Chapter 4
The news about the raids on the American Mosques spread around the world like wildfire. American businesses and embassies were attacked in several of the countries that had a significant Muslim population and American tourists and business men and women became targets for execution.
Saudi Arabia and the other Arab countries cut off the oil supplies to America and Nigeria soon followed. Nigeria cut off sales to America more to raise the price of oil than for religious or political reasons though. Venezuela shut off sales of oil to America and Mexico caved in after threats from the Arab countries. China and India soon began to sign long term contracts for the oil of the oil producing countries at premium prices; this blunted the effects that the shutoff of oil was having on the oil producers. Hugo Chaves became bolder as he saw America's influence waning and confiscated all American businesses and American owned property in his country. Many people in South America demonstrated in support of Chaves and hailed him as the new South American savior for bringing America to its knees.
Watching his TV in Iran, bin Laden saw the suffering of America from the cutoff of oil and knew that his time had come. The Americans were scouring Pakistan for him and he had been living in luxury in Iran for several years. He called the young boy that was sitting on the chair at the door, over to him and gave him the words to say to the man that was in charge of the terrorist operation that had been planned for several years. The boy nodded and left the house to begin his journey to the next town. The boy took several buses to the house of the man that he was supposed to pass bin Laden's message to. The boy was well-trained in avoiding detection and longed for the day that he would join the martyrs in heaven.
The boy reached the house and walked around the block several times to make sure that he wasn't followed. He ducked into the yard of the house and knocked on the door that couldn't be seen from the street. The door opened a crack and then the door was opened enough for the boy to enter the house. The man that opened the door stayed behind the door out of sight. The young boy softly said the words bin Laden had told him to say to the man.
The man walked to another room and came back with a tape that bin Laden had made a couple of years before. He wrote an address and name on a piece of paper and instructed the boy to deliver the tape to the man whose name was on the paper. The man shoved some money into the hands of the boy and gently pushed him to the door.
The boy quickly made his way to the address of the house that was on the paper. The house was on a residential street in one of the better parts of town. When the boy knocked on the door it was opened almost immediately. The boy handed the man the tape without a word and turned and ran to return to bin Laden.
The man that had been given the tape left the house in his car for the short drive to the Al Jazeera TV station. He glanced at the tape on the seat next to him several times; smiling each time. It was time to bring America to its knees and start to make the American people followers of Islam. The receptionist at the TV station watched as he approached her desk. When the man asked for the man that was his contact at the station the receptionist called and told the person that a man was at her desk to see him.
In a few minutes an overweight man came into the lobby and the tape was handed to him and the two parted without saying a word to each other. The tape was played on Al Jazeera TV within the hour and the American news stations began to replay the tape that the waiting terrorists in America were waiting to hear. The American TV stations never realized that bin Laden was using their thirst for news to get his message out to his people.
Jose Ortega watched as the TV replayed the bin Laden tape. They had even translated it for the American public. Jose closed his eyes and listened to the Arabic words coming from bin Laden's lips. The time had come! His training and preparation was about to be used for the glory of God. He had put up with the American infidels long enough; now it was God's time.
Jose Ortega was not his real name. He had been recruited because it was felt that he could pass for an American of Hispanic lineage. His forged papers were so good that they had never been questioned and no one suspected that he was not Hispanic. He was taught Spanish in Iran in preparation for his mission. He often refused to speak Spanish to others; saying that he had been told to speak English at home as he was growing up and that he spoke Spanish with an American high school accent. He was often teased by immigrants from Mexico that came to work on the refinery, saying that he was an Americanized Mexican. All would have been shocked to find out that he was an Iranian.
Jose was one of many that had been trained for this special mission. He had no idea how many were in his group, but he thought that there were many. The mission was too important to Islam to rely on only a few. Bin Laden always set up his missions so that only the people that had to know had access to the workings of the others in the group. Now that he had received the orders he was on his own. The date and time had been in the coded message from the leader that God loved and protected.
The trip across the border, many years ago, had been so easy that it cemented the disgust that he had for the Americans. They didn't even have enough pride in themselves to protect their own country. Jose had worked at the refinery for twelve years and was a model employee. He had turned down several promotions because he told his supervisors that he loved just being an electrician. Jose had been trained as an electrician in Iran because electricians usually had access to all areas of the refinery and the electrical systems had a large number of junction boxes and large electrical panels that one could hide an explosive device in. It wouldn't take much of an explosive to destroy a refinery if it was placed in the right place. Welding sparks had destroyed refineries in the past. Jose already had the spots picked out for the explosives. Since he was so trusted by his bosses no one would be checking up on him.
The morning that he was to set the explosives it was raining steadily. Jose smiled and thought to himself that God was smiling on this mission. He would have to wear a raincoat on his trips around the refinery and the raincoat would be perfect for hiding the explosives under. The refinery bought only XXL raincoats to save money. One size could fit everyone even if the smaller people would be swimming in the coat. By coffee time the devices had all been placed and he had even had the good fortune to find a tool box unlocked next to the most critical area of the refinery. He had put his own toolbox, loaded with explosives, in the crew's toolbox and put his own lock on the outside. He knew that most of the workers would try to stay out of the rain today and the chance of anyone trying to get into the new toolbox was slim unless there was a problem with the refinery machinery. In that case the electricians were always one of the first to the area. He would have plenty of time to get his tool box out of the crew toolbox.
The rain increased in intensity in the afternoon and most of the workers that didn't have to be outside tried to hide or at least look like they were busy. When Jose punched out the devices still hadn't been found. He drove home with a smile on his face, knowing that the devises would go off at five o'clock. He also suspected that all of the others had set the devices at the other refineries to go off at the same time. America would pay the price for their crimes against Islam.
As soon as he walked through the door of his home he began to put the things that he would need in an athletic bag for the trip to Texas where he would cross the border at San Antonio and meet his team. The team would be transported back to Iran were they would be hailed as heroes. He got in his car and started on the last part of his mission; the part that would take him home to Iran and his family. His American wife wasn't home yet and wouldn't be home for another hour. She had been necessary to the mission but he had no true feelings for her. American women were pigs and didn't follow the teachings of the Koran. Jose knew that the FBI would question her mercilessly. He had planted a few things around the apartment that would give the FBI the impression that she was part of the mission. He wasn't trying to destroy her, it was just to throw the FBI off of his trail and give him a chance to get back home to Iran. He wanted the FBI to concentrate on questioning her to make her tell them where he was. It would be hours before they concluded that she didn't know where he was. By then he would be in Mexico.
Jose heard the first blast and looked in his rear view mirror and saw the plume of smoke rising from the refinery that he had worked at for so long. He saw smoke rising from two other areas that he knew refineries were located in and he smiled; the others had accomplished their missions too. The entire refining operation in the Gulf Coast would be crippled. This would cut the production of fuel for the Americans even further.
Jose patted his American passport that he would use to cross into
Mexico. It had a name quite unlike Jose Ortega in case the FBI had an
all points bulletin out on him. He settled down to the posted speed and
continued to the crossing at San Antonio.