<i>[gentle music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> RUKMINI: <i>You and your friends used a car</i> <i>and a butcher’s knife to kill four people</i> <i>who had come here as tourists.</i> WOMAN: Ah! MAN: Oh, my God! RUKMINI: <i>Two of those people were American citizens,</i> <i>law-abiding people.</i> <i>They were 29 years old.</i> I wanted to show you a picture of them in case you haven’t seen what they look like. This is them right here. Can you explain to me why you killed them? <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[gentle music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Today I want to tell you about two journeys.</i> <i>One was taken by a young American couple</i> <i>who quit their jobs to take a bike ride around the world,</i> <i>the other by a group of young men from Central Asia</i> <i>who piled into a car one morning</i> <i>with a plan to turn it into a weapon.</i> <i>Last July, along a remote stretch of highway</i> <i>in the isolated country of Tajikistan,</i> <i>these two journeys collided.</i> <i>I’ve spent the last five years reporting on ISIS,</i> <i>crawled through the rubble of their buildings</i> <i>looking for their internal documents,</i> <i>interviewed dozens of fighters,</i> <i>and traveled the world to cover their attacks.</i> <i>This one was comparatively small</i> <i>and it might have faded from the headlines,</i> <i>but for me, it carried a larger meaning,</i> <i>crystallizing a stark collision of beliefs,</i> <i>one open, the other closed.</i> <i>The White House has declared the group defeated,</i> <i>but ISIS isn’t just a physical state that you conquer.</i> <i>It’s a belief system, a movement, an idea.</i> <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> JAY: <i>I was so accustomed to thinking</i> that once I started working, I’d work 40 hours a week and I would do that forever and maybe at 65, I would retire, and maybe I would die a decade later, and I didn’t see a way out of that. I didn’t know there was a way out of that, and I think that’s something that we’re never, ever told, growing up, being an adult, is that there’s more, there’s more to life than bills and money and work. RUKMINI: <i>Jay Austin believed in living a simple,</i> <i>unencumbered life.</i> <i>He was a dedicated cyclist.</i> <i>He lived in a tiny, off-grid house.</i> <i>He gave away huge chunks of his salary to charity.</i> <i>He was 22 when he met Lauren Geoghegan,</i> <i>a well-loved admissions officer at Georgetown.</i> LEE: <i>The first time I ever met Lauren actually was fall.</i> <i>It was really cold one morning,</i> and there’s this girl on Jay’s porch making coffee, and it’s like, oh, my God, go, Jay. Like, who did you get to stay in your house? No running water, no electricity, no insulation, and it was Lauren. RUKMINI: <i>The two fell in love,</i> <i>and before long, Lauren could be seen</i> <i>cycling everywhere with Jay.</i> <i>Then, in 2017, they made a decision.</i> ABBY: <i>He had emailed me</i> to tell me, “Hey, I’m leaving. I’m leaving for maybe three years.” RUKMINI: <i>They started a blog</i> <i>that soon had over 1,000 followers.</i> - “I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours “of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, “of coloring the best years of my life “in swaths of grey and beige. “I quit my job today. I’m terrified. I’m thrilled. <i>“I feel like I felt when I stepped off a plane</i> <i>“at 10,000 feet some years back.</i> <i>Here we go.”</i> RUKMINI: <i>A bike ride around the world.</i> <i>[gentle music]</i> <i>But they wanted their journey to be</i> <i>more than just an adventure.</i> <i>It was a way to express their deepest values.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - They weren’t setting out to prove anything. Jay says it in the blog. “We’re not breaking any records. “We’re not gonna hit every country. “We’re not going fast, and we wanna, you know make the most of our lives while we have them.” <i>[bright music]</i> They departed D.C. and landed in South Africa. ABBY: <i>“We’ve ascended over 27,000 feet</i> <i>and 1,400 kilometers of mostly brutal surfaces.”</i> - “We locate a lone bicycle path and chase it east.” ABBY: <i>Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania.</i> MOLLY: <i>They biked from Morocco to Spain.</i> RUKMINI: That’s who that is? MOLLY: Yeah, that’s us in Barcelona. ABBY: <i>“This is why we’re traveling,</i> <i>not to cycle fast, but to cycle slow.”</i> <i>Monaco, Italy, Slovenia.</i> MOLLY: “Lauren has pinkeye. We can’t do anything but pedal on.” ABBY: <i>“Cars create the expectation</i> <i>“that disaster can be averted.</i> <i>“Bikes create the expectation</i> <i>“that disaster is pretty much inevitable</i> <i>and should be embraced.”</i> <i>Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan,</i> <i>and then Tajikistan.</i> <i>[tense music]</i> RUKMINI: <i>13 months into their journey,</i> <i>Jay and Lauren set camp in an apple orchard</i> <i>just off the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan.</i> <i>They were traveling with five other cyclists,</i> <i>including a Dutch couple,</i> <i>Kim Postma and her partner, Rene.</i> - Now he’s filming, so we have to smile and you know. LAUREN: Oh, okay. Okay. - [laughs] RUKMINI: <i>The Central Asian country</i> <i>of almost nine million has been trying</i> <i>to attract tourists.</i> <i>That’s why a local cameraman came to film them.</i> - We are having a wonderful time in Tajikistan. <i>It has been a challenging journey,</i> <i>but it’s very beautiful.</i> RUKMINI: <i>The next morning, on July 29th, the cyclists</i> <i>continued on toward the capital of Dushanbe.</i> <i>They had no way of knowing that they were being followed</i> <i>by five men in a car.</i> KIM: <i>We decided to leave early</i> <i>because we knew it was going to be a long day.</i> We wanted to really get far because we were all longing for Dushanbe. <i>It was really getting warm, and we saw gasoline station</i> <i>where there were two bits of water coming up</i> <i>from a pump or something, and we stopped there</i> <i>to fresh ourselves, and then we continued</i> climbing up the hill. <i>[foreboding music]</i> <i>It was Jay in the front, then there was Lauren,</i> then there was Markus then Marie-Claire, his wife, then there was me, and Rene was the last one. We had to go up, so we go—we went slowly. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>At one point, a car was coming from the back,</i> and I remember I hear Rene screaming behind me. And he was scared because he saw me getting hit by a car. <i>♪ ♪</i> I fell, but I could quickly stand up again. And then I saw the car hitting the others in front of me. <i>I saw crushing in front of me.</i> Then after everybody’s been hit, the car stops, and there were men coming out. They were carrying knives, and they were running back to the cyclists that were on the road. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>There was one guy with a knife</i> approaching Rene and stabbing his—him in his belly, and at the same moment, I can hear and see Marie-Claire shouting, “They’re killing us.” <i>And then suddenly, he stopped and he walked back to the car.</i> <i>I myself never saw Jay, but I saw Lauren.</i> She was caught in the middle of the road and she was laying in a fetus kind. Um, you see the car turn—- well, you see it in the video. [distant shouting] KIM: <i>The car drove towards me and Rene.</i> I jumped. So the car didn’t hit me, but it hit Rene. CAMERAMAN: [exclaims] - I remember seeing him flying in the air and then coming down. And then the car fled. They were dead on the road. And...yeah. <i>[solemn music]</i> RUKMINI: <i>In its wake,</i> <i>four people were dead:</i> <i>Kim’s partner, Rene Wokke;</i> <i>a Swiss man named Markus Hummel;</i> <i>and Jay and Lauren.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> RUKMINI: <i>The killing of the cyclists</i> <i>was the first ISIS attack in Tajikistan.</i> <i>It was a country, up to this point,</i> <i>that the State Department considered safer than France.</i> <i>But it’s not been without problems.</i> <i>Though the country is more than 90% Muslim,</i> <i>the repressive government</i> <i>routinely stifles religious expression.</i> <i>There’s chronic unemployment,</i> <i>and as many as 1,300 Tajiks left to join ISIS.</i> [car approaching] <i>Immediately after the attack,</i> <i>the Tajik government</i> <i>tried to blame an outlawed opposition party.</i> ABDUMUMIN: Walk this way. RUKMINI: This way? <i>But then the official news agency</i> <i>of ISIS released a video showing five men</i> <i>pledging allegiance to the Islamic State.</i> ALL: [speaking foreign language] ABDUMUMIN: Go there straight. RUKMINI: This way? ABDUMUMIN: Yeah. RUKMINI: <i>After days of searching,</i> <i>radio free journalist Abdumumin Sherkhonov</i> <i>finally found the site</i> <i>where the pledge video was recorded.</i> ALL: [speaking foreign language] RUKMINI: <i>It’s high above the town of Nurak</i> <i>about an hour’s walk from the main road</i> <i>hidden on a remote hillside.</i> <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> ABDUMUMIN: It’s this place. It’s this place. RUKMINI: Wow. I think we’re here. ABDUMUMIN: Yeah. - Yep, and they’re sitting right there? ABDUMUMIN: Yeah, yeah. RUKMINI: So they’re all sitting, all five of them, on the rock. ABDUMUMIN: Yeah, yeah. RUKMINI: And right behind here you can see the blue water... BOTH: The Nurak. ABDUMUMIN: And some part of town. - That was part of the message, ISIS is here in this country. So there’s five attackers. There were two young men, these ones on the end, this one and this one. RUKMINI: And then this one and this one are two brothers. - Yeah. RUKMINI: Jafariddin. <i>The men had all spent time as migrant workers in Russia.</i> <i>They came from moderate Muslim families</i> <i>who say that they saw no signs</i> <i>that they were capable of murder.</i> RUKMINI: <i>Right there in the middle of the rock</i> <i>who was believed to be the mastermind,</i> and in addition to this, we know that Hussein himself, according to the research you’ve done, spent some time in Syria with the Islamic State. <i>[dark music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Until now, very little of Hussein’s plot</i> <i>has been shared with the outside world.</i> Thank you. <i>But the lead investigator on the case</i> <i>agreed to show “The New York Times”</i> <i>much of the evidence he has gathered</i> <i>on the condition that we hide his identity</i> <i>for safety reasons.</i> INVESTIGATOR: These pictures are the pictures which we take during the examination of the place of the crime. RUKMINI: Of the crime, got it. INVESTIGATOR: Yes. - This is the American man. INVESTIGATOR: There is Austin Jay. - Yeah, Jay Austin. <i>[solemn music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> This is the car that they used. INVESTIGATOR: This is the car they used. RUKMINI: Mm-hmm. INVESTIGATOR: The cell phone of the head of this group of terrorists. RUKMINI: Yes, Hussein. INVESTIGATOR: Mr. Hussein. RUKMINI: <i>By seizing Hussein’s phone,</i> <i>the investigator was able to read the encrypted messages</i> <i>he had sent to his ISIS handler,</i> <i>who was operating somewhere outside of Tajikistan.</i> <i>Here was something extremely rare:</i> <i>a close-up view of a terrorist plot in the making.</i> INVESTIGATOR: They used the program which names Threema. RUKMINI: Threema, I know Threema. INVESTIGATOR: He used the method to be secret-like, to be in secret. He says, “Brother, please tell me, how should I send you the video?” So this is the video, how they are following them. Here. Here— RUKMINI: Here’s one. INVESTIGATOR: Yes, so they—we will— RUKMINI: <i>Since this footage was meant to be</i> <i>used as propaganda,</i> <i>the investigator asked us not to show</i> <i>the most horrific scenes, a decision we agreed with.</i> INVESTIGATOR: They’re starting driving fast, so... ALL: <i>[speaking foreign language]</i> INVESTIGATOR: He starting saying, “The guys should see that.” So this is the moment of the accident. RUKMINI: And he didn’t shoot it. INVESTIGATOR: Because the phone was dropped. <i>[somber music]</i> This one is very terrible video. RUKMINI: Which victim is this one? INVESTIGATOR: This is Austin Jay. - I see. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[screams, shouting]</i> RUKMINI: <i>Hussein had tried</i> <i>to send the video to his ISIS contacts,</i> <i>but the signal was too weak, and it never left his phone.</i> <i>[tense music]</i> <i>After fleeing the murder scene,</i> <i>the men veered onto this remote road.</i> <i>Investigators believe they were headed to the border</i> <i>with Afghanistan, about fifty miles away.</i> <i>But as they passed through the town of Tutbuloq,</i> <i>villagers there became suspicious.</i> RUKMINI: <i>A cell phone video shows the villagers,</i> <i>many of them carrying sticks and clubs,</i> <i>trailing the attackers until the authorities arrived.</i> CAMERAMAN: [speaking foreign language] <i>♪ ♪</i> [car honking] RUKMINI: So this is where you caught them? Yeah. RUKMINI: Got it. RUKMINI: <i>Hussein was taken to prison in the capital.</i> <i>In the span of just 36 hours,</i> <i>he was responsible for eight deaths:</i> <i>the four cyclists</i> <i>and the four young men he had helped to radicalize.</i> RUKMINI: <i>Hussein, the mastermind of the attack,</i> <i>spent weeks scouting potential targets in Tajikistan.</i> <i>Bank surveillance footage shows him collecting money</i> <i>sent from contacts in Russia,</i> <i>and two days before the attack,</i> <i>he came to this store to buy a cleaver.</i> RUKMINI: <i>But these clues about the mechanics</i> <i>of the attack don’t answer the central question: why?</i> Tell us about Hussein, what he was like as a young man. RUKMINI: <i>In 2004, Hussein met a local cleric</i> <i>who would change the course of his life.</i> RUKMINI: <i>After a trial that was held behind closed doors,</i> <i>Hussein was sentenced to life in prison,</i> <i>the maximum penalty in Tajikistan.</i> <i>Days later, our request to speak to him</i> <i>was finally approved.</i> <i>We’re the first journalists allowed in.</i> <i>Prison officials considered Hussein so dangerous</i> <i>that they insisted he remained handcuffed</i> <i>and closely guarded.</i> Can we please make sure that nobody opens the door? Uh... Mm-hmm. RUKMINI: <i>Questions of consent are complicated</i> <i>when reporters speak to prisoners.</i> Hussein, my name is Rukmini Callimachi. I wanted to ask you, specifically, if you consent... <i>Because of the public interest in this case,</i> <i>we proceeded, but only after Hussein</i> <i>repeatedly assured me that he was speaking freely.</i> - No problem. RUKMINI: You’re sure? - Yeah. RUKMINI: Okay. <i>It’s through conversations like these</i> <i>that I’ve been able to piece together</i> <i>the organizational structure of ISIS.</i> You were part of the external operations wing of ISIS? RUKMINI: A couple of months ago, you and your friends used a car and a butcher’s knife to kill four people who had come here as tourists. Two of those people were American citizens. I wanted to show you a picture of them, in case you haven’t seen what they look like. This is them right here. HUSSEIN: Mm-hmm. RUKMINI: Can you explain to me why you killed them? Why was that something that was worth doing? RUKMINI: But you understand that Jay and Lauren have never killed anyone, and they firmly believed that if they were kind to other people other people would open their hearts to them, and for the vast majority of their trip, this was the case. - I want to understand at what point you chose these people. - It was the same day? HUSSEIN: Mm-hmm. - Same day, okay. There’s a gas station right before the scene of the attack. Did you interact with the tourists at that gas station? RUKMINI: You talked to these people? - Yes. RUKMINI: To the men? - Yes. - Do you feel any regret? RUKMINI: When I look at you now, I see another human being. When you look at me, what do you see? - Do you think that you have anything in common with the people that you killed? RUKMINI: <i>Through years of this work,</i> <i>I’ve come to understand the unbending belief system</i> <i>that drives militants like Hussein.</i> <i>ISIS’ worldview is a supremacist one.</i> <i>It dehumanizes anyone who doesn’t adhere</i> <i>to their narrow interpretation of Islam.</i> <i>They insist they’re performing a spiritual duty</i> <i>by killing nonbelievers.</i> <i>And his conviction reflects how losses on the battlefield</i> <i>have failed to quash this ideology.</i> RUKMINI: <i>The fruit has long been harvested in the orchard</i> <i>where Jay and Lauren spent the last night</i> <i>of their journey.</i> <i>That night, they were made to feel at home</i> <i>by a Tajik farmer</i> <i>who gave the group of foreigners a cup of tea.</i> ALL: [speaking foreign language] RUKMINI: Nice to meet you. RUKMINI: It’s Jay and Lauren. <i>“Zdrast!</i> Hello! We are four groups “of cyclists traveling together “toward Dushanbe. “Lauren and I, the Americans, have been cycling “around the world for 13 months “through Africa, Europe, and now Asia. “We have loved Tajikistan and want to thank you “for giving us a place to sleep on our way to the capital. Thanks! Jay and Lauren and everyone else.” This might be the last thing that they wrote. <i>[somber music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> LEE: <i>“Badness exists, sure, but even that’s quite rare.</i> “By and large, humans are kind. “Self-interested, sometimes, myopic, sometimes, but kind. <i>“No greater revelation has come</i> <i>from our journey than this.”</i> This one’s great. RUKMINI: <i>Acts of terror are meant</i> <i>to make us afraid of one another.</i> <i>But on the road where Jay and Lauren died,</i> <i>local Tajiks built a memorial,</i> <i>a reminder to all who pass</i> <i>to live as these young cyclists did,</i> <i>open to the world, unafraid.</i>