Excerpt of Sovereign Order by James Macomber

Wednesday Morning

Via Cottolengo

Torino

The young Bosnian was named Mirko Zubak. He had had not been told what the target was to be but he did know his act of martyrdom would be by “sacred explosion”. He’d done what preparation he could before leaving Bosnia such as paying off his debts and forgiving others their transgressions against him. But the suddenness of his call was disconcerting. He’d expected, as was the norm, to have days, perhaps more, prior to his act to prepare himself. He’d put aside his cigarettes only the night before and had declined to eat anything then and this morning to purify himself as best he could under this accelerated plan. But the Imam had assured him that the circumstances would be known to Allah and his sacrifice accepted.

Zubak was determined to quietly and stoically accept the orders of his leader, Rashid al-Nassef, and the guidance of the Imam. But even in the face of al-Nassef’s undisguised annoyance, the young Bosnian stubbornly insisted that he be allowed to make his videotape testament. The camera was set up and Zubak recited verses from the Koran, spoke of the voluntary nature of his act, extolled the virtues and necessity of jihad and exhorted others to follow his example. When he was finished, he went to be fitted with the instrument of his “sacred explosion”.

Given the asymmetric nature of terrorism, most “suicide vests” are simple devices made from readily available materials. A common explosive combination is hydrogen peroxide, often used as a disinfectant or to bleach hair, for example, and acetone, used in various products, nail polish, for one. Together they form an explosive compound called acetone peroxide. While its availability and economy are a positive, it is an unstable compound which can and often does explode while being compressed or plasticized.

Less unstable and also widely used is a compound called ammonal — ammonia nitrate and coal or aluminum powder. It will not detonate of its own accord and needs an initiator (often a small quantity of acetone peroxide) but it too fits the needs and limitations of terrorist cells lacking the resources to obtain stronger, more sophisticated explosives.

For this project, though, al-Nassef had virtually unlimited resources and so the vest prepared for Mirko Zubak contained the much less readily available but far more sophisticated C4, a relatively stable plastic explosive with the consistency of modeling clay which allows it to be shaped as desired. In this case, it was packed in rectangular shaped pockets inside a thin nylon vest. Five kilograms of it. Approximately 11 pounds. A large load.

C4 also requires an initiator and in that respect as well al-Nassef went top shelf using a Belarus-made IED — not the “improvised explosive device” referred to so often in the present day but rather an “instantaneous electrical detonator” that initiates the C4 within milliseconds of being activated. When that happens, the C4 decomposes into gasses which expand at over 25,000 feet per second and reach temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees. Normal atmospheric pressure on the human body is approximately 15 pounds per square inch. The force of this blast in the immediate vicinity would be 1.5 tons per square inch.

Just after 10:00 AM, al-Nassef led Zubak to the target along a slightly different route than the one he had taken the day before. As they came out of the Quattro Marzo opposite the Piazza San Giovanni and the cathedral, Zubak hesitated at the sight of two yellow school buses parked along the Via XX Settembre just in front of the church. The buses were empty. That meant the children were inside.

Al-Nassef had explained the plan to Zubak only minutes before they left Cottolengo. Zubak was to go up the stairs and into the cathedral and go left to where there was a souvenir shop by the replica of the Holy Shroud. There were frequently visitors standing and watching it but the primary rational al-Nassef had given the young Bosnian for this particular target was that it struck a blow at what was essentially the soul of Torino. Zubak had questioned the propriety of an attack on Jesus whom Islam revered as a prophet if not as the Messiah. But al-Nassef had rejected the concern by recalling to him the Hadith prohibition on depictions of the major prophets and explaining that they were not striking the actual Jesus, only an image — one which was a replica in any event.

Looking across the piazza, Zubak shook his head. “Not the children. I will not meet Allah with that shame on me.”

Al-Nassef wondered if these objections were a sign that the boy was losing his nerve. He started to order the young man to proceed but thought better of it. He did not need to bring any attention to them and a few more moments would not matter. He nodded his assent.

After about ten minutes, the center doors at the top of the stairs opened and a procession of about eighty children accompanied by teachers and aides emerged. The adults herded the children together and began to count and arrange them prior to reboarding the buses.

Al-Nassef put his hand on Zubak’s shoulder and the young man looked at him. Al-Nassef nodded. The Bosnian returned the gesture, then put his hand into the pocket that contained the detonator and stepped off. Al-Nassef retreated a little way back up the Quattro Marzo and around a corner of the municipal building and watched as Zubak crossed the piazza to the church.

The teachers had the children fairly well assembled, crowded together in pairs, holding hands, about to get on the buses. The squeaks and squeals of their young voices drowned out the other sounds in the area.

Zubak was still about ten meters from the bottom of the steps to the cathedral and right alongside the children when al-Nassef pressed the duplicate detonator he had in his own pocket."