Showing posts with label 5a. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5a. Show all posts

Chapter 61: Further Questions


When I awoke on Monday morning, I found that Holmes had preceded me by at least an hour. His breakfast tray was empty and he had already filled the sitting room with smoke and newspapers.

"Good morning, Watson," he said. "I've been rambling through the files a bit. You've done a wonderful job of keeping them all organized, but I still can't find what I want."

"I'm sure it's quite all right, Holmes," I replied. "They are your files, after all."

"Quite so," he answered. "You won't mind if I ask a few questions while you eat, will you?"

"Not at all," I replied. "You won't mind if I open a few windows?"

Holmes laughed and set his pipe upon the mantle. "Of course, not, Watson," he said. "I can even refrain from smoking until you're prepared to join me."

"Fair enough, Holmes," I agreed. "Ask away."

"Regarding the 'Easter Bombers,'" he said, "I presume you are aware that the words 'tell me about your sweetie' do not appear as such in the email quoted by The Telegraph?"

"Indeed I do," I replied. "The actual words were, 'tell me that how is ur sweety girl friend,' and those were the words on my mind when I fell asleep. But when you told me what I'd been saying, I immediately recognized 'tell me about your sweetie.' That phrase was prominent in my dream, Holmes."

"Can you tell me more about the dream?" he asked.

"Not much," I answered. "It was mostly a dream of words. I fell asleep thinking, 'Tell me that how is ur sweety girl friend,' and woke up thinking, 'Tell me about your sweetie.' That's all I remember."

"It's a good translation, in my opinion," replied the detective. "It carries the same meaning, and it rolls off the tongue much better. I wonder whether there was an incentive for the man on the Pakistani end to appear nearly illiterate. We may find out eventually."

"I wouldn't venture to guess, Holmes," I demurred.

"Rightly so, Watson," he returned. "Tell me what you know and let me worry about the rest."

"What else do to you want?" I asked. Having sat alone and read news clippings for most of the past week, I was only too eager to engage in conversation.

"Last night," my friend continued, "you said the 'Easter Bomber' investigators never found any explosives, nor any items that could be used to make explosives, nor any weapons of any kind. Do you recall what, other than the trail of coded emails, they did find?"

"According to the papers, which have been notoriously inaccurate," I said, "they found an A-to-Z with some streets marked, and photos of the 'Easter Bombers' dressed as commandos. It was also reported that some of the 'Easter Bombers' had been seen taking pictures of public buildings. I remember a quote from a police spokesman, who said, 'these men were no tourists, and taking these pictures was highly suspicious.'"

"No martyrdom videos?" asked Holmes.

"None reported," I replied.

"As I suspected," said my friend.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"You would have mentioned them last night had they been reported," he answered. "I haven't lived with you all these years for nothing!"

"And here I thought it was something brilliant, or difficult," I admitted.

Holmes chuckled. "You should be over that by now, my friend."

I nodded and Holmes continued. "Is there any doubt in your mind that Bob Quick fell on his sword, so to speak, to drive The Guardian's Ian Tomlinson video off the front pages?"

"Do you really think so?" I asked. "I've had my suspicions, but --"

"Seriously, Watson?" Holmes seemed taken aback. "Again you surprise me. There are several hidden entrances to Number 10, and they are all well used. No one uses the front door unless he wishes to be photographed going to see the Prime Minister. And no one carries secret documents past a pack of photographers unless he wishes those documents to be photographed. That much is clear, surely?"

"I'll defer to your wisdom," I said, "but it's not a popular interpretation. You'd be surprised at the number of papers which used words like 'inadvertent' or 'unwitting' to describe Quick's 'blunder,'" I said.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't," replied Holmes, "and neither should you. We've seen that pack of wolves in action for long enough, haven't we?"

I could hardly disagree, and Holmes continued. "The lack of martyrdom videos is a notable feature. In such cases they almost always exist. Without martyrdom videos, the authorities only had emails and photographs. This aspect of the story reminds me of the Michael Reynolds case."

"Who is, or was, Michael Reynolds?" I asked.

"Shame on me for not keeping you up to date on my recent travels," said Holmes. "I shall tell you all about Michael Reynolds, and several other knuckleheads, presently. But at the moment I'm looking for an indication of whether something momentous happened in the United States just prior to the arrests of the 'Liquid Bombers.'"

"Why the United States?" I asked.

"According to the most believable story you found concerning the arrests of the 'Liquid Bombers,'" said Holmes, "their arrests were triggered by action taken by Americans in Pakistan. I was wondering what they needed to drive off the front pages of their papers."

"I can look for that later," I offered. "Tell me about Michael Reynolds."

"Have you finished your breakfast, Watson?" asked my friend, and I nodded.

"Bring your coffee," he said. "Fill a pipe. Sit down and I will tell you some of what I have been learning lately."

I could hardly resist.

Chapter 62: Michael Reynolds


Michael Curtis Reynolds
Coffee in one hand and tobacco in the other, I sat down with my friend. "I'm ready, Holmes," I said. "Tell me all about Michael Reynolds."

"Michael Curtis Reynolds," said Sherlock Holmes, "is an American knucklehead who ran afoul of the law in a big and extremely stupid way. His tale begins with a now-defunct Internet site, a Yahoo! group named 'OBL Crew.' The initials, of course, are those of the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who has been among the FBI's most wanted for many years.

"Reynolds, a self-described computer wizard, found the site in 2005, logged in using his own name, and started posting messages in which he said he was looking for a partner with whom to wage jihad -- 'holy war' -- against the United States.

"One of his messages drew a reply from 'Hamza Ali Osman,' also known as 'Hani.' Hani suggested that they should communicate by private email instead of openly in the group's chat room. Reynolds agreed, and they began a long email correspondence.

"Over the next month or so, Reynolds presented Hani with elaborate plans to attack oil pipelines in the United States. Hani prompted Reynolds to collect relevant information, including instructions on how to make a bomb, and maps and photographs of the targets they had discussed. Reynolds, in turn, asked for money.

Shannen Rossmiller
"According to court documents, he wanted more than a hundred thousand dollars for the information, and to finance the plot, but Hani would only promise him forty thousand. Reynolds eventually agreed to work for the lower figure.

"When he had completed his 'assignment,' Hani told him he could collect his payment at a certain rest stop on an interstate highway in Idaho. But instead of picking up the forty thousand, Reynolds himself was picked up -- by federal officers.

"Much to the surprise of Michael Reynolds, 'Hani' was not an al Qaeda recruiter at all. She was actually Shannen Rossmiller, a municipal judge from Montana, who had been monitoring extremist websites for the FBI, just waiting for a knucklehead like Reynolds to come along and incriminate himself.

"And even though someone in the FBI apparently recognized Reynolds as mentally ill and judged him not to be a significant threat, he was tried and convicted on multiple counts, including attempting to provide material support to Al-Qaeda and attempting to damage pipelines using explosives, and sentenced to 30 years in prison."

"What a bizarre story!" I said.

"There are some very strange details in the background," replied the detective, "so in a sense, the story is even more bizarre than you think. And yet, it is not as uncommon as it first appears, since it contains many details the likes of which one encounters again and again in the study of modern domestic terrorism."

"How do you know all this?" I inquired. "Is there a connection between this case and your recent travels?"

Fred?
"Indeed there is," said Holmes. "I have been staying at a small Yorkshire hotel, whose name I will never divulge, and consulting with a large American attorney, whose name I do not even know."

"Remarkable!" I said. "As I recall, you had a strong aversion to anonymous clients."

"I still do," he replied. "But in this instance, I have been assured of his credibility and appraised of his intentions by my brother, and I have chosen to respect his request. In lieu of a proper introduction, he has asked me to call him 'Fred.' And he has suggested that his surname might be 'Astaire' or 'Flintstone,' but in all other respects he seems quite serious."

I chuckled and Holmes continued. "Fred has been following the arrests, trials, and convictions of terrorists, suspected terrorists, and aspiring terrorists in the United States. He told me about the Michael Reynolds case and several others, and about the patterns that he has seen in these cases."

"It is quite a diversion from the Gareth Williams investigation," I said.

"So it seemed to me at first," replied my friend, "but the more I thought about it, and the more I listened to Fred, the less certain I became.

"Listen, Watson: Michael Reynolds had a history of prior convictions, including one of the strangest cases of arson ever. He tried to burn down his parents' home, while he was living with them! And when the firefighters arrived, he ran down the driveway, shouting that his mother and father were dead inside. But they were still alive."

"How grotesque!" I said. "His mind is obviously very damaged."

"When he was arrested," said Holmes, "he was living in a motel room, and had a net worth of about twenty-five dollars. Among his possessions was an unregistered hand grenade, which, according to his ex-wife, he had owned for many years. The grenade was apparently the only weapon found in his possession, and certainly the only illegal one. It found its way into the indictment, of course, and clearly led to his conviction."

"It doesn't sound as if his conviction was a matter of any doubt," I said. "With such ambitious attack plans, and so comprehensive a trail of incriminating evidence, what else could a jury think?"

"Reynolds claimed he was using the Internet to hunt for terrorists," said my friend, "just as Shannen Rossmiller was doing. But he was never in contact with any law enforcement officers about it, and this, combined with the fact that he owned a hand grenade, seemed to eliminate any doubt in the minds of the jurors.

Fred!
"In general, it is difficult to know what juries are thinking," Holmes continued, "but in this case, as I understand it, the evidence was quite compelling."

"Does Fred think Reynolds was wrongly convicted?" I asked.

"He could hardly make such an argument," replied my friend. "But he pointed out some details of the Reynolds case that he says have shown themselves again and again in other cases -- far too many, by his count, to be coincidental.

"In particular: No one was injured and no infrastructure was damaged by the alleged terrorist, who was nearly homeless, quite destitute, and mentally ill. He had been offered a substantial reward by a government agent in return for what amounted to laying a trail of self-incriminating evidence. And the terror plot that was allegedly foiled was well beyond his means."

"It almost sounds like entrapment," I said.

"Entrapment is a fuzzy line to begin with," replied the detective, "but it seems exceptionally blurry at the edges of this story."

"And how does this all relate to Gareth Williams?" I asked.

"Remember that drop of water," replied my friend, "and bear with me for a little longer."

Chapter 63: 'Little Italy'


Mohammed Musharraf Hossain
"Have you heard of the Albany Pizza Shop Sting?" asked Holmes.

"I can't say I have," I admitted.

"Of all the tales Fred told me last week," said Holmes, "this may be the most heartbreaking. I'll give you a summary.

"The story revolves around Mohammed Musharraf Hossain, a Sri Lankan immigrant to the United States who lived in Albany, New York, and supported his wife and six children with the proceeds from his pizza shop, 'Little Italy.'

"In 2003, the pizza business was not doing very well, and Hossain had begun looking for ways to improve his cash flow, when 'Malik' Hussain started coming around.

"Malik drove a flashy car, wore fancy clothes, and carried plenty of cash. He said he was a successful businessman, and he seemed quite friendly. So one day Mohammed Hossain asked Malik for a loan. This was the opening Malik had been looking for, and he reported the conversation at once to his handler, FBI Special Agent Tim Coll.

"In truth, Shahed 'Malik' Hussain was not a successful businessman, but a convict working off a sentence. He had immigrated from Pakistan and found a job with the Department of Motor Vehicles. The state had paid him for translating questions on the driving test, so that South Asian immigrants could try for licences even if their English was poor. But Shahed Hussain soon found a more lucrative angle; he began selling the correct answers to the applicants. Eventually he was caught, of course. 

"Rather than serving prison time, he accepted an offer from the FBI and became a confidential informant. He began visiting mosques, Muslim bookstores, and other places, such as 'Little Italy,' where dangerous terrorists might be lurking.

"Malik returned to the pizza shop again and again, and eventually made Mohammed Hossain an offer he could hardly refuse: Malik would 'lend' Hossain fifty thousand dollars in cash, and Hossain would repay the loan by cheque, a few thousand at a time, until he had paid back forty-five thousand, at which point the debt would be considered paid in full.

Shahed 'Malik' Hussain
"Mohammed Hossain couldn't understand why Malik would make him such an offer, nor could he understand why Malik sometimes seemed to mumble into his pocket during breaks in their conversations. But he needed the money badly, so he didn't think he was in a position to ask difficult questions. It wasn't until after he was arrested that Hossain learned Malik had been recording their talks.

"According to documents presented in court, Malik hinted to Mohammed Hossain that he was involved in terrorism, and asked Hossain what he thought of it.
'What the Saudis did with the World Trade Center,' Malik asked, 'in your opinion, was it good or bad?'

'This was bad,' Hossain replied, unaware that he was being recorded. 'This was bad. Do you understand that?' He went on to explain that a true Muslim wants to spread Islam. And the best way for that to occur is to abandon violence and lead exemplary lives.

'We should have a good relationship with the unbelievers,' he told Malik. 'Then, because of our goodness, Islam will spread and continue to spread.'
"Malik also claimed he was connected with J-e-M, the Pakistani terrorist group. Mohammed Hossain didn't understand the reference. He thought Malik was talking about the rock band, REM. Mohammed Hossain was so disconnected from Malik's terrorist angle, and so sure he was doing nothing wrong, that he insisted on putting everything in writing.

"In the Muslim tradition, all financial agreements must be witnessed by an honoured third party, preferably an imam. So Mohammed Hussain visited the local mosque, which he had helped to found, and asked the imam, Yassin Muhiddin Aref, to witness his transaction with Malik. This was exactly what Special Agent Coll was hoping would happen.

Yassin Muhiddin Aref
"Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain signed the papers, and soon they found themselves charged with money-laundering for a terrorist enterprise."

"What?" I asked in amazement. "Why?" 

"All the incriminating details were in Malik's pocket, so to speak," replied Holmes. "In between talking to Mohammed Hossain about the loan, Malik had been talking to the wire he was wearing, and telling an utterly fabricated tale in which he was an illegal arms dealer and the fifty thousand dollars he was lending to Hossain had come from the sale of a surface-to-air missile. Malik had cash, connections, and a plan -- to use another missile to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador -- or so he claimed.

"All this appears to have gone in one of Mohammed Hossain's ears and out the other, if it ever reached his ears at all. Maybe it never got beyond Malik's pocket. Yassin Aref was not even present when these conversations were allegedly happening, but he was implicated in the 'money-laundering scam' as well.

"It might seem difficult to obtain terror convictions against men who have openly disavowed violence, especially when they have done so on Islamic religious grounds. But Malik was prepared to work around this minor detail. In court, he 'translated' Hossain's rejection of terrorism into the claim that Hossain had told him, 'When I read the scriptures, it makes me want to kill.'

"This was clearly false; the prosecution provided fifty hours of the recordings Malik had made, and in all those conversations, there was not one statement in support of terrorism by either defendant.

 "The misrepresentation of the audio evidence was not the only 'mistake' made by the prosecution during the trial. In an even more blatant irregularity, prosecutors claimed that Yassin Aref's name and his former address and phone number had been found in a notebook which was recovered from a bombed-out area of Iraq after the American invasion.

"They claimed that the place where the notebook was found had been used as a training area by al Q'aeda terrorists, and that beside Aref's name in the book was an Arabic word meaning 'commander.' Until it was brought out at the trial, the government never 'noticed' that the writing in question was not Arabic but Kurdish, and that the word meant not 'commander,' but 'brother.'

Tellingly, even after the 'error' was pointed out, prosecutors did not retreat from their 'erroneous' position. The U.S. Attorney, Glenn Suddaby, went so far as to say:
'It doesn't change their behavior. It doesn't change the significance of where this notebook was found.'
"Even after the FBI admitted the entire sting had been set up to target Aref, and even though Malik's version of the 'evidence' was transparently false, the trial went ahead as if nothing had been amiss. And the jury went along with it! The defendants were both convicted, and sentenced to ten years each."

"It sounds like something straight out of Kafka," I said.

"It certainly does," replied Sherlock Holmes. "A few brave local journalists wrote movingly about the injustice that had been committed, but none of their heartfelt columns changed anything. The local Muslim community was thoroughly terrorized, and Mohammed Hossain and Yassin Aref are still in prison."

Chapter 64: The 'Newburgh Four'

Previous: 'Little Italy'

James Cromitie
"One would think," I said, "that after such a public display of dishonesty, Shahed Hussain would have been thoroughly discredited."

"But instead," said Sherlock Holmes, "he was was hailed as a hero, set up with an even bigger budget, and sent out to catch more terrorists."

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Seriously," said Holmes. "Shahed Hussain surfaced next in Newburgh, a suburb of New York City, where he started hanging around a mosque and acting in such a way that none of the regulars would have anything to do with him."

"What was he doing?" I asked.

"He started by going to the office and asking for a list of members," said Holmes. "But the staff wouldn't give him one unless he showed a legitimate reason, and he never even attempted to justify his request. Instead he started flashing rolls of money, offering to buy people meals, give them computers, or whatever they said they needed.

"His behaviour was so odd, and so blatant, that the imam never thought to report him to police -- because it was easy to see that he was from the police!

"But Hussain kept coming around, and rubbing shoulders with some of the irregular visitors. And he wound up snaring a four-man 'terror cell' consisting of James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Payen Laguerre.

"James Cromitie was the 'ringleader.' He was associating with Hussain long before the other three came along. And he helped to recruit the others. Cromitie says he knew Hussain was lying, he could tell Hussain was running a scam, and he was lying to Hussain, trying to counter-scam him out of the money.

"Cromitie's first recruit was David Williams, whom he'd known for many years. Their shared criminal past amounted to hanging out together, smoking marijuana and playing video games.

"David Williams says he went along with Cromitie on the counter-scam, but neither of them ever intended to do anything violent. David's younger brother suffers from liver disease and the family can't afford a transplant. Cromitie told David he could have half of the quarter-million dollars Hussain was offering. That settled things; David was in.

"Hussain kept talking about how they needed more men, and Cromitie and David Williams eventually recruited Onta Williams and Payen Laguerre. Onta Williams is no more terrorist than David Williams, or James Cromitie.

"Payen Laguerre, for his part, is described as 'mildly retarded.' His affliction is so 'mild,' Watson, that he was arrested in a room full of bottles of his own urine."

"That doesn't sound 'mild' to me," I interjected.

"Fred says the same," replied my friend, "and I can hardly disagree. None of the story is 'mild' in any respect. Hussain claimed he had access to weapons, and Hussain was always making plans and setting timetables. Meanwhile, Cromitie was doing as little as possible, just enough to keep his 'fish' interested.

"Hussain came up with a multi-pronged plan of attack, using surface-to-air missiles to shoot down military aircraft near an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, and planting bombs at two synagogues in the Bronx. And he kept badgering them until they did it -- or pretended to!

"Of course they got caught, Watson. The FBI rented a storage locker in New Jersey for Hussain and gave him a bogus missile to store in it. Then Hussain drove them all out to New Jersey to see 'their missile,' with an FBI surveillance team in tow, collecting 'evidence' to be used at trial.

"Then they went out to plant the 'bombs.' The bombs weren't real, of course; none of the weapons these amateur terrorists get caught with are ever real. They always come from 'arms dealers' who turn out to be working for the government, just as the instigators always turn out to be.

"The feds were out in force, waiting at the 'target' synagogue for the four knuckleheads to come along so they could bust them. Cromitie and David Williams, following their own plan, had forgotten how to 'arm' the 'bombs,' despite their 'terrorist training,' and Hussain had to pretend to arm the fake explosives himself, just as he'd had to do everything else in the plot himself.

"The knuckleheads thought this would make a difference at trial, that the jury would contemplate questions such as who did certain things, and who didn't really do anything. But as far as they were concerned, the 'Newburgh Four' -- Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Payen Laguerre -- were terrorists, and they were convicted as such.

"For his part, Shahed 'Malik' Hussain was a hero who had infiltrated a terror cell and broken up a dangerous plot -- just in time to save hundreds or thousands of people from being killed or injured in horrendous ways.

"Apparently, the jurors simply thought about what they were told to think about by the prosecution: the death and destruction the bombs would have caused, all the suffering, all the disruption, everything except the most elemental facts of the case: If no government agent had brought these four people together for his own purposes, they wouldn't have been together at all! If the government agent had not been providing weapons, there would have been no weapons! If the government agent had not been dreaming up the plot behind closed doors with his FBI handler, there would have been no plot! And if the government agent hadn't been driving the others, literally in his car and figuratively as well --

"Nothing at all would have happened!" I exclaimed.

"We can't be entirely certain of that last point, Watson," said Holmes. "It would be more accurate to say the prosecution presented no evidence that would have led anyone to suspect that anything dangerous or violent would have happened, had the 'Newburgh Four' been left on their own.

"The press were told that the government had infiltrated the 'terror cell' long ago, and that there was never any serious danger to the public. This is quite a common feature in such cases. But juries never hear anything of the sort. Instead they hear wildly inflated tales of outcomes that were never possible in the first place, and they swallow the stories whole, practically every time.

"Fred talked about a study being done by the New York University Law School, which documents one case of 'terror' entrapment after another. According to the scholars at NYU, more than 200 people have been prosecuted, or are currently being prosecuted, in cases of 'terror plots' which never would have existed had the government not set out to create cells of 'terror suspects' who could then be arrested, charged, tried and convicted.

"As far as I can tell, the 'Newburgh Four' case is remarkable mostly for the amount of money that was supposedly on offer, and for the fact that The Village Voice has done some brave reporting on the case. In most other cases, it seems, the instigator doesn't pretend to be so generous, and the prosecutor's side of the story is the only one to see any ink at all."

"One would think," I said, "that from a government point of view, this sort of entrapment scheme would be seen as counter-productive."

"So it would seem," said Sherlock Holmes, "if justice were the highest aim, or if preventing terrorism were the main objective. But apparently these are not the primary goals of all governments."

"And you think this has something to do with the death of Gareth Williams?" I asked.

"The more I consider the possibility, the more likely I it seems," he said. "The pattern we've been discussing is not confined to the USA. Very similar cases have arisen in Canada, Germany, Belgium, and elsewhere."

"Do you know of anything similar happening here?" I asked.

"More to the point," replied my friend, "did Gareth know of anything similar happening here?"

Chapter 65: The Pinsetters


Americans know what a pinsetter is.
Sherlock Holmes rang for Mrs. Hudson and asked her to bring up another pot of coffee. I refilled my pipe and sat quietly, waiting for my friend to resume speaking.

"Fred used the term 'pinsetter,'" said Holmes, "and I had to ask him what he meant. We're too English, he says, Watson! Americans know what a pinsetter is."

"Do tell," I said.

"The word comes from the game they call 'bowling,' which has nothing to do with cricket, unfortunately. An American 'bowler' rolls a large, heavy ball down a long, narrow strip of hardwood called a 'lane' with the intention of knocking down the pins standing at the far end. And a pinsetter is a machine at the far end of the lane, which collects the pins that have been knocked down and sets them up for the next shot."

"It sounds very complicated," I said.

"The Americans say the same about cricket," said Holmes.

"Fair enough," I nodded, wondering where Holmes was leading me with this.

"Fred says the terror-sting entrapment program being run in the US is so obvious it reminds him of bowling: he called it 'Bowling For Terrorists.' In his view, the FBI and local police forces seem to be recruiting 'pinsetters,' agents provocateurs whose job is to set up the terrorist 'pins' so that the government can 'knock them down.'

Osama Eldawoody
"Quite often, he says, the 'pins' are assigned 'attack plans' that are either physically impossible, or at any rate infinitely beyond their capabilities. This is done deliberately, he says, so they can never make any progress, and they can never really hurt anybody. Once set up, these harmless 'terror cells' can then be knocked down at times which promise the most political advantage."

"It appears the 'Easter Bombers' were arrested solely for the political advantage inherent in the timing," I remarked.

"Quite so," said Holmes. "Fred told me about a case with similarly political timing, from 2004 in New York City. A pinsetter named Osama Eldawoody set up two pins: a doe-eyed innocent named Shahawar Matin Siraj, who, according to his parents, never had a violent thought in his life until Eldawoody started coming around, and a mental patient named James Elshafay, who was strung out on a combination of psycho-therapeutic medications and had no idea what was happening.

"The latter two are known as the 'Herald Square Bombers' or the 'Subway Bombers' because the police claimed they were plotting to attack the tube station near New York's famous Herald Square. Fred says it's obvious that the police are lying and it's equally obvious that the 'Subway Bombers' were entrapped."

"How so?" I asked.

"Siraj and Elshafay were arrested, charged, tried, and convicted," replied my friend, "even though they had no bombs, no access to bombs, no way to make bombs, and -- aside from the claims of Eldawoody -- no apparent ill intent. When he was arrested, Siraj was carrying a hand-drawn map of the tube station, allegedly marked with the location where he thought a bomb could be placed to do the most damage."

"Is that proof of anything?" I asked.

"The prosecution also played recordings," said Holmes, "in which Siraj tells Eldawoody he can't participate in anything without permission from his mother!"

Shahawar Matin Siraj
"These are serious terrorists?" I asked, and Holmes shook his head from side to side.

"The arrests were timed," he said, "to preempt protests against the Republican Party's National Convention, at which George W. Bush was to be nominated to run for a second term as President. Bush had been campaigning on the mantra, 'We've Kept America Safe,' and the people of New York, where enormous damage had been done, allegedly by foreign terrorists, early in Bush's first term, were not especially receptive to the message.

"Many of them were unhappy that this President was in their city at all, much less that he had come there -- of all places -- to celebrate the prospect of 'Four More Years.' They were even less happy about his using the ruins of their skyline as a backdrop for what they called outrageous political propaganda. And they were preparing a show of numbers against him.

"And then, guess what? Just before the Convention was to begin, there was news of a major terror arrest! Those who intended to protest now faced claims that they were terrorist sympathizers, and heard cries of, 'How can you protest against us when we're doing so much to keep you safe?' And the momentum of events swung quickly in favour of the government.

"It was only much later, after those who still dared to protest had been viciously attacked by the police, that the Siraj case came to trial and it emerged that no bombs or any other weapons were found in the possession of either defendant. This single fact demonstrated quite clearly that the government's pre-Convention claims of having broken up an imminent plot were false. But had they broken up any plot at all?

"The Siraj family sat quietly through the trial, thinking their son and brother would be found not guilty because of the many signs that he had been set up. But after he was convicted and sentenced to thirty years, his father finally spoke up, and dared to use the 'E' word! He told the local press he believed his son had been entrapped, and the very next morning the police knocked down the entire family! Siraj's mother, father, and sister were all arrested and taken away, held incommunicado on what appeared to be bogus immigration charges."

James Elshafay
"Shades of the 'Easter Bombers' again," I said.

"Are you starting to see patterns?" asked Holmes. "It took me a bit of time to begin doing that, too, and mostly, I think, it was because the stories Fred told me were so 'American.' We truly are two cultures divided by a common language, Watson. We try so hard to be unlike them, and they try so hard to be unlike us, that we all find it easier to note the differences than to grasp the similarities. That's my hypothesis, anyway."

"It sounds reasonable enough," I admitted.

"But the longer Fred talked," said the detective, "the more I began to see connections between the tales he was telling and the stories you have been reading about, until it was obvious to me that the theoretical framework he was using, homely though it may seem with its talk of 'pins' and 'pinsetters,' could be very useful to us as well.

"Remember the 'Liquid Bombers' case?" Holmes continued. "The six men who made martyrdom videos were all convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. But Mohammed Gulzar, who kept the videos, didn't make one himself -- allegedly because he was so valuable to al Q'aeda. And Gulzar was acquitted of all charges. I think it's fair to ask the question: was Mohammed Gulzar a pinsetter?"

"It has occurred to me," I added, "that in the 'Easter Bombers' case, the man known only as 'XC' may also have been a pinsetter. He was apparently the only suspect who was in email contact with Pakistan, and the government has kept his identity secret. We don't even know whether he was the one suspect of the twelve who was released immediately, but would you be surprised if he was?"

"Would you?" asked Holmes. "In the American terror-entrapment cases, according to Fred, the pinsetters always seem to be taking their direction from the FBI, or else local police. But in the bogus-terror cells we've seen here, and which you have been reading about for most of the past week, the pinsetters seem to be controlled remotely, via email, from Pakistan."

"And, if Slate is correct," I said, "Gareth Williams was reading all that email."

The detective sat quietly, and I paused to consider the implications before I spoke again. "Holmes, do you think Gareth might have seen something in the email which led him to suspect there might be something fishy about the 'terrorist cells' he was busting?"

"No," said Sherlock Holmes. "That is not what I think."

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