The American Terrorist

by Ron L. Carter

The day before Doug left, he sat down and went through his check-list to make sure he had everything he needed. After going over everything a couple of times he hitched up his Mercedes to the motor home and went to the local gas station and filled up all the tanks. He packed enough clothes in the motor home to last him for a few weeks. He had it parked out in front of his house and ready to go early the next morning. That evening he called Randy and told him he would be gone a few weeks and that he wasn’t taking any cell phones with him so there wouldn’t be any way to get in touch with him. He asked Randy just to keep an eye on the place and make sure it didn’t burn down. The next morning Doug was up around 4:00 a.m. anxious and ready to get going. He had already showered and shaved and could hardly wait to take the sixteen hour drive to Seattle. It was a nine hundred and sixty four mile trip so he thought he would stop somewhere around Medford, Oregon at one of the rest stops and get a few hours of sleep before driving on to Seattle. Before he left he took Michael’s dog tags and put them around his neck. He looked at himself in the mirror and could hardly recognize the person he had become, our new mission starts today Michael, and I promise you, I will kill the terrorists for what they have done to you.

  The place where he was headed was the campground at Washington State Park. It is along the saltwater shoreline on Puget Sound and has one of the most scenic views and wildlife watching in the United States. The park has three hiking trails and Doug knew he would be using one of them. The campground was located halfway between the cities of Tacoma and Seattle. He thought this would be a perfect spot to set up his camp. The park had all the amenities that he needed to stay for several days if he had to. Once there he had to purchase a park pass for his motor home and his car and made sure he paid for everything with cash. He thought it was really nice that they had a café and espresso stand in the park. He wouldn’t have to go far to have his breakfast and lunches each day.

  After he got everything situated with his motor home and relaxed for a few hours he decided to take his Mercedes and go into Seattle to check things out. He had read articles about a Muslim training camp in Seattle and that it was visited by a former Seattle resident who was sentenced to two years in federal prison in return for his cooperation with federal investigators. He was a graduate of a local High School, and a Seattle entrepreneur who converted to Islam. He became an associate of a militant London cleric who was one of the people that praised the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. This was just the type of place Doug was looking for. (11)

  Doug thought he would do some investigating around town and ask people a few questions about the Muslim activity in the area. He went to a secluded area and put on his Muslim disguise and headed down town hoping to run into a few Muslims he could talk to regarding meetings or training activities. The disguise was a perfect cover because he didn’t want law enforcement to know that a clean cut doctor was asking questions around town about the Muslim organization just before one of their facilities was blown up. After a few hours of asking questions at different locations he was able to find out exactly what he needed to know. He found that a few of the homeless guys were his best source of information. They were more than willing to talk about anything they knew about the Muslim organization if he slipped them a few bucks. He found out it was common knowledge from the people in town that there used to be a Muslim terrorist training camp located about twenty miles out of town in a very secluded and wooded area. A couple of the guys he talked to said they heard the Muslims used to do target practicing at the camp. They also thought the place had been shut down a few years ago by the Feds. He got the general direction from one of the guys and decided he would take a drive to where they thought the camp was located in the woods. When Doug arrived at the location there was a locked gate and no one was around. He looked over the area to see where people would park their cars inside the camp and also where they did their shooting. The area had weeds grown up over most of the camp and it looked abandoned. He was very disappointed to find that this would not be a good target for him.

  After surveying the area he drove back into Seattle to locate a mosque he had researched and was going to target. There were a couple of Muslim mosques not too far from the main part of downtown Seattle. One of them was the one that he had read about that had suspected ties to several Muslim terrorist organizations. When he got to the mosque there were people that were dressed in the traditional Middle Eastern attire. After everything he had read there weren’t a lot of so called innocent by-standers in this suspected terrorist mosque. If these people were allowing materials to be distributed from their mosque that said “destroy Israel or Americans” then he knew they were his targets. It was a typical building sitting between two other commercial buildings and separated by about ten feet of empty space on each side. It had a little area that looked like a front porch that was about eight feet wide by twelve long. Once Doug was satisfied this was the mosque he drove back to the campground and got some much needed sleep.

  The next day Doug wanted to spend the entire day doing a little more poking around to see if he could find out more about the mosque without bringing a lot of attention to himself. He put on his Muslim disguise and parked his car about four blocks away without it being too conspicuous and walked to the mosque. After several hours of mingling with the people and listening to their hatred of the Jews and Christians he was certain about blowing it up. Once back in his car he took off his disguise and put it under the back seat and went back to the campground. He waited until it was dark and loaded his C-4 bomb, along with his remote control detonator into his hiding place under the back seat of his car. He had some time to waste until midnight so he decided he would go to the Space Needle and have dinner. The restaurant rotates in 360 degree turns as you are eating. He really loved the view of the City from there with all the lights and thought it was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. He just wished he had Shirley, Jenifer and Michael to share it with. After dinner it was getting time to head for the mosque to see what was going on and it looked like everyone had left the building by the time he arrived.

  He drove to the spot he had picked out earlier to park his car and waited until around 1:00 am. He put on his black sweat shirt and the black ski hat and took one block of the C-4, a detonator and the small entrenching shovel and put them in the black metal detector bag then carried them to his target. His heart was beating fast as he came up from the back of the building and crept slowly between the two buildings hoping not to be seen. His plan was to plant the bomb next to the porch. He dug a very small area behind a plant, put in the block of C-4 and detonator and lightly covered it. The entire ordeal took less than fifteen seconds and that part of his mission was done. He went back to the campground and tried his best to get some sleep but was having a hard time. He tossed and turned most of the night as he kept thinking about his targets and Michael. He was finally able to go to sleep in the late hours of the morning.

  When Doug got up the next morning he took his camera and went walking around the campground and took pictures of the ocean and wildlife. He was so nervous from the anticipation of his attack he could hardly eat anything the entire day. It was like everything was in slow motion most of the day. When evening came he strapped the detonator to his chest and headed back to Seattle. He drove past the mosque and there were men standing outside the building talking. He drove to the spot where he had earlier planned to park his car and then began to walk toward the mosque. As he got within striking distance of the mosque, he hit the detonator button and in a few seconds the entire front of the mosque exploded in a thunderous explosion. At first he was shocked at the size of the blast as he went down in a ducking motion. He heard people screaming and running. When he looked back all he saw was flames and debris flying in the air. As he straightened up he was thinking, Take that, you terrorist scumbags. I hope I killed a lot of you. He quickly turned and walked in the direction of his car. When he got t
here he took off the remote detonator and put it under his back seat, got in the driver’s seat and just sat there for a minute and let out a huge sigh of relief. As he sat there in silence he said, this was the first one Michael but there will be many more. There is no turning back now. Even though he didn’t feel like he was a terrorist like the people he was pursuing, by killing people with his bombs, he had become one of them. He was now “The American Terrorist.” He drove back to his motor home and by the time he got there he was drained from the emotion of actually bombing the mosque. Even though he didn’t know the extent of the damage he had caused, he was sure it was huge from the size of the explosion.

  The next day everyone in the campground was talking about the explosion at the mosque and he asked his neighbor in the camp next to him what had happened. The neighbor excitedly said, “According to the news reports someone or some group blew up the local Muslim mosque and killed sixteen people and wounded about twelve others.” Without showing any emotion Doug just shook his head it’s a shame I didn’t get more of them. Deep down inside he was very satisfied with himself for carrying out his mission successfully without getting caught. He spent the rest of the day re-hooking his car to the motor home and getting ready to head to Portland.

  Doug’s next target was one hundred and seventy four miles away and a three hour drive to Portland. He was going to stay at the Jantzen Beach RV Park, located on the Columbia River. The campground was beautiful and downtown Portland was only about seven miles away. He had decided he was going to visit the Washington Park in Portland while he was there. They have the world famous Rose Test Gardens, Japanese Gardens, Zoo and breathtaking views of Mt. Hood. He thought he might as well do some sightseeing while he wasn’t busy concentrating on his next target.

  When Doug arrived at the campground in the early evening he set up his motor home and had a sandwich and milk with a few cookies and just relaxed. He wanted to get a good night’s sleep before he went after his next target. At first it was hard to sleep, he kept rewinding the explosion of the mosque in Seattle over and over again in his mind. After reading about Portland having six Hamas sympathizers that were convicted of conspiring with Hamas to plot against targets both in America and abroad Doug wanted it to be his next target. He had read about a suspected terrorist training camp that was located about twenty five miles outside of Portland. He didn’t know where it was exactly but he was going find out. The training camp was near a little town called Blain, Oregon about fifty miles east of Klamath Falls. This is where about a dozen Muslim men had been seen by a local resident taking target practice on several occasions. According to authorities they thought the site had been abandoned but he was going to find out for sure.

  The next day Doug was on the hunt once again for his target. He unhooked his Mercedes and headed into downtown Portland. He wasn’t going to leave Portland until he found the terrorist training camp he had been reading about. He tried his luck again with the homeless people on the streets of downtown Portland and after talking to several of them and getting pretty much the same answer he wasn’t able to pinpoint the exact location of the camp. Finally, one of the guys said, “Go talk to someone in Blain and they will be able to tell you what you want to know.” Doug thanked him for the information and gave him a few bucks as he turned and walked away and headed in the direction of Blain. When he got there it didn’t take long to find the general location of the camp. The people in town were aware of it and not real happy about it being there. The area was a secluded wooded area about ten miles out of town.

  It took Doug some time to find the exact spot that was being used by the terrorists; it was hidden away deep in the woods away from the main road. When he arrived at the location there was no one around. There was a gate with a lock to the entrance and no way to drive into the place. After surveying the area for a few hours he drove back into town and went to a local mosque and picked up some pamphlets that were being distributed by the local Muslim organizations. Because he was fluent in the Arabic language he was able to read the information and it told about their next meeting and what type of meeting they were having. It didn’t seem suspicious but he knew he had to spend a little time in Portland to find out what and where his next target was going to be. He didn’t really want to blow up another mosque at that point. He desperately wanted to hit the terrorist training camp where they had been testing their weapons. After a few days of searching, he found that the Muslim group was using the training camp he had been to a couple of times per week. He decided this was his next target, but he had some time to relax before he wanted to plant his bombs.

  Saturday morning Doug woke up and grabbed his camera, jumped in his car and headed to the Rose Gardens and the Japanese Gardens in Portland and spent the day just walking around and taking pictures. As he strolled through the Gardens he couldn’t stop thinking about Michael and his next target.

  Sunday evening after dark he took six of the I.E.D.’s and placed them under his seat, along with the entrenching tool. He then headed for his target and when he got there he parked his car about a quarter of a mile away in the woods hidden out of sight. He carried the I.E.D.’s and the entrenching tool in the black metal detector bag and slowly made his way to the shooting range. He picked out several spots around the parking area of the camp and dug holes and meticulously planted his I.E.D.’s with their pressure plates attached. When he had them all planted he made sure the spots looked as natural as possible. He went back to his car and put the black bag and entrenching tool under his back seat and drove back to his campsite. He bedded down for the night knowing that his bombs had been planted and just waiting for their intended targets to arrive.

  The next morning Doug had breakfast, packed everything up, checked out of the campsite, and headed back to Visalia. On the way home he listened to news reports on the radio but there wasn’t anything about any attacks in Portland. He stopped in Redding on his way home and spent a few hours sleeping and taking pictures of Mt. Shasta before he drove on to Visalia. When he got home he unhooked his car and put everything away. He was finally able to sit down and listen to the news once again. CNN news had a report regarding several cars that were destroyed and six Muslim men were killed near Blain, Oregon. A few others were wounded from what appeared to be I.E.D.s like the ones used in Afghanistan and Iraq. The report said that it appeared they had been placed in a remote parking area that was used by Muslims. The report also said the attack in Seattle seemed different in nature but had some similarities to the bomb material that was found in Portland. It said that when the police and firemen arrived at the mosque in Seattle and finally had everything under control they found terrorist types of pamphlets, leaflets, and other material inside the mosque that said horrible things about killing Jewish and Christian people.

  Doug was happy because he had accomplished his goal of killing some enemy terrorists and also exposing their terrorist motives. He was sitting at home almost a thousand miles away, having a glass of red wine and feeling very satisfied with what he had done. When he later went into the bathroom, he got a look at himself in the mirror and he had a huge angry look on his face as he gritted his teeth and smiled. He went into Michael’s room and said out loud, “at least I got a few of them Michael. I promise I’ll get a lot more for you. My mission has just begun.

  He called Randy the next morning just to let him know that he was home. He spent a week going back to his old routine of making more I.E.D.’s, and reading more information on the Muslim Terrorist organizations.

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  Chapter 11 - San Francisco and Santa Clara