by B. Michaels
*
“Wow, he makes me want to join him in Syria,” said Samantha. “Who is he?”
General Shields looked a Samantha with disdain. Then he softened. “Actually, I’ve got mixed emotions about this guy. It’s the first time I ever remember rooting for an Iranian. I’m ecstatic to see Abu Omar dead.”
Rahmati just killed the man who financed Charlie Shields’ death. Samantha knew this fact wasn’t far from the General’s heart.
“Commander Muhammad Rahmati,” said Shields, “was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1978. Rahmati’s father, Abdullah Rahmati, served as the Minister of Economics during Iraq’s most prosperous time. That was the late 1970’s, under the leadership of the then Iraqi President, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.
“Abdullah’s father—Muhammad’s grandfather—was a famous Grand Ayatollah in the Shiite branch of Islam. Early in his life, he moved from Iran to southern Iraq. So Rahmati’s paternal lineage is very Persian and very Shiite.”
“I don’t understand,” said Samantha. “Why is Muhammad Rahmati an Iranian Commander, if he was born in Iraq?”
“Because, when it became apparent that Saddam Hussein was going to succeed Al-Bakr in 1979, Abdullah took his family and fled to Iran. Abdullah knew that Saddam was a ruthless butcher. Once in power, Abdullah was sure Hussein would purge all the Shiites in the Baathist party. And that’s exactly what he did. Saddam had Abdullah’s father murdered.”
Samantha processed the soap opera. “So Saddam was Sunni?”
“Yes, but he wasn’t very religious. His biggest concern was a coup. In Iraq, there are more Shiites than Sunnis. The north of the country, where Saddam was born, was Sunni. The south of the country was Shia. And there are way more Shiites in Iran. Iran is over 90% Shiite.
“In moving from Iraq to Iran, Abdullah went from one fire to another. Iran was in the midst of revolution in 1979. The Ayatollah Khomeini came to power and established the Revolutionary Guards to protect the revolution. Abdullah worked himself into a senior position in the Revolutionary Guards.
“His career took off when Saddam attacked Iran in 1980. Abdullah provided valuable intelligence on the military assets of Iraq to Ayatollah Khomeini. That war lasted over eight years. It was absolutely brutal. One million men died, and probably just as many civilians. It was trench warfare, just like World War I.
“While the Revolutionary Guards is a military organization, over time it became much more. Now, the Guards operate like a sovereign country within a country. They own almost all the valuable assets of Iran that the mullahs don’t control. Abdullah used his connections to build the high-tech industry in Iran. Over many years, he became very wealthy and influential.
“After religious studies, Muhammad Rahmati followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Revolutionary Guards. He’s a warrior’s warrior. He’s also maintained close ties to his father’s companies. He knows technology. I think we’d better start tracking him more comprehensively, and we’d better add more Persian speakers to the SWARM team.
“From what I remember about Rahmati’s profile, a defining moment in his life was the death of his mother. While Rahmati’s father was Persian, his mother was a Sunni-Arab. The family lived in Tehran. Saddam Hussein tried to bomb Tehran into submission during the Iran-Iraq war. During air raids, Iranians would run to the mountains to escape the bombings. In the midst of one attack, Rahmati’s mom was killed. At the age of seven, Rahmati watched her die.”
“How sad,” said Samantha. “I can understand why, with both Sunni and Shia ties, he wants to end all the sectarian violence.” She sighed. “General, my brain is fried. Islam and the Middle East completely confuse me. It’s so complicated.”
“All you need to remember is that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, with nearly 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide. By 2045, there will be an equal number of Muslims and Christians. Over 85% of Muslims in the world are Sunni. But Shia-Islam, spearheaded by Iran, is growing in influence.”
“All I think I’ll remember is Muhammad Rahmati’s blue eyes. If they ever resurrect the most interesting man in the world advertising campaign, I’d pick him.”
Shields crinkled his face. Then he whispered in Samantha’s ear, “Do you want to get a drink?”
Samantha shook her head no.
The General looked surprised. “Come on, just one.”
*
45 minutes later, Samantha and General Shields lay in bed in the General’s office. Shields had recently purchased a couch with a pull-out bed. A tipsy Samantha was angry at herself. She promised she was going to stop sleeping with him. “What’s going on with Becca and Josh?” Her tone was sharp.
“Well, they’re on a no-fly list. They can’t get out of the country. Both of them have moved to live with Josh’s dad in Connecticut. I’m sure they’re both just moving on. Josh will probably go back to MIT or work for his father.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t underestimate Becca or Josh. Becca is an expert hacker. I’m not sure a no-fly list will contain her. And Josh’s dad is a multi-billionaire.”
“I hear you. They’re under surveillance.” Shields appeared confused by Samantha’s mood swings.
“I’ve really missed Becca at Gamification. I didn’t realize how much I relied on her. Gecko Insurance asks me about her, nearly every day. I’ve had to be much more involved than I wanted. I mean, it’s great that they are going to purchase an enterprise license. That thrills me. And I thank you for your help in landing that deal. But my plate was already full, before you fired Becca.”
Shields abruptly raised his torso in bed. He glared at Samantha. “I didn’t fire her. She quit, remember?”
Samantha turned on her side. She looked the General directly in the eye. “Becca resigned because she felt like I didn’t trust her. I did trust her. You didn’t. You didn’t even invite me to the meeting in which you, had my employee escorted out of the Accelerator—at gunpoint.”
*
After extensive editing and graphics work, Rahmati’s media team posted the video of Abu Omar’s takedown to A-Tube. They also released magazine-quality photos. The New York Times and CNN syndicated the photos. Drudge prominently highlighted a picture of Rahmati on his website.
The piece created by the Immersive Media Team was over 25 minutes long. It included Rahmati kneeling in prayer with his forehead pressed to the ground. He asked Allah to bless his mission and protect the Immortals, inshallah. Inshallah was Arabic for, ‘if God wills.’
The video interspersed inspirational music and high-resolution drone feeds, with elaborate, on-the-ground footage. The post looked every bit like an interactive, immersive TV show. It could’ve come straight from a big movie studio in Hollywood or China.
Rahmati’s propaganda spread like wildfire across the Middle East. Then it ignited in the West. Whether viewed normally, through VR headgear, or with AR glasses; the world felt absorbed into the action. The footage was of such high quality and realism; the viewer felt like they were an Immortal.
American talk shows, from the left and right, cheered Muhammad Rahmati. Here was a Muslim that was finally demonstrating pan-sectarian, nation-building, Islamic leadership. Voices in the Middle East elatedly praised Rahmati for capturing and executing Omar. Omar was an enemy that had baffled and embarrassed the CIA. Tactical tomahawks became a best seller on Amazon. Memes of Rahmati hacking Omar’s hand went viral across social media platforms, incorporating a range of messages—from religious to comic.
The talking heads and columnists questioned whether Rahmati was attempting to lead a cultural renaissance in the Middle East. Was he trying to reform Islam, like Martin Luther reformed Christianity? Other pundits debated whether Rahmati was talking about implementing Islamic Sharia law or Western style democracy. They wondered aloud what the Ayatollah thought of his dashing Quds Force Commander.
In the Middle East, pro-Rahmati de
monstrators took to the streets in many of the same countries as the Arab Spring. This included; Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. Though Bahrain was a tiny island, it was strategically important to the US because it contained the Navy’s 5th Fleet base. The 5th Fleet’s area of operation was the waters of the Middle East. The Fleet was designed to serve as the tip of the spear in any military action against Iran or other Middle Eastern country.
Rahmati supporters carried placards of the Commander’s face and waxing crescent moons. They also held signs that called for an end to sectarian violence and advocated more economic opportunity. Chants of, ‘the future is now,’ rang out through the crowds. A few dozen demonstrators called for an end to their oppressive regimes.
The #FutureIsNow hashtag spread in waves throughout social media platforms. Social media was also used to organize the peaceful demonstrations in the Middle Eastern countries that did not block the Internet or SMS messaging. Demonstrators posted thousands of pictures and videos from the rallies. Social media sites published results from online polls. Rahmati was more popular than any current Middle Eastern ruler, including the Ayatollah.
Some compared Rahmati to Suleiman the Magnificent or Saladin. A small but vocal group, began referring to Muhammad Rahmati as the Mahdi. In Iran, the Ayatollah had always censored the Internet. However, technically literate Iranians still saw the videos using proxy servers. Subtitles translated Rahmati’s Arabic and English into Farsi.
A handful of students met at Azadi Square in Tehran. Azadi Square was the scene of the massive protests in 2009, known as the Green Revolution. It was also the location for the even larger 1979 protests. Those demonstrations led to the overthrow of the Shah and replacement by the first Ayatollah.
From their headquarters at Raqqa, the Caliphate raged. Caliph Abu Mosulaydi plotted the elimination of Muhammad Rahmati.
Chapter 22 – Abu Mosulaydi
11:45 a.m., Saturday, October 24, 2020 - Raqqa, Syria
Abu Mosulaydi sat with his legs crisscrossed on a threadbare rug. The carpet covered the dirt floor of his makeshift residence. Mosulaydi had a long, dark-brown beard, with flecks of gray. He was dressed from head to toe in black. To avoid drone strikes and air bombardments, Mosulaydi moved locations every night.
Like the previous Caliph, Mosulaydi held a doctorate in Islamic studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad. In addition to the Koran and various collections of Hadiths, Mosulaydi was surrounded by literature on Mao Tse-tung, Genghis Khan, the Viet Nam war, and driver-less vehicles.
The Caliphate’s new Minister of Finance—the man who replaced Abu Omar—and the Minister of Social Media & Recruitment entered the dusty room. They proceeded to update the Caliph.
At various times over the years, Abu Mosulaydi had been forced to flee from the city of Raqqa due to American, French, British, and Russian harassment. Sometimes, he would dissolve into Raqqa’s population of over 200,000. Other times, he would flee to alternative regions of Syria or Iraq. Once, Mosulaydi was secreted to Libya.
He was always able to return when the tempo of the attacks slowed. Despite the Caliphate’s wishes, no country wanted to involve themselves in a full-scale ground war. No nation wanted to repeat the commitment of George W. Bush’s surge in troop levels to fight in a civil war.
Raqqa was a key city for the Caliphate. It was situated in northern Syria, located on the bank of the Euphrates River. It was roughly 100 west of Aleppo. Since early 2014, Raqqa served as the headquarters of the Caliphate. After numerous battles and air bombardments, the city was still the de facto capital of the Caliphate.
This was an amorphous concept because the Caliphate could move its headquarters to any of the municipalities that it still influenced; including, Mosul, Fallujah, Tikrit, or smaller towns in Iraq or Syria.
The Caliphate was an extremely decentralized organization. Caliphate leadership supplied its commanders with specific goals, but allowed wide latitude in which to accomplish those objectives. This made the Caliphate’s SIGINT signature extremely narrow. Almost all command and control communications were couriered or forwarded by a network of disposable cell phones.
One key to the effectiveness of the Caliphate was its inclusion of former Iraqi Baath party members; the party of Saddam Hussein. When American troops left Iraq in late 2011, Sunni-Shia violence ratcheted up. With no US troops on the ground, the Shia-led Iraqi government—heavily influenced by Iran—began to imprison Sunni politicians.
These politicians congealed with former Baathists and sought protection. This led them to assist ISIS, and later the Caliphate. They shared knowledge of sophisticated military tactics—like how to use tanks and properly position artillery. They also contributed their experience on governing Iraq. Mosulaydi had no prior military or leadership know-how.
Over the course of its 14-year history, the Caliphate had changed its name many times. The group initially called themselves Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and then in 2004, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). The name changes reflected the growing territorial and religious aspirations of the group. Its success in Syria, during the civil war, led them to refer progressively to themselves as ISIL, ISIS, and then finally, the Islamic State. Opposition derogatorily referred to them as Daesh.
In 2017, the Islamic State changed its name to the Caliphate, formalizing the concept first declared in 2014. Western media outlets had continued to use the word, ‘ISIS,’ instead of the Islamic State. Also, Islamic State leadership wanted to reinvigorate a brand that was suffering setbacks from air strikes and ground attacks by various nations. These setbacks included the death of their first Caliph. Just naming themselves a Caliphate would attract followers. Many Muslims believed it was their religious duty to protect a Caliphate—once declared.
Mosulaydi first turned his attention to the Minister of Finance.
“How are we coming on acquiring the fleet of self-driving vehicles? I want to load those cars down with explosives and mustard gas. We can use them to inflict casualties across Iraq and Syria.”
“Caliph,” responded the new Finance Minister, “they’ve been harder to get than I first anticipated. I’m still working on it. My most promising deal involves trading 20,000 barrels of oil for 15 autonomous vehicles. But we’re still negotiating. I’ve also been looking into acquiring a self-driving kit for our Toyota HiLuxes. The package makes them driver-less. But it’s still much cheaper to use suicide bombers, provided that recruits keep streaming in.”
“That’s the problem,” said the Caliph. “Our foreign fighters from the West have slowed, due to Rahmati’s propaganda.”
Mosulaydi next turned his attention to his Minister of Social Media & Recruitment, Syed Abdulkarim Olyan al-Dhafiri. The Intelligence Community nicknamed him, ‘Hollywood.’ Hollywood was born in Kuwait. His family immigrated to Southern California in 1989, settling in Corona.
“Syed, we need a robust strategy to counter Rahmati. He’s winning our volunteers to his cause. And the Sunni populations in the cities we maintain are beginning to turn against us. We’re filtering the Internet, but his message is still seeping in. We need to highlight the fact that Rahmati is a Shiite puppet of Iran. He’s an infidel. He’s not a Muslim. I want you to start referring to him the Dajjal.”
“Yes, Caliph,” replied Hollywood.
While Sunnis and Shias lived peaceably for extended periods of time, violent confrontations occurred periodically. For example, Sunni-Shia conflict was a key to extending the US war in Iraq, which began in 2003 and didn’t end until 2011.
In Islamic apocalyptic thought, the Dajjal was the deceiving Messiah, roughly equivalent to the Christian notion of the Antichrist. The Dajjal was supposed to arise out of Iran. He was to war against the Mahdi and Jesus Christ during the End of Days. Strikingly, Christian and Muslim eschatology were nearly mirror images of one another.
Mosulaydi continued, “If we brand Rahmati as the Dajjal, we c
an claim that this is proof that the Mahdi now walks the earth. The End Times are here. On the military side, I can tell you that we’re implementing a plan to execute Rahmati. If we can’t kill him, maybe we can maim him and cut out one of those blue eyes.” One Hadith said that the Dajjal would possess only one eye.
“Also, I don’t want to let up on baiting the Americans and Europeans. We want them to send their troops. I can’t believe the pathetic American response to the deaths of the CIA operatives. I’m shocked that Dabiq-gate didn’t topple your President. Keep mentioning those contractors in posts. Remind the world of the US fabrications. Play the CIA confessions against a backdrop of the lying comments from the Goodson Administration, immediately after we seized the operatives.”
Hollywood carefully listened to his Caliph. “He’s not my President. You’re the only rightful ruler of the world. We’ll continue to threaten the US and Europe with more sophisticated terrorist attacks on their soil. I’m especially trying to inspire lone-wolf attacks. They give us so much bang for our buck! We’ll ratchet up the shock and awe of the images. The bloodier they are, the more viral they’ll become.
“We’ll tell the Crusaders that they’ll only be safe when they convert to Islam. All of the earth is for Muslims; ours is a new empire. We’re ushering in the final Caliphate, to be ruled by the Mahdi. We’re not going to even give infidels the chance to pay the Jizya. Become a Muslim or die.” The Jizya was a tax introduced in the Koran that gathered revenue from non-Muslims.
“Yes, that’s good,” said Mosulaydi. “Don’t forget to disparage their cowardly drone attacks and bombings. Highlight the deaths of our women and children. Only when the Crusaders send troops, can we engage in our strategy of guerrilla warfare. That’s how Mao and the Viet Cong did it. Then we can obtain victory in Dabiq and initiate the End of Days.”
Hollywood was slightly under 30. He earned a degree in computer science from the University of California at Riverside. After graduation, Syed job-hopped through various IT positions. He ended up as a webmaster for a Los Angeles-based media startup. The company shut its doors and laid him off in 2016. The experience left Syed disillusioned and embittered. He moved back to live with his parents in Corona. He began attending a local mosque and was radicalized.