you want to know, who in hell was I working for? Who paid me and paid for all this training? Well, I'm afraid that you will just have to keep wondering because I certainly am not gong to tell you and even if you water boarded me to death, I can honestly say, " I don't know! Obviously, it was some government agency but, which one? I got paid, money came into my accounts every month. I had aircraft, support and teams to work with. We had and have offices, and could get and use anything and everything we needed. We just asked for it and there it was... Like an ever giving cornucopia of exciting and deadly gear. Sometimes a guy would show up with something we never dreamed of and show us how it worked. If we wanted it- any number of them showed up. Amazing!
I have been back to these training sessions many times over the years and my ability to incapacitate and kill an opponent has been rated at the very top. I work today with about 90 fellow killers, each as good as they get. We go only by first names and keep our personal lives far from the business end. Actually, most don't have any kind of personal life! We use untraceable cell phones that look like any others. We have access to monitor any person we need to or think we need to. We can even watch them shiting and showering through their concrete walls. Not one vestige of their privacy is left to our imagination. These days we have everything! I mean everything!
CHAPTER 3
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA, 2003
HOW TO KILL A RADICAL MUSLIM
After Vietnam I was offered a position as a 'private contractor' with a no-name outfit. No paperwork, no interview just "yes or no." A wire transfer was sent to my bank and that was that- I was on board and have been for 45 years. I have never met the "directors" as we call them and have no idea who they are. I received an encrypted Blackberry device and went to work.
The guys we kill are all dangerous and need killing. We generally don't waste resources on minor players. Once the top guys are taken out the group usually dissipates and the followers of Allah find other groups with other charismatic leaders to follow. Followers don't and never have made effective leaders.
On this particular 'hunting expedition' the target was a top level terrorist propaganda specialist. He designed and maintained sophisticated websites and social media outlets constructed so as to sway the muddled minds of western kids to join the cause. The sites were in English and Arabic. He had been on our scope for months. So far, over 700 UK citizens and 200 Americans had signed up, several had already carried out suicide attacks and five had been killed in combat. The fear was that many would be coming home with their western passports - fully trained, completely radicalized and prepared to carry out attacks in Europe and America.
The webmaster was carefully hidden, using many worldwide proxies via Wytopia, a public program, allowing him to skip from one country to the next. The program provides an Open VPN, PPTP, Cisco IPsec, L2TP/IPsec, along with a proprietary 4D Stealth protocol obscuring the fact that he was even using a VPN). He had a VPN service arsenal at his disposal, including alternate ports and 256-bit encryption options. The program also allows him unlimited, real-time instantaneous switching between a bunch of cities and countries with un-throttled, unlimited bandwidth. This package assured him of unparalleled flexibility and what he thought was real security across a wide range of devices and geographies. He thought he had the ultimate in speed, un-blockability and security. He was wrong!
Our guy was switching servers, cities and countries as often as he liked. All this is perfectly legal and useful for some but what he didn't know is that it's not as secure as he thought. It took our IT guys about 90 seconds to pin point his server location and, in another few minutes, we knew his name, where he lived, who worked for him, who he worked for and, by the end of the day, had a thick dossier down to who his parents and grandparents are and were and the names and addresses of everyone in his extended family (over 100 by the way). Our marching orders came in a few days and we were 'green lighted' to take him and his network down. Who gave that order I have no idea. As smart as we thought we were- none of us could or ever did find out. We just called them "the directors."
In 2003 John, Max and I booked space on a small British freighter from Madagascar to take three of us north through the Suez Canal. At midnight, as the ship passed a few miles west of Jeddah off the east coast of in Saudi Arabia, we dumped a black MIL GRADE inflatable over the side and dove after it. The ship never slowed from its 8 knot speed. Surfacing in the dark salt water after the dive, we found each other and the inflatable - jerking the lanyard, it inflated and we climbed aboard.
John was and, in a way, still is a Navy Seal. He graduated at the very top of his class in electrical engineering at Princeton in 1982 where he played football and had several offers after graduation to join a professional team. He joined NROTC in his freshmen year and graduated as an Ensign. He, as I did, sailed on mandatorily summer cruises where he met several former SEALS and set out to become one. Of course, he excelled at this just as he does in everything he sets out to do. John is deeply patriotic and despises the current feckless and Islamic ass-kissing administration as almost all of us do.
John takes very seriously and can recite the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights- the Bill of Rights, reflects the first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution. John has made it a point of honor to "visit" a few of the scoundrel politicians and Government bureaucrats whose actions and words violated these sacred documents. Of course, I don't know about any of these little escapades- what he does on his time is his business. I can tell you that, over the years, a few really dangerous anti -American politicians have miraculously gone missing.
John is 5-10" and about 180 lbs of bone and muscle. He watches what he eats and doesn't drink except water and tea. In our world, this makes him a bit of an anomaly of course but --no one laughs. John can literally run up a 12' wall and scale any building silently. In his civilian life he rock climbs and is recognized as one of the world's best. He speaks near perfect Arabic and doesn't like guns- he prefers the knife. Killing by knife can be done in absolute silence and is always done by surprising the target. Challenge him to a shooting match though is a mistake. I know, it cost me a few bucks and dinner. John can toss a can into the air and hit it 9 out of ten times with a pistol using either hand. I didn't say he didn't know how to use a gun, he just prefers the knife.
John's knife is a 7" hand-made fighting knife he straps to a harness behind his head. The Model 14 Attack knife designed by Bo Randall has been custom made for specialists like John since WWII. It's is primarily designed for combat and survival purposes. It will sever a head from the neck in a New York minute. It can be sharpened to hold an edge like a scalpel just as the Japanese Samurai sword. The knife has a finger grooved handle with a brass double guard. Its blade is O-1 high carbon tool steel.
Let me tell you a bit about the United States Navy's Sea, Air, Land Teams, commonly known as SEALS. SEALS are the U.S. Navy's SOG (special operations group) and a part of the Naval Special Warfare Command and United States Special Operations Command. The SEALS duty is to conduct small-unit maritime military operations which originate from, and return to a river, ocean, swamp, delta or coastline. SEALS can negotiate shallow water areas such as the Persian Gulf coastline, where large ships and submarines are limited due to the water's depth.
"SEAL" is always capitalized in reference to members of the Naval Special Warfare community. Navy SEALS like John are trained to operate in all environments (Sea, Air, and Land) for which they are named. SEALS are also prepared to operate in climate extremes of scorching desert, freezing Arctic, and humid jungle. The SEALS current pursuit of elusive, dangerous and high-priority terrorist targets has them operating in remote, mountainous regions of Afghanistan, and in cities torn by factional violence. Historically, the SEALS have always had "one foot in the water." The reality, however, today is that they initiate lethal direct action strikes equally well from air and land which is why he was with us.
All
