THIRTEEN

ABDULLAH AL-JAMAL TRAVELED east from his house in rural Maljamar to Artesia, New Mexico, the nearest town with access to the Internet. As his source he selected Starbucks, with its Wi-Fi connection and international coffee.

After buying a latte and settling in a secluded corner, he reviewed his recent accomplishments. Could it be eight weeks since he entered the United States? It felt more like eight days.

Abdullah opened his computer and inserted the thumb drive Bashir, his American handler, had given him the day he crossed over from Mexico into America. He loaded the encryption software he would use to communicate with his contact in Rome. Bashir had explained the procedures necessary to operate the program, and made Abdullah repeat the instructions aloud until he had memorized them.

Bashir had cautioned him to write nothing down, and to guard the thumb drive with his life. “This portable drive contains a unique code that changes in a randomly prescribed routine matched only by your contact in Rome,” he said. “The use of this drive is your only safe means of communication. Allow this program to fall into the hands of the American authorities, and you will die, I will see to it.” The threat was unnecessary. The thumb drive would never leave Abdullah's protection. If cornered by the enemy he would destroy it before his martyrdom.

Abdullah sipped his coffee as he consulted his Islamic calendar, and entered the date followed by the Gregorian equivalent which launched the coded program. This would be his first report to his primary handler in Rome whose identity he did not know. His contact would forward Abdullah’s report to Caliph Abd al-Ghayb, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, and a well-known leader within their secret society.

In this report he wanted to boast of his cleverly planned arrival in America. Using a forged passport Abdullah had flown from Riyadh to Mexico City, and then taken a bus to Juarez. In a public rest room he changed into a Hard Rock Café T-shirt, shorts and sandals. Then he walked to the nearby Lincoln Dental Clinic one block south of the Mexican border with the United States. The clinic attracted U. S. citizens by offering dental care at a fraction of the U. S. cost. As often as six times a day the clinic hauled van loads of Americans back across the bridge that spanned the Rio Grande River. Abdullah secured safe passage to America by blending into one load of departing clients.

At the border, American immigration agents conducted a cursory inspection of the routine trips back and forth. The vans entered El Paso, dropped off customers at parking garages, motels and hotels and then returned to Mexico.

At a predetermined time and place in downtown El Paso Abdullah met Bashir who gave him $12,000 in cash, and two sets of clothes, followed by a crash course on being in the land of the western crusaders. Abdullah didn't need Bashir's lecture having studied aeronautical engineering as a graduate student at Oklahoma University three years earlier while on a student visa. So as not to offend Bashir, his only link to sponsors at home, he had listened attentively.

Abdullah composed his report in great detail. He included all the glorious achievements. Testing his discipline as a warrior of Islam he reluctantly shortened the number of words with each of five revisions. Finally satisfied with the last rewrite, he reviewed his account of the past two months.

 

Gracious and Dear Brother in the Jihad,

The thought of Allah the Almighty shields me while I am amid the crusaders who spread the seeds of Satan. I serve Allah in this epic battle between Islam, the Judeo-Christian infidels and all unbelievers.

On my entrance into the United States, I secured the use of an American truck provided to me by my appointed contact. Posing as a legal immigrant from Mexico, I secured a driver’s license in a place called Alamogordo, where the American crusader armies train to kill Allah's lambs around the world. I then traveled to a remote village in an arid region of southeastern New Mexico called Maljamar. I became a tenant of a house far from the hard roads.

My research of records made public in several jurisdictions allowed me to identify organizations catering to beggars, orphans, sexual deviants, and homeless infidels. (The Americans have no shame and proudly display detailed records of their misfits and criminals.) Access to these records led me to many potential martyrs.

Posing as a journalist, a profession believed worthy here, I interviewed many candidates and discovered a perfect subject–an orphaned homosexual too worthless to gather friends. Although insignificant, his loss will honor Allah the Great God of Islam and all his prophets.

By assuming his identity. I am now believed to be a native born American with all the civil rights and privileges allowed by their government’s constitution. I have applied for a passport, am registered as a voter in Lea County and have joined a Methodist Church of Christians who sing much and pray little. Next year I will pay money to the government in the form of taxation on the earnings of Russell Smith, my new identity.

I await your instructions as to the transfer of funds to expand my undertakings. I prefer a contact within our Hauula network of money dealers. Many exist to support the illegal migrants of the region.

Since my first contact in El Paso, I have communicated with no one. It is my plan to work independent of all others. As a vanguard of the jihad, my files steadily grow with photographs, maps and descriptions of civilian and military populations ripe for destruction. I await your call to action.

In the name of Allah the Exalted, I remain your loyal soldier for the cause. Praise be to God, and blessings upon the Messenger, his family, his companions, and all those Believers who follow Him.

The Sword

 

After a final review, Abdullah transferred the report into the coded program and hit “send.” Within seconds it would be available to his primary handler in Rome. By matching the lunar and solar dates on his report, Rome’s source code would recognize a multilayered encryption. In the unlikely event a cryptologist at the National Security Agency would convert the code, he would be confronted with a second encryption.

Abdullah closed his laptop, confident in his ability to function unobserved while surrounded by secular dogs–Jews, their pawns the Christians, and all nonbelievers. Had he not been commanded by the Mullah of the Holy Mosque in Makkah, the holiest city of Islam? Did he not hear the words, “Go forth and take the fight to the enemy, and he shall quake in fear of you.” Yes, they must quake in fear–a worthy goal.