276 AMERICAN SPYI contacted my old friends in the US government and reminded them
that since my business in ISIS-controlled Mosul was still up and running,
they might like to collaborate once again. We routinely continued to send
money, equipment, and personnel into and out of Mosul, and we had com-
munication with our people inside Mosul (a rarity at the time). According
to press reports, the intelligence community had little to no insights into
what was happening inside Mosul, so I assumed it would be a no-brainer
to gain valuable intelligence. I know I should not have been surprised, but
I was when the US government expressed no interest.
I shook the US government tree a few more times, but still with no luck.
Despite having experienced everything you read in the previous chapter, I
was still flabbergasted. This was ISIS after all. Although Babylon Inc. was
now losing money in Mosul, I decided to subsidize the business there rather
than shut it down, on the assumption that eventually the US government
would come to their senses. How could they not?
Since there was literally no conceivable reason not to resume the collabo-
ration, I had to ask the obvious question: how is it possible that the govern-
ment has no interest? For me it was like attempting to decipher the nonsensical
“Aserejé,” aka “The Ketchup Song”; try as I might, it made no sense. Unfor-
tunately, I cannot share with you the details of their response, but the bottom
line is this costly and mind-numbingly idiotic fiasco may have been due to
the career concerns of a single, feckless US government employee. I cannot
confirm that this is what actually happened. In fact, I hope this is not what
actually happened, but I suspect it is. Because nothing else makes sense.
Fast-forward to 2017. Predictably, US troops returned to Iraq to help the
Iraqi Army take back ISIS-controlled territory. Together they pushed ISIS
out of Mosul, destroying the historic city in the process. The price of the
operation to retake Mosul, in Iraqi blood and American treasure, was
steep. After Mosul’s liberation, Babylon Inc.’s manager there (Hatem) was
briefly arrested by the Iraqi government, until they ascertained he was not
a member of ISIS. The government’s suspicions were understandable.
Had the US government not stopped their collaboration with Babylon
Inc., would the Obama administration have had advance warning about