because they're so powerfully represented in Washington. No, the Americans have to protect the weak and the flabby, the decadent and the corrupt, who are the guardians of their greatest and most sacred interest: oil. I believe-and I'm not a mad, lone conspiracy theorist-that they invaded Iraq to offer protection to the Saudi royal family.'
'It's not as if Saddam Hussein had shown himself to be the most accommodating neighbour.'
'Exactly. So a perfect pretext was invented on the basis of past performance,' said Diouri. 'Anybody could see that after the first Gulf War in 1991 Saddam was a spent force, which was why Bush senior left him there, rather than create the unknown quantity of a power vacuum. Fortunately, Saddam still strutted about on his little stage with all the arrogance of a great Arab icon. He was cruel and genocidal: gassing the Kurds and massacring Shias. It was easy to create the image of an evil genius who was destabilizing the Middle East. I mean, they even managed to frame him for 9/11.'
'But he was cruel, violent and despotic,' said Falcon.
'So when are the coalition forces going to turn their attention to, say, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe?' said Diouri. 'But that's how the Americans play the game. They confuse the picture with elements of truth.'
'If Saddam was a spent force, why did the Saudis believe they needed protecting?'
'They were scared of the militancy that they themselves had created,' said Diouri. 'To maintain credibility as the guardians of the sacred sites of Islam, they bankrolled the medressas, the religious schools, which in turn became hotbeds of extremism. Like all decadent regimes, they are paranoid. They sensed the antipathy of the Arab world and its extremist factions. They couldn't invite the Americans in as they had done in 1991, but they could ask them to install themselves next door. The double reward for the Americans was that they not only secured their perpetual interest, the oil, but also drew the forces of terror away from the homeland by offering a target in the heart of Islam. Bush has repaid his corporate debts to the oil companies, the American population feels safer, and it can all be dressed up as the forces of Good crushing those of Evil.'
'Silence, while Diouri lit his first cigarette of the morning and sipped some more tea. Falcon sucked on the sweet, viscous liquid in his own glass, his question crammed tight in his chest.
'Tea, cigarettes, food…they're all negotiating tools,' said Diouri, mysteriously.
Falcon studied Yacoub over the rim of his tea glass. Spies were necessarily complicated people, even those with a clear motive. The worrying and yet crucial aspect of their personality was their need, and therefore ability, to deceive. But why spy? Why did he himself provide information for Mark Flowers? It was because he had begun to find the illusion of life tiresome. The supposed reality of tussling politicians, beaming businessmen and fatuous pundits was exhausting to watch on TV when its veneer had been worn so thin. He spied, not because he wanted to exchange one facile illusion for a slightly more knowing one, but because he needed to remind himself that acceptance was passive, and he'd already discovered the dangers of denial and inaction in his own mind. But what he was asking his friend Yacoub to do was real spying, not just giving Mark Flowers some detail to fill in his little pictures. He was asking Yacoub to pass on information that could result in the capture, and perhaps death, of people that he might know.
'You're thinking, Javier,' said Diouri. 'Normally, at this stage, Europeans are writhing in their seats with ennui at having to talk about Iraq, the Palestinian question and all the rest of the insoluble horror. They have no appetite for polemic any more. In my world of fashion, all they want to talk about is Coldplay's new album or costume design in the latest Baz Luhrman movie. Even business people would rather talk about football, golf and tennis than world politics. It seems that we Arabs have created an interest that nobody wants. We've cornered the market in the most boring conversations in the world.'
'It's riveting to the Arabs because you haven't got what you want. The comfortable never want to talk about stuff that will make them feel uncomfortable.'
'I'm comfortable,' said Diouri.
'Are you?' said Falcon. 'You're wealthy, but do you have what you want? Do you know what you want?'
'I associate comfort with boredom,' said Diouri. 'It might be to do with my past, but I cannot bear contentment. I want change. I want a state of perpetual revolution. It's the only way I can be sure that I'm still alive.'
'Most Moroccans I've spoken to would like to be comfortable with a job, a house, a family and a stable society to live in.'
'If they want all that, they'll have to be prepared for change.'
'None of them wanted terrorism,' said Falcon, 'and none of them wanted a Taliban-type regime.'
'How many did you get to condemn acts of terrorism?'
'None of them approved…'
'I mean outright condemnation,' said Diouri firmly.
'Only the ones who had persuaded themselves that the terrorist acts had been committed by the Israelis.'
'You see, it's a complicated state, the Arab mind,' said Diouri, tapping his temple.
'At least they didn't find terrorism honourable.'
'You know when terrorism is honourable?' said Diouri, pointing at Falcon with the chalk stick of his French cigarette. 'Terrorism was considered honourable when the Jews fought the British for the right to establish their Zionist state. It was considered dishonourable when the Palestinians employed extreme tactics against the Jews in order to reclaim the land and property that had been stolen from them. Terrorists are acceptable once they've become strong enough to be perceived as freedom fighters. When they are weak and disenfranchised, they are just common bloody murderers.'
'But that's not what we're talking about here,' said Falcon, fighting back his frustration at how the conversation had spiralled off again.
'It will always be part of it,' said Diouri. 'That hard pip of injustice scores at the insides of every Arab. They know that what these mad fanatics are doing is wrong, but humiliation has a strange effect on the human mind. Humiliation breeds extremism. Look at Germany before the Second World War. The power of humiliation is that it is deeply personal. We all remember it from the first time it happened to us as a child. What extremists like bin Laden and Zarqawi realize is that humiliation becomes truly dangerous when it is collective, has risen to the surface and there's a clear purpose in venting it. That is what the terrorists want. That is the ultimate aim of all their attacks. They are saying: 'Look, if we all do this together, we can be powerful.''
'And then what?' said Falcon. 'You'll be taken back to the glory days of the Middle Ages.'
'Forward to the past,' said Diouri, crushing out his cigarette in the silver shell of the ashtray. 'I'm not sure that's a price worth paying to have our humiliation assuaged.'
'Have you heard of an organization called VOMIT?' asked Falcon.
'That's the anti-Muslim website that people here get so enraged about,' said Diouri. 'I haven't seen it myself.'
'Apparently the site enumerates the victims of Muslim attacks on civilians, not just in the Western world but also Muslim-on-Muslim attacks such as the suicide bombings of Iraqi police recruits, women murdered in 'honour' killings, and the gang-raping of women to inflict shame…'
'What's your angle, Javier?' asked Diouri, through narrowed eyes. 'Are you saying this organization has a point?'
'As far as I know, they are making no point other than keeping count.'
'What about the name of the website?'
'Well, 'vomit' expresses disgust…'
'You know, Muslim life is regarded rather cheaply in the West. Think how valuable each of the 3,000 lives was in the Twin Towers, how much was invested in the 191 commuters in Madrid or the 50-odd people who died in the London bombings. And then look at the value of the 100,000 Iraqi civilians who lost their lives in the pre-invasion assault. Nothing. I'm not sure they even registered,' said Diouri. 'Was there a website that enumerated the victims of Serb slaughter in Bosnia? What about Hindu attacks on Muslims in India?'
'I don't know.'
'That's why VOMIT is anti-Muslim. It has singled out the acts of a fanatic few and made it the responsibility of an entire religion,' said Diouri. 'If you told me they were responsible for blowing up the mosque in Seville yesterday, it wouldn't surprise me.'
'They've established a presence,' said Falcon. 'Our intelligence agency, the CNI, are aware of them.'
'Who else are the CNI aware of?' said Diouri, uneasy.
'It's a very complicated situation,' said Falcon. 'And we're looking for intelligent, knowledgeable and
