Hassan bin Mahoud
Assistant to the deputy director
Ministry of Fish Wealth
Aden, Republic of Yemen
8
From:
Tariq Anwar
Date:
20 August
To:
Al-Qaeda members in Yemen
Folder:
Outgoing mail to Yemen
I send you my greeting from beyond the swamps to your country where there is progress and civilisation-here we have many problems with our brothers the Taliban and they are not always acting in the best way according to the wishes of Abu Abdullah and the whole Nation of Islam. Also we have many adversaries who press from every side-the crusader special forces, even our brothers in Pakistan who have forgotten the true faith and chastise our people with guns and whips.
We have heard that the Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihami is now consorting with the English crusader prime minister and spending many millions of dollars on absurd and dangerous projects to bring salmon fish to the Yemen, and to persuade our brothers in the Yemen to fish for sport and not simply to feed the mouths of their families as is their duty. Moreover since all people in the Yemen must work from dawn until dusk, for six days of the week, just to keep the bread in their mouths and the mouths of their children, it follows that the sheikh will be expecting them to fish on the sabbath, which is expressly forbidden in the Koran.
This project is evil because it is not Islamic in its nature and because it is intended to distract attention from the greater evils that the crusaders are carrying out against the whole Muslim nation in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine.
Therefore it must be stopped.
Abu Abdullah enjoins you to start an operation against Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi. You must call on one of our brothers in Finchley, London. He must carry out an operation against the sheikh with extreme urgency to liquidate him and stop the salmon coming to the Yemen. We have wired $27,805 which is the operational budget, to the usual account.
We ask God to lead you to the good of both this life and the afterlife.
Peace be upon you and God’s mercy and blessings.
Tariq Anwar
From:
Essad
Date:
20 August
To:
Tariq Anwar
Folder:
Incoming mail from Yemen
Kind brother Tariq,
We don’t have any people in Finchley any more-they have all been arrested or dispersed by the British police. It would be necessary to send someone from here to Scotland to find the sheikh, unless the sheikh should return to his palace and his village here.
We don’t think this operation will be very popular. The Sheikh Muhammad is known everywhere as a man who follows God’s teaching very closely. The people in his wilayat all revere and adore him. It will be hard to find one who will liquidate him and certainly not for the operational budget you have mentioned.
Peace be upon you,
Essad
From:
Tariq An war
Date:
20 August
To:
Essad
Folder:
Outgoing mail to Yemen
Brother Essad,
Abu Abdullah doesn’t want to hear your thoughts concerning Sheikh Muhammad. You forget our brother Abu Abdullah himself has family in the Yemen and is very well informed about who is, and who is not, a follower in the true path of God. He considers it very necessary for the sheikh to be liquidated, and at once.
Operational budget: flights $1000 (one way), car hire $500, food $25, disguise $200. Reward is $30,000 payable to the family of the operative assuming he is himself caught or liquidated by the security service. We will provide a clean mobile. We will provide papers. Total: $31,725, which is an increase of many dollars on what was first proposed. There is no more.
The needful operational sums will be made available at the Finchley post office in an account in the name of Hasan Yasin Abdullah. They only watch the banking system, not the post office. The reward will be paid when the deed is done.
Please confirm. Abu Adbullah wants to know your answer.
In the name of God,
Tariq Anwar
From:
Essad
Date:
21 August
To:
Tariq Anwar
Folder:
Incoming mail from Yemen
Brother Anwar,
Peace be upon you.
We have found a brother here in the Hadramawt who speaks some English. His thirty goats have all just died from the foot and mouth. Now he has no food, no money and no goats. He will do it. Please send the money and then we will commence the operation.
In the name of God
Essad
9
Interrogator:
Please describe the initial reasons for your involving the prime minister in the Yemen salmon project.
Peter Maxwell:
Do you know who I am?
Interrogator:
You are Mr Peter Maxwell. Please describe the initial reasons for your involving the prime Minister in the Yemen salmon project. Please bear in mind it is in your own best interests to cooperate fully with this enquiry.
Peter Maxwell:
Okay. I see. Of course I will cooperate. Why shouldn’t I? It’s in everyone’s interests to get the fullest possible picture of what happened. I am writing a book about it. Or at least I was, until one of your lot took the manuscript away.
Interrogator:
Your manuscript is considered to contain material which might constitute a breach of confidentiality and its status will have to be reviewed by this enquiry before a decision can be taken as to whether it can be returned to you.
Peter Maxwell:
I’m deeply, deeply hurt by what happened. I’m traumatised. I want that put on the record. I’m traumatised.
The witness here broke down in tears and required mild sedation. The interview recommenced the following day and is transcribed here verbatim, as far as possible. Operational security details have been withheld from the public record.
Peter Maxwell:
My name is Peter Maxwell and I am-I was-the director of communications, prime minister’s office. I had held that post for two years. I am an old, old friend of the prime minister. That’s not why I got the job; I got the job because, false modesty aside, I am absolutely the best guy they’ve got at this sort of thing. I could have held Cabinet office. If I’d been elected as an MP, that is. But that whole ego trip of front-line politics was not for me. I wanted to serve my party from the sidelines, from the shadows. That’s where I operate. In the shadows. Let other people take the credit. Don’t be the story, shape the story: that’s my motto.
Jay [Prime Minister the Right Honourable James Vent MP] was a godsend for our party. He’s the best prime minister this country has had since Churchill. Since Gladstone. Since Pitt. He lifted this country up out of the Second Division and put it back in the Premier League, world affairs-wise. Right at the top. In the Champions’ League. He had total mastery of the House of Commons. Members bowled seamers, spinners, yorkers-it didn’t matter what-Jay put his bat to them all and carted them out of the ground. Every shot was in the bullseye.