Ijust got this crazy call from Italy,” said the man on the other end of the phone.

Dave Bitkower, assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, had just been contacted by the FBI . It was a steamy Brooklyn summer day as Bitkower listened to Joint Terrorism Task Force Supervisor Ari Mahairas describe some wild scenes on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea. Just shy of thirty-six, wiry and intense, Bitkower was the type of attorney built for the extreme pressures of the Eastern District’s Violent Crimes and Terrorism Section—a runner, studious, even a former Jeopardy! champion. After graduating Harvard Law School, he had decided to serve his country, opting for downtown Brooklyn over a white-shoe law firm across the East River. It was a spartan life with long hours. And al

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