Inside the trailer was all the equipment needed to bring the site to critical mass. Included among the items in the trailer were four hundred cartridges of explosives and twenty barrels of premixed ANFO taken from the limestone quarry operations.
Beekman Estates
7:10 P.M.: Eight school buses and the Phoenix Landscaping vehicles drove up to the north gate of Beekman Estate, the main entrance for construction vehicles. The terrorist guard let the convoy of buses in and the drivers brought them to the parking lot in front of the deserted clubhouse, which had closed at four o’clock. Shortly after that group of vehicles was parked, the bogus WAVW Channel 13 remote television truck pulled up to the gate and was also allowed in. The driver took the vehicle to the back of the clubhouse to the loading dock. The loading dock had been covered several years before, when homeowners of the Redwood subdivision complained about the eyesore of trucks loading and unloading at the clubhouse. By parking the television truck under the canopy, it was virtually hidden from any ones sight including aerial observation.
7:20 P.M.: At a shopping complex parking lot located three blocks from the entrance of Beekman Estates, two large flatbed tractor-trailers were parked. One contained a bulldozer, the other a backhoe. The drivers stood outside their cabs waiting for orders.
The security guard on duty came over. “You can’t leave these here; it’s private property.”
“We’re just awaiting word to move these into the Beekman Estates. We were supposed to be here before five o’clock, but had a flat and couldn’t make it. Our boss is on the phone trying to locate a board member to get permission, but it’s the holidays and no one seems to be around. We won’t be long.”
The security guard said, “I need to get home, it’s Christmas Eve. Just make sure you’re not here in the morning, or you’ll be looking at a hefty fine.” He returned to his car and left the site.
10:20 P.M.: The two-flatbed tractor-trailers left the parking lot and entered the country club. They were using the main gate instead of the construction gate. A few of the residents entering late couldn’t understand why this was being allowed and vowed to do something about it when the holidays were over.
The Cell Towers
10:45 P.M.: Two of the terrorists, proficient in explosives, drove their truck to the wireless tower located on Via Anchor Road in Boca Raton. They connected a twelve-volt electrically operated bolt cutter to the truck and severed the lock. Once inside, timed explosives were set around the tower. From there they drove to the five additional wireless towers located at Clint Moore Road, Yamato Road, West Rogers Circle, North Military Trail and South Congress Avenue, rigging them in the same manor. The last on the list was the tower located on Glades Road, which they completed at midnight.
The operatives then headed to the Beekman Estates. Upon entering the north entrance they jumped from the vehicle, placing several cartridges of explosives on the bridge that spanned the canal including several around the support columns. They ran the Cordtex detonating cord to the initiator and left for the east entrance, leaving the security guard who was brandishing an automatic weapon to stand watch. Once they completed setting the explosives at the east entrance, one operative stayed at the east gate with the initiator while the other drove back to the north gate. While this activity was advancing, MetroMax South security guards placed timed activated explosive charges on the telephone and electrical demarcations within the complex.
CHAPTER 31
THE SIEGE, DAY ONE - DECEMBER 25
Beekman Estates
The three cell members in Howard’s home were monitoring the activities at the FEU sites and at the country club.
Jonah was pleased. “It looks like everything has gone to plan. It’s almost too perfect. The men have carried out their duties flawlessly. All the years of preparation have paid off. Allāh’s soldiers will be rewarded for their loyalty to him.”
Howard was on a satellite cell phone checking the status at the nuclear reactors. “As soon as the cell towers fall, we’ll begin.”
12:58 A.M.: The explosives at the first two cell towers went off. In rapid secession the other five towers exploded, their steel structures crumbling to the ground in a heap. Electrical sparks burst into the air until the circuit breakers tripped.
The three cell members stood on the patio of Howard’s home. Jonah was counting the explosions aloud. “There goes the first of the towers. Another, that’s the second, there goes number three, four, five and six.”
There was a thirty-second pause and another series of explosions was heard.
Jonah in high spirits said, “That’s seven. All of the towers are down.”
Hearing the tower explosions, the two terrorists detonated the explosives at the bridge crossings into Beekman Estates. The cement structures literally disintegrated before their eyes.
Two huge blasts could be heard. “That’s the two bridges!” shouted Daniel.
There were several smaller explosions too numerous to count. Jonah raised his fist in a victory salute. “It sounds like the demarcation charges have gone off. Get someone to check and make sure they’re all disabled.”
The electrical feed to Howard’s home had been disrupted. The house went dark for thirty seconds until the natural-gas-fueled generator kicked in, returning the house to its full operating condition. The bank of LCD screens showing local television stations and parameter security cameras came to life. The men scrutinized every screen looking for anything that could upset the mission.
Jonah finally gave the command. “We’re ready. Let’s move!”
Ilona Shapiro, startled by the explosion, awoke from a deep sleep and sat up in bed. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” said her husband Aaron. “I’ll check it out.” He reached for the touch sensitive lamp on the night table, but it wouldn’t light. “It seems we’re out of power. Maybe it’s a bad electrical storm.”
Aaron was just putting on his slippers when he heard someone pounding on the front door. He hurried downstairs, thinking he had a neighbor in trouble, and opened the door. He was immediately pushed to the floor as three men brandishing automatic rifles and high-powered flashlights entered the premises. One stood guard over Aaron as the other two bolted up the stairs.
“Please don’t hurt my family. I’ll give you any money or jewelry you want,” Aaron shouted.
“Shut up, Jew. We don’t want your money.” Hearing the word ‘Jew’ he immediately thought of Benjamin Werner’s statement. They don’t appear to be Hispanic; they look like they are from the Middle East.
God, what is happening? Are they going to kill us? Benjamin knew and we all dismissed him.
Aaron’s mind was filled with scenarios when he heard his wife and children being forced down the stairs. He called out, “What have we done to deserve this?”
No one answered.
The family was moved out to the street where a bus waited to take the hostages to the clubhouse. Upon reaching capacity, the rest of the hostages were made to lie down on the cold ground until the bus had deposited its occupants at the clubhouse and returned. The one man who dared to talk back to his attackers was knocked to the ground and kicked unconscious. He was dragged to the bus and placed on the floor. Other hostages had to climb over him to take a seat. It was a stark reminder to all to keep their mouths shut. For some this would be no problem since they were so horrified by the experience they couldn’t utter a word.
In the other Beekman Estates communities, hostages were being seized. Desperately people tried to contact the police but found their home and cell phones not working. Most were in their nightclothes or pajamas. A front had come through the day before and the evening temperatures were in the low fifties. Many were shaking, not only from the cold, but also from the fright instilled by their attackers. Some had soiled themselves and the wet clothing was clinging to their skin, enhancing the cold. Quiet sobbing could be heard amongst the hostages.
Taken to the clubhouse, which was be
ing used as a makeshift prison, they were herded like cattle into the auditorium. It was one of the few buildings in Beekman Estates with power from its own electrical generating plant fueled by natural gas. The generator also powered the fitness center, housed in another building within walking distance of the clubhouse and the three guardhouses at the entrances.
In one community, a man who had been in his outdoor spa saw the commotion and bolted across the golf course naked. The sniper sentry could easily see his movements through the night goggles. He squeezed off one round from the 50-caliber sniper rifle, hitting the man in the left shoulder and ripping a four-inch hole through his body. Two of the terrorists using an ATV retrieved the naked man and dumped the body in front of the clubhouse. No one else tried to escape.
The explosions startled the night officer manning the desk at the Boca Raton Police Headquarters and one actually shook the building. Within seconds the switchboard lit up with inquires from the city’s residents. No one was calling from the Beekman Estates.
The officer immediately radioed one of the three cars that were on duty. Normally there would be eight patrol cars, but this being the Christmas holidays, they had a reduced staff. “Did you hear those explosions? Do you know where they came from? Damn, it almost knocked me off my chair.”
The officer in the car patrolling Glades Road answered, “I saw an explosion go off in the distance. I believe it’s near the university. I’m on my way there now.”
Within minutes the officer was radioing back. “It was the cell tower. There’s nothing left but a tangled mess of steel. What the hell is going on?”
The night officer tried to assess all the information he was receiving. “I’m receiving reports of other cell towers down. Are we under attack? I’m contacting Captain Brenner.”
Before he could, Captain Brenner radioed him from his home. “Give me a quick summary of what’s happening.”
“Sir, all I know is that three or four cell towers are down and we think there may be more based on the number of explosions.”
“Contact the sheriff’s office and see if they have experienced the same. If not, request support from them. Also get in touch with the Florida Highway Patrol and the Governor’s office. Contact all off-duty officers and tell them to report in immediately.”
The night officer made a call to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office. They only knew of explosions in the Boca Raton area.
“We’ll send available patrol cars to investigate even though we’re also short of personnel,” the night supervisor retorted.
The law enforcement agencies were so distracted by the cell tower explosions no one noticed a bulldozer tearing up one side of the front entrance road leading into Beekman Estates and pushing the material to the edge of the wall. There was only one road in and out of the country club and it was down to one lane.
FEU Nuclear Reactor Sites
1:10 A.M.: The guard change had promptly taken place at midnight, but tonight, instead of the guards leaving the premises, they assembled in the locker room. Each facility had two reactors. Their plan was to secure both reactors, rigging them with explosives. The ANFO barrels were slated only for reactor #1 at each site.
Inside the locker rooms, the terrorist nuclear engineers at each site dressed as MetroMax security guards, gave the signal to the other guards to put in place the plan that they had practiced at Cooper Farms over the past several years.
Guards were not allowed in the reactor control room; therefore, they had to create a diversion to gain access. First, the closed circuit television system had to be compromised. On signal, the entire closed circuit system was shut down. The technicians in the control room were startled to see blank screens and called to the guard who was monitoring the system.
Simultaneously another guard partially closed a valve that allowed circulation of the reactor cooling water. The valve, being equipped with a sensor, sounded an alarm in the control room. The technicians inquired about the problem and the terrorist nuclear engineer in his guard uniform motioned a technician to the control room door to give him an explanation. As the door was opened, the guards burst in, subduing all the FEU personnel. By shutting off the power to the central telephone equipment all external phone lines were disabled. Company policy prevented employees from having cell phones on the job. They had no way to contact law enforcement.
The control rooms of reactors #1 and #2 at both sites were in the hands of the terrorists. At reactor #2 the technicians were being held at gunpoint. They were told to keep the reactor running as if nothing was happening.
The terrified technician resumed their duties, watching over the control panels wary that at any moment they could be shot.
At the Florida Ridge nuclear reactor site, the Pakistani nuclear engineer, Arshad Osman Hassāni, signaled that the reactor control rooms were under terrorist command and to reopen the partially closed water valve.
Arshad took over the operation of reactor #1. Both FEU nuclear reactors incorporated the pressurized light water reactor design. The nuclear reactor in Kanupp was a pressurized heavy water reactor. For the terrorist nuclear engineers it didn’t matter. A runaway nuclear reactor, regardless of design, was identical in nature.
The Pakistani nuclear engineer instructed the FEU control room technicians. “You’ll run the plant at normal capacity as if nothing has happened. My men will be ready to shoot you if you make one single mistake.”
Arshad turned to his men. “Take the barrels of ANFO and other explosives into the containment structure. Once inside, place the barrels around the reactor vessel, the steam generator and near the containment building outer walls, and set the detonators.”
The detonator incorporated non-electric millisecond delay hollow plastic shock tubes to deliver the firing impulse to the explosives instead of an electrical wire. Using an electrical detonator inside the building could prematurely set off the explosives.
Moving to the outside of the one-hundred-thirty-foot containment building, the terrorists removed a diesel-driven compressor from the trailer along with a hand held rock drill and two hundred feet of compressor hose.
Climbing up the containment building structure and using ropes, they hoisted the rock drill and one end of the compressor hose to the top of the building. The walls were two feet thick with reinforced steel rods, but the rock drill could bore a sixteen by one and three-quarter-inch hole in just over two minutes. It took only one and a half hours of drilling to place fifty cartridges of a small-diameter detonator sensitive emulsion explosive into the dome of the containment building.
The terrorists then ran the hollow non-electric delay detonators down the length of the building to the inside of the control room. The dome on the containment building of reactor #2 was also drilled and set with explosive cartridges similar to reactor #1. They also rigged explosives on the cooling pumps, which were critical in keeping the reactor vessels from overheating and a meltdown occurring.
The terrorists then moved to the fuel facility-cooling pond and wired it with explosives. The fuel facility housed not only the spent fuel from the reactor, but also new fuel rods that would be stored and inspected prior to use. The fuel rods typically have a useful lifespan of up to five years. Once the fuel rod has reached the end of its lifespan, it’s moved to the fuel facility where it’s stored under water for several years, allowing the spent fuel to cool and to reduce the level of radioactivity of the U-235. Without the water surrounding the jacketed radioactive fuel rods, they would heat up, eventually rupturing the container and releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere and ground water.
7:10 A.M.: The terrorists finally completed the tasks at both FEU nuclear reactor sites exactly as planned and were awaiting the eight o’clock shift that would be arriving in the next half-hour. The FEU employees suspected nothing until they reached the locker room and found themselves captives.
Beekman Estates
7:12 A.M.: The scene was of complete mayhem for the hostages at th
e clubhouse. A couple of individuals who tried escaping in their cars had no place to go with the bridges out and the main entrance blocked. Their secure community that had protected them was now a prison, and they came out of their cars with hands up.
The three cell members entered the auditorium carrying automatic weapons. The plan was to humiliate the captives and send more fear through the group. There were almost three thousand people crammed into the ballroom made to hold eighteen hundred.
Jonah picked up the microphone to the P.A. system and shouted, “Men and boys will move to the left, women with small children and girls to the right.”
The captives, seemingly hypnotized by their predicament, didn’t move.
Jonah fired off several shots from his weapon into the air and shouted even louder, “Men and boys to the left, women with small children and girls to the right.”
In such close quarters it was pandemonium with people pushing and shoving to get to their respective sides.
“All children under the age of twelve are to proceed to the dining hall with their mothers.”
There were whimpers of protest, which subsided as Jonah fired off several more shots. The mothers and children were herded to the auditorium entrance. Some fathers were still clutching their sons. Two terrorists went around to separate them from their children.
One man protested loudly as he embraced his child. “He has no mother and he’s only three. Leave him with me.”
The approaching terrorist hit the man in the face with his rifle butt, knocking him to the floor. Then, grabbing the screaming child, the terrorist dragged him over to one of the mothers and left him.
The man was still protesting when Jonah spoke again, “You think he is too young to experience this separation? I was only four when the IDF killed my father and my pregnant mother. Now your children can share my pain!”
The Third Cell Page 36