Attack on the Homeland

by Nick Mariano

  Clerics were in charge of religious training and. In addition to studying the word of Islam, the recruits were given a crash course in Arabic and learned how to speak basic Arabic if they didn’t already know how. They were also prepped in the English language and American customs in case they ever had an operation to carry out in the US. The clerics stressed the teachings of the prophet including many of his sayings, to include “I have been given victory by means of terror.” The recruits were indoctrinated daily and by the time they were ready to leave the camp they were fully entwined into the teaching and principles of ISIS and its cause. Many had been exposed to the ISIS way before they make their journey into the camps. They were drawn into the group during conversations with members or by the sermons of clerics weeks or even months before they considered joining. The campus on Goethe University had a small but dedicated group of ISIS recruiters and clerics who weeded out students before selecting a few prime recruits and leading them into the ranks of ISIS. The three friends had been selected by these recruiters because of their intellect and their various fields of study. ISIS felt that they could help their cause and perhaps come up with some imaginative ways to help them in their attacks on the infidels.

  In addition to the military skills being taught, recruits were also given an in-depth course on the internet and how the organization uses it to both spread its word but also to communicate with handlers and other ISIS links by using secret codes and web sites. The three students also met separately with their new handler and discussed in depth the diary and research that Nazari had done on the topic of the secret Nazi virus that may still be buried in the United States. Nazari briefed the key officers at the camp and it was agreed that the three students and one of their handlers would travel to North Carolina following completion of their training. They would try to locate the buried cargo, evaluate its condition and then determine how the virus might be used, if in fact, it was still potent.

  After two months of grueling training from dawn to dust the three students were finally finished. Only one last task awaited them before they would graduate. During their training they had learned how ISIS had executed many of their captives and they had actually practiced beheading prisoners using dolls dressed in orange prison uniforms like the ones used by prisoners in Guantanamo. They were given large knives and told to decapitate the dolls. They were shown by their instructors how to complete this task and most had no problem carrying this out on a human sized doll. Two days before graduation the students were called into a training area and given the same knives that they had used in practice. A minute later, two other instructors paraded out ten persons dressed in the same orange coveralls as the dolls they had practiced on. The students were told that these were prisoners recently captured elsewhere in Syria by ISIS fighters and that they had been found guilty of crimes against Islam and ISIS. The students were then told that their final test before graduation was for each of them to behead the traitors that were before them. Failure to do so would mean severe punishment. One by one the students were brought up and ordered to carry out the execution of a prisoners. The three students looked at each other and couldn’t believe what they had been asked to do although they realized they had no real choice in the matter. When their turn came, each took his knife and beheaded the prisoner as instructed. Their training was now complete.

  Graduation was held the next day and gradually the recruits left to destinations unknown by the other recruits.

  THE BUREAU OF DIPLOMATIC SECURITY

  Nick Howard was a Special Agent with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DSS) for over twenty years before he retired, or at least thought he retired. He had been assigned to protect the Secretary of State and foreign dignitaries before being assigned overseas as a Regional Security Officer. His tours took him to Istanbul, Turkey; The Hague, The Netherlands; Copenhagen, Denmark, New Delhi, India; Kathmandu, Nepal; Colombo, Sri Lanka and finally Rome, Italy and the Island of Malta. He also served as the Chief of Domestic Operations and his last assignment before retirement had him in charge of the physical security of all US Diplomatic facilities in the world. He had seen bombings overseas, assassinations of Americans, terrorist threats and attacks and he knew that the terrorists usually had the upper hand when planning their attacks. The World Trade Center attack was a classic example of how resourceful terrorists had become. He and his colleagues also agreed that sooner or later the terrorists would resort to a chemical or biological attack greater than what had been already seen overseas. It was just a matter of time before it happened.

  When Nick joined DS, then the Office of Security, he was assigned to the Protective Intelligence Unit and ran a program called “Operation Boulder” which screened persons of Middle Eastern origin who were entering the United States. The program was used to determine if the people were possible terrorists and consisted of running numerous record checks to determine their bona fides. The program lasted for many years but was gradually phased out by the Department of State. After retiring, Nick would return to the Department as a consultant and “Operation Boulder” would be resurrected in order to screen people who might be associated with various terrorist organizations, ISIS in particular. Nick and his staff would begin screening persons based on a number of criteria to see if they were or had recently traveled to or from the United States to attend training at an ISIS facility overseas. The program focused on all nationalities. Students in particular, were given additional scrutiny because of recent recruitments of students in the United Kingdom and the United States. Once persons were identified as being associated with ISIS, law enforcement agencies would track and surveil them to determine if they were plotting an attack on the Homeland. State Department Security would coordinate and work closely with Homeland Security to determine what steps were necessary to neutralize the threat.

  HOMELAND SECURITY

  The Department of Homeland Security was created following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The organization is tasked with protecting the United States and its territories from and responding to terrorist attacks, man-made accidents and natural disasters. Known as DHS, the Department employed over 200,000 people and has a budget in the billions of dollars. DHS works closely with other government agencies and in particular the Department of State and its Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

  Leroy Foster was a Special Agent with the US Secret Service for over twenty-five years and protected US Presidents throughout his career. He was there on the day that Ronald Reagan was shot and narrowly missed being shot himself on that fateful day. He traveled around the world on Air Force One and saw more than his share of threats against the Presidents he protected. He would retire in 2012 and come back as a desk officer for DHS and work closely with State Department when “Operation Boulder” was resurrected. He knew how terrorist groups worked and he had seen them operate overseas during his Presidential travels. He was knowledgeable about Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Taliban, Hezbollah and the newly founded ISIS group. Estimates by the CIA showed that ISIS currently had over 31,000 fighters and that the lands they occupied would fill the country of Belgium. He also knew that ISIS was gaining strength among young people and college students in particular. He knew that recently three girls from the UK had made their way to an ISIS training camp in Syria and managed to evade being caught by US and foreign intelligence and police authorities. In another incident a three young girls from Denver were recruited by the organization.

  Lee would eventually relocate to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Headquarters building in Virginia to work side by side with Nick Howard on tracking potential ISIS recruits. Currently the government had no apparatus in place to track American and foreign vacationers to Europe who might use their travel to reach an ISIS training camp just over the borders of some European countries. Istanbul, Turkey, in particular, had recently become a popular city for onward travel to Syria and Iraq and plane rosters to Turkey were scrutinized regularly by intelligence organization for leads
on possible new recruits.

  BEACH TIME

  A few weeks after their ISIS training and return to Frankfurt the three students were contacted by their ISIS contact in Frankfurt and told that it was time to fly to North Carolina and see if the diary entry was factual. They had studied maps of the area and using Google Earth could see the area that was outlined in the ex-Nazi’s diary. It appeared to be mainly sandy beach from what Google maps showed on their computer and there were no major housing or commercial businesses in the immediate area. From the looks of the Internet photos they should be able to search for the cargo without anyone interrupting them or wondering what they were doing. They decided that they would buy some metal detectors when they arrived in the US and since many beachcombers hunted for lost jewelry and money along the coastal beaches, they wouldn’t attract any attention from passersby during their search. According to the diary entries, the time between when the commandos landed and were detected wasn’t very long and so they theorized that the secret cargo couldn’t have been buried very deep. The big question was whether the container holding the virus had held up to the elements over the years and if the virus in the containment vessels was still potent.

  On June 10, 2014, the three students, traveling on student visas, boarded a Delta flight to Atlanta. After they arrived in the United States, they would rent a SUV and drive to Wilmington, NC, where they would begin their search. They had been given an ISIS contact in New York City that they would work with. Their contact, known to his friends as Robert Hall, had recently converted to Islam and the ISIS cause, and was known to his Muslim friends as Abed Mohamad. Robert, or Bob, was a good old boy born and raised in North Carolina. He had relocated to New York after he converted as he had been told during his ISIS training that New York was the kind of city that ISIS wanted most to plan an attack in. Big City, Big Attack, Big News. Bob was familiar with the area around Wilmington and had received a copy of the Nazi’s diary to read and study. He thought that the chances of the container still being there were slim, however, it was a remote location and so it may have evaded detection by some beachcomber for all these years. He and his colleagues would know soon enough if the special cargo was still in its hiding place. Bob planned to meet the students in Wilmington and made reservations at a small and out of the way motel nearby. He would meet his new friends tomorrow and they would get their search started.

  LET THE SEARCH BEGIN

  The group’s flight arrived at 8:00 am and after successfully clearing US Immigration and Customs, they headed to the National Car Rental lot, picked up their SUV equipped with a GPS unit, and started the 7-hour drive to North Carolina. They called Bob while they drove and made arrangements to meet later that evening at the motel where their rooms had been booked. None of the students had previously been to the United States and so they took in the scenery as they drove. They also talked about the secret cargo and how they would proceed the next day in starting their search. Nazari had printed out the Google maps of the area and plotted, as best he could, the coordinates that the diary listed. He hoped that the measurements that the Nazi commando had plotted were accurate and that they could locate the cargo without a lot of difficulty, although he knew it would probably be a real challenge for them. The diary didn’t list many landmarks and the coordinates where taken with a common compass which lacked a high degree of accuracy. There would be four of them searching and so they could cover a fairly wide area in a short period of time. They had Bob purchase the best metal detectors on the market as they wanted something that could be fine-tuned and not pick up stray pieces of small metal that might be located along the beach. The area appeared to be fairly remote and so they hoped that there wouldn’t be many people in the area although Bob had told them that the tourist season was getting underway.

  They were making good time driving on the super highways from Atlanta and decided to take a slight detour and stop in Myrtle Beach, SC, for lunch and to see the beach and the famous Sky Wheel that Nazari had read about in some literature. They arrived there about 1:30 pm and walked along the boardwalk admiring the ocean views and all the shops in the area. They decided to take a ride on the Sky Wheel and then have lunch next door at one of the local restaurant bars. They were in high spirits and although they loved what they had seen so far, they also were excited that they might soon deliver a crippling blow to the Americans, who they all despised. They finished up their lunch and started on the last leg of their journey to Wilmington, NC. They gave Bob a call and told him they would be there in about two hours and agreed to meet for dinner at 6:00 pm. They would eat, talk about tomorrow’s activities, discuss the map and diary a little more in detail with Bob, and get a good night’s sleep before their long day tomorrow. Nazari and his two friends couldn’t believe that they were finally in the United States and about to begin their search. They had talked about this day for months and now it was finally here.

  ON THE RADAR

  Nick Howard and Lee Foster met for their weekly meeting at the Headquarters of the Diplomatic Security Service in Virginia. They reviewed the current terrorist sitreps and discussed what was happening both overseas and domestically with ISIS and other terrorist groups. They went over the latest Operation Boulder “hit list” which listed possible terrorist suspects based on record checks done at various intelligence agencies throughout the world. Operation Boulder had thus far detected over 100 terrorists who appeared to receive ISIS training at numerous overseas locations and then travel back to the U.S. to resume their lives there. Many of the people were of Middle Eastern decent, however, a growing number were everyday Americans who suddenly decided they would join the Jihad and try to kill people in their own homeland. Several of the people had eventually been arrested and taken to trial using new terrorist laws recently enacted by the Administration. Supporting or joining a terrorist group was now punishable by the US and several of its allies and fines and jail time were the penalties for doing so.

  18 U.S.C. 2331 sets forth the definition of present day terrorism and the penalties for engaging in acts against the US. As used in this chapter - (1) the term "international terrorism" means activities that - (A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended - (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum; (2) the term "national of the United States" has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act; (3) the term "person" means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property; (4) the term "act of war" means any act occurring in the course of - (A) declared war; (B) armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or (C) armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and (5) the term "domestic terrorism" means activities that - (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended - (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

  The law also made it an offense to knowingly receive military-type training from or on behalf of any organization designated at the time of the training by the Secretary of State under section 219(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act as a fo
reign terrorist organization shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for ten years, or both.

  One of the names on this week’s “hit list” was a person named Robert Hall, who presently showed his residence in New York City. Hall, it appeared, had traveled to Europe in 2013 and then, according to foreign intelligence sources, traveled to Syria to attend an ISIS training camp. He returned to NYC in early 2014 and took up residence there after living most of his life in North Carolina. Howard and Foster agreed that he deserved a “look see” and Howard said he would have one of DS’s Special Agents pay Hall a visit to interview him and discuss his overseas travel. If positive information could be obtained on Hall, Foster would have Homeland Security issue an arrest warrant for him.

  The following day two DS Special Agents from the New York Field Office attempted to interview Hall, however, a neighbor said that Hall had just left for Wilmington, North Carolina, on some sort of business. A Lead was sent to the Wilmington Resident Agent asking him to try to locate Hall and conduct the necessary interview. Mike Viechec, the Wilmington RO Special Agent, contacted the Wilmington Police Department and asked them to discretely check local hotels to see if they could locate Hall.