The Last Judgment (38 page)

“You said ‘counterattack,' ” the prosecutor noted. “What do you mean?”

“Sometimes Palestinian freedom fighters must…and occasionally do…use explosive devices in response to insurgent, excessive invasions by the Israeli forces. And there are accusations made, and an inquiry must be conducted relating to the nature of the counterattack, that kind of thing…”

El Umal went on to explain that he had been asked by the Palestinian Authority to conduct an analysis of the ballistics and properties of the explosives used to “decimate the Noble Sanctuary mosque structures and the Dome of the Rock, the place Muslims hold dear because it was the site of the ascension of the great prophet Muhammad.”

He painstakingly described his initial view of the site less than one hour after the explosions—the emergency personnel scrambling to the scene, the wreckage, the screams of survivors and the dying who lay under the collapsed stones…and the body parts strewn over the plateau of the Temple Mount.

“It was horrific—more gruesome, more awful than words can describe,” el Umal said softly. All of the judges seemed to be visibly moved by his description of the carnage.

He then explained how, over the course of the next two months, he had collected chemical samples from each of the two sites of the original blasts. He was able to determine, with a high degree of scientific certainty, the nature of the explosives used.

“The blasts were accomplished through the detonation of several hundred pounds of Composition-4, commonly known as C-4, explosives. They are often used by terror groups of all kinds.”

“What advantage did the Knights of the Temple Mount gain by using this kind of explosives?” Zayed asked.

“First, they are the most energetic of all agents, outside of nuclear materials. Second, they are safe to handle. Until properly detonated with a blasting-cap-type device, you can set a C-4 on fire, even shoot a bullet into it, and it will still not explode.”

“So,” the prosecutor noted, “C-4 can be placed in a subfloor, as it was in the al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome, left there for days or weeks, and protected until just the right moment—such as when hundreds of innocent Muslims are kneeling and peacefully praying—and then it can be exploded remotely as a tool of deadly surprise and utter genocide?”

Will rose to object to the argumentative and leading question.

Judge Mustafa shifted his head from side to side.

“Objection noted. But overruled. Continue, Mr. Prosecutor.”

Zayed asked how the explosives had been detonated.

“Remotely—by the use of portable computers in two vehicles, each sending a wireless signal to a triggering device at the site of each of the payloads of C-4.”

El Umal then identified the photographs of the two vehicles that had been captured and impounded after the blasts, noting that the computers and keyboards in the VW van and panel truck operated by Louis Lorraine and Yossin Ali Khalid had also been taken into evidence and analyzed.

“Those two vehicles were less than one-quarter mile,” the prosecutor asked, “from where the prosecution's diagram, admitted into evidence by stipulation of both parties, places the presence of Hassan Gilead Amahn, who was preaching at the time, calling loudly for the destruction of the Temple Mount?”

“Yes. The vehicles that contained the computer detonation devices were within a quick walk from where Amahn was preaching.”

“So, when the accused had given the command by referring to the obliteration of the Mount, then Mr. Lorraine and Mr. Khalid had time to run to their vehicles, detonate that massive store of C-4, and commit mass murder?”

Will again objected, this time to the reference to his client's “command,” but again he was overruled.

El Umal answered, ending his direct examination concisely and dramatically.

“The plan was very effective—they obviously were able to run to their vehicles after Amahn's command and then key in the code for the detonation and send all of those praying Muslims to their death, all in a matter of minutes.”

Zayed sat down, and Will wasted no time.

He asked el Umal about the benefits of C-4 explosives—“One of them being that they are not as easily accidentally detonated as, say, dynamite or nitroglycerin.”

The prosecution expert agreed, then chuckled a bit, and explained that he had, as a young man, tried an experiment with nitroglycerin. “It succeeded. Unfortunately, I almost didn't. It sent me flying—I broke my nose in the fall.”

Belgian Judge Verdexler smiled broadly and also chuckled.

“So, C-4 would be a good choice for a religious group bent on destroying the Temple Mount—but a group with no real prior experience handling explosives?”

El Umal was still thinking when Will clarified his question in a rapid-fire sequence of follow-up.

“In other words, C-4 can be effective in the hands of novices?”

“In a manner of speaking. Yes. But novices can rarely obtain it—”

“Which is why hardened terrorist groups often use it—but others can't often get hold of it?”

“Governments highly restrict the transfer and sale of it, yes…”

“True or false—terror groups can often be recognized by the ‘explosives signature' or the ‘technical fingerprint' of the type of explosion?”

“Sometimes. Not always.”

“For instance, Hamas is known to use tri-acetone combinations in its bombs?”

“Sometimes…”

“Terrorists from Gaza often use nitric-acid components?”

“I've seen that, yes. But it has nothing to do with this case—”

“And the IRA—they were known to use Semtex, a variant of C-4, coupled with a detonation device using a Japanese-made miniature receiver?”

“Oh yes, I've seen that in my training with the Europeans.”

“But the Knights of the Temple Mount—they had no prior history with explosives?”

“That we know of…that is true.”

“And the explosive system used in this case—a huge amount of very refined C-4, coupled with a wireless-computer detonation method—have you ever seen that before?”

El Umal paused to reflect.

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Is it possible, then,” Will continued, “that the reason for that is exactly this—that we have, behind this bombing, the first-time appearance of a new entity—an entirely new kind of terror mastermind at work?”

The prosecution's expert could see where Will was going, and he sat up straight in the booth, then shifted a little before answering.

“Just because the engineering system appeared to be unique doesn't exclude the possibility that a prior, experienced terror group had refined its older techniques,” but then he quickly added, “but as you say, the Knights of the Temple Mount and Mr. Amahn could be properly described as a new terror group using this new system.”

Will decided to let the last comment go, at least for now.

“Now the exact form of C-4 used for the attack in this case—do you agree it was actually Semtex?”

“Well, yes. True. But not significant—”

“And of course no one is alleging, are they, that the Irish Republican Army was in any way involved in supplying those explosives?”

El Umal smiled. “Of course not.”

“So where did the Knights get it?”

“What?”

“The Semtex.”

“I have no idea.”

“Was either Louis Lorraine, or Yossin Ali Khalid, or Scott Magnit for that matter—were any of them chemists? Or engineers? Or trained in any way with explosives?”

“Not that we know of—”

“So it's not only possible, but
probable,
that
someone else
provided both the explosives and the computerized detonation system to them?”

“These terror groups all have a custom of working together…networking…”

“So your answer is
yes?”

“My answer is that someone in their terror network, whatever that was, did provide the explosives and the very sophisticated detonation system to the Knights.”

“You did say ‘sophisticated'?”

“Yes.”

“Is it your opinion, Dr. Umal, that the more sophisticated the explosives and the detonation system, the more likely we are looking at the possibility of a state-sponsored terror attack?”

The witness shook his head violently at that.

“I see no such evidence—certainly, of any Arab League nation involved in this…if that is what you are insinuating…that would be preposterous. Of course, some have speculated that Israel might be behind the bombings…but we just don't know—”

“Of course—but didn't you make that exact point at the forensics conference in Paris last year—that extreme technical sophistication in explosives could mean state-sponsored terrorism?”

“I said it
could be
evidence of state-sponsored terrorism—one possibility. If you read my speech, which I presume you did, then you also noted that I mentioned other explanations.”

“Yes, I did,” Will replied. “And I did note another explanation. I will now read it—and tell me if you said this—‘Overwhelming quantities of C-4 explosives coupled with technically advanced detonation systems can also point to terror-planning entities, or persons, with
powerful international connections and substantial financing capacity, or both.
' ”

“Those sound like my comments.”

The chemical engineer began to rise, but Will motioned for him to be seated.

“Just one more question. If you don't mind. After you disassembled the hard drives of the computers used as detonation devices—tell the tribunal—did you become sick?”

El Umal narrowed his eyes, studying Will. He finally gave his answer.

“I had the flu, I suppose. It must have been going around.”

Then the prosecution's expert smiled, assured in his own mind that both the question—and the answer—were meaningless.

And Will Chambers smiled back.

But for a much different reason.

56

A
S HE CLIMBED INTO THE WITNESS BOOTH
, Pastor Ralph Wyman of the Rolling River Bible Tabernacle looked uncommonly uncomfortable.

For the senior pastor of the small church that was tucked deep within the mountains of West Virginia—and as the former ministry superior to Gilead Amahn during the time he had served as the assistant pastor—making difficult decisions about his former subordinate's conduct was one thing. But being forced to testify against Gilead—to be called as a witness for the prosecution in an international terrorism trial—was quite another.

The Palestinian public prosecutor had subpoenaed Pastor Wyman to attend the trial. Wyman had consulted a lawyer, who wondered if the Palestinian Authority even had jurisdiction to require the pastor's appearance in Jerusalem. The matter might have ended there, except that the Landow administration decided to use the full measure of the power of the U.S. Department of Justice to transport Pastor Wyman to the trial before the Palestinian International Tribunal.

That single fact had represented the strongest sign yet that the U.S. government was weighing in on one particular side of the prosecution of Gilead Amahn. And it certainly wasn't on the defense side.

The pastor tugged a little at his necktie as he related the “troubling” things he had begun to notice about Gilead Amahn's “spiritual progress…and his ministry leadership.”

“What kind of troubling things? How was your heart troubled by the accused?” Samir Zayed asked, with a well-varnished veneer of sympathy.

“Things he said.”

“Things like ‘God has called me for a prophetic calling'?”

“Not so much that…” the pastor replied.

“When he said he was going into the West Virginia wilderness for forty days and forty nights—that troubled you?”

“Well, we're a small church…I needed his help. He was actually sort of taking a leave of absence without prior notice to me…or to the board of elders for that matter.”

“He was thirty years old at that time?”

“Yes. We actually had a little birthday party for him.”

“How old does the Bible say Jesus was when He began His preaching?”

Pastor Wyman sighed.

“Thirty.”

“And it was at the birthday party that Mr. Amahn announced he felt that God was calling him to ‘have a wilderness experience.' Those were his words?”

“Yes,” Pastor Wyman replied. “That is what he said. Don't know exactly what his meaning was.”

“Did he explain in some fashion?”

“Well, not fully. But it had something to do, he said, with what he saw as his mission—to go to his own people first…”