hundreds posted by Walter Mittys all over the world, but our opinion is that whoever posted this one could well be trying to hide in plain sight. And the reason it concerns us is this word here.’ He jabbed the paper, pointing at the last word in the message: ‘Caliph.’
‘Go on,’ the chief said.
Hugo Buckingham cleared his throat. ‘If I may, sir,’ he said, with the air of a man wanting to impart his knowledge. ‘You understand the meaning of the word “Caliph”, of course. Historically, a Caliph is the leader of a Caliphate – a sovereign state of Muslim believers, ruled according to Sharia law. It’s the aim of certain extremist organisations – IS among them – to establish a modern-day Caliphate, and indeed some of their leaders have already given themselves the title of Caliph. It’s window-dressing, sir. We know who all these people are. They may have very limited powers in certain parts of the Middle East, but the chances of them—’
In an uncharacteristically raised voice, Bixby interrupted. ‘In the past three months, Sir Colin, we’ve been receiving intelligence chatter about an unidentified extremist figure who gives himself exactly that title. We know very little about him, and that always rings alarm bells.’
‘Go on,’ the chief said. ‘For God’s sake let him speak, Buckingham!’
‘Thank you, Sir Colin.’ Bixby collected his thoughts for a moment. ‘I’m sorry. We haven’t a lot to go on. We don’t know what this S/N number represents – some kind of serial number, we presume, but we’ve run it through all our systems and we’ve come up with no positive matches. We’re almost certain, though, that 74:26-29 refers to a certain passage from the Koran.’ He cleared his throat and recited from memory: ‘ I will drive him into the Hellfire. And what will explain to you that which Hellfire is? It allows nothing to endure, and leaves nothing alone. It blackens the skins of men .’
Silence in the room.
‘Well, what the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?’ the chief said finally. ‘There’s a type of missile called a Hellfire, isn’t there? Is that what it refers to?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Bixby. He sounded unconvinced. He cleared his throat again. ‘We know almost nothing about this self-styled Caliph. We’re pretty sure he exists, but any attempts by our assets in Syria or Iraq to find out more about him are completely stonewalled. There is a suggestion that he might be of Qatari origin, which makes some kind of sense because to stay off the grid requires large quantities of ready cash, and the Qataris are massively oil-rich. So are the Saudis, of course, and we’ve pretty good evidence of wealthy individuals from both states funding Islamist groups across the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere. But a couple of independent references we have to this Caliph come from intelligence sources in Qatar. If we want to find out any more about him, I’d suggest that would be a good place to start.’
The chief nodded and fell silent for a minute. All eyes were on him. ‘What assets do we have in Qatar at the moment?’ he asked.
Bixby opened the manilla folder on the table in front of him and withdrew a sheaf of paper. The chief scanned it quickly: there was a picture of an Arab man in traditional headgear, and beneath it a lot of dense writing. ‘Give me the edited highlights,’ Seldon said.
‘His name is Ahmed bin Ali al-Essa,’ Bixby said. ‘His SIS handle is codename Murdock. He’s an oil magnate with several concessions from the Qatari government to pump oil offshore in Qatari waters. He has a massive workforce out in Qatar, as well as very close ties with the Qatari government. But he has substantive trade agreements with the UK which he very much needs to keep intact. As a result, he’s open to the idea of passing intelligence on to us – we’ve received good stuff from him over the past five years, all high-grade, all accurate. I’d say he’s a
‘Go on,’ the chief said.
Hugo Buckingham cleared his throat. ‘If I may, sir,’ he said, with the air of a man wanting to impart his knowledge. ‘You understand the meaning of the word “Caliph”, of course. Historically, a Caliph is the leader of a Caliphate – a sovereign state of Muslim believers, ruled according to Sharia law. It’s the aim of certain extremist organisations – IS among them – to establish a modern-day Caliphate, and indeed some of their leaders have already given themselves the title of Caliph. It’s window-dressing, sir. We know who all these people are. They may have very limited powers in certain parts of the Middle East, but the chances of them—’
In an uncharacteristically raised voice, Bixby interrupted. ‘In the past three months, Sir Colin, we’ve been receiving intelligence chatter about an unidentified extremist figure who gives himself exactly that title. We know very little about him, and that always rings alarm bells.’
‘Go on,’ the chief said. ‘For God’s sake let him speak, Buckingham!’
‘Thank you, Sir Colin.’ Bixby collected his thoughts for a moment. ‘I’m sorry. We haven’t a lot to go on. We don’t know what this S/N number represents – some kind of serial number, we presume, but we’ve run it through all our systems and we’ve come up with no positive matches. We’re almost certain, though, that 74:26-29 refers to a certain passage from the Koran.’ He cleared his throat and recited from memory: ‘ I will drive him into the Hellfire. And what will explain to you that which Hellfire is? It allows nothing to endure, and leaves nothing alone. It blackens the skins of men .’
Silence in the room.
‘Well, what the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?’ the chief said finally. ‘There’s a type of missile called a Hellfire, isn’t there? Is that what it refers to?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Bixby. He sounded unconvinced. He cleared his throat again. ‘We know almost nothing about this self-styled Caliph. We’re pretty sure he exists, but any attempts by our assets in Syria or Iraq to find out more about him are completely stonewalled. There is a suggestion that he might be of Qatari origin, which makes some kind of sense because to stay off the grid requires large quantities of ready cash, and the Qataris are massively oil-rich. So are the Saudis, of course, and we’ve pretty good evidence of wealthy individuals from both states funding Islamist groups across the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere. But a couple of independent references we have to this Caliph come from intelligence sources in Qatar. If we want to find out any more about him, I’d suggest that would be a good place to start.’
The chief nodded and fell silent for a minute. All eyes were on him. ‘What assets do we have in Qatar at the moment?’ he asked.
Bixby opened the manilla folder on the table in front of him and withdrew a sheaf of paper. The chief scanned it quickly: there was a picture of an Arab man in traditional headgear, and beneath it a lot of dense writing. ‘Give me the edited highlights,’ Seldon said.
‘His name is Ahmed bin Ali al-Essa,’ Bixby said. ‘His SIS handle is codename Murdock. He’s an oil magnate with several concessions from the Qatari government to pump oil offshore in Qatari waters. He has a massive workforce out in Qatar, as well as very close ties with the Qatari government. But he has substantive trade agreements with the UK which he very much needs to keep intact. As a result, he’s open to the idea of passing intelligence on to us – we’ve received good stuff from him over the past five years, all high-grade, all accurate. I’d say he’s a
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