just that.
No, if there was going to be war around here, it could not be fought by the Saudis. It had to be fought on behalf of the Saudis . . . by the West.
—
As a Saudi, Sami bin Rashid knew his role in the Gulf Cooperation Council was not to further the aims of all the Arab Gulf countries. No, it was to further the aims of the Saudi Arabian kingdom, and the operation he’d conceived of months ago, the operation that was now under way and only days from making headlines worldwide, would do just exactly that.
Sami bin Rashid would never have come up with his grand plan, his Hail Mary to save his nation by using the insane jihadi death cult of ISIS to draw the West back into a massive land war in the Middle East, if one of his analysts had not sent him an e-mail seven months earlier.
Mr. Director, I’ve run across something I would like to show you at your convenience. I could come to your office, or please feel free to come to mine.
Bin Rashid called the young man, a Qatari who had been put on employment probation for his penchant for using his computer for non-work-related ventures.
Moments later Faisal entered bin Rashid’s office with a bow and a touch of his hand on his breast. “Sabaah al-khair, sayidi.” Good morning, sir.
“What is it?” The Saudi director had no time for pleasantries.
“I have learned about a company on the Internet selling intelligence on the dark web, and I thought you should know about it.”
“The dark web?”
“Yes, sir. There are markets hidden on the Internet, places where one can purchase certain illegal, illicit items.”
“And what were you doing perusing this dark web, Faisal?”
The young man seemed nervous. “Of course I knew you would ask me this. But I was directed there by a message on a bulletin board we monitor out of Lebanon. It’s internal communication between Hezbollah operatives and Iranian citizens, mostly low-level, but still worth keeping an eye on. There is a way for an outsider to post in an open forum, and I followed a post there as the entity posting was given access behind a firewall by the board moderator so the conversation could continue.”
“You’ve hacked this Hezbollah bulletin board?”
“We did. Some time ago.”
“What did the outside messenger tell the Hezbollah operatives?”
“The outside messenger goes by the code name INFORMER, and spoke English. He offered to sell Hezbollah intelligence on American government agents. And members of the American military.”
“What sort of intelligence?”
“Full targeting packages.”
“Targeting? Like physical targeting?”
“Yes, sir. INFORMER claimed that he could obtain information about any current or retired American spy or special operative, and give that information to Hezbollah.”
To Sami bin Rashid, this all sounded like foolish kids who bought Western action DVDs in the marketplace and fantasized about conducting themselves like spies, so they talked about it on Internet bulletin boards.
But he pressed on, hoping Faisal would get to the point. “How were these transactions supposed to take place?”
“On the dark web. Hezbollah—although I imagine INFORMER has contacted other groups as well—was told they could purchase information via Bitcoin. They would simply place an order for targeting info by the American government employee’s name, position, or other criteria.”
“Like picking fruit at the market.”
Faisal nodded with a smile. “I’ve honestly never seen anything like it. Of course, illegal markets on the dark web have been around for a long time. Guns for sale, drugs for sale, images and videos that go against the teaching of the Prophet.” The young man looked to the floor, and bin Rashid knew he was talking about pornography.
The Saudi said, “This seems ridiculous. I am in no way interested in this conversation, Faisal. Interest me or get out of my office.”
“Well, sir, INFORMER provided samples of his wares.”
“Samples?”
“Yes, sir. For instance, he provided credible information about a man flying drones in the United States against targets over Syria. This is intelligence Hezbollah might be interested in, due to their associations with the Alawites in Damascus.”
“How do you know the information was credible?”
“Because we have the same information. The Saudi Army has had contacts with this man’s unit, and he does, in fact, exist and hold the position claimed by this source.”
“How do you know this source—INFORMER—doesn’t just have assets in Saudi Arabia who stole the information there?”
“Because he has much more than we have on this man, a major in the Air Force. He has a list of all his friends, family, where he went to school. What kind of car he drives, where he lives, shops, eats. Where his children go to school, even his fingerprint. This is something we—I’m speaking of the GCC, and the Saudis—do not have.”
Bin Rashid said, “If we know this drone pilot, why do we give a damn where he went to school?”
“We don’t, sir, but INFORMER claims to have this information on every single man and woman who works for the American government.” Faisal made eye contact with his boss. “Everyone. He gives other samples, where the names are redacted but the forms appear authentic. I believe this man, or this entity, selling this information actually does have information we do not have.”
“And who knows about this?”
“That I do not know. The market on the dark web is accessed by invitation only. The security is very good, but one of the Hezbollah fools gave the address to a colleague over a poorly encrypted e-mail. That’s how I was able to secure the address and password information to see for myself.”
Bin Rashid was still skeptical. He had access to virtually all the intelligence product of all the intel shops of all the GCC nations, and he had seen nothing like what this mystery private seller seemed to be offering. He asked, “What is INFORMER’s interest in helping Hezbollah?”
Faisal said, “Financial. Nothing more. He sent this message thinking Hezbollah or Iran might buy intelligence from him.”
Bin Rashid shook his head. “Then he is a fool for thinking this group actually spoke for Hezbollah’s Foreign Intelligence Bureau and could buy and utilize that type of intelligence.”
Faisal stood his ground, something he rarely did with bin Rashid. “Sir, with apologies. I believe this branch of Hezbollah running this website are fools, but INFORMER just does not know that. I’ve looked long and hard into the way INFORMER hides himself on the Internet. This is quality work. He is no fool. I cannot vouch for authenticity of all the material he is offering, but I believe we should reach out to him and tell him we are interested in a transaction, just to see what he can do.”
“How do we do that?”
“We cannot track his location or identity on the Internet, he is using virtual private networks that no one, not even the Americans, can get into. But what I can do is lock up the Hezbollah bulletin board, keep everyone out of it except for myself and this INFORMER, and communicate with him directly.”
Now bin Rashid was thinking. He could feel this potential source out with no comebacks on himself. “All right. Do this. The conversation will just be with you and the source. Just to set up your own private means of communication.”
“Of course, sir. And then I will remove our conversation from the bulletin board and open it back up. Hezbollah will never know we were there. They will think there was some sort of a glitch with their servers.”
Faisal then asked, “When I enter into communications with this potential source, what do I tell them about my identity?”
“Tell them they have chosen poorly in going to a group of idiots with no money and poor security. You, however, represent a non-government actor who can provide discretion and a lucrative arrangement if and only if the source proves himself to both have the information he purports to have, and has the means to communicate it securely.”
“Very well, sir.”
Faisal seemed a little confused, and Sami bin Rashid noticed this.
“What’s the matter?”
“I brought this to your attention so you would know Hezbollah might be about to come into contact with intelligence on America that they did not have before. Of course that could lead to Iran having leverage over America, and that relates to our mission here. I thought perhaps we could test out this INFORMER’s access to intelligence to see what new threat this brings. I honestly did not think we would be in the market to buy the information on American intelligence sources ourselves. May I ask why we would do that?”
Bin Rashid was a man who always thought several moves ahead on the chessboard. He simply said, “Let’s feel them out. See what they have. Then we can decide if there is something we can do with it.”
Faisal bowed, touched his breast, and promised to keep bin Rashid informed. He left the office.
Sami bin Rashid was skeptical, very skeptical, but if this panned out, he knew exactly what he would do with this intelligence about covert American assets.
He would feed it to ISIS.
ISIS, as far as bin Rashid was concerned, could never defeat the West, and the genocide that was at the heart of their mission statement therefore built in its own self-destruct button. These fools would make gains and gains until they pushed the West too far. They would never accept their state at any defined border, so they would fight until that moment when the West put all their resources into fighting back.
But Saudi Arabia didn’t want to wait for the West to do it on its own time. President of the United States Jack Ryan was using his airpower, intelligence apparatus, and small units of special operations forces to assist the Kurds and, to a lesser extent, the Iraqi Army, into defeating ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The coalition led by America was gaining ground in this endeavor, but this low-intensity conflict would not keep the oil fields occupied in Iraq, and it would not keep Shia influence out of the nations bordering Saudi Arabia.
But if ISIS suddenly began targeting American military and intelligence forces directly, it might bring the American armed forces back into the region, and a total war would create havoc in the oil fields. Iran had been developing major oil projects in the Shia-held south of Iraq, and Saudi Arabia’s financial future was directly affected by this. War would push them out of the oil fields and out of both Iraq and Syria, which would increase the price of Saudi oil and reduce the threat of Shia hegemony in the region.
Yes, Saudi Arabia would win in every conceivable way if the Americans invaded the Middle East.
And eventually ISIS would be ground out of existence, and that suited Sami bin Rashid just fine.
—
INFORMER began communications with Sami bin Rashid almost immediately, and he proved his worth by providing tidbits of intelligence, intelligence bin Rashid already had, so that he could be assured INFORMER was legitimate.
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It took a while for bin Rashid’s plan to move to the stage where he could involve others, but eventually he went to his leadership, leaving out the other GCC members, and he was given official Saudi blessing to enter into discussions with senior Islamic State leadership.
In his talks with ISIS, he had been told about an operation in the works to bring the fight to America. It involved remote radicalized operatives, men and women in America driven by the slick and powerful propaganda arm of the Islamic State. There were some forty different groups involved in spreading the word of ISIS. It could be argued ISIS wielded the weapon of propaganda better than any other armament in their arsenal. One of the most potent ISIS media organizations was the Global Islamic Media Front. Via websites, social media outreach, well-produced YouTube videos, and an online magazine, GIMF worked to radicalize American Muslims so they would go out into their streets and conduct indiscriminate acts of terrorism. ISIS thought this would force Jack Ryan back to the Middle East, and ISIS wanted this just as much as bin Rashid did.
But Sami bin Rashid was highly skeptical of the Islamic State’s plan. Jack Ryan was a wily opponent in possession of cold logic; he would not overreact to a threat. Bin Rashid knew Ryan wanted to wipe out ISIS, but shooting up shopping malls or blowing up a car in Times Square wouldn’t force his hand internationally; instead, it would simply lead him to improve his security domestically.
No, bin Rashid’s plan was the only way to force the hand of the American President.
He told ISIS leaders that wealthy Gulf patrons would plan, fund, oversee, and help carry out an attack against the United States of America. The Islamic State officials were skeptical, of course, but bin Rashid convinced them through his intermediaries that he had abilities at both the tactical and strategic levels that they did not have. He needed only some of their best recruits, their blessing, and, it went without saying, their cover.