“So,” McNamara said. “What are we doing to find the ones who escaped?”
“Sir,” Uzi said. “As head of the JTTF in DC, I’m compelled to recommend that in order to effectively pursue these men, and to investigate this case, I need to assign agents and bring Metro—”
“There is no case,” Knox said.
“No case?” Uzi glanced around at the people seated at the table. “All due respect, a suicide bomber exploded in the middle of Washington. We found a bomb-making factory with multiple devices in various stages of assembly — this isn’t going to be a one-and-done. We need to raise the threat level. The public needs to be notified that we’re under attack.”
“No,” Knox said. “They don’t. Not yet.”
“Sir. I—”
“Agent Uziel, who is behind the attack?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What was the target?”
“We’re still inves—”
“Are other attacks planned for the district? For anywhere else in the country?”
“I don’t know—”
“That is the point, isn’t it? There isn’t much we do know. We have very few facts. And dozens of questions. The media will have even more. We don’t want a panic on our hands, do we?”
Uzi leaned forward in his seat. “Of course not. But we can’t keep this a secret.”
“The president has asked us to keep it quiet, for now, until we have a better understanding of what’s going on.”
“We know what’s going on. A terrorist cell of suicide bombers has set up shop in DC and we thwarted one attack before they could act. Isn’t that the intel you got from our Turk informant, Cüneyt Ekrem?”
“As you said yourself, Ekrem is unreliable. That’s why we have to be careful and methodical and keep our eyes and ears open. We need to verify what he told us and not jump to conclusions. At the moment, we have no confirmed intel.”
“But—”
“Remember the panic the DC Sniper caused?” Bolten asked.
Uzi sat back. “Of course.”
“That’s what the president wants to avoid.”
“Agent Vail,” Knox said, “tell us what you know of suicide bombers.”
Vail folded her hands in front of her as she gathered her thoughts. “The study data is all over the place and often conflicting, but the lack of correlation reflects where that research was done, which political and religious ideologies were involved, and which populations were studied. The acts of a bomber in Iraq, for example, are going to be quite different from one operating in Sri Lanka.
“Generally speaking, operationally, the first goal of the bomber is to inflict death and destruction on a specific target. The second goal — which is his overriding motivation and purpose — is to inflict emotional pain and injury on innocents who witness the carnage — and who wait, on edge, for another bomb to go off. Basically, the idea is intimidation, fear and, well, terror.
“That’s an important point because the data is more cut and dried regarding the victim population’s point of view. The victims are frightened. They’re scared. They alter their ways of life. That’s why the terrorists are doing it, right? It’s not the people they’re killing that are affected — they’re dead — it’s those who live in the community, not knowing when another strike is going to happen — or where.”
“Like the DC Sniper,” Bolten said.
“Yes. In a sense, suicide bombings are similar to the terror that snipers inflict on their victim populations: you never know where they’re going to strike next. And it involves an attack on everyday citizens, who are the victims of a political agenda or revenge against people who have nothing to do with the initial ‘offense’ or perceived slight supposedly inflicted on the attacker.”
“Suicide bombings can be an effective tactic in scoring wins during wartime,” Bolten said. “At West Point, we studied the Japanese kamikazes extensively. They had nothing to lose — their objective was to die — so they could be more daring, and penetrate enemy territory more deeply and more effectively, by taking greater risks.”
“Right,” Vail said. “Along those lines, suicide bombings are also used as an asymmetric tactic to counter a stronger fighting force. An example would be the Palestinian bombers hitting civilian targets in Israel. A vast majority of those attacks came at the hands of Hamas, although some were carried out by its rival, al Humat.”
Vail glanced at Uzi and saw his jaw muscles contract — and for good reason: an al Humat operative murdered his wife and daughter.
“There are multiple MOs to their approach,” she continued. “The most common is an explosive belt or vest, though two exceptions would be Richard Reid, the shoe bomber on Flight 63, and the attack on the Saudi prince where the bomber placed the explosives inside his body. Car bombs can also be effective — like the Beirut barracks bombing in ’83 when a driver plowed his truck into the building. Or boats loaded with explosives, like the USS Cole in Aden. I don’t have to elaborate on how jets can be flown into buildings. But that’s just another form of suicide attack. Less popular tactics involve forcing a driver to crash his bus, like the Palestinians did in Tel Aviv, or driving a car into a crowd of people.
“Given what evidence we’ve discovered tonight, it looks like they’re going the more conventional route — a vest — but since we don’t know specifically who we’re dealing with, or why they’re doing what they’re doing, we can’t rule out any of these other methods. Because of that, I do support Agent Uziel’s recommendation to alert—”
“Noted,” Knox said.
Keep your mouth shut, Karen. Just move on.
“Did Ekrem say what group was behind the planned attacks?” Uzi asked.
Knox rose from his chair and began pacing in front of a white board at the head of the room. “I’m reluctant to repeat what he said until we have verification.”
“Sir,” DeSantos said, “time is obviously critical. If we’re going to figure out who’s behind this — and stop them before they implement their plan — we need to know what you know. We can cut through the bullshit and figure out if his intel is on target.”
Knox stopped and leaned on the back of the leather chair. “Al Humat. Maybe in coordination with Hamas. He wasn’t sure. He also suggested Hezbollah played a role, but he wasn’t clear on that.”
“So,” Vail said, “let’s assume, until proven otherwise, that Ekrem gave us good info and there’s an Islamist angle to the planned bombings. These terrorists were speaking Arabic, so we’re in the right ballpark at least. Let’s look at this from a behavioral perspective. We know there’s a religious element to it, a political element to it, and some good old peer pressure — to help the cause, to do what your friends are doing, to sacrifice oneself for the good of the group.”
“Groupthink,” Uzi said, moving the toothpick around with his tongue.
“Right. These people are intent on destruction — but they’re also motivated by strong religious and political beliefs, as well as their own moral reasoning.”
“Warped moral reasoning,” Earl Tasset said.
“We know that Arab bombers are featured on posters and in videos as martyrs,” Uzi said. “There’s a financial angle — the bombers’ families are well compensated. Hamas has gone on record that depending on who takes responsibility for the attack, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al Humat, or the Palestinian Authority pays out a lifetime stipend of $400 a month to families of male bombers and $200 per month to families of female bombers.”