world has changed.”
“Allah has not.”
“That is not being debated. However, I see your ministers driving cars instead of riding camels, which tells me they are able to adapt to changing conditions. They need a fresh interpretation of the Qur’an and, above all, a leader who can unite the ummah and repair Islam’s tarnished image. Unfortunately, most of the opinion makers in the House of Islam lack the foresight Allah gave an ant. Even with their tiny brains, these insects have the sense to prepare for winter. We, on the other hand, have been engaged in an undeclared war with the West without making the necessary preparations. It is time to put the House of Islam in order. We have been chosen to accomplish this task.”
Ahmet had no patience for the visionless leaders he worked with, but he feigned it well, and when that failed, he ruthlessly pursued other paths of persuasion. He was a doer, not a dallier.
“Mr. Karaman, it may take more than convincing arguments to persuade the minister.”
“Well, you have come to the point at last.”
“What about the other countries?”
“Sudan and Somalia are still giving us trouble, but the same pressure will be applied to them all.”
“And what about support in the West?”
“Mr. Secretary, over the last twelve years I have personally orchestrated the establishment of centers for Islamic studies at nineteen of the best universities in Europe, North America and Australia, all funded by businessmen from Turkey, Jordan and Qatar as well as the governments of Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Morocco. We have provided scholarships for thousands of students from the Middle East to study in the West, and placed hundreds of professors, instructors and post-doc students in the most prestigious schools. We have established non-profit organizations, and charter schools at the elementary, junior-high and high-school levels. We have won invaluable support among the Western elite.”
“Mr. Karaman, you know that I agree with your vision. Believe me, I’m doing my best to convince the Minister that this compromise is a tactic of war.”
“I’ll give you ten days before I send in the bowstring. Don’t disappoint us.”
Ahmet reached for the off button. A frantic stream of pleas was cut off in mid-sentence. He heard a ding from his computer and opened his eyes just in time to catch the innocuous-looking subject heading “FW: Cool Quote” as it faded from the lower right corner of the screen. He quickly focused his mind and reached for the mouse. There was one thing that Ahmet never received and that was spam. Another perk that came with his job was that no email ever appeared on his screen unless the sender’s digital signature was on a master list and the email’s source had been contacted by his staff. In his office, this list was called the safe list. He had always thought that particularly ironic since it was anything but safe.
There was a short note from his top security analyst in Arabic that read, “So far it all checks out.” He scanned down to read the one line message his analyst was forwarding to him. It was less cryptic than one might suppose. The quote was one of the organization’s codes. To find out which operative sent the mail and what their mission encompassed, Ahmet entered the sender’s ID— 3466-5725-9226. His database gave him the answer immediately. The sender was support and reconnaissance in academia.
Ahmet reached for the phone and told the switchboard to put him through to their London operative immediately and to route the call through any of several thousand innocuous local numbers. Since the 911 attacks, the eavesdropping capability, and more importantly, determination in the West had grown exponentially. His organization had learned the hard way that there is no such thing as a secure digital transmission.
The price of this knowledge had been high. They had lost some of their best and brightest sources. Everything was potentially
“Allah has not.”
“That is not being debated. However, I see your ministers driving cars instead of riding camels, which tells me they are able to adapt to changing conditions. They need a fresh interpretation of the Qur’an and, above all, a leader who can unite the ummah and repair Islam’s tarnished image. Unfortunately, most of the opinion makers in the House of Islam lack the foresight Allah gave an ant. Even with their tiny brains, these insects have the sense to prepare for winter. We, on the other hand, have been engaged in an undeclared war with the West without making the necessary preparations. It is time to put the House of Islam in order. We have been chosen to accomplish this task.”
Ahmet had no patience for the visionless leaders he worked with, but he feigned it well, and when that failed, he ruthlessly pursued other paths of persuasion. He was a doer, not a dallier.
“Mr. Karaman, it may take more than convincing arguments to persuade the minister.”
“Well, you have come to the point at last.”
“What about the other countries?”
“Sudan and Somalia are still giving us trouble, but the same pressure will be applied to them all.”
“And what about support in the West?”
“Mr. Secretary, over the last twelve years I have personally orchestrated the establishment of centers for Islamic studies at nineteen of the best universities in Europe, North America and Australia, all funded by businessmen from Turkey, Jordan and Qatar as well as the governments of Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Morocco. We have provided scholarships for thousands of students from the Middle East to study in the West, and placed hundreds of professors, instructors and post-doc students in the most prestigious schools. We have established non-profit organizations, and charter schools at the elementary, junior-high and high-school levels. We have won invaluable support among the Western elite.”
“Mr. Karaman, you know that I agree with your vision. Believe me, I’m doing my best to convince the Minister that this compromise is a tactic of war.”
“I’ll give you ten days before I send in the bowstring. Don’t disappoint us.”
Ahmet reached for the off button. A frantic stream of pleas was cut off in mid-sentence. He heard a ding from his computer and opened his eyes just in time to catch the innocuous-looking subject heading “FW: Cool Quote” as it faded from the lower right corner of the screen. He quickly focused his mind and reached for the mouse. There was one thing that Ahmet never received and that was spam. Another perk that came with his job was that no email ever appeared on his screen unless the sender’s digital signature was on a master list and the email’s source had been contacted by his staff. In his office, this list was called the safe list. He had always thought that particularly ironic since it was anything but safe.
There was a short note from his top security analyst in Arabic that read, “So far it all checks out.” He scanned down to read the one line message his analyst was forwarding to him. It was less cryptic than one might suppose. The quote was one of the organization’s codes. To find out which operative sent the mail and what their mission encompassed, Ahmet entered the sender’s ID— 3466-5725-9226. His database gave him the answer immediately. The sender was support and reconnaissance in academia.
Ahmet reached for the phone and told the switchboard to put him through to their London operative immediately and to route the call through any of several thousand innocuous local numbers. Since the 911 attacks, the eavesdropping capability, and more importantly, determination in the West had grown exponentially. His organization had learned the hard way that there is no such thing as a secure digital transmission.
The price of this knowledge had been high. They had lost some of their best and brightest sources. Everything was potentially
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