We set out that night, just leaving Hugh to watch for the actual departure of the targets and be the tail. We would stay an hour ahead of them all the way, crossing the border into Saudi, breaking off the road into the desert, skimming around Al Silla’a and Al Batha, which was four hours out of Dubai to a point five miles west of any possible checkpoints, and picking up Highway 95 at a crossroads then driving on to a grid reference on Route 95 at an almost equidistant point between Qatar and the UAE borders where we would wait for Mohammed and Ahmed.
We had pulled off the road again into a ditch hidden by a rocky outcrop that shielded us from the road. The guys had a 360-degree view of the area. We were 10-15 miles outside of either border so not within sight of it but far enough away to avoid unnecessary attention from border patrols or other official traffic. It was then that Baz pointed out our exit strategy; we were positioned with Khor Duweihin 24° 21' 32" N 51° 21' 43" E military grid ref 39RWG3671194009 to our rear (and to the east), a sandy bay from which we would exit to RIBs, rendezvous with USS Tarawa and then sail with the ship en route to Australia, disembarking in BIOT waters. The team had done all the prep work and it was a perfect extraction plan avoiding spending any unnecessary additional time in the country after completion of the mission which had dovetailed beautifully into operation Red Reef III, the largest bilateral naval exercise in which the Saudi Navy had participated. The exercise involved almost two weeks of live surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missile firings and amphibious training in the North Arabian Sea and Arabian Gulf. The amphibious training was our extraction strategy – simply board a RIB amongst the chaos of an exercise and peel off to the safety of the US Navy.
We took up positions and hydrated ourselves whilst Cheesy our chaos man set up the mines and explosives to blow the cars off the road whilst hopefully keeping the road fairly intact. Baz had constructed the explosives in the bathroom at the hotel; he wanted the vehicles to be lifted up and thrown off the road towards us so the team could conduct a turkey shoot out of sight of the road. It took a little time for Baz and Cheesy to set up their little magic show. The binmen had been informed of the plan and would follow on our route after our departure by sea, making good the kill site, and then disperse themselves.
We waited. A light breeze kept us cool as the entire team watched the road leading back to Dubai. Every second a minute, every minute an hour. Out of the spotter sights we all simultaneously caught sight of a convoy coming down the highway towards our position. It turned off into the desert to a half-finished plot with a derelict building, partially hiding the possible targets. Smudge was on the squawk box to Hugh who informed us the targets were still mobile and over 40 minutes out – just two targets, as the women and children of the family had departed via Dubai, including Asad. It was a relief if I’m honest, as the possible elimination of the entire family may have been inevitable if we were unable to isolate the two on the list.
We had little time to reorganise and had to reposition between our initial road interception/ambush point and the new target zone. Rapid deployment tactics took us into the desert to a new vantage point, not great but good enough to be able to operate at each site if necessary, a small wall providing some cover from the road and the building. There were now six new targets at the building not active, just walking around waiting, smoking and generally stretching their legs. We split the team to give a better attacking position as the directive from the Steering Group was without ambiguity: to ‘terminate with extreme prejudice Mohammed and Ahmed at any cost’.
With two more cars and a lone vehicle trailing close on the horizon, Hugh was at risk of being noticed. These cars turned off into the same compound area of the first convoy. Hugh continued and pulled into our initial staging point. Regrouping now, observing, Mohammed and Ahmed could be clearly identified talking with the six new targets. This propelled Smudge into some frantic radio activity to contact command in London via our US asset sailing in the Gulf for further instructions based upon the six new potential targets. It didn’t concern me too much as the team’s last order and fallback position was all targets to be eliminated if the mission priorities should become compromised in any way. Weapons and equipment were checked, but Cheesy was already available to deploy ahead with Baz and destroy the entire site. London wanted to keep the first group alive to give an alibi to the killing of Mohammed and Ahmed. Bollocks, re-think. Group huddle. Re-plan, last-minute reorganisation and strategy in place. Hugh, Smudge and I would head back south in the Land Cruiser in case the now possible information exchange led to the group dispersing in opposite directions. Smudge, Baz, Pierre and Cheesy would return to the original site and take out the six new targets if heading north, should Smudge and I fail. We were all to rendezvous at the beach on completion or the exchange site, depending on movements.
Bingo, drove right past the motherfuckers conducting the information exchange. The brown case with all the information re-written by London given by Anatoly to Mohammed was now being sold to this new group. Arabian but not businesslike, there was one guy in a suit and the rest in plain civilian clothing, well-armed and obviously well-funded. The team took extensive photographs of all participants whilst the exchange was undertaken. Then I made for a position of overwatch in a firing position south of the target with Hugh and Smudge. There was little cover for the team as Hugh with his ‘broken-down’ Land Cruiser was looking like the perfect stupid Arab without a clue what to do, looking under the hood of the Land Cruiser and smoking a cigarette, with myself and Smudge in the dirt. Mohammed and Ahmed departed the exchange site at speed and were heading in our direction, with the original six still at their meeting point. The tension inside was rising, but staying calm I was attuned to every tiny sound and was now sharply focused on any movement down sight. Sniper rifle loaded, noise suppressors in place, safety off, ready and poised. Baz had prepped a roadside bomb in the Cruiser which Hugh would now detonate if Smudge and I fucked up and failed to get a clean kill.
Time stood still. Looking down the highway, heat waves scorching the tarmac, a bead of sweat trickled down my back as I caught a glimpse of Smudge adjusting position. I adjusted my cap for shade over sight. There was a slight cloud of dust as more vehicles got back onto the road, which raised my heartrate and produced both a release of aggression and a sense of that welcome horrific expectation taking me back to the Asadi elimination. Black rubber tyres broke through the heat waves and I acquired a view of the Mercedes truck coming towards us down the highway at speed. My earpiece was crackling a little as the team were repositioning north of us as the first convoy departed from the exchange site in the opposite direction toward Qatar as predicted. Exchange completed. Communications silence, green for go from London. I could see the shapes enlarging behind the windshield, blurry and misshapen at first by the heat waves from the road but growing larger and larger. I paused and waited for absolute sight clarity. I could see Mohammed now, his eyes clear – he’s fucking mine, in the kill zone, in my sights, crosshairs aligned. Gently squeeze, light recoil. Done. Smudge repeated for Ahmed almost simultaneously. The truck swerved just a little, decelerated as death took the pressure off the gas pedal, and then continued to roll down the road and bump into Hugh’s truck – nothing dramatic, no Hollywood explosions or anything crazy, just two neat holes in the windshield and a mess inside.
It was a mad rush now, getting out of the dirt, gathering all my kit into the vehicle, double tap for each target, no mistakes, must be confirmed kills. We moved the bodies to one side, then got in, with Smudge driving and me in the back. Dust flying into the air, Smudge made a 180-degree turn back to the exchange site where we speedily parked up. Pierre repositioned the bodies and dressed the site to assimilate the kill was made where the information exchange had been conducted. Hugh then arrived and crashed his truck deliberately (he had stolen it that morning), then we were off, all kit, at full pace to the beach. Comms on, and we saw the RIB, our ride home, approaching the beach. I remember stumbling, like an
asshole, into the water and then being lifted up by Smudge into the RIB before the twin V6 Suzuki outboards were at max chat and we were away headed for the horizon.
Forty-eight hours later I’m crashed out on my rack in the bungalow in Diego Garcia. There’s nothing too glorious about the actual kill; it’s the build-up, the anticipation and the fear of getting caught, the fear and excitement of a possible firefight.
I was totally exhausted but relieved it was all over for now. Mission was accomplished, making the Steering Group happy. Now for some downtime. We hit the beach and had a BBQ, cooking up fresh tuna some of the lads had caught that day on their fishing trip. I sat in the sea with my feet up eating fresh fish and drinking ice-cold American piss and it hardly felt like there was anything in the world to care about. We all simply got smashed out of our faces. We were left alone and kept out of sight by the island military police who had the beach secured off as we attempted to destroy every braincell in our heads to try and erase the whole mission from the archives of our minds.
A few months passed and the team and I slid back into island life, filling roles within the military community – customs, aircraft search patrols in the P-3 Orions, and of course Brit ops around the outer islands, which to be fair were just great little holidays, better than anything you’ll find in the Maldives. We did a lot of diving and game fishing. I took two weeks’ leave with Cheesy to Hong Kong and China to see all the tourist shit. We really got ourselves off the grid for a while – made it to the Great Wall, Beijing, Xian, the whole tourist package, staying at the Royal Fleet Club for free. Everything was sweet before we finally got the orders to see through the mission to Romania as promised to Evgeny and the family and disrupt the supply chain from Russia whilst detailing what arms were going where, with a particular interest in what was going to Iraq.
The mission and the methodology employed to cover our tracks appeared to have paid off, and the communications coming out of Moscow were fraught with fear, blame being fired in all directions, including Iraq, Iran and Saudi, as no one seemed to have the truth or a reasonable handle on it. Asad had apparently gone to Moscow to be with the family and there were tensions, not only because of his bereavement but also as to his real intentions or purpose away from Iran. Anatoly was complaining openly about Asad hassling his family whilst he was away from home and at work in Sarov. Everyone from the Steering Group down to the fucking cleaners at GCHQ knew that ‘they’ wanted to know who had killed for the technical information provided by Anatoly. Who were the Arabs at the exchange site? This would all add to the complexities of the Romania trip on which Asad now wanted to accompany Evgeny and Anatoly; it would be a huge risk, and to be in a country shutting down the arms transports into Serbia now that war had broken out, with Asad in the wings, would make everything incredibly complicated.
It was after the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a referendum for independence on 29 February 1992 that the war got underway. In May the war for (the now former) Yugoslavia was firmly in play and it was clear that Erik and Alex needed the trade routes to remain open and continue working in that region. The routes from Romania through to Split had to be kept open at all costs. The onward shipments to Iraq were now erratic and uncontrolled at best now that Mohammed, Asadi and Ahmed were all out of the picture. There was obviously a missing link in the supply chain to oversee those shipments on to Iraq; now that war had broken out, it had all got messy.
With more and more shipments being lost in transit and more than likely diverted to the Bosnia war effort, communications and pressure were building from Moscow for Evgeny, Anatoly and me to become more involved, although it wasn’t clear at this time who exactly the end customers were in Iraq, leading the Steering Group to question if we had been completely successful in the UAE or whether the whole thing had been taken over by a new third party who was at the exchange site. Maybe that had been Asad’s directive, to ensure onward shipments weren’t interrupted, supporting a secure future business platform for new technical papers from Anatoly, and be responsible for all future deals and shipments following his father’s death.
It wasn’t by chance that Alex had become more than a little spooked by the killing of Mohammed and Ahmed and put a halt to the trip to Romania, simply allowing a percentage of shipments to be written off despite the cost and reputational issues. He planned that we would all meet up in Bosnia at a date to be confirmed once he and Erik had revisited the politics, customers and funding. It was clear a new player was on the scene who had yet to be revealed, and it was definitely an Iran/Iraq player but only time would tell.
However, for me it was out of my hands for the time being. We had completed Operation Segment and it had been some 14 months since leaving the UK for the team and myself, travelling through Singapore and Diego Garcia and into the Middle East and back again. I returned to the UK for a full debrief at GCHQ with the Steering Group to then start preparations for what would be known as Operation RIAR. The team and I re-entered the UK, went our separate ways and got off grid whilst the politicians and the Steering Group engineered the politics, the legalities and the funding for Operation RIAR (Russia Iraq Arms Route) and the eventual insertion into Bosnia to uncover the missing links and possibly deal with the splinter groups or terrorist cells which were syphoning off arms from Russia to Iraq and into the Bosnia conflict and the genocide that was underway. I have no doubt that all countries involved at some point gave the green light to the Steering Group to remove those who were undermining the real peace talks and legitimate trading in arms. It was all going to be bad for business for the family in the end.
The Steering Group
Chapter 8
A Dangerous Distraction?
Returning to the UK for me was always a little depressing and this time was no exception, and in addition this was a major step down from the active role I so much enjoyed and thrived on. It was the next four years that were probably the most complex and demanding for me, both personally and professionally. Returning to the navy again gave me an entirely new direction as expected and a safety net to fall into whilst I decompressed and focused on the base job, which I actually enjoyed at that time to be honest.
I left GCHQ and all the issues behind, to disappear off grid for about a year or so into the world of NBCD, and let GCHQ develop the strategies and timings for all the communications to and from Moscow which were now mostly all lies; the innocent letters from one friend to another had all but been used up. The planning for a defection was simply out of my hands and would need to be woven into the fabric of normal operations, the correspondence and other military planning and intelligence. I had submitted a lot of intel and background information that needed to be taken to pieces by the teams at GCHQ with regards to the Russian arms and information deals taking place. The complexities of the Russian operation with regards to piggy-backing legitimate arms deals that allowed for the syphoning of arms to go relatively undetected to so many different locations was going to prove almost impenetrable as everything sat behind legitimate transactions, politicians and delicate relations on all sides.
I think what was of most interest was the technology that I had passed back to London from Sarov and how close it had come to falling into Iranian hands. The possibilities of getting further intel and the fact I may have opened the way for a possible defection opportunity from a major player in the nuclear arms programme in Sarov had made me very popular within the inner circles of the organisation. This allowed Cdr Brown to bask in all the glory.
I guess you could say the Steering Group was probably pleased to stand my team and me down for a while whilst they rebuilt the OPLAN (operational plan). The next few years of SIS involvement within the military followed the developments of Desert Shield & Desert Storm and of course the Bosnian crisis, with Moscow fuelling the workload exponentially. Bosnia was a NATO operation, and the successful planning of multinational military operations required a common doctrine which was aimed primarily at those engaged in
operational-level planning, specifically commanders and staff employed in joint force command headquarters and component command headquarters. As Operation Segment had been purely a British operation, Ben Martin, United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) from the Steering Group, was now well and truly in the driving seat and at the centre of the politics and the planning for Operation RIAR. We would be working with the Americans now, under the wings of NATO.
I joined the Royal Navy NBCD (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence) school in early 1993 following some well-earned leave. The Steering Group and Ben were now deeply entrenched in all the pre-emptive tactical planning that Middle Eastern politics and on-ground developments had led the teams to with regards to Iraq. Saddam Hussein would be toppled and a future all-out war for the liberation of Iraq looked inevitable (this was the period in the build-up to the Iraq War 2003). The team needed all operatives to be absolutely highly trained in all aspects of NBCD defence that had become apparent. Not only did British and coalition intel suggest chemical weapons were now on the move in Iraq, but following the Kuwaiti oil fires that were caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire to 732 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991, the Steering Group wanted specialist operatives with engineering specialisations to be fully trained to NBCD 35 standards for chemical warfare and firefighting issues.
The Steering Group Page 27