State of Affairs (2014) s01e05 Episode Script
Ar Rissalah
Previously on State of Affairs What can I do for you, Senator? The investigation into the convoy attack is wrapping up.
There's something in that report that could hurt you.
Did you tell anyone about Fatah? No, but I know who took the photo.
A former guard at Midnight City.
I sold the photos to the Krieg Group.
The hell are you doing? Charleston, the bullets that killed Aaron came from a CIA-registered weapon.
I know for a fact that gun belonged to Nick Vera.
I told you, alchemy shots on an empty stomach is a bad idea.
The Egyptian secret police are not gonna mess with an American.
You're not in America.
Taxi! Taxi! Do you know who I am? The subcommittee report is still sealed, but the portions that were leaked Can be contained, David.
Must be.
Not indefinitely, ma'am, and certainly not in this day and age.
Most of the portions that were leaked are incidental findings.
I mean, the biggest bombshell being that Aaron was killed by a CIA-registered weapon.
Registered to Nick Vera, and before we get in the room, who is he? It's a case officer.
He's a Langley shooter.
Expect the Agency to be cagey about giving up a lot of information about him, at least until they have their own house in order.
I don't care about the housekeeping of the CIA.
I want to know the source behind the leak.
Look, this leak could be considered a blessing in disguise.
At least we'll be prepared when the full report gets released.
You've all read the leaked sections from the subcommittee's report re: The attack on my convoy in Kabul.
Somebody tell me, who is Nick Vera, and why were there bullets from his CIA-issued weapon found in my son? Don't go in that convoy unprotected.
Better to have it and not need it.
Uh, Vera's former special ops.
He's been with us since '07.
Had three years in Iraq, and Force Recon with General Appleby, and four in Afghanistan.
He worked for JSOC.
Was he a part of the assault team that ambushed us? Ma'am, I can only offer a most strident no when it comes to that question.
Where is Vera right now? We're in the process of locating him.
I've tasked near east division.
I've also reached out to JSOC.
What are you doing? Director Navarro, you have a phone call.
You'll excuse me.
I'd like to clear the room.
Charleston.
Nick Vera, you know him? Yes, ma'am.
I wouldn't call us friends, but we were stationed together in Afghanistan working ops.
I was his targeting analyst.
Your impression? Is it possible he was aiding Fatah? Ma'am, I do not believe he killed Aaron.
But his gun did.
You know Vera.
Find him.
Yes, ma'am.
Madam President, - we have a situation.
- What is it? Egyptian police just informed us Omar Fatah's kidnapped an American journalist.
Dash.
What up, D? What's going on? - Nick's gone.
- Yeah.
No kidding.
Word's all over the building.
He caught wind of the leaked report and bugged out.
Huh? He didn't run.
You want to tell me what that means? You want to pass your next Agency polygraph? Charlie, I don't mind deep water, but I do mind drowning.
Then don't ask.
Just do.
I need you to compile everything you can on Nick.
Official and unofficial.
Classified and unclassified.
All right.
You got it.
Charlie.
I put it together a while ago, when he first got here.
Huh.
Anything scandalous? Not unless supplying militant opium farmers in Noor Gal with stolen weapons is shocking to you.
Not where Nick is concerned.
Charlie, can we take a beat as friends just for one second? Are you gonna get hurt by that report and what it might contain about Nick? I can't tell you that.
Because I care about you, and I'm not gonna let you lie for me.
POTUS has me on the hunt for him.
What do I do? You mean what do we do? We find him.
K and 13th street near Franklin Square.
That's where he was taken.
Taken from where? My car.
We got a footage of the Fatah kidnapping.
a reporter for WNR, was abducted by Omar Fatah.
- Where? - Cairo.
- Is he asking for ransom? - No.
Have they killed him? Earl? Do you know who I am? It's not a kidnapping.
You will help share my message with the world.
Fatah's granting an interview.
There's over 90 minutes of raw footage currently being authenticated.
It'll be uploaded to the server shortly.
Fatah wouldn't risk this kind of exposure unless it served him somehow.
Where's the journalist? Logan? He lands at Dulles at 09:30.
Has he agreed to a debriefed? Well, remarkably he has.
Now FBI's gonna handle interdiction, but I want you on hand because of your targeting history with Fatah.
- Yes, sir.
- Let's get to it.
All right, Kurt and Maureen, take Logan's background, prior interviews, Middle East contacts, everything.
Lucas, coordinate with the Cairo station.
Fatah's trail will be cold, but see who's talking.
Dash, reach out to your buddies at the OGC.
Come up with some legal strategies on this tape.
Charlie, I think I know why Fatah might be crawling out into the open.
I've been tracking chatter from from militant groups online.
They've been referring to "Ar Rissalah," which translates as "the message in Arabic.
" For the past 36 hours, that chatter's gone off the charts.
- Off the charts how? - It's more than quadrupled.
Most of the sites are, like, radical versions of fanboy pages dedicated to Fatah.
Stay with it; If the chatter hardens into anything else, like a timeline for an attack, let me know.
You got it.
__ There were 12, maybe 13 armed men.
Do you know the type of weapons? He seems really relaxed for a guy who was almost beheaded.
They had AK-47s.
Uh, some had pistols, except Fatah.
He was unarmed.
Impossible.
- Fatah would have had a weapon.
- Are you certain? He's a tactician; He doesn't draw a breath unless he's thought about the one to follow it.
There were a lot of guns He's being hunted.
The hunted make mistakes.
They were very cordial, for the most part.
I even gave the driver my cell phone as a token of gratitude.
Why would you do that? AC/DC.
I had some music on my phone.
Not a lot of Muslim metal fans, I imagine.
He must have played Thunderstruck about a dozen times on the ride back.
It stuck in my head 'cause I thought it might be the last song I'd ever hear.
I still thought Fatah was gonna kill us.
Sir, may I go in there? Yeah, go ahead.
I knew I wasn't gonna make it through this interview.
This is Charleston Tucker from Central Intelligence.
Who is "us"? You said, "I still thought Fatah was going to kill us.
" Me and my cameraman, Al.
He's a local hire I use Al what? I don't get that specific in that part of the world.
Just Al.
Why would Fatah choose you? Why would the most dangerous man alive choose a stranger from a DC Network affiliate? I'm a trusted freelancer, an expert of the region, and I'm fair.
When are you going to air? Within 48 hours.
I'm sitting on a Pulitzer.
Mr.
Logan, in the interest of national security and American lives, I would ask that you please hold off on airing this interview.
Ms.
Tucker, I've been candid.
I've been forthcoming, but as a journalist, I have a responsibility to air it.
Thank you for your time, Mr.
Logan.
Kurt? How fast can you get back here? A video of a failed suicide bombing in Qatar two days ago.
The bomber yelled, "today's the day the message will come," before pressing the detonator.
Thousands of miles away in Verona, a terrorist safe house was raided.
Look at the painting.
Now look at the symbol on the bomber's shirt.
It's the same design.
Exact same.
Wait, I've seen this.
In the Fatah interview.
The guards.
See, the patches.
Earl, can you It's called zoomorphic calligraphy.
Coded art.
See? Part of the rendition of the horse writing It's Arabic script.
And it just says "the message.
" He gave an interview.
He's putting whatever this message is out there.
It's not what he's saying.
It's what he's doing.
Like Al-qaeda means the base, Ar Rissalah means the message.
Dash, the chatter you were tracking.
Yeah.
Pull up the GPS pins.
All the places we picked up "Ar Rissalah" in the chatter.
Is this accurate? Not only is it accurate, but it's live.
Notate and disseminate to the rest of the staff as soon as possible.
If that scale is right, it's massive.
It doesn't make sense, different tribes, different sects they'd never fight alongside one another.
It's a call to arms.
That's Ar Rissalah.
That's the message.
Omar Fatah and Sheikh Hakam have just built the biggest terrorist network we've ever seen.
In Kabul, you launched an attack that killed four American citizens, including President Payton's son.
Do you have anything you'd like to say to those families, to her? What did President Payton say when my homeland was decimated? When my brother and his wife were killed on their wedding day? When my wife's village was bombed by U.
S.
planes and her mother and father were murdered? What, then, did she say to me? The Agency believes the interview is a message to Fatah's followers, and that we should try to keep it from airing.
And exactly how much of the First Amendment would you like us to ignore to kill the interview? Depends.
How many lives would we want to save? This isn't a constitutional question.
If Fatah intends to rally terrorists using our media as a delivery system, then I intend to shut it down.
David, can you stop it from airing? - It may take a favor or two.
- Do it.
Charleston, I want Fatah targeted and reacquired.
- That's our end game here.
- Yes, ma'am.
And what do we know about Vera's whereabouts? Nothing yet, but I have Maureen on it.
I want results, Charleston, not updates.
Mo.
If you're calling for news, I have none.
Whoever took Nick was wired-in enough to kill all the CCTV feeds in and around 13th and K, three minutes before he got abducted.
I want you to look into TKG.
- Who's that? - The Krieg group.
Shadow PMC.
How shadow? Well, you've never heard of them, and up until last week, neither had I.
Gotcha.
It's a hunch, which is all I've got right now.
I'll call you back.
This belongs to the texter? We found it in a burn bag with yesterday's scraps.
Who filled the bags? Everyone on the seventh floor.
I'll run some forensics, print lifts.
I can probably get a DNA pass.
I'll let you know what comes back.
When were you gonna tell me about Nick getting grabbed? What do you know, Syd? Nick said the photos of us with Fatah were sold to the Krieg group.
Did they take him? Charlie, let Nick stay gone.
Is he dead? If he is, nobody's dragging the Potomac River looking for him.
He's amassed enough mortal enemies to last any man, multiple lifetimes.
You know what he is.
You can't rule out that he's either behind or at least connected to everything that's happening.
The photos, the texts The texts are being sent by someone on the seventh floor.
And how many times has Nick been on the seventh floor? All the more reason to find him.
POTUS has tasked me with running him down.
Let it lie, and hope he's lying dead somewhere with a bullet in the back of his head.
He's certainly earned it.
I have to find him.
I told you before you were wandering into a world I couldn't protect you from.
Now, wander out before they take you next time.
Okay.
Now, put your hand out.
Nope.
I know better.
Come on, put your hand out.
- Fine.
- Perfect.
What's your favorite card again? Two of spades.
Two of spades.
- Kurt - It's not me.
It's in the cards.
Which I wrote four days ago.
Just think about it.
I'll think about it.
This is Afghanistan, Charlie.
It's a little different than suburban DC.
You're playing house with a senator's son, or playing presidential hopeful in Kabul.
So what's the plan? Uh, Senator Peyton puts on some Kevlar, strikes a few hero poses, and looks like she's saving the world from evil? She fought in the first Gulf War.
Well, boy, howdy.
She got my vote then.
- I shouldn't have come here.
- You're damn right.
Kabul's completely fubar right now.
Jack Dawkins is on the team.
He says the convoy route is clean.
Every Jihadist with a copy of the Qur'an and an RPG has a hard-on for this senatorial visit.
don't go on that convoy unprotected.
Better to have it and not need it.
Millions in selling oil to the west.
I mean, you say that that gave you the ability to be who you are, to do what you do, as a direct result of Western wealth.
Your arrogance is surpassed only by your naïveté.
You thought you knew us.
You did not.
You thought you could control us.
You could not.
Now look where you are.
We are the righteous.
The chosen.
The called We are the righteous I'll be damned.
Look at his knees.
It's dust.
It wasn't there before.
Something's been edited out.
Logan said he turned over everything, but there's missing footage.
Call Hibbert at the Bureau.
Let's get a federal warrant for Logan's arrest.
FBI.
Thomas Logan? Last door on the right.
What Some call him a murderer.
Others, a savior.
Now you'll have the opportunity to decide.
What the hell you want now? You're under arrest.
What the hell for? U.
S.
Code title 18, section 2339B: Providing material support to a known terrorist organization.
This is trumped up.
You know that, right? A federal judge disagrees.
During your debriefing, you admitted giving a cell phone to a known terrorist, providing equipment, material support.
That will never hold up in court.
It doesn't have to.
What do you want? The raw footage from the Fatah interview.
All of it.
I'm going to have the ACLU all over you Lovely; Until then, your assets are frozen, you're on the no-fly list, and you're one smart-assed answer away from ending up in the DC detention center.
You'd really do this? Yes, I would really do this.
May I have a moment alone with Mr.
Logan? Of course.
You said you were being candid and forthcoming.
You weren't.
Fatah is using you, Mr.
Logan.
He snatched you up off of the streets, made you face death so that he could show you he has the power to spare your life so you would feel grateful, beholden, indebted to him, and it's working.
You're protecting a mass murderer.
Men, women, children Everyone who opposes him dies.
Please, help me.
There's nothing there.
It's just B-roll.
Serving tea.
Fast forward through it.
I don't understand.
What sort of intrigue does Fatah have with you, Ms.
Tucker? I tried to kill him once.
He took it personally.
He said you had the mind of an analyst and the heart of an operator, and that you coming back to find me would be exactly how things played out.
What? He promised to be open and honest with me, and I promised to deliver you a personal message.
You were the targeting analyst assigned to Fatah? Force of habit.
I'm a reporter.
I connect dots.
Your target, Fatah, attacks the Payton convoy in Kabul and kills your fiancé.
Now I hear there's this senate subcommittee report about the Kabul attack that apparently has some very powerful panties in a twist, and the mastermind behind the attack itself is passing notes in class, to you.
How dirty does this thing get at the end of the day? I'm not the one being interviewed here.
Yeah.
But when this report is officially released, you will be, and I'll be the one asking the questions.
What is Fatah's message to me? He said, "Pegasus takes wing.
" What exactly did you say to her father? I said, "sir, I am truly sorry we disrespected your daughter.
" Oh.
Oh! Good ol' Southern charm, huh? Oh, it ain't failed me yet.
Hm.
All right.
Now what do you want, before I'm too drunk to say yes? The Fatah interview.
I need you to kill it.
Um I can't do it.
You own the network, Jules.
You can do whatever you want.
Then I don't want to.
Your president's asking for your help.
What's the problem? You want me to step on freedom of the press as a favor? I say no.
Now you want to horse trade? Great.
I want a look inside the subcommittee report before it's released.
Well, it's sealed, so Somebody got their hands on some of it.
You were the one pushing for that trip to Kabul, weren't you? Yes.
I was.
Constance Payton's a decorated veteran, and I wanted to remind the voting public that unlike four of the last five presidents, she actually fought for this country.
Well, that political maneuver almost cost her her life.
And it won her the primary two weeks later.
At the loss of her son.
Wow.
You really gonna be that obvious? All right, David.
- Then comment for me.
- Mmhmm.
You, off-record.
Did the death of her son propel her to the highest office in the land? It was unintended political capital.
Did we gain the advantage in that race? How could we not? Would she rather have her son back or be running this country? What do you think, Jules? I'm not gonna say what I think, when you're just drunk enough to take a swing at me.
I'm not killing the story.
Okay.
Fine.
Fine.
We trade.
What's this? It's an I.
O.
U.
for a bigger story.
The gun that killed Aaron Payton is linked to a CIA operator.
Yup.
I told my boss, the leader of the free world, that I would keep a lid on that.
That's how much I trust you, Jules.
And I appreciate that, but it doesn't matter.
He's CIA His identity would therefore be confidential and redacted from any story.
I know his name.
You will, too, if you kill the Fatah interview.
Just for now.
That's a big get.
It's a really big get.
It's also very illegal.
Cheers to that.
Cheers to that.
- Senator Green, ma'am.
- Thank you, Jill.
Gentlemen, I'll keep your apprised.
Thank you for coming, Senator.
What's this? If you re-route this pipeline, it's gonna cost my state thousands of jobs.
The order takes effect immediately.
What is this, ma'am? You can frame it however you like, from payback to retribution.
I know you leaked portions of that senate report.
You had proximity, and more importantly, you had motive.
In a few weeks, that report will be made public with or without the leak.
Then, Kyle, you could have come to me directly, but it wouldn't have benefited you politically to do that.
Would it? I used it as leverage, and I gave you a heads up at the same time.
You withheld, and you lied.
Your son was killed by a CIA-registered weapon.
Charleston Tucker, of that same CIA, sits next to you every day.
There is withholding and lying, and yes, even treachery going on here But not by me.
Nick Vera and Charlie's relationship was, and is, more than just professional.
Good day, Madam President.
So, Omar, clean slate, fresh start.
You excited? Hm, to inform on other Muslims? To stop the radical influences who have hijacked Islam.
You will be an asset of good, an instrument of change.
Your family will be provided for.
Your wife will receive treatment for her illness.
We will help you, Omar.
If you help us, and helping us is turning over Sheikh Hakam.
I will be a betrayer of my brothers.
- That's what you're asking me.
- No.
You will save lives.
Your brothers and mine.
You will act as a liberator.
We're gonna wash you up on a shore in Syria, outside of Tartus.
Your bruises and the damage to your body will tell most of the story.
You can invent the rest.
How will I contact you? We don't have him.
We don't have him.
We have him.
He's been recruited.
He won't take money.
We have zero control.
Charlie, he's not an asset.
He's just gonna say or do whatever he can to get off this boat.
He has too much honor.
He wouldn't lie to us just to lessen these interrogations.
I've been studying him for years.
I know what makes him tick.
He's recruited.
You're you're hammering this too hard.
You're not seeing what I'm seeing.
He's already proven himself.
He gave us the Syrian cell.
- Now they're dead in the dirt.
- They were wannabes.
They were easy to give up to rope us in.
It was actionable, high-level intelligence from Fatah.
He's ours.
Who else are you reading into this op? Just Director Blake.
The three of us will be the only ones with operational knowledge.
Fatah's asset code name will be Pegasus.
He has more to lose than you think.
So do we.
What you got? of terrorists drinking tea, and then it gets interesting.
There's the cameraman, Logan's buddy Al.
So we did a little digging.
It was actually a lot of digging.
We, uh, did some facial recognition.
This is of a training camp of Sheikh Hakam's from seven years ago.
It's the same guy.
Question is, did Logan game us? No.
No, Fatah did.
Logan wasn't kidnapped.
He was targeted and brought in as a mark.
Al was Fatah's plant.
All right.
We need a God-given name to go with the face.
Let's find this guy fast.
With everything that's happening now, do you think we really should be taking the trip to Qatar? Yeah.
Those bases are important.
Besides, changing anything in the wake of the report leak could be seen as giving it too much power.
So, all right.
Charlie and Maureen will be there to brief us.
Ambassador Davis, Admiral Frye.
Good.
I assume Kyle Green will be taken off.
You assume correctly.
Okay, good.
She's best kept at a distance.
You know what Senator Green said to me? She said that Charlie and this Nick Vera are romantically involved.
Do you believe her? I believe in Charleston.
Well, that's not what I asked, ma'am.
What are you asking, David? Fire Charleston Tucker immediately.
Yeah.
Ma'am, my job is to shield you from harm and to keep your blind spots clear.
Charleston Tucker is the most direct threat to both.
So the book deal's really closing.
Seven-figure advance.
I got the contract in my hand.
- Yes! Thank you.
- Not a problem.
And, hey, man, sorry to hear the interview died.
No, forget about the interview.
We got what we wanted.
I'm a player again! Put it away.
She's married.
Well, this doesn't feel coincidental at all.
Thomas Logan's dead.
He suffered a heart attack right before he drove his car into a semi.
That's terrible.
be having heart trouble.
Jules, you don't strike me as the grassy knoll type of guy.
I'm running the interview.
Our deal's off.
Really? You know, running that interview could be considered an act of treason.
Yeah, well, so could offering up the name of a CIA operator under non-official cover.
So I think we're even, Dave.
You keep your story.
I'm gonna keep mine.
The Fatah interview is gonna air.
I heard.
Oval office couldn't shut it down? The First Amendment media uproar would have been deafening.
We've got our camera man.
I present to you Aleek Al Moosari.
Born June 24th, 1982, in River Hills, Wisconsin.
He's American? Gravitated to radical Islamic groups at a young age after his brother was killed by Mossad agents in Aleppo.
Arrested in 2002 for attempted murder.
Released in 2008.
Died march 17, 2012.
What do you mean died? He faked his own death.
Became a shadow in service of Fatah.
This is a real link.
This is more than real.
This is actionable.
Let's get this son-of-a-bitch.
The interview.
It's time.
Good evening.
I'm Philip Franklin.
Yesterday my dear friend and fellow reporter Thomas Logan died tragically and unexpectedly.
Tom's contribution to this newsroom and to the craft of journalism was sublime.
We dedicate this broadcast and final interview to his memory.
How do you answer the person who asks, "why do you want to kill us just because we do not believe as you believe?" Death comes to us all, but I am here to prevent death, not to cause it.
That's why I wanted to sit with you in your home, visit you at your place of employment, meet you on your field of play, and speak to you where you feel most free.
I want you to know I wish you no harm.
Your leaders have declared war.
As such, here are our terms of peace: One, remove all military from our soil.
Two, release our brothers you have deemed combatants.
Three, cease and desist the murder of our sons and daughters at the hands of your drones and bombers.
If these terms are not met, we will strike, and you will die.
You call us terrorists.
We are not.
We are your brothers, your sisters, your fathers, your children.
We are the friend you invite over for fellowship.
The co-worker you confide your deepest secret.
The doctor you entrust with your life.
We are everywhere.
Our disciples are everywhere.
We have been waiting for a moment such as this, and now we have arisen.
The storm is brewing.
The choice is yours.
Retribution is at hand.
This is Aleek Al Moosari.
We believe he's the key to finding Fatah.
Moosari is clearly affiliated with Fatah's network.
To what extent, we don't know.
Do you think Al Moosari is part of a larger U.
S.
-based cell? We're investigating that possibilities.
And Nick Vera? I know director Navarro disagrees, but is it possible that Nick Vera is part of the same cabal? Ma'am, Nick didn't kill Aaron.
In Kabul, he gave me a gun.
I had it on me during the attack.
Something happened, and it was used on Aaron.
Charlie! Aaron! In the firefight, after I got out I didn't have it on me.
Why did Vera give you a gun? He wanted me to be safe.
Did you love Aaron? I still do.
Very much.
We have a job to finish.
Al Moosari is a step toward finishing it.
We can't do it with secrets between us.
Is there anything else you need to tell me? No, ma'am.
I've told you everything.
Okay.
Thank you, Charleston.
Is everything all right? I want eyes on Charleston.
Every move she makes.
Every word she utters.
I want to know everything.
There's something in that report that could hurt you.
Did you tell anyone about Fatah? No, but I know who took the photo.
A former guard at Midnight City.
I sold the photos to the Krieg Group.
The hell are you doing? Charleston, the bullets that killed Aaron came from a CIA-registered weapon.
I know for a fact that gun belonged to Nick Vera.
I told you, alchemy shots on an empty stomach is a bad idea.
The Egyptian secret police are not gonna mess with an American.
You're not in America.
Taxi! Taxi! Do you know who I am? The subcommittee report is still sealed, but the portions that were leaked Can be contained, David.
Must be.
Not indefinitely, ma'am, and certainly not in this day and age.
Most of the portions that were leaked are incidental findings.
I mean, the biggest bombshell being that Aaron was killed by a CIA-registered weapon.
Registered to Nick Vera, and before we get in the room, who is he? It's a case officer.
He's a Langley shooter.
Expect the Agency to be cagey about giving up a lot of information about him, at least until they have their own house in order.
I don't care about the housekeeping of the CIA.
I want to know the source behind the leak.
Look, this leak could be considered a blessing in disguise.
At least we'll be prepared when the full report gets released.
You've all read the leaked sections from the subcommittee's report re: The attack on my convoy in Kabul.
Somebody tell me, who is Nick Vera, and why were there bullets from his CIA-issued weapon found in my son? Don't go in that convoy unprotected.
Better to have it and not need it.
Uh, Vera's former special ops.
He's been with us since '07.
Had three years in Iraq, and Force Recon with General Appleby, and four in Afghanistan.
He worked for JSOC.
Was he a part of the assault team that ambushed us? Ma'am, I can only offer a most strident no when it comes to that question.
Where is Vera right now? We're in the process of locating him.
I've tasked near east division.
I've also reached out to JSOC.
What are you doing? Director Navarro, you have a phone call.
You'll excuse me.
I'd like to clear the room.
Charleston.
Nick Vera, you know him? Yes, ma'am.
I wouldn't call us friends, but we were stationed together in Afghanistan working ops.
I was his targeting analyst.
Your impression? Is it possible he was aiding Fatah? Ma'am, I do not believe he killed Aaron.
But his gun did.
You know Vera.
Find him.
Yes, ma'am.
Madam President, - we have a situation.
- What is it? Egyptian police just informed us Omar Fatah's kidnapped an American journalist.
Dash.
What up, D? What's going on? - Nick's gone.
- Yeah.
No kidding.
Word's all over the building.
He caught wind of the leaked report and bugged out.
Huh? He didn't run.
You want to tell me what that means? You want to pass your next Agency polygraph? Charlie, I don't mind deep water, but I do mind drowning.
Then don't ask.
Just do.
I need you to compile everything you can on Nick.
Official and unofficial.
Classified and unclassified.
All right.
You got it.
Charlie.
I put it together a while ago, when he first got here.
Huh.
Anything scandalous? Not unless supplying militant opium farmers in Noor Gal with stolen weapons is shocking to you.
Not where Nick is concerned.
Charlie, can we take a beat as friends just for one second? Are you gonna get hurt by that report and what it might contain about Nick? I can't tell you that.
Because I care about you, and I'm not gonna let you lie for me.
POTUS has me on the hunt for him.
What do I do? You mean what do we do? We find him.
K and 13th street near Franklin Square.
That's where he was taken.
Taken from where? My car.
We got a footage of the Fatah kidnapping.
a reporter for WNR, was abducted by Omar Fatah.
- Where? - Cairo.
- Is he asking for ransom? - No.
Have they killed him? Earl? Do you know who I am? It's not a kidnapping.
You will help share my message with the world.
Fatah's granting an interview.
There's over 90 minutes of raw footage currently being authenticated.
It'll be uploaded to the server shortly.
Fatah wouldn't risk this kind of exposure unless it served him somehow.
Where's the journalist? Logan? He lands at Dulles at 09:30.
Has he agreed to a debriefed? Well, remarkably he has.
Now FBI's gonna handle interdiction, but I want you on hand because of your targeting history with Fatah.
- Yes, sir.
- Let's get to it.
All right, Kurt and Maureen, take Logan's background, prior interviews, Middle East contacts, everything.
Lucas, coordinate with the Cairo station.
Fatah's trail will be cold, but see who's talking.
Dash, reach out to your buddies at the OGC.
Come up with some legal strategies on this tape.
Charlie, I think I know why Fatah might be crawling out into the open.
I've been tracking chatter from from militant groups online.
They've been referring to "Ar Rissalah," which translates as "the message in Arabic.
" For the past 36 hours, that chatter's gone off the charts.
- Off the charts how? - It's more than quadrupled.
Most of the sites are, like, radical versions of fanboy pages dedicated to Fatah.
Stay with it; If the chatter hardens into anything else, like a timeline for an attack, let me know.
You got it.
__ There were 12, maybe 13 armed men.
Do you know the type of weapons? He seems really relaxed for a guy who was almost beheaded.
They had AK-47s.
Uh, some had pistols, except Fatah.
He was unarmed.
Impossible.
- Fatah would have had a weapon.
- Are you certain? He's a tactician; He doesn't draw a breath unless he's thought about the one to follow it.
There were a lot of guns He's being hunted.
The hunted make mistakes.
They were very cordial, for the most part.
I even gave the driver my cell phone as a token of gratitude.
Why would you do that? AC/DC.
I had some music on my phone.
Not a lot of Muslim metal fans, I imagine.
He must have played Thunderstruck about a dozen times on the ride back.
It stuck in my head 'cause I thought it might be the last song I'd ever hear.
I still thought Fatah was gonna kill us.
Sir, may I go in there? Yeah, go ahead.
I knew I wasn't gonna make it through this interview.
This is Charleston Tucker from Central Intelligence.
Who is "us"? You said, "I still thought Fatah was going to kill us.
" Me and my cameraman, Al.
He's a local hire I use Al what? I don't get that specific in that part of the world.
Just Al.
Why would Fatah choose you? Why would the most dangerous man alive choose a stranger from a DC Network affiliate? I'm a trusted freelancer, an expert of the region, and I'm fair.
When are you going to air? Within 48 hours.
I'm sitting on a Pulitzer.
Mr.
Logan, in the interest of national security and American lives, I would ask that you please hold off on airing this interview.
Ms.
Tucker, I've been candid.
I've been forthcoming, but as a journalist, I have a responsibility to air it.
Thank you for your time, Mr.
Logan.
Kurt? How fast can you get back here? A video of a failed suicide bombing in Qatar two days ago.
The bomber yelled, "today's the day the message will come," before pressing the detonator.
Thousands of miles away in Verona, a terrorist safe house was raided.
Look at the painting.
Now look at the symbol on the bomber's shirt.
It's the same design.
Exact same.
Wait, I've seen this.
In the Fatah interview.
The guards.
See, the patches.
Earl, can you It's called zoomorphic calligraphy.
Coded art.
See? Part of the rendition of the horse writing It's Arabic script.
And it just says "the message.
" He gave an interview.
He's putting whatever this message is out there.
It's not what he's saying.
It's what he's doing.
Like Al-qaeda means the base, Ar Rissalah means the message.
Dash, the chatter you were tracking.
Yeah.
Pull up the GPS pins.
All the places we picked up "Ar Rissalah" in the chatter.
Is this accurate? Not only is it accurate, but it's live.
Notate and disseminate to the rest of the staff as soon as possible.
If that scale is right, it's massive.
It doesn't make sense, different tribes, different sects they'd never fight alongside one another.
It's a call to arms.
That's Ar Rissalah.
That's the message.
Omar Fatah and Sheikh Hakam have just built the biggest terrorist network we've ever seen.
In Kabul, you launched an attack that killed four American citizens, including President Payton's son.
Do you have anything you'd like to say to those families, to her? What did President Payton say when my homeland was decimated? When my brother and his wife were killed on their wedding day? When my wife's village was bombed by U.
S.
planes and her mother and father were murdered? What, then, did she say to me? The Agency believes the interview is a message to Fatah's followers, and that we should try to keep it from airing.
And exactly how much of the First Amendment would you like us to ignore to kill the interview? Depends.
How many lives would we want to save? This isn't a constitutional question.
If Fatah intends to rally terrorists using our media as a delivery system, then I intend to shut it down.
David, can you stop it from airing? - It may take a favor or two.
- Do it.
Charleston, I want Fatah targeted and reacquired.
- That's our end game here.
- Yes, ma'am.
And what do we know about Vera's whereabouts? Nothing yet, but I have Maureen on it.
I want results, Charleston, not updates.
Mo.
If you're calling for news, I have none.
Whoever took Nick was wired-in enough to kill all the CCTV feeds in and around 13th and K, three minutes before he got abducted.
I want you to look into TKG.
- Who's that? - The Krieg group.
Shadow PMC.
How shadow? Well, you've never heard of them, and up until last week, neither had I.
Gotcha.
It's a hunch, which is all I've got right now.
I'll call you back.
This belongs to the texter? We found it in a burn bag with yesterday's scraps.
Who filled the bags? Everyone on the seventh floor.
I'll run some forensics, print lifts.
I can probably get a DNA pass.
I'll let you know what comes back.
When were you gonna tell me about Nick getting grabbed? What do you know, Syd? Nick said the photos of us with Fatah were sold to the Krieg group.
Did they take him? Charlie, let Nick stay gone.
Is he dead? If he is, nobody's dragging the Potomac River looking for him.
He's amassed enough mortal enemies to last any man, multiple lifetimes.
You know what he is.
You can't rule out that he's either behind or at least connected to everything that's happening.
The photos, the texts The texts are being sent by someone on the seventh floor.
And how many times has Nick been on the seventh floor? All the more reason to find him.
POTUS has tasked me with running him down.
Let it lie, and hope he's lying dead somewhere with a bullet in the back of his head.
He's certainly earned it.
I have to find him.
I told you before you were wandering into a world I couldn't protect you from.
Now, wander out before they take you next time.
Okay.
Now, put your hand out.
Nope.
I know better.
Come on, put your hand out.
- Fine.
- Perfect.
What's your favorite card again? Two of spades.
Two of spades.
- Kurt - It's not me.
It's in the cards.
Which I wrote four days ago.
Just think about it.
I'll think about it.
This is Afghanistan, Charlie.
It's a little different than suburban DC.
You're playing house with a senator's son, or playing presidential hopeful in Kabul.
So what's the plan? Uh, Senator Peyton puts on some Kevlar, strikes a few hero poses, and looks like she's saving the world from evil? She fought in the first Gulf War.
Well, boy, howdy.
She got my vote then.
- I shouldn't have come here.
- You're damn right.
Kabul's completely fubar right now.
Jack Dawkins is on the team.
He says the convoy route is clean.
Every Jihadist with a copy of the Qur'an and an RPG has a hard-on for this senatorial visit.
don't go on that convoy unprotected.
Better to have it and not need it.
Millions in selling oil to the west.
I mean, you say that that gave you the ability to be who you are, to do what you do, as a direct result of Western wealth.
Your arrogance is surpassed only by your naïveté.
You thought you knew us.
You did not.
You thought you could control us.
You could not.
Now look where you are.
We are the righteous.
The chosen.
The called We are the righteous I'll be damned.
Look at his knees.
It's dust.
It wasn't there before.
Something's been edited out.
Logan said he turned over everything, but there's missing footage.
Call Hibbert at the Bureau.
Let's get a federal warrant for Logan's arrest.
FBI.
Thomas Logan? Last door on the right.
What Some call him a murderer.
Others, a savior.
Now you'll have the opportunity to decide.
What the hell you want now? You're under arrest.
What the hell for? U.
S.
Code title 18, section 2339B: Providing material support to a known terrorist organization.
This is trumped up.
You know that, right? A federal judge disagrees.
During your debriefing, you admitted giving a cell phone to a known terrorist, providing equipment, material support.
That will never hold up in court.
It doesn't have to.
What do you want? The raw footage from the Fatah interview.
All of it.
I'm going to have the ACLU all over you Lovely; Until then, your assets are frozen, you're on the no-fly list, and you're one smart-assed answer away from ending up in the DC detention center.
You'd really do this? Yes, I would really do this.
May I have a moment alone with Mr.
Logan? Of course.
You said you were being candid and forthcoming.
You weren't.
Fatah is using you, Mr.
Logan.
He snatched you up off of the streets, made you face death so that he could show you he has the power to spare your life so you would feel grateful, beholden, indebted to him, and it's working.
You're protecting a mass murderer.
Men, women, children Everyone who opposes him dies.
Please, help me.
There's nothing there.
It's just B-roll.
Serving tea.
Fast forward through it.
I don't understand.
What sort of intrigue does Fatah have with you, Ms.
Tucker? I tried to kill him once.
He took it personally.
He said you had the mind of an analyst and the heart of an operator, and that you coming back to find me would be exactly how things played out.
What? He promised to be open and honest with me, and I promised to deliver you a personal message.
You were the targeting analyst assigned to Fatah? Force of habit.
I'm a reporter.
I connect dots.
Your target, Fatah, attacks the Payton convoy in Kabul and kills your fiancé.
Now I hear there's this senate subcommittee report about the Kabul attack that apparently has some very powerful panties in a twist, and the mastermind behind the attack itself is passing notes in class, to you.
How dirty does this thing get at the end of the day? I'm not the one being interviewed here.
Yeah.
But when this report is officially released, you will be, and I'll be the one asking the questions.
What is Fatah's message to me? He said, "Pegasus takes wing.
" What exactly did you say to her father? I said, "sir, I am truly sorry we disrespected your daughter.
" Oh.
Oh! Good ol' Southern charm, huh? Oh, it ain't failed me yet.
Hm.
All right.
Now what do you want, before I'm too drunk to say yes? The Fatah interview.
I need you to kill it.
Um I can't do it.
You own the network, Jules.
You can do whatever you want.
Then I don't want to.
Your president's asking for your help.
What's the problem? You want me to step on freedom of the press as a favor? I say no.
Now you want to horse trade? Great.
I want a look inside the subcommittee report before it's released.
Well, it's sealed, so Somebody got their hands on some of it.
You were the one pushing for that trip to Kabul, weren't you? Yes.
I was.
Constance Payton's a decorated veteran, and I wanted to remind the voting public that unlike four of the last five presidents, she actually fought for this country.
Well, that political maneuver almost cost her her life.
And it won her the primary two weeks later.
At the loss of her son.
Wow.
You really gonna be that obvious? All right, David.
- Then comment for me.
- Mmhmm.
You, off-record.
Did the death of her son propel her to the highest office in the land? It was unintended political capital.
Did we gain the advantage in that race? How could we not? Would she rather have her son back or be running this country? What do you think, Jules? I'm not gonna say what I think, when you're just drunk enough to take a swing at me.
I'm not killing the story.
Okay.
Fine.
Fine.
We trade.
What's this? It's an I.
O.
U.
for a bigger story.
The gun that killed Aaron Payton is linked to a CIA operator.
Yup.
I told my boss, the leader of the free world, that I would keep a lid on that.
That's how much I trust you, Jules.
And I appreciate that, but it doesn't matter.
He's CIA His identity would therefore be confidential and redacted from any story.
I know his name.
You will, too, if you kill the Fatah interview.
Just for now.
That's a big get.
It's a really big get.
It's also very illegal.
Cheers to that.
Cheers to that.
- Senator Green, ma'am.
- Thank you, Jill.
Gentlemen, I'll keep your apprised.
Thank you for coming, Senator.
What's this? If you re-route this pipeline, it's gonna cost my state thousands of jobs.
The order takes effect immediately.
What is this, ma'am? You can frame it however you like, from payback to retribution.
I know you leaked portions of that senate report.
You had proximity, and more importantly, you had motive.
In a few weeks, that report will be made public with or without the leak.
Then, Kyle, you could have come to me directly, but it wouldn't have benefited you politically to do that.
Would it? I used it as leverage, and I gave you a heads up at the same time.
You withheld, and you lied.
Your son was killed by a CIA-registered weapon.
Charleston Tucker, of that same CIA, sits next to you every day.
There is withholding and lying, and yes, even treachery going on here But not by me.
Nick Vera and Charlie's relationship was, and is, more than just professional.
Good day, Madam President.
So, Omar, clean slate, fresh start.
You excited? Hm, to inform on other Muslims? To stop the radical influences who have hijacked Islam.
You will be an asset of good, an instrument of change.
Your family will be provided for.
Your wife will receive treatment for her illness.
We will help you, Omar.
If you help us, and helping us is turning over Sheikh Hakam.
I will be a betrayer of my brothers.
- That's what you're asking me.
- No.
You will save lives.
Your brothers and mine.
You will act as a liberator.
We're gonna wash you up on a shore in Syria, outside of Tartus.
Your bruises and the damage to your body will tell most of the story.
You can invent the rest.
How will I contact you? We don't have him.
We don't have him.
We have him.
He's been recruited.
He won't take money.
We have zero control.
Charlie, he's not an asset.
He's just gonna say or do whatever he can to get off this boat.
He has too much honor.
He wouldn't lie to us just to lessen these interrogations.
I've been studying him for years.
I know what makes him tick.
He's recruited.
You're you're hammering this too hard.
You're not seeing what I'm seeing.
He's already proven himself.
He gave us the Syrian cell.
- Now they're dead in the dirt.
- They were wannabes.
They were easy to give up to rope us in.
It was actionable, high-level intelligence from Fatah.
He's ours.
Who else are you reading into this op? Just Director Blake.
The three of us will be the only ones with operational knowledge.
Fatah's asset code name will be Pegasus.
He has more to lose than you think.
So do we.
What you got? of terrorists drinking tea, and then it gets interesting.
There's the cameraman, Logan's buddy Al.
So we did a little digging.
It was actually a lot of digging.
We, uh, did some facial recognition.
This is of a training camp of Sheikh Hakam's from seven years ago.
It's the same guy.
Question is, did Logan game us? No.
No, Fatah did.
Logan wasn't kidnapped.
He was targeted and brought in as a mark.
Al was Fatah's plant.
All right.
We need a God-given name to go with the face.
Let's find this guy fast.
With everything that's happening now, do you think we really should be taking the trip to Qatar? Yeah.
Those bases are important.
Besides, changing anything in the wake of the report leak could be seen as giving it too much power.
So, all right.
Charlie and Maureen will be there to brief us.
Ambassador Davis, Admiral Frye.
Good.
I assume Kyle Green will be taken off.
You assume correctly.
Okay, good.
She's best kept at a distance.
You know what Senator Green said to me? She said that Charlie and this Nick Vera are romantically involved.
Do you believe her? I believe in Charleston.
Well, that's not what I asked, ma'am.
What are you asking, David? Fire Charleston Tucker immediately.
Yeah.
Ma'am, my job is to shield you from harm and to keep your blind spots clear.
Charleston Tucker is the most direct threat to both.
So the book deal's really closing.
Seven-figure advance.
I got the contract in my hand.
- Yes! Thank you.
- Not a problem.
And, hey, man, sorry to hear the interview died.
No, forget about the interview.
We got what we wanted.
I'm a player again! Put it away.
She's married.
Well, this doesn't feel coincidental at all.
Thomas Logan's dead.
He suffered a heart attack right before he drove his car into a semi.
That's terrible.
be having heart trouble.
Jules, you don't strike me as the grassy knoll type of guy.
I'm running the interview.
Our deal's off.
Really? You know, running that interview could be considered an act of treason.
Yeah, well, so could offering up the name of a CIA operator under non-official cover.
So I think we're even, Dave.
You keep your story.
I'm gonna keep mine.
The Fatah interview is gonna air.
I heard.
Oval office couldn't shut it down? The First Amendment media uproar would have been deafening.
We've got our camera man.
I present to you Aleek Al Moosari.
Born June 24th, 1982, in River Hills, Wisconsin.
He's American? Gravitated to radical Islamic groups at a young age after his brother was killed by Mossad agents in Aleppo.
Arrested in 2002 for attempted murder.
Released in 2008.
Died march 17, 2012.
What do you mean died? He faked his own death.
Became a shadow in service of Fatah.
This is a real link.
This is more than real.
This is actionable.
Let's get this son-of-a-bitch.
The interview.
It's time.
Good evening.
I'm Philip Franklin.
Yesterday my dear friend and fellow reporter Thomas Logan died tragically and unexpectedly.
Tom's contribution to this newsroom and to the craft of journalism was sublime.
We dedicate this broadcast and final interview to his memory.
How do you answer the person who asks, "why do you want to kill us just because we do not believe as you believe?" Death comes to us all, but I am here to prevent death, not to cause it.
That's why I wanted to sit with you in your home, visit you at your place of employment, meet you on your field of play, and speak to you where you feel most free.
I want you to know I wish you no harm.
Your leaders have declared war.
As such, here are our terms of peace: One, remove all military from our soil.
Two, release our brothers you have deemed combatants.
Three, cease and desist the murder of our sons and daughters at the hands of your drones and bombers.
If these terms are not met, we will strike, and you will die.
You call us terrorists.
We are not.
We are your brothers, your sisters, your fathers, your children.
We are the friend you invite over for fellowship.
The co-worker you confide your deepest secret.
The doctor you entrust with your life.
We are everywhere.
Our disciples are everywhere.
We have been waiting for a moment such as this, and now we have arisen.
The storm is brewing.
The choice is yours.
Retribution is at hand.
This is Aleek Al Moosari.
We believe he's the key to finding Fatah.
Moosari is clearly affiliated with Fatah's network.
To what extent, we don't know.
Do you think Al Moosari is part of a larger U.
S.
-based cell? We're investigating that possibilities.
And Nick Vera? I know director Navarro disagrees, but is it possible that Nick Vera is part of the same cabal? Ma'am, Nick didn't kill Aaron.
In Kabul, he gave me a gun.
I had it on me during the attack.
Something happened, and it was used on Aaron.
Charlie! Aaron! In the firefight, after I got out I didn't have it on me.
Why did Vera give you a gun? He wanted me to be safe.
Did you love Aaron? I still do.
Very much.
We have a job to finish.
Al Moosari is a step toward finishing it.
We can't do it with secrets between us.
Is there anything else you need to tell me? No, ma'am.
I've told you everything.
Okay.
Thank you, Charleston.
Is everything all right? I want eyes on Charleston.
Every move she makes.
Every word she utters.
I want to know everything.