Shadows of Steel Read online

  Buzhazi knew a lot more about Khamenei’s shadowy past. Khamenei was a well-trained soldier as well as an accomplished politician, and throughout his rise through the ranks of power, he’d left a lot of bodies in his wake. Iran was nearly being overrun by Iraq at the beginning of the nine-year War of Retribution; when the president, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, accused the then-commander of the Pasdaran, Khamenei, of not doing his job and failing the country, suddenly the Ayatollah Khomeini dismissed Bani-Sadr. When a rival politician, Muhammad Ali Rajai, was elected President in 1981, he and his Prime Minister were mysteriously killed in a bomb blast in the Cabinet room-Khamenei somehow survived. Time after time, Ali Hoseini Khamenei was able to fight off challenges to his authority by strange combinations of shrewd political infighting and unexplained and well-timed disasters.

  So now, he told himself to overcome his fears and apprehensions and remember exactly who he was dealing with here, relax. Take command of this situation, he ordered himself. Take charge now!

  “The Republic has been betrayed, Eminence,” Buzhazi began. He knew that word betrayed would arouse Khamenei’s attention “My orders were countermanded, and because of this, our main island protectorate in the Persian Gulf, Abu Musa, has been attacked by Gulf Cooperative Council air forces.”

  Khamenei seemed surprisingly relaxed as he heard the news—well, probably not surprising. It wasn’t from divine inspiration that he’d first heard about it, Buzhazi knew, but from his contacts in the VEVAK, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Buzhazi had no control of that group—they reported directly to the Council of Guardians and to Khamenei. “What kind of damage was sustained? What casualties?” Khamenei asked.

  “Few casualties, thanks to Allah, and only a handful of injuries,” Buzhazi said dismissively. “The attack was directed against the Silkworm and Sunburn anti-ship missile emplacements, and the major port facilities. Unfortunately, the attack caused some damage.”

  “My information says the damage was considerably more than that,” Khamenei said.

  It had been less than an hour since the attack, Buzhazi reminded himself, and Khamenei already had a briefing from his intelligence people—very efficient work for a pious holy man. This man did not sit contemplating his navel in an ivory tower. He was fully engaged in the operation of the government. “Regrettably, that is true,” Buzhazi said. “But island defenses will be restored by the end of the day, and until then, we have naval and air forces on the scene to maintain security.”

  “How fortunate,” Khamenei said, almost in a whisper, like the hiss of a snake’s tongue. “But your defensive strategies for Abu Musa seem to have been somewhat shortsighted…”

  “Eminence, with all greatest respect, that was not the case,” Buzhazi said. “The defensive systems I placed on the island were designed to protect the defensive anti-ship missile emplacements from high-and low-altitude air threats as well as massed maritime threats. The island was under surveillance by long-range radars from Bandar Abbas and by short-range radars from Abu Musa Island itself. In addition, we have seven thousand troops on that island to defend against amphibious assaults, all very much aware that our enemies were seeking to destroy those weapons and take those islands from us at any time. All island defenses were fully functional and on full alert.”

  “And so why were these defenses so easily destroyed, General …?”

  “Because President Nateq-Nouri countermanded my general orders to launch on alert,” Buzhazi said angrily, “and instead ordered that, unless the island was unmistakably under direct attack, that all launch orders be issued by the Defense Ministry in Tehran, not by the on-scene commanders. It was madness! I argued against that policy and appealed to reverse the order..

  “The Council of Guardians has not received any such notification or appeal,” Khamenei pointed out.

  “I was going to present my arguments in person with your representative at the next meeting of the Supreme Defense Council,” Buzhazi lied, knowing full well that Nateq-Nouri had never countermanded any of Buzhazi’s orders. The policy of “launch on alert”—fire without warning on any vessel or aircraft that crossed Iran’s claimed borders or boundaries—had never been an official peacetime policy of the Iranian government except over Iran’s most highly classified research centers, bases, or over the capital or the holy cities. The simple fact was that Iran possessed few trained individuals and workable air defense systems for very low-altitude air threats; even if the forces on Abu Musa had had “launch on alert” orders, they probably wouldn’t have been able to stop the attackers.

  “It appears to be a moot point now, does it not, General?” Khamenei commented.

  “My point, Eminence, is that I should be given the tools to do my job if I am to defend the Republic properly from attack by our enemies,” Buzhazi retorted. “Abu Musa Island and Greater and Lesser Tumbs belong to Iran, not to Sharjah or the so-called United Arab Emirates or the Gulf Cooperation Council or the United Nations or the World Court. I was given the task of defending the Republic, but my hands were tied by a President, his Cabinet, and a parliament afraid of stirring up resentment and hatred overseas, afraid of losing investors and popularity. What more do we surrender? Do we surrender Kermanshahan and Kurdistan to the murderous Kurds? Do we surrender the Shatt at Arab to the Butcher of Baghdad? Perhaps Turkmenistan would like the holy city of Mashhad?”

  “Enough, General, enough,” Khamenei interrupted, with a weary tone in his voice. “Why do you not take this matter up with President Nateq-Nouri? The task of commander-in-chief was delegated to him by His Holiness the Imam Khomeini.”

  “Eminence, the President’s inaction in defense matters is plainly obvious to everyone,” Buzhazi said. “He has reduced the budget of the Pasdaran to less than what we need for training and proficiency, and chosen to give it instead to the Basij militias as a form of public welfare and to buy votes for himself. We purchase advanced weapons, but no money is spent for spare parts or for building our own military infrastructure—again, the money goes to public-welfare programs to bribe factory owners and wealthy landowners who support him. Military base construction is at a standstill because he coddles the labor unions. The outcome was inevitable, despite all my warnings and precautions: Abu Musa Island’s defenses have been destroyed, and the base is in danger of being retaken by American and Zionist sympathizers.”

  Khamenei could obviously recognize Buzhazi’s flowery exaggerations, but he paused in thought. The conflict between the military and the civilian government had been brewing for some time, he thought, and this early-morning meeting was perhaps the wake-up call to action he had been anticipating—perhaps dreading. It was time for Iran’s clergy to take sides in this dispute: Support the government or support the military?

  The Grand Ayatollah had known Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the former speaker of the Majlis-i-Shura, Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly, and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani’s handpicked successor, since before the Revolution, and had watched General and so knew that the only thing between them was their uniforms. Both men were intelligent, opportunistic, single-minded, power hungry, and ruthless. Both gave lip service to the role of Islam in the government, but neither truly believed that the clergy should have a strong voice in day-to-day affairs—an opinion that happened to be shared by many in Iran. “What is it you would have us do?”

  “I have spoken of my plans many times, Your Holiness,” Buzhazi said. “First and foremost, Iran and its territories must be protected. This is our most important goal, and we must do all we can to ensure it is done.” He paused, then said, “We must prohibit all non-Arab warships from entering the Persian Gulf No aircraft carriers, no guided-missile cruisers, no submarines carrying Tomahawk missiles. These are all offensive vessels, designed to wage war on those who call the Persian Gulf home.

  “The Khomeini carrier group must be made fully operational and deployed immediately to the Gulf of Oman to screen for foreign warships,” Buzhazi went on. “As we have seen, even with proper warning, it still takes far too long for land-based aircraft to respond to an attack on the islands—only the carrier can properly defend the islands against very low-altitude attackers.”

  “The Chinese aircraft carrier? The rusting piece of flotsam in the harbor at Chah Bahar?” Khamenei said scornfully. “I thought we were using that to House the Chinese advisers, prisoners, Basij volunteers, and jihad members working on the base-construction project.”

  “The Khomeini is operational, and it is ready to help defend our rights,” Buzhazi said. “We have a full complement of sailors, fliers, and weapons aboard, and the carrier’s escort vessels are also ready to set sail. I had ordered the carrier to Abu Musa Island to assist with island defenses, but as all of our military forces, they were unprepared for this treacherous attack.”

  The Ayatollah Khamenei paused to consider that request. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini aircraft-carrier project had been a pie-in-the-sky project from the very beginning. The Russian aircraft carrier Varyag had been laid up at Nikolayev, Ukraine, since 1991, completely stripped of all essential combat systems; it had no radar, no communications, no aircraft, no weapons, only its nuclear power plant, a flight deck, and more than three thousand watertight compartments. The People’s Republic of China had purchased the 60,000-ton vessel and made it an operational warship, but the world’s political consternation at China owning and operating a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the fragile South China Sea and Sea of Japan region had been too great—if China had a carrier, Japan wanted five, and the United States wanted to base five more in the region—so those plans were shelved.

  At the time, Iran had concluded a $2 billion arms deal with China, and relations between those two countries had been at an all-time high. The carrier had been moved to Iran’s new military and oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman called Chah Bahar, where it had once again been laid up in floating storage. No definite plans had emerged for the ship: some said it was to be cut up as scrap, then as a floating hotel, then as a floating prison.

  General Buzhazi had other ideas. Over the next eighteen months, the Iranians had begun to install new, relatively modern weapon systems on board the ship, including Russian anti-ship missiles, Russian aircraft, and state-of-the-art sensors and equipment from all over the world—all the while insisting to the world that they were “experimenting” or “assisting” China with its plans to convert the carrier for other uses. Then Iranian MiG-29 and Sukhoi-33 fighter crews had begun practicing carrier landings. Since early 1996, both Chinese and Iranian crews had been training aboard the Varilag in carrier deck and flight operations in the Persian Gulf. At the same time, Chinese and Iranian crews had begun firing anti-ship missiles from the carrier, including the huge SSN-19 Granit supersonic missile, which was designed to sink a carrier-class ship over 200 miles away. In effect, both countries shared the cost of a completely combat-ready aircraft carrier.

  “This aircraft carrier, it is ready to fight?” Khamenei asked.

  “It is, Eminence,” Buzhazi replied. “Twenty fighter aircraft, six helicopters, twelve long-range anti-ship missiles—it is one of the most formidable warships in the world. With our new Russian, Chinese, and Western surplus warships as escorts, the Khomeini can ensure that we will not lose our rights to the Persian Gulf.”

  “It will cause much fear among those who travel the Gulf,” he pointed out.

  “If it is Allah’s will,” Buzhazi responded. Normally he didn’t care to use the real religious fundamentalist expressions with others, but of course it was necessary and proper to do so with the mullahs. “We fear only Allah, Holiness. Let others fear the Islamic Republic for a change. Your Holiness, we have a right to defend what is ours, and the Khomeini is the best weapon with which to do so. It has been in shakedown status far too long—we are ready to put to sea. Give the command, and we shall need worry no longer about protecting our Gulf from attack.”

  Buzhazi paused for a moment, then added, “Oil prices will of course be affected by this, Eminence.” That got Khamenei’s attention. His political fortunes were tied directly into the price of oil, and for the past several years both had been in a steady decline. “Even if we are not ultimately successful in closing off the Gulf from all foreign warships—if the Majlis and President Nateq-Nouri conspire against your wishes and the loyal people of the Islamic Republic—we will still benefit from the rise in oil prices. Iran can of course continue to ship oil to its Gulf of Oman terminus at Chah Bahar, but oil shipments from Gulf Cooperative Council states will be greatly curtailed.”

  Khamenei paused once again, but he had decided. The insurance companies would double, perhaps triple the premiums on supertankers transiting the Gulf, and the shortage of oil would shoot prices to heaven. The rewards would be great. But the risks … The Faqih nodded. “It shall be ordered,” he said. “But we must be in the right always, General. World public opinion may favor Iran because we have been attacked by the oil-hungry West and their Gulf lap-dogs, but we must not allow the world to ostracize us once again. We are for peace, Buzhazi, always peace.”

  “Motashakkeram,” Buzhazi said, bowing as he gave thanks. “Your Holiness, I believe so strongly in this, that if you give the command, I shall take full and complete responsibility for the consequences. You may say that I was the mad dog, that I gave the order, and you may disavow all knowledge of my actions, I know in my heart that it is right, and I stand with Allah because I know he will stand with me.”

  “Will you stand with the thousands of our brothers who will be slaughtered by the forces of Satan when the world declares war on Iran for what it has done?”

  “Eminence, war appears to be upon us already,” Buzhazi pointed out. “I believe we will avert further conflict by executing my plan. The world will fear Iran once again. It will be hesitant to start a conflict that might escalate into real death and destruction at our hands. Give the command, Holiness. I stand ready to defend Islam and protect the Republic. I have the strength to do it.”

  Khamenei hesitated, then turned his back on Buzhazi—so the general could not see the look of concern on his face. But he said, “Inshallah, General. So by the will of Allah, let it be done.”

  “ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH PETER JENNINGS”

  “Iran’s Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Hoseini Khamenei, blasted the Gulf Cooperative Council, the union of six pro-West Persian Gulf nations, today for what he claims was an attack on a, quote, ‘defensive security and safety installation,’ unquote, on a small island in the Persian Gulf in the early-morning hours, and has called on a ‘holy jihad’ against the GCC.

  “Khamenei claims the attack by what he terms ‘terrorists and saboteurs’ of the Gulf Cooperative Council’s action group called Peninsula Shield killed several dozen workers while they slept, and heavily damaged the island’s electricity, fresh water, and living quarters.

  “The island, identified as Abu Musa, is one of three small islands that sit very close to the oil transshipment lanes through the Persian Gulf. The islands were claimed by Iran in 1971 but were under joint jurisdiction of both Iran and the United Arab Emirates, one of the member nations of the Gulf Cooperative Council, until 1992, when Iran claimed all of the islands for itself.

  “Spokesmen for the Gulf Cooperative Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, declined to comment, except to say that the GCC has often been blamed for actions by anti-Iranian government forces, notably the Mojahadin-i-Khalq, in an effort to stir up resentment and fundamentalist fervor against Iran’s Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf region.

  “A U.S. State Department spokesman says he knows no details of the incident, but says that Iran has heavily fortified Abu Musa Island over the past few years with modern offensive anti-ship and antiaircraft weapons, and has resisted all efforts by the United Nations International Court to mediate the dispute. The State Department says no oil tankers or any American vessels or aircraft are in danger and says the Martindale administration is looking into the matter.

  “Back in a moment.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  IN THE GULF OF OMAN 124 MILES NORTHWEST OF MUSCAT, OMAN, SOUTHEAST ARABIAN PENINSULA

  15 APRIL 1997, 0109 HOURS LOCAL (14 APRIL, 1639 ET)

  The U.S.-flagged rescue-and-salvage vessel Valley Mistress was riding high and fast in the water these days; very few patrol boats had bothered to stop her as she made her way from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, and across the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, and the Gulf of Oman. Salvage-and-construction vessels were usually hard to search, they rarely had anything fun for customs officials to look at—just a bunch of cranes, tanks, chains, dirt, and nitrogen- and booze-soaked roustabout crews—and U.S.-registered and flagged vessels rarely carried exciting contraband like drugs, weapons, or humans. In any case, with its U.S. Naval Ready Reserve Fleet designation, the Valley Mistress was rarely detained—it carried almost the same right-to-pass exemption as a warship.

  The Mistress was riding high right now because its 55,000-pound CV-22 Pave Hammer tilt-rotor aircraft, normally secretly stowed on the telescoping helicopter hangar on the aft deck, was off on a mission with several of its commands teams, including Chris Wohl and Hal Briggs; its current cargo was much, much lighter. The Valley Mistress was indeed a real salvage vessel, and it did many contract jobs as such all over the world—but it was also a sophisticated spy ship that conducted surveillance and special operations missions for the U.S. government. All sorts of classified missions had been conducted from the Mistress’s decks, from shadowing a port, harbor, or vessel to reconnoitering a battlefield, rescue work, and all-out air and land combat. Any job that needed doing, anytime, anyplace, the crew of the Valley Mistress could do it.