“That’s so sad.”
“They were different times, although I’m sure if it happened today the results would probably be the same. Marrying outside one’s tribe is a modern idea that has really only taken root in the West.”
“Outside your tribe?”
“For lack of a better word. What I mean is it isn’t uncommon for an American to marry someone from France, or Germany, or a white to marry a black, for that matter. In the Middle East you would never see a Shi’a marry a Sunni or a Turk marry a Kurd. It just isn’t done. And ever since 1980 any chance there could be a melding of the various sects and ethnic groups has been further eroded.”
“Why is that?” Cali asked. “What happened in 1980?”
“Iraq invaded Iran,” Ahmad told her. “That conflict is largely a footnote to you but it was a watershed moment in the Middle East. The Iranians were totally unprepared for the invasion and were nearly defeated early on. In order to inspire his people Ayatollah Khomeini delved back into history, resurrecting the story of the Battle of Karbala, when in 860 Husayn ibn ‘Ali, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, was defeated by the Umayyad caliph, Yazid. The date is still a holiday for Shi’a Muslims. Khomeini cynically turned what was a sectarian grab for land and oil resources into a holy war.”
“How is that?” Mercer asked, drawn back into the conversation despite his foul mood.
“Husayn and his army were slaughtered to a man. They became Islam’s first martyrs. What Khomeini did was tell his people that Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, was the modern reincarnation of Yazid and that in order to defeat him it would be necessary for every Iranian to sacrifice themselves, as did Husayn. He went on to decree that anyone who martyred themselves was guaranteed a place in heaven. In one move he negated the Koran’s pronouncement that suicide was a sin against God and created the Middle East’s first suicide bombers.
“Even as he was battling the Iraqis, Khomeini sent cadres of trained men into Lebanon during their civil war and occupation by Israel, to spread the word that suicide bombing is not a sin, but a glorious sacrifice to Allah. Remember this is something expressly forbidden by the Koran, yet he managed to convince desperate people that his word superseded the very words God uttered to Mohammad.
“Of course word of his pronouncement spread from there to the West Bank and Gaza, where again Muslims were fighting a superior force. Thus we had young men convinced by a madman that taking your own life by blowing up a bus or a restaurant serves God’s purpose.”
“And then on to 9/11,” Cali said.
“And Madrid and London and Indonesia and Pakistan and Iraq and the list goes on and on.” Ahmad ground out his cigarette bitterly. “While Shi’a and Sunni have always had a difficult relationship, it wasn’t always like it is today. Now it has become acceptable for a Sunni carrying thirty pounds of plastic explosives to walk into a Shi’a mosque and blow himself up. Khomeini unleashed the savagery of the bloody war that first divided Islam, just to defeat his neighbor.”
“Can it be stopped?”
“Not until there is a cleric powerful enough to rescind Khomeini’s declaration and make suicide a sin once again. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of his actions and how it has damaged our faith. And I’m afraid your country’s invasion of Iraq hasn’t helped matters.” He held up a hand when he saw a blaze of anger flash in Cali’s eyes. “I’m not saying Hussein wasn’t a tyrant or that he should have remained in power. At the time of the invasion, France and Russia wanted to end the embargo and I am certain that the Iraqis would have gotten the nuclear weapons they so desperately wanted. No, the invasion was a necessary step in the larger scope of world events, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t, ah, stirred a hornet’s nest.”
Mercer suddenly remembered Ahmad’s first words when he entered the camp. “You said Istanbul, Ankara, or Baku are more likely targets for Feines and the plutonium. Why?”
“You’ve been paying attention. Very good,” Ahmad said as if now praising the unruly student he’d chided earlier. “I believe you’ve been operating under the misconceived notion that Al Qaida is bankrolling Poli Feines and that they want to contaminate an American city using the plutonium, thus spreading more fear around the world. That is not the case. There is no such thing as terrorism for terrorism’s sake. Each act has a specific goal.”
Cali interrupted. “Like getting the U.S. out of Iraq or Israel out of the West Bank.”
“Not entirely,” Ahmad said. “Those are the stated goals, yes, but what the organizers behind the suicide bombers ultimately want is power after those withdrawals. The poor soul who blows himself up next to a police checkpoint thinks he’s fighting for the liberation of his people. The men who gave him the bomb are merely using him as a tool to further their political ambitions. They want to rule over that man’s family.
“This is true in all cases. The men who carried out the London and Madrid bombings want to force the United States and Western interests out of Iraq, even though the bombers weren’t even Iraqi. It was the men behind them who wanted these things. The men who blew themselves up just wanted to obtain paradise. Unfortunately your media focuses on the soldiers and pays scant attention to the generals.”
Mercer saw a flaw in Ahmad’s logic. “If that were true, who does Osama bin Laden want to rule, since he was the one who masterminded 9/11?”
“Masterminded,” Ahmad agreed. “But did he pay for it?”
“The guy’s worth a couple hundred million. Sure he paid for it.”
“Ah, but where did he get his money?”
“I think his father was a rich contractor or something in Saudi Arabia?”
Professor Ahmad said nothing, waiting Mercer out, knowing he’d make the connection.
“Are you saying the Saudis paid for the attacks? There’s no evidence they were involved other than that most of the bombers were Saudi citizens.”
“Isn’t that enough?” Ahmad said archly.
“By your way of thinking, the U.S. government was behind Oklahoma City because Timothy McVeigh was an American. I don’t buy it.”
“Perhaps I overstated,” Ahmad conceded. “However, there are factions within the Saudi government who would like nothing more than see the United States off balance. And now they have selected someone new to help them carry out their plans. Before it was bin Laden. Now they are paying Poli Feines to do their dirty work. The man most directly involved is the Saudi representative to OPEC currently working with the United Nations in New York, Mohammad bin Al-Salibi.”
In the silence that followed, Mercer and Cali exchanged a look. This wasn’t what Mercer expected at all. Apart from exporting Wahhabi fanatics to the four corners of the globe, Saudi Arabia had never threatened her neighbors. Ibriham Ahmad was saying that the Saudis were responsible for the greatest terrorist attack in history and now wanted to use a dirty bomb against their neighbors.
“And just so you understand our culpabilities as Janissaries in what has transpired recently,” Ahmad added, “Salibi’s great-grandmother was the woman who stole my mentor’s heart. I can only assume she told Salibi about the alembic and its fearsome potential.”
Mercer couldn’t care less about that. He was still grappling with the reason why anyone in Saudi Arabia would perpetrate such an act. “I don’t get it,” he said after a moment. “Why?”
“Think like Khomeini thought,” Ahmad said, wanting Mercer to come to the right conclusion on his own. “This is war, Dr. Mercer, and all war is about power. Be more cynical than you usually are.”
“Oil,” Cali said. “Caspian oil.”
“Sorry, Mercer, but Miss Stowe gets to move to the head of the class.”
She turned to Mercer. “What we were talking about back at your house. About how the only way to defeat fundamentalism is to make oil obsolete. Well, the only way for the Saudi government to maintain their house of cards is if they continue to be our principal source of oil. If we start getting crude from the Caspian Sea, they become marginalized.”
“Two major pipelines are already running, one to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, and another will transport a million barrels a year to the Turkish city of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean,” Ahmad said.
“Poli’s orders are to take out the Caspian oil infrastructure?” Mercer asked, then went on to answer his own question. “Won’t work even if he got his hands on a lot more plutonium. Nothing short of nuclear bombs or a full- scale invasion could take out all the refineries, tanker ports, pipelines, and terminals surrounding the Caspian. I’m no petroleum geologist but I’ve seen pictures of Baku. The infrastructure in just that city alone is enormous.”
“You’re not being cynical enough. You don’t need to destroy those things you mentioned. All that need happen is to introduce suicide bombings at a few key locations and have clerics and imams in place to rile the
