looked up and back into Logan’s eyes which hadn’t left him.
However they treat you at first, Burt had told Logan, once you introduce the words al-Qaeda, you’ll have their attention. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Just plant the seed. ‘But is it true?’ Logan had asked him. ‘I said it doesn’t matter,’ Burt had replied, rather testily for him, and Logan was none the wiser.
‘What group do your intelligence reports point to?’ Pasconi said disbelievingly.
‘Qubaq,’ Logan replied.
‘They’re a non-violent Islamic organisation,’ she shot back at him immediately. ‘They’ve never committed a single attack.’
‘Exactly,’ Logan replied. ‘The perfect peaceable Islamic organisation. Something in the West we should be courting, but alas we haven’t been. And something the embassy and the CIA have consequently taken their eyes away from.’
Once more, the other four in the room bristled with indignation at the implications. MacLeod’s face growled back at Logan. So Burt Miller was powerful enough to go behind their backs to the CIA chief and then send his minion – his disgraced minion – to push Cougar’s weight around and insult him in the process.
And now Sam MacLeod could no longer remain aloof. The idea that the station in Kiev wasn’t doing its job properly was too much for him. ‘Kind of reverse logic, isn’t it, Halloran?’ he said acidly. ‘Because someone has done nothing fundamentally wrong, then they must be on a suspicion list.’
Logan didn’t hesitate this time. ‘I think the point is, Sam, that the Qubaq support others who do perform terrorist acts,’ he said, knowing that the use of the station head’s first name would rile him more. ‘That’s the question. If someone supports terrorist acts, even tacitly, then they’re complicit. That’s the dictum. Qubaq also supports the re-establishment of the Caliphate, sharia law, a unified Moslem world. The question is, surely, what are they doing promoting radical Islamic culture in a secular country? Ukraine isn’t the northern Caucasus. It’s an Orthodox Christian country.’
But Logan could see the Pavlovian reaction he was getting simply from the mention of an Islamic group that Cougar believed came under some suspicion. The CIA will take it from there, Burt had said. All you have to do is cast suspicion. The last thing the CIA dare risk is to be upstaged by a private intelligence company, let alone ignore a potential terrorist group. Once we reel them in, we can use their resources and direct the play.
Logan continued now, confident that finally he had broken down their refusal to listen. This was the final play of the evening. ‘We are receiving information that funding for Qubaq is coming from the Centre in Moscow, right from Department S, in fact, the secretive heart of the SVR. It’s coming from the very top of Russia’s foreign intelligence operations, in other words. We also have information that Russia’s military intelligence, in the form of the GRU, is actually now recruiting agents from within the Qubaq group. It’s common knowledge that the GRU and Department S recruited Moslems in Chechnya and other parts of the northern Caucasus, not to mention the Middle East. It’s a potent combination, Burt Miller thinks – Russian foreign intelligence and a radical Moslem group with a clean record.’
‘Evidence?’ Pasconi demanded.
‘Page eleven,’ Logan replied and at last the four CIA employees opened their files.
The initial part of the thesis was Anna’s. She had seen the training of foreigners, and particularly radical Moslems, at first hand when she’d been the KGB’s darling at The Forest. The thesis began with a history of the KGB’s and, specifically, Department S’s involvement in the training of foreigners – in this case Moslems – to commit terrorist acts back in their own countries. Then it narrowed down into an account of Moslems being trained at The Forest outside
However they treat you at first, Burt had told Logan, once you introduce the words al-Qaeda, you’ll have their attention. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Just plant the seed. ‘But is it true?’ Logan had asked him. ‘I said it doesn’t matter,’ Burt had replied, rather testily for him, and Logan was none the wiser.
‘What group do your intelligence reports point to?’ Pasconi said disbelievingly.
‘Qubaq,’ Logan replied.
‘They’re a non-violent Islamic organisation,’ she shot back at him immediately. ‘They’ve never committed a single attack.’
‘Exactly,’ Logan replied. ‘The perfect peaceable Islamic organisation. Something in the West we should be courting, but alas we haven’t been. And something the embassy and the CIA have consequently taken their eyes away from.’
Once more, the other four in the room bristled with indignation at the implications. MacLeod’s face growled back at Logan. So Burt Miller was powerful enough to go behind their backs to the CIA chief and then send his minion – his disgraced minion – to push Cougar’s weight around and insult him in the process.
And now Sam MacLeod could no longer remain aloof. The idea that the station in Kiev wasn’t doing its job properly was too much for him. ‘Kind of reverse logic, isn’t it, Halloran?’ he said acidly. ‘Because someone has done nothing fundamentally wrong, then they must be on a suspicion list.’
Logan didn’t hesitate this time. ‘I think the point is, Sam, that the Qubaq support others who do perform terrorist acts,’ he said, knowing that the use of the station head’s first name would rile him more. ‘That’s the question. If someone supports terrorist acts, even tacitly, then they’re complicit. That’s the dictum. Qubaq also supports the re-establishment of the Caliphate, sharia law, a unified Moslem world. The question is, surely, what are they doing promoting radical Islamic culture in a secular country? Ukraine isn’t the northern Caucasus. It’s an Orthodox Christian country.’
But Logan could see the Pavlovian reaction he was getting simply from the mention of an Islamic group that Cougar believed came under some suspicion. The CIA will take it from there, Burt had said. All you have to do is cast suspicion. The last thing the CIA dare risk is to be upstaged by a private intelligence company, let alone ignore a potential terrorist group. Once we reel them in, we can use their resources and direct the play.
Logan continued now, confident that finally he had broken down their refusal to listen. This was the final play of the evening. ‘We are receiving information that funding for Qubaq is coming from the Centre in Moscow, right from Department S, in fact, the secretive heart of the SVR. It’s coming from the very top of Russia’s foreign intelligence operations, in other words. We also have information that Russia’s military intelligence, in the form of the GRU, is actually now recruiting agents from within the Qubaq group. It’s common knowledge that the GRU and Department S recruited Moslems in Chechnya and other parts of the northern Caucasus, not to mention the Middle East. It’s a potent combination, Burt Miller thinks – Russian foreign intelligence and a radical Moslem group with a clean record.’
‘Evidence?’ Pasconi demanded.
‘Page eleven,’ Logan replied and at last the four CIA employees opened their files.
The initial part of the thesis was Anna’s. She had seen the training of foreigners, and particularly radical Moslems, at first hand when she’d been the KGB’s darling at The Forest. The thesis began with a history of the KGB’s and, specifically, Department S’s involvement in the training of foreigners – in this case Moslems – to commit terrorist acts back in their own countries. Then it narrowed down into an account of Moslems being trained at The Forest outside
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