The Wars of the Green Berets by Robin Moore

Author:Robin Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2015-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 33

An act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It would involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. Like Pearl Harbor, this event would divide our past and our future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either further terrorist attacks or US countermeasures.

—Ashton Carter, John Deutch, Philip Zelikow,

“Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Danger,”

Foreign Affairs, 1998

When Ryan surfaced he immediately knew something was wrong. Everyone was at the docks waiting for them. The captain and team sergeant seemed very agitated.

“What’s up?” Ryan asked, coming up on the dock as the sun was casting the long shadows of impending evening. They were at it all day, out of communication with the rest of the world.

“We’ve been recalled to Campbell, someone has attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,” said CPT Rogers. “Thousands are dead!”

“Shit, do we know who? How was it done?”

“Looks like Arab terrorists,” replied MSG Apin. “They flew commercial aircraft into them; we’ll find out more when we get home.”

They got their gear together and went back to their temporary quarters. The news was sickening . . . watching those planes fly into the World Trade Center over and over. Ryan finally turned off the TV since there was nothing else on. In spite of a sleepless night, they left at o’dark thirty the next morning. After an all-day drive, they got to Ft. Campbell well after dark but battalion and group headquarters were ablaze with lights and buzzing with activity. Mobilization orders had also gone out to the US Army Special Operations Command at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina and the 10th Mountain Division at Ft. Drum, New York. Over the next few days, the picture gradually emerged of a well-orchestrated plot by the al-Qaeda terrorist network. They pored over the intelligence reports, up to the top-secret level. While the media was wringing their hands and guessing, the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was quietly preparing for unconventional warfare in Afghanistan.

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