Chapter 5
The President's chief of staff walked into the Oval Office, "Mister President, several refineries on the Gulf Coast have been hit by terrorists. We aren't sure of how many yet but the number seems large. It looks like the work of al Qaeda. There is a significant loss of life at the refineries and the surrounding areas."
The President's face clouded with rage, "Call a meeting of my cabinet for sixteen hundred hours. Any cabinet member that is too far away can sit in on the meeting by secure video. Call the CIA and see if they have any evidence that this is al Qaeda. Find out just how bad we've been hit and how much oil is available for our defenses. I'm declaring martial law and I want the Army to guard every fuel installation in the country."
The chief of staff shuffled his feet, "Mister President, we are stretched very thin. Our forces are still gearing up to extract our Iraq contingent and we'll probably have to leave much of our military gear behind. With our troops on alert at every base around the world we don't have the forces to enforce martial law and it would take weeks to get enough people back to enforce the martial law."
The President looked down at his folded hands, "Tell the Pentagon that I want the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Cabinet meeting. We have to make a few hard decisions and I have to get on TV and talk to the American people. Call the Government Printing Office and make sure that those gas ration books are still available. We'll probably have to use them. Order every National Guard unit on full alert and tell the commanders to be ready to deploy anywhere in the country on a moments notice."
The Chief of Staff left the Oval Office to carry out his orders. He dreaded having to use the gas ration books that had been printed up years before in case something like this happened. The American public was not going to be too happy to have their automobile use restricted. He wondered if the American economy could survive this.
The phone on the President's desk rang. When the President answered it the Director of the CIA was on the line with more bad news.
"Mister President, I'm sorry to bother you at this time. I know that you're busy with the Gulf crisis. We have detected a large military buildup of Syrian forces on Syria's border and a large buildup of Iranian forces on the Iranian border. It appears to be a coordinated attack on Iraq. We don't know at this time if the goal is to seize Iraq or if the Coalition forces are the target. We feel that you should contact General Casey and let him know so that he can prepare for an attack. The Kurdish PUK has attacked several Turkish border installations and we're afraid that Turkey might use Iraq's instability to attack the Kurds in Iraq."
"Bring this up at the cabinet meeting and anything else that you think might have a bearing on our situation," the President said just before he ripped the phone jack out of the wall and hurled the phone across the room.
The Cabinet meeting began with everyone trying to prove that they had been saying months ago that this would happen if we didn't calm the situation in Iraq. The President finally got the Cabinet calmed down enough to begin conducting the meeting. He called on the Director of the CIA for the latest briefing on the intelligence from Iraq and the Mid-East.
The Director was glum, "Mister President, the Iranians have crossed the border and are headed toward our forces led by General Casey. The few Coalition forces that couldn't be gotten out of the north of Iraq and the isolated units that had been engaged with the insurgents haven't been heard from in days and we fear the worst. The Syrians seem to have Baghdad as their objective. We feel that it is a combined effort by Syria and Iran to take control of Iraq's oil and its wealth. Both Syria and Iran are being welcomed by the Iraqi people as liberators. General Casey's situation is tenuous and we don't think we can clear the mines in time to save the Coalition forces. Air evacuation is out of the question because Iran can knock our planes out of the sky at will with the new Chinese surface-to-air missiles they have."
The President nodded solemnly, "What about Turkey? Can we rely on any help from them?"
The Director continued, "Sir, I'm afraid that the Turks have taken the opportunity to solve the Kurdish problem. They have entered the Kurdish regions of Iraq and are engaging the PUK with over-powering force. There are reports that all Kurds that are captured are being killed and the Turks seem to be carrying out a scorched earth policy. We have unconfirmed reports that entire Kurdish villages have been wiped out by Turkish forces."
"Can we count on any help from the Israelis?" the President asked.
The Secretary of State answered that question, "Sir, at this time I don't think it would be wise to involve Israel in this mess. It will appear that the Israelis are looking for a piece of the pie."
For several minutes the meeting became nothing but charges leveled at one another and finger pointing.
Mohammed bin Altayeh continued the inspection of the oil rig. As the lead quality control engineer the final say on the safety of the oil rig was his. This was the third rig he had been on this week in the Gulf of Mexico. He could see smoke on the horizon close to what he knew was Texas and Louisiana. The word of the refinery attacks hadn't reached them yet.
Mohammed's issues were personal. He had worked for the company for fifteen years and he had been passed over for promotion many times. He knew that it was because he was a Muslim. Muslims never went far in America.
Today the Americans would learn that Muslims are to be taken seriously. He had placed bombs at several locations of each of the three rigs that he had visited this week. The explosives were not large enough to destroy the rigs but they would cripple the rigs for months and the production would stop until the rigs had been repaired. There would be some ecological damage but the Americans had been destroying Muslim countries for decades and had little regard for the ecological damage they caused.
Mohammed knew that he had to make sure that he was killed by the explosives or else he would spend the rest of his life in an American prison. He devoted the attacks to Allah for all that the infidels had done to his people and the followers of Islam. He would be sitting next to Allah today.
A young man was talking to his fellow workers as Mohammed walked by, "I can't see why the company hires these rag heads to be our QC Engineer. Don't we have any American engineers that can do this work?"
Mohammed continued to where he had hidden the explosives. He looked over at the young man that had made the comment and called out to the man to come over to him. The young man walked toward him thinking that there was a QC problem that needed fixing. Mohammed waited until the young man was close to him and then pressed the button that detonated the explosives on the rig. The body parts of Mohammed and the young man were scattered over a wide section of the deck and several other men were killed and quite a few others suffered injuries. Oil began to leak into the Gulf and the master of the rig called the Coast Guard to report the spill. He was not sure what caused the blast yet.
Within twenty minutes the hidden charges on the other two rigs exploded causing injuries and loss of life to some of the workers. The Coast Guard put out an urgent request for help to contain the oil spills.
An aide to the President walked into the meeting and walked to the President and handed him a note. The President read the note and his face went white for a second.
The President raised his eyes from the paper, "There have been at least three explosions on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. There has been a loss of life and the Coast Guard is trying to contain the oil spills. Gentlemen, it appears that the Islamic world is intent on bringing America to its knees. I'm declaring martial law in this country and assuming full control of all operations in the country. I want every Senator and Congressman placed under house arrest and I want to cut off all outside communication with them. Contact all oil installations and tell them to suspend all sales except to police, fire and EMT units. Immediately order every commercial airplane to land at the nearest airport and to remain there until I authorize resumption of commercial traffic. All newspapers are to cease operations and will resume printing after we have a system in place that will ensure that the public is not inflamed by their rhetoric. I want to go on national television tonight and tell the American public what is going on. I'm going to start rationing gasoline and if anyone is caught driving a car with only one person in it they will be sentenced to a mandatory thirty days in jail and they will be required to reimburse the government for the cost of their food. Direct each local authority to set up a system of car-pooling so that every car is full during rush hour."
The President pointed at the Secretary of Justice, "Contact every television and radio station in the country and tell them that they are to broadcast only the news that is approved by the Justice Department. If anyone questions or attempts to inflame the people the managers of the press will be arrested and held without trial until the martial law is lifted."
The President got up and started to walk out of the room to the
questions and shouts of his cabinet. He paused and glared at the
members of the cabinet. That was enough to quiet them and they began to
assemble their papers and do as the President ordered when they got
back to their offices.