Bin Rashid said, “If we know this drone pilot, why do we give a damn where he went to school?”
“We don’t, sir, but INFORMER claims to have this information on every single man and woman who works for the American government.” Faisal made eye contact with his boss. “Everyone. He gives other samples, where the names are redacted but the forms appear authentic. I believe this man, or this entity, selling this information actually does have information we do not have.”
“And who knows about this?”
“That I do not know. The market on the dark web is accessed by invitation only. The security is very good, but one of the Hezbollah fools gave the address to a colleague over a poorly encrypted e-mail. That’s how I was able to secure the address and password information to see for myself.”
Bin Rashid was still skeptical. He had access to virtually all the intelligence product of all the intel shops of all the GCC nations, and he had seen nothing like what this mystery private seller seemed to be offering. He asked, “What is INFORMER’s interest in helping Hezbollah?”
Faisal said, “Financial. Nothing more. He sent this message thinking Hezbollah or Iran might buy intelligence from him.”
Bin Rashid shook his head. “Then he is a fool for thinking this group actually spoke for Hezbollah’s Foreign Intelligence Bureau and could buy and utilize that type of intelligence.”
Faisal stood his ground, something he rarely did with bin Rashid. “Sir, with apologies. I believe this branch of Hezbollah running this website are fools, but INFORMER just does not know that. I’ve looked long and hard into the way INFORMER hides himself on the Internet. This is quality work. He is no fool. I cannot vouch for authenticity of all the material he is offering, but I believe we should reach out to him and tell him we are interested in a transaction, just to see what he can do.”
“How do we do that?”
“We cannot track his location or identity on the Internet, he is using virtual private networks that no one, not even the Americans, can get into. But what I can do is lock up the Hezbollah bulletin board, keep everyone out of it except for myself and this INFORMER, and communicate with him directly.”
Now bin Rashid was thinking. He could feel this potential source out with no comebacks on himself. “All right. Do this. The conversation will just be with you and the source. Just to set up your own private means of communication.”
“Of course, sir. And then I will remove our conversation from the bulletin board and open it back up. Hezbollah will never know we were there. They will think there was some sort of a glitch with their servers.”
Faisal then asked, “When I enter into communications with this potential source, what do I tell them about my identity?”
“Tell them they have chosen poorly in going to a group of idiots with no money and poor security. You, however, represent a non-government actor who can provide discretion and a lucrative arrangement if and only if the source proves himself to both have the information he purports to have, and has the means to communicate it securely.”
“Very well, sir.”
Faisal seemed a little confused, and Sami bin Rashid noticed this.
“What’s the matter?”
“I brought this to your attention so you would know Hezbollah might be about to come into contact with intelligence on America that they did not have before. Of course that could lead to Iran having leverage over America, and that relates to our mission here. I thought perhaps we could test out this INFORMER’s access to intelligence to see what new threat this brings. I honestly did not think we would be in the market to buy the information on American intelligence sources ourselves. May I ask why we would do that?”
Bin Rashid was a man who always thought several moves ahead on the chessboard. He simply said, “Let’s feel them out. See what they have. Then we can decide if there is something we can do with it.”
Faisal bowed, touched his breast, and promised to keep bin Rashid informed. He left the office.
Sami bin Rashid was skeptical, very skeptical, but if this panned out, he knew exactly what he would do with this intelligence about covert American assets.
He would feed it to ISIS.
ISIS, as far as bin Rashid was concerned, could never defeat the West, and the genocide that was at the heart of their mission statement therefore built in its own self-destruct button. These fools would make gains and gains until they pushed the West too far. They would never accept their state at any defined border, so they would fight until that moment when the West put all their resources into fighting back.
But Saudi Arabia didn’t want to wait for the West to do it on its own time. President of the United States Jack Ryan was using his airpower, intelligence apparatus, and small units of special operations forces to assist the Kurds and, to a lesser extent, the Iraqi Army, into defeating ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The coalition led by America was gaining ground in this endeavor, but this low-intensity conflict would not keep the oil fields occupied in Iraq, and it would not keep Shia influence out of the nations bordering Saudi Arabia.
But if ISIS suddenly began targeting American military and intelligence forces directly, it might bring the American armed forces back into the region, and a total war would create havoc in the oil fields. Iran had been developing major oil projects in the Shia-held south of Iraq, and Saudi Arabia’s financial future was directly affected by this. War would push them out of the oil fields and out of both Iraq and Syria, which would increase the price of Saudi oil and reduce the threat of Shia hegemony in the region.
Yes, Saudi Arabia would win in every conceivable way if the Americans invaded the Middle East.
And eventually ISIS would be ground out of existence, and that suited Sami bin Rashid just fine.
INFORMER began communications with Sami bin Rashid almost immediately, and he proved his worth by providing tidbits of intelligence, intelligence bin Rashid already had, so that he could be assured INFORMER was legitimate.
It took a while for bin Rashid’s plan to move to the stage where he could involve others, but eventually he went to his leadership, leaving out the other GCC members, and he was given official Saudi blessing to enter into discussions with senior Islamic State leadership.
In his talks with ISIS, he had been told about an operation in the works to bring the fight to America. It involved remote radicalized operatives, men and women in America driven by the slick and powerful propaganda arm of the Islamic State. There were some forty different groups involved in spreading the word of ISIS. It could be argued ISIS wielded the weapon of propaganda better than any other armament in their arsenal. One of the most potent ISIS media organizations was the Global Islamic Media Front. Via websites, social media outreach, well-produced YouTube videos, and an online magazine, GIMF worked to radicalize American Muslims so they would go out into their streets and conduct indiscriminate acts of terrorism. ISIS thought this would force Jack Ryan back to the Middle East, and ISIS wanted this just as much as bin Rashid did.
But Sami bin Rashid was highly skeptical of the Islamic State’s plan. Jack Ryan was a wily opponent in possession of cold logic; he would not overreact to a threat. Bin Rashid knew Ryan wanted to wipe out ISIS, but shooting up shopping malls or blowing up a car in Times Square wouldn’t force his hand internationally; instead, it would simply lead him to improve his security domestically.