by James Rosone
Chief Monroe cleared his throat and began to walk the group through the crime statistics he had written down on a talking points sheet in front of him. By and large, the immigrants were doing a good job of not attracting police attention. Likewise, there weren’t any noticeable increases in crimes against the refugees either.
“The only thing I would point out as a difference between the refugees we’ve been taking in and those that are headed to the other cities is that we tend to get a higher proportion of single young men. They’re mostly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. I’m not sure if there’s anything to it, but for every three families we receive, we receive a single male between twenty and thirty-two years old. These single men are also exclusively Muslim, whereas nearly half of the families we receive are non-Muslims.” As the chief finished speaking, he seemed to second-guess that last sentence, hoping it didn’t sound too Islamophobic.
The mayor and Melissa seemed a bit tweaked by the chief’s comments but held their tongues. Mike was unfazed. “Thank you for the information, Chief Monroe. I’m not sure there’s a rhyme or reason why Chicago is receiving more single male Muslims than other cities, but I can look into it.”
The group talked for another thirty minutes with the mayor, and then spent an additional hour talking with Melissa and Chief Monroe. By the time they left, the officials in Chicago walked out of the room feeling on top of the world over the compliments Mike made sure to keep giving.
At the end of the meeting, Mike and Jim finally had something of interest to dig into. It was odd that of all the cities, Chicago and Baltimore had a much higher percentage of single Muslim males, all between the ages of twenty and thirty-two. The groups from Chicago almost all came from Syria and Pakistan, whereas the young men going to Baltimore appeared to be refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan. Mike’s curiosity was piqued.
Chapter 7
Under Their Noses
McClean, Virginia
National Counterterrorism Center
After meeting with the mayors and police chiefs of twenty-three different cities, Mike and Jim had identified what was working in the program and what was not. Some cities’ programs were better than others. Chicago was a great case study of how an effective refugee resettlement program could be run. Others, like the ones in Ohio, Michigan, and Texas, were not.
As Mike walked into the open room that was the nerve center of their little department, he quickly located Special Agent Leary. “Jim, I’m glad I found you before you got buried in something else,” Mike began. “I’d like you to work with a couple of the analysts and see what you can dig up on the groups of single military-age males that appear to be settling in Chicago and Baltimore. The more I investigate it myself, the more I think there’s something fishy about the situation. Chief Monroe was right; there should have been more families interspersed in Chicago and Baltimore.”
Jim nodded. “I agree, Mike. I’ll grab a couple of analysts and we’ll see what we can find on them. We’ll get back to you by the end of the week.” He was glad he wasn’t the only one suspicious about the situation.
After grabbing a cup of coffee, Mike went back to his office to write up his report. He’d been writing bits and pieces of it after each city meeting, but now it was time to consolidate it and make his recommendations to his boss. Mike still wasn’t sure about Mallory Harper. She was an ardently loyal supporter of the current president and was really pushing this refugee program, but something was off. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He didn’t have a problem with bringing in refugees, but he was definitely concerned they were letting in the wrong people.
Am I overthinking this? he wondered.
After lunch, Mike walked toward one of the screeners who Director Harper had said was flagging far more people than her colleagues as threats. He wanted to find out from her what she was finding that others were not.
Approaching her desk, he noticed the plethora of University of Texas memorabilia. He rapped his knuckles softly on the desk to get her attention. She looked up at him, almost caught off guard at how silently he’d snuck up on her.
“Hello, Julie,” Mike began. “We haven’t really had a lot of time to talk and get to know each other since I joined the team. Director Harper has had me traveling a bit, but I wanted to say hi and pick your brain a bit on something.” He sported a warm, inviting smile.
“Hi, Mike. Sure thing—what did you want to ask me about?” she asked tentatively. She was probably hoping she wasn’t in any more trouble with Director Harper.
Mike took a seat at the chair next to her desk. “I know Director Harper hasn’t been happy with the number of people you’ve been flagging as potential risks, but I’d like to talk with you about it and find out your side of the story. What do you think you’re seeing that the others aren’t?” he asked quizzically.
Julie sighed. She had a look on her face as if she’d just been called into the principal’s office at school. Meekly, she answered, “OK. Most of the individuals I’ve been marking as potential risks are the single Muslim men that have been requesting to be settled in Chicago and Baltimore.”
When Julie mentioned Baltimore and Chicago, he raised an eyebrow, then encouraged her to continue.
“For one, most of these men’s applications originate from two camps. Nearly all the applications for Chicago came from a camp in Harran, Turkey. This is only about 130 kilometers from Ar Raqqa, Syria, which is the location of the ISIS official headquarters. Most of the men applying to Baltimore come from the camp near Gaziantep, Turkey. Each of these camps have been previously identified as ISIS recruitment stations and have been the birthplace of a lot of extremist activity.”
Mike listened and then looked at several dossiers she showed him of people she had flagged. He sat back in his chair and thought about what this all meant, wondering if any of it correlated with what he had found when he was running the counter-ISIS team in Turkey.
Mike knew what she was implying but wanted to hear her say it for himself. “So, Julie, if I’m connecting the dots correctly, you believe some of these men may be ISIS fighters that are trying to infiltrate into the US, correct?”
Julie looked around the room to see if anyone else was listening to their conversation. In a lowered voice, she said, “I do. I think ISIS has managed to infiltrate several hundred of its members to these cities over the past three years that this program has been running. I tried to bring this conclusion to Director Harper, but she quickly shut me down. She said I was looking for ways not to support the President’s initiative. Honestly, though, my only objective is to protect our country. I don’t care about politics.”
Mike remembered that his own group in Turkey had suspected this and knew those camps were trouble. One of the ISIS operatives they’d interrogated had said they had already infiltrated hundreds of ISIS fighters into America. Of course, with no proof, this was just another unsubstantiated claim.
Mike looked Julie in the eyes and quietly replied, “I believe you.”
Julie looked surprised and then relieved.
He explained, “Before coming to the NCTC, I worked in Homeland’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. I’m familiar with the camps you’re referencing. I’m also aware of this idea of using the refugee program as a means of infiltrating ISIS fighters into America. They had already used it successfully to infiltrate Europe.”
He paused for a second, considering his options, then continued, “To ease your problem with Director Harper, I’m going to tell her that you are going to work directly for me so I can ‘keep an eye on you,’ but in reality, I want you to work with Agent Leary on digging into the history of these refugees who’ve already settled into Chicago and Baltimore. I want to know more about them and see if we can’t identify some potential problem children.”
Mike needed to keep this activity on the down-low. He knew Director Harper wouldn’t agree. Having Julie work on the research was a win-win because he already knew that she agreed with
his viewpoint, and she was equally motivated not to stir up any more trouble.
*******
A week had quietly gone by with Agent Leary and Julie doing some digging on the refugees from Chicago. Then, they found something worth immediate attention.
Jim knocked on Mike’s office door frame. “Mike, we have something we’d like to show you. This is big.”
“Sure thing,” Mike replied. “Come in and close the door. What have you guys found?”
Julie nodded for Jim to break the news. “Well, one of the guys who settled in Baltimore about a year ago is definitely a problem. His biographical information didn’t show any matches, so it’s easy to see how it could have been missed. We ran his biometrics against the FBI and DHS databases, and again, we got no matches. However, when we ran his biometrics against the DoD biometric database, we got a hit.”
Mike’s eyes lit up. “What type of hit was it?”
Jim continued, “His prints matched to several latent fingerprints that were recovered from an IED in Iraq in 2007 and to a weapon and computer that were recovered during a targeted raid in Yemen in 2013.”
Mike let out a soft whistle. This was an incredible find. This guy should never have been allowed in the US as a part of the refugee program. “Who conducted the screening of this individual?” asked Mike. He was going to want to talk with this analyst to find out why they hadn’t found this information on their own.
Julie piped in. “It was done by Constance Pool, one of Director Harper’s people that transferred here from the Senate Intelligence Committee she used to head.”
“Interesting…OK, here’s what I want you guys to do. Start working up this guy’s profile. Pull up all the data you can on him. See what you can find from his time in Iraq, and what possible connection he could have had in Yemen. I also want to know exactly what this guy has been up to since he arrived here in the US. It would be best if you could pull this together by the end of tomorrow,” Mike said, knowing that he was tasking them with a lot of information to gather.
He continued, “I’m going to brief this to Director Harper on Friday morning, during our leadership meeting. I’ll ask for permission for us to get a wiretap up on this guy and start monitoring all his electronic communications. I’m also going to see if we can assign someone from the Baltimore field office to monitor him as well.”
Julie spoke up, asking, “What are you going to do if she says no?”
Mike thought about that for a moment before responding, “Well, if she wants to play that game, I’ll talk to a few friends at Homeland and see what I can make happen,” he said with a slight chuckle.
Jim asserted, “You’d better be careful, my friend. If Director Harper ever catches wind that you went around her to another agency, she’ll chew you up and spit you out.”
Mike just smiled. “I guess we’ll just have to make sure we don’t get caught, then.”
Later that evening, Mike compiled a short message about what they had found and sent it over to Trevor at Langley. They had their first bread crumb of proof something amiss was going on.
*******
Over the next twenty-four hours, Julie and Jim worked to put together as comprehensive a dossier on the target as possible. They presented the document to Mike an hour before his morning meeting with Mallory. As Mike perused the dossier, he was impressed with what his small team had found in such a short time.
The target was a man named Khalid Mohammed al-Baghdadi. He had apparently matched to three separate IED attacks: one in 2004, another in 2006, and a third in 2007. Khalid was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1982 to a wealthy Sunni family. His father had worked in the Ministry of Defense prior to the fall of the Saddam regime. Official documents showed that Khalid had obtained an engineering degree from the University of Baghdad before he joined the Iraqi Intelligence Service. From the government documents seized in 2003, Khalid was assigned to a counterintelligence program and had specialized experience in counterinsurgency operations. Prior to the 2003 war, he had been working in the Kurdish areas. When the war broke out, he was transferred to Baghdad. That was the last official report before the government fell.
As he continued reading, he reflected. He could see why this guy had been hard to track—he’d been trained on how not to be found. But something bothered him. Why would his fingerprints have been found on an IED? he wondered.
Mike looked up at Jim and Julie, who were still in the room, waiting for feedback. “This is great work, you guys. What I’d like you research further is the IED attacks where his fingerprints were found. What kind of IED attacks were they? Were they simple devices, or something more specialized and complex? This guy appears to be too smart to be the one placing IEDs on the side of roads, and I’m not certain he had the training necessary to build them. I could be wrong, but I’d like you guys to look into the details of the attacks for further clues, OK?”
They nodded in agreement as they scribbled a few notes.
He closed the dossier and grabbed his notepad. “I’ve got to run to the meeting now, but see if you can find that information for me ASAP.” Julie and Jim nodded, and Mike headed out of his office and knocked on Mallory’s door.
“Boss, I know you’re busy, but I’ve got something I should brief you on before we have this leadership meeting,” he asserted.
“Mike, I’m really busy right now. Just brief it in the meeting, OK?” she urged.
“I think you’re going to want to hear it beforehand,” he emphasized.
“No, I really don’t have time. I’m sure it will be fine, just brief the group,” she said. Then she frantically began to type something on her computer.
Mike decided not to push it any further. He replied, “All right, Boss,” then headed back to his desk. He printed some documents and then made his way toward the conference room where the leadership meeting took place every Friday.
As Mike walked in, everyone was still mingling and talking about what they were going to do that weekend. Most of the group was gaggled around the doughnuts and coffee that had been delivered to the room a few minutes before he arrived. As everyone was grabbing their morning java, Mike took his seat next to where Director Harper would be sitting.
*******
Mallory walked into the conference room, ready to begin what she probably thought would be another mundane Friday update meeting. She’d finished reviewing Mike’s field report, and she had to admit, she was impressed. He was immaculately detailed in his assessment and had identified several specific aspects of the refugee programs that had been implemented that had worked well and had also outlined those that had not. He also put together what she thought was an exceptional recommendation for a refugee resettlement program that could be replicated across the country.
She had initially been mad at Mike for missing her deadline and asking for an extra day to complete the report, but once she received it, she was pleasantly surprised. She felt as if she’d finally found a solid Number Two, one who understood the President’s refugee agenda and would work to see it implemented.
As Mallory took her seat, she smiled at Mike and signaled for everyone to begin their updates. Each department head gave their weekly recap of what their department had been working on, along with any significant activities that had come up.
As the meeting neared its conclusion, Director Harper noticed that Mike hadn’t spoken yet and had a file in front of him that was labeled “Eyes Only.” She tapped the table in front of him. “Mike, I think it’s your turn. You have something to share with the group?” she asked.
He seemed hesitant. “I can, but I believe this might be better discussed privately,” he contended.
“Nonsense,” she said encouragingly. “We’re all one team. Go ahead, Mike. We’ll tackle whatever it is as a group.”
Taking a deep breath before he began, Agent Stone began to pass out a summary to each department head and to Director Harper.
As they reviewed the summary, he began to brief them on w
hat he’d found. He explained how he had a hunch something just wasn’t right with the disproportionate number of single males being resettled in Chicago and Baltimore. He then ran their biometrics against the DoD terrorist watch lists and the DoD latent fingerprint databases, just in case they found a match.
Unfortunately for Director Harper, Mike’s thorough investigation had actually identified one person who, in all honesty, should never have been allowed into the refugee program or permitted to enter the US. As everyone looked over the summary, several people had questions. Mallory just sat silently, letting everyone else talk while she pondered what to do about the information Mike had just unearthed.
Several department heads were asking questions all at the same time. “Who did the vetting of this individual? Why was he not flagged?” Another department head added, “We need to find this person and figure out what he’s been doing since he arrived here. This is a huge screwup if this guy has done something.”
Director Harper cleared her throat, indicating she wanted everyone to be quiet for a minute. As she surveyed the faces in the room, she then turned to her side and said, “Mike, this is an incredible find. We should have a talk with the person who conducted this man’s screening. This should have been found during that process. That said, we obviously can’t let this refugee continue to freely walk around in Baltimore. We need to figure out what he’s been up to, who he’s been meeting with, and what he’s been doing in Baltimore the past thirteen months since he’s been here.”
Looking toward her FBI and US marshal representatives, she continued, “I would like your organizations to work together and get this person apprehended immediately. We need to keep this as hush-hush as possible. I don’t want local law enforcement involved, and I don’t want this getting out into the press. This is the type of thing that could really embarrass our department and the President. Does everyone understand?” she asked in a very stern voice.