Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller

by B. Michaels

  The Hadith was second only to the Koran in terms of authoritative Islamic texts. Hadiths clarified some of the sayings and doings from Muhammad’s life that were unclear or absent from the Koran. These details were important because Muhammad was the exemplary man in Islam—all Muslims’ behavior was measured by Muhammad’s standard, as portrayed in the Koran and Hadith. While Muslims revered figures like Moses and Jesus, Islam now superseded Judaism and Christianity.

  Different branches of Islam, like the Sunni and Shia, believed different collections of Hadiths. The Caliphate was in Dabiq to quicken their End Time, Islamic version of Armageddon. Dabiq was also the site of Charlie Shields’ decapitation. Its landscape, spattered with his son’s blood, was seared into General Shields’ consciousness.

  While increased air strikes were the initial response after the Navy SEAL beheadings in 2016, by the election season of 2020, the US was at a stalemate with the Caliphate. Killing Omar was a chance to break the deadlock.

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  “Roger that, sir,” said Phil. “I’ll see you soon.”

  General Shields exited the SCIF and walked downstairs into his bedroom. He threw on his NSA sweats and Nike tennis shoes. Shields moved like a mouse to avoid awakening his wife. Any other day, he’d be arising in two and one-half hours to throw on the same clothes, and complete his morning jog. Now he went downstairs, snatched a 5 Hour Energy mini-drink, and hurriedly walked to his vehicle.

  He jumped in his 2020 Ford Bronco. A quick left, right, left, right, and the General was on Cooper Avenue, heading towards the four buildings that constituted the NSA’s main headquarters complex. All four buildings were connected. No one ever had to go outside.

  Cooper Road conjured up memories of Charlie. Charlie’s favorite mentor was named Coach Cooper. If he weren't in such a rush, he would have driven the long way, staying on Mapes Road, avoiding Cooper altogether.

  Charlie’s decapitation now flooded his thoughts. The A-Tube video ran continuously in his mind. Nucleus quickly removed the video. But it had been viewed by millions. It was still available all over the web, if you knew where to look.

  Now, Shields was pursuing a lead on the very man that paid the Caliphate fighters to behead his son. Abu Omar probably wired the money that paid for the knife—the knife that sawed through Charlie’s neck. Rage welled up in the General. He wanted to kill every one of those Islamic Jihadists.

  The only thing better than SIGNIT on Omar, would have been SIGINT on the leader of the Caliphate—Caliph Abu Bakr al-Mosulaydi. American Intelligence shortened his name to Abu Mosulaydi. Shields’ heart raced. He broke into a sweat in the muggy August morning.

  Typically, Shields would park in his reserved spot outside the eight-floor glass building—Ops 2B. If pressed for time, he could take his private elevator to the Director’s Suite on the top floor of Ops 2B. Everyone called that the ‘Top Deck.’

  On ordinary days, the General by-passed his private elevator. He liked to mingle with his silent, SIGINT warriors, as he made his way to the Top Deck.

  The Ops 2A Building was next the General’s building. Its exterior looked exactly like Ops 2B. At 11 stories, it was taller and squarer. Somebody once described the building as a giant Rubik’s cube. Shields felt that was an apt moniker. One of the many NSA nicknames was the ‘Puzzle Palace.’ This name was due to the encryption puzzles the NSA cracked.

  While these smoky glass structures looked like any other building, they were covered in copper mesh. No SIGINT could leak from the building and be scooped up by adversaries. In actuality, the two buildings were massive SCIFs. Ronald Reagan dedicated Ops 2A and 2B in 1986.

  Today was not an ordinary day.

  The General rushed to the Ops 1 Building, the very first NSA building. It was constructed in 1954. The three-story, A-shaped building was home to the SIGINT Directorate—the NSA’s largest Directorate.

  Shields dashed up the stairs ''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''' '''''' ''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''''' '''' ''''''''' '''' The automatic sliding glass doors hissed as they opened, sounding the Enterprise’s doors in Star Trek. The General briskly walked over the inlaid NSOC logo on the floor and met Phil. Seconds later, they both peered over the shoulders of the Caliphate analyst. It was 3:19 a.m. There were six minutes left in which to issue verification of the CRITIC.

  Tonight, NSOC was staffed with nearly 40 analysts. Each was tasked with specific areas of responsibility. Waist-high cubicles separated the various work cells. Fluorescent overhead lights, arranged in concentric circles, gave the room a blue tint. The analysts worked around their curved desks to process SIGINT from around the world. Their computer equipment was state of the art, just like the video walls that encircled the massive room.

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  Puzzled, the General asked, “How old is the A-Mail account?”

  “She created it yesterday.”

  “Has anyone else in Omar’s network used A-Mail?”

  “Not to our knowledge,” replied the analyst. “They mostly use TorMail2.” TorMail2 was an encrypted email service provider available on the Darknet. The Darknet was the portion of the Deep Web that was only accessible with Tor software. “All the other emails we’ve purloined from Nafisa were TorMail2’s. We were able to read them because we '''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''

  The General frowned. “So Nafisa goes and registers a brand new A-Mail account from Dabiq, even though she’s demonstrated previous knowledge of encryption by the use of TorMail2? Then she emails her father in Falluja? I’m assuming we intercepted it at ''''''' '''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''' Something isn’t right. No one in the Caliphate uses A-Mail. It’s totally out of character for Omar, or anyone in Omar’s circle, to make an error of this magnitude.”

>   “Maybe she just made a mistake,” said Phil. “Or, she could think that we can’t '''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''' PRISM was a TOP SECRET program leaked to the press by Snowden’s disclosures. PRISM detailed how the NSA cooperated with nine major Internet companies to gather SIGINT, even encrypted SIGINT.

  Phil continued, “The CEO of Nucleus made a big deal about their end-to-end, A-Mail encryption in the press. He assured his users that their privacy was secure.” Nucleus’ CEO either didn’t know or didn’t want to admit, that the '''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' '''''' ''''' ''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''' ''''' '''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' US-only A-Mail traffic could be read with a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance—FISA—court. The FISA court granted warrants to the NSA over 97% of the time.

  “I don’t know why she sent an A-Mail,” said the Caliphate analyst. “But, I do know that the '''''''''''''''''''' '''''''' ''''''''' '''''' '''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''''' '''''''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' '''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''

  “Look, here’s ''''''''' ''''' ''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''''''''''''''' You can see the same structure, even in Arabic. Now, look at it translated. She uses the same word for her dad, ‘abee,’ which means, ‘my dad.’ She writes it again and again, in both emails. She employs the exact same vocabulary, sentence structure, indentation, and punctuation. Her description of Dabiq is dead on.”

  Another analyst in the Caliphate cell spoke up. “Sir, while he’s been trying to validate the message, I’ve been looking at what it tells us. As you know, Dabiq is a tiny town. '' '''''''' ''' ''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''' ''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''' ''''''' ''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''''' Right in this house…”—the analyst pointed at the satellite image on his screen—“is ''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''' '''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''' ''' ''''''' '''''''''''''''' ''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''

  An embedded CIA analyst spoke next. “General, I’ve got a Marauder over the area. Here’s the house.” The analyst pointed to his monitor with the Marauder feed. “You can also see that there’s a small cluster of other homes, right here.” Marauders were stealth, turbofan aerial drones that replaced Predators and Reapers. Although they were called drones, each drone was manned by two people—a drone pilot and a sensor operator.

  “Alright,” said the General. “I’m sure this SIGINT is valid. Send out confirmation of the CRITIC.” It was 3:23 a.m.

  Now the question was, what was POTUS going to do about this validated CRITIC?

  *

  Within 30 minutes, General Shields was on a secure teleconference with POTUS, the DCIA, and other senior military leaders. The top military brass included the Admiral in command of the Joint Special Operations Command—JSOC. JSOC was pronounced, ‘J-Sock.’

  JSOC tracked and eliminated terrorist cells worldwide. JSOC, at the behest of the CIA, was the lead organization in charge of the kill/ capture mission for Osama Bin Laden. Like the NSA, JSOC and the CIA were involved in significant turf battles. The Admiral told the President that he had a Delta Force on standby to kill/ capture Omar. However, he recommended waiting for at least 48 hours. He wanted to gather more intelligence.

  The DCIA, Walt Black, was much more aggressive. He wanted to act now. He tried to convince POTUS to approve a night-time, kill or capture raid on the house. He emphasized the word capture.

  “Mr. President, I’ve got a CIA strike team that can snatch Omar, tonight. The moon is waning, so we’re dealing with low levels of ambient light. The weather is perfect for air operations; there’s not a cloud in the sky. After Omar is secured, the assault team can gather computers, laptops, and cell phones. Then, we can whisk him to a black site and interrogate the son-of-a-bitch. Omar is full of vital information. Look, these guys are the junior varsity of terrorists. They’re untrained, unsophisticated, religious thugs. This won’t be a difficult mission.”

  General Shields completely disagreed with the DCIA’s assessment of the Caliphate and his recommendation of a human strike team. The JSOC Commander voiced support for the General’s position.

  “Walt, you guys just don’t get the Caliphate. You can’t explain why this JV team has been growing so fast, for over eight years. You can’t explain why they continue to attract foreign fighters from all over the world, even after our bombs and missile strikes. You’ve got almost no one inside the organization.”

  “Walt, they’ve controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq for nearly a decade. That’s because they’re the police, military, and government for disenfranchised Sunnis. Given a choice between the Shia-led, Iraqi government in Baghdad, or the Caliphate; the Sunnis choose the Caliphate. Think how messed up that is! Sunnis would rather have the Caliphate, than their own government?

  “The Syrian government won’t take care of the Sunnis. The Iraqi government won’t take care of the Sunnis. But the Caliphate will. They provide services and protection. They build schools, mosques, and hospitals. They don’t round up Sunnis and throw them into prisons without charges.

  “That’s more than the Shiite governments of Iran and Syria were doing for the Sunnis. Now don’t get me wrong, these guys are diabolical murderers and gangsters. But you have to understand why the Sunnis protect them.

  “Moreover, their social media propaganda machine is incredibly efficient at attracting recruits from all over the world. To their volunteers, the Caliphate offers a seventh-century utopia. ‘Come, join the Caliphate. Get paid to serve God. Find a sex slave. We have them from nine years on up. Kill infidels. Be a part of history.’

  “Money, sex, and power offered to a generation of pissed off young men? We can’t kill them fast enough. For every Jihadi we kill, another foreign fighter sneaks across the border and enlists. That’s not just in Syria and Iraq. As you know, the Caliphate views itself as a state without borders. It has members fighting in Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and throughout Africa. You’d better take them a lot more seriously.

  The DCIA told Shield’s he didn’t need a lecture on the Caliphate from DIRNSA.

  “Walt, you know me well. And you know how much it pains me to say this. If ever there was a mission designed for a drone strike—this is it. We can do it immediately. What’s to say that Omar doesn’t leave the house today, and go someplace else before your nighttime raid? We all know that this is not Omar’s primary headquarters. He won’t be here long.”

  Omar was on the kill list approved by POTUS. ''''''''''' ''''''''' '''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''' '''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''' ''''''''''''' '''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''' '''''''''' '''''' '''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''' ''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''' Drone strikes only required two pieces of intelligence, if the subject was on the approved list. Ideally, one piece of information would be HUMINT—information from spies or informants.

  But the CIA had almost no HUMINT on the Caliphate. '''''''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''' ''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''' ''''''' '''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' '''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' '''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''

 
Advocating a drone strike was particularly hard for General Shields. If there was anything stronger than the General’s hatred of CIA Director Black, it was the CIA with a bevy of lethally armed drones.

  As a member of the Air Force, the General could never understand why the CIA was allowed to operate their own private air force. And today’s drones were becoming ever more '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''' ''''' ''''''''' ''''''' '''''''''''''''''' SIGINT was clearly the NSA’s job. Intelligence collection was also the main reason for the CIA’s turf battles with JSOC. The General argued with anyone who would listen. The CIA’s job was human intelligence—HUMINT, not SIGINT. Under his breath, the General said, “This is exactly why I need SWARM.”

  For his part, President Goodson was facing a complex dilemma.

  Syria was not a country. Syria was an unmitigated disaster. It had been a disaster since the Arab Spring demonstrations and subsequent government crackdown in 2011. Nine years later, Syria was still a disaster. The vacuum of leadership in Syria led directly to the growth of ISIS, and later the Caliphate.

  Iran, Russia, and Iran’s proxy—Hezbollah, assisted the Syrian government. Iran provided forces from their Revolutionary Guards, money, weapons, and intelligence. Russia provided intelligence, air support, and a small group of soldiers. Hezbollah provided many fighters, especially experienced soldiers from Lebanon. And all of these forces augmented Syria’s National Defense Force composed of Alawites, Shiites, and some Christians. These forces coordinated to defend essential government assets.

  In late 2015, Russia and Iran stepped up support after the Syrian regime’s future became dicey. The assistance helped. Over the past five years, the Syrian government held onto the important eastern areas of Syria—Aleppo, Homs, and Damascus.

  The rest of the country, including Dabiq, was a petri-dish for moderate Sunnis and extremist Wahhabi-Salafi-Jihadists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Nusra, and the Caliphate. The only tie that bound these disparate groups was their desire to see the Syrian government fall. Then, Syria could be led by a Sunni government. This was also the goal of Saudi Arabia, and to a lesser extent, Turkey.