Chapter 9
Preliminary reports from the FBI agents on the ground indicate that the devices in Bangkok used white phosphorus,” said Nicholas, moving through his slides.
“To what end?” Palmer inquired. “Increased lethality?”
“Increased terror,” Haney argued. “White phosphorus projectiles were used in the second battle of Fallujah. They create a kind of fire that can’t be extinguished with water. Absolutely horrific stuff. Melts the skin and muscle right off your body.”
“True,” Nicholas agreed. “White phosphorus spontaneously combusts when it comes in contact with oxygen, and can burn anywhere from thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred degrees. There’s no question that it does incredible damage.
And yes, it could have been included to increase casualties, but we would have expected to see a lot more of it.
We think it was used for another reason. ”
Staelin leaned toward his screen. “Such as?”
“It’s the perfect delete button. White phosphorus burns so hot and so fast that almost any forensic signature the bomber might have left behind is completely erased.”
“Insurgents did the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Palmer said. “IED makers would add white phosphorus so we couldn’t trace any of their stuff.”
Nicholas nodded. “Yes, some cells did it to burn away the bomb’s internals, but its use wasn’t that common. White phosphorus is incredibly dangerous to handle. You have to know what you’re doing.”
“So our bomber isn’t an amateur,” stated Harvath.
“Definitely not,” Nicholas replied. “They’ve done this before.”
“Outside of Iraq and Afghanistan, where else has white phosphorus been used in improvised explosive devices?”
“It’s predominantly been seen in the Middle East. In addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s been seen in Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Libya, Gaza, and the West Bank.”
Harvath thought about those locations for a moment. “So, we could be looking at an Islamic militant, from Thailand, who trained or operated in the Middle East and then brought their skills back home to Bangkok.”
“Absolutely,” Nicholas replied.
“And if you were a Thailand-based Islamic militant looking for white phosphorus, where would you go looking for it?”
The man studied one of his computer screens, just off camera, as he walked Harvath through a few possibilities. “One of the places worth considering is Clark Air Base.”
“The old U.S. air base northwest of Manila?”
Nicholas nodded. “Plenty of U.S. munitions have leaked from old Philippine military stockpiles there. The corruption inside the Philippine army and police force is a widespread problem. Clark has long been a hub for ex?military contractors, arms traffickers, and shady logistics groups. White phosphorus from old M825A1 rounds has shown up on the black market there. Considering how cheap and easy travel between the Philippines and Thailand is, that’d be high on my list.”
Harvath made a mental note and said, “What else?”
“The Thai army is notoriously lax with its weapons inventories. Like the Philippines, corruption is widespread. White phosphorus rounds from the 1960s through the ’80s could easily be sitting inside some forgotten depot.
All it would take to shake a few loose would be one corrupt Thai military officer.
Such a person could easily arrange to ‘lose’ a few without raising any alarms.”
“That seems like a big risk,” Harvath replied. “If one single bomb fragment traced back to the Thai military, the heat that would come down from that would make the temperature of white phosphorus pale in comparison.”
“I don’t disagree,” Nicholas responded. “Which leaves me one other contender—Sihanoukville. It’s a Wild West coastal city on the Gulf of Thailand in southwestern Cambodia. Completely controlled by the Chinese. Casinos, organized crime syndicates, prostitution… you name it, they’ve got it.”
“How about illegal arms trafficking?”
“They’ve got that too. In spades. White phosphorus munitions have been known to show up there through illicit global arms shipments, often sourced from African conflicts and even corrupt Chinese PLA stockpiles. The city is like that lawless spaceport from Star Wars that Han Solo operated out of.”
“Mos Eisley?” Harvath asked.
“That’s the one,” said Nicholas, imitating Obi-Wan Kenobi. “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
Harvath hadn’t heard of Sihanoukville, but he didn’t doubt it—especially if the Chinese were involved.
“How would you transport the cargo in question to Bangkok? I would imagine, considering the current state of relations between the two countries, that overland border crossings are quite contentious.”
“Most of the illegal shipments move via fishing trawlers across the gulf to Trat Province, a quiet, underpopulated Thai coastal area. There, contraband is hidden beneath fresh seafood, loaded onto refrigerated trucks, and driven to Bangkok for distribution. If the white phosphorus came from Sihanoukville, it would have taken that route, or one very similar to it.”
It was a lot to consider. None of the possible white phosphorus sources, however, brought them any closer to figuring out who was behind the bombings.
After turning it over in his head for a few more moments, Harvath looked at Nicholas and said, “When I asked you where else white phosphorus had been used for IEDs, you replied predominantly in the Middle East. Where else has it been used, even on a non-predominant basis?”
Nicholas turned again to his off-camera monitor and typed a series of commands into his computer. It took him several minutes to sift through the search results.
Finally, he shared his screen and went through a series of one-off bombings that had taken place around the world.
“Could these be the work of the same bomber?” Harvath asked.
“Possibly,” Nicholas replied. “They all used white phosphorus and they all went unsolved.” He stopped sharing his screen and went quiet for several beats. After scrolling some additional intelligence networks he had access to, he stated, “This is interesting.”
“What is it?”
“A classified report that doesn’t look like it has been accessed in years. Are you familiar with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Sensitive Investigation Unit?”
“The SIU?” said Harvath. “They were supposed to be the DEA’s elite strike force in Mexico. All top-tier Mexican cops, vetted and trained in the U.S.”
“And apparently, all corrupt as hell,” stated Nicholas.
“The unit leaked like a sieve, normally to the cartels, who, in turn, crafted disinformation for them to feed into their reporting streams. Essentially, a ton of SIU agents—people the DEA was supposed to be able to trust implicitly in Mexico—were double agents. After more than twenty-five years in operation, the program was shut down.”
“Jesus,” Harvath remarked. “I’d heard it had been shelved, but I didn’t know why. What did SIU have to do with white phosphorus?”
“From what I can see, at the height of the cartel violence, the DEA brought the ATF down to Mexico to investigate a series of bombings. Many of the areas where the attacks took place were designated ‘denied access,’ meaning too dangerous to enter and collect evidence.
“But when the ATF was able to access other blast sites and conduct forensic investigations, all those bombings had one thing in common—the use of white phosphorus in such a manner that it appeared the bombmaker was attempting to erase any and all potential signatures.”