in the Department.”
“So,” said Jake, “what’s the story?”
“Do you believe her? This spokesperson who says it’s an isolated case?”
“If that’s what she says.”
“I worked there, my friend, before I was given the boot. Read the other article – the one that was published in June. It was in all the papers, TV as well. Read it and ask yourself: is it an isolated case, or what?”
“Which article are you talking about?”
“Google it.”
“What should I google?”
“Daniel Robinson. And after you’ve read it, phone a certain Mr Heilbron at the Home Affairs regional office in Joburg. Number’s in the directory.”
There was a click and a buzz. Jake switched off the recorder, stuffed a meatball into his mouth and reached for his laptop. A search for “Daniel Robinson” in the electronic archives of the Record yielded thirty-seven results.
An article by Associated Press drew his attention:
Terrorists exploit SA corruption
Associated Press: Pretoria – The alleged mastermind behind al-Qaeda raids on US embassies who was killed in East Africa was carrying a fake South African passport, according to officials, thus focusing attention on warnings that corruption in South Africa is being exploited by terrorists.
Security experts have previously warned that corruption in South Africa could allow terrorists to obtain documents in order to hide their identity.
In 2004, then Home Affairs Director General Barry Gilder told Associated Press that South African passports had been found in the hands of al-Qaeda suspects and associates ‘in a number of instances’. The Police Commissioner at the time, Jackie Selebi, reportedly said an al-Qaeda suspect in London had been found in possession of ‘boxes and boxes’ of South African passports.
The Department of Home Affairs said on Monday that it was investigating reports that the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Muhammad, who was killed in Mogadishu, had a South African passport in his possession.
According to a report, Muhammad had been in possession of a South African passport in the name of Daniel Robinson. US officials suspected him of planning the August 7, 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, during which 224 people were killed, and offered a $5m reward for his capture.
Scott Stewart, former intelligence agent with the US State Department, said in a telephone interview that in South Africa ‘you could show up, give the right guy a few hundred dollars, and walk away with a passport. Terrorists will take advantage of corruption.’
Stewart, now with the US-based global intelligence company Stratfor, said terrorists who planned to blow up transatlantic airliners leaving London’s Heathrow airport in 2006 had used fake South African passports to enter Britain from Pakistan. These passports had allowed them to conceal trips to Pakistan that might have raised suspicion.
Since 2009 the United Kingdom has required visas from South Africans, maintaining that terrorists and criminals exploited the easy availability of stolen or forged South African passports. Anneli Botha, counterterrorism researcher with South Africa’s independent Institute for Security Studies, says, ‘You can have the most sophisticated measures in place, but you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Corruption is our weakest link.’
3.
The two young women strolling through a large, busy shopping mall in Islamabad were attractive, but unlike their Western counterparts, who were clad in smocked shirts and bleached and tattered designer jeans, these two wore traditional outfits: knee-length shalwar kameez, dupatta scarves draped over their heads.
The one with eyes as green as emeralds paused in front of a store. She grabbed her friend’s arm and pointed at the mehndi designs.
“Let’s take a look inside,” Sajida said.
She pushed open the door and Nida had no choice but to follow her. At the counter Sajida began to page through a ring folder of designs for decorating hands, arms, feet and legs with turmeric or henna, the patterns complicated and delicate.
“Is there something I don’t know?” asked Nida. “Wedding plans? Is Nasir back?”
“No, he’s not back.” Nasir had been gone for a year. Fighting in Afghanistan, Sajida had been told.
She studied the designs. With Nasir away, there was little chance of her getting mehndi any time soon. She thought briefly about the mehndi ceremony, the rasm-e-henna, two days before a wedding, when the bride’s friends massaged aromatic henna oil into her hands and feet as a prelude to a long and happy married life. If the bride wished, she would also decorate her hands, arms, feet and legs with mehndi for the wedding.
Sajida wondered what it would feel like to get mehndi on her stomach, where only she could see it. And not for a wedding, Eid or any other special occasion either. It was what hip young girls and women did, she thought, and Bollywood actresses like Priyanka Chopra, the sexy seductress in Aitraaz. It challenged the traditions, shifted the boundaries. In Lahore the Lollywood actresses were not quite as decadent and permissive, though they did use make-up and dress stylishly. Women like Aaminah Haq and Veena Malik. But the devil and all his djinns were on the loose about Veena, because of those naked photographs published in an Indian magazine. With a real tattoo on her upper arm, not mehndi.
Nida peered over her shoulder. “What will your father say?”
“My father won’t know.” He was at home in Kanigoram – she saw him maybe twice, three times a year.
“And your brothers?”
Her brothers were also in Kanigoram. They didn’t watch TV or movies – they were more interested in politics. They wanted to go to Afghanistan, like Nasir.
“I like this design.” Sajida pointed at a flying bird. “Free as a bird. How does that sound?”
Nida sat down next to her and began to page. “Perhaps I should also do this. How about this floral design? More importantly, I wonder what your groom would think: would he kiss it, or would he force you to wash it off?”
“Depends where my mehndi is,” said Sajida, and the two girls giggled behind their hands.
“I’d let my bridegroom kiss mine,” said Nida. “I’m not afraid of the angels.”
Sajida knew what her friend meant. They’d learnt about it at the madrasa, in the exposition of the Hadith. Nida was referring to a Bukhari Hadith: “When a man calls his wife to bed and she will not come, and he spends the night angry with her, the angels curse her until morning.”
From behind her hand, Nida recited: “Whoever guarantees me the chastity of what is between his legs and what is between his jaws, I guarantee him Paradise.”
They burst into giggles again at this reference
