The space had been a used clothing store, which should have benefited by the economic downturn, but like many businesses in the area it too failed. Even the secondhand-clothing market was impacted by the double-dip recession, and the Korean property owner was only too happy to find a new tenant.
Now the building answered the religious needs of those practicing Islam and living in the immediate neighborhood. The tiny facility consisted of three rooms and a single restroom: the larger area was used for prayers; the smaller area, meetings; the third room, a tiny office, doubled as a storage facility.
Though there was an authentic air of legitimacy to the mosque, it served a greater purpose for those members wishing to impose their own brand of sharia law upon America. Not every one of the several dozen in regular attendance sought self-segregation nor desired to participate in violent jihad. They evidenced no pent-up hostility toward the United States and had assimilated into Los Angeles’s multicultural society. Many loved America and the freedoms and opportunities this country provided, but among those worshipping at the religious institution was a group of men who supported the pro-jihad, anti-America, anti-Jewish rhetoric flooding the terrorist websites. They believed in an ideology of hatred, demeaning all religions while extolling Islam.
These men viewed jihad as a violent, offensive confrontation against the enemies of a global ummah, a unified Islamic state. The Koran imposed such an obligation: “And fight them until there is no more dissent and the religion will be for Allah alone.” It was their duty to pursue the infidels throughout the world, killing those who refused to submit to the will of Allah. “Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. Seize them and beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem.”
The men were sleeper activists who would not be seduced by the infidel’s culture.
The mosque provided a safe haven, serving as a staging area for terrorist activities. It birthed plans to destroy the kafirs, nonbelievers who were not worthy of an earthly life and were destined for hell.
Thanks to political correctness and the First Amendment, it was almost impossible for the FBI to monitor the happenings at any mosque. Since 9/11, government officials at all levels had gone out of their way to appear tolerant, inclusive, and accommodating. Politicians obscured the origins of violence, twisting uncomfortably in public hearings, and refusing to attribute terrorist acts to any one belief system. Whenever possible they blamed a lone wolf acting outside the religious norm or misguided social outcasts seeking a perverted meaning to life. America’s tolerance and self-imposed social engineering fueled the cause of those at the mosque. Presidents called Islam a religion of peace, with Muslim outreach a top priority for successive administrations. Christians opened dialogue while educators and politicians sought to answer the question “Why do they hate us?” and came up essentially empty, offering feckless concessions and indefensible appeasements.
More than a decade after 9/11, the efforts of law enforcement were mostly ignored or criticized. Several dozen terrorist attacks had been disrupted. Yet when a plot was discovered and a terrorist act prevented, the media quickly found fault, dismissing the investigation as government-inspired entrapment, blaming informants or paid operatives. “Experts” described the “root causes” of “extremism” to be inadequate education or limited economic opportunities and unemployment. Rarely would an academic or journalist acknowledge that radical Islamic terrorists frequently used children, the mentally challenged, and the infirm to do much of their bidding.
When Army major Nidal Hasan murdered thirteen at Fort Hood while shouting “Allahu Akhbar!” it was called “workplace violence”—not terrorism. When two young “students” from Chechnya killed three and wounded more than two hundred at the Boston Marathon, it was a “failure” for law enforcement. After alert civilians stopped Richard Reid and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from setting off bombs aboard aircraft headed for U.S. cities from overseas, the media described the events as intelligence failures. Those in the stands love to hurl epithets at those on the field.
The six men arrived at the tiny mosque for sunrise prayers and stood around outside before entering. They were convinced their terror cell, operating in plain sight in one of America’s largest cities, remained off the government’s radar.… And they were right.
As the sun began to creep above the horizon, the heavy traffic on one of Los Angeles’s busiest streets provided the cover they needed for a dangerously open conversation.
“Where is he?” asked one.
“Have you heard from him?” asked the smallest of the six men, looking around for Kareem.
“He called me last night. The deed is done,” said Mohammed, the leader of the cell, who wore his leathery and scarred face as a badge of honor.
“That is good.”
Mohammed smiled. “It is better to be the hunter than the hunted. Before peace there must always be war… or surrender. Although I wish to one day destroy this godless nation in its entirety, we must never forget that our ability to cripple the Great Satan can also rest in the small victories that go unnoticed and are not linked to the cause. We shall discuss this further after sunrise prayers. Let us go in and give thanks to Allah for last night’s victory.”
The words of Mohammed bound the men to the terror pact; they collectively basked in this most recent, yet seemingly inconsequential, success as they followed their leader into the mosque.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jake Kruse and Trey Bennett were sitting in Trey’s Ford Fusion just down the street from the entrance to the CBS Studio City lot. Those walking past, more concerned with midmorning auditions, paid no attention to the two men.
Jake smiled at the question and answered with bureaucratic perfection, “I used a force-multiplying instrument to successfully stop the lethal threat.”
“You shot them,” said Trey.
“Okay, I shot them.”
“You’ve been in so many shootings, you’re beginning to sound like OPR,” said Trey, referring to the FBI’s dreaded Office of Professional Responsibility.
“It’s all how you write up the paperwork,” said Jake, offering a lopsided grin before passing a worn pillowcase to Trey. “This has the wallets and weapons from the two hijackers last night. I cleared both weapons and there isn’t much in the wallets, but maybe you can come up with something.”
Trey set his coffee in the cup holder before peering into the bag. “San Diego got an agent down there right after you called. The locals didn’t seem too concerned and welcomed the Bureau’s help. The agent called me this morning and said it didn’t even make the paper.”
“Those guys weren’t virgins. I’m sure once they do some digging a few open investigations get closed. The video and audio tapes from the cab are also in the pillowcase. After you listen to it you’ll see it was righteous.”
“I didn’t doubt that it was.”
“I dropped the container off at their warehouse about two this morning.”
As Trey was poking through the pillowcase, he said, “We should be able to pick up the delivery schedule from the phone traffic. We’ll let a couple of small loads get through but then intercept the bigger deliveries with a traffic stop en route to the ultimate destination. It’s worked so far and they haven’t linked it back to you.”