These sanctions are considered a reversal of Russia’s prior policy on Iran. Russia had previously opposed the imposition of stricter sanctions long advocated by the United States and its major European partners, France, Germany, and Great Britain. As Iran’s principal supplier of fissionable material, nuclear technology, and military hardware, such as the advanced S-300 missile system, analysts believe that Russia’s agreement will have a significant impact on the Iranian economy and on Iran’s nuclear and military ambitions.
It is believed that this agreement will also affect the ability of the Iranians to make the new atomic reactors at Bushehr fully operational, since these reactors were being built under a contract with the Russians. Among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, only China now still opposes heavier sanctions on Iran.
When asked what caused the change in the Russian policy, Prime Minister Dimitriyov stated that this was not really a change in Russia’s position, which has always opposed nuclear proliferation. He added that the declaration was in response to the latest IAEA report to the UN Security Council on Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
Secretary of State Hinton stated: “This breakthrough was achieved not through military action or the work of intelligence agencies, but through long, hard diplomatic efforts by both Russia and the United States. Military power and intelligence services are useful tools and they have their place, but nothing can replace the importance of the everyday work of diplomacy in resolving serious international problems.”
GLOSSARY
Mabahith. The Egyptian domestic intelligence service, aka Mabahith Amn al-Dawla al-Ulya, aka State Security Intelligence (SSI). The Mabahith is responsible for internal security and counterintelligence for the Egyptian government. The Mabahith should not be confused with the Mukhabarat, aka Jihaz al-Mukhabarat al-Amma, aka General Intelligence Service (GIS), which is Egypt’s external intelligence service, the equivalent of the Egyptian CIA. There have been allegations that the Mabahith’s primary function is to provide security for Egypt’s current regime and that it has engaged in the persecution of political opponents, Islamists, Christians, Jews, and homosexuals.
CST. The CIA’s Clandestine Service Training Program. While most CIA trainees go through the CIA’s Professional Training Program, only those CIA employees slated for the clandestine Special Activities Division field operations go through the additional one-year CST training.
Hezbollah and the Muslim Brothers. The Muslim Brotherhood is a jihadist organization with branches or related groups in nearly all countries with significant Muslim populations. Founded in Egypt in 1928, its stated goal is the reestablishment of the Islamic caliphate under strict sharia law. The Muslim Brotherhood has been linked to acts of terrorism in Egypt and elsewhere and has ties to other Sunni jihadist organizations, such as al-Qaida. Hamas, the organization that currently rules the Gaza Strip, is a Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Although once illegal in Egypt and subject to arrest by Egyptian authorities, Brotherhood members have won seats in the Egyptian parliament. Since the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood has attempted to present itself as a legitimate Egyptian political party. On the other hand, Hezbollah is an Iranian-sponsored Shi’ite paramilitary and political movement based in Lebanon. It was founded in 1982 in the aftermath of the First Israeli-Lebanon War as a resistance movement against Israel. The reason for Scorpion’s initial skepticism about Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood is that they are on opposite sides of the Shi’a-Sunni divide, and apart from their common hatred of Israel, are rivals, not allies. Harris, speaking for Rabinowich, suggests this may have changed; a potentially dangerous development in the Middle East.
COMINT. Acronym for Communications Intelligence; that is, intelligence derived from the interception of electronic or voice communications.
MASINT. Acronym for Measurement and Signature Intelligence; that is, intelligence derived from the analysis of technical data, such as the spectrographic analysis of the fuel exhaust of an enemy’s new rocket. MASINT is sometimes referred to as the CSI of the intelligence community.
DNI. Acronym for the Director of National Intelligence. This position, established post-9/11, acts as head of the U.S. Intelligence community (IC) and reports directly to the U.S. President. Affiliated IC agencies (aka “elements”) reporting to the DNI include the CIA, DIA, and other Department of Defense intelligence agencies; NSA, Department of Energy’s OICI, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, DEA, Department of State’s INR, and Department of Treasury’s OTFI (Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence). The DNI’s office is responsible for preparing the President’s Daily Brief (PDB).
DIA. Acronym for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DIA is the agency tasked with supplying and managing military intelligence for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Special Access Critical operation. A level above the highest security classification (Top Secret), a Special Access Program is a Top Secret operation that may be designated by the Director of the CIA (DCIA) to deal with an exceptional threat or intelligence action for which access to information on the operation is limited to as few Top Secret Clearance personnel as is absolutely necessary. “Critical” is the highest level of operational urgency.
The Farm. Camp Peary, aka Camp Swampy, is a CIA covert training facility of nearly 10,000 acres near Williamsburg, Virginia. Contrary to popular opinion and its portrayal in movies, only a portion of CIA training is actually done at the Farm (also see “The Point” below).
FSB. The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, aka FSB, is the primary Russian counterintelligence and domestic security service. It is the successor organization to the KGB of Cold War fame and is headquartered in the former KGB headquarters building, aka Lubyanka Prison, aka Adult’s World, in Lubyanka Square in Moscow. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the KGB was dismantled. Subsequently, the FSB was reconstituted as Russia’s primary domestic security agency, while the SVR, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedk, was reconstituted from the KGB’s First Chief Directorate as the Russian external intelligence service. The SVR is headquartered in the Moscow suburb of Yasenevo.
RSA. A security mechanism developed by the security division of EMC, a major data storage company. RSA is designed to prevent hackers or unauthorized persons from accessing a website by requiring the user to enter not only a password to log in, but also a randomly generated number (which changes every sixty seconds). A token key carried by the user supplies this multidigit number that provides time-synchronous authentication with software at the website. As an added security measure, intelligence services such as the CIA also provide a special password to field agents to signal if they are forced to log in under duress.
Scorpion’s “strange interrupted childhood in the desert of Arabia.” For readers not familiar with the first novel in the series, Scorpion, Scorpion’s (real name: Nick Curry) American parents divorced when he was an infant. His mother was killed in a car accident in California and his oilman father took the child with him when he went to explore for new oil fields in the Arabian Desert. When his father’s team was killed by terrorists, the boy was rescued by Bedouin tribesmen. Afraid the Saudi and American authorities would blame them for the deaths of the Americans, they decided to raise the boy as one of the tribe. This Arabian Huck Finn–like childhood gave the boy a unique perspective, as well as language and culture skills that would make him invaluable as a CIA operative. These skills were further enhanced by his stints at Tehran University, Harvard University, and the U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force in Afghanistan, prior to his recruitment by the CIA, which he subsequently left to become an independent agent. The theme of his life would be his sense of himself as an outsider, never quite sure where he belonged, to America and the West, or to Asia and the Middle East.
CQC. Close Quarter Combat; Delta Force and Navy SEAL martial-arts techniques distilled from a variety of disciplines, including Krav Maga, Muay Tha
i, Sambo, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
The Houdini trick. A world-famous magician and illusionist of the early twentieth century, Harry Houdini was known for his death-defying escapes from prison cells, from inside locked bank safes, from a straitjacket while dangling upside down from the top of a building, from a locked trunk tied with ropes and dropped into a frozen river, and most famously, from the Chinese Water Torture Cell. Houdini often performed these escapes wearing only a bathing suit, as a way of proving that he was not concealing any tools or other trickery. The secret to many of his escapes involved his use of lock picks or keys that he concealed in his hair or had previously swallowed and then regurgitated. He also learned to dislocate his shoulders to assist him in escaping from ropes and straitjackets. What Scorpion was referring to was one of Houdini’s more mystifying yet simplest tricks, in which he escaped from inside a large sealed paper bag without tearing the paper. Houdini accomplished this by concealing a razor blade and gum arabic in his hair. Once behind the curtain, he simply cut the bag at the top, where it had been sealed, stepped out and resealed it. The committee that examined the bag after the escape typically looked for holes or tears in the paper and missed the fact that the razor blade opening had been folded over and resealed.
The Eighth Imam. Shia Muslims believe in a hereditary imamate in a line descending from Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law and companion. Imam Reza (765-816 AD), the Eighth Imam in this line, was designated as a successor to the Caliphate by Caliph Al Mamun. However, during a military campaign to retake Baghdad from Al Mamun’s rivals, Imam Reza died suddenly, leading many Shia to suspect that the caliph had poisoned Reza out of jealousy for his popularity. Reza was the only Imam of the Shi’ites to die in Iran. A shrine was established at his tomb, and eventually the city of Mash-had in northeastern Iran grew up around the shrine, which is today a major pilgrimage site for Iranian Muslims.
201 File. CIA employees and nonemployees considered “intelligence assets” have 201 files. While these files are often considered equivalent to personnel files, they are, more correctly, information profiles. Peters’s threat about Scorpion’s 201 file is an idle one since Scorpion is an independent agent, not an employee, and his operation was “Special Access”—at the highest security level—so that even a CIA Station Chief like Peters may not have had access to it.
NRO. The National Reconnaissance Office, a U.S. Department of Defense agency, operates the spy satellites that supply satellite data for all U.S. intelligence agencies.
FSU. Acronym for the Former Soviet Union.
Kimura shoulder lock. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu submission hold that applies pressure that can inflict extreme pain to the shoulder joint. The lock is typically done starting from a ground position, as are many Brazilian holds. However, it can also be done from other positions and there are a number of variations in how it is applied. The basic hold involves grabbing the opponent’s wrist and twisting it away from his body, placing your other arm over the opponent’s shoulder and down, grabbing your own wrist while holding his wrist and then shifting your body, depending on your original position. The submission involves applying pressure and pushing the opponent’s wrist and arm toward his back, or if on the ground, locking his arm with your leg and then applying pressure. The “Kimura” was named after the judoka Masahiko Kimura, who used it in a legendary match to defeat one of the founders of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Hélio Gracie.
Plague, antibiotic resistant bacteria, bioweapons, and new antibiotics. Pathogens increasingly resistant to antibiotics (due to overprescription of antibiotics in both humans and livestock, natural adaptation, and other causes) have become a very serious public health concern. Antibiotics are the only treatment for many bacterial infections, including Yersinia pestis (the plague bacteria). Certain antibiotics, such as vancomycin and polymyxin, are considered the antibiotics of last resort, despite potentially serious side effects. However, these “last resort” antibiotics are only effective on gram-positive bacteria (which can be stained with violet dye because of the nature of the bacterium’s cell wall) and have limited or no effect on gram-negative bacteria (bacteria that cannot be stained). Plague is gram negative. There is no plague vaccine.
This novel hypothesizes a weaponized Septicemic plague bacteria that is resistant to all antibiotics, except one in development by a Swiss pharmaceutical company. (Few drug companies develop antibiotics. Most drug companies prefer to develop more profitable medications that require regular use, such as statins, as opposed to less profitable drugs that are typically only used once or occasionally, such as antibiotics.) Both the Swiss drug company and the antibiotic cited in this novel, Ceftomyacole, are fictional, as is the weaponized Septicemic plague. However, it is true that the Soviet Union created bioweapon facilities on what was then Vozrozhdeniya Island (today a peninsula in the inland Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan), where bioweapons based on anthrax and plague pathogens were developed. There were other bioweapon facilities in Siberia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, as suggested in this novel, Russian bioweapon facilities were primarily relocated to the Sverdlovsk oblast region.
Al Jabbar. The constellation Orion, called the “Central One” by Arabs in the pre-Islamic era, later called “al Jabbar,” the Giant. Much of what we know about astronomy came from the Arabs, who during the Golden Age of Islam (the ninth to fifteenth centuries) translated early Greek texts, which would have otherwise been lost (such as the works of Ptolemy), into Arabic and then expanded upon that knowledge. This is reflected in the many astronomical and navigational terms derived from Arabic, such as zenith, nadir, azimuth (from the Arabic term, as-samth, meaning way or bearing), almanac (from the Arabic, al-mnaakh), etc., and star names, such as Algol (in the constellation Perseus), Deneb (Cygnus), Rigel (Orion), Aldebaran (Taurus), Betelgeuse (a corruption of the Arabic baith al jawza, or armpit of the Central One; in the constellation Orion), and Vega (Lyra). The picture of the al Jabbar constellation shown is from an original drawing commissioned by the author to his specifications for this book. All rights to this image are reserved by the author, Andrew Kaplan.
Explosives: HMTD, cell phones, and nuclear. Although a great deal of authentic information has been included in this book, some has been deliberately omitted, for reasons including public safety and national security, although such information is available elsewhere. As indicated in the story, HMTD (hexamethylene triperoxide diamine) is a powerful explosive that can readily be made from three ordinary household products, all of which are sold legally over the counter for other purposes and are widely available; the compound’s main drawback is its extreme volatility, particularly to temperature. Similarly, the rigging of a cell phone to detonate an explosive is not fully described. Also, certain details about the procedure for building a nuclear bomb have been omitted, without which the probability of a successful detonation is less likely. That said, the key preventative against terrorists obtaining a working nuclear device is by preventing them from getting their hands on a large enough quantity of sufficiently pure fissionable material. If that should ever happen, the so-called “nightmare scenario” would become almost inevitable.
Vigenère Square Code. The Vigenère Square was invented by Blaise de Vigenère, a sixteenth century French diplomat. Although old fashioned, Scorpion uses it as an expedient because it’s a quick way to create a code that’s difficult to break and that can be composed anywhere with just a pen and paper. The Vigenère Square was designed to foil the ability of code-breakers to break a code based on frequency analysis, which up to that time had been the Achilles’ heel of secret codes. Medieval cryptanalysts were often able to break codes that substituted numbers, symbols, or letters of the alphabet for other letters based on the frequency that letters appear in a given language. For example, in English, the letter e is the most common letter, then t, and so on. Also, certain letters may appear as doubles or in combinations, such as qu, ee, ou, th, whereas certain other letters, such as ii, virtually never appear
as doubles. The most famous example of breaking codes with frequency analysis was in the case of Mary, Queen of Scots, whose doom was sealed when her secret letters, written in code, were deciphered in this way.
The Vigenère Square limits the ability to decipher code in this way because a different row of the square is used to encrypt each letter, so that the letter a, for instance, can be encoded in one place in the message as D, in another place as a Q, and so on. The square consists of a plain text alphabet at the top and letters shifted one place over in each row, as shown here (there are numerous representations of the Vigenère Square from various sources on the Web; the following example was created by the author, Andrew Kaplan).
The way the square works to create a code is through the use of a keyword known only to the sender and the receiver of the code. In the example in this book, the keyword used was YANKES, for the New York Yankees baseball team without duplicate letters. To encrypt the phrase, “confirm agent,” the person creating the code would spell the keyword over the message, repeated as needed. For example:
Keyword: YANKESYANKES
Plain Text: CONFIRMAGENT
To code the message, go to the row corresponding to the keyword letter. For example, for the plain text letter c, the keyword letter above it is Y. The person creating the code would go to row 24, the row that starts with Y. At the top of the table find the plain text letter you want to encrypt, in this case c, and the letter in row 24 that corresponds to c is A. For the second plain text letter of the message, o, you would use the keyword letter A, which starts in row 26, where the plain text letter o happens to correspond to O. For the third letter of the message, n, go to row 13, which starts with keyword letter N, where the plain text letter n corresponds to A, and so on. The plain text message “confirm agent” would be sent as: AOAPMJKATOL. The code is resistant to frequency analysis, and without the keyword there are billions of possible combinations, enough to slow any code breaker down.
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