by Td Barnes
The mixture of Israeli and American personnel entered a room protected by elaborate security precautions to prevent any electronic eavesdropping activity. The parties seated in groups around a long conference table equipped with microphones at each position. Drop down coverings concealed some maps on the wall while armed guards posted outside the closed door of the room.
Bradley and his entourage stood at one end of the table and the Israeli Air Force Tat aluf, brigadier general, took possession of the other end. Some wore Heil HaModi'in, Intelligence Corps insignia identified by the Fleur-de-lis with half a star. Most, however, wore the Heil HaAvir sword, olive branch, Star of David, and wings coat of arms of the Israeli Air Force. They exchanged quick looks of surprise and interest in his staff of experts exclusively being female personnel wearing the US Army ACU uniform consisting of a jacket, trousers, patrol cap, moisture-wicking T-shirt and the recently adopted Army hot temperature combat boot.
The meeting started without introductions or fanfare with Rafi casually signaling for Bradley to start. Bradley did so with a simple statement. “I am not Charlie, and these are not my angels,” he said, joking about a once-popular TV show. “My staff and I are not here at the will or even the knowledge of anyone but my agency. What you hear today will not go any farther than my boss, and those he feels might have a need-to-know. Believe me, my list in that regard is very short, and his is even shorter.”
He introduced WO1 Burgeson to brief the group on the DIA’s assessment of the key political and military players.
Twenty-four-year-old warrant officer, WO1 Sally Burgeson, an Afro-American linguist proficient in English and Russian, graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in military affairs before joining his military analysis staff. She got right to the point, concentrating mainly on Soviet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s overwhelming fear of encroachment and his aggressive goals of rebuilding Russia’s military to include ten brigades with Iskander-M ballistic missiles with a 500 km range and with special warheads, Russia’s military euphemism for nuclear weapons.
Burgeson decided to leave the rest to the discussions to follow and finished her presentation when she felt that she could not tell the Israelis anything more that they did not already know.
“While Putin has spelled out the actual meaning of 'modernization' and 'innovation' Russian-style, the actions of the Chinese are very different, which I assume Colonel Bradley will cover with you. I am sure there is nothing I can say about the Middle East that you do not already know so I will stand down until we know what it is that the other does not know. We hope that we can then connect the dots.”
Burgeson left the podium to sit down, and Bradley stood up to speak. “Russia is on the bottom of our list of concerns, but we felt we should share our thoughts since they are part of the problem that I’ll address when we get to the subject of Iran. I will brief you on what we know about a new Chinese threat of which you may not be aware, and then we will get to the technical end.”
Everyone perked up and eagerly paid attention to Bradley in anticipation of his announcement at the mention of a new threat. Bradley’s anger showed through his raspy voice while he expressed his opinion of how the United States not only aided the Chinese in developing their missile program but also allowed them to gain a creditor position over the United States through massive debt.
A faint smile broke through, and his voice softened slightly. “Fortunately, our intelligence agencies played a bit of trickery with our politicians and the Chinese. Oh, the Chinese got their missile and rocket guidance systems all right, but they only got what the American intelligence agencies wanted them to have. The Chinese duplicated this technology for their missiles and rockets, using American technology to lift Communist China out of the rice paddies to the point that they are now seeking to occupy the moon."
Bradley could see some of the Israelis anticipating his story while others at the table frowned with confusion and growing concern from his discussing China rather than Iran. He paused briefly to emphasize his now getting to the meat of his message.
“CIA noticed some of the rockets and missiles flanking the Chinese coast overlooking Taiwan being removed from the line shortly after speculation that Israel and the United States would conduct a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if the new round of sanctions failed. China has awakened to the fact that the United States is not continuing its dependence on China’s financing and is making a move to cut off unfair trade practices. The Chinese realize now that it will have a hold on this region and will still be able to pull the financial strings of the United States if China saves Iran from you, the Israelis. Sixty percent of China’s oil travels through the strait so it cannot afford for Iran to lose control of the waterway. China intends for Iran to get its nuclear power one way or another in exchange for China getting its oil. The US Navy is tracking shipments of the missing rockets and missiles while we speak. Two shipments have already arrived in Syria, which is why Syria would not let in the UN and Arab aid to its people or stop the slaughter by its military. Some the short-range rockets are headed to Lebanon, and within the week, the rest of the long-range rockets will be in the hands of the Iranians.”
Shocked disbelief showed on the faces of the Israelis. “The United States allowed this to happen?” Someone whispered.
Bradley moved on to dampen the duration of the shock. “I apologize for our stringing you out to the last moment, but I could do little about it because of politics. That has changed. The Chinese have handed us a Plan B. You might say that we escorted the rockets to ensure delivery. Kim-ling Soong will tell you what she uncovered about the Chinese ship movements, and then I can assure you that Sergeant Harrison will set your minds at ease. "
Thirty-year-old Kim-ling Soong, a Korean-American native of California held a master’s degree in computer and communication sciences from Berkeley. She gained her linguistic skills when her employer, the Defense Intelligence Agency sent her through the language school at the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies where she graduated with linguist proficiencies in the Korean and Chinese languages before she became a DIA HUMINT in Jiuquan, China with a staff of two cryptologists. Soong, tall for her nationality and a drop-dead beauty, drew veiled stares from the Israeli attendees, male and female alike.
Soong flashed her audience a smile to recognize them and then turned deadly serious. She did not want to stand out as being a civilian, so she intentionally let the Israelis believe her being military. Like the others, she wore the military combat uniform of the US Army, but with no indication of rank. “I smell another war. A much more dangerous war than that the world is expecting. I will only say that I recently returned from an in-depth assignment in China, a DIA DCS, Defense Clandestine Service case officer, specializing in battlefield issues.” She smiled. “We don’t call that spying anymore. In the world of political correctness, they now call us collectors. Call it what you wish, but I can confirm first hand without going into frivolous details the removal of thirty-six missiles off the coast of China and that they're being loaded on freighters that the US Navy has tracked here to the Middle East. The missiles shipped complete with nuclear warheads, which means Iran will not have to complete their bomb — they are already a nuclear power and could be operational within a week to ten days.”
Soong returned to her seat, meeting SFC Harrison stepping up to replace her at the podium. She introduced herself and continued where Soong left off.
The Israelis sat immobilized while they digested everything and waited for what came next. They too smelled war. Their latest Intel assessment expected Assad's mixed Sarin Nerve Gas chemical weapons to expire. Israel had also detected the transfer of a lot of primary armaments headed to Hezbollah in Lebanon, catching Assad in the act of distributing "Gifts of mass destruction" to keep from losing the chemical arms to the US, and its allies. Their Intel also reported Syria teeters on the verge of Anarchy with significant killing sweeps throughout the country, bad enough that
Russia evacuated most of their support forces from the state.
During the past month, while Israel prepared a first air strike in Syria against weapons transfer of Iranian-built anti-aircraft missiles, United States troops in Jordan, Israel, and Turkish soldiers remained at "High alert," fearing Iran might retaliate by supporting Syria in a surprise response to Israel. Even as late as two days ago, the Israeli air force reported encountering Russia flying a MiG-31 toward Israel during the night to test its IDF defense response to the US Naval forces now pulled from the Middle East.
Before joining Bradley’s staff, SFC Janet Harrison from Bradley’s systems encryption department had attended two years of electronics at UTEP, University of Texas-El Paso while her father participated in a missile electronics school at Fort Bliss. When he deployed to Iraq, she dropped out of college to work for DirectTV satellite service where she soon excelled in anti-piracy technology to prevent theft of DirectTV’s encoded television download distribution. She served at the time in the Texas National Guard and while attending an encryption school at the Fort Huachuca, Arizona Army Intelligence Center, elected to remain on active duty, not dreaming of anyone selecting her for assignment in the intelligence business.
“Doesn’t this secret shuffling of nuke missiles sound a bit like the Cuban missile crisis of 1962? It is much more severe because the bad guys are fanatics rather than being USSR. Bear with me while I provide you with a bit of technical background that will explain how we advanced to Plan B. You are familiar with satellite TV where a subscriber provides a card with an embedded EEPROM, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory chip that allows in whatever the user has subscribed. With this technology came computer nerds who made it their hobby to pirate free TV reception by hacking the chips. The digital subscription companies did two things to block this theft of television programs beamed from their satellite transponders. They first produced a memory chip containing the embedded control application and interface protocols to recognize the coded signals programmed in with the subscribed program beamed from the company’s satellites. The designs of the chip left entry write holes should a signal pirate remove the authorized programming and replace it with their own to fool the home receiver into accepting unauthorized TV channels."
Harrison noted one of the youngest in the Israeli representation smiling as if he knew exactly about what she was talking. "I bet that little nerd did his share of hacking the TV scripts," she thought. She continued.
"Next, the digital companies developed coded ECM programs that they beamed from their satellites along with the television programs across the face of the earth to the legit home subscribers. If this coded ECM signal identified a pirated Smartcard inserted in a home receiver, it looped the EEPROM code before the pirate could do anything about it, rendering the receiver unable to recognize any signal received from the satellite. The pirates found ways to reprogram the updated ECM program to reactivate the pirated EEPROM chip faster than the digital company could develop an effective ECM signal to locate the weakness of the pirate’s ECCM program. Provider-ECM versus ECCM of digital signal pirates became an ongoing technological hit and un-hit contest with no end, a hobby for electronic nerds and a significant loss of subscription revenue to the television provider. "
She paused and smiled with pride showing her participation in what came next. "No one knew about NSA following the satellite TV technology battle, and General Electric, Loral, and Hughes’s correcting China's inherent guidance problems. The aerospace companies unknowingly give the Chinese military a covert design furnished NSA by Colonel Bradley and my fellow engineers at DIA. Instead of using the chip in a card like the TV industry, in this case, the chip inserted into a circuit board designed to provide NSA with an eight-byte authorization key that told the chips to let the signal in to rewrite an update. This in effect looped the chips where instead of seeing the set coordinates of its target, the missile responded to coordinates reprogrammed by our ECM transmissions. NSA directed the manufacturer to embed write holes in the chips that ultimately ended up in China modeled after the ECM used by digital television providers against pirates of satellite television entertainment.”
She said mischievously. “What happened is that like Colonel Bradley said, our missile companies ordered the NSA-designed chip from China and leaked to the Chinese information identifying the chip being a component of our missile guidance systems. They copied the leaked technology and installed it on their own missile and rocket target coordinate-setting circuitry.”
Harrison paused to take a drink from her bottle of water before continuing. “The United States has satellites in place to provide NSA the eight byte ECM authorization key needed to compromise the guidance circuitry of China’s ballistic missiles when opened for the setting of attack coordinates. This is part of our missile defense system. The satellites will not help you regarding the missiles and rockets headed your way, so our team prepared pods that can be attached to your UAVs and accomplish the same result of our orbiting satellites. You can do the same thing our satellites do when the aggressor opens the write holes to energize the missile guidance systems to change the target coordinates in this region. I suggest that you Intel people address any questions to the colonel while your technical people join me to get some work done. Grab a truck and guards. We brought the pods with us.”
The general jokingly said to Bradley, “Colonel, you have indeed screwed up our war plans. This changes the entire equation. We realize that hatred of Israel and religious fanaticism motivates Iranian leadership more than a desire for self-preservation so Iran will strike us even if we conduct a preemptive strike. With what you are offering, we might be better off saving our resources for defense.”
“We thought it would change your war game, sir. It is the least we can do,” Bradley replied. “I agree with your letting Iran make the first strike since they will hit you either way.”
The general replied. “That certainly saves us some jet fuel, not to mention headaches and lives.” He slowly shook his head in thought. “It will take some serious thought on how we wrap our minds around such a dynamic change in war plans. You have apparently shared with us some very dark secrets about the US missile defense that we did not know about. We will reciprocate by revealing something that the US most likely does not know. Frankly, up to now, we considered a Jericho III missile launch to detonate an electromagnetic pulse warhead over central Iran. Did you by chance bring any other war strategy with you?”
“General, you forget. We were never here,” Bradley said with a grin. “We are glad that you too have a Plan B.”
****
In the Strait of Hormuz - Twenty-three hours earlier
The ship crews settled in for a long wait only to be surprised when the Rabin and the Ben-Gurion Comm centers received a coded message that both captains shared doubts having authenticity. Their recall did not make sense. Nonetheless, both signals passed the authenticity tests, so the submarines followed their new orders to make a stealthy strategic retreat from the strait and head home at top speed once they entered open waters.
The decision to bring the two submarines home from the Strait of Hormuz was not strategic since Israel still maintained second-strike capabilities with its nuclear-armed Popeye Turbo cruise missiles.
The Israeli leadership initially felt that they needed to stop Iran at all costs, even with military force, however, after meeting with Bradley and his staff had decided to influence the direction of the war by taking the defensive using the missile defense provided by the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
They recalled the submarines because it made no sense to leave them in harm's way under this circumstance. Keeping the Strait of Hormuz open for transport of oil no longer mattered.
Israel’s two submarine captains caught up in the whirlwind of surprises were not alone. The Israeli president and prime minister likewise required adjusting their thinking to a defense strategy rather than that of engaging in a preemptive strike. They
turned their attention to defending their country’s near ten million citizens living along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea surrounded by Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, and Egypt and the Gaza Strip to the southwest.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did little to calm Israeli fears about Iranian intentions when he told a rally in Tehran “the Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumor” and warned against leaving a single cell of them on Palestinian land in the future. "The nations of the region,” he added, “will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land and the new Middle East will emerge with no trace of either Americans or Zionists.” This only encouraged the Israeli air force to prepare to use the nuclear option to survive. Even with the support of the United States, Israel’s survival in a preemptive strike to decapitate Iran’s warmongers depended on its Jericho III, two-stage solid-propellant missile carrying a one-ton non-conventional warhead.
****
T minus 2 days.
The crappy weather that started before Bradley departed on his trip to the Middle East continued. Each day, a front of thunderstorms appeared on the western horizon to arrive around 1600 hours, working meteorologists nonstop at the TV stations to track the storms and update weather advisories that too often became hail or tornado warnings.
Tom and Stacey Bradley battled the weather while hurrying to the airport, reminding them of a similar trip during monsoon season while stationed in South Korea. Today, they were escaping all this for a trip to Nevada on DIA business with a week vacation to spend some time with their son and daughter. Stacey had spent the past week preparing for the journey, which entailed a shopping trip for a new cocktail dress and a bathing suit for their stay in Las Vegas.