Chapter 517

The Doc did a physical on Balthazar Monday night and deemed him fit enough for questioning.

Tuesday was more of the same at Section 12. Tuesday night Ben, Frank, Agents Croft, Doyle and I questioned Balthazar while Vicky and Ching Lee looked on and learned. The session lasted three hours.

In a concession to Frank and Ben we video recorded the interrogation. But only Balthazar appeared in the video along with Ben’s voice.

Balthazar recognized me immediately. “You are one lucky infidel bitch. You are going to die a horrible death very soon at the hands of Allah’s servants,” he said just before the Doc hit him with the first dose.

Doc Burns used smaller doses, varying the doses and chemical mixture so as not to damage the heart or brain. Balthazar spent three hours in intense pain when he did not answer questions. It took the first 90 minutes to convince him he needed to be more forthright with his answers. We left him in the cell with the last meal of the day.

Tomorrow night we would do it again after dissecting his answers, comparing them to what we knew and what the men had learned at Gitmo. What we did know was that more arrests and search warrants would be in the works for tomorrow.

He also began to give us the military secrets of the IRG. Ben and Frank both wanted a foreign military intelligence person from the Pentagon to help in the questioning.

I was opposed and let it be known loudly. The more involved, the much greater the chance of leaks and fallout. After much discussion I finally relented with conditions.

The limit would be two. I needed to be careful about how many knew about Camp Smith and the goings on here other than the training we did there. Agents Croft and Doyle I trusted. They trained at Camp Smith and had worked the MSU attack and the raids on the learning centers. They knew the rules were bent as the situation called for it.

The Pentagon two would be checked for wires and they would be allowed no phones or other devices. They would eventually receive the edited tape of the questions they asked. They would be given a ‘what if’ scenario thirty minutes before they were picked up. What If we captured an Iranian military individual? What questions would they ask him?

Ben, Frank and I would use the connections we had within the Joint Chief of Staff to pick two tomorrow.

I spent more time in the tanning booth. I needed to be dark as if I had spent years in the sun; so did the Mossad ladies. Vicky and I were in there every night, after hitting the mats with the Mossad ladies. After three days I was able to hold my own against any of them, at least for a little while.

Wednesday morning, Tamim the cycle bomber was deemed well enough to be moved. He was going to the Federal Prison in Virginia for a short stay and isolation. The special terrorist judge agreed that he could be held as an enemy combatant; without counsel and no chance of bail pending a full review of all the evidence the various agencies had collected.

At 0900 Ben, Frank and I had a meeting with the joint chiefs. I thought they would take the lead in the discussion; I was wrong. I laid it out as a scenario and asked for names.

Major John Hoytman and Major Earle Brown were the two intelligence specialists that were finally chosen. They were ordered to be at the office at 1700 as were all the participants.

At 1730 we were all in the medical building where Balthazar was strapped to the table and the Doc was waiting.

“You must be so disappointed; I’m still breathing so no one has collected the bounty yet,” I said to Balthazar.

“Tonight’s session is going to be military questions. Do you need me to translate them to Persian or are we going to continue in English?” I said in Persian.

“I will do English,” he replied.

For the next three hours he answered questions only needing a few doses to keep him talking. Hoytman and Brown used maps, diagrams and other props to question him. At times they contradicted him when they knew he was trying to feed them lies.