“Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, without further ado I would like to introduce to you the Lieutenant, who will brief you on the Frequent Flyer operation,” said Admiral Humphrey.
Lieutenant Graham stood up to speak. “Well, gentlemen, welcome to Frequent Flyer. We have direct recent intelligence which tells us that high-ranking Libyan officials are evacuating Libya on a weekly basis, and are being given asylum on Isla Margarita.
“Our mode of transport will be arriving presently, in the shape of a Soviet Beriev. You may even be familiar with this type of aircraft, Sergeant Puzanov?” Turning to the projection screen behind him, the Lieutenant pulled up a black and white picture of the aircraft. It looked like something from a science fiction movie.
“Yes indeed. I wonder how you got your hands on something like this,” said a grinning Alex.
The Lieutenant began to flick through further photographs on the screen. “Gentlemen, I give you the Beriev-be12Nkh, an experimental amphibious military transport. Manufactured at the height of the Cold War, this Soviet built aircraft is capable of touching down on land and sea. The standard Beriev-Be12 was the principal water-based military aircraft of the USSR, and there were over one hundred and forty of them built during the Cold War, with various Soviet Bloc states putting them into service. Most were used as maritime patrol aircraft, light bombers or search and rescue aircraft. There were two military transport versions built. The variant which you see here, known as the Be-12Nkh, was significantly greater in size than the standard Be-12 and was capable of flying longer distances. Today, there are only two remaining in active service. One is in the service of the Russian Government and is used by the Russian Navy to quickly get transport supplies to ships who cannot make it to port through the ice fields in the Barents Sea.
“The other was a gift to Muammar Gaddafi from Leonid Brezhnev, following Gaddafi’s overthrow of King Idris in 1969. As a result, Libya and the Soviet Union enjoyed cooperation on a military level and good relations throughout the Cold War,” explained Lieutenant Graham.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Libya held onto the plane, and from 2000 onwards Gaddafi was said to be keen on using the aircraft as his own personal Presidential plane, on the basis that it was capable of water landings and take-offs.
“Rumour had it, Gaddafi was actually petrified of flying over land,” said Lieutenant Graham.
Indeed, the concept of flying in a seaplane was more appealing to Gaddafi, as he could fly in the knowledge that he could safely touch down on water in the event of engine failure. Following a test flight with Vladimir Putin in 2001, it was suggested by Putin, as a further gesture of goodwill, that Russia would take the plane and refit it to ‘Presidential Standards’. On 7 June 2002 (Gaddafi’s birthday), the refitted Beriev was duly returned to Gaddafi as a birthday present from Putin.
In more recent years, during his tenure as Chairman of the African Union, Gaddafi had become a major supporter of the Caribbean. One of his more questionable beliefs was that Caribbean Islands with populations of African heritage should be eligible for membership of the Union. As such, he frequently made flying visits on his Beriev to the islands, including Haiti and the Dominican Republic. With the Beriev, he could also easily get to certain Caribbean islands which did not have landing strips and were therefore accessible only by helicopter or boat.
“We understand that this is the plane he’s recently been using to get his top brass over to Venezuela in preparation for the pending coup in Libya. Intelligence would suggest that he’s trying to create a government in exile in the event his government is successfully overthrown,” said Lieutenant Graham.
According to intelligence, the Venezuelan government were quite content to facilitate high-ranking officials fleeing Libya. Lieutenant Graham went on to explain how the Libyan government had recently been provided with a series of landing codes so the Venezuelan Air Force could verify incoming aircraft carrying Libyan officials.
“CIA have now compromised those landing codes, and we will be using them to land in Frequent Flyer,” said Lieutenant Graham.
Given the speed with which the operation had been thrown together, a casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that time was of the essence. In truth, it was. The international powers were working around the clock to get agreement that Libya be declared a no-fly zone. If that were to happen, then Frequent Flyer would not be able to take place, as flights out of Libya would be banned.
Despite the little time available to plan Frequent Flyer, every detail had been addressed to an impressive level. The CIA had even borrowed a few ideas from history to ensure the Venezuelans didn’t notice they had been tricked once a heavily armed and predominantly white task force exited the aircraft on the tarmac.
“Agency staff on the ground observing the Del Caribe “Santiago Mariño” International Airport have indicated to us that all Libyan officials arriving on Isla Margarita have so far travelled in blacked-out limousine motorcades,” explained Lieutenant Graham.
“Raid on Entebbe, Israeli Special Forces, 1976,” said Admiral Humphrey.
“Exactly,” said Lieutenant Graham.
The ground transport had been carefully sourced to maintain the necessary effect. In fairness to them, it must have been quite difficult to locate and purchase two identical 1980 Mercedes-Benz 600s on twelve hours’ notice. Additionally, the team would be travelling with two armoured 4x4 Land Rover Defenders.
Lieutenant Graham produced a map of Isla Margarita. Del Caribe “Santiago Mariño” International Airport was located on the eastern side of Isla Margarita, approximately thirty miles from their destination. The target was located at Hotel Margarita, on the Royal Laguna Estate, which was on the North West side of the Isla Margarita on the Macanao Pennisula.
“The hotel is situated in 923 acres of secure parkland. Everything inside the parkland is state-owned, including the hotel, and it is widely regarded as Chavez’s very own Venezuelan equivalent of Camp David. The target has allegedly taken up the entire top floor of the Hotel Margarita,” explained Lieutenant Graham.
The CIA were able to provide the operation with a significant amount of intelligence on the island. This really shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise. After all, at this time, Venezuala had the biggest oil reserves of any country on earth. Moreover, along with Cuba it was one of the few nations hostile to the US that sat right on its doorstep. Therefore, the US had numerous eyes and ears on the ground.
“It seems that the target has already been busy in the past week hosting meetings with local as well as foreign officials,” said Lieutenant Graham.
The hotel sat about a quarter of a mile inland from the beach and from the team’s evacuation point.
“When we land, our transport will take off and proceed back to Ellington under cover of darkness. We will be extracted from the beach to the north of Hotel Margarita. We have several inflatables, and the plan is to row out in a group, rendezvousing a mile offshore. Fast Navy Rigid Inflatables will be stationed two or three miles offshore. They will approach our position and collect us upon our signal,” said the Lieutenant.
Flight time was estimated to be fifteen minutes from the Nimitz to Venezuelan airspace. By the time the team would exit the airport and make it through the necessary checkpoints, it would be 0030 hours. The motorcade would then travel across the Isla Margarita to the hotel compound.
“If local intelligence is correct, the police and security are prepared for arrivals of this nature, and upon the code being given you should have the benefit of a police escort to the entrance of the hotel, thereby negating any potential issues with local law enforcement,” said Erin Rhodes.
It was a complex scenario, but the team received assurances that it was the best way to avoid detection. When they entered the hotel compound, the police cars would cease their escort.
“We will then commence a three mile journey through the forest of the compound. It is here that the SEAL team will exit the moto
rcade and position itself on and around the hotel. The remainder; that being Agent Montpellier, Elvis, Captain Trimble and Sergeant Puzanov; will pose as armed guards alongside our selected actor Nasser Murat from Qatari Special Forces. Mr. Murat, please?” said the Lieutenant.
Nasser stood up to speak. “Salam alay kum. I am a Colonel in the Qatari special forces. I have recently been on the ground in Libya assisting the rebel fighters. I have experience of the Libyan situation and their culture. I will be impersonating Omar Sanallah, the Junior Minister for Oil.”
The Lieutenant pulled a picture up on screen of Omar Sanallah. Nasser’s resemblance to Sanallah was uncanny.
“It is hoped that given the time of arrival at the Hotel, things will be pretty quiet and the international team can proceed to their rooms under the pretext that the Minister is tired after a long journey,” said Erin.
In line with usual practice, the members of the team would each be supplied with a significant quantity of US dollars in case they had to buy their way out of any situation.
“This money is to be used exclusively in achieving the objectives of your mission. Bribing local law enforcement, or even hotel security or army is fine. However, it needs to be justified, and you will be asked to account for it upon your return to the Nimitz,” explained Erin.
Once inside, Nasser and Paddy would locate the target while Alex and Elvis would provide the SEALs with commentary from within.
“When ready, Paddy will cut off the power supply in the ground floor basement, while Nasser will commence placing incendiary devices on the fourth floor. This will block the hotel security’s route to the top floor and ensure that they can’t crash the party. Once the incendiary devices are activated, that will be the SEALs signal to storm the top floor and snatch the target,” said Lieutenant Graham.
The plan was to neutralise the target with a sedative, making him incapable of drawing attention to himself during the escape. It was estimated that it would take five minutes to get to the beach from the hotel with the target in tow. By that stage, members of Special Naval Warfare Development Group would have set up a perimeter around the evacuation point.
“Oh yes, and I almost forgot, International Military Call Signs will apply in Frequent Flyer. Well, gentlemen, now that that’s out of the way, I would like to introduce you to Captain Paddy Trimble. The Captain will provide you with a proper background and profile of our target,” said Lieutenant Graham.
Paddy lifted his laptop off the desk and walked to the lectern, pausing briefly to shake Admiral Humphrey’s hand as he passed him. He connected his laptop to a projector cable and a power point presentation appeared.
“Subject 42
Briefing to the UN Security Council Military Strategy Sub-Committee (The 1540 Committee)
Captain P. Trimble, Special Prosecutor’s Office, International Criminal Court
2 March 2011”
“Hello everyone. As it says here, I’m going to give you the same presentation I gave to a Sub-Committee of the United Nations Security Council, namely the 1540 Committee,” said Paddy. The 1540 Committee was established by the UN to unmask the global key players in the black market proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Part of this committee’s mandate lay in the targeting, arresting and removal of individuals contributing to illegal proliferation networks.
“Our target is Dr Ludwig Von Gunten, or the Mechanic as he has come to be known. He is a Swiss National…” began Paddy.
“Why the Mechanic?” interrupted Lieutenant Graham.
Paddy flicked onto a new slide showing a black and white photograph of the Mechanic during his younger years in Holland.
“He was a metallurgist. Most people specialising in nuclear projects were engineers. As a result he was initially looked down upon by many of his peers, and his first boss at CENCA called him ‘the Mechanic’. It was probably intended as an insult; however, the name stuck,” explained Paddy.
The Mechanic was born in Zurich on 17 January 1939. He received a degree in Physics with Mathematics from Cambridge in 1957. In further studies, at other institutions across Europe, he gained an MSc and Doctorate in Uranium Metallurgy. In 1971, he joined CENCA, outside Amsterdam, working in uranium enrichment.
One evening in February 1972, the Mechanic managed to gain access to CENCA’s archives under the pretext that he was working late and sending letters to family back in Switzerland, where his brother had allegedly taken ill. That evening he fled the Netherlands, but not before managing to steal almost two hundred documents relating to uranium enrichment. At the time, CENCA Group had handed him the drawings of centrifuges for the mathematical solution of the physics problems in the gas centrifuges.
“Uranium enrichment is an impossible process without the technical information to rely upon. These documents would have been extremely dangerous in the wrong hands,” said Paddy.
It took years for Dutch authorities to figure out what he had done with the documents. Meanwhile, the Mechanic had made his way to Pakistan where he had been accepted by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Nobody at the time knew why he had done this; however, it was later revealed that the Mechanic had married a Pakistani bride and had children by her.
“Given the threat posed by a nuclear-armed India during this time, I understand that a young Von Gunten felt it was his god-given responsibility to protect Pakistan. He even converted to Islam. I think his purposes were genuine at this time,” said Paddy.
“Well, he’s a war criminal now,” interjected Alex.
“That’s correct, and after he achieved the bomb for Pakistan, he went out on his own, selling his special knowledge to the highest bidder. In the 1970s and early 1980s, his business grew exponentially. Instead of just selling knowledge he began trading in materials, which led many to consider him the father of the modern nuclear black market,” replied Paddy.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Mechanic had amassed a fortune buying up what many considered to be obsolete technology from former Soviet Bloc states. However, it was his alleged activities within the last ten years which really brought the Mechanic to the attention of Western governments. Since the 2000s, there was evidence to suggest that his customers included North Korea, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government, Iran and Syria. However, there was also evidence to suggest that he was selling to extremist Islamic terrorist organisations since 2000, including Al Qaeda and so-called emerging ‘Islamic State’ organisations.
“We understand that his base of operations during this period was somewhere in Central Africa, probably in more than one location. Indeed, the intelligence which led us to believe the Mechanic was still alive came out of Central Africa,” explained Paddy.
Following Paddy’s appointment to lead the investigation into the Mechanic, the SPO agreed to establish a multi-national task force to investigate the possibility that the target was still alive.
“We expected this operation to take a considerable period of time. Starting in October 2010, I went about independently following up on leads, liaising with INTERPOL and Scotland Yard,” said Paddy.
Paddy spent several weeks interviewing weapons inspectors, nuclear scientists and known arms dealers. The object was to draft a report which would provide an indication of the size and scope of the task which faced the SPO in tracking down the Mechanic.
“We needed to gain an understanding of the sorts of circles in which the target would be operating. In my view, the only way to discover this was to move in those circles,” said Paddy. The SPO also needed to gain a better understanding of the supply chains. There were a number of free agents that operated in the field and set up the meetings. Their role, though lucrative, was arguably the riskiest.
“We arranged four meetings in the first instance, in Paris, Bogota, Johannesburg and Macao. In most cases the SPO hired local actors to portray the buyers. For example, for the South Africa meeting, we literally hired a look-alike of Mohammed Omar Osman, the second in command of the Ogade
n National Liberation Front in Somalia,” said Paddy. “Our persistence began to pay off, and we were certainly zeroing in on the Mechanic’s last known areas of operations - and those he had been dealing with.”
A few months later, in what could only be described as a ‘fake Sheikh‘ operation, Paddy posed as a member of private security to meet with a known associate of the Mechanic in the Venetian Hotel in Macao, China.
“The meeting took place on the pretext that the ‘Sheikh’ was planning to use WMD to overthrow the Hosni Mubarak regime. The revolution had already commenced by this stage, giving the meeting an air of legitimacy. Our actor posed as a senior general in the Egyptian Army who was seeking a method of killing Mubarak which would implicate Russian involvement. This would mimic the radiation poisoning that killed Alexander Litvinenko in London,” said Paddy.
It was well known that Mubarak was propped up by the West. Given the power struggle which was unfolding, Russia might have been expected to do something bold. Indeed, a Russian backed high-profile coup in the Middle East would have been perfectly believable. Early 2011 also signalled a new round of negotiations of tariffs for the Suez Canal. China was known to be extremely outspoken about the tariffs, particularly given its recent interest in African natural resources. Therefore, there was plenty to implicate China in the coup as well and the location of the meeting seemed to fit the circumstances.
“We rendezvoused with the Mechanic’s representative in the Bellini Lounge, just off the casino floor. The representative left us a note to go to a particular suite in the hotel. When we got to the room, we discovered that the person we were actually meeting was the Mechanic. We were all stunned, but we had to maintain our composure,” recalled Paddy.
The Keepers of the Persian Gate Page 2