In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

 20 Get This Done After the fbi formally opened its investigation into Abdi, agents began following him and tracking his phone conversations . By November, they had confirmed calls to as many as forty different people the government associated with terrorism suspects. To the agents assigned to Abdi, he seemed to behave like someone with something to hide; his erratic driving including U-turns and random stops suggested someone taking countersurveillance measures. Abdi treated it more like a joke, priding himself on the day agents lost him because he had to drive his sister’s car. He kept on with his life. On September 17, he and a cousin cosigned papers to incorporate Abdi’s own cell phone store, Cell Station, in the Global Mall, an indoor conglomeration of clothing stores, a restaurant, a money transfer business , and other outlets, tucked between an Old Pottery store on one side and a Waterbeds ’n Stuff on the other. His brother had a small book and tapes shop across the street, and Abdi would often wander over, buy a cappuccino at a neighboring coffee shop, and visit with his brother and mother, who also worked there.1 It was a surreal standoff. Abdi, knowing full well he was in the government’s crosshairs—especially since Faris’s conviction—tried to proceed as if nothing were wrong. On November 22, a Saturday, Abdi went to the Ibn Taymia mosque where he sneaked a look at his cell phone to see how Ohio State was doing in the annual football showdown against Michigan. Meanwhile, FBI case agent Stephen Flowers, convinced Abdi was on the cusp of a horrifying attack, worked feverishly behind the scenes to find a way to arrest the Somali . Eventually, the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement concluded Abdi was a threat to national security and should be arrested. The agencies agreed the best approach was to make the arrest based on violations of federal immigration laws. But making that arrest happen wasn’t going to be easy.2 Get This Done  Normally, the heads of local ICE offices can issue administrative arrest warrants by themselves. Headquarters gets involved when the arrest is based on national security concerns. In that case, agents typically submit an affidavit or some other document explaining their evidence. Early in October, Flowers starting giving information about his investigation to Turgal, the chief general counsel for the Cincinnati division—an FBI position that serves as a sort of inhouse attorney for agents on the ground. The information included Abdi’s forty-plus phone calls along with a July e-mail Abdi sent Faris showing him websites where he could purchase spyware: night vision goggles, small cameras, listening devices, and the like. Turgal drafted a five-page declaration over the next few weeks. He finished on October 28 and submitted the document to Washington.3 Flowers and Turgal both believed the information they provided was unclassified. ICE lawyers in Washington weren’t so sure; they were reluctant to issue the arrest warrant if that information was in the affidavit. The portion causing the most problems was Paragraph 8, which detailed the heart of the case: the analysis of Abdi’s cell phone calls and e-mail between June 3, when the investigation opened, and October, when Flowers submitted his evidence to Turgal . FBI and ICE lawyers in Washington spent nearly a month debating the document and trying to decide what information was, as one jurist later quipped, “classified, unclassified, declassified or about to be declassified.” Flowers and the ICE agents in Columbus were starting to get antsy. They still believed Abdi might carry out an attack on Black Friday, and then, assuming he survived, try to disappear.4 The debate reached a fever pitch in the days before Thanksgiving . Agents and government lawyers all the way to the highest echelons of FBI and ICE headquarters in Washington hashed out whether they had the authority to arrest the Somali, and if so, how? The last thing anyone wanted was a high-profile arrest in a crowded mall parking lot as Christmas shoppers streamed into stores. Complicating matters, the allegations against Abdi involved a falsified application for political asylum. That was one of the most coveted immigrant statuses available. Arresting a political refugee was rare and ran contrary to America’s reputation as a welcoming harbor for the persecuted. More practically, what would happen if Abdi refused to talk? They could deport him, but where? Back to Somalia, a lawless land...

Share