JOEY PACED IN front of the flat-screen television in the living room. Every few steps, he paused like he was trying to figure out a way around an invisible barrier. Nelly tried to talk to him, but Joey held out his hand like any noise would knock a good idea out of his head. He started to pace again. With each step, Joey puzzled through our latest problem.
The Canadians weren’t happy that I’d sided with Chiheb. They wanted me to play both sides. But that wasn’t an option. It was clear Jaser and Chiheb were on diverging paths, and I had to make a choice.
“We need the American sleeper,” I said. “We need the intel from overseas. We need everything that is in that brain.”
We were meeting at a hotel suite in Toronto. In a few hours, I had to take Chiheb to the bus station.
“Let the Toronto guys worry about Jaser,” I said. “Sorry, Doug. But we’ve got to focus on Chiheb.”
Doug shrugged. He understood what his bosses wanted but also saw my logic.
“I would have done the same thing,” he said.
The debriefs after each day were intimate affairs. Joey made sure the core team of Nelly, Kenny, and Johnny were always there. Doug was the Canadian representation. Every now and then if the situation was serious, Joey invited one or two RCMP bosses, but that was it.
I usually got to the safe house first to collect my thoughts. I put a pinch of snuff in my lip and just bullshitted with the guys. When I was ready—sometimes right away, sometimes I needed more time to come down—I went over the day’s meeting in minute detail. Nelly and Johnny took notes. Joey just listened. When I was done, they peppered me with questions. After the debrief, Nelly and Kenny sent the highlights to executive management in New York and FBI Headquarters in Washington. Doug briefed his people. Joey paced and we started strategizing for the next meeting.
“Dougy, we have to stick with Chiheb. If the situation presents itself, we’ll reengage with Jaser,” Joey said.
Joey looked at me.
“As for you, make sure Chiheb knows Tamer is with him,” Joey said. “Leave no doubt.”
The threat was under control and that was the main concern. Chiheb was convinced, after inspecting the track, another brother was needed to help. No way two guys could cut the rail in two hours, which meant there was no way the plot would be ready in December. Plus, Chiheb and Jaser were under arrest. They just didn’t know it yet. The only play was to stay with Chiheb for the intelligence in his head, and his potential connection to the sleeper.
I left to pick up Chiheb around 7:30 P.M. The condo didn’t have Internet, so I offered to let him use my hotel room. He met me in the lobby and we headed to pick up Jaser. Chiheb’s bus left at nine o’clock. As we drove, I asked him about his work.
“So you will be a doctor?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I am not looking for money or looking for PhD. I am just looking for the PhD because it is good for our projects. You understand?”
“Of course,” I said.
“I mean if I am a doctor or a professor, who will catch me?”
“Nobody,” I said. “No one is going to look at a doctor.” Not true, but it made sense to him. I asked about the safe house. Did he approve? It was a chance to pull Chiheb closer.
“I worked for a week with these idiots in order not to have my name or your name on it, because I know this is what I do,” I said, talking about the condo lease. “To protect us. That’s my job. You said to me, Tamer, we need you to protect us. Right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll give you guys the key. I am in America and you guys are here in Canada, use it. Use the computer, if you need phones, if you need tablets, anything. Just ask me for it. Before you are done asking, you will have it. Whatever you need from me, I will give it to you right away. Because I need us to be on the same page. But he will start talking back and forth, saying, let’s do the sniper thing and he wants to do this and he wants to do that. Come on, this is a joke.”
Chiheb was still upset after our trip to the train bridge. “We need to focus and be on the same page,” I said.
“And maybe while you are focusing on the sniper he comes up with another plan,” Chiheb said, laughing.
“Exactly,” I said.
Jaser was waiting outside when we arrived. He got into the back and we drove to the bus station. I found a parking spot and we started talking more about the train plot. Chiheb wanted to be ready when El Massoul sent the code word to attack. But Jaser wanted to delay.
“There’s always wisdom in patience,” he said.
Chiheb let out a long sigh.
“You see?” Jaser said. “So for me rushing into something just because you want to do it, for the sheer fact that you want to do something, doesn’t make any sense.”
Jaser told us he prayed salat il Istakhara after our visit to the bridge. It is a specific prayer asking Allah for guidance.
“I said if this is good for us in this life and the next, He will make it happen,” Jaser said. “If not, then no.”
But Chiheb saw Jaser’s prayer as the move of a coward unwilling to commit to the path of God.
“No, this feeling that you have, Raed, is coming from the devil,” he said.
“The devil?”
Chiheb nodded.
“The devil wants you to leave the project.”
“I’m not leaving the project, habibi, ” Jaser said. “But we have to be extra careful.”
“No, of course I agree with you,” Chiheb said.
“Yeah, you agree with me, I tell you I cannot do anything anymore in this operation because you see, unlike you, for me I am very well known in the city of Toronto, okay,” Jaser said. “Thank Allah I have no record. I have no problem. But I am very well known in other ways, you see.”
“So what’s the point?” Chiheb said. “You are scared that you go to jail?”
“Scared of going to jail?” Jaser said. “You are the one who’s worried, not me.”
“No, I am not worried,” Chiheb said. “If I go—”
“We want to live for another day,” Jaser said.
“If I go to jail, I don’t care,” Chiheb said. “If I die, I don’t care.”
“Why are you talking like this?” Jaser said. “This is not the right time for this. You have to watch what you’re saying. You are just not very professional, habibi. ”
Chiheb bristled at the “professional” comment. He was trained by al Qaeda. Jaser had no training.
“So this means that you are scared that you go to jail, right?”
“It’s not about jail,” Jaser said. “It’s about success. There’s a difference.”
“But I don’t care about my security,” Chiheb said. “I care about the security of the operation.”
I could see the anger on Jaser’s face.
“I cannot help you,” he said. “Get somebody else. That’s what I’m telling you. I cannot help you. That’s what I am trying to explain to you. For me personally, it’s no good for me. It’s compromised, for me. But, I mean, there’s many other things we can do in this lovely place, you know.”
“Okay then,” I said.
I was happy to be done with Jaser. Now I could focus on Chiheb full-time. But Chiheb wasn’t going to let him go without a rebuke. It was clear to Chiheb that Jaser was no longer a good Muslim. His true colors were exposed. He cared more about this world and that was haram.
“This is your obligation,” Chiheb said. “You are scared that you go to jail, no problem. But I can say to you one thing, if you are scared about entering jail and you are not scared about Allah and your obligation in front of Allah, I say to you, we don’t need a person who will do this behavior. We want someone who isn’t scared about anything except Allah.”
“Praise the Prophet, habibi, ” I said.
I was trying to calm Chiheb down.
“Okay, habibi, no problem,” Jaser said. “I cannot work with you. You are very rash.”
Chiheb was getting worked up.
“Our women, they are raped,” he said, his voice almost a scream. “They are raped. They are raped in jail.”
“It doesn’t do anything yelling and screaming,” Jaser said. “Yelling and screaming doesn’t work.”
Jaser’s eyes shot from Chiheb in the passenger seat to the window and back. He was searching for a way to calm Chiheb.
“Do you want that your sister is raped?” Chiheb said.
Chiheb’s eyes were dark as he turned to face Jaser.
He radiated hate and anger.
“Pay attention,” Jaser said. “Yelling and screaming does not work. Go ahead, go in the street, yelling and screaming, what is it going to do?”
I scanned the street to see if anyone was looking at us after Chiheb’s screaming.
“Relax, relax,” I said.
They both sat in the car, arms folded, with scowls on their faces.
“We’ll clean this up, Allah willing,” I said. “The most important thing is to understand we’re going to have disagreements. We’re going to have arguments. Right now let’s just chill out.”
Chiheb kept trying to interrupt me.
“Tamer?”
“Yes, habibi, ” I said.
“Tamer,” Chiheb said. “We will go search for another believer, okay?”
“Listen, habibi, don’t talk that way,” I said.
“You see, this is the extreme ideology,” Jaser said. “That’s why I can’t work with you, brother.”
Jaser didn’t mean jihad. He was objecting to the way Chiheb planned the attack.
“No,” Chiheb said. “We don’t want someone who stops our project. We want to go forward. We want someone who wants to give his blood to Allah.”
I couldn’t take much more of this.
“Listen, let’s get you on the bus, so you don’t miss the bus,” I said.
All three of us left the car. We found the bus and I bought Chiheb a sandwich and drink. As we walked, Chiheb seemed anxious.
“He wants to work with you,” Chiheb said. “I hope that he will not tell you another plan and ask you to leave the project.”
I shook my head and put my hand on Chiheb’s shoulder.
“We are all brothers here,” I said. “I’m leaving my home constantly to come visit my brothers because I feel like I have a purpose, thank Allah. I’m being careful. I’m practicing everything that you guys have taught me from the beginning, and I am trying to do right and then we have one bad day, does that mean we’re going to lose focus? Do you think that the brothers who are dying over there daily, what do you think they would do, with an opportunity that we have? This is what I am thinking.”
I thought Chiheb was going to hug me.
“They are not seeing police like we see today,” Chiheb said, happy to be compared to the brothers overseas. “They are seeing missiles. They are seeing bombs. He just sees three police and he becomes scared.”
I looked at Jaser. He just glared at us.
“I don’t think that’s his issue,” I said. “I think he’s thinking about the success of the operation.”
Jaser shrugged.
“You are too aggressive,” he said to Chiheb. “I can’t work with you.”
Chiheb’s bus boarded just before nine. Jaser and I waited until it left. On the way back to his house, Jaser tried to explain why he was out.
“It’s too much work,” he said. “It’s for nothing. At the end, they’re going to downplay it. Train derailment, whoop-de-do?”
Jaser was stung by Chiheb’s accusations of not being a true Muslim. He spent half the ride proving himself to me using the Quran.
“I need to look right and left before I cross the street,” Jaser said. “If I don’t look right and left, a car is going to hit me. And especially if I didn’t look at the traffic light to see if it’s green or red. Allah says do not lead yourselves into destruction, do not go with your own hands into destruction.”
Before he got out of the car, Jaser returned the thousand dollars I gave him to buy a new video camera to shoot the message after the attack. He promised to get me a plan for his sniper attack and his plan to build a training compound. But I think we both knew it would never come to be.
It was now just me and Chiheb.