Soft Target 04 - The 18th Brigade

by Conrad Jones

  “The amount of explosive found was trace only, meaning that there is still around six kilos of military grade material on the streets, obviously now in the hands of an expert, willing to use it to kill.”

  “Is there any indication whom is behind the explosion,” asked the Major, annoyed that the taskforce hadn’t been supplied with the forensic information already.

  “Only supposition, a military veteran certainly,” the Cheshire police chief spoke.

  “The 18th Brigade is full of army veterans,” the American spoke for the first time, attracting a hardened glare from Janet Walsh.

  “There is no evidence to suggest that the Brigade is involved in any criminal activity,” she snapped. The room fell back into a confused silence.

  “We must assume that whoever attacked Rashid Ahmed attacked him because of the allegations that he is dealing arms to the Taliban,” Tank interjected, “which would suggest that they are either veterans or still in service.”

  “You`re assuming too much,” the Minister sniped. Tank didn’t understand her reluctance to implicate the right wing extremist group.

  “We should open a full investigation into the 18th Brigade and their activities, and we should stop them operating their business until we have done so,” the Cheshire police chief seemed to gain his voice from somewhere. The minister stared at him angrily and shuffled uncomfortably.

  “Is there a problem here that we don’t know about?” Major Timms said, sensing the tension between the police chiefs and the government aides.

  “Yes there is,” the policeman blurted. “It`s been a whitewash from the start. We are being gagged and I for one need to know why or you can have my badge right now.”

  “A little dramatic Chief Constable,” Janet Walsh shot across the table.

  “Can someone answer the question please, is there any evidence that the Brigade are involved in the death of Rashid Ahmed`s wife?” Tank tried to steer the meeting back on track.

  “There is no evidence at all that they are involved in any criminal activity,” the Minister repeated herself slowly.

  “So if we accept that as a fact then why are we here?” the Major asked.

  “We need to find that missing Semtex for a start,” she answered.

  There were confused glances passed around the table. The subject of the meeting was still not crystal clear.

  “Then that is a military issue,” the police chief piped in.

  “Not if the explosive is now in the hands of civilians,” the American officer countered.

  “Why do you think it is in the hands of civilians?” Tank asked.

  “Because some of it was used to build that roadside bomb,” he answered.

  “Which we all agree was built and detonated by someone with extensive military knowledge,” the police chief added, becoming frustrated again.

  “That takes us back to the 18th Brigade again,” Tank teased the insinuation into the meeting, fishing for more information.

  “There is absolutely no evidence that they are involved in this attack,” the Minister reiterated the point.

  “This is bullshit! If we don’t clear the air here then I`m going public on the issue,” the American officer stood up and stared across the table at the politician.

  Janet Walsh stared back at him for a long moment, and then dropped her pen onto the table annoyed at his outburst.

  “We have a standoff gentlemen, and I`m afraid that we are being held over a barrel,” she began.

  “Oh spit it out woman!” the police chief was purple in the face. Tank thought that the policeman was going to have a heart attack if he didn’t calm down.

  “It is a matter of national security, and I must remind everyone of you that what we are about to discuss is strictly secret and highly confidential information,” she said, ignoring the policeman.

  She engaged everyone individually with her eyes, cleared her throat and continued.

  “At the moment our armed forces are at breaking point, as are our allies. The Americans have one hundred and eighty thousand combat troops in Iraq, and a further six thousand in Afghanistan. The pressure being applied by Iraqi insurgents means that every embassy, control centre, hospital, power station, oil field and every member of staff that work in them, have to be protected night and day.”

  “Our troops are all committed to fighting the insurgents in the north of the country, and chasing down Iranian insurgents crossing the borders to resupply the militias,” the American added.

  “Our American allies have introduced the use of private security companies into the theatre of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, predominantly as close personal protection teams,” she explained.

  “Mercenaries,” the Major interrupted.

  “We prefer the term, private security companies,” the American replied.

  “Well you would, wouldn’t you, but they are still mercenaries,” the Major replied politely.

  “That is public knowledge, so what is the point?” Tank asked.

  “It is not exactly public knowledge,” the Minister said coyly.

  “What is the point?” Tank repeated his question growing frustrated with the way she was skirting around the issue.

  “It is the number of private security company employees which is causing us a problem,” the American said.

  “The General is correct. There are now more private security company men than regular soldiers, and every one of them is absolutely essential to the war effort,” the Minister added.

  “Could you please tell us why we are all here,” the police chief was growing increasingly annoyed every minute. Tank smiled at him but his face remained stony.

  “The contracts that were first introduced by the American State Department held both impunity and an immunity clause in them, and they have never been changed since,” the American General explained a little further. “The behaviour of some of their employees has been somewhat reckless which led to an FBI investigation into the events surrounding Nisour Square last year.”

  “For those of you not familiar with the incident seventeen innocent unarmed Iraqis were slaughtered by four armoured vehicles packing 7.62 millimetre machineguns, which are anti-aircraft weapons by the way,” Tank hated mercenaries, but these guys were something else.

  “Yes quite, thank you for that,” the General coughed embarrassed and continued. “We identified six individuals within the Blackwater patrol that had used their weapons unlawfully, and they were incarcerated ready for deportation. Blackwater invoked their impunity clauses and then informed the Whitehouse that they were withdrawing their troops from Iraq with immediate effect.” The General left the words hanging in the air.

  “How many troops do they have there?” Tank asked.

  “At that point there were one hundred and eighty thousand in Baghdad alone.”

  It was obvious to everyone in the meeting that had Blackwater removed their troops from Iraq there would be a huge void left behind. The role of close personal protection required immense manpower which the regular armed forces didn’t have to spare.

  “Okay so they blackmailed the government into submission, and telegraphed the strength of their immunity clauses to every mercenary soldier employed there,” the Major summarised.

  “Correct Major, except it has not just been telegraphed to every private security employee employed there,” the Minister swallowed hard before she spoke again. “The contracts apply to all their contracted employees.”

  “What? Even when they are in their country of origin?” the policeman asked flabbergasted.

  “Technically no, but we still have this huge threat of the withdrawal of troops. The company directors cannot take on any employees without the clause in place, or no one would do it. Who would fight a war if there was a threat of being jailed in a foreign prison? It is a very complicated situation,” the General tried to clarify the position.

  “All this is very interesting, but what has it got to do with us?” the Chief Constable of G
reater Manchester asked, breaking his silence.

  “We have mercenaries over there already,” Tank answered his question without really knowing the answer, but it made sense. The British government had entered into immunity contracts with a mercenary company from within the British Isles.

  “That`s correct,” the Minister said curtly.

  “Surely the government hasn`t hired the people we are discussing, not 18th Brigade employees, please?” Tank said.

  “Yes, we do have some of them deployed in Iraq, but they are working as subcontractors the American Blackwater troops as well as a number of other trial companies,” she replied.

  The room was stunned into silence. The ramifications of this kind of information hitting the press were mind boggling. If the regular armed forces personnel demanded the same protection from prosecution then the defence of the realm could go into meltdown.

  “How many 18th Brigade men have you employed?” Tank pressed.

  “That`s confidential,” the Minister battened down the hatches.

  “Roughly,” he probed.

  “Several hundred.”

  “So, this meeting is to tell us that we can`t investigate any 18th Brigade employees, and if we do we are wasting our time because we can`t prosecute them?” the Major said.

  “Partly,” the Minister answered.

  “Good god, you mean that there is more?” the police chief quipped and sniggered.

  “Yes, we must discuss Rashid Ahmed,” she answered, staring directly at him.

  Tank sat forward in his chair. He knew there was a reason why the Minister was so adamant that the Brigade weren`t connected with the attack on Ahmed. A picture of Rashid Ahmed appeared on the screen. He was much younger and he was holding a Kalashnikov rifle, surrounded by men wearing Afghan robes and sporting Islamic beards. The director of MI5 stood up and walked toward the screen.

  “Rashid Ahmed has been working with us for the last three years. He has been using his well established contacts to help us to supply the Taliban rebels with arms and munitions. The arms caches have all been supplied by our own intelligence agencies. Every single rifle and pistol that has been sold in the last three years is tagged electronically, and can be tracked by satellites. This operation has led to the discovery and disposal of several high ranking officials of al-Qaeda,” the director looked very pleased with himself and a little too smug for Tank`s liking.

  “We spent three weeks investigating him when his arms dealing activities hit the press,” the Major complained.

  “That`s unfortunate for you, but it adds to his credibility abroad I`m afraid, all part of his cover,” the director dismissed the comment.

  “Who leaked the information to the press?” Tank asked, annoyed.

  “We don`t know actually, but once it had been reported the situation was managed as well as it could be under the circumstances,” his smugness was making Tank nauseous.

  “Are we to assume that he`s now in protective custody?” the Major asked.

  “I`m afraid that`s confidential,” the director replied, enjoying the attention.

  “Then why are you telling us this if you refuse to expand, there is no relevance to anything?” the police chief asked, incredulous.

  “Because the press attention around Rashid Ahmed may have been sparked by a leak,” the Minister interrupted. “If there is a leak then the attack on Rashid Ahmed may have been carried out by Islamic extremists, alerted to the fact that he is working with British intelligence agencies against the Taliban. It would make him a target for sure, and the report carried out on the explosion by the Terrorist Task Force, identifies the device as being similar to those used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, if I`m not mistaken,” she explained and stared at Tank for a response.

  “The device was similar, but the use of Semtex as a catalyst explosive is not consistent with an Afghan type device. The use of a catalyst explosive such as Semtex is a Special Forces technique, definitely a Western built device,” Tank answered, he didn’t buy into her theory at all.

  “You`re still leaning toward it being a Brigade operation, despite the lack of incriminating evidence aren`t you Agent Tankersley?” she asked.

  “And you are adamant that they`re not involved, and I think that there is a reason behind that Minister, something that you haven`t yet divulged,” Tank countered.

  “Rashid Ahmed has had close personal protection since the press coverage first began, but he may not have been aware of it,” the Minister replied partially.

  “Obviously the public`s perception is that he is supplying arms to the Taliban illegally, and therefore we can`t be seen to be protecting him,” the MI5 director interjected.

  “He isn’t being protected by the 18th Brigade surely,” Tank smiled, already knowing what the answer was.

  “Yes he is, but that isn’t the problem,” the Minister interrupted. She asked for the remote to be used to move the images on a few places.

  The picture on the screen was a confusing one, but shocking none the less. In the centre of the digital image was a burnt out truck, which looked similar to something you would see in a `Raiders of the Lost Ark` type movie. A driver`s cab, with a long wide flatbed cargo space behind it, once covered by a canvas tarpaulin. The canvas cover had been destroyed by fire leaving only a metal skeleton behind. The rubber tyres had been consumed by the inferno, and the body was a blackened hulk.

  At the foreground of the picture was a knee high pile of what looked like transistor parts, untouched by the fire, left as a message to someone. Behind the pile of electronics was a row of wooden spikes, each one topped with a freshly severed head. The scene looked like a macabre coconut shy from a fairground in hell.

  “This is the aftermath of an ambush, which took place in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan a week ago. The ambush was carried out by Taliban fighters, who were collecting a large cache of AK-47 rifles and RPG-3 grenade launchers,” Janet Walsh spoke with a gravity which matched the dreadful scene behind her.

  “We think that there was a leak,” the MI5 director chipped in, pointing to the pile of electronics. “This is what`s left of the electronic tags that were attached to the weapons. They were detected and removed, and then left to tell us that they are aware of what we were doing. Since this incident we have lost the signals from all of our trackers, bar an isolated few.”

  “The problem is that we have another large shipment on the ground, eight hundred miles north of this spot. We don’t know if the Taliban in this area are aware of what has been happening further south. They have no radio communications because they would give away their positions. So we have no way of knowing if they know the weapons are tagged or not,” the Minister of Defence glanced at Tank momentarily.

  “Who delivered the ambushed cache?” Major Stanley Timms asked, sensing there was more to this issue. He was thinking along the same lines as Tank.

  Tank knew where this was going, and he flushed red angrily. He had the feeling that the Terrorist Task Force was about to be deployed as bait in a deadly game of chess.

  “A troop of Afghan Special Forces,” the MI5 director answered.

  “Afghan Special Forces,” Tank repeated, “they would hardly be my first choice option to deliver weapons that will be used to kill our own troops.”

  “That is why the issue is so sensitive Agent Tankersley, virtually all the new weaponry owned by the Taliban has been sold to them by Rashid Ahmed, with our blessing,” the Minister explained solemnly. “We have been able to track them everywhere they moved for the last three years, but now they are completely lost. We also have the issue of the next arms deal, do we go ahead and risk more Afghan troops, or do we pull the weapons out totally and scrap the whole project?”

  “Well you need to isolate the leak first and foremost,” Tank said.

  Janet Walsh nodded in agreement, and walked back to the horrific image on the screen.

  “We cannot afford this to become public knowledge, it`s far too complicated,”
she continued.

  “Complicated? That`s an understatement,” said the police chief sarcastically.

  “Who knew that the weapons were tagged?” Tank asked.

  Janet Walsh looked to the intelligence director to reply. He shuffled back to his feet, obviously uncomfortable at being scrutinised now that the truth was out.

  “At first only we did, but we think that Rashid Ahmed may have realised what was going on. He began to be a little less cooperative about a year ago, spouting on about betrayal. No one else knew what was going on, not even the electricians that fitted the tags. We couldn’t afford the public finding out that we were putting weapons into that theatre, especially when the body count was rising on a daily basis,” the director said.