Perspectives, An Intriguing Tale of an American Born Terrorist (13 page)

“There were too many witnesses down at Guantanamo and everything is on tape and video,” answered the Director. “And the last thing I need is a conspiracy.”

Burton remarked, “Let me just follow your thinking. If he truly didn’t know anything, then he really was framed and we have a much bigger problem. It would mean that there’s someone in here who has the ability to hack into the agency mainframe, someone with access to our most secret programs and a terrorist who could be any one of us who knows a helluva lot more about us than we do about them. This is pretty frightening stuff. What is the press going to think when we let this guy go? And what if he talks, you know
Meet the Press, 60 Minutes

“He’s not going to talk,” answered the Director. “We’re not going to let him leave here until we are certain of that. We’re going to divorce ourselves from this guy and as long as he doesn’t talk, the Press will draw their own conclusions. All they will be able to do is speculate and he’ll be the nation’s #1 suspect, because we fired him. And yes we’ve got problems that have terrifying ramifications for national security,” answered Reed. “If it’s not Anderson, then there’s no doubt there’s someone on the inside who’s responsible.”

“Any luck with tracing those email leads he gave us?” asked Harry.

“Nothing,” answered the Director. “They’re always one step ahead of us. For all we know they’re going to blow up Langley next. That’s about as secure as I feel this minute. But right now, we have to focus on Anderson. He’s a political hot potato. We’ve brought this guy in and the whole world knows we brought him in. The interrogation was thorough, and we have to close this up and end our relationship with this guy, clean and final. The last thing we want is another crazy fucker on the inside with all the tools of the CIA trying to get even with everyone. We’ll buy him out, and do what it takes to scare him to keep him quiet. We’ll use Jim’s suggestion and give him a direct reminder that cooperation is the only way to keep his wife and kid safe. And then we need to keep the press away from him. The media is all over this fucking thing!”

Harry scratched his chin, “You said something really interesting. And I’m thinking crazy here, but what if we let Anderson stay and give him the tools to flush out the insider?”

“It’s too risky, and what if we’re wrong,” answered the Director. “If there’s the remotest chance that he’s involved, we need to strip him of all our resources and push him to the outside before something worse happens. But that doesn’t mean we don’t watch him when he’s on the outside. This guy is a computer genius and he’s going to want revenge. The smarter approach is to monitor his every move. Wire his house, put transmitters on his cars, bug his computer…..the works. And let’s get all this done while he’s convalescing here. He’s got a couple of weeks before those bruises heal. If he’s involved, he’ll lead us to his friends, if he’s not, maybe he’ll solve the whole thing for us. The only down side is if he goes to the press and it’s your job to make sure he doesn’t do that, understand?”

Burton nodded his head.

“Why don’t we just take him down? It will be clean, final and he certainly won’t be talking,” asked Harry.

Burton and Reed ignored Harry’s comment.

The Director stood up, “All he’s got left is his wife and little girl. We give him a buy-out and tell him that he and his family will have our protection, and we’ll make sure nothing happens to his wife and kid. If he talks to anyone, he’ll lose the severance and that protection and anything can happen. He’ll know what we mean.”

“You’re right,” said Burton. “This guy’s a liability and we don’t want him around, especially after the last month. Whatever loyalty he had to the agency is long gone.”

“Okay, we have a plan,” said the Director. “I’ll call you when it’s done.”

After Burton and Davidson left, Reed called PD McVay, “Get in here right away.”

PD was out of breath as he walked into the Director’s office.

“Sit down PD.”

PD took a seat.

“How’d it go?”

“He’s a tough one. But we’re getting there.”

“How angry does a person have to get before he does what we want him to do?”

“A whole lot angrier than he is now.”

“Will he get there?”

“Matthew’s dying may actually speed along the process.”

“What about his wife?”

“That’s the wild card.”

Jonathan sat in the passenger seat of the black Chevy Suburban, heading for his Occaquan home driven by agent Dave Snyder. He was in a state of shock. He didn’t hear any of the words Snyder was saying, patronizing words like, “It will work out for the best, and there will be lots of opportunities for someone with your skills.” His mind couldn’t comprehend it. It was unbelievable! Six months before, he was the Deputy Director of a special anti-terrorist unit sequestered in Virginia and now he felt like he had been hit between the eyes with a sledge hammer! He was out of a job, terminated for cause, a cause he had nothing to do with. The six months had been a nightmare he wished he could awaken from. He had lost his son, lost his relationship with his wife, he had been tortured, humiliated and then fired. He could hardly fathom the brevity and absoluteness of his meeting with his supposed friend PD McVay.

“Close the door and have a seat,” said PD as Jonathan entered the room. PD didn’t rise from his large executive seat and grimaced when he saw the bruises and welts on Jonathan’s face and the patch over his left eye.

Jonathan sensed the seriousness in the room and took a seat, thinking that he was going to receive an apology for how he had been treated, an apology he would accept, knowing the nature of the business he was in.

PD picked up a stack of papers and scanned the top page before speaking, “As you now know we have been conducting an internal investigation on the July 15th bombing.”

Jonathan nodded, “PD, you have to listen to me. I had nothing to do with it.”

PD continued, “This event has been a source of embarrassment to the President because of the belief that there was collusion with the agency and the administration feels that this is something that could have been prevented. And by your own admission, you found the information that would have prevented the attack too late and then at a later date you withheld critical data from our investigation. I’m here to inform you that the CIA has decided to terminate their business relationship with you, effective immediately.”

“What are you talking about?” answered a bewildered Jonathan. “I didn’t have anything to do with the bombings. Come on PD, don’t make me the fall guy.”

PD continued without listening, “I can’t talk specifics, but as we have indicated there were findings in the investigations implicating you and we are going to place you in a holding area until your wounds have healed and then escort you home. Of course, we want your continued cooperation with this investigation and we are willing to call this a ‘resignation for personal reasons’ if you agree to the terms of a separation package. You’ll also see that we’ve been quite generous and will pay you three years salary plus benefits and provide protection to you and your wife until this settles down and you find another position.”

“Hush money,” muttered Jonathan.

PD ignored the comment, “There’s several clauses in our offer that you need to study carefully; however I would advise against using any lawyer that we haven’t approved. I’ll be happy to give you a list.”

“This is a bad dream,” answered Jonathan feeling like a balloon that had just lost most of its air. “I was informed that I didn’t have a choice and that I couldn’t get a lawyer. Come on PD we’ve known each other forever and this is how it’s going end?”

PD scanned the room as if to make sure no one was listening. He leaned forward on his desk. “Okay, let me give it to you straight Jonathan and I’m only doing this because of our long history. The information on the bombing was traced to your home address and we have evidence that the emails were deleted using your computer id. Jonathan, we have enough evidence to hang you for treason, so you need to be thanking me for working this out for you. This is a clean break, you lost your son, and you resigned to take some time off. We can make this as easy or as difficult as you like. I have the separation agreement for you and if you sign this and cooperate with us through this investigation, you’ll be able to start over, although you’ll never again be able to work for the CIA or any other government agency. PD handed Jonathan the half-inch document.

Jonathan thumbed through the package until he came to the part about cause. He picked out a fragment that read,
Mr. Anderson admits to violations of company procedures
.

“You want me to admit that I did something wrong when I didn’t?”

“No one will ever see that, but the administration requires a body. You know how it goes.” answered PD. “It’s necessary for Human Resources and for us to cut our ties with you. I’ll need the keys to the building, the keys to your company car, and your CIA identification card. All your security clearances have been terminated, effective immediately.”

“They took all of that stuff a couple of weeks ago. Are you sure you don’t want my wife and family, too?”

“Jonathan, whether you like it or not, we have them and everything else in your life, so sign the agreement and don’t stray far from home, because it will get real ugly.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, I’m just telling you the truth, as a friend. Let it go!”

I am one of the people responsible for the death of over 1000 Americans on July 15th 2012. Of course there were many others, some that I know, others that I will never know and an invisible group that leads and funds us that you don’t want to know. You probably think I’m a monster, and until that day I would have argued with you. Now, I would agree with you. I am a monster, every emotion in me has been affected by the deaths of so many innocent people, some that I knew and loved. I guess I was blinded by my cause and thought that somehow my strong conviction would be more powerful than my own conscience. But, was I ever wrong! Now, I’m more dead than alive and every human feeling in me has become one of misery and torment. It might have been different if it had gone the way it was planned, but circumstances couldn’t be predicted, and people were in there who should have been gone and I have been left with nightmares of the faces of those I loved reaching out to me and crying for help not knowing that it was me who was the cause of their pain when our group set the detonators for over a ton of C-4 explosives.

I don’t know why the others in my cell turned against America; we’re not big on testimonials, all I know is my story and I need to share it with you, just to release some of my pain and in the hope of finding a shred of understanding for my plight. Much of what I tell you may sound cliché, but listen to it all before you judge me. Put yourself in my shoes and if you would have taken a different path, you can call me a murderer and a terrorist, but maybe, just maybe you’ll identify with some of my thoughts and the actions of the American politicians that led me to where I am today.

Here is my story. You may be surprised to learn that I’m an American just like you. Early in my life some of my fundamental definitions collided head-on with another culture that was neither better nor worse than the one I knew. At first I just thought Americans needed to be educated that there were people with different beliefs who needed to be understood rather than persecuted, but the more I studied the situation the more I realized that Americans saw themselves as superior to this culture and completely disrespectful to most other ways of life. But after September 11, 2001, and the advent of the Hart-Langley Act in 2011 and then the Iraqi and Iranian war, the objective of the current Administration focused on a battle of good versus evil. This was not far from the notions of genocide that have plagued mankind throughout history, whenever one race saw themselves as superior to another. Somehow we have convinced ourselves that if another race is not capitalistic and living in a democracy, they need to be converted to the American ways of economics and government.

`I think it’s almost comical that many Americans believe that Muslims are uneducated demons, and that all Muslim countries are filled with these lawless heathens and savages. This is so untrue! Most Muslims are extremely well educated, many at top Western schools and believe in God. While Americans are praying for God to protect their families from Muslim terror, Muslims are praying that God will protect their culture from utter annihilation due to greed, bombs and imperialism. Already you are thinking, I don’t want to listen to someone who has conspired to destroy a building and kill innocent people and worst of all children, someone who has betrayed their country, their friends and their family. But there is another side, a perspective that you have probably not considered.

You may not admit or understand but the American politicians have done exactly the same. The war against Iraq was a conspiracy based upon falsified claims and manufactured evidence. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center neither did it have any affiliation with Osama Bin Laden. America was the aggressor, the instigator and brought terror to their land and forced them into alliances with the very terrorists that they were falsely accused of being associated with! Let me ask you this question. Is an American or British bomb dropped into an Iraqi hospital any different from what I’ve done? For every child that died on July 15th, 10,000 Middle Eastern children have been killed and another 50,000 were maimed through the senseless series of wars that followed. Which of you, if you saw your city and home destroyed and your family members blown to pieces by weaponry from an invisible enemy would not want to fight back, whether with a stick or a gun or whatever you could find to defend yourself. Muslims have to fight back, if for nothing else but to defend their rights as human beings. The only difference between the kind of terror that America brings and the type that we bring is the method by which it is delivered. You may argue that you had nothing to do with the attacks on Iraq, and that you were not in favor of any of the wars against Muslims, to which I would argue that the general population had everything to do with it, through their support of the current administration, their penchant for consuming fuel and their conservative Christian religion that labels half of the world as unbelievers sentenced to hell. If you didn’t vote for the present administration and you drive a hybrid automobile and you are liberal in your beliefs toward other cultures, I apologize, because our argument is not with you.