Table Of ContentAn imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
Copyright © 2017 by Tamer Elnoury
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a
vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not
reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and
allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
DUTTON is a registered trademark and the D colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Elnoury, Tamer, author. | Maurer, Kevin, author.
Title: American radical : inside the world of an undercover muslim FBI agent / Tamer Elnoury with Kevin Maurer.
Description: New York, New York : Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017029950| ISBN 9781101986158 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781101986165 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Elnoury, Tamer. | United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation—Officials and employees—
Biography. | United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. | Terrorism—United States.
Classification: LCC HV7911.E42 A3 2017 | DDC 364.1/317092 [B] —dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029950
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact
information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or
for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume
any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our
readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.
Version_1
CONTE NTS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
GLOSSARY OF ARABIC WORDS
NOTE TO THE READER
1. Super High
CHAPTER
2. I Am a Muslim
CHAPTER
3. No Fear
CHAPTER
4. Dirty Arabs Group
CHAPTER
5. Tamer Elnoury
CHAPTER
6. “Take His Temperature”
CHAPTER
7. The Bump
CHAPTER
8. Live Amongst Them to Defeat Them
CHAPTER
9. Uncle Ibrahim
CHAPTER
10. Gone Fishing
CHAPTER
11. Apartment 23
CHAPTER
12. The Road Trip
CHAPTER
13. The Imam Complex
CHAPTER
14. The Christian Burial Speech
CHAPTER
15. Best of the Mujahideen
CHAPTER
16. Pizza with Terrorists
CHAPTER
17. The Bridge
CHAPTER
18. Team Chiheb
CHAPTER
19. The Responsible One
CHAPTER
20. The Radicalizer
CHAPTER
21. Spitting in the Eyes of God
CHAPTER
22. Operation Happy New Year
CHAPTER
23. High Five
CHAPTER
24. The Sixth Pillar
CHAPTER
25. Eyes of Allah
CHAPTER
26. Stay True to Islam
CHAPTER
27. The End
CHAPTER
28. T-Bags
CHAPTER
: We’re Everyone
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
To my mother.
Everything I am and ever will be is because of you.
Rest in peace, Mom.
GLOSSARY OF ARABIC WORDS
Dunya: this world, Earth
habibi: brother, friend
halal: accepted and allowed in Islam; blessed
haram: forbidden in Islam; against the religion
insha’Allah: God willing
masha’Allah: an expression of appreciation, joy, or praise
mujahid (singular)/mujahideen (plural): one engaged in jihad
munafiq (singular)/munafiqeen (plural): an outward Muslim
who is secretly unsympathetic and undermines the Islamic
community
Muslim Ummah: the collective community of Muslims
NOTE TO THE RE ADE R
American Radical is the story of a group of extraordinary men and
women whom I was lucky enough to work alongside for the past nine
years and the human toll and sacrifice we make to do the job every
day.
Only the first names of the actual agents are used. I do this to
protect them from harm by enemies of the United States. I refer to
publicly recognized senior agents and FBI management by their true
names. I have taken great care to avoid going into specific detail about
training, tactics, and procedures used by the FBI and law enforcement.
My intent in writing this book is to ensure that the content gives a
clear and accurate account of the events and experiences in which I
took part, but it is of paramount importance to me that I maintain the
sanctity and secrecy of operational and security issues.
The majority of the material contained within this book was derived
from reports and transcripts generated during the investigation. When
no documents were available, scenes were reconstructed from my
notes and memory. This book is my perception of what happened and
when it happened. If there are inaccuracies in it, the responsibility is
mine.
This book was reviewed and approved by the FBI, but it presents
my views and does not represent the views of the FBI, the U.S.
Department of Justice, or anyone else.
CHAPTE R 1
Super High
I was
Rico Jordan before I was Tamer Elnoury. Hell, I was a lot of
people before I ever got in front of a terrorist. I spent a lot of days
looking and acting like a criminal. I had a knack for being able to
relate to people. To pull them in and make them feel comfortable, even
drug dealers.
I became Rico Jordan as soon as I tied my do-rag.
—
I
stepped in front of the mirror and smoothed out my thick mustache
and goatee that grew six or seven inches off my chin. Two hoop
earnings went into my left ear. I tucked my baggy pants into my black
Timberland boots and slid a pistol between my waistband and the
small of my back.
It was close to 6:00 P.M. on September 10, 2001. I was working
narcotics in New Jersey, so most of my days started when everyone
else was headed home. For months, I’d been looking for the distributor
of Super High, a potent batch of heroin coming out of New York.
When Super High hit the streets, overdoses skyrocketed.
My target was Kit Kat’s crew. She and her two sons ran a network of
dealers working the towns and cities in central New Jersey. After
months of buying from them, they agreed to let me meet their Super
High source. The supplier’s street name was Black. We’d heard of him,
but we’d never gotten eyes on him. That was my job. Identify him and
wait for the SWAT team to make the arrest.
Traffic was thick with the bridge-and-tunnel crowd coming home.
Kit Kat’s crew worked out of a row house at the end of an alley with
lookouts positioned on the roof. I parked my green Mazda 626 behind
the house after circling the block a few times. Most drug dealers will
make a couple of passes to make sure the block isn’t hot, and I needed
to look the part. It also let me relay information back to the waiting
SWAT team. While I drove, I narrated what I saw into a Nokia cell
phone.
“Four guys at the front of the house,” I said. “No one on the porch.”
Billy, my sergeant, was on the other end of the line. He passed each
mental picture back to the staging location, a makeshift command
center. At the mouth of the alley, I saw the spotters on the roof
watching me. With each step, everything slowed in my mind. I’d come
a long way since my first drug buy three years ago.
My first buy was for “dip”—shards of crack cocaine chipped off a
bigger rock. My hands were sweating as I approached the dealer. I
pressed a twenty-dollar bill into his hand and waited for him to fish
out a shard from a plastic bag. I was anxious. I couldn’t catch my
breath. My fingers tingled with adrenaline. I probably looked like a
junkie. The dealer put the shard into my hand. I barely felt it as I ran
back to the undercover car.
“How did it go?” Mike, my handler, said.
“Good, man,” I said. “Look.”
I held out my hand. The dip was just a smear. The rock melted in
my sweaty hands.
“That’s great,” Mike said. “What was his name?”
“Who?” I said.
“The dealer,” Mike said. “What was he wearing?”
I stared out the windshield trying to conjure an image.
“Was he black or white at least?”
I didn’t know. I found out later the dealer had an enormous eagle
tattoo on his neck. I was so full of nerves and fear I missed everything.
It was embarrassing.
After that, I started to study. I found a junkie who taught me how to
cook crack, cut heroin and cocaine. But the biggest lesson was the
power of addiction. Just the thought of getting high aroused him. He
carried a razor blade in his pocket. If he got arrested, he sliced up his
