by Oliver North
After watching Skillings and Nievos enter the terminal and the van depart, the Russian got back in the military truck and it drove away, headed for the airport exit. The two large American SUVs waited for thirty seconds after the green vehicle was out of sight, then departed for the exit ramp as well.
As they entered the terminal, Skillings and Nievos, never exchanging so much as a glance or a word, separated immediately. To anyone watching them on a security camera positioned inside the building, it would appear as though the two men did not know each other. The Marine proceeded directly to the LACSA counter and Nievos, lugging the large Pelican case, followed the signs toward Baggage Claim. He took an escalator down one level, passed the baggage carousels, waded through the crowd, and walked to the same exit portal he had used just four days earlier.
Before stepping outside, Nievos confirmed that the white van with the big number seven on the side was beneath the “Valet Car Service” sign. After checking to make sure that the green military vehicle was nowhere in sight, he walked out of the terminal and straight to the van. Four minutes later, Skillings exited the same door and followed the same path to the vehicle, this time entering the large, sliding side door.
As Skillings slid the door closed, Emilio put the transmission in gear and immediately drove off. The young tech-rep who had said nothing through this whole experience looked absolutely stunned. As Emilio guided the van into the traffic flow on the airport exit road toward Caracas, the specialist finally found his voice. “How did you do that?" he asked Nievos and Skillings.
The sergeant major looked at the young man and said, “Do what?"
“How did you get a reservation on a flight to Costa Rica? How did you get back here?"
Skillings chuckled and said, “As soon as I saw them following us I sent General Newman an emergency message on my D-DACT. I then sent a second message to Major Bowes, back in Washington, asking him to make me a reservation on the next flight out of Caracas to any other country in the western hemisphere. He made the reservation on the LACSA flight and sent the information back to my D-DACT. It arrived just before we got stopped by our Russian friend."
“What if they check to see if you boarded your flight?" asked the tech.
“The young woman at the counter was very sympathetic that my injured leg was much too painful for me to fly and refunded the cost of the e-ticket. We agreed that I would make another reservation next week."
“Where are we going now?" the technician asked, still looking apprehensive.
“We're going back to the warehouse to send a very interesting report to Washington," answered Nievos.
“Good," said the young man, looking relieved. “I really have to pee."
Oval Office
________________________________________
White House
Washington, DC
Friday, 02 November 2007
1930 Hours Local
“In the last twelve hours we have had bombs go off on trains in Manhattan, Atlanta, and Chicago and a bus in Los Angeles—and a group claiming to be the 'Islamic Brotherhood in America' has claimed credit," said the President, clearly showing the strain of the continuing crisis. He was seated to the right of the fireplace, and in an identical chair to his left was the Vice President.
The split oak logs burning on the grate behind them were fast turning to embers as the Commander in Chief continued, “Dan, you say these new attacks here aren't connected to what's going on in Saudi Arabia. That just doesn't make sense to me. And with more than thirty dead Americans and nearly a hundred injured, I don't believe that, given the earlier threats from this ‘Islamic Brotherhood’ outfit, our citizens will see them as unconnected events."
“Sir, right now, everything the FBI, ATF, and our EOD personnel have learned about these attacks indicates that all four were different types of explosives," replied the SecDef, seated beside Gen. George Grisham, on the couch to the right of the President. He continued, “New York, Chicago, and Atlanta were apparently suicide bombers. In Los Angeles it was probably a timed device left on a bus."
“That's correct, Mr. President," interjected Sarah Dornin, the Homeland Security Secretary. She was seated beside Secretary of State Helen Luce on the couch opposite Powers and Grisham. National Security Advisor Jeb Stuart, Chief of Staff Bruce Allen, and Bill Goode had pulled up chairs with their backs to the rain beating on the dark windows behind the President's desk. Secretary Dornin continued, “It's going to take law enforcement forensic teams days, if not weeks, to sort through the evidence and figure out who did this, but everything we know about these four transit system bombings indicates that they're the work of ‘independent operators’ who are simply trying to take advantage of the current situation."
“How do we conclude that?" asked the President.
“Well, first, there's the timing," answered the DHS Secretary. “The Times Square blast was first, at 0729. The Atlanta attack, on the MARTA train to the airport, wasn't until almost noon our time. The blast at the elevated train station on Randolph Street in downtown Chicago occurred at 4:05 p.m. our time—3:05 Chicago time. And the one on the bus in LA didn't happen until a little over an hour ago—about 3:15 in California. They weren't coordinated by time, type of explosive, or even effectiveness. The one in LA went off on an empty bus. Those aren't the signs of a well-planned, coordinated attack."
“Well, in New York and Atlanta, the news media are reporting that they have claims that this is the work of the ‘Islamic Brotherhood in America.’ That sounds coordinated to me," said the President.
“Well, sir, we also have a similar claim delivered to a TV station on Chicago that they have not aired," answered Dornin. “But the FBI believes that Atlanta, Chicago, and LA are ‘copycats.’”
“Copycats?" the President repeated. “Who were they copying?"
“Probably the bomber in New York. But the only thing that they have in common is that each was an exploding homegrown bomb. The New York bomb was the most sophisticated; the bomber in Atlanta used a black powder pipe bomb, and the ‘claim of responsibility’ note spells America with a ‘k’—and the one in Chicago did so as well. The bomb in LA was not much more than a ‘Molotov cocktail’ with a primitive timing device. This is further reason for us to conclude that all four events are independent of one another—probably the work of radical Islamic clerics in each of these cities who have been talking about this kind of action for years. We think that when the radicals in Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles heard about New York, they just called up some of the kids they had trained to die and sent off the first available volunteer in each case."
“Any sign that they are taking orders from leaders outside the country?" asked the President.
“Inspiration, yes, direction, no," Dornin replied. “There are undoubtedly ‘sleeper-cells’ operating here that we don't know about yet, but all the ones we have broken up so far have been operating independently, much like a franchise operation. It's been that way pretty much since after 9/11. The radical imams preach hatred and how to die the ‘right’ way in their local, radical mosques. They recruit a few young men—sometimes even young women—and send these ‘volunteers’ off for training in Pakistan, Syria, or Iran. When these ‘warriors’ come home, the local imams just wait for what they think is an opportune moment for these kids to become martyrs in their jihad."
The President was silent for a few moments pondering this information. To the others in the room it seemed as though George Washington was looking down on their meeting from the Gilbert Stuart portrait above the mantle. The current Commander in Chief then said quietly, “I think it's important that I visit each of these sites—at least New York, Chicago, and Atlanta—tomorrow."
“Well, sir, if you do, we've got to make these trips fast—in and out— no prior announcement other than to local law enforcement through the Secret Service," said the SecDef. When the President didn't respond, Powers continued, “We've got to be in very close contact with you tomorrow.
That's easy on Air Force One, but with all that we've learned today, we may need your authorization for certain operations."
“Give me the gist, Dan," said the President.
Powers nodded and said, “Today we got the first real intelligence breaks since this crisis began, Mr. President, and I think we now have at least some definitive proof that the Iranians are behind this ‘Islamic Brotherhood’ organization and that the Russians—or at least some Russians—are helping them. I think it would help if Bill Goode summarized all that we have learned in the last few hours."
The President nodded and said, “OK, Bill, give us the executive summary."
The CIA's Operations Director had left Langley at 3:00 p.m. for the Pentagon and then the 4:30 p.m. National Security Council meeting in the Situation Room. He had now been away from his office for over four and one-half hours. Yet, every few minutes throughout the afternoon and evening he'd been receiving updates from the CIA's Operations Center via the D-DACT he now carried with him constantly.
Goode began, “Mr. President, let me try to go through this chronologically. On Monday night, at our request, a British communications intercept unit, with the help of Norwegian Intelligence, established a mobile monitoring site near Grense Jacobselv, on the Varanger Fjord—it's about eighty miles west of Murmansk. They began intercepting Russian military, intelligence, and commercial satellite communications on Tuesday."
“Why didn't we do that with one of our subs?" asked the Commander in Chief, looking at Gen. George Grisham.
“Because we couldn't get one there fast enough, Mr. President," responded the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
The President nodded and Goode continued, “Late Tuesday—actually it was early Wednesday morning in the Persian Gulf—a U.S. Navy Special Operations unit severed a fiber-optic cable between Tehran and Riyadh. This time we used two subs, Mr. President—the USS Jimmy Carter and a mini-sub with SEALs aboard. We cut this communications link in an effort to disrupt what we believed were instructions flowing from Tehran to Riyadh."
“Did all this stuff work?" asked the President.
“Not the way we expected," admitted Goode. “Early Thursday morning, the Norwegian intercept site monitored a commercial telephone call to the Gorky Nuclear Weapons Research Facility outside of Moscow. Doctor Oleg Zhdanov—using a GSM/GDSM cell phone—had placed the call from Caracas. Back in the '80s Zhdanov used to be a deputy director at Gorky, and he's an expert on nuclear PAL codes."
“What's he doing in Venezuela?" asked the Commander in Chief.
“We don't know yet," said Goode. “But we're pretty sure he isn't on a winter holiday. According to an old defector debrief done in 2005, Zhdanov was spotted in Tehran and then at the Iranian Nuclear Research Facility in Tabriz—in the company of Gen. Dimitri Komulakov."
“Isn't this the fellow mentioned in one of your reports several days ago?" asked the President.
“Yes, sir, but now there's more," replied Goode. “Early this morning, shortly after the New York subway bombing, the Norway intercept site began monitoring encrypted voice and then data traffic on a dedicated commercial satellite downlink in Murmansk. A company called Filaya Petroleum Services—a Russian-Saudi joint venture headed by Dimitri Komulakov—leased this dedicated channel yesterday on the Eurosat system.
“He's a busy fellow, and he may be bad," said the President, “but I don't see how this proves anything about the current situation."
“Well, sir, the British GCHQ site in Jordan and their ‘stay behinds’ in the Saudi capital have been monitoring communications in and out of the Filaya Oil complex in Riyadh since this all started on October fourteenth. According to GCHQ, the traffic in and out of the Filaya building dropped off immediately after the fiber-optic cable was severed on Wednesday. Yesterday, they started monitoring all kinds of communications—in the clear—being broadcast by radio in Farsi—from a building across the street from the Filaya complex. Then suddenly this morning, the Filaya building emissions picked back up again—simultaneous with the new traffic being picked up off the Murmansk satellite hub. Shortly afterward, one of our NSA satellites monitored a very brief sat-phone call in the clear to a commercial phone number in Tehran. NSA believes that the voices on the call are Ali Yunesi, head of Iranian intelligence—and Dimitri Komulakov."
The President, grappling with the arcane language of Signals Intelligence, asked, “But what do these pieces in the puzzle show us, Bill?"
“By themselves, an incomplete picture," admitted Goode. “But they tie in with other things we have learned. On every one of the pirated Saudi ships and planes that have been captured or detained, there has been at least one Russian crewman in addition to the ‘Islamic Brotherhood’ types aboard. All these vessels and aircraft have been modified to carry a nuclear weapon—and all were supposed to be heading for Caracas. A Russian captured by the British when they took down that pirated Saudi vessel off Algeria has admitted that he was recruited by Komulakov's principal deputy, Nikolai Dubzhuko—the man who seems to be running the show from the Filaya building in Riyadh."
“Well, isn't it time we took out this Filaya building in Riyadh?" asked the President, turning to his Secretary of Defense.
“Perhaps, sir," responded Powers, “but there's one more crucial piece of intelligence."
Goode continued. “While we were dealing with the bombings here in the U.S. this morning, one of Gen. Peter Newman's Special Ops teams—in Caracas on another mission—discovered a significant source of radiation in a military hangar at the Simon Bolivar airport. One of the members of this team, a Marine sergeant major named Skillings, also made a positive ID on a person we've seen before, a Russian GRU major named Gregor Argozvek. According to our data, Argozvek worked with Komulakov when he was the KGB Rezident at the United Nations."
“What's the source of the radiation? Is it a nuclear weapon or weapons?" asked the President.
Before Goode could answer, the President turned to the SecDef and said, “Dan, earlier you told me that you thought this Komulakov person was working for or with the Iranians. Is he doing this from Caracas?"
“We don't know the answer to those questions yet, Mr. President," answered Powers. “But if you're going to be traveling tomorrow, I'd like to have your authority to carry out the following operations if we find it opportune: First, to take out the Filaya site in Riyadh—and this newest ‘Islamic Brotherhood’ place across the street. Second, we're positioning the USS Dallas off Caracas and the USS Virginia at the mouth of the Gulf of Maracaibo. If they make a positive ID on any of these pirated Saudi vessels coming or going out of those ports, I want the subs to sink 'em. Third, I'd like to have your permission to take Newman off his primary mission and to give him the task of finding out what's causing the radiation in that warehouse."
The President paused for a moment before answering, then asked, “How would you ‘take out’ the Filaya site, Dan?"
Powers turned to Grisham, who said, “We'll leave it up to CENTCOM, but when I talked to them about options they said they'd likely use JDAMs from B-52s out of Diego Garcia. That gives us the advantage of accuracy and a good ‘stand off’ safety margin if someone has figured out how to use the SAMs that the Saudis left behind."
“OK, do it, when you're ready," said the President. “On your second recommendation, is there any way for the subs to tell the vessels to stop and see if they will surrender?"
“Sir, we thought of that," said the SecDef. “But Admiral Coolidge at SubLant was quick to remind us that the men on those captured Saudi yachts are suicidal fanatics. If they have nuclear weapons aboard, we stand to lose a submarine and crew if the ‘jihadis’ aboard those ships get a warning."
Again the President contemplated the consequences of his decision and then said, “Go ahead and give that order. Let's reduce this one to writing though, Dan, just in case the captains of those submarines have to respond to criticism from some quarter later on. If anyone is going to take the heat for this, let it be me."
The SecDef nodded. “I'll have a National Security Decision Memorandum over to Jeb tonight for your signature, Mr. President." Powers paused a moment and then said, “How about General Newman, sir?"
“Isn't Newman in Caracas to carry out an...ah...an assignment for the Commission on Threat Mitigation?" the President asked euphemistically.
Powers almost said the word assassination, but then thought better of it and replied simply, “Yes, sir."
“If we pull him off his primary mission, we're going to get blasted by Senator Waggoner and his allies in Congress—especially after the bombings here today," said the President.
“Well, if there are nuclear weapons in that hangar, this is certainly ‘threat mitigation’ if there ever was such a thing," said Powers. “How about we ask General Newman if he and his teams can do both—as long as the missions don't conflict with one another?"
“You're a hard man, Dan Powers," said the President with a humorless smile. “OK, go ahead, as long as Newman's missions don't ‘conflict,’ as you put it."
Air Force One
________________________________________
35,000 Ft Over Cleveland, OH
Saturday, 03 November 2007
0915 Hours Local
The President walked back into the Staff Quarters of the big Boeing
747 as soon as he finished reading the morning intelligence brief. They
had left Andrews Air Force Base for New York at 0545, and he hadn't had a free moment until they took off for Chicago. Frank Kilgannon, Secretary of the Treasury; Energy Secretary Sam Browning, Sarah Dornin, Secretary of Homeland Security; Chief of Staff Bruce Allen, and National Security Advisor Jeb Stuart arose as he approached the table where they had been huddled around mugs of hot coffee.
“Your remarks to the ‘First Responders’ and the families of those killed and injured in the Times Square attack were right on the mark, Mr. President," Dornin volunteered.
“Thank you, Sarah," he replied. “I just wish we could offer more than promises that this will stop." He motioned for them to sit down, slid into a chair himself, and said, “I just read the FBI assessment that the New York, Chicago, and Atlanta attacks were all ‘home grown’ suicide bombers. If they're right, at least two of these kids were born here in America, grew up among us, and still came to hate us enough to kill themselves trying to kill other Americans. The press will probably have that from Senator Waggoner before we get to Chicago. Any thoughts on what this means?"