Elevated Threat

by William Robson

  In private talks with US officials, the Chinese diplomats declared that they believed the US claims that the intelligence community had not yet determined the origination of the cyber-attacks, and the Chinese even agreed to postpone any more formal responses about the situation until the identity of the perpetrators could be determined. Despite the assurances given from the US politicians, once the Chinese diplomats were back behind the closed doors in Shanghai, Unit 61398 was ordered to activate every worm and virus they had pre-planted in US corporation computers. The Chinese decided it was time to extract every piece of information from the US that they could. They knew that the US would be working feverously to lock down everything they could.

  The Shàngjiàng (General of the Army) was given a directive from the highest level of the Communist party to increase the size of all computer espionage teams by 25% percent by the end of the year. The information war was going to heat up.

  The Iranians were not amused with our response either. Still, our leaders were caught completely off guard when the Ayatollah issued a directive to everyone in Iran to use all their talents to assail the unbelievers using all available technology in their control. After his directive, the incidences of worldwide internet espionage against the West began to increase dramatically. Fortunately, the majority of the web assaults were unsophisticated. They were however widespread and there simply is no way to prepare for that many individual electronic assaults against such a wide set of possible targets.

  June 11, 2015

  Washington, DC

  11:30 AM EST

  In a small secure office deep in the bowels of one of the NSA’s secret rooms, top-level officials from their respective agencies held a clandestine meeting. The NSA sent the director and a small intelligence staff. The CIA provided its Director and three of his senior officers. The Secretary of Homeland Security attended with an aid. The Senate Security Committee had all sixteen of its members present. The White House sent the President’s Senior Security Advisor.

  The meeting had five agenda items:

  1) Address the security requirements needed to protect the US from the Iranians new broad-spectrum internet attack.

  2) Address the security requirements needed to protect the US from the expected onslaught of hacking by the Chinese.

  3) Discuss the estimated probability that another rogue ETF computer could be out there somewhere lying in wait to cause another stock market disaster.

  4) Discuss what was known about who was behind the Iranian and Chinese attacks and what the motivation behind them was. Were the attacks intended to be direct attacks on the Chinese and Iranians, or were they meant to generate blowback on the US?

  The meeting lasted for eight-and-a-half hours. Notes were duly taken. Opinions were expressed, often forcefully. Despite the usual rhetoric and some defensive posturing from the teams, good ideas were put on the table and several options were created to present to the President. One thing was abundantly clear to everyone in attendance, they still had way more questions than answers.

  MANIFESTO

  Name: Jonathan Cain Masters

  Age: 68

  Nationality: US

  Education: Rhodes Scholar Arizona State. Specialized in Political Science.

  Professional History: Forty-two years in Arizona politics as lobbyist for the liquor industry. Divorced and converted to Islam in 2004. Investigated in 2008 about questionable donations to Lebanon charities known to support Syrian terror groups.

  No record of employment in the last eighteen months.

  Family history: Father (Samuel) and Mother (Annett) ran a small home business.

  Current whereabouts: Unknown

  Current watch-list status: Red

  June 28, 2015

  Seattle, Washington

  Contrary to the rest of the informed world in this day of instant news, Clyde liked to wake up late on Sundays, run down to Starbucks for a turkey-bacon breakfast sandwich with some apple juice, and then sit in his downstairs reading room to see what the Seattle Times had to say about the world around him. Sure, he was reading yesterday’s news, but the way he saw it, most of the news he read didn’t need to be known right away anyway.

  Anne Kowanger was a completely different animal. Perhaps it was just because of her job, but she had the tweets, her smart phone and news apps constantly buzzing, beeping, and pinging her about the latest updates about everything going on everywhere. By the time Clyde had opened his Sunday paper and saw the front-page news about the terrorist manifesto, she had already read it twice. Anne was already querying her contacts to try and find out if anyone knew where it came from or what group was behind it.

  After the bio-terror reports had begun surfacing yesterday, every reporter seemed to be in a state of panic and any new information was being desperately sought out. This front-page message, sent directly from the terrorists themselves, was almost over the top. It was eagerly consumed by the American public.

  The manifesto was becoming inescapable. It was being referenced just about everywhere on the web. News about it ran constantly on every channel on TV, and every paper in the nation had the full text of it on their front page. By the time old-timers like Clyde had read their Sunday papers, it was a good bet that every sentient being in America that was able to read had read every word. The manifesto presented a direct challenge to the United States unlike anything ever distributed to the public. No doubt every US security organization was hard at work trying to figure out who was behind it. The political challenge of how to counteract the claims it professed were like nothing the White House staff had ever faced. Every state and national political office was called to action to try and figure out how to control the psychological effects it presented. The only thing about the manifesto that was completely understood was who wrote it. The author had signed his name, Jonathan Cain Masters.

  A Declaration of Retribution to the Unbelievers

  Please let me start with an introduction. My name is Jonathan Cain Masters. I am working with a large group of likeminded individuals who have been directed by the Almighty to exact a holy retribution against the oppressors of the holy lands.

  Your government has thus far been unwilling to share with you the truth about us and our activities. Therefore, the responsibility has fallen to me to educate you about us, and to explain to you why you must now endure the afflictions that have started to rain down upon you. This declaration, and all the information in it, has been prepared for us by the Holy ones. Now we must declare the truth from the mountaintops as directed by God.

  You may ask why these words from us should be believed. The answer, is that, unlike your government, we want the entirety of our message to be heard. We understand that going public with these truths will make it easier for you to eventually find us. We are not fools. Your strength is still mighty. But by the time the last of our brothers have been discovered by your government officials, our earthly work will have been completed and all the events that must take place will have been put into motion. Once these events are underway, no one but God himself will be able to stop the inevitable march toward righteous retribution upon you. We plan to become martyrs like the brave brothers that have gone before us. The glory for us will then be even greater.

  The truth must also be told by us because you must understand why this retribution has been ordained against you. It is not enough for you to just pay for your past crimes. No, the offender must be made aware of what he has done to make offense. Only in this way will the offense never be repeated. Thus, the entire world must be made to understand the truth of your activities and your guilt. Since we know your government officials will only continue to lie to you about our activities, it falls to us to take on the responsibility to speak the truth to you.

  The first question I can answer for you is why this wrath has been unleashed upon you. For centuries you have plundered and emasculated the holy lands and its people. From the days of the Crusades down to the current times, Western civi
lizations have forced the True Believers to bow down to their power. You have used your money to corrupt us, you have used your ideologies to blind us, and you have used your military might to subjugate us. You have set up puppet kingdoms on our lands which have allowed you to steal our resources while keeping our people marginalized and hopelessly under the thumb of tyrants.

  Many martyrs have gone before us with the goal of releasing the holy lands from the unbelievers. Some of our brothers have turned their energy into overthrowing the traders and tyrants from among our own people. Those devils who chose to oppress their own people from within. Many of our lands have been recently released from these oppressor’s hands and have been returned to the righteous ones because of the true brother’s glorious effort.

  Others turned their energies toward fighting a righteous jihad against the unbelievers who had subjugated us. But when the righteous ones fought you with the sword, you possessed the gun. When the righteous ones acquired the gun, you had the cannon. For centuries the will of our brothers was strong, but the might necessary to reach the ultimate goal was unavailable. Today, by the grace of God, we have gained the technology that will enable us to humble those who have humbled the innocent for so long.

  As proof that I speak the truth, let me present these facts of our current mission.

  A New Beginning

  Our planning and training began in 2012 when several of our associates first met and began to understand their unique calling. These original brothers successfully developed a method to alter the design of a biological organism which God created. It became increasingly clear that this new genetically designed organism would allow them to achieve our goals. After a limited test of this new organism in Syria, they knew His hand was with them. When other brothers saw the power of what the originators had created, and came to understand the possibilities that their creation provided, they too felt the calling and desired to join the cause. As each new brother joined us, they brought with them a new skill that strengthened our ability to succeed in the ultimate quest. Before long, we had the operational capability to strike and the numbers and skills to make the strike deadly. And strike we are.

  Our retribution will be exacted in three ways.

  Strike at Your Gluttony

  Your cruise ships are a perfect metaphor for your extravagance and hedonism. What better way could there be for you to demonstrate the grandeur of western excesses by packing a billion dollar ship with every piece of opulence you can find and then providing the ravenous travelers with every sort of gluttonous delight. But you are not satisfied with simply wallowing in your own filth of opulence. No, you then take these manifestations of excess to countries where people can barely earn enough for bread at the end of the day, and you parade the ships in front of them as ambassadors of your greed.

  The satisfaction was beyond words when we realized how easily we could dispatch even the greatest of these disgusting ships, the Maurou, to the depths where it belongs. If we can sink your new flagship of greed so easily, imagine the speed at which your older vessels will be dispatched to the depths. We now hold the key to these ship’s navigation systems. With those keys now firmly in our hands, your ships will one by one join the Maurou where they belong.

  Our second mission against these disgusting merchants of greed was designed to make you choke on your own delights. Even though we only used the first version of our founder’s biological product on the mission against the Deep Sea, virtually no passenger escaped untouched by the wrath it unleashed. Only a small sprinkle of the product left in a vegetable bin was sufficient. Our second and third versions of retribution will be even more potent. Once unleashed, no one will be spared from its reach.

  What should be of the greatest concern to you is that we carried out these first two operations against your gluttonous display right under your protector’s noses. This should serve as proof that they can no longer save you from us. Despite their claims, your government agencies were fully aware that we had carried out these acts from the minute they occurred. We even tipped off your FBI to our plans for future attacks, and yet what did they tell you? They claimed these events were just terrible accidents. Is it not yet clear. They want you to buy more tickets and enjoy the feast. Your government must not think you are worthy of the truth. The truth is that the billionaires who own these ships and the companies that get rich off of their excesses will never be satiated, even at the cost of your very life. Rest assured, our efforts to eradicate every last vestige of these evil ships has only just begun.

  Strike at your Valuables

  Ah, but what about the internet? What a wonderful tool it is. Access to any information can be gained at a finger’s touch. But every gate that swings open also swings closed. For the rich and powerful among you, it has been used to amass wealth beyond all imagination. They have learned that by controlling the networks, they can extract more of your money from your pocket and even manipulate the world’s commerce. The information that it puts in their control is being corrupted to benefit the few over the needs of the many. What they do not yet understand is that those of us who do not wear the blinders of greed, can use those very same tools to remove the ill-gotten gains from the master’s grip.

  All the years you spend striving to make your golden years peaceful and secure are being controlled by unthinking, uncaring machines. He who owns those machines owns your future. And now, by the grace of Allah, we own the machines.

  Don’t believe me? Have you checked your stocks lately? Naturally, you have been told it was the Chinese, or the Iranians, or maybe even North Koreans that have plundered your secrets along with your retirement savings. You have been told that because you know who they are, and you believe that they can be dealt with. But even the bounty of those countries are run by machines. Machines which are also now firmly in our control. The enemies you think you have, are just as clueless to our capabilities as you are. You have seen what we have been able to do in just two day’s time. Imagine what we have planned to do in the days ahead.

  Your leaders will no doubt try to reassure you as they always do. You will be told how your economy will bounce back even stronger. And you will be asked to persevere and sacrifice for the good of the country. You will be asked to keep your trust in the stock market, and by doing so, you will be able to watch it grow to be the world’s leader once again. What your leaders won’t tell you is that the genie is out of the bottle. The knowledge of how to control the information that controls the machinery of your commerce has been released into our hand. From this day forward, the value of your commerce will respond to the will of the brothers.

  Strike at Your Heart

  Our bodies are a miracle of design. They function without thought or effort. But they are very fragile. Small alterations in the design of any of the myriad organisms that surround us can upset the balances we need to survive.

  In April, we were ready to field-test our first biological product we designed to upset that fragile balance. Five shipping containers were sent to five cities on your West Coast with a sample of an early version of our contagion on board. In four of those cities your security apparatus was able to detect them. One shipment was not detected and reached its target. You should be asking your authorities why they never acknowledged the biological agents they found on the containers or why they never admitted that they did not discover the one we sent to Los Angeles. Could it be they were more worried about shutting down the commerce at the ports and protecting their flow of money than in keeping you safe?

  Early this month we sent a second shipment to you. In this delivery we added a test version of one of our dispersal systems. We intentionally tipped you off to the danger lurking in this new shipment. Your FBI recognized the new threat and moved the ships back out to sea, which was exactly what we hoped you would do. That precaution prevented all other incoming ships from delivering their goods. By blocking the incoming shipping, we were able to make you pay with the very thing that you hold most dear,
your money. Despite the initial lies your leaders created to try and protect your trade, we were still able to bring your commerce on the west coast to a standstill. The world’s investment markets soon demonstrated their faith in your ability to protect them. Untold billions of dollars were lost on such a simple mission. What reason do you have to maintain faith in a government that cannot protect you and continues to lie?

  What has your government told you about our missions on the northern border? Why have the Canadian officials been so quiet? It’s even easier for us to ship products into the US from Canada, yet no mention of this has appeared in your news. Curious.

  Far more valuable to us from the West Coast shipping mission than watching you lose your precious dollars, was getting copies of the histology reports on those unfortunate souls who were affected by the aeration of version two of our product. Since human testing for our research is difficult to come by, even for us, these reports provided invaluable information to help us learn how to alter our gene modifications in order to make our next version even more potent. The infectious and mortality rate of version three of our product is already proving to be far higher than version two, as you will soon be learning.

  By the time you read this message, our most elaborate operation so far will be well underway. The very water that sustains you will have been compromised. There is no escaping the need for water. For years, your oil companies have stolen our precious water to supply themselves in the oil fields while the innocent ones suffered with raw sewage. Now, the Almighty one has given us the skill to engineer an organism that can survive your water treatment plants and deliver its message of vengeance to you directly from your water faucet. Do not worry, the pain will be great but it will not last long. Soon after you will be filled with peace.