Sheep Dog and the Wolf

by Douglass, Carl;

  “And running water and towels and electricity?”

  “Most of the time,” the CIA officer laughed. “I should let you know that you need to pay with Tanzanian Shillings. They’ll overcharge you if you offer U.S. dollars, Euros, or pounds sterling. Do you have any TZSs?”

  “I don’t.”

  “I’m feeling generous. This’ll be enough. It only costs twelve fifty a night American.”

  He passed back a wad of used shilling notes; at one USD to 1,348 TZSs The wad came to 140,000 TZSs, just over $100 USD. It was half an hour’s drive from the embassy towards the Zanzibar Ferry Terminal and the air terminal. Gabler knew his way around. He pulled off on to Bandari Street and into the tiny parking lot of the unimposing Safari Hotel.

  “Okay, James Bond, this is it. The Safari Hotel. Fifteen single rooms, twenty-five doubles, and three that are even air conditioned, God willing. You will be pleased to know that—since it is past two—you will have electricity. A decided amenity is the fact that all rooms are en suite, and the toilets work most of the time. There is a potential bit of difficulty, which is that many of the staff speak only Swahili; so, I’d better go in with you to get you settled without frustration. Unless you speak Swahili, that is?”

  He gave a mildly questioning look at Sheep Dog who replied that his Swahili was rusty.

  “The two national languages are English and Swahili, but this far away from civilization, you’ll hear more of the latter than of the former. They do have the internet and an international call facility here, and both have a sterling reputation for reliability.”

  “By ‘civilization’, I take it you mean the embassy compound.”

  “Right on.”

  The two men went into the office and got Sheep Dog registered. Glen was right; no one spoke English that day. But he was wrong about there being air conditioning, at least not that day. “Electrical difficulties” they learned. Overall, the hotel was more like a hostel than a hotel or even a motel. Everything was more than a little worn and seedy and generally poorly kept. But it was certainly private. There was no evidence that there were other guests, and the friendly staff people were sparse in number.

  Glen took his leave, and Sheep Dog took a cold shower. It was part of the “electrical difficulties”. The toilet and the rest of the ceramics and the floor of the bathroom were unclean; so, Sheep Dog spent half an hour and the expenditure of one of his towels to bring it up to a level of safety if not quite sterility or esthetically pleasing. It took him an hour to scrub off the Indian pirate persona. He dressed in Western clothes for the first time in several days and felt more like himself again as he went down to the office to take advantage of the internet. He had only one e-mail message which was encoded. The decoded message read:

  EYES ONLY TOP SECRET

  PROCEED ASAP TO PARIS, L’ERMITAGE SACRE COUER HOTEL, RUE LAMARCK, MONTMARTE. RESERVATIONS IN THE NAME OF PIERRE GOTSCHALK. AWAIT FURTHER COMMUNICATION. ADCIA.

  It had to be pretty important to warrant a direct, albeit encoded, message from Oliver Prentiss. Sheep Dog called Air France and made reservations for the next afternoon. He found the Parisian hotel on Google Earth and checked the reservations. He dug into his bag to be sure he still had the CIA forged Pierre Gotschalk, French citizen, passport; and he did. As he drifted off to a twelve hour sleep, he thought that he had an adventure awaiting him.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  EARLY JANUARY

  Tel Aviv, Israel. OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, 0200

  Present: PM, Commander-in-Chief IDF, Commander-in-Chief IAF, Minister of State, Director Mossad, Ambassador to the United States

  “Please keep your seats, gentlemen,” Prime Minister Ehud ben Cohen directed as he hurried into the War Room. “Any hint of a leak, Ari?”

  “No, Prime Minister. So far as we can ascertain, we will have the advantage of complete surprise,” the Mossad Director, Ari Maor bar-Lev, replied crisply

  “Everything ready, Balfour? Michael?”

  “We have been in preparation of Operation Endgame for six months. We are confident that nothing has been overlooked. The amount of fire power we are about to deliver will create complete shock and awe, complete destruction of the facilities, and minimal loss of life on either side. As the Americans say, you can’t ever count out Murphy’s Law; but we have taken every precaution we could imagine.”

  General Balfour Fürstenberg, Commander-in-Chief, IDF, spoke for himself and for Major General Michael Biram Edelstein, Commander-in-Chief, IAF. Their full confidence showed in their faces, and that gave the PM a brief sense of lessening of his tensions.

  “Daniel, when will you get in touch with Jeremy Southem?”

  “In exactly thirty minutes post launch, sir.”

  General ben Moises could hardly wait to break the news to the smug U.S. secretary of State.

  “Are you sure they won’t balk and feel like they have to inform the enemy?”

  “Almost certain. But, as insurance, we will not communicate until the launch is beyond recall, and we will not inform Congress at all. If we were only dealing with Southem, I would have profound doubts. Storebridge is not nearly such a political correctness pettifogger. I think he will make a post raid bluster for appearances sake, but won’t lift a finger to help them. It is in his country’s interest just as it is in ours to put a stop to them. Remember Rabbi Hillal’s famous quote?: If I am not for myself, then who will be. If not now, when? Storebridge will see it the same way, I’m sure. If we don’t do it, the U.S. will eventually have to. Today, we take the onus off the president’s back. Even the worst left-wingers in his country won’t be able to blame him, and he is the consummate politician. He’ll go for it.”

  “Anything else, gentlemen? Are we set?”

  Every man in the room nodded his head in affirmation.

  “Then may Yahweh bless our armed forces and our nation.”

  ZROA HaAVIR VEHAGALA—IAF (Air and Space Arm) Sed Dov Airbase, Tel Aviv, Israel, 0400.

  15th Air Wing, 100th Squadron, “The Flying Camel Squadron”, operating Beechcraft King Air, 135th Squadron, “The Kings of the Air Squadron”, operating Beechcraft King Air and Beechcraft Bonanza

  Over the past two weeks, the non-threatening Beechcraft planes had been lined up on the major runways for any spy on the ground or in the sky to see. The hangars had—during the same period—been filling with U.S. Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightening II stealth multi-role fighters. Throughout the world from Ta’if to Washington D.C. to Moscow, the best informed aviation experts were unanimously of the opinion that the world’s most effective air plane was more than three years from active production. All of the experts were wrong. 75 of the incredible planes had arrived at Sed Dov under the greatest secrecy since the Manhattan Project. They were now being wheeled out onto the runways to take the place of the innocuous appearing Beechcraft. The last on-ground checks were completed by 0410. The flag men were in place.

  Major Hadara Bodenheimer climbed into her F-35A cockpit and in the last minute before takeoff, re-read her orders. Her first role was protection of the bombers. Her second—and more critical mission—was to deposit four AGM-88 HARM missiles [High-speed Anti-Radar Missiles] into Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit near Yazd, Iran where yellow cake uranium is processed before being sent on to the Uranium Conversion Facility [UCF] at Esfahan. At the UCF at Esfahanusing the yellow cake prepared in the Ardekana number of by-products including uranium hexofloride (UF6), metallic uranium, and uranium oxide (UO2) are produced. These are later used for uranium enrichment. Major Bodenheimer’s mission was shared by three other F-35As. If they were able to drop their payloads successfully at Ardekan, and still have sufficient fuel to return to Tel Aviv; the four Israeli Air Force officers were ordered to assist in the destruction of the UCF on the way back.

  The impenetrable blackness of the Middle-Eastern night was broken by the sudden lighting of the flight supervisors’ hand held blaze orange torches. In unison, the supervisors waggled their torches; and the
powerful engines of the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightening II stealth fighters roared into life. Take-off began at 0425, and the last of the four jets left the runway at 0430, precisely on schedule.

  Three IAF squadrons, the 150th, 199th, and 248th, based at Sdot Micha—responsible for Israel’s surface-to-surface nuclear strike capability—had worked feverishly since the onset of darkness the night before on final preparations of their stockpile of 100 upgraded Jericho II missiles. The ordinance was originally intended for medium range targets to protect against retaliation from neighboring Islamic states. Beginning in 2008, Israel launched a program to extend the range of its existing Jericho II ground attack missiles to make them capable of sending a one ton nuclear payload 5,000 kilometers. The final upgrade resulted in the range of the missiles—now capable of being modified to carry nuclear warheads no heavier than 500 kg, to over 7,800 km—becoming, in effect, ICBMs. The Jericho IIs were fully loaded with the nuclear warheads and aimed with computerized precision at Damascus, Tunis, Cairo, Casablanca, Baghdad, Tehran, Esfahan, Tripoli, Amman, Riyadh, Ankara, Islamabad, Peshawar, Manama, Muscat, Doha, Kuwait City, and Abu Dhabi. The squadrons held their Jericho II missiles in full menacing readiness.

  The preparations for their Jericho III missiles were substantially more aggressive. Jericho III ICBMs became operational in January, 2008 and are able to carry MIRVed warheads. The maximum range estimation of the IAF Jericho III ICBMs is 11,500 km carrying a payload of 1000-1300 kg, and their accuracy is surgically precise. Of the 100 Jericho IIIs at Sdot Micha, 50 were launched at Iranian based nuclear facilities in the first wave of attack at 0430.

  From Tel Nof Air Force Base, 72 huge pilotless Aheron TP drone planes were put in the air at 0445. The drones can remain in the air for a full day and can easily fly as far as the Persian Gulf and the farthest reaches of Iran. The drones have a wingspan of 86 feet, making them the size of Boeing 737 passenger jets and are by far the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel’s military. They were armed with JDAMs—Joint Direct Attack Munitions, GBU-31, 1000 pound laser-guided missiles. In addition, from Tel Nof, 76 Tel Nof Delilah anti-radiation attack drones were air-launched from Sikorsky helicopters with the purpose of finding radar sites when they lit up on the drone, allowing them to be found and destroyed. They have a range of 150 km [90 miles], and can destroy targets both on sea and on land. An autopilot onboard as well as an INS/GPS navigation system allows the missile to perform its mission autonomously; a data link enables intervention and target validation. The missiles were fitted for Operation Endgame with a variety of warheads that can be fitted to most aircraft. They can be fired from aircraft, helicopter, or ground launcher. Predominately, the missiles were placed on IAF Sikorsky helicopters to allow for maximum maneuverability. The Delilahs were among the first line of defense precautions to protect the Israeli motherland from counterattack.

  The Aheron TP drones were directed towards military installations throughout Iran and at selected nuclear facilities including the uranium mines in Saghand—125 miles from Yazd—and the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility, a high security uranium enrichment facility using gas centrifuges, about 40 kilometers southeast of Kashan, about 150 kilometers north of Esfahan, and 280 kilometers south of Tehran. At Natanz hardened nuclear fuel pellets are produced and subsequently formed into nuclear rods. The two largest underground structures at Natanz have horizontal dimensions of about 190 meters by 170 meters, with a gross area of approximately 32,000 square meters each. The smaller structure, situated adjacent to both large structures, has a gross ground area of approximately 7,700 square meters. They are 25 meters underground and are roofed with 12 meters of reinforced concrete and 22 meters of packed fill dirt. The underground compartments hold more than 50,000 centrifuges.

  Also high on the attack list were the Qom underground uranium enrichment facility at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base with its more than 3,000 nuclear centrifuges; the Lashkar Abad plant for isotope separation and laser enrichment; the waste storage facility at Esfahan; the Kalaye Electric Company where nuclear centrifuge components are made and tested; and the massive nuclear facility at Bushehr where two reactors are in actual production of the 80% pure weapons grade plutonium necessary for the production of WMDs.

  The Bushehr reactors are fully operative and are in production of nearly half a ton of plutonium a year—enough to produce fifty atomic bombs. Israel’s spy network estimated that thirty-two of the WMDs had already been stockpiled. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (the AEOI), with the generous contributions from the Russian Federation, accomplished the successful final steps leading to production in absolute secrecy and with an international bluff of Olympian proportions. The IAEA had been systematically prevented from getting an in-depth look into that plant. Israel, however, had incontrovertible evidence of Iran’s accomplishment obtained two years previously from their own imagery satellites and more recently at the cost of the lives of three Mossad infiltrators.

  0430 - Ramat David Air Base, Northern Israel: F-16C/D Squadrons 109 and 110.

  The entirety of the two battle experienced squadrons lifted off for waves of sorties carrying, by the planned end of the attack, a total of 600 “bunker buster” 900 kilogram GBU-27 and 2,268 GBU-28 bombs capable of penetrating 2.4 meters and 6.0 meters of concrete respectively at even an oblique angle and another layer of earth 30 meters deep. Most of the pilots’ work concentrated on the problem that for these bombs to penetrate their targeted Iranian facilities—known to be ultra-protected—they will have to strike the targets with absolute accuracy and at an optimal angle. The men and women of the squadrons knew full well the critical precision required of them and had complete trust in themselves and in the marvelous computer systems aboard their flying ships. A few of them also had faith in the divine protection of their mission by Yahweh, the one God.

  There was considerable overlap in targets by the IAF, especially against Bushehr, which is located eleven miles south-east of the city of Bushehr, between the fishing villages of Halileh and Bandargeh along the Persian Gulf. Coordinated attacks were planned and executed using the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightening II stealth fighters, the Aheron TP drones, and the Jericho III ICBMs. Regular IAF F-16A, F-16 C and D, F-15, and F-22 Raptor fighter squadrons launched 146 jets as protection for the bombing fleet. In all, by 0450, 612 of Israel’s 886 air force planes were in the airspace over Iran—an armada of historical proportions. Even the Beechcraft planes were fitted with heavy machine guns and sent on patrol over the Golan Heights.

  This strike dwarfed the combined previous strikes of Operation Opera which occurred on June 7, 1981—eight IAF F-16A fighters covered by six F-15A jets carried out a mission to destroy the Iraqi nuclear facilities of Osiraq; Operation Wooden Leg on October 1 1985, when, in response to a PLO terrorist attack which murdered three Israeli civilians in Cyprus, the Israeli Air Force carried out an attack on PLO Headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia by F-15 Eagles; Operation Orchard which destroyed the Syrian Kibar Nuclear Facility and its tons of North Korean supplied plutonium on September 6, 2007; and the targeted killings of Palestinian militant leaders during the al-Aqsa intifada. Every member of the IDF was put on full alert, even retired personnel, for the massive new strike, Operation Endgame.

  0430: General ben Moises in Tel Aviv was connected to United States Secretary of State Jeremy Southem in his home in Georgetown, Virginia by secure telephone. Simultaneously, General Balfour Fürstenberg contacted his counterpart, General Lemuel Simons, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States and Secretary of Defense, Michael Chisholm on a conference line. Mossad Director, Ari Maor bar-Lev and DCIA Gerald Lang were put together on another secure line. Prime Minister Ehud ben Cohen awakened President Thomas Collingwood Storebridge in the White House residential quarters. The message for all had the same script:

  “The Nation of Israel, and the combined Israeli Defense Forces have—within the hour—launched an all-out military attack on the nuclear weapons facilities of the
Islamic Republic of Iran. Before noon today, it is anticipated that every portion of the nuclear capability of Iran will be destroyed. We request your forbearance, but not your help. At 0800 U.S. eastern daylight savings time, we will make an announcement to the world that the attack is entirely the effort of Israel, unaided by the United States or its allies. We will state the obvious—that the survival of our nation required the nullification of Iran’s weapons of mass destruction which were directed at the annihilation of Israel. We are fully prepared to defend ourselves against the expected retaliatory efforts of Iran and any of its Muslim allies who consider taking the risk along side that terrorist regime.”

  The response was the same from every American contacted:

  First there was stunned silence. Then, each man exclaimed, with minor variations, “Oh, God, what have you done?”

  There followed an extended effort to assuage the wounded egos of the Americans and to assure them that the attacks were necessary.

  The ambassador to the United States told the secretary of State, “Before you act in anger or in haste, Mr. Secretary, consider the fact that this problem of the nuclear capacity of Iran on a war footing has not just been aimed at Israel. For more than ten years, your country and—indeed—the United Nations has agonized over how to deal with the threat. You are well aware that your military has presented attack options to your past three presidents. Now, the threat has vaporized. You do not have to be the object of criticism in this affair. You are at liberty to make politically correct protestations against this “unprecedented military intervention by the Nation of Israel”, and you can maintain your stance of neutrality in the United Nations and with the world’s communications media.”

  Similar arguments were made to the other American officials and the responses were very much the same, and very much expected by the Israeli callers: