My mind clears. I feel stronger. I have a plan and if it works, I will live. My adrenaline rises.
I step to the Jeep’s front door and slide onto the passenger seat. One life has closed, and another is about to open. I read somewhere it was not that life was short, but that we have waited far too long to begin the journey.
The key turns, the engine purrs, and the most perfect smile I’ve ever seen shines at me. I look into her eyes.
Lexi, the love of my life, looks back at me. She has a grin on her face.
“Ready?” she asks. I nod and she pulls out into the traffic.
Author’s Note
This second, updated edition of The Screaming Eagles is based on the novel of the same name, written in the year 2000. Since then, much of what I predicted in newspaper interviews and on TV shortly after the 9/11/2001 attacks have or are happening.
I was on a business trip in Japan and called by a TV station on 9/12 while I slept in a hotel near the Osaka airport. The previous evening, September 11, 2001, while I was packing my suitcase to fly back to Chicago on the following day, I saw Leon Harris and Daryn Kagan two of the CNN morning news anchors, say in ‘breaking news’ that a plane had flown into the first tower of the World Trade Center, and they were speculating about an electrical malfunction and what could have caused it. I stopped packing, sat glued to the television, then saw the second plane aiming at the second building. I knew then, war had been declared on America.
Later that night, I unpacked my suitcase, as all air traffic into the USA had been closed down and was prohibited. I knew it would take many days to return. On September 12, a news anchor on an NBC TV affiliate, who had bought my book months earlier at a book signing, called my Chicago office and was given my telephone number in Osaka. He called past midnight, and half asleep, I was interviewed. One of his questions was who did I think was behind the attack; I said Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
Four days later, pictures appeared of the nineteen men who had high-jacked the planes. Fifteen were from Saudi Arabia. That telephone interview can be heard when you click onto my website www.michaellawrencekahn.com. Eric Wilson, the anchor who phoned, was astonished by the number of incidents I had written about in my book that were happening throughout the day.
Two months later, on a business trip in Hong Kong, I was interviewed by CNN, and a week later, invited to give a seminar to officers near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. Those interviews are also on my website. My seminar topic was “International Terrorism, the war that could last 100 years.” That interview was televised worldwide on American Forces Network (AFN).
Over 12 years have passed since 9/11. Thousands more people now sit in the mountains or sidewalk cafes, and plot America’s destruction. More people want bigger catastrophes, and more Americans to die. A whole generation of children who attended Madrassa schools, financed by Saudi Arabia, are being are either teenagers or young adults. Men and woman now plan and train to strap on bombs and kill Americans. We have people within America who are planning to harm the decency that is the American people.
The United States were brought to their knees on 9/11. America faces diabolical enemies, who thirst to cut our throats, howling their delight and obsession, preparing to conquer our way of life which is the envy of the world.
It happened in Benghazi, Libya, a few months before the publication of this book, when the American ambassador and three Navy SEALs were slaughtered. Every major TV network worldwide showed the killers dancing in the streets, delighting in the celebration of their kill, burning the American flags and shouting in unison “Death to America.”
Bin Laden was killed. Every ending has a new beginning. Is the new beginning the terrorism perpetrated by two lone wolves, two American college students planting bombs at the Boston Marathon? Or is it the London men who used a meat cleaver to cut a soldier’s throat as he lay on the street in front of people, asking bystanders to video what they were doing in the name of Allah as they butchered their victim? The murderer walked up to the person videoing him, held up his hand covered in blood to show the camera, and in his other hand he held the cleaver dripping with blood. Will this now be recurring on a regular basis where two people can capture the world’s attention through social media, knowing that the more horrific they make the killing, the more people will watch?
Until now, America has always found a way to win. Since the days of George Washington in 1776, every generation has found a way to win against enormous odds. I have to believe that this generation of Americans in the 21st century has the will, is tough enough and clever enough and gutsy enough to find a way for us and future generations to win.
—Michael Lawrence Kahn, 2013
Acknowledgments
During the journey through my life, I have encountered many people and I was fortunate to have met a special few.
Philip Kahn, my father, taught me not to be afraid, no matter how formidable the challenge is or how gigantic the adversary would be.
My heartfelt gratitude and love go to my family: Darren, Kathy, Grant, Dori—my children—and their children. Raini, Sienna, Hailey, and Romi, my grandchildren, are the younger generation who will carry on our name. Ken Law has now joined our family as well. I consider myself to be blessed by family who lives by a wonderful code of ethics. They, too, are fearless. They live in different parts of the world, so I am also grateful for Skype!
A great romantic love might happen once in a lifetime. Ho Shiu Ping, Ann, is that once-in-a-lifetime great love who came into my life. She is my soul mate and very best friend, always and forever; we are One Heart.
I would also like to acknowledge my editor and publisher, Kira Henschel of HenschelHAUS Publishing, and her team. Elaine Meszaros of EM Graphics has provided invaluable creativity on website and book cover. Karin Conway offers extensive knowledge in social media and promotion. My thanks to you all for your bringing this second edition of Screaming Eagles to the world.
About the Author
Michael Lawrence Kahn is a proud American and citizen of the world. He has lived in seven countries and represented international companies as an overseas broker. He opened a business in Iran in 1974, and worked there for four years, until he was put onto a death list by Ayatollah Khomeini’s supporters. He escaped from of Teheran, Iran, two weeks before the Shah abdicated in January 1979. One month later, Khomeni and his Moslem fundamentalist followers took control of the country.
Michael’s business partner, Kameran Samimi, one of the leaders of the Baha’i faith was captured, tortured, and eventually executed in the infamous Evan Prison.
Michael is currently CEO of a global marketing company headquartered in Hong Kong.
Please visit www.michaellawrencekahn.com for more information about the author, video clips, and interviews.
Other books by Michael Lawrence Kahn
One Heart (a novel, prequel to Screaming Eagles)
Copyright © 2013 by Michael Lawrence Kahn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organization, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
Originally published by AuthorHouse, ISBN 1-58500-458-8, in 1999.
Second edition published by
Three Towers Press
An imprint of HenschelHAUS Publishing, Inc.
www.HenschelHAUSbooks.com
All HenschelHAUS titles, imprints, and distributed lines are available at special quantity discounts for educational, institutional, fund-raising, or sales promotion.
Cover Design: Elaine Meszaros
Pape
rback ISBN: 978-1-59598-243-8
E-ISBN: 978-1-59598-244-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013952820
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