Kicking Bombs

by Barry Stevens

  As soon as he left I knelt down and placed my hand on the shoulder of the black man on the floor. I assured him it was okay and he could roll over. As he did I introduced myself as CJ. He told me his name was Dexter Day.

  ‘Mate, I thought you were well and truly dead,’ I said.

  ‘Where the hell am I?’ he asked in a very slow and painful voice.

  I told him to keep it slow as I explained his injuries. I started going over the whole set-up here including the colonel and his goons. I explained about Ali and the little session he had with me the previous day.

  ‘How the hell did they capture you, Dexter?’

  Very painfully and slowly and careful not to reopen his split lip he started to explain. ‘I’m a platoon commander with the 110th Airborne. We were on air ops heading to Al Assad when our Chinook was hit by heavy small arms fire. We crashed into a bunch of small mud huts in a village near the main highway leading south east. Man, I thought I was dead the second the rotors smashed into the deck and we rolled onto our side. Our support choppers flew as close as they could but they were being shot to hell so they had to keep a distance or they would have been on the dirt and smoking as well.

  ‘The next thing I knew was a heap of ragheads coming into the back of the Chinook with AKs, shooting the crap out of everything and everyone. I was hanging from my seatbelt about three feet off the ground. My M16 was lying across a rucksack out of my reach. I tried to reach around to get to my side arm when someone stuck his AK into my face and started shouting some shit at me. I had no choice man but to put my hands on my helmet and give up to these arseholes.

  ‘They cut me down and took me away. That must have been at least four weeks ago. I really don’t know! I’ve lost all track of time.’

  ‘When did you eat last?’ I asked him.

  ‘I think it was about three days ago; they gave me some MRE pork and beans. Obviously they didn’t want it.’

  I explained that one of the goons was bringing me some food soon. As soon as he heard the door being opened he should roll over and act as if he was still unconscious. I lifted up my toilet drum and gave him three of the pain pills the medic had given me, took a couple myself and hid them again. I explained about the medic and how he was told to patch him up while he was unconscious.

  We were nearly caught out talking as the door was undone and opened up. Dexter only just had time to lay himself down and stay still before the escort returned with a piece of flat bread and a couple of overripe tomatoes. He threw them all up against the wall and they fell onto the floor splitting open and splattering both of the tomatoes. I just smiled and said thank you in a very sarcastic way. Arsehole!

  When he left and closed the door I helped Dexter lift himself up against the wall and gave him some bread and pushed the bucket of still dirty water over close to him. He tenderly took a few mouthfuls of water and rinsed his mouth out. He passed the bread back to me, pointing to his teeth and said, ‘Thanks, CJ, but I think it will be a while before I get to put anything but water in here.’

  We decided that it wouldn’t be long before they would discover he was conscious again anyway so it may be worth giving Colonel Safi’s good nature a chance and seeing if we could get some soup or at least tea for Dexter.

  I stood up and started to slam against the steel door. It wasn’t long before someone came over and opened the door. I pointed to Dexter and said he was okay but needed food. The guard simply looked at him and closed the door.

  Within a few minutes the door reopened and Safi walked in with two of his goons. As they picked Dexter up Safi motioned for me to follow him.

  22

  Question Time with Colonel Safi

  Valmara 69

  Made in Italy. The Valmara 69 or V-69 is an Italian bounding fragmentation anti-personnel mine once manufactured by Valsella in Italy. Iraq purchased hundreds of thousands of them prior to and during the Iraq–Iran war. The mine is about the size of a large tin of beans, and has an olive-green or sand-coloured plastic outer body holding the steel bounding body of the mine. On top of the mine is a round fuse cap with five prongs about 5 centimetres long. The mine is triggered when the fuse cap tilts, either because of pressure on one of the prongs or a pull on an attached tripwire. A firing pin triggers a percussion cap inside the fuse, which ignites a propelling charge at the base of the mine. This charge launches the mine up out of the ground and into the air. When the mine reaches a height of about 50 centimetres above the ground, a tether wire pulls on a spring-loaded firing pin in the body of the mine, which detonates the main explosive charge, sending 1000 pre-cut steel fragments in all directions. The mine has a lethal radius of 25 metres, but the fragments remain dangerous at over 100 metres. The time it takes from triggering the mine to detonation is about one second, so there is no time to take cover from the blast.

  We were taken back outside through the courtyard and up the stairs where Ali had taken me previously. As soon as we got to the top of the stairs Safi gave some instructions in Arabic and the two goons tied Dexter to the chair, still naked and in pain. I noticed the noose Ali had tied was still hanging from the old ceiling fan.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes when the same young man with the video camera came out from behind the blanket-covered doorway and started setting up in a corner. The two goons walked into the room and came out with a small table and another chair. They set them up in front of the camera and grunted for me to sit down. As I did they went back into the room and came out with the same banners and flags that I’d seen at the old mud hut where I had been filmed before.

  They tied the banners up to some existing nails in the wall behind me. This room must have been used for this very purpose before.

  The colonel walked around in front of me very calmly and leant against the table. ‘We are now going to ask you some very important questions. Every time you tell me a lie this man will be punished. However, if you give me good information he will be treated well.’

  ‘You will not be mistreated nor will you be hurt. But! You will be filmed for every second and if I think you are lying we will turn off the machine and he will be punished for your stupidity. Is this clear?’ ‘I thought you said you treat soldiers like soldiers and with respect! This man is a soldier and deserves to be treated as such!’ I exclaimed. Safi looked down at me and said, ‘I also said sometimes your enemy has to be treated harshly. I am treating him no worse than his army treated my men in Abu Ghraib prison. We start now! Turn on the machine!’

  I looked over at Dexter and shook my head in such a way that I felt he knew I had no choice. I saw a tear roll down his face when Safi started the questioning.

  ‘We know your name, we have your documents, and you say you are a contractor! Which country do you work for?’

  ‘I work for an American company.’

  ‘Which company? Is it the CIA or military intelligence?’

  ‘I am only a civilian contractor disposing of unexploded ordnance.

  That is the truth!’

  ‘Stop the machine!’ Safi ordered.

  He walked over through the blanketed doorway and returned carrying the same piece of pipe Ali had used on me.

  ‘Are you sure this is your answer?’ he asked.

  I nodded and said, ‘It’s the truth.’

  With that the colonel swung back and whipped Dexter across the tops of his legs. Dexter screamed out so loud I thought he would surely pass out.

  ‘I know your documents are false. You see, I spoke to a friend of yours a long time ago and he told me all about you. I think you called this man Boof? Do you know him?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Unfortunately this man did not last until the mass executions planned for Ramadan but he is now with his God and in no further pain.’

  ‘What do you mean “mass executions”?’ I boldly asked.

  ‘Do you think you and this man are the only captives we have? The first day of Ramadan will be a great day for our cause. We have people hidden all over this
land from many countries.’

  I just shook my head, grinned a little and looked at the table.

  He slammed both of his open hands onto the table in front of me and said, ‘Why do you think this is funny? Many men will die this day!’

  I slowly lifted my head and looked him in the eye. ‘I don’t think murdering a dozen or even a thousand men this way will do anything other than strengthen the mistrust and hatred the majority of the world has for people like you. The coalition armies of the world have come to Iraq and Afghanistan to free the common people from arseholes just like you. I thought you were a soldier and in time of war soldiers just did what they did because they believed it to be the right thing regardless of whose side they were on. How can you believe that torturing and killing unarmed men is the right thing to do?’

  Safi looked over to Dexter and shouted, ‘This man’s people did the same to my people in Abu Ghraib ! Who told them it was not the right thing? Who stopped them from insulting and torturing them? The questions are over for today!’ he yelled. ‘Take these men back to their room. We will continue tomorrow,’ he said as he stormed out of the room and down the stairs.

  As one of the remaining guards untied Dexter the other returned the chair and the table to the room next door. As he pushed back the blanket I saw a quick glimpse of the mines and mortars I’d seen downstairs earlier.

  So this was where they were assembling the bombs. I had no idea who the actual bomb maker was out of all of them but it couldn’t have been either of the guards; they had the combined IQ of a box of rocks. Later down in our cell I was surprised when a plate full of food and a jar of warm sweet tea was brought in and given to me. As the guard passed it to me I looked towards Dexter and asked, ‘What about food for him?’ The guard simply stuck his nose up and gave a grunt. As he walked out the door I threw in a bit of extra sarcasm that I knew the guard wouldn’t understand and asked for a bucket of KFC original and a black forest cheesecake. Not knowing what the hell I just asked for he simply grunted again and locked the door behind him. I looked over to Dexter and said, ‘I guess that means KFC doesn’t deliver in Iraq!’

  For the first time I saw Dexter crack a little smile through his lacerated, swollen lips and smashed teeth.

  Before eating anything I lifted our toilet bucket and removed our little stash of pain pills and gave Dexter another three and a mouthful of the tea. I could tell that he couldn’t take very much more of this treatment before it would kill him.

  For hours into the night I took my time mashing up the food, which was mainly rice and goat meat, so that Dexter could swallow it. He had all of the sweet tea as I knew he would need as much energy as possible in his state. Late that night he asked me for another serving of pain pills. Hopefully they would help him get some sleep. ‘Of course, mate,’ I said. ‘In a situation like this who gives a rat’s arse what the actual prescription dose is!’ I gave him a smile and said, ‘Hell, Dex, I wish I had a carton of cold beers for you to wash them down with!’

  It was funny but even though we talked a lot through the night we never once mentioned what had happened during the day or what might happen the next day, even though we both knew it was going to be far worse than today’s little rehearsal.

  All that night, I stayed awake trying to think of things to tell Colonel Safi during the imminent questioning session. Dexter was extremely restless all night and I ended up making him a little more comfortable by lifting his head and resting it on my thigh. He woke up with the screaming of the call to early morning prayers with a shudder and a moan. I put my hand on his head and told him it was morning. ‘We had better get ready, mate; they’ll be in soon.’

  As he slowly rolled over and pulled himself up against a wall I again lifted up the toilet tin and removed the slide of pain relief pills. I removed six from the blister pack and passed them all to him.

  ‘Dexter, mate, I have to say this. I am going to do everything I can today so you aren’t beaten by these bastards but, just in case, I think it would be far better for you if you took these before we leave. I know it’s a shitload of pills, mate, but hopefully it will make you drowsy if not knock you out altogether. If you’re unconscious they may not whip you as much. What do you think?’

  He looked back at me and simply said softly and slowly, ‘Thank you, man. I know you are looking out for me, dude. Shit happens, man, shit happens.’

  Not long after Dexter took the pills Colonel Safi and his two goons came into the cell. This time they had the PVC pipe with them. Safi shouted for us to get up. I got myself to my feet using the wall behind me and leant over to help Dexter as one of the goons whipped him hard across the back. He instantly fell back onto the floor screaming in pain.

  I looked across at Safi and said, ‘What the fuck? How the hell are we supposed to get up if these fuckwits keep bashing us back down again?’ Safi gave a command in Arabic and the two goons lifted Dexter up from under the arms and carried him outside, all the way across the warehouse floor and up the stairs into the integration room. Safi walked along behind me giving me a push every now and then.

  As we walked into the room I noticed it was already set up with the banners on the walls and the cameras in place. As I was pushed into my chair behind the small table I was amazed to see Dexter tied up so his arms were firmly tied beside his body. They tried to push a rag into his mouth, causing him to shake his head around in an attempt to stop them. One of the guards hit him hard with his PVC whip in the back of the head, splitting the skin open and causing blood to pour down the back of his neck. Finally one of the guards was successful and forced the rag deep inside his mouth so that the wound on his lip tore open. Dexter gave out a mumbled scream as the gash began to bleed down his chin and drip onto his still naked chest. He was very weak and even though he was still standing he was waving around as if he was ready to collapse at any moment.

  I jumped up and shouted in Safi’s face, ‘What the hell do you think this is going to prove? You kill him and you’re going to get sweet fuck all out of me, you bastard! The second he dies or passes out my mouth is shut, got it?’

  Safi slapped me hard across the face with the back of his hand. One of the goons pushed me back into the chair and slammed his PVC whip hard onto the table beside me.

  Safi threw me a clean white shirt and told me to put it on. I threw it back at him and told him to go fuck himself.

  Instantly one of the goons whipped Dexter hard against the back of his legs bringing him crashing to the ground in pain. Again I jumped up shouting and again I was shoved back into my chair. This time Safi said something and I received four hard whips across the tops of my shoulders in rapid succession. The pain was agonising and I realised what poor Dexter was going through.

  ‘Okay, okay!’ I shouted. ‘Shit, give me the fucking shirt!’ As soon as I put it on and did up the buttons Safi walked into the room through the blanketed door and brought out the young man and some large cable ties. He placed the ties around my wrists and pulled them up real tight. They then tied my ankles to the legs of my chair with some tattered pieces of hemp rope. This was the first time I had been tied up or restrained for ages. A sudden overwhelming feeling of depression came over me. What the hell is going to happen next? It’s not looking good! Safi shouted something at the guards and they stood Dexter up. He was still waving around ready to drop again at any moment. The two guards lifted him up and stood him on the chair under the ceiling fan.

  One of the guards held him upright while the other tried to reach up and place the noose over his head. The dumb bastard continued to reach up standing on the toes of his pointed shoes, trying to stretch himself up to gain height as if somehow he was going to instantly grow a foot longer to complete the task.

  Safi shouted at him and shook his head. Even he recognised how thick this prick was. He quickly ran into the other room accompanied by the young cameraman and returned with another chair. This time it was a revolving desk chair on casters and the cameraman had to hold it s
till while his idiot countryman stood on it and placed the rope over Dexter’s head and tightened the noose.

  It was tied in such a way that Dexter was actually being supported by the noose while he was standing. If at any stage his legs gave way from under him it would simply choke him and not actually break his neck. Safi gave a command to the cameraman to turn on the machine and looked straight at me. ‘Now we begin!’

  ‘What organisation do you work for?’ he asked me.

  I slowly looked up at him and said as hesitantly as I could, ‘ASIO.’

  ‘What is this ASIO?’ he asked, looking confused.

  I hesitated again before answering in an attempt to make the statement more realistic” ‘The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation.’

  ‘I have never heard of them,’ he said.

  ‘It’s the Australian Government’s equivalent of the CIA.’

  He looked at me and shouted, ‘This is lies. You think I am a fool?’

  As one of the goons lifted his arm back ready to whip Dexter I shouted for him to stop. Safi put his hand in the air and stopped the beating.

  ‘It’s the truth,’ I said. ‘Don’t hurt him anymore and I will tell you everything I know. Do you think I would try and make something like this up? For God’s sake, have a look on the internet and type in ASIO.

  Every country has an organisation like this and ASIO is Australia’s.

  For fuck sake just look it up but don’t hit him again!’

  Safi walked out onto the small landing at the top of the stairs outside the room. I could hear him dialling a number and talking to someone in Arabic for a while before hanging up. As he walked back in to the room he gave a hand signal for the goons to lower Dexter out of the noose. ‘I have someone looking into your ASIO,’ he said. ‘If this is not true your friend here,’ he pointed to Dexter, ‘will go straight back into the rope!’

  For a short time Safi left the room and went back downstairs, leaving Dexter and me still tied up, sitting on our chars, under the watchful eye of the goons. For a short time one of the goons went back into the room with the blanket covering the doorway and talked and laughed with the young camera operator, who was working on something. It was obvious now that he was the one who had the bomb-making knowledge and everything he needed was in that room. Somehow I had to get myself in there before Ramadan.