The Bin Laden Plot

31 SUITLAND, MARYLAND

Located on the forty-two-acre compound of the National Maritime Intelligence Center, a short drive from the White House, is the headquarters of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the United States’ oldest intelligence agency. Tasked with maintaining a decisive information advantage over America’s potential adversaries, ONI’s focus on naval weapons and technology was why Christine O’Connor had scheduled this morning’s meeting.

Christine entered the ONI headquarters building, where she was greeted in the lobby by Elizabeth Gherlone, a senior supervisor in the three-thousand-member organization. Gherlone escorted Christine to a third-floor conference room occupied by a half dozen men and women seated around the table. Gherlone made the introductions, informing Christine that today’s brief would be led by Sara Inman, who was ONI’s senior expert on domestic and foreign torpedoes.

“Sara will brief you on what we know so far.”

A large display on the wall was already energized, and Inman commenced her brief.

“The Stethem incident is essentially a forensics investigation,” she said, “where the victim is the destroyer. We examine its wounds and look for evidence of the weapon employed, as well as the perpetrator. We’re still looking for remnants of the torpedo on the ocean floor; thus far, we’ve found nothing. However, we do have an acoustic recording from which we can discern much, plus we have the damage to Stethem to examine.”

Inman flipped through several pictures of the destroyer, which had been sheared in half by the torpedo explosion, lying on the ocean bottom.

“You can see that the torpedo detonated beneath the ship, instead of beside it. Notice how the keel on both halves of the ship bends upward, which indicates a bubble explosion from below.” She pointed to the sharp, jagged edges where the ship split in half. “You can see what happened when the bubble collapsed, concentrating the energy from the explosion into a water jet shooting upward, driven by the higher pressure beneath the bubble compared to above.

“What we have here is a classic example of a heavyweight torpedo detonation.”

Christine keyed on the term — heavyweight. She recalled from the Situation Room briefing given by Secretary Verbeck that the supposed rogue UUV carried lightweight torpedoes.

“Are you sure Stethem was sunk by a heavyweight and not a lightweight torpedo?”

“Absolutely,” Inman replied. “This type of damage, shearing a destroyer in half, can’t be inflicted by a lightweight torpedo. Its warhead is too small, typically only about fifteen percent compared to a heavyweight. Against a large surface combatant like Stethem, a lightweight torpedo could have punched a hole into the ship, but it wouldn’t have been able to break its keel and split the ship in half.”

“I see,” Christine said.

She wondered why ONI hadn’t keyed on this critical issue — that a heavyweight torpedo, not a lightweight torpedo, had sunk Stethem — then recalled that no ONI representatives had attended the Situation Room briefing. ONI had been brought into the investigation per standard procedure and had apparently not been briefed about Secretary Verbeck’s opinion that a lightweight torpedo fired by a rogue UUV had sunk Stethem.

If Verbeck were truly involved, as Wilson suspected, that had probably been done on purpose. Keeping ONI in the dark about the lightweight torpedo supposition had likely been deliberate, since ONI would have been able to quickly debunk Verbeck’s claim. However, ONI’s conclusion led to a more critical question.

“Do you have an idea of which country is responsible for the attack?”

Inman replied, “We believe Stethem was sunk by an Iranian torpedo.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The acoustic signature, recorded by underwater SOSUS arrays in the Gulf. Every torpedo produces a unique explosion, based on the size of the charge and type of explosive. The acoustic signature of the explosion that sunk Stethem correlates to the Valfajr Iranian torpedo.”

“You’re saying that Iran sank Stethem?”

“That’s our assessment at the moment. Of course, it won’t become official until all evidence has been analyzed.”

Christine tried to piece things together. That Stethem hadn’t been sunk by a rogue U.S. UUV was welcome news. On the other hand…

“Do you know why Iran would attack Stethem?”

Inman looked to Gherlone. “That’s the most perplexing part,” Gherlone answered. “Relations between the U.S. and Iran were no more strained at the time than normal, and Stethem was operating in international waters. The attack appears to be politically motivated, but for what reason, we don’t know. That’s out of our realm.”

Christine quickly reviewed what she had learned thus far. Iran attacked Stethem. Verbeck claimed it was a rogue UUV, then ordered the UUV and Jimmy Carter sunk.

The data collected by the UUV seemed to be the critical issue. But if so, that meant Iran and Secretary Verbeck were somehow connected, with Iran providing the excuse for Verbeck to hunt down the UUV and its mother ship.

Christine took a deep breath. Things weren’t adding up. Perhaps the data collected by the UUV, once analyzed, would shed light on the matter.