The ISIS Gambit

XIX

“Hello?” Jackson groggily answered his phone as he tried to focus on the clock on the nightstand—2:00 AM.

“Stonewall, sorry about calling so early in the morning,” Jim Carmichael said as Jackson answered the phone.

“Yeah, it is a bit early. What’s up?” fully recognizing Carmichael’s voice.

“How soon can you get up to Incirlik?”

“I’ll check with Tamir, but I imagine I could get up there first thing this morning, ah… probably eight o’clock or so. Not really sure, what’s up?”

“Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson are on a trip over to Saudi Arabia, and probably a few other places over there. They made a surprise visit to Incirlik — not sure why — and just as they got off the plane three Turkish airman tried to take out the entire party.”

“Good God!”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know if God was looking out for them but both Johnson and Axelsson are fine. Each one lost an aide, though, and the XO of the base died as well. Sounds like they are transporting six others to Landstuhl but I want you up there snooping around — take Dani with you as well. Having a couple snooping around, especially off base, might be better than a lone American. The Air Force, and I’m sure the FBI, will get their own teams over there to investigate, and I’m not asking you to do any of that. I want you out and about to see if you can pick up any chatter among the locals. Someone took out the Turkish Air Force high command on Monday and now this. Word over here is that this ISIS group is a little more of a threat than what Secretary Johnson thinks. She feels this group is nothing more than an upstart Al-Qaeda wanna-be. Her favorite term for them is ‘a bunch of minor leaguers.’ However, Adana boasts one of the largest mosques in the world. If there’s any radicalization going on, that’s a prime spot for it. Our Station Chief in Ankara just told me that the Director General of the Turkish National Police clued him into a possible threat to Incirlik or Izmir just last night — and now this. See if Tamir has any contacts up there and find out what you can. I’d like you up there as soon as you can get there.”

“You got it. We should both be able to make it up there. I’ll talk to Tamir when we get in the office.”

“Sounds good, I’ll tell Colonel Cadonau — he’s the base CO — to expect you. Check in with him as soon as you land. Lieutenant Colonel Gretchen Todd handles base security. Those will be the only two who know what you’re doing up there — and they know Dani’s Israeli, though not her actual capacity.”

“Understood. I’ll be in touch.”

“Orders. Did you hear any of that?” Jackson asked Dani.

“Sounds like we’re headed to Turkey. Didn’t hear everything though — everybody okay?”

“Both secretaries are fine but no, three killed, including the base XO, and several wounded.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. Sounds like something might be brewing up that direction and Jim wants some boots on the ground. We’ll simply need to confirm that this was some lone separatist attack taking advantage of a target of opportunity rather than a full blown conspiracy. Shouldn’t be that difficult, right?”

“What about your nukes up there?” Dani asked. “It’s pretty much common knowledge that you store close to a hundred of the things up there.”

“Not exactly the best kept secret, huh? He didn’t mention them but I’m sure they’re on his mind. I mean someone takes out the Turkish Air Force high command and three days later, there’s an attack on two US Secretaries, at the same base where we keep close to a hundred nukes, and ISIS is growing in strength as we speak. What kind of conspiracy could there possibly be?”

“My thoughts exactly. Let’s try and get some sleep. I think we’re going to need it.”

“Mohammed, yesterday you said you wanted a couple days. After what some of our more excitable followers did yesterday, can we go today?” Baghdadi asked his chief of operations.

“Imam, we have made excellent progress in the past twenty-four hours,” Mohammed Shishani replied. “I had hoped to rest our men before we launched but we are ready to go. I’d like to wait until the late afternoon, early evening hours before we launch but we’re ready to go. Also, I don’t believe yesterday’s unfortunate events at Incirlik will impact us in any way. All three of the men were killed in the attack and nothing had been communicated to anyone up there of our plans. The Americans will obviously investigate but we’re ready to go. We actually might be able to hit them with a fait accompli in that regards.”

“Excellent, I was hoping you’d say that.”

“Imam, ideally, I’d really like to give everyone a twelve hour notice. Let them know that we’ll launch at precisely 8:30 tonight,” Abdul Khouri, Shishani’s chief of staff, replied. “By that time, the sun will have been down for an hour and it will allow us the maximum time for the cover of night. Plus, it will give our troops an extra twelve hours to make their final preparations.”

“That sounds reasonable, Abdul. However, once we give the word, I also need the flexibility to launch the operation immediately, just in case something else comes up.”

“That is understood, sir. Once we give the alert to all of our forces, they are aware that they might need to move on a moment’s notice — they’ll be ready to go.”

“Okay, get the word out. We launch at 8:30 tonight.”

“Consider it done, Imam.”

“Excellent. On another note, the American Secretaries… I understand they continued on with their trip. Is that correct?”

“It is. They left almost right away for the gulf coast. I do not know how long they will be there but I would imagine that if things go according to plan, they will have an abbreviated trip. I can’t see them staying there if everything goes as expected to plan. I’m sure the president will recall them.”

“That would be my guess, too. I’m just thinking about the possibilities, Abdul, and opportunities….”

“Hey Lion,” Jackson spoke into his phone when he heard his friend answer, “are you still stationed up at Akrotiri?”

“Stonewall, good to hear from you. Yeah, I’m still here. I’ve had a few opportunities to head back home but let’s face it, would you rather be up at Scapa Flow on the North Sea or here on Cyprus in the eastern Med? That’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned. However, since you referred to it as ‘up at Akrotiri,’ does that mean your back at KASOTC?” That is the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center in Amman, Jordan.

“Nah, I’m actually in Tel Aviv right now helping Jim Carmichael out for a bit. Say, think you’d be able to find an excuse to get over to Incirlik sometime today or tomorrow?”

“You’re helping Carmichael out, huh? Is that a temporary thing or are you still with the 5^th Group?”

“Nah, it’s temporary, but I like the work, and… it’s better than being stateside right now.”

“Incirlik? Yeah, I could probably finagle that. What’s up?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard by now what happened up there yesterday afternoon. Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson made a surprise visit to Incirlik late yesterday afternoon and three Turkish fanatics ambushed them as they got off the plane.”

“Oh, yeah, think everyone’s heard that by now. Glad they made it out okay.”

“Jim wants me up there this morning to snoop around Adana for the next few days. With all your time on Cyprus, thought I’d pick your brain for a bit about what all you might have heard with what’s going on with the Turks, and the Greeks for that matter. If you have a chance to break away for a day or two, I’d be very interested to hear anything you might have to share that hasn’t gotten to Langley.”

“That’s right, Turkey isn’t a part of Centcom is it? You never got up in this part did you? Yeah, I can break away from here. I’ll probably get up there around the noon hour, would that work?”

“That’d be perfect, see you then.”

“That was a British friend of mine that I got to know when we were both in Afghanistan back in 2001. He’s quite the guy. He likes to go by ‘Coeur de Liŏn’—I call him Lion, for short. It may sound like he’s a bit eccentric but he’s actually quite down to earth. I’ll introduce him to you this afternoon.”

“Coeur de Liŏn, huh? The ‘Lionhearted.’ I like him already. There’s got to be a story behind that name. He must be something,” Dani added with a grin.

“Oh, he is. Remember, my team was one of the first couple teams in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11. Shortly after we arrived, the Brits managed to get an SAS team into Afghanistan as well. Lion was one of their signals’ specialists and he’s morphed into an exceptional intel source over the years. Anyway, this was literally just a month or two after 9/11 and we’re working way up in northern Afghanistan. We helicoptered in and after we secured the LZ, a British SAS unit parachuted in to help us out. Remember at this point, the Taliban are still firmly in control and we’ve got less than 300 men in country all told. The one Afghan general who held everything together up there with the Northern Alliance, Shah Ahmad Massoud, had been assassinated by Al-Qaeda on September ninth — two days prior to the attack on the Twin Towers. The remaining war lords didn’t trust each other at all. When they found out we had multiple A-teams helping out different — and competing — war lords, several of these guys threatened to back out of the fight. My team ran into this up in the Kunduz area, way up in northern Afghanistan. We were tasked with clearing the main highway up there all the way to Mazar-e-Sharif at the western end of this route. We took care of the eastern end of this highway relatively easily. Then, just as we begin the assault on Kunduz, General Dostum — one of the prime Afghan warlords up there — learned we had a couple other teams working with a competing warlord in the Bagram area — and he immediately pulled his support for the assault. Now, mind you, I have my team, including a few of the SAS guys, already engaged with the Taliban in a couple blocking positions along the highway in an attempt to cutoff their retreat. I had Rossi with me at the time as well as Lion when a Taliban force completely outflanked us. Since Lion was the signal’s expert, I had him on the radio acting as our JTAC,” referring to a Joint Terminal Attack Controller who directs close air support. “In between calling in air strikes from A-10s, F-15s, and even a few Bones, he fought like a Viking ‘berserker.’ We were completely surrounded and since he was calling in the air strikes, he was probably the most exposed of the three of us. After Dostum realized we were in the fight of our lives regardless of his assistance, he finally came to our aid. When everything was over, Dostum came up to Lion and told him that he had fought like the Lion of Panjshir himself, Shah Ahmad Massoud, and from that moment on, he took the name Lionhearted. Since his first name is Richard, ‘Coeur de Liŏn’ seemed like a natural. I don’t know how much English history Dostum knows but that tag couldn’t have been more appropriate.”

“Wow, that’s quite a complement, coming from Dostum himself.”

“Yeah, it was, and Lion fully recognized it. Anyway, he’s been stationed with the SAS throughout the region, including Turkey and Greece for the last several years. I’ve never been to either one and Lion’s picked up the intel side of this business exceptionally well. I’m really curious what all he might know of what’s going on in Turkey.”

“Arielle, Stonewall, please come in,” Tamir Pardo called out to both of them as he saw them through the open door to his office. “Sorry to hear of what happened up at Incirlik yesterday. Please extend my condolences to the families of those who were killed, as well as to Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson. I wish we could have been more help for you. We have heard a few things out of Turkey but we knew nothing of this ahead of time. I’m terribly sorry about what happened. However, I understand that you and Arielle need a flight up to Incirlik right away. Jim called me probably shortly after he spoke with you, sometime around 2:30 this morning, wasn’t it?”

“It was something like that, General.”

“We’ll get you up there right away. I’ve told the flight crew to be ready to take off as soon as you can get to the base.”

“Thank you, General, I will pass on your condolences. I’m assuming you have some contacts that Dani and I can meet up with up there. I have a friend at Akrotiri that will be flying in this noon but the more intel we can get the better. We had suspected that ISIS was making inroads into Turkey but never anything like this.”

“Yes, I have someone in Adana that should be able to help you out, a couple, actually: Yosef Dagan and Noa Katz. I’m not sure if you know them, Arielle.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Stonewall, I think you probably know that up until the past few years, Turkey has been a very good friend of Israel’s. When we took out Syria’s nuclear reactor at Deir az-Zawr, we actually flew over Turkish air space for close to two hundred miles, all with their permission as we flew very close to both Incirlik and Batman air bases. Turkey has continued to share a fair amount of intel with us, as well — especially when it concerns Al Qaeda, the Khorasan group and now ISIS.”

“Yosef and Noa have been in Adana for several years monitoring the situation in southern Turkey,” Tamir continued. “Adana is the fourth largest city in Turkey and boasts one of the largest mosques in the world so we try to keep an eye open for anything that might be developing up there. They’ll meet you both for lunch at a local café, Ozsut Café on Ziyapasa Boulevard. Sorry, but I didn’t know of your arrangements with your friend. It’s right next to a Starbucks if you’re homesick. However, the café is right on the corner with outside seating. They haven’t told me of anything urgent that might be in the works, but they aren’t exactly members of the mosque, either.”

“Tamir, this is excellent. Can you get word to Yosef and Noa that we might be a little late?”

“Not a problem my friend. The flight time is less than an hour so you’ll be there mid-morning. I’ve told the crew to stick around for no more than a couple days so if your little recon mission takes longer than that, Arielle, let me know.”

“Will do, Tamir, thanks so much for this. Operations as per usual, I assume.”

“That is correct.”

“General, this is awesome. I can’t thank you enough.”

“So if the flight time to Incirlik is just under an hour, that’ll put us there around 10:30,” Jackson said to Dani as they boarded the Gulfstream G IV.

“And Lion said he’d fly in around the noon hour, right?” Dani continued with Jackson’s line of thinking. “That’ll give us a chance to meet up with both Cadonau and Todd and get an idea from them as to what their sense of the area is. Do you want to simply meet up with Lion on base or take him to meet up with Yosef & Noa? Personally, I’d like to keep him separate from them. I don’t know what security is like but I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances with them.”

“Agreed,” Jackson added. “In the off chance we get followed I don’t want to jeopardize either of them and blow their cover. Say, I haven’t had a chance to ask Tamir this yet, but have you heard on how things are going in southern Lebanon? The IDF’s been in there for more than a month now,” Jackson continued.

“From what I understand, things are going pretty good. Beirut’s always a nasty business but southern Lebanon is pretty much cleared out. I can actually see us annexing the area south of Sidon to Mt Hermon, much the same way we have treated the Golan Heights,” she replied. “This area used to be Asher and Naphtali in the ancient kingdom, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we hang on to this territory.”

“Really? Is there much sense in Israel today to try and restore everything from the Old Testament kingdom?”

“There is a significant minority of us that would like to see the ancient kingdom restored.”

“Of us?” Jackson asked.

“Definitely. You know of my interest in our history and that I’d love to see the Temple rebuilt. Historically, the tribes of Asher and Naphtali settled up there so I’d like to see us keep it. Actually, there’s three tribes that still claim their lineage back to the ancient Kingdom: Benjamin, Judah, and Levi. With your government’s action in both Iraq and now Iran, we finally have the opportunity to solidify our borders. Syria no longer presents the same issue they have in the past: they’re in the middle of a nasty civil war, the Russians are gone, plus, ISIS continues to be a huge issue for them. With all this going on, there’s no one to keep us from hanging on to it, so yeah, I’d like to see us keep it, much as we have the Golan.”

“Just how much of the ancient kingdom are you talking about? If I remember correctly, didn’t Solomon’s kingdom extend clear up to the Euphrates? That would include large swaths of both Syria and Jordan.”

“That’s correct, both David and Solomon extended the kingdom up to the Euphrates and it included all of the Sinai as well.”

“You realize, that would redraw the entire map of the Middle East?” Jackson asked. “I mean Jordan would have something to say about that, as would the Saudis.”

“Like that hasn’t been done before?” Dani replied, clearly on a roll. “Ever hear of Sykes & Picot? You know, the British and French foreign ministers who literally carved up the Middle East after World War I? You see, if Israel is ever going to have secure borders, we need to expand. You realize that if you do not consider the West Bank as part of Israel, the narrowest point of the country is only nine miles wide. Think about that — nine miles wide! How secure can any country be when there is a section of the country that is that narrow? What other country has an issue like that? Even Belgium, for all the trouble they had with Germany in the two world wars, is larger than this.”

“I hear ya. I just never realized you were this passionate about reviving the ancient kingdom.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an ardent imperialist, or Zionist — I despise that term, by the way — I just want what every other citizen wants for their own country — security.”

“And reviving David’s kingdom would do that?”

“Most definitely.”

“What about Hezbollah?” Jackson asked.

“What about ‘em?” Dani replied. “You’ve taken out Iran, Russia’s been unceremoniously kicked out of the region, and Syria’s a mess. At this point, they’re pretty much irrelevant.”

“You don’t see Hezbollah joining up with ISIS?”

“No way,” Dani replied. “Hezbollah literally got all of its weapons from Iran, via Syria. Now that Iran is out of the picture, Syria is their only remaining ally, and you can bet at the very least, Russia will be stepping in to replace Iran as their primary weapons supplier. Also, remember, up until now anyway, the Palestinians have maintained a geographic focus — meaning they want to push all of us Israelis into the sea. ISIS is a very fundamentalist Islamic organization focused almost entirely on their very radical interpretation of the Koran and the expansion of their caliphate, and Palestine plays a very small, almost insignificant, part of this.”

“Well, I hope you’re right. Hezbollah and ISIS getting together would be a disaster.”

“Again, I don’t see that happening. Russia stepping in to replace Iran is the bigger issue. However, on the subject of disasters, do you really still have nukes up at Incirlik?” Dani asked.

“Yeah, I think we do. The Air Force doesn’t base a single plane at the base but it remains the largest weapons storage area for all of the US Air Force in Europe. We’ve had nukes there for years and it makes no sense. Personally, I think it’s gotten to be more of a political deal than anything. I mean, we have several bases throughout Europe where we have active squadrons and the base facilities to store these things: Lakenheath in England, Spangdahlem in Germany and Aviano in Italy, just to name three bases where we could house them — and the planes are right there. At Incirlik, should something really hit the fan, planes from one of these bases in Europe would have to land there, refuel, load up and then proceed to their target. From a logistical standpoint, it’s pretty absurd. The only thing that makes sense is the politics of it all, if playing politics with nukes can be said to make sense in the first place. I’m guessing that the US administration, after the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, chose to leave ‘em there as a token of support for the Turkish president. Pretty stupid if you ask me.”

“I’d have to agree with you on that point,” agreed Dani. “I know all of these have a PAL,” that is a Permissive Action Link which is designed to prevent unauthorized arming and detonation of a nuclear weapon, “but depending on the type of PAL — early versions were simply designed for safety, not security — if the wrong bomb with an earlier PAL fell into the wrong hands, the threat level increases dramatically. Weapons with an earlier version, and by that I mean one even from the 1980’s, stand an even chance of being reverse engineered. Admittedly, the PAL makes it so someone can’t make immediate use of the weapon, but, in the right hands, reverse engineering one of these things wouldn’t be that difficult at all.”

“Said the nuclear engineer,” Jackson added.

“Well it wouldn’t be. Think about it: when you were growing up, did you ever take anything apart and then have to put it back together again?”

“Oh, yeah, many times. I think I told you I grew up in San Angelo, Texas. Our family actually had a cattle ranch out there along with quite a few acres of farm land. When our equipment broke down out in the field, there was no one to call for help — you had to fix it yourself.”

“That’s what I mean. If one of these nukes falls into the wrong hands, how soon do you think it would take a North Korean nuclear engineer to get his hands on the thing? He’d be looking at it tomorrow and have it figured out the next day. Keeping these things at Incirlik is just insane.”

“Dani, you’re preaching to the choir.”