Free Missing Man by Barry Meier

regularly with Dawud. They talked about politics, events in the news, or whatever was on the fugitive’s mind. But Ira kept hoping for more—a tip from Dawud that might point him toward one more big story, like the warning of a coming terrorist attack. In late 2005, Dawud told Ira he sensed the “curtain” was coming down on him in Iran. With the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the country’s new president, the political protection he had enjoyed was disappearing and he worried he might soon be jailed or expelled. Iran was also becoming increasingly chaotic. People were falling ill with radiation sickness, he said, because the Iranian government was using nuclear waste to “harden” conventional bombs.
    It was also in late 2005 that Bob started asking Ira about Dawud. The two friends had spoken over the years about the fugitive, but Bob’s questions became more pointed and he wanted to know if Ira could connect him with Dawud. Ira knew Bob wanted to get government work, and if he could help him, he was happy to do it. He saw himself passing along to Bob the torch left behind by the journalist’s other confidant, Carl Shoffler.
    After their lunch in June 2006 at Clyde’s, Ira and Bob started kicking around ways in which the investigator could approach the fugitive. Dawud had made it clear to Ira that he didn’t intend to return to the United States to “face the music,” but they figured that Bob could offer other favors, such as arranging a reunion in a safe place outside Iran where Dawud could see his mother before she died. To start the ball rolling, Bob suggested a strategy that dovetailed with the Illicit Finance Group’s interests—Ira would tell Dawud he was a private investigator hired to locate assets in Canada purchased by former Iranian president Rafsanjani with looted money. Earlier, Dawud had told Ira and the Fifth Estate team that one of those ventures was a privately operated expressway that ran through Toronto called Highway 407. Ira sent Bob an email with information about it, referring to Iranians such as Rafsanjani as the “I” guys or people.
    The link below gives you some of the history on the building and financing of the 407 Express Toll Route (ETR) which runs east-west just north of Toronto. As you’ll see the 407 was originally constructed in 1997 for the Ontario Provincial Government by Raytheon. In 1999, it was taken over by an international consortium—here’s where I imagine the “I” guys come in as players laundering their black money skimmed from the oil profits of the Islamic Republic.
    Our guy says he can come up with the names of the “I” people who moved the money and set up the deals.
    The “I” people feel comfortable in Toronto and have lots of clout there, our guy says, because of years and years of dealings involving the acquisition of heavy equipment for the “I” petroleum business, refineries, drilling, that kind of thing.
    In addition, our guy says there are huge investments in shopping centers and commercial and residential real estate projects in and around Toronto and Vancouver.
    Ira then called Dawud and told him that a private investigator friend was interested in the “pistachio man.” A few days later, Bob, while in Geneva for a corporate client, made contact with the fugitive. Afterward, he sent Ira an email.
    It turns out that our friend was waiting by the phone for a couple of hours thinking that I would call late into the evening. I later told him after we spoke this afternoon at 2:30 PM Geneva time that my parents on Long Island taught me never but never to call anyone’s house after 9 PM, that it was bad manners. Anyway, our friend and I spoke for about thirty-five or forty minutes. I was very careful on the phone and used your “pistachio nuts” code. Very useful I might add. And what I hoped is that I became more than just another