Hulagu's Web The Presidential Pursuit of Katherine Laforge

by David Hearne

  The warmth from the car heater wrapped me in a soothing embrace as the chill numbness of my ears, nose, and cheeks began to recede. As I drove down Main Street searching for a parking space, I recalled the previous accident that Senator Laforge had endured. Since then, she had told me many of the details from that September evening in Iraq. There have been many renditions of the events of that night, but I believe my version is the most accurate.

  * * * *

  Kat had confessed to me how elated she felt when her face-to-face meeting with Saddam finally started to become a reality. As the secret diplomatic and security issues were pursued by her close’s associates, Kat grappled with trying to learn everything she could about Saddam and Iraq to insure her mission’s success. Her ability to win the presidency rested squarely on the outcome of her meeting with Saddam Hussein.

  I had become much more involved with Kat’s operation. She had discovered my innate ability to reduce a myriad of historical fragments into a logical comprehensive perspective. She liked my work because it was stripped of the pervasive bias accompanying most contemporary news. Kat’s mission soon became my obsession, and I set up an office in my house that became headquarters for research, at least to me. I framed the Hulagu Coin that Kat had given me and hung it on the wall. On the adjacent wall, I hung a picture of a Hydra to remind me of the evil I was involved in fighting. I hoped that these things would give me the inspiration needed to help her succeed in her mission. Deep into the morning the smell of fresh coffee and the sound of baroque music emanated from my sanctuary, as I read books and trolled the web for information, on whatever I was researching.

  To get the research material back to Kat, I set up an innocent website that began to swell with the results of my studies. I named it, “Hulagu’s Web,” sort of a play on Kat’s fascination for Hulagu’s influence in Iraq, and my craving to infuse Kat’s clandestine mission and my work with more of a feeling of intrigue. My site, www.HulagusWeb.com, provided an easy way to openly communicate with Kat, but without anyone realizing its real purpose. It appeared as just another innocuous site dealing with Iraq, Saddam, Islamist or terrorist activities to any web surfers who chanced upon it.

  The first task that Kat asked me to handle was an overview of Iraq’s religious makeup. I immediately immersed myself in the job and went about finding everything I could regarding religion in Iraq. My first draft on Iraq’s religious landscape included statistics, facts, and examples that were representative of the bigger picture. I made it clear that ninety five percent of the population adhered to some form of Islam. Within this shared religion, an age-old deadly battle raged between two Islamic sects, the Sunnis and Shiite’s. The divisiveness between these elements was sinister, destructive, and deadly as demonstrated by the numerous killings of members of one sect by members of the other.

  I harbored a natural reluctance to make any statement to Kat that could be construed as a disparaging attack upon a world religion, but I concluded the darkness surrounding Islam should not be ignored. I felt the tenets of this religion had become so mutated by the religious dogma and hatred spewed by its spiritual leaders that it had reverted from an inspirational power of good into a deadly pernicious psychosis. Militancy appeared to be unbridled in Islam, and it had permeated to the highest level of their hierarchy. An example exemplifying this was the Shiite revered spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini statement, “The purest joy in Islam is to kill and be killed for Allah.”

  Another important excerpt that I felt Kat should be made aware of came from a respected Islamic scholar, Ibn Kathir who was born in 701AH. He was a favorite of Sunni Muslims, the Islamic sect, which Saddam Hussein was a member. Ibn Kathir stated that, “Allah says that the man is the leader over the woman and is the one who disciplines her if she does wrong. ‘Because Allah has made one of them excel the other’, this is because men are better than women, and a man is better than a woman. Therefore, prophet-hood and great kingship were confined to men, as the Prophet said, ‘A people that choose a woman as their leader will not succeed.’” I felt, if Saddam Hussein believed this Islamic doctrine, he would most likely want Kat to become President because Allah would doom her leadership.

  One other item that I felt Kat should be aware of was a passage in Hadith 3:885 regarding the Islamic story of a Bedouin who came to Allah’s messenger and said, “O Allah’s Messenger! I ask you by Allah to judge my case according to Allah’s Laws.” His opponent, who was more learned than he, said, “Yes, judge between us according to Allah’s Laws, and allow me to speak.” Allah’s Messenger said, “Speak.” He said, “My son was working as a laborer for this man, and he committed illegal sexual intercourse with his wife. The people told me that it was obligatory that my son should be stoned to death, so in lieu of that I ransomed my son by paying one hundred sheep and a slave-girl. Then I asked the religious scholars about it. They informed me that my son must be lashed one hundred times, and be exiled for one year, and the wife of this (man) must be stoned to death.” Allah’s Messenger said, “By Him in whose hands my soul is, I shall judge between you according to Allah’s Laws. The slave-girl and the sheep are to be returned to you, your son is to receive a hundred lashes and be exiled for one year. You, Unais go to the wife of this man, and if she confesses her guilt, stone her to death.” Unais went to the woman next morning, and she confessed. Allah’s Messenger ordered that she be stoned to death.

  Kat had worked in the Senate on bills for women’s rights and specifically measures condemning any nation sanctioning stoning to death of its citizens for illegal sex or homosexuality. I had obtained a video of an actual stoning and linked it into “HulagusWeb.com” I wanted Kat to be totally aware of the reality of these barbaric customs and the general danger she faced if her mission went awry. She would be dancing with the devil when she visited Hussein, and I hoped she knew she should take the lead.

  One thing I had often pondered while working at NARA was how a single individual gains mass submission of an entire population. No one could wield this type of power held by tyrants if we were not somehow predisposed to accepting subjugation by another. It must be some human flaw or social malaise that allows this to happen. There could not be Saddams, Pol Pots, Hitlers, Attila the Huns or similar scourges of humanity if we as a society were a bit more responsible and less sheep like. What I was now involved in made me feel a bit closer to being someone who was not simply an ant of society.

  My position in life now was to provide research to help make changes in the world, not to simply archive the past as I had done for so many years. Kat now depended on me to help with her research on many issues. Problems like WMD issues, Kurdish resistance fighters, terrorist activities in Iraq, Saddam’s life history, United Nation policies, political issues regarding Iraq here in the states and anything else with significance to her upcoming mission.

  Finally, the last few days before Kat’s planned meeting with Hussein, the focus of our research shifted to his life history. I had a small phone conversation with Kat a day or so before her trip, and I could sense the nervousness in her voice. There was impatience and even a bit of apprehension discernible in her voice.

  Saddam Hussein fits the mold for a Middle East ruler. He was one man holding the concentration of power and not bound by any constitutional framework. Right from the inception of his regime he exhibited cunning and steadfast determination to become the supreme leader of Iraq. His ruthlessness had assured his rule of the country since 1979. Saddam’s humble background, amazing willpower, focus, and ability to achieve his dreams endeared him to those of his Clan. They felt there was no stopping him, in terms of what Iraq is all about, and its position in the whole world. Saddam shaped a secular government for the first time in modern Iraqi history. It was a ruthless government, albeit, but one able to achieve success in forging a national community out of a country dominated with diverse social elements. This is a land where brutality is the norm. Any leader in the Middle East trying to maintain secularization, modern
ization and the promotion of a worldly education realizes Muslim fundamentalists will constantly oppose him.

  Saddam handled his religious distracters with the same iron fisted determination that his neighbor, Hafez Assad, had applied in Syria. President Assad maintained his power by being ruthless and killing anyone or any groups opposing him. He totally annihilated 20,000 Muslim guerrillas, in the town of Hama, who referred to him as “an enemy of Allah.” From that day on, Islamic fundamentalists used caution with any mention of Assad or the Batth party in their venomous diatribes.

  I hoped Kat understood that if her actions diminished Saddam’s hold on Iraq, it could expose the people of Iraq to the fundamentalist Islamic revival vision of a global culture under Sharia, which is the Islamic solution to all world problems. Sharia (Islamic law) promotes an implacably hostile view towards the secular world. It seeks a political effort imposed by religious laws to implement their tenants of veiling women, mutilation of thieves, execution of adulterers and anyone renouncing the Islamic religion. Fifteen hundred years ago their Islamic prophet, Muhammad, on his death bed is said to have commanded, “Behold! God sent me with a sword just before the Hour, and placed my daily sustenance beneath the shadow of my spear, and humiliation and contempt upon those who oppose me.” This is the Islamic apocalyptic call to all believers to wage war through the world to convert non-believer to the “True faith” or kill them.

  One of the most important transformations of religions in modern time was to abandon their narcissistic, self-perceptions and to love and be tolerant of those of other faiths. But now, this instilled tolerance practiced by these religions, traps its believers into trying to accept and rationalize the zealous hatred held against them by the inflexible Islamic fundamentalist dogma.

  The day had finally arrived and Senator Laforge found herself viewing Baghdad as it appeared on the horizon. Her plane circled over Baghdad as it waited for permission to land at Saddam International Airport. This Airport had lived in a virtual twilight zone for ten years. It had sat there with deserted terminals, empty duty-free shops and an air traffic control tower, which controlled nothing.

  It was now modernized, and the refurbished passenger terminal had brand new lounges and even duty-free shops. French celebrities, opposed to the UN sanctions, had been the first to break the sanctions and fly into Iraq’s airport. The airport’s use was still primarily for humanitarian or diplomatic purposes.

  The Senator’s arrival was met by a large welcoming party. Heading the group was Qusay Hussein, the President’s youngest son. He was there on Saddam’s request to act as Kat’s escort to the meeting place and to assure her safety. A security force of armed Fedayeen guards surrounded Kat, and watched her every move while protecting her from anyone wishing her harm. In addition to Qusay and this element of the Fedayeen, the welcoming party consisted of trained actors rattling off lines riddled with pathos about sanctions. Saddam Hussein had cast the welcoming party with the most dignified, stoical looking Iraqis and the cutest doe-eyed children to help alter her perception of Iraq. It was as if he wanted her to self-flagellate herself for not doing more to help lift the debilitating UN sanctions. Any guilt she might have felt was quickly diminished as she viewed how Hussein used the current resources coming into his country. It was obvious that lifting sanctions would scarcely help Iraq’s poor. In among the wretched squalor of Baghdad’s bursting shantytowns, Saddam’s palaces (all 65 of them) glistened smugly like giant jewels.

  Finally, just as the sun was setting, Senator Laforge and her entourage left the Airport for the final leg of their journey to the undisclosed meeting place with Saddam Hussein. As their caravan of cars and armoured vehicles left the Airport, the sky began to churn with angry dark clouds. At first, it was only large raindrops splattering on the pavement making tiny ringlets in the dust on the hot road, but then the clouds burst, the sky flashed and the storm awoke the night. The ferocity of the pouring rain sounded like a muffled drumbeat on the roof of the Senator’s limousine. As the rain poured down faster, thunder echoed its vengeance through the dark night. The rain beat hard on the street and the trees shook from the wind. The anger of the storm sent shock waves of lightning flashing like strobe lights through the dark.

  Nature’s light-show painted patterns of flickering shadows on the faces of Qusay Hussein’s Fedayeen body guards who sat directly across from Kat. They looked much more westernized than she had imagined of men from a Muslim nation. Their hair was cut in slicked back western styles, and they sported well shaped waxed mustaches. They resembled gangsters from a 1940’s B movie, not elite bodyguards for the heir apparent of Saddam Hussein.

  Lightning flooded the gloom with light, and then the darkness would again overtake the night and their faces would fade into the blackness. As they drove along the avenue, Senator Laforge had found herself focusing on this phenomenon instead of listening to Qusay’s interpreter. The storm seemed to heighten her tenseness, her stomach cramped and Goosebumps seemed to sprout from her skin. She felt her arm tremble and hoped that Qusay or his bodyguards did not see her uneasiness. Senator Laforge snapped back to Qusay’s words that were fading from her memory and asked him to please repeat the previous question.

  The buildings that streaked by were plastered with large threatening images of a stern-faced Saddam, standing against an inferno-like red backdrop. The strobe light illumination of flashing lightning and the rain streaking the posters made his appearance as ominous as the sinister clouds sweeping over the city.

  Deadly lightning etched itself across the skies and illuminated the glistening armored vehicle, which rumbled ahead of the limousine. The storm was stronger now and the thunderclaps were sharp, as lightning continued to pierce the sky and illuminate the Baghdad skyline. The rain and wind whipped the antenna on the armored vehicle. The antenna bent to the might of the wind and vibrated from the pounding of the rain. Another huge sheet of lightning spread across the Iraqi sky; it was a beautiful pyrotechnic show. Suddenly, after another thunderclap, the back of the armor vehicle pulsated with a shimmering bolt of lightning, which smashed through its hull. A huge spray of sparks followed by black smoke shot up from the vehicle as it came to an instant halt. The limo driver slammed on his breaks, and the limousine started to skid towards the smoking pile of rubble. Senator Laforge braced herself for the collision, and the car tore into the twisted smoking wreck with a loud roar. Kat’s body shot off the seat and catapulted into the harden glass of the privacy partition. Her head spilt open like a ripe watermelon dropped on the ground. Blood poured down her face and onto her twisted body. Then the sounds of thunder and rain faded away into semidarkness and a few seconds later she floated into a coma.

  Three Fedayeen members ran splashing through the puddling water to the smoking limousine. Moans and yells could be heard coming from the vehicles. The armored vehicle was billowing smoke and the smell of burned oil was strong. The limousine had flipped over twice and its weight had caved in its roof. The roof now looked like a wrecking ball had been dropped on it. Two of its doors had been ripped open from the impact of the accident. The passengers were heaped upon one another; some dead, some dying, some slightly injured and some unhurt, but all tightly gripped in the menacing wreckage and menaced by the jagged steel and leaking gas. One stunned bodyguard wiggled from his imprisonment and was led away from the wreck by a Fedayeen. On the initial impact, Qusay Hussein had been ejected from the limo and was spared from being crushed as it tumbled about. Two Fedayeens bent down into the doorway of the smoldering car and yanked on the Senator’s arm to pull her free. The lower part of her body was concealed under a piece of one of the limousine’s seats. The collapsed roof of the limousine pressed down hard on the piece of the seat locking the Senator tightly in place. A Fedayeen guard reached under the seat and cut through her belt and sliced open the side of Senator Laforge’s dress. As they renewed their attempt to pull her from the wreckage, they felt her body slip from its pinned position and heard her unconsciously lose
control of her bodily functions due to the tremendous tugging on her body over the other wreckage. As her legs moved into view, they could see red lines being carved in them from the springs or pieces of steel that had slammed into her leg and were now slicing through her skin and muscles. The combined smell of gas, smoke and feces wafted from the Senator’s prison, but the Fedayeens were too busy to notice. They saw her foot slide from under the seat, and they quickly balanced her among them and moved swiftly away from the wreckage. As they rushed to safety, the slickness of rain and blood on her body made them struggle to maintain their grip on her. As one Fedayeen guard regained his grip on her arm, the expandable band on the Senator’s watch gave way, and it fell to the ground, sinking to the bottom of a puddle. No one noticed, or cared, and they kept rushing back toward the other limousines at the rear of the caravan. Deep inside the watch, a drop of water found its way and a tiny blue spark momentarily flickered, snaking across the circuitry. Just as the damaged watch stopped ticking the limousines’ wreckage exploded into a huge fireball scattering its pieces through the air and lifting the armored vehicle and hurling it into the nearby building. People close by tumbled around like leaves blowing in the wind. The Senator was heaved through the air and on to a vehicle ten feet in front of her. Her left arm snapped as it bent behind her from the impact of her body smashing into the vehicle. She laid sprawled on the hood of the vehicle blood spreading over her face. It trickled down her cheek, paused for a moment, then plunged from her chin to the wet road below.

  In the distance, sirens could be heard blaring into the rain and smoke filled night air. The faint glimmer of the flashing red and blue lights, were now visible. The smoke billowing around the wreckage and bodies was so thick, that it blocked out the bright flashes of lightning still illuminating the sleeping city of Baghdad. The sounds of the sirens grew louder and some of the injured tried to rise. Burning wreckage and smoldering body parts lay scattered over the road and sidewalk. The arrival of the wailing ambulances plunging through the darkness, smoke and rain were welcomed as saviors. Men leapt from the trucks and ran to the first person they saw needing help. The flames were still burning, as the medics searching for survivors scurried between the wounded and dead. One medic knelt by a sprawled soldier adverting his eyes from the man’s pleading looks as he tried in vain to dam the flow of blood. He felt death conquer the soldier and closed the man’s glazed eyes.