Dick Couch - Out of the Ashes

As the sarin gas cloud filled the air, people began to drop to the ground, choking with severe asphyxia as their breathing muscles ceased functioning. First dozens, then hundreds more, dropped to the tiled mall floors, clutching their throats. Death came quickly after that.

Chase Williams had pulled his senior staff together immediately after the sarin gas attacks and had charged them with one mission: Find out who had conducted this attack on America. He had his suspicions, but he wanted to let Roger McCord, Aaron Bleich, and his Geek Tank find the answer.

At 0900 that morning the FBI Critical Incident Response Group team had finally gone to where the suspicious e-mails had emanated from, the hotel Op-Center’s intelligence algorithms had nailed as the precise location. All indications pointed to just one person, a Mr. Wilson, who had been a long-term guest. However, Mr. Wilson was gone when they got there and they had no leads as to his whereabouts. They had interviewed salespeople who had not been at work at the time of the explosions and had learned that Mr. Wilson had delivered a special box of costume jewelry to each cart the evening before the explosions.

Bleich and the Geek Tank did not disappoint. Anticipating the U.S. attack on Iran’s mine-laying capabilities would elicit a response, they focused their intelligence gathering and their sensitive search engines on the Iranian high command and that led them to where they thought it might — directly to the Niavaran Palace.

While Chase Williams followed his “POTUS/OC Eyes Only” memo up with a personal visit to the president hours later, the memo said it all. “Mr. President, over the last four days, using the analysis feeds your intelligence community has continued to so generously share, we have determined the reason for, and the source of, these sarin gas attacks on America. This order was issued directly from the Niavaran Palace by Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei. The grand ayatollah used an intermediary, but there is no doubt he ordered this deadly attack on our citizens immediately after our attack on Iran’s mine-laying capabilities.”

During his visit with the president Williams was careful not to criticize the president or his national security advisor for ordering the attacks on Iran’s mine-laying capabilities. It should have been clear to them those attacks would have elicited the deadly response they did, but that was in the past and revisiting it would serve no purpose now. Nor was it Williams’s place to ask the president what he intended to do armed with the intelligence he had just given him. That would all be taken care of in due course. The president asked Chase Williams to maintain 24/7 intelligence on one specific target.

Thirty-six hours later, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines steaming with the Truman and Vinson carrier strike groups launched a massive barrage of Tomahawk missiles toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. Dozens of missiles emerged from their launch tubes and headed downrange, but this time instead of hitting multiple targets, those missiles all had the same geographic coordinates dialed into their guidance systems. The coordinates were those of the Niavaran Palace in Central Tehran.

The timing of the attacks was precise. Aaron Bleich’s people had provided a direct feed into the CENTCOM Command Center in Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. Bleich and his team had determined Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei had just retired for the evening. The strikes were launched moments later. When the dust had settled the entire Niavaran Palace complex was little more than a smoking, smoldering hole.

However, Bleich’s team had provided more. They had learned the Iranians mine-laying operation had not been — as the Iranians had alleged — a rogue operation by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. Rather, it had been a coordinated operation with regular Iranian navy ships escorting the mine-laying dhows.

Hours after the devastating attack on the Niavaran Palace complex, the cruisers, destroyers, and submarines steaming with the Truman and Vinson carrier strike groups fired more of their Tomahawk missiles. The first wave of these precision missiles targeted the air defense facilities and Iranian military air bases, cratering their runways and making aircraft takeoffs impossible. The second wave headed north toward the Islamic Republic of Iran naval bases at Bandar Abbas, Jask, Bandar Beheshti, Kharg Island, Qeshm, and Larak Island. A total of nine ships, five from the Truman and Vinson carrier strike groups, and four others, rushed to the Gulf of Oman from station off the Horn of Africa, producing the biggest U.S. Navy Tomahawk barrage since Desert Storm.

Missiles were still coming out of their launchers when the first F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet strike fighters roared off the catapults on Truman and Vinson bound for those same ports. Their mission was to turn the Iranian navy into scrap metal. They singled out Bandar Abbas for special attention and destruction as it was home to the Islamic Republic of Iran naval headquarters as well as the base for its three Russian-built Kilo class submarines.

The initial Tomahawk barrage was so effective that there was almost no air defense. What little remained was handled by F/A-18G Growler electronic jamming aircraft accompanying the strike. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornets were now free to rake the ports and ships with their SLAM-ER Standoff Land Attack Missiles, their AGM-154 JSOW Joint Standoff Weapons, and their AGM-84 Harpoon antiship missiles. The Truman and Vinson carrier strikers returned to refuel, rearm, and reattack. The devastation was both appalling and complete. By nightfall, there was little evidence the Islamic Republic of Iran navy had ever existed.

The president’s Oval Office address was shorter than the one he had given eight days earlier. He was brief, almost cryptic, in telling the nation the attacks on America and its citizens had been avenged and the “coward who had ordered the sarin gas attack had been found and eliminated.”

Almost fifteen hundred Americans had died in the sarin gas attacks, and President Wyatt Midkiff had been overwhelmed with trying to restore calm and reassure the nation.

Chase Williams had thought long and hard before requesting a meeting with the president. He wanted to give him time to deal with and get through the worst domestic crisis in the United States since the NFL attacks. Williams had prided himself throughout his career on never speaking badly of a colleague, but too many people had died. This could have been prevented. He had done his best to work through the FBI director and the attorney general. It was simply unacceptable. As Williams entered the Oval Office he noticed Wyatt Midkiff looked years older. This crisis had drained him. “Mr. President.”

“Chase, come in. You’re a sight for sore eyes. Please sit.”

The two men sat in the president’s conversational area.

“Now what’s on your mind, Chase?”

“Mr. President, I’ll get right to the point. I think Op-Center should take a stronger role in dealing with potential terrorist attacks on our soil, and here’s why.”

Wyatt Midkiff listened intently as Chase Williams went through his detailed analysis and rationale.

Sandee Barron had prevailed on her husband to take a few days off from work to look after their two daughters so she could fly to Washington, D.C., to spend a few days with Laurie Phillips.