FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1600CST
Contact: Paul Anderson, Metro Correspondent
Phone: (773) 631-ERRI
FAX: (773) 631-4703
Internet: sysop@mail.emergency.com
Chicago, IL, February 26, 1995 -- Ahkmed set the timer and pulled the pin. He pushed the device back into the cheap gym bag, and closed the locker door. Soon the infidels would understand the folly of their support for the Zionists. Ahkmed walked slowly and surely from the baggage locker area of Union Station and got into his late model rental car. He knew his handiwork would kill dozens, if not hundreds, of commuters, when it was detonated during "rush hour". Within minutes, he was on the Eisenhower expressway and headed West, out of the city.
It was near 3:00a.m when Mohhamad began to cut the chain link fence surrounding the Commonwealth Edison substation. He had been chosen specifically by their cell leader to set the satchel charges in and around the "long-lines" power distribution network. His experience with explosives was well known, from Beirut to Belfast. He quickly crawled under and around the dangerous high-voltage transformers and carefully placed each shaped charge, in such a way as to cause the maximum damage. He armed each of the delay timers and slid back out of the compound, pushing the chain link back into itself, so the hole wouldn't be easily noticed.
At about the same time, Nasar al-Abod was crawling through the concrete beams that supported the overpass, commonly called by most Chicagoans, "the Spaghetti Bowl". He was placing his concrete cutting charges in such a way as to collapse the intersection of several expressways. He was sure that this would cause the death of many "Jewish lawyers and businessmen", who were traveling to Chicago's loop. Maybe this glorious action would teach the smug Americans that they weren't safe, even in the heartland of the United States. He set the timer on the linked charges and slowly walked to the parked car, that he had left on the expressway with the hood up. He closed the hood, got in, and began his drive to Milwaukee.
Shalima had one of the most important jobs. She was honored to be the one who would strike at the very heart of the Zionist oppressors. She had watched the subway station at State & Randolph for several days. Dressed alternatively as a "bag-lady", and then as a business woman, she had seen the maintenance schedule and the morning coming and going of the trains. 8:30 a.m. would be perfect, she decided, for a massive explosion that would take the lives of the rich commuters coming from Skokie, Highland Park, and from the other predominately Jewish North Shore bedroom communities.
Tonight, she had again chosen the guise of a "bag-lady", she was carrying two large bags. Both bags were filled with SEMTEX, a timer, and a detonator. The explosives were wrapped in newspaper and several rags and bottles filled the tops of the bags. The bags were amazingly alike, except for the settings on the timers. One timer was set to explode six (6) minutes after the other. Shalima had watched the firefighters and police officers as they responded to a false alarm that she had called in two days ago. The emergency forces had arrived, in force, about five minutes after her call. If Shalima had planned correctly, there would be dozens of extra "witnesses" for her second explosion. She pushed one of the bags into a large trash container, near where the passengers all exited the train, and made sure it was covered with refuge. The second bag was then placed in another nearby trash container.
Shalima began picking up newspapers and other trash from the platform, when a CTA supervisor walked by and stared at her. She finished pushing the trash into the container, took a long pull on a half-pint of cheap whiskey that she had purchased for the occasion, and started mumbling something about cleaning up the platform. The CTA supervisor listened to her, laughed, and continued his rounds. Shalima waited until he was well down the platform before she climbed the stairs and hailed a cab, pulled out two twenty dollar bills, and asked to be taken to a hotel near O'Hare Airport. Shalima knew that the trash in those cans wouldn't be disturbed until well after 8:30.
Finally, Abdul Abu-Amal, the leader of this cell, had saved the best task for himself. He drove around several blocks before he parked the non-descript 1989 Chevrolet near the door to the Israeli Embassy on Wacker Drive. The car gave all the appearances of being a unmarked police car, down to the Motorola microphone that he had displayed prominently on the dash. Even though Abu-Amal was wearing gloves, he was careful to wipe down anything that he might have touched. He exited the vehicle, open the trunk and activated the fusing system that would detonate the combination of ammonia nitrate fertilizer, fuel oil, and oxygen bottles that were wired into the trunk and back seat. When the detonator clicked, the entire car would become a massive fireball of exploding metal that Amal hoped would bring down the front of the building. Abdul-Amal finished his task, broke the key off in the trunk lock, and walked slowly toward another car that he had parked nearby. He knew he would be on the expressway, halfway to Detroit, when the horror began.
Within seconds of 08:30a.m, on Monday morning, the explosions started. First, the electrical power station erupted with an orange fireball and a huge flash of sparks. The power was soon lost to "the loop" and a majority of the central part of Chicago. Police and fire department radio transmitters went silent, as dispatchers and repairmen worked frantically to restore backup systems. Traffic lights went blank, as well as lights in many of the high-rise buildings. the chaos had begun.
Shortly thereafter, the explosions under the expressway dropped twenty columns onto the roadway below. Cars and trucks were buried in rubble, and others collided with the crashing concrete. Eyewitnesses counted more than 150 cars involved in the mess that was formerly one of the most traveled freeways in the country. More than 75 people died immediately and another 250 were trapped or injured. Emergency units, if they could have been dispatched by the silent emergency transmitters, would have had great difficulty in getting to the scene.
A few seconds more, and another orange ball of fire engulfed more than 200 arriving commuters, who had just gotten off a train at Union station. More than a hundred were badly burned and dozens more had been struck by flying schrapnel. The lights had gone out in the cavernous station, at approximately the same time, which added to the confusion and panic. Railroad employees and police attempted to contain the crowd, but dozens more were trampled as the fleeing crowd pushed to the exits.
Almost concurrent with the Union Station Blast, another detonation lit up the subway station at State and Randolph. Unfortunately for the commuters, a Southbound train had just pulled into the station, just as Shalima had anticipated. The resulting carnage torn an enormous hole in the side of the train car and started a fire. More than 45 of the passengers were killed outright in the initial blast. Another 150 were burned by the flames that engulfed the platform. A ticket agent, who had a hard-wired direct line to CTA dispatchers, immediately requested fire and EMS assistance.
Within minutes the first arriving fire, police, and EMS responders arrived on the scene and immediately requested an EMS plan III and a 2-11 alarm for the fire. Due to transmitter problems, they were unaware of the other major emergencies that were unfolding all over "the loop". As the paramedics and firefighters set to work, triaging all seriously injured people and beginning treatment for the living; police officers were searching the wreckage for any kind of a clue as to what had happened. Then the second fiery eruption went off. More than 40 police officers, firefighters, and paramedics were charred beyond recognition in the resulting blast.
As the first firefighters were arriving on the scene of the subway explosion and fire, another boom reverberated through the canyons of downtown Chicago. The carbomb, with it's awesome power had collapsed the building that housed the Israeli embassy and broken windows and caused structural damage, for a radius of more than three blocks. Hundreds of people were reported trapped in the still flaming hulk of what was once a proud part of the Chicago skyline. Dozens of bystanders, people walking to work, were immediately killed by the blast and fireball. Dozens more were killed by the flying glass and debris that was generated by the powerful explosion. The only thing worse than the carnage on Wacker Drive was the fact that it would be a long time before other emergency responders could arrive on the scene to help those that had survived the initial blast. They would die in the pain and agony of this latest terrorist atrocity.
Fact?, Fantasy?, or Reality? Would it be this easy for a small band of five terrorists to wound and kill hundreds, or even thousands, of people and completely disrupt life in Chicago? Is it possible that Chicago, or any other large city for that matter, is this vulnerable to the heinousness of an extremist attack? The answer is yes, according to Clark Staten, Executive Director of the Chicago-based Emergency Response & Research Institute.
"The problem involves the open values and freedom that we so dearly defend", the veteran emergency analyst said. "The openness of our society affords the dedicated extremist any number of available outlets for his murderous intent", Staten continued. "Americans just will not tolerate the level of security precautions that have been implemented in London, Rome, Paris, or in many other European and Mid-Eastern countries", he added. "Therefore, we are at risk...in Chicago...in New York...in Los Angeles...and elsewhere".
Staten said that even though the American level of awareness regarding terrorism has risen since the World Trade Center bombing, that most people, and even some emergency responders, do not take the threat seriously. He admits that the streets of the United States are not as potentially dangerous as those of Tel Aviv or London, but warns that may only be a matter of time before another American city is struck by a terrorist attack.
A recent ENN analysis of both activities and public announcements by members of the Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Islamic Salvation Front, and the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP) have all shown increasing hostility and antagonism towards the United States. Even Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has spoken out publicly against America, in major demonstrations held this week in Tehran. Intelligence sources say that this sort of rhetoric often precedes an actual attack.
Staten says that America's long-time support of Israel and, specifically, it's efforts regarding the Israeli/PLO peace accord have been a source of anger among many Moslem extremist countries and organizations. Additionally, the fact that America is currently holding and prosecuting Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman and eleven of his followers, does not sit well with those dedicated to the Jihad, or "Holy War". And, President Clinton's recent action to freeze the assets of suspected extremist organizations has added fuel to the fundamentalist fire.
Staten said that analysts from ERRI have been following the actions and rhetoric of a number of Middle-East sources and have concluded that the current threat level is as high as it has been at any time since the World Trade Center bombing. They say that their conclusions should prompt an increased state of awareness on the part of both public officials and the public in general. Staten concluded by saying, "this latest information should prompt precaution...not panic...we must be aware of the threat in order to thwart the bloodthirsty hopes of those that would oppose both America and the Mid-East peace process".
(c) EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1995. All rights reserved.
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(Published on the 2nd Anniversary of the World Trade Center Bombing)
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