In The National Interest

by J. Harvey Barker

  He acknowledged to himself it must be something spectacular if he was to gain the attention of the world. Like the rest of humanity he was aware of the dramatic incident of 9/11 which forced the West to recognise the plight of Islam.

  His demented state of mind saw him as an ancient warrior striking a blow for the cause, martyring himself in the conflict against the infidel. He would enjoy the benefits bestowed on all who gave their lives in the fight, by his God.

  Unlike those who took the souls of innocents, he would attack the military paraphernalia, an act befitting a soldier.

  He would destroy the American’s ability to use cowedly means to wage war.

  Zaharie decided to research where the Drones of the USA were coming from and do something to curtail it.

  In his emotional state of delusion he contemplated a scenario where he would teach the Americans that they could not operate with impunity. Equally, he wished to hit back at the Malaysian Authorities for their corrupt treatment of his friend Anwar.

  He searched through the Drone Bases in the USA and discarded them as wholly much too well protected.

  Pakistan would also be formidable, the country being constantly on a war footing. The Government there talking of expelling the US forces from their nation.

  He searched through the African States, Niger, Burkina Faso, the list was extensive.

  He dismissed a great deal of them on the basis of distance from normal flight routes.

  Alert radar operators with their ground to air missiles around heavily guarded military bases, and proximity to civilian populations excluded others.

  His strike back at the USA would involve the least amount of collateral damage as possible.

  Chapter 4

  He had assembled a list of recognized American Drone sites which he now scanned.

  His gaze stopped at the Seychelles islands. They were, according to the African news website Crossed Crocodiles, a place where the United States military were planning to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles to combat piracy around the Horn of Africa. His interest peaked.

  He opened Google Maps, and typed The Seychelles into the search box. The appendix revealed the following.

  Nestled in the South Indian Ocean, directly East of Kenya and North of Madagascar the islets consist of one hundred and fifteen islands, offering gorgeous sandy beaches to lure tourists. These tropical isles lapped by translucient turquoise water, had a thick rainforest interior. Several species of endangered wildlife including the giant Aldabra tortoises live here.

  He studied the country further. The archipelago was uninhabited before being encountered by the Europeans in the sixteenth century. Settled by French and British colonials who imported workers from Africa, India and Southeast Asia, it faced competing French and British interests until coming under full British control in the late nineteenth century.

  Independence came in nineteen seventy-six when it became a Republic, with James Mancham as its first President.

  Zaharie opened a second browser and launched Wikipedia.

  Everything you want to discover is on Wikipedia, he sumised to himself.

  In 1977 in a coup d’état by France Albert Rene who ousted the Chief Executive and in 1979 wrote a new constitution declaring a socialist one party state which lasted until nineteen ninety-one.

  In the nineteen eighties, a series of coup attempts against President Rene, were led by South Africa and supported by India and the US.

  In nineteen eight one, Mike Hoare (Mad Mike), a British mercenary and adventurer, led a team of South African mercenaries, masquerading as holidaying rugby players in a coup assault. An observant customs officer uncovered the cash of arms’ hidden in their luggage and a firefight ensured at the airport. A considerable number of the hired guns escaped in a hijacked Air India plane.

  Although tried for the crimes, none of the mercenaries were convicted in their home countries.

  In nineteen eighty-six, another attempted coup led by the Seychelles Minister of Defence, Ogilvy Berlouis, caused President Rene to request assistance from India.

  The Indian Naval vessel arrived in Port Victoria to help put down the uprising. A new constitution was approved in nineteen ninety-three. The United States maintained a base here.

  Moving across to his Google Maps, Zaharie closely perused the main island and its adjoining atolls and islets. It was apparent to him that no major military facilities were installed here. He turned back to his list.

  The next target possibility was an island called Diego Garcia.

  Opening his Google map he typed in the name.

  This was another archipelago. Diego Garcia is the largest of around sixty isles constituting the Chagos Archipelago.

  Wikipedia reported it as a militarized atoll just south of the Equator. First discovered by the Europeans and named by the Portuguese, the island was initialy settled by the French but was ceded to the British after the Napoleonic Wars.

  The Chagos Islands were incorporated into the British Indian Ocean Territory in nineteen sixty-five. Between nineteen sixty-eight and nineteen seventy-three, all the former farmworkers were forcibly removed by the Government of the United Kingdom to make way for a joint US/UK military base.

  Excitement filled Zaharie as he read. This could be exactly the target he was looking for. He pored over the information.

  Lying two thousand miles from the coast of Tanzania, almost two thousand miles from the southern tip of India and three thousand miles from the West Australia coast

  The atoll was a very remote place.

  Further reading revealed that Diego Garcia lay at the bottom edge of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a vast underwater mountain range, with peaks consisting of reefs, atolls and islands. To fend off claims by Mauritius and former farmworkers, the British declared a Marine Park over the Chagos Archipelago, making it the largest in the world. This act would garner grudging support from the environmental lobby such as Greenpeace, and it effectively closed off any incursion by oil and other natural resources extraction companies.

  It was widely reported that the United States had spent billions of dollars on militarising the island. Diego Garcia was rumoured to be a place where “high value assets” or political prisoners were taken for “Special Rendition”. Despite denials from the British and US Governments, the gossip persisted.

  Zaharie read on, devouring the history and the partisan state of the zone with glee.

  He shortly moved the mouse pointer and opened his Google Maps of the island group.

  “Wow” he thought, it’s a tropical paradise.

  Nestled far out into the Indian Ocean the atoll was a lowly dot of earth lapped by the warm aquamarine waters that surrounded it for thousands of miles. He zoomed in. Shaped like a jewel in a pendant, the continuous land mass followed the rim of the long dead volcano which had formed it.

  The dry land stretched forty miles from top to bottom enclosing a lagoon that measured thirteen miles long and up to half-a-dozen miles wide, with an opening four miles in width in the north. Three small islands are located in the pass. The seaward edge of the land mass is fringed with coral reef, extending in places out to six or seven hundred feet. The crystal clear soundings over the shoal is shallow but drops quickly away at the outer edge to depths of three miles or more. The lagoon holds sundry coral heads which can make navigation hazardous but the channel and water-way are regularly dredged. Several of the prominences have been blown up to ensure swinging room for the large ships that use the port. The depth of the waterway reaches eighty feet in parts. The National Highway circumscribed the Island from The Diego Garcia Officers Club at the entrance to the lagoon across to Barton Point on the opposite side.

  Zooming in, Zaharie could enlarge the facilities at the various locations on this military base. Those above ground that is. He decided to make notes on the map he had printed off.

  Moving down from the Officers Clubhouse was the Navy Gateway Inn accommodation block with pool and adjacent Store.


  The Seamen’s Club and The Brit Club were opposite something called The Air Force Satellite Control Centre and the Global Positioning Tracking Station. These were duly noted on his notepad.

  From the spy-in-the-sky imagery it was plain to see that there existed diverse military installations. Clubs for the contractors, such as the FILMAU, were located in the workers compound to the north of the massive wharf complex.

  He noted the large fuel storage facilities, and submarine berthing docks with ancillaries for shipping. The bustling Airport was sited adjacent to this structure.

  The two-mile length runway is capable of being utilised by any of the biggest military aircraft in the world. B-1, B-2 and B-52 Bombers, Fighter Jets and the largest of the transport aeroplanes. Charted civilian craft were also depicted on the parking ramp. There remained no doubt this was a very expansive military base. It was also rumoured that drone strikes operated from here.

  Zaharie Ahmad Shah now became convinced this would be his target. The problem which straight away presented itself was its remoteness.

  .

  Chapter 5

  The USS “Carl Vinson” readied herself for departure from Pearl Harbor. This Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier weighed in at one hundred and one thousand three hundred long tons. She was a touch over one thousand and ninety-feet in length with a beam of two hundred and fifty-two feet. She carried a crew of more than six thousand souls.

  No colourful streamers linking families and lovers, no tear stained faces looking up at their departing loved ones, were seen as the mighty ship parted company with the dock. This was the Navy. Farewells were given hours or even days before, in the warmth of a bed or a group hug and waving hands with bewildered children who couldn't understand why mommy or daddy has to leave. The usual platitudes of protecting the country or going to fight the “Bad Guys” were given but a sense of abandonment by those left behind was apparent.

  In a finely choreographed display of manpower, powerful tugs and nuclear fueled engines, the United States Naval Aircraft Carrier “Carl Vinson”, designation CVW-17, edged away from its berth. The crew in their dark blue dress uniforms lined the ‘foredeck and fantail and proceeded through the channel to the open sea. A few well-wishers waved from the shoreline.

  She had called in at Pearl Harbor to take on-board final ships stores before her ten-month deployment to the Middle East. The aircraft carrier’s company dispersed as the mighty warship parted the heads, and, after changing into their multi-coloured work clothes, proceeded in preparing the ship for sea.

  “Carl Vinson” picked up her attending escorts, USS Bunker Hill, USS Dewey, USS Sterrett, USS Gridley, and EOD Mobile Unit Three once she cleared the port. She would gather up two more Virginia Class attack submarines, already deployed, as shadowing companions somewhere near the South China Sea.

  Chapter 6

  Zaharie Ahmad Shah had descended into a world where The Western Nations had become his enemy.

  Numerous peoples of Africa, India, China and Southeast Asia had a generational hatred for the governments of the west rooted in their colonial past.

  All these countries had endured humiliation under the paternalism of the British, French, Portuguese and the Dutch, a resentment which still festered in the hearts of the formally oppressed citizens.

  To escape the loneliness and boredom of his life, he spent hours creating simulated flights in jet fighters on his computer, frequently against his nemesis, the British and the Americans.

  Using his familiarity with the Boeing 777-200, he would plot routes from Kuala Lumpur to Diego Garcia. He searched the internet to check on radar range, both civilian and military. Civilian coverage was easy to find, but military, by its very nature was elusive and vague. His mind was a state of confusion. Questions of the righteousness of what he contemplated plagued him. Was he no more than another terrorist like those who crashed the airliners into the Twin Towers in New York.? He convinced himself he was not, they had no concern for the collateral damage of innocents. The deaths of those citizens, even fellow Muslims, could not be excused in that attack on America. His assault would strike at the heart of the American Military. It was justifiable. He would take the minimum of civilian lives in such a way they would never be aware of their sacrifice.

  To relieve his depression, he would fly missions on his computer, plotting the best route to avoid being detected before unleashing hell on those who cared so little for his religion or the sanctity of the indiscriminate lives they took.

  Zaharie was still grappling with his conscience until that day on the tenth of February when the Federal Court of Malaysia overturned Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal of the sodomy charges by the High Court. The tribunal ordered him to finish his five-year sentence in prison. Zaharie became outraged. Now he resolved to execute his scheme to extract revenge. He deleted the saved routes on his computer that proceeded to Diego Garcia. Two days later his roster had him pilot a shuttle to Beijing. This would be his final flight.

  Chapter 7

  The USS Carl Vinson was making good time through the Malacca Straits on her way to her rendezvous with the USS George H W Bush. She would relieve her in the ongoing war against the Islamic State in Iraq. However, before taking up that role, she would shadow the Indian Naval vessels conducting exercises south of Sri Lanka.

  It was easy to become awestruck watching the thousands of servicemen and women who make up the crew of this one hundred thousand ton military war machine go about their duties.

  The ships’ company, several fresh from high school, were constantly drilled in preparation for combat with little notice.

  Captain Thomas demanded his ship to be battle ready to the utmost.

  Carl Vinson entered the Indian Ocean on the evening of February the twenty seventh, 2014, passing Christmas Island and established a heading which would take her just to the North of Cocos Keeling Island.

  Dolphins played in the bow wave and the sunset was spectacular, as this is oft-times the case in tropical waters. Nonetheless, only those on deck could enjoy the tranquil moment.

  High above the squadron of ships an E-2C Hawkeye AWAC flew in a regular oval pattern scanning the skies for any approaching vessels and aircraft. Two airmen sat at a panel of monitors, gauges and switches in the dimly lit space at the rear of the plane. Two FA-18C fighter jets flew CAP around the fleet, ready to intercept any airborne threats detected by the E-2C Hawkeye. At 1:15 Zulu Time, Flight Officer Christensen, sitting at his console, noticed something strange appearing on his radar. A civilian aircraft he was following unexpectedly became “Dark”, that is, its transponder was no longer transmitting its position.

  Chapter 8

  Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah sauntered casually through the bustling mass of bodies in the arrivals terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It was one of the busiest airfields in South East Asia, a symbol of Malaysia’s economic power under the guidance of the government of Doctor Mahathir Mahamad.

  He nodded a greeting to the cabin crew, smiled to the female members in their brightly patterned sarongs, and approached the Security Barrier. He placed his flight bag in the x-ray machine and moved through the screening device, receiving a cursory pat-down from the protection officer. He was familiar with the aircrew, and directed him to proceed to the aircraft.

  Chapter 9

  The passengers lined up at the check-in counter, this being a late night flight they all appeared half asleep already. They placed personal items in the obligatory trays, watches, jewellery, keys and belts all tested under the magic eye of the x-ray machine along with carry-on luggage. Mr Azim bin Shukri set his large tote bag on the conveyor and his personal items on the tray. He proceeded into the metal detecting device. He was a frequent flyer to Beijing, being a purchaser and manufacturer of toys for a thriving up and coming company in Kuala Lumpur. His holdall had several samples of soft life-like dolls which he hoped would attract the attention of the Chinese buyers at the upcoming toy fair in the capital. The metal detector l
et out an audible beep when he entered, and moved out of the line for a personal scan. The wand emitted its tone as it waived over his chest. He immediately remembered his new iPhone 6 in the pocket of his jacket. The security agent exdamined the offending article before returning it to him. The six was the latest phone from the Apple Corporation and Mr. Shukri delighted in the prestige that came with the ownership of one of these “must have” items. He had bought a waterproof cover for it to protect it from the torrents of rain which frequented the Malaysian Capital in the course of the monsoon season. It received an envious look from the serviceman with the wand. The security guard waved him on before being stopped again by another sentry who motioned him to open the holdall. He did as instructed and revealed the soft toys inside. Shukri handed across the paperwork associated with the items and explained that he was attending a toy fair in Beijing. The guard firstly wiped a drug detection device over each toy in turn and used what appeared to Azim to be a darning needle with a small spoon on the end to insert into the toys. Nothing untoward showed on the samples, and he proceeded through to the security lounge. Smuggling drugs in Malaysia could be a death sentence. Azim was relieved to see no damage to the items was evident.

  Chapter 10

  Normally Zaharie would execute the external checks on the aircraft himself but this time he let his First Officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid do the inspection instead.

  When Fariq entered the cockpit, the two pilots took their positions and progressed through the pre-departure checklist. The cabin crew performed the well rehearsed ritual, a choreographed routine to prepare the passengers and the plane ready for parting. “Given this late hour we should have an easy flight”, Patrick Gomes the purser, said to Ng Yar Chien, one of the junior crew, “with luck the passengers will sleep throughout much of the run”. She smiled a brief acknowledgement.