Trail of Blood

by Uzi Eilam

  “So the name of the game is ‘Identify the Shadow’? That’s what would help you?”

  “Yes, sir, and if your comprehensive biological database includes information such as fingerprints, eye scans and DNA data, it would be easier to identify the ‘shadows’ around Mughniyeh.”

  “You’re right, Dr. Deutsch, that’s an area we can work in. I promise to point our people in that direction. We’ll also try to obtain biological data for the group surrounding Mughniyeh and assist with identifying the ‘shadows.’ Hope your meetings at the NSA are successful, and please, don’t hesitate to update me again if you think it’s necessary. I’m here for you.”

  ***

  A long, tedious day, comprised of a sequence of meetings with the managers of the NSA’s surveillance technology and cyber departments, awaited Dr. Deutsch. Meetings were also scheduled for the inter-agency joint unit focused on computer surveillance throughout the world. Deutsch heard the latest updates and was impressed by techniques for mining data out of the overwhelming amount of information available on communication networks. He was granted special clearance to visit an advanced technological project focusing on facial recognition. Deutsch now understood how the team of NSA scientists had managed to build a new component of the biological database enabling conclusive identification of a person’s face in a photograph of a crowd of thousands.

  “What can you tell me about the group surrounding Mughniyeh?”

  “At least one of them has been identified as a German, a scientist fluent in many technological fields, who was involved in the attempted attacks in São Paulo. Israel thinks that he presents a strategic technological threat serving Iran, aided by Mughniyeh, who introduced that ‘shadow’ to the Iranians. If those suspicions are true, this becomes a distinctly strategic American issue, even more than an Israeli one.”

  “I’ll instruct that the subject be looked into, Dr. Deutsch. Our attaché in Tel Aviv will update Dan Avni and his team. Thank you.”

  Deutsch bid farewell to the NSA’s director with a lengthy handshake, feeling that a highly important step had just been taken. I still have to update the CIA’s deputy director, Deutsch thought, before I fly back to Israel.

  ***

  “I had some very good meetings in DC,” Deutsch began as he sat down to report to Gideon and Dan. “I believe I’ve managed to convince the two most agencies most important to our work, the CIA and the NSA, of the shared American and Israeli interests regarding the current threats. Their representatives in Tel Aviv have received instructions to help us, considerably expanding the confidentiality level previously permitted. I’m sure the door has already been opened to you, Dan, and all you have to do is step in.”

  “Well done!” Gideon praised him. “We’ll update Nahari immediately and I’m sure he’ll be satisfied. After Dan coordinates with your people here at the embassy, we’ll come up with an updated action plan.”

  * * *

  18 A shahid is a Muslim martyr, promised a place in paradise and a rich reward (including seventy-two virgins at his disposal) in the afterlife.

  Chapter 28

  “Where are you coming from, sir?” the passport control clerk asked. “You’ve been away from Lebanon for a while,” he noted.

  “Yes, you can see it yourself in my passport,” Nimer replied, wondering if new security guidelines were the reason for the clerk’s interest. “I’m a lecturer at the University of Beirut, and have attended a series of scientific meetings in Iran.” His Lebanese passport hadn’t been in use throughout his travels in South America, a fact that Nimer obviously had no intention of bringing up.

  “Thank you, and welcome back to Lebanon,” the clerk said, stamping the passport in a somewhat theatrical gesture.

  One of Mughniyeh’s men was waiting for Nimer at the airport, and informed him that he and Mughniyeh had a meeting scheduled with Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, that afternoon.

  “Take me straight home.” He was overcome by yearning for his only son, along with the relentless pain due to the murder of his wife and their other two children.

  “I’ll pick you up from the house in the afternoon,” the man said when he parted from him outside the residence.

  Nimer reached the door of the house in two long steps. From the corner of his eye, he noticed two young men equipped with submachine guns, and was grateful that Mughniyeh’s instruction to watch over his family was indeed being carried out. His heart pounding, he rang the bell and hugged his sister in the doorway.

  “It’s so good to see you! Did you come from far away? Are you hungry?”

  “No, thank you, my sister. I don’t need any more food; I had enough on the plane. Where’s Hassan? I missed you two so much.”

  “Hassan’s at the university. He knows you’re arriving today, and I had a hard time convincing him to go to class this morning. I told him that this is what you would want, and that did the trick. You have a good boy, and he’s excelling at his studies.”

  The hours in the company of his son and sister passed by swiftly, and the ringing doorbell reminded Nimer of his meeting with the leader of Hezbollah. After one more hug and kiss for his sister, he was rushed outside to the waiting car.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” the driver/bodyguard told him as he handed Nimer a blindfold. “Security instructions apply to anyone coming to meet the leader. The Israelis and the Americans are only waiting for an opportunity to harm him.”

  Nimer had heard Mughniyeh describing attempts to assassinate Hezbollah’s secretary general several times in the past, and accepted the security instructions unquestioningly. The blindfold was taken off only when they exited the elevator straight into an extensive complex located underground in the Dahieh neighborhood in southwest Beirut. Mughniyeh, who was waiting for Nimer by the elevator, hugged him warmly and led him to the command room where Secretary General Nasrallah was sitting. The communication systems and TV screens filling an entire wall served as conclusive proof that the leader was firmly plugged into everything taking place in Lebanon and all over the world.

  “I’m honored, Nasrallah, to introduce Dr. Nimer Al-Khaldi. You asked to hear details about the operation in Brazil,” Mughniyeh continued, trying not to sound apologetic.

  “First of all, I wanted to hear about our extension in the Brazilian part of the free-trade zone,” the leader decreed. “What’s going on there at the farm? My impression is that they can’t carry out proper attacks. Maybe they’re too busy accumulating money and dealing drugs?”

  Nimer was surprised by the tension apparent between the two leaders of the organization that had been a home to him over the last few years. Mughniyeh, so firm and outspoken when dealing with his subordinates in the organization’s military division, suddenly seemed like a scolded student to Nimer.

  “Right, they had some problems in the farm at Foz de Iguaço, but my impression was that Yassin managed to overcome them. He had to weed out three young men who weren’t meeting expectations, and that was carried out. My sense was that Yassin is managing the activity at the farm well, and the preparations for the São Paulo attacks were good …”

  “If everything was so good, why didn’t it succeed?” Nasrallah challenged.

  “The problem was in the cyber realm,” Nimer volunteered to explain. “The three young experts who recently joined the preparations at the farm did receive good training in using cyber means at the special university in North Korea, but in hindsight it is clear that they were not properly prepared for the enemy’s defensive measures. In drawing conclusions, we have to analyze and improve not only our own cyber capabilities, but those of Iran and North Korea as well. This is the war of the future, sir, and we mustn’t treat it lightly.”

  “You’re shouldn’t forget, Imad, that we have to protect the sources of the funds contributed to us by our financial division. For quite a few years now, they’ve managed to recrui
t the funds without which we could not even breathe. These funds pay for our support for the villages in the south of Lebanon, as well as for a significant part of your activity. Have you thought about how to protect them from cyberattacks?”

  “That’s a very wise point, Mr. Secretary General, sir, and naturally, I agree,” Mughniyeh replied. “We’ll establish a cyber unit and make use of Dr. Nimer, who will coordinate its technological updates with Iran and North Korea. We’ll also use this unit to protect our financial division in the free-trade zone of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.”

  “And what else do I need to know?” Nasrallah was relentless. “What’s going on regarding Iran’s missile technology, and what’s new in the nuclear field?”

  “I’m happy to report that Dr. Nimer has earned recognition and plenty of trust in Iran. He has managed to solve problems that came up during their flagship project, the Shahab missile. The truth is that ever since Dr. Thompson was murdered in Brussels, they’ve increasingly been treating Nimer as the go-to person and emerging authority. Nimer has done wonders exerting his influence on the Argentinian government, and Iran will soon be able to reactivate its inoperative nuclear reactor. But beyond that, Nimer has earned the trust of the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, who gave him clearance for the uranium-enrichment project. We’re thus repaying Iran for the support it gives us, as you just mentioned.”

  Nimer kept silent until Nasrallah rose from his seat to convey his regards and bid them farewell. He felt that he needed time to think about what Nasrallah had said and to organize the thoughts running through his mind.

  Chapter 29

  Gideon had already finished his morning jog ritual and had his first coffee of the day. He had scheduled a meeting with Deutsch in Dan’s “war room” to hear a report on his meetings in Washington. Sunny spring weather and blue sky fit in well with his optimistic mood. He kept returning to the great feeling of success in foiling the attacks in São Paulo. Although the question of the identity of Mughniyeh’s team members remained unresolved, the cyber battle had ended spectacularly.

  The quiet that had descended over the room caught Gideon by surprise. The young men were sitting with their heads bowed, not responding to the joy emanating from Gideon and Deutsch. Dan gazed directly at Gideon before turning to look at Deutsch.

  “There is a malfunction in our communication systems…” Dan’s voice was nearly inaudible.

  “What happened? How long has it been going on?” Gideon and Deutsch asked as one.

  “This morning, when we arrived, we found the entire system inoperative,” Dan replied. “We’ve been trying to reactivate it for an hour now, but no go…”

  We celebrated prematurely after our success in São Paulo, Gideon thought. It’s happened to me, many times before, that a crash comes right after a victory. The young men seem dejected, and it really is a bit hard to think when you’re in that kind of mood. They have to bounce back and snap out of it soon.

  “Deutsch, what’s your opinion on bringing in the NSA’s people at your embassy to pitch in with handling this cyberattack? Do you think they’ve already received their instructions from DC?”

  “Sure, Gideon, they have been on board since yesterday, and I’ll call the embassy immediately.”

  “In my opinion, Dan,” Itzik from MID turned to him, “we should recruit our Directorate for the job as well. There’s a guy there, Yonatan, who knows more than any of us do about what is going on in Iran right now. Even better, though, he’s fluent in the status of North Korea’s cyberattack capabilities.”

  “That’s a good idea! Go for it, and recruit Yonatan ASAP.” Dan’s self-confidence reasserted itself and he resumed leading the group’s efforts. “We’ll wait to hear from you. We will be in Nahari’s office for the update that Deutsch will be giving Nahari and his aides regarding the conclusions of his Washington visit.”

  ***

  Nahari was happy to hear of the supportive attitude expressed by the United States’ two major intelligence agencies. He was not surprised, however, as the director of the CIA had already updated him via their usual channel of communication. It was important for Nahari and his aides to understand to what extent the Americans would be willing to share the highest levels of classified information. Nahari was generous with his compliments, thanking Deutsch for the doors he had managed to open.

  “Let’s assume that the young people can overcome the malfunction, and focus on what to do next,” Gideon suggested to Deutsch as they were sitting in Gideon’s office in Nahari’s bureau. “We started with the murderous attack on the school in Kiryat Shmoneh. We haven’t managed to determine who was responsible for that attack. We continued with an attempt to thwart a series of attacks in São Paulo, Brazil. There, we made progress in understanding Hezbollah’s involvement, along with that of Imad Mughniyeh, who operated an entire apparatus. We haven’t managed to identify the team members surrounding Mughniyeh, but nevertheless, we managed to foil the attacks in São Paulo, mostly thanks to our dominance in protecting against cyberattacks.”

  “That’s true, Gideon, but before we knew it, we found ourselves dealing with additional and completely different threats. The assumption that Iran is developing long-range and precision missiles, and passing them on to Hezbollah, is based on solid information. Moreover, in this area, we still haven’t zeroed in on the person spearheading the technological aspect.”

  “You’re right, Deutsch, it’s not a simple challenge to expose the figure or figures leading these efforts. But there’s another important, ominous point concerning nuclear threats as a whole. In this regard, we’re seeing more than one locus of activity…”

  “More than one locus?”

  “Yes. After Iraq could be crossed off the list of strategic threats, primarily following the First Gulf War, Iran increased its activity, and that’s a troubling locus. But so is Pakistan, especially due to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the notorious expert on centrifuge technology. Pakistan is emerging as a source of information for rogue countries like Libya, North Korea and Iran. And speaking of North Korea, in addition to selling knowledge on long-range missiles to anyone who wants it, it was also involved in building the Syrian nuclear reactor that was bombed and destroyed by Israel. Is there a common denominator to all these points?”

  “There is indeed. Maybe we need to truly think outside the box about this…”

  The ringing of Gideon’s cell phone interrupted the conversation,”

  “Gideon!” Dan said enthusiastically. “We’ve solved the problem! It was something new and unfamiliar, but working together, we’ve diagnosed it, and we are working at full capacity again! Are you in your office with Deutsch? I’m on my way to you.”

  “Could you tell us more about the malfunction you’ve fixed?” Gideon urged Dan after the latter entered the room.

  “It was a bit of ‘trick or treat’ from the Iranians,” Dan joked, still huffing and puffing. “They were relying on a technology developed by hackers from North Korea. Thanks to our collaboration with the Americans from the embassy, and the unique perspective contributed by Yonatan from MID, we cracked the malware in a relatively short time.”

  “Do you know what to ask the CIA and the NSA in order to find the common denominator between the various points, if indeed it exists?” Deutsch asked. “Seemingly, there doesn’t have to be a connection between the car-bomb attacks and precision missiles, or the threat of nuclear capability.”

  “Monitoring the pertinent communication has given us a pretty good idea of the places Mughniyeh is generally found when preparing the attacks he orchestrates. The first of these is Beirut, but he spends quite a few days a year in Teheran. We have even seen him show up at the Hezbollah base of operations in the free-trade zone in South America. I’d be glad to get a better identification of the group surrounding Mughniyeh. It’s possible that fishing and smart classification of Big Data using facial recognitio
n technology could help us. We’ve thought of integrating sensor systems based on IOT technology. We’ve had positive experience in the past with using defense arrays. And while we’re on the subject, Gideon,” Dan enthused, “we could use micro-drones equipped with optical sensors. I have a prototype for a system like that at our company’s labs in Silicon Valley, equipped with an algorithm designed for different needs. There’s no reason not to convert and upgrade it so that it fits our needs.”

  “Could you complete the development of that system here in Israel?” Gideon inquired. “We have excellent capabilities in all the relevant fields.”

  “I could, but it’ll take time. I can prepare the prototype in our company’s labs, and it could be manufactured by Rafael, by Israel Aerospace Industries19, or by Elbit Systems20.”

  “It’s worth trying to promote the idea,” Gideon replied. “I’ll update Nahari that you’re going to be away for a few days, Dan. Who do you suggest appointing to fill in for you?”

  “Oh… Actually, any one of the three could take the lead. I’d choose Itzik, the Talpiot graduate from MID.”

  “Will do,” Gideon concluded. “You’ll take off tomorrow… And say hi to the family in California, and especially to Noam,” he added with a smile.

  ***

  “Oh, honey! It’s so great that you’re here! What’s going on? How’s Dad? Is your project in Israel coming along okay? How long can you stay?” Noam was bombarding Dan, who had just landed at San Francisco International Airport, with an endless series of questions.

  “Slow down, Nono, I’m going to be here for two or three days, and we’ll have time to discuss everything. Let’s drive to our apartment. I’ll rest a bit from the long flight, and then we can talk about it all.” He took hold of his wife’s hand, thinking how much he’d missed her.