A Patriotic Nightmare. Don E. Post

in Colorado, agents Easton and Miller stood under a Roman colonnade at the top of the Petemkenksi Steps trying to view the loading docks. Though midnight, the docks were lit with floodlights as if it were high noon.

      The agents took turns observing and photographing the loading of the Sea Novia through high-powered binoculars and the other watching for anyone coming up the steps behind them. Several couples huddled in the darker corners of the colonnade, so Easton and Miller hoped their rapt focus on the port facility would not seem unusual.

      Easton spotted Yuri Tavanovich on the docks through his binoculars, clipboard in hand, counting off the crates marked construction materials, as each pallet was loaded by mechanical lifts. At every lull in the loading process, Yuri roamed the docks, checking nooks and crannies.

      The American agents photographically captured close shots of each pallet and everyone associated with the loading. The loading finished at 3:20 a.m., the ship pulled away from port at 5:30 a.m., and the two exhausted agents returned to the Passage Hotel to clean up, eat some breakfast and grab some sleep. Agent Miller took the film to a lab run by the CIA and then arranged to get a copy of the ship’s manifest from a friend of a friend who worked the Port Authority.

      Sunday, February 16

      Agent Miller met her friend Andri Gudunov by the Atlantis statues on Golgol Street at twelve noon. She handed him a shopping bag in which she had placed a nicely wrapped gift, saying, “Please, take this to your wife and give her my best regards.” He thanked her profusely as they stood and chatted about their families. As they started to part Gudunov said, “You may want to take the latest edition of the English language paper from Kiev with you. I finished it.” Agent Miller thanked him and they went their separate ways.

      Gudunov had taped the ship’s manifest to the sports page of the newspaper he had handed Miller. According to the documents, the construction materials were to be shipped to Istanbul, reloaded aboard another ship enroute to Vera Cruz, Mexico. Agent Miller immediately sent copies of the translated documents to CIA Langley.

       5

      WASHINGTON, D.C.

      Friday, February 14

      FBI Agent Carlson prepared for the morning’s domestic terrorism meeting unaware that Russian arms were headed for the U.S. Although the unit had been set up prior to the World Trade Center destruction, after that date the group found itself the centerpiece of the new Homeland Security Agency. More money had been allocated and it had become an elite task force with a primary goal of sniffing out and eliminating all terrorists. The unit regularly met on Fridays to review the week’s activities and revise its strategy for the ensuing week. Members represented the various law enforcement agencies and coordinated agency efforts. The FBI’s Lenora Carlson reviewed and organized the incoming surveillance reports from agents across the nation and around the world each morning.

      An attorney and twelve-year veteran with the Bureau, Agent Carlson served as the director of the agency’s counter-intelligence unit under the administrative hand of Deputy-Director of the FBI, Sam Wade. Wade had been with the bureau thirty-eight years.

      On this particular Friday morning Carlson prepared for the meeting by working through the field reports that arrived during the night and adding news that enhanced the composite. History had often punished the bureau’s failure to identify the fine nuances that often clarify complex social issues. Once the command group studied her summary and made amendments, the results were transmitted to all field agents as a public strategy called ANSIR (Awareness of National Security Issues).

      Carlson had worked out of the Sacramento field office for eight years before being transferred to the newly created terrorism task force. She assumed task force command when Deputy-Director Wade was absent. In California she had managed the bureau’s western surveillance of domestic extremists and led the investigation of the Amtrak derailment case (code name, Splitrail) in Arizona.

      The task force met in a subterranean conference room. Each of the nine agents—excluding Wade and Carlson—in addition to monitoring foreign terrorist activity had recently been assigned responsibility for observing segments of the growing extremist movement within the U.S. One agent had the task of monitoring the groups under the Christian Identity umbrella, another the separatist groups, another the KKK, the U.S. Taxpayers League, the skinheads and other less visible groups. Each of these organizations used strident, anti-government rhetoric and had members with violent records.

      Agent Carlson opened the morning meeting by noting that a staff member from the National Security Council (NSC) had been assigned to work with the task force.

      “Must be the guy who attended that meeting of super kooks with Blaylock at Bellingham,” an agent said.

      “Yep, I’ll bet he’s the one,” Sam Lockney added, one of the bureau’s most experienced field agents. “He seems to be an all right guy.” Lockney, seated at the far end of the oval table, then turned to an agent on his right and asked, “What’d you do to get this assignment?”

      “Wha’d’ ya mean?”

      Smiling, Lockney said, “Oh, I figured each agency assigned their worst nightmare!” Both men laughed quietly.

      “Naw, maybe not. Sam, one of the things that bother me is that there are some well meaning souls among all those super patriots. This could end up being a real tar baby.”

      “Maybe, but shit, we ought to round the son-of-a-bitches up and ship them over to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia or wherever the Al-Qaida bunch is holed up now. They deserve each other!”

      Then, from the head of the table they heard Carlson say, “Okay, let’s listen up. What’s your reaction to these reports?”

      “Well, I’ve got to admit that the activity between these groups does seem to be intensifying,” ATF’s Carrasco said softly. “The hardcore, covert movement is in the West, especially centered in the activities of Chapmann up in Washington, the Montana militia, the folks holed up in the Davis Mountains, old Reverend Chubby down in Texas, and that TV preacher, Petz.”

      “Petsch,” Carlson corrected, with a slight grin.

      “Whatever,” Carrasco said, with a smirk and a nonchalant wave of his right hand. Everyone smiled. He continued, “How do we know this isn’t some political posturing?”

      “Yeah, my thoughts as well,” another offered.

      “Well, there may be some of that,” Christine Wheeler responded. Wheeler, an Afro-American ATF agent, continued. “But there’s some serious stuff going on out there. A Colonel Arlo White, retired Army, has been in Texas training folks to set up the New Texas Republic and dozens of other wild-eyed groups who claim to have no interest in the separatist movement, but hate the government.”

      “Ah, those are guys who love to play cowboys and Indians,” Lockney said. “There have always been those type of guys. I think every macho male in the West mouths anti-government stuff. They think it’s manly. But there’s no reason to take ‘em seriously.”

      “This is different, Sam,” Wheeler replied, as she leaned forward and stared down the table toward Sam. “We suspect White and Chapmann are directly linked to dozens of armored car robberies, the printing of counterfeit money, bank robberies and much, much more.”

      “You really believe these so-called patriots actually pose a serious threat to America, as opposed to the Muslim fundamentalists?” Lockney countered in a tone of disbelief.

      “Now I do,” Wheeler said, staring Lockney down. Lockney shook his head and rolled his eyes to underscore his chagrin.

      “Christine,” interrupted Wade, “Why can’t we get our hands on some of these guys?”

      “They protect each other,” Christine said.

      “Rumors are floating around Aryan Nation’s groups that we tore up Chapmann’s home,” Lockney offered with a smile.

      “Aw baloney!”