The Terrorist Next Door Read Online Free PDF

need Verizon to shut down access to all of its throwaways.”
    “Done. We’re working on the other carriers.”
    “Work faster. Got a location on the initiating phone?”
    “It pinged a tower servicing the area south of the Loop and east of the Dan Ryan. We couldn’t get precise coordinates. If it’s the same guy, he’s on the move.”
    Or we’re dealing with more than one person. “The Blazer belonged to the Shrine of Heaven Mosque. You know anything about it?”
    “Yeah. Ahmed Jafar is one of the leaders of the Muslim community taking over Polish Town. Late twenties. Married. Two small kids. No criminal record. Works on outreach projects with the priests at St. Hyacinth’s. Won a couple of community service awards.”
    “You seem to know a lot about him.”
    “We keep tabs on every Muslim institution in the Chicago area.”
    “Any potential terrorist connections?”
    “A couple of years ago, we discovered he’d been in contact with people in Iraq who were arrested for setting off IEDs. As far as we can tell, there hasn’t been any communication since then.”
    “Why hasn’t he talked to them more recently?”
    “It may have something to do with the fact that they’re dead.”
    “Any indication that he might be interested in engaging similar activities over here?”
    “Not that we’ve been able to prove.”
    “But?”
    “Some of the members of the mosque have criminal records. Mostly little stuff—shoplifting and stealing cars.”
    “Has Jafar been involved?”
    “Not as far as we can tell.”
    “Has he ever been under investigation?”
    “Last year, we thought he was involved in a plot to import a shipment of assault rifles. We didn’t have enough evidence to charge him.”
    “Did you talk to him about it?”
    “Yes. He was fully cooperative.”
    “Do you think he was guilty?”
    “Hard to say. My people have already been over to see him. So far, we have no way to connect him to this bombing.”
    “Except his Blazer blew up.”
    “You think he blew up his own car?”
    “I’m not ruling anything out. What else can you tell me about this guy?”
    Fong adjusted his maroon neck tie. “Jafar likes to think of himself as the Muslim Obama. He started as a community organizer. He’s in tight with his alderman. He has political ambitions. After Nine-Eleven, he set up a website for the Muslims in Polish Town. After the war in Iraq started, he put together a database for people searching for relatives. He even got permission to travel to Baghdad. At first he ran everything out of his apartment. Then he rented a storefront across the street from the Logan Theater. A year ago, he raised enough money to buy the building. Now he’s trying to buy a bigger space on Diversey. People in the neighborhood aren’t happy about it.”
    “Where’d he get the money?”
    “He got a grant from the Chicago Islamic Council.”
    Gold recognized the name. “They’ve been accused of diverting money to Hezbollah.”
    “We’ve never found a shred of proof.” Fong cleared his throat. “We also recently discovered that Hassan Al-Shahid’s trust fund donated a hundred grand to the CIC.”
    “When were you planning to mention this to us?”
    “Now.”
    “You promised full cooperation, Special Agent Fong.”
    “I just found out about it myself, Detective Gold.”
    Sure . “Jafar and Al-Shahid must know each other.”
    “Jafar told us he’d met Al-Shahid once at a CIC board meeting. We have no evidence of any calls, e-mails, texts, or other direct communications between them.”
    “Maybe they used throwaway cell phones.”
    “We have no evidence that they did.”
    “You have no evidence that they didn’t.”
    “You think a smart guy with political ambitions and a drawer full of community service awards blew up a vehicle easily traceable to him in some half-baked scheme to get Al-Shahid out of jail?”
    “A year ago, he was trying to buy Uzis. Maybe he’s moved on to