|
What
Lies
Ahead
for all
of us
after
9/11?
One
patriot
writer,
Bill
McIntyre,
looks
back to
the day
he met
Mohammed
Atta.
By Greg
Szymanski,
JD
June 2,
2007
While
attending
law
school,
I worked
as an RV
and
Yacht
salesman,
earning
enough
money to
pay a
high
tuition
and
support
a meager
lifestyle.
I used
to enjoy
spending
days out
on the
open
road or
on the
Pacific
as I
became
hooked
with
this
type of
gypsy-feeling
of
always
traveling
but
never
going
anywhere.
Looking
back on
those
years, I
cared
little
for the
patriot
movement
and
maybe I
was
better
off
because
as they
say
ignorance
is
bliss.
In fact,
I
purposely
put the
patriot
concept
out my
mind as
I
essentially
spent
four
years
learning
the law
and
learning
how to
think in
a a
so-called
logical
and
organized
lawyerly
manner.
In other
words, I
set a
goal,
graduated
and
accomplished
it. But
what
then?
In law
school I
never
really
thought
about
it, but
it hit
me hard
the day
after I
received
my JD.
So, I
sold my
live-a-board
boat in
Ventura
Harbor,
bought
an RV
and
started
traveling.
Maybe I
really
started
running
away
from
myself
and the
California
bar
exam,
which to
this day
I
haven't
taken.
Or maybe
I just
wanted
to
become
another
of
America's
lost
souls,
looking
for but
knowing
he could
never
find the
American
Dream.
Of
course,
9/11
came,
which
happens
to be my
birthday,
and
everybody
said
their
world
changed
forever.
However,
mine
didn't
as I
ended up
going
back to
my old
world of
being a
patriot-journalist
and
radio
broadcaster,
looking
for the
truth
but
knowing
the
truth
wouldn't
even set
me free
now.
I ended
up as we
speak in
the
Colorado
high
country
and my
motor
home in
New
Orleans,
used as
a place
to house
the
homeless,
a story
however
too long
and
involved
to get
into
now.
My
Arctic
Beacon
web site
and
radio
show,
called
the
Investigative
Journal,
has
gained
mediocre
popularity
as well
as a
mediocre
way to
make a
living,
But the
sad part
I've
learned
over the
years is
that
most
people,
even
your
best
friends
and
loved
ones,
don't
really
want to
know
the
truth,
don't
really
want to
support
the
truth
and
would
rather
go on
living
and
funding
lies.
After
awhile
this
wears on
one's
soul,
especially
making
my
profession
seem
meaningless
at
times.
It makes
you
question
your
very
existence,
leaving
you in
some
sort of
suspended
state of
loneliness
or
insanity.
The
truth in
a sense
has a
strange
and
crazy
way of
isolating
you,
making
you feel
your
living
in a
world of
your
own.
And I
have to
laugh
out loud
sometimes
when I
read
some of
my past
articles,
articles
bent on
exposing
evil and
telling
the
untold
story. I
have to
laugh or
maybe
cry
sometimes
because
I wonder
if they
really
did any
good or
just
served
to make
good
people
more
miserable.
I know
learning
some of
the
truth
through
my many
interviews
and
articles
has made
me
miserable.
It has
made me
come to
another
juncture
in my
life
where I
either
continue
writing
and
embarking
on a new
truth
radio
station
or I go
back to
living
on a
boat,
study
for the
bar exam
and wait
for the
world
and
myself
to come
to an
end.
I know
if I
choose
the
latter,
it would
make the
many
Illuminati-Vatican
members
and
disinformation
artists
I've met
over the
years
very
happy.
But one
thing I
do know,
whatever
choice
is made,
I will
not die
living a
lie like
the
people
mentioned
in the
above
categories
for if
you look
closely
at
outlets
like The
American
Free
Press,
RBN and
GCN
radio,
many of
their
writers
and
broadcasters
are
filled
with
misguided
hatred
and
lies,
not
filled
with the
spirit
of God
and
truth.
And I
guess
knowing
I will
not die
living a
lie is
in
itself
is a
victory,
the only
question
remains
is it
worth it
to try
and wake
people
up from
a deep
sleep or
is it
better
to go at
it
alone.
And I
guess it
is
really
not up
to me
since if
enough
people
come
forward
after
reading
this
with
moral
and
financial
support,
then
perhaps
I should
stay and
fight
the
so-called
good
fight.
But if
not,
these
last
five
years
have
prepared
me to go
it
alone,
knowing
it is
better
to have
tried
and
failed
then to
not have
tried at
all.
But
whatever
happens
to all
of us is
of
course
God's
will. So
whether
we
are
directed
to sail
the
ocean
alone or
enlighten
millions
with our
findings
will
soon be
determined,
not by
power
and
money,
but by
our
creator
who has
a plan
so much
bigger
than
ours but
so much
harder
to
understand.
In the
meantime,
I'd like
to
reflect
back to
my RV
selling
days
when I
met
another
patriot
in
hiding
by the
name of
Bill
McIntyre.
Bill
sold
RV's as
well
while he
pursued
his
writing
career.
He
recently
sent me
an
article
about
how he
met
Mohammed
Atta,
the
infamous
fake
hijacker
when he
came to
buy an
RV from
Bill.
When I
read
Bill's
story,
it made
me think
about
both my
lives,
the ones
before
and
after
9/11. It
also
left me
thinking
what
should I
do now.
I hope
you
enjoy
Bill's
story
about
how he
met
Mohammed
Atta.
Meeting
with
Mohammed
©William
McIntyre
Writers
live
many
lives
and in
the
living
people
tell
them
their
stories.
Sometimes
truth
finds
the
writer
and
sometimes
the
writer
finds
more
than the
truth,
like a
meeting
with
Mohammed
In the
universe
there
are no
accidents.
I hold
it to be
true.
So,
when
three
razor-faced
young
Arabs
ambled
into my
writer’s
day-job
reality
I did
not
question.
I
trusted
it.
Their
tribal
moves
were
familiar
from my
times on
reservations
across
the
years.
I’d run
with
“Skins”.
So who
better
for the
universe
to
deliver
these
tribal
types to
but me
on an RV
sales
lot in
Ventura
California
where I
was
playing
salesman
to pay
the
bills.
It was
spring
2000.
But,
these
three
guys
were not
“Skins”
in the
REZ
slang of
Native
America.
Not
Sioux,
Cheyenne,
Hopi,
Navajo
or Zuni.
Nope
these
were
Bedouin.
Familiar
Bedouin
tribal
rhythms
lifted
these
three
lightly
across
the RV
lot
toward
me. They
were the
young
desert
horsemen
I’d
seen, as
a kid
near
Cairo,
riding
Arabian
horses
like the
wind by
the
Great
Pyramid.
These
three
were
without
their
flowing
Bedouin
robes
and
ragged
turbans.
Dressed
in
cheap-chic
they
styled
toward
me. In
Vegas
slacks
and Polo
shirts,
Gucci
knock-off
loafers,
gold
chain
and
short GQ
hair
cuts
they
came.
Too
casual
they
were
acting
with
their
little
grins of
secret
spiritual
mission
hidden
just
behind
their
lively
dark
eyes.
They
reminded
me of
young
Hopi men
eager
for the
sacred
dances.
They
smacked
of
Hollywood
as well
as
Vegas,
and Palm
Beach
even.
But,
lying
just
beneath
their
polite
shyness,
I sensed
the
ghost of
mosque,
fasting
and
prayer,
and the
cool
fire of
the
devout.
Indeed
these
were
very
“serious”
dudes
for
sure,
playing
their
Steve
Martin
roles of
wild-and-crazy
guys out
for a
fun
afternoon’s
RV
shopping.
Of all
this I
was
reasonably
certain
before
many
words
were
spoken.
“Hi”, I
beamed.
“I’m
Bill”.
You guys
lookin’
to buy
an RV?”
I gave
it my
best red
blooded
American
Boy
Scout
glad-hand
welcome.
The
“pros”
in the
sales
office
had
caught
sight of
the
three
chicsters
truckin’
through
the
front
gate.
They had
dared
me, the
writer
guy, to
work the
dark
skins
knowing
I would.
This old
RV sales
salt
nick-named
Gator
didn’t
want to
“waste
his Up”
(his
first
place in
the
salesman
rotation),
with
Hindu,
Arab, or
Mexican
moneyless
looking
losers.
Sad.
But the
way it
some
times is
in the
high
dollar
RV sales
game.
Between
awkward
clumsy
handshakes
and
their
thick
Arabic
accents,
faltering
English
trickled
through.
The
littlest
guy,
making
the
introductions,
started
playing
me right
away
introducing
them so
fast he
knew I
couldn’t
catch a
name.
With a
touch of
hipster
charm he
first
introduced
himself.
“Mohammed
Khalid
al
Mihdhar”.
That
much my
struggling
ear
caught
as I
flipped
open my
pocket
pad
eager to
jot them
all
down.
But,
Mohammed
Khalid
al
Mihdhar
wasn’t
about to
let me
write. I
couldn’t
speed
scribble
all of
the
others
names he
ran by
me at
such a
mind
stumping
pace.
And each
of their
names
seemed
to be an
Ali,
Abdula
or
Mohammed
this or
that –
Ali
Abdul
Aziz
Ali,
Mohammed
al Hazmi,
said-so-fast-you-just-couldn’t-tell.
I could
tell I
was
being
put-on
by
Mohammed
Khalid
al
Mihdhar.
This I
knew.
And he
knew I
knew by
the way
he tried
to hide
his
impish
little
grin.
But why?
Why
rattle
off
their
names so
fast
nobody
could
catch
them?
That was
the
question.
Their
act had
me
snagged.
I was up
for it.
Writer’s
curiosity.
I had to
bust
into
their
game.
Khalid
made
their
pitch.
“Yez,
Bill. We
look for
RV, as
you say,
but not
one so
big as
thez.”
His
close-shaved
rose-tan
face was
a-glow
with
some
sort of
glad
expectancy
of the
moment.
His eyes
darted
toward
the
flashy
forty-foot
monster
diesel
motor
home a
few
yards
away.
“Ah,
something
smaller,
easy to
drive
yes”?
Ali
Abdul
asked.
“Smaller
maybe
like a
second
car?”, I
ventured.
“Yez.
Exactly.”
Khalid
answered.
“Perhaps
for
twenty
thousand
dollars
cash.
You
think ez
possible
Beel?
For
twenty
thousand?”
He’d put
his
money
cards on
the
table
like an
amateur
or so I
thought.
Twenty
grand
they had
to spend
and they
had the
cash
with
them I
could
feel
that for
sure.
But, in
the big
dollar
world of
RV
buying,
twenty
G’s
wouldn’t
buy them
much. At
least
not what
they
were
looking
for I
suspected.
My job,
as
under-cover-writer
RV
salesman
was to
“bump”
these
masquerading
sons of
desert
Sheiks
up the
money
ladder
and
entice
them to
pony-up
their
twenty
grand as
a nice
down
payment
on sixty
to a
hundred
thousand
dollars
worth of
recreational
rolling
stock.
“I’m
sorry I
missed
your
names,”
I
smiled,
stalling
to get a
better
feel.
“Ali
Abdula-Aziz”,
chimed
in
pronouncing
it more
slowly,
pointing
to
himself
and then
rattled
of the
others
as fast
or
faster
than
Khalid
had
before.
“Well,
Abdula”,
I began,
seeing
his
attention
rapt on
each of
my
words
like a
traveler
in a
strange
land
listening
for
directions
that
would
lead him
out of a
place he
was
eager to
leave.
“Maybe
we
should
take a
look at
a few
RV’s.”
As I
watched
Abdullah’s
eyes and
face,
seeming
so awash
with the
keen
importance
of his
mission,
the two
other
chic-sters
leaned
close.
They
were the
same
trim
size,
had the
same
light
tribesman
step,
same G.Q
close
cuts
with
musk
cologne
wafting.
They
were
partners,
it was
plain.
Un wound
from the
same
womb
they
appeared
to be,
of blood
brotherhood
and
journey
to
somewhere
joyous
beyond
this
mundane
place
and
time.
Their
boyish
enthusiasm
was
infectious.
My own
sleeping
tribal
blood
stirred
in its
Scotch-Irish
Plains
tribes
mix. In
my eyes
they saw
the
willing
acceptances
of the
secret
tribal
quest
they
were
obviously
on,
whatever
it was.
As
Abdula
made his
fast-talker
introductions
of the
other
two I
was
wondering
if
everybody
Moslem
was
named
Mohammed
in
Islam.
In my
sublime
“Amaraken”
ignorance
I wasn’t
sure.
Smiling
over-politely
at me,
Abdula-aziz
murmured
asides
to
Khalid
and al-Hazmi
in
hushed
phrases
of
Arabic
or
Egyptian
maybe,
who
could
tell.
With
slight
nods of
heads
toward
the row
of
Volkswagen
Rialtas,
lined up
against
the
front
fence
line, I
heard
the
whispered
name of
Allah,
Allah,
praise
Allah.
I
realized
they
were
praying
as they
talked
or
talking
as they
prayed.
All
three
were
fingering
a rope
bracelet
of
prayer
beads.
This
was no
ordinary
mission
they
were on.
A quick
burst of
Arabic
between
the
three
with
English
chards
like
twenty
thousand
and RV,
slipped
into the
mix of
prayer
and
whispers.
There
was
urgency
of word
it
seemed
from the
scraps
of
English
laced
into
this
desert
lingo of
sheiks
and
sultans,
holy men
and
princes,
or
‘terrorists’
the
fleeting
thought
came and
went. I
smiled
in my
passive-aggressive
American
desire
to win
friends
and
influence
people.
My
earnest
smile
and
honest
eye was
waiting
out
their
grinning
Bedouin
confab.
I was
catching
on –
these
three
were
Royals –
rich oil
brats;
sons
of
petroleum
sheiks
out on a
lark to
hit the
great
American
road.
Or...
they
were
buying
fleet
rolling
stock
for the
royal
family’s
desert
RV
whims.
Every
legendary
RV
salesman
had
stories
of
selling
at least
one
fleet to
a Riyadh
Royal.
In their
“fine”
threads,
accessorized
perfectly
in just
slightly
gaudy
gold,
and
leather
tassel
loafers,
the
three
anxiously
glanced
back
over
their
shoulders
toward
the
opened
door of
the
first
sleek
little
VW
Rialta.
I
glanced
in the
Rialta’s
open
doorway,
and
glimpsed
the
golden
hem of a
long
olive
dress
slide
back
from
sight
and a
charcoal
pant leg
over
small
tassel
loafer
move
into
shadow.
That
neatly
pleated
charcoal
pant leg
must
belong
to the
prince I
found
myself
thinking,
smelling
pools of
oil
money
commission;
enough
to skip
work for
a year
and just
write -
the
constant
writers
dream.
The
reverent
eyes of
all
three
young
dark
skins
were
fixed on
that
doorway.
Whispers
of
prayer
came
from the
three.
“There
is no
God but
Allah.”
“Mohammed
is his
prophet.”
The soft
flow of
reverence
cradled
softer
tones,
“Allah
be
praised.”
“Praise
be to
Allah.”
And this
reverence
was not
skyward
thrown
but
lilted
toward
the open
RV where
a
shadow
man
moved
within.
I was
wrong,
it hit
me. I
was not
about to
sell a
fleet of
pricey
VW’S to
four
high-born
Saudi
oil
brats.
No. The
thick
feel of
reverence
for the
Shadow-One
told me
different.
This
must be
the
“Special
One”
protected
by the
young
mosque
guards.
I had my
own time
in with
native
medicine
people,
sweat
lodge
leaders
– Sioux
pipe
carriers,
Hopi
elders,
Tibetans
and the
like. I
knew
tribal
reverence
in those
that
worship
and
protect
a Chosen
One.
I was
being
pulled
in a
soft
force
field.
My feet
were
moving
in
step
with the
three
toward
the
window-shade
silhouette
bent
forward
searching
the chic
little
RV
interior.
A
Ventura
sea
breeze
eddied
around
we four
fluttering
forward
for the
door.
They
edged
passed
me. A
few
steps
ahead,
then a
half
dozen,
they
were
suddenly
scurrying
emissaries,
like
Chang to
the High
Lama in
Lost
Horizons.
That was
it!
Their
airy
movements
betrayed
them.
They
were
comfortable
with
wearing
robes –
desert
sandals
not
showy
disco
garb.
Abdula
ducked
into the
low
doorway,
reporting
in
Arabic
to the
unseen
one. His
instant
puppy-like
body
language
and
scraps
of
English
explained
what had
transpired
with
this RV
sales
guy, me,
who was
standing
just
outside
now,
body
blocked
by the
three
body
guards.
I caught
slow
movement
in the
corner
of my
eye. The
back of
a tall,
hunched-over,
olive
skirted
golden
hemmed
veiled
figure
in black
strap
clog
heels,
went
slouching
out the
front
gate
like a
vanishing
desert
breeze.
“You
see,”
Abdula
was
speaking
at me,
suddenly
tense,
trying
to
hide his
discomfort
with my
closeness
to the
doorway
and the
one
within.
“Mohammed
looks
for an
RV such
as
this.”
He
paused
glancing
quickly
back
into the
rear of
the
Rialta,
and back
at me.
“But,
the
price…
this one
ez how
much?”
“Sixty
Thousand,”
I
answered
casually,
ready to
open
negotiations.
My ears
locked
on the
faint
drift of
Arabic
floating
from the
yet
unseen
Mohammed
inside,
obvious
master
of the
others.
God, I
wondered
trying
not to
grin at
my
thought,
were all
Arabs
named
after
Mohammed
like so
many
Mexicans
friends
in my
high
school
had been
named
Jessie
after
Jesus?!
“But for
twenty
thousand
we could
get
what?”
Abdula
asked.
“Something
like
thez?”
He
turned a
step
caressing
the
Rialta’s
glassy
lacquer
paint
job on
the
sleek
airplane
style
cabin
line. He
was
whispering
another
prayer.
Khalid
and al
Hazmi
followed
him with
their
eyes
whispering
prayers.
I raised
my
hiking
boot
into the
doorway
of the
plush
little
carpeted
Rialtas
cabin.
The
short
man busy
searching
the
storage
space
behind
the back
seat
cushions
turned
to me.
Hair cut
close,
gold
watch
and
necklace
flashing.
His
green
Polo
shirt
hung
loose
over his
pleated
charcoal
slacks
and soft
oxblood
loafers.
With a
trapped
look in
his
small
black
eyes,
his thin
mouth
opened
in the
tortured
gape.
Horrified
his face
was
becoming,
eyes
searching
for
escape
from
being
trapped
by me
in the
doorway.
His
tight
mouth
began
twisting
into a
soundless
cry.
Like
an
enraged
terrified
woman
imprisoned
by that
which
she
hated
most the
Cobra
eyes
willed
me back
out the
door.
Abdula
shifted
back to
move me
away a
step
from the
Rialta.
“Now
Beel the
mileage
on this
one ez...?”
From
times
with
medicine
people I
knew to
show
reverence
to the
elder or
the
chosen
by not
looking
directly
at them.
I turned
my back
out
the open
door and
gave
Abdula
more
than the
distance
he
wanted
between
us. I
saw
Khalid
and al
Hazmi
next
door
crawling
in a big
rigs
basement
storage
compartments.
“Seventeen
to
twenty
two
miles
per
gallon.
It’s a
low,
sleek,
aerodynamic
Winnebago
body
with the
new two
hundred
horse V6
Volkswagen
engine.”
My pitch
pulled
me
together
again
from the
disarming
shock of
feeling
such
contempt
directed
at me by
the
space-cold
eyes of
the
Mohammed
with in.
Noticing
I had
shown
respect,
Abdula
raised a
polite
eye of
doubt.
“Seventeen
to
twenty
miles
per
gallon,
really?”
“People
have
reported
getting
twenty
two –
depends
on how
you
drive
it and
where –
uphill,
downhill,
what the
weight
and what
the wind
and
weather
conditions
are.”
Abdullah’s
polite
voice
came
from
above
and over
my
shoulder.
He’d
lifted
himself
back up
into the
oval
doorway
shielding
his
master
Mohammed.
“So the
power
Beel, on
hills
and the
towing
for
trailer…?”
In
the
slant of
sun
shade
his face
loomed
above
Khalid
and al-Hazmi,
who had
darted
back,
touching
shoulders
to make
it three
again,
protecting
the
sacred
one
whose
vacant
face
slowly
appeared
behind
them in
cabin
shadow.
My usual
cross-culture
spiritual
ignorance
was hard
at work
as I
stood
looking
at the
three
Bedouin
guardsmen
and
their
charge.
Did
Arabs
name
only
high
priests
Mohammed,
I
wondered,
returning
my
eyes to
the
four.
Mohammed
was
their
prophet
I knew.
Mohammed,
harbinger
of the
world’s
largest
religion,
Islam.
Mohammed,
messenger
of the
Koran.
Almost
all of
Arabia
and
North
Africa
was
Moslem.
Endless
summering
high
school
surfing
buds of
mine had
brought
back
that
religious
tid-bit
long
years
passed.
“Yeah”,
I began
the
answer
to the
question
I’d
forgotten,
intentionally
averting
my eyes
in a
direct
way that
would
again
show I
knew to
look
away.
I felt
Abdula,
al Hazmi
and
Khalid’s
attention
uneasy
and
uncertain
on me,
for so
obviously
paying
reverence
to
number
four
Mohammed,
as I
continued
pitching
the VW,
with my
eyes
away
meeting
none of
theirs.
I
started
my RV
salesman
walk
around
the
Rialta -
slow
step by
step
showing
off this
proud
sleek
Arabian
steed,
air
cooled
and
perfect
for
their
deserts.
I
pitched
with my
deliberate
eyes
never
lifting
to seek
the one
inside.
I drew
the
crowd of
three
with me.
They
followed
me light
on their
loafed
feet,
happy at
my
respect
and
moving
close
with me,
like
a robe
flows,
following
in the
wind. I
did my
demo of
the
sleek
little
airplane
of an RV
from
front
bumper
to back
and two
thousand
pound
tow
hitch
welded
underneath
the
rear.
And
then, as
I cut a
crescent
around
to the
other
side,
there
were
four. I
felt,
though I
did not
look up,
a very
“different”
presence,
come
in
behind
me.
Mohammed
from
within
was with
us. I
left
space
for him
to
step
into.
Still
behind
his
braves,
his
faithful
trusting
shields,
with
us he
was. His
presence
cloaked
us in
the
reverence
his
charges
paid him
in their
every
action.
With
Mohammed
a step
behind,
the
three
subdued
their
boyish
grins
and
teen-like
body
language.
They
pulled
themselves
in for
abject
service
to
anything
he might
do or
ask or
desire.
This was
plain.
Their
coltish
movements
drew
down in
slightly
surprised
sheepish
supplication.
And they
too
looked
not
directly
at this
smaller
blade of
a man
for
whom, I
sensed,
they
would
give
their
lives.
I had
paid
similar
homage
before
to a
Hopi Sun
Clan
Chieftain
who
prays up
the sun
each
dawn. It
was a
wild and
holy
knowing
that my
own
mix of
Anglo
and
Native
blood
rose to.
The
slight
but
perceptible
arrogance
in my
deliberately
averted
eyes
lured
all four
of my
Arab
flock
like
trout to
golden
sparkle,
so
foreign
I bet it
was to
them in
America.
In the
Rialta’s
lacquered
paint
reflection
I saw
the four
a step
behind
me. All
were
Marine
straight,
trim,
and
hard,
their
disco
duds
clinging
to their
camera-thin
model
bodies.
Mohammed
was
shorter
than his
faithful
three,
lighter
and much
more
bonded
to the
ground,
with
sure
step and
royal
manner.
I
finished
my pitch
back
around
by the
open
door
where it
started.
My eyes
were
still
off on
the
seaward
horizon.
I shut
up and
waited.
“Bill?”
A
completely
different
almost
silent
voice
intoned
“Bill is
this the
best for
long
distance
traveling?”
The
English
was all
but
perfect.
It was
the
coldly
commanding
voice of
Mohammed
addressing
me
directly.
His
voice
parted
his
surprised
shield
of
protectors.
He stood
shorter
than
they but
much
greater
baring a
great
weight
on his
pious
shoulders
- a
weight
of
bitter
and long
endured
suffering.
Holy
faces I
had
seen,
joyous
in
service
to their
God, or
their
people.
But this
face
before
me,
Mohammed’s
face,
struck
me in a
forbidding
chamber
of the
heart
and
silently
recoiling
corner
of soul.
The cold
brilliance
of his
intelligence
burned.
Pointed
creases
slanted
downward
from his
eyes,
like
channels
for
endless
tears.
The
black
eyes
peered
up into
mine,
examining
my mind
and
manner.
I
returned
a
respectful
gaze,
game for
this
meeting
with
such a
one as
he.
Then I
noticed
he was
wearing
eyebrow
pencil.
I
suddenly
spied
it.
Light
brown
pencil
filled-in
the
darker
stubble
of his
absent
eyebrows.
Are
these
guys gay
I
thought.
God!
This
guy’s a
rich
Arab
queen
out
squiring
his boy
toys.
No. Such
a crude
conclusion
didn’t
fit the
gut feel
of it.
Touched
up
eyebrows
or no
these
three
devotees
and
master
were
married
to
a much
higher
purpose
than the
guilty
desert
pleasures
confessed
by El
Orance (T.E.
Lawrence).
In his
onyx
eyes I
could
see
Mohammed
knew I
was
looking
at his
penciled
eyebrows.
Like
Norma
Desmond
fearful
a
close-up
would
betray
fatal
flaws,
his
square
jaw
tightened.
He was
repulsed
by
having
to face
such a
lowly
one as
I. I
could
tell.
With a
royal
wave of
hand he
moved
a step
to me,
in some
inner
depth of
pious
superiority.
Then,
raising
the
sword of
his eyes
into
mine
Mohammed
vanquished
me with
an icy
look,
dismissing
me with
the
power of
an inner
resolve
from
vast
stretches
of
pious
meditations.
“Do you
need a
special
license
to drive
one?” He
asked it
quietly
turning
to the
Rialta.
“No none
at all.”
“If say
the four
of us
need to
travel
long
distances,
this
will
sleep
four and
give us
all the
comforts
of home
with
great
gas
mileage?”
I had to
strain
to hear
him over
the not
too
distant
freeway
noise.
“Yes.
It’s
completely
self
contained.
A luxury
hotel
room on
wheels”
I
started
a slow
circle
again.
“We do
not
concern
ourselves
with
luxury.
And the
tow
hitch,
it can
pull how
much?”
“Twenty
five
hundred
pounds.”
He was
gliding
beside
me,
taking
in
every
detail.
“And
this is
dependable
for long
distances?”
He made
no eye
contact.
“Many,
many,
hours of
driving?”
“It’s a
Volkswagen
runs
forever
engine
on a
Winnebago
lives
forever
body.
It is
dependable
to the
max.”
“The
power.
It has
sufficient
power on
hills
and in
mountains?”
He bent
slightly
to look
at the
tires.
Behind
us, the
three
“followers”
whispered
and
talked
praying
like
excited
school.
One said
something
serious
in
Arabic.
The
other
would
answer
half in
English.
All kept
their
obedient
eyes on
Mohammed’s
every
move as
if at
any
moment
he would
reveal
the
answer
to
everything.
“Like
what
kind of
distance?
Where
you
thinking
of
going?”
Carefully,
I could
tell, he
considered
what he
would
say. “We
may
have to
make
trips to
San
Francisco
and Salt
Lake,
Denver
and
maybe
New
York.”
“San
Francisco’s
no
problem.
You go
straight
up I-5.
And Salt
Lake is
a
flat run
across
from
Reno.
New York
you can
flatten-out
by
driving
down
around
Santa
Fe,
south of
the
Rockies.”
“You
would
not
drive
over the
Rockies
in
this.”
He
paused
to
inspect
the
trailer
hitch.
“You
could –
but if
you’re
gonna
haul a
ton
behind
you on
that
hitch,
with
four
inside,
on full
tanks of
gas,
it’ll be
a slow
trip
over the
Rockies.
Fifty in
the slow
lane
uphill
all the
way.”
“Speed
we don’t
need.
Time we
have.”
I felt
the
slightly
hidden
insult
to me
and
America’s
obsession
with
speed.
“If
you’re
not in a
hurry to
get over
the
Rockies
- Then
it’ll
get-ya
there no
problem.”
“With
two
thousand
pounds
towing?”
“Yeah. I
think
they
even
make
little
steel
covered
tow
trailers
just for
the
Rialta.”
I lied
to make
a sale
knowing
I could
get one
built.
“Really.
A
covered
trailer
with
steal
locked
doors?”
He
concealed
his
interest.
“Yeah
steel.
I’m not
sure
about
the
doors
but I
could
check
that
for
you.”
He
peered
into the
Rialta’s
back
window.
“And new
it runs
how
much..?”
“Ah,
sixty
grand,
new,
give or
take
some
tax.”
A smug
grin
faintly
shaded
Mohammed’s
face,
reflected
in the
window.
“With
your
taxes it
is
always
take.”
“With
your oil
it is
always
give?”
“Our oil
is the
will of
Allah.”
Abdula
took a
silent
cue to
end my
audience
with his
master.
“And,
the
hitch
Beel”,
Ahmed
said,
thinking
up the
question
as he
shouldered
between
us, “It
can pull
how
much?”
“Twenty
five
hundred
pounds.”
I lifted
my eyes.
Mohammed
was back
in the
plush
upholstery
of the
gleaming
Rialta.
Khalid
and al
Hazmi
were
squatted
down
inspecting
the
basement
storage
on a big
diesel
bus..
Abdula
started
their
way
leaving
me
alone.
Okay… My
duty was
to
trial-close
Mohammed
and
get a
few
dollars
down,
run the
credit
app, and
beat him
up on
payments.
It was,
after
all, the
American
Way.
Make the
sale. I
took a
step to
the
open
Rialta
door and
leaned
half my
body
inside,
with one
knee on
the
carpet
floor.
There I
was, in
my cool
fly
fishing
shades,
with my
Wyoming
bucking
bronco
ball
cap,
kneeling
before
Mohammed
who was
turning
again to
meet
my eyes
with
his. His
calm
face
became
indignant,
disgusted
and then
furious
as he
slammed
shut the
rear
storage
lid and
searched
out the
window
for his
three
human
shields
out
kicking
tires.
Small
yet un
afraid
of
anything,
I could
tell,
but his
own
failings
in the
eyes of
Allah,
he was
left
alone
with the
infidel
again!
Just a
stride
away me
the
un-clean
one, far
too
close.
The soft
shoe
shuffle
of
Abdula
and
company
came
scuffing
back
around
me
lifting
the
disgust
from
Mohammed’s
face.
His
trusty
three
had
returned,
tardy,
like
straying
boys,
but they
had come
home.
I was
out
before
their
body
language
could
infer I
go. That
very
first
look of
pious
revulsion
in
Mohammed’s
eyes was
starting
to haunt
me. That
first
turning
stare at
me, his
delicate
hands
rising
to half
block
the face
from
unclean
gaze,
almost
feminine.
Who was
this
Mohammed?
Nothing
was
fitting
now –
not his
cold
manner,
his
hushed
voice,
the
priestly
power of
his
presence,
or the
unswerving
crush of
accusal
from his
stone
eyes,
abomination
that I
was
to him.
An
abomination
he felt
such
unrelenting
contempt
for, it
was
hard for
him not
to turn
his
repulsed
face
away.
Glad to
leave
the
three in
the
steel
and
plush
polyester
cabin I
breathed
the sea
air
already
knowing
I would
never
forget
this
Mohammed,
much
like the
first
faithful
believers
of the
Prophet
Mohammed
must
have
known,
in the
presence
of the
profit
“The
Upright’
‘The
Trustworthy
One’
‘The
True’
touching
their
souls
with his
new
message
of
Islam.
The
message
“There
is no
God but
Allah.
Salam,
Peace.
The
perfect
peace
that
comes
from
total
surrender
to
Allah.”
This was
Islam
from the
Koran
given by
the
angel
Gabriel
to
Allah’s
messenger
Mohammed.
Six
hundred
years
after
Christ.
Eight
hundred
miles
from
Cairo,
in a
cave it
was
given
him, on
Mt. Hira,
a brief
stroll
from
Mecca.
La Ilaha,
Illa,
Allah –
There is
no God
but
Allah.
And
Mohammed
is
his
prophet.
Persecuted
into
flight
like
Christ
Mohammed
was, for
reciting
the holy
Koran
that
Allah
had
revealed
to him
in
voices
and
dreams.
The holy
message
that
within a
hundred
years
uplifted
millions
to
cast the
crusading
invaders
back
from
glorious
Baghdad
and
Damascus
all
the way
through
Spain to
France
before
the
avenging
wave of
Islam
could
be
checked.
Could
not this
Mohammed
in the
RV be
like the
Prophet
in
spirit
and
manner
on his
own
mission
to
deliver
some
fierce
and holy
message?
Visions
of this
Mohammed’s
darkest
meditations
invaded
my mind.
Unspeakable
colonial
devastation’s
of his
Bedouin
culture,
by
Turkish,
German,
British,
Israeli,
and
American.
Imperial
Juggernauts
savaging
Arabs
from all
sides
over air
conditioned
oil
dollars
dredging
motes of
wealth
around
fortressed
sheiks
the
empires
put in
power,
leavening
the
tribes
to their
Koran,
their
desert
and
their
oil for
Judao-Christian
capitalism
to
plunder.
He was
getting
to me,
this
Mohammed,
with the
condemnation
of his
black
eyes. I
had to
fight
his
excommunication
so
worthless
and vile
was
I in his
accusing
looks.
Abdula
came the
few
steps t |