Freedom For Sale: $100,000 - $500,000 Now with a new baby son and frazzled wife back in Canada with no husband to protect and comfort her and a 10-year-old son who surely must be confused about his father’s prolonged absence, my mind was growing full of worry, anxiety, and yes, a bit of fear. It was clear to me that the embassy which was not even willing to give me an appointment, was surely not going to renew my passport unless I caved to the demands of the FBI. But they never kept their word with me before about the AFG reward moneys, or even expunging the bogus entrapment charge from 1984. I agreed to help Peter Kwan out of his mess with the feds, but again part of that deal was to expunge my wrongful IRS conviction and give me a new passport. I started helping them with the CTC sting but kept asking for a written agreement that was promised but never delivered. I was tired of their extortion, and frankly, unless Maury was directly involved, I would never cooperate with 1105
only resort to reunite with my family again. Yes, I am a patriot, but I am not a blind patriot willing to commit crimes to induce others to commit bigger ones. I found myself falling into a lonely funk missing my family more with each passing day and I deliberately took up working extra hours, running the Renmin English Club and coaching both little league baseball, American football, and soccer for kids just to keep my mind distracted and off of my own kids, which for me was mission impossible. Every night as I lay awake in bed waiting to fall asleep, my mind was busy trying to find some clever way to get home. Would my employer’s know someplace where I could buy a black market passport? Then like a bolt of lightning that flashed before me, I suddenly realized that I already knew where to get a “functional forgery” of any passport – Faisal! But I had not spoken with him in nine years – would he still be at the same phone number, and would he do this huge favor for me? Did I even still have his phone number, and did I bring it with me or leave it back in Canada?. I kept my sanity by coaching and working and running the Renmin English Club. These are my White Dragons and Coach Ma who played on China’s first Olympic baseball team. 1106
to get home to my family. The FBI was breaking the law to keep me trapped in China with their trickery so I felt justified beating them at their own game. I rummaged through my drawers and Yes! I brought my blue book with me!!! I immediately went through the pages and found Faisal’s name and number. Knowing I was still being monitored 24/7 both by the feds and my own Chinese employers since I taught at the government academy, I got dressed, ran downstairs with my international calling card, jumped on my bicycle and headed for the internet café at Zhichunli close to where I first lived when I arrived in Beijing. The 2nd floor space was very innocuous by necessity and was simply two apartments joined together with a connecting door jammed packed with about 50 computers in cubicles occupied by the usual crowd – a mix of Chinese guys watching porn, Chinese girls buying lingerie, and sex toys, and academics writing critical protest articles in foreign newspapers under assumed names. There was also a small group of Mormon and Christian missionaries who were always there in chat groups. There were dozens of these internet cafes hidden all over Beijing, usually close to the universities. Luckily the beat cops were either too busy chasing down prostitutes or collecting their bribe moneys from the street vendors to mess with these internet cafes, which were never on the first floor. In fact, most were on the fifth or sixth floors of “Lou fangs” which had no elevators. Beijing cops are so lazy they would sit in their cars and wait for people to come down to the parking lot and question them, rather than climb 6 flights of stairs and see for themselves. I used the café to have private calls with my wife using a combination of VOIP and calling cards. Thank god the introduction of VPNs a few years later would eliminate the inconvenience and expense of privacy in China. My unlogged 10-15 minute calls with my wife used to cost me $50 - $ 60 each at these cafes. If they were logged they would have been only the equivalent of $20 an hour. But tonight was not my lucky night. When I arrived to Zhichunli and locked my bike at the subway bike rack, I walked only 100 meters before I could see the lights on the second floor of the old gray cinder block building were all out. And there was nobody down below on a smoke break. Out of curiously I made my way to the iron gate entrance, and found it chained closed with a pad lock, with plenty of yellow police tape and some warning signs that the property was seized and anyone entering would be arrested. Now I 1107
Renmin University! But now I was desperate to call Faisal and needed absolute privacy. I could try using a line at Renmin University knowing it would be recorded but thousands of calls were made there every day. Or look for another internet café and hope they had no embedded spies there, or spend the money and by a burner phone that would set me back $500. I opted for the burner phone but I would have to track down the only triad contact I had whose son played on my White Dragons little league baseball team. Since the baseball season ended 3 months ago, this would take me a few days and I wanted to be home with my kids yesterday. Yes, my mom and the nuns of St Charles always told me that patience is a virtue, but frankly at this moment I had none left. I had the honor and great fun of coaching China’s first American football team for kids for ages 9-12. Not many parents would let their babies play this “violent barbaric game” so our kids had to play both offense and defense for the first two years. Only six teams made up the entire league in 2010. Today there are over120 teams in China. Chinese Mothers are still terrified. Long story, short. I bought myself the ZTE burner phone with a chip from Shandong, Province. This was my second burner phone in two years after losing the first to a very skilled pick-pocket on the subway. This one would reside in my front pocket at all times 1108
of the phone and to keep the chip active I had to pay 750 Yuan a month or if I paid for the entire year I got the bargain price of 25,000 Yuan or roughly $5,000. The good news is that I could make and take unlimited calls worldwide without being traced with one caveat. The international calls would always be recorded by default but they could never be traced to me unless I used the burner phone and a calling card from Korea, India, Japan, or Turkey which were readily available. Almost trembling with great hope and anticipation, I soon found myself dialing Faisal’s number in Telaviv and it just rang, and rang, and rang. I was finally routed to voicemail as I listened to a voice I never heard before – a woman. My heart sunk, and almost dropped out of my chest onto the floor. I don’t know who this woman was and I thought for sure Faisal either moved on or was arrested, and this woman was the new owner of the number. I wanted to cry. I slumped to floor in my bedroom and wondered. What next Anthony? I decided to call back and even though I did not understand the language the woman was speaking on the voicemail, I would leave a message in English and Spanish. It was a long shot but the only one I had. So when I heard the tone I identified myself as Anthony from Toronto and Peterborough now in Beijing calling for Faisal Shahin with an urgent matter and left my 188 number twice. After making the call, a helpless feeling overcame me and I just collapsed on the sofa and started launching a few prayers towards the heavens hoping my parents and a God I mostly took for granted was still looking out for me. I knew for sure my mother-in-law was reaching out to him every day, and I starting to feel that maybe divine intervention was my only hope at this point. I dozed off on the sofa only to be rudely interrupted by my roomie who came home, kicked my feet and simply said “You smell – go take a shower!” She was right. I was playing soccer that day when I came home after the game and tried to reach Faisal, too excited to shower first as I normally would do. It was one of those rare winter days where the temperatures were unseasonably mild – almost 22C. All the soccer fields in Haidian were full that day and I easily ran five miles during our game. Indeed, I did smell foul. Off to the shower I marched uttering an apology to my roommate. 1109
Canada in our huge walk in shower with high pressure multiple showerheads which now was only one of my favorite fantasies. Still the hot water felt good and I took my time hoping the shower might even wash away the reality of my China entrapment. The shower was always one of my more productive places to think through my problems going back to my high school days. Some people sing, I think. So now as I was running through some other crazy options such as traveling out of China under someone else’s identity, when there was a knock on the bathroom door and it opened only enough to reveal an extended arm with my ringing burner phone in her hand. The caller ID showed 971 ********* and I immediately snatched the phone with a loud “Xie xie”. (Thank you) “Hello?” “Hey Anthony, how are you? This is Faisal. My niece gave me your message.” Wow, there really is a God, I thought to myself. “I am in China Faisal and I have a big problem that only you can fix.” “China? What the hell are you doing in China Anthony?” he asked. “Are you on a secure phone line Faisal?” I asked. “Always my friend.” “Me too Faisal… I am sorry to bother you but I am in China and the U.S. embassy won’t renew my passport which expired a few months ago, and they are now trying to force me to do some unethical stuff here that I want nothing to do with. I just want to go home to my wife and kids. My wife had another baby – a boy.” Congratulations Anthony!” “I am glad to see you are still alive and free Faisal. That was some protest your people pulled off on 9/11!” There was a brief 10 second pause silence before Faisal replied “I never would have done that paperwork had I known so many innocent people would die. Believe me Anthony, I am not a violent man and I did not know anyone was going to die. Even today, I cannot sleep at night. I have not spoken with my brother ever since that day. He knew a lot more than he told me. That whole thing was planned by Bush father with Cheney and Kissinger. If you remember, I had guessed it was some plan to implicate Iran yes?” “Yeah, I remember that”. “Well I was right Anthony, but Russian intelligence agents somehow knew everything and Putin gave some ultimatum to Little George at the 11th hour. Whatever he said worked, and they blamed Saddam instead which back-fired on them. But you Americans swallowed the bullshit about the WMDs and the rest as they say… is history. Anyway, I don’t do any work for anyone any more unless I know the entire game plan and not just for the first quarter. So if you need a passport, tell me the 1110
Peterborough.” I turned off the water and took a huge sigh of relief. Not only was Faisal still alive, but maybe, just maybe, he would get me home to my family. “Well Faisal, I already told you the first part of my story, so since I last saw you here is what happened… I told Faisal about how Chief Justice LeSage pressured Immigration Canada to let me go free, told him about the fake extradition, my compromised lawyer, and how I eventually was sent back to America but how lucky I was to meet America’s most honest judge who dismissed my charges and how I came back home Canada in time for Christmas with my family. The only thing I didn’t tell Faisal was about was about my conversations with Maury about him. After I sent him the photos of the shootings at our house in Mississauga and a photo of my new son Dylan, I reminded Faisal that he still owed me a $1 million credit line from that Peterborough deal we made and we both laughed. I then reminded him that I kept my word and called his brother just as he requested. “Yes you did Anthony. Let me ask you, do you just want a temporary solution to get home, or a permanent solution to keep the wolves at bay in case they come back to Canada for you?” “I don’t know what you mean Faisal, can you explain?” 1111
Critical Thinking School for Chinese kids (Drama Rainbow) that became a bit famous. Our passionate staff made learning fun for kids. I would open my corporate training company in 2012 to make enough money to buy a passport from Faisal. “Look Anthony, I can make you a passport in your real name or any name you like from maybe Romania, Austria, or Italy that will work for domestic ground, rail, and cruise travel for free. But for international air travel to get you through a port of entry like Toronto or Vancouver, I will have to get my brother or one of his colleagues involved and like I said, we are not on speaking terms since 911. If I have to use one of his colleagues it will cost a few dollars to integrate that passport into all the databases and make it functional with all the scanners. In short we need bribe money for that. And if you want to make yourself untouchable for the next ten years I can get you a diplomatic passport from St. Kitts, Zimbabwe or Malaysia, but that will cost a little more.” “How much are you talking Faisal?” “Well Anthony for the regular passport from Romania, Italy, or Austria that will be good for ten years about $100,000USD and for the diplomatic passport $250,000-$500,000 whatever I can negotiate.” I was speechless for a few second before I said “Okay, I’ll use that $1 million credit line and go for the diplomatic passport based on what you just told me.” 1112
$10,000 integration fee, but mostly just my time. Passports are a lot more involved and without my brother, we have to pay like any other client. These days there are no shortage of clients in China and the Middle East willing to pay full price. So yes my friend, I will do the art work and give you what you need to get through any domestic provincial border, but we have to pay for the hacker to integrate your passport properly on an international basis. You don’t have the money?” “We just bought our house in Canada when the extradition came out of the blue Faisal. Over here I am working two jobs with no way to send money home to my family without a valid passport. Can you make that credit line for me in a way that my family in Canada can get the money or find a way to leverage to flip some real estate to provide a $250K cash profit to get the passport expedited? Otherwise it might take me a few months to find this sort of money over here, and I am trying my best to avoid the criminal circles and can’t afford to pay the 15% monthly interest the loan sharks charge.” “I see Anthony”. I am going to be traveling for the next 2-3 months so if you solve the money problem, leave me a message on the machine and my wife or niece will get a message to me. If I figure something out, can I reach you at this 188********* number? “Yes, It’s a brand new burner phone, and now that we made contact, I will keep it with me 24/7. Faisal, there is nothing more important to me than going home, so please, give this your very best efforts”. “I give you my word Anthony. If you don’t hear back from me within 90 days, it will only be because I am dead or in jail, and hopefully, never again at Peterborough! We hung up laughing with a little glimmer of hope in the air. But the next time I would speak with Faisal, he would be asking another fellow-veteran Jack Wheeler and me for $5 million dollars and an offer we could never accept as Americans. Both Jack and I had patriotic roots than ran deep from our childhood days, and no amount of money could buy our role in any propaganda scheme. We both wanted the truth to be known but never delivered as foreign insults to our fellow-Americans. Reserved until I am safely reunited with my family in Canada - or deceased. 1113
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