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This is a nine-thousand-word investigation into the European jihadi pipeline. Using thousands of pages of leaked Belgian Federal Police records, which included wiretaps, electronic surveillance, seized radicalization pamphlets, and interrogation transcripts, it traces the web of connections between jihadi recruiters in Europe, and follows a reluctant ISIS member to Syria and back. It also reveals previously-unknown details on Amr al-Absi, the Syrian emir identified by the U.S. State Department as having been "in charge of kidnappings" for ISIS, as well war crimes committed against local civilians by his European recruits. I also took a portrait of the main subject, and a separate portrait of his father. Both pictures were published in the magazine. The article was my M.A. thesis project at Columbia Journalism School.