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."