The Last Patriot

“They paid Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers upwards of one million dollars a year over the next fifteen years, which by 1800 amounted to twenty percent of the United States government’s annual revenues.

“ Jefferson was disgusted. To add insult to injury, when he was sworn in as the third president of the United States in 1801, the pasha of Tripoli sent him a note demanding an immediate payment of $225,000 plus $25,000 a year for every year thereafter. That was when everything changed.

“ Jefferson let the pasha know, in no uncertain terms, what he could do with his demand. The pasha responded by chopping down the flagpole in front of the U.S. Consulate and declaring war on the United States. Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers immediately followed suit.

“Jefferson had been against America raising a naval force for anything beyond coastal defense, but having watched his nation be cowed by Islamic thuggery for long enough, he decided that it was finally time to meet force with force.

“He dispatched a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean to teach the Muslim nations of the Barbary Coast a lesson they would never forget. Congress authorized Jefferson to empower U.S. ships to seize all vessels and goods of the pasha of Tripoli and also to ‘cause to be done all other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war would justify.’

“When Algiers and Tunis -who were both accustomed to American cowardice and acquiescence-saw that the newly independent United States had both the will and the might to strike back, they quickly abandoned their allegiance to Tripoli.

“Nevertheless, the war with Tripoli raged for four more years and flared up once more in 1815. The bravery of the United States Marine Corps in these wars led to the line ‘to the shores of Tripoli’ in the Marine hymn and they would ever after be known as ‘leathernecks’ for the leather collars of their uniforms that prevented their heads from being chopped off by Muslim scimitars when boarding their ships.

“Islam, and what its Barbary followers justified doing in the name of their prophet and their god, disturbed Jefferson quite deeply. America had a tradition of religious tolerance, in fact Jefferson himself had coauthored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, but fundamentalist Islam was like no other religion the world had ever seen. A religion based upon supremacism whose holy book not only condoned but mandated violence against unbelievers was unacceptable to him.

“As I mentioned, one of Jefferson’s greatest fears was that someday this brand of Islam would return and pose an even greater threat the United States.”

“He was definitely ahead of his time on that one,” remarked Tracy.

“Long before leaving for France,” Nichols continued, “ Jefferson had committed himself to learning everything he could about the tenets of Islam and also about how its radical, warlike doctrine could be defeated without another shot ever being fired.”

“Which is why he owned a copy of the Koran,” added Harvath.

“Perhaps,” said Nichols. “But it has also been suggested that Jefferson’s copy of the Koran may have been purchased in 1765 while he was studying law at the College of William amp; Mary. It’s possible he was studying it as a legal text or for comparative religion purposes. We don’t know for sure.”

“Is that the same Koran a Muslim congressman used for his swearing-in ceremony a couple of years ago?” asked Tracy.

“Yes, it was. You see, Jefferson wasn’t anti-Islam. He was anti-Islamist. There’s a distinction. He didn’t give a damn whether his neighbor claimed there were twenty gods or no God, as long as the man neither picked his pocket nor broke his leg. Fundamentalist Islam, though, picks pockets and breaks legs and that’s why Jefferson had to find a way to stop it. He was the father of the separation of church and state, after all.

“But the underlying problem with fundamentalist Islam is that it is both political and religious. It teaches that the two cannot be separated. The Islamists believe that man-made laws are inferior and must be replaced with God-given Islamic or sharia law and that all governments worldwide should be Islamic.”

“I wonder how that would go over in Washington,” said Harvath.

“Probably not very well,” replied Nichols. “Coupled with the mandate that violence be wreaked upon all unbelievers until they capitulate to Islam’s yoke, fundamentalist Islam is anathema to everything Jefferson stood for. That’s what makes his discovery even more exciting.”

“Then you believe he found something?” asked Harvath.

Ever so slowly, Anthony Nichols nodded.

CHAPTER 17

METROPOLITAN POLICE HEADQUARTERS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Andrew Salam was sick and tired of talking. Ozbek could see it in his face the minute he walked into the D.C. Metro interrogation room. The man had been repeatedly grilled since being arrested. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot. He looked tired, he looked angry, and he looked hungry. What he didn’t look like, though, was a killer.