WASHINGTON TELECOM NEWS via Phillips Publishing, December 3, 1993: Acquisition officials from the Department of Justice’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and NASA are briefing potential private-sector telecommunications and information services partners in separate meetings… The partners are being asked to provide ultrasophisticated telecommunications and information services networks for politically sensitive missions mandated by the Clinton administration.
INS was told by the White House that it would support a “sweeping” antiterrorist strategy throughout the federal government… that could help identify “potentially dangerous” foreign immigrants…
CBS NEWS’ “60 MINUTES,” 26 December 1993 (reprinted with permission from Burrelle’s Information Services):… It’s called GPS — global positioning system: 24 orbiting satellites launched by the Pentagon that transmit mapping and targeting information with an accuracy never before known. It’s free for anyone to use, and the scariest use would be in what the military calls the “poor man’s cruise missile,” which could enable any Third World nation, any madman, any terrorist, to send a missile right down the smokestack of the Pentagon…
Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals:
we storm heaven itself in our folly.
Prologue
“What you are about to see,” the talk-show host began, “is a videotape of what is a historic but tragic occurrence — the last time since World War Two that territory of the United States of America has been attacked by a foreign power. Our guest today says this can and will happen again, and he should know. You will see a videotape log of the control room of an American drug-interdiction station, located just off the east coast of Florida. Roll the tape.”
The studio audience was deathly silent as the monitors came to life.
“Attention, all platform personnel, this is the command center. We have received notification that the aerostat radar unit on Grand Bahama Island has just come under attack and has been destroyed by hostile aircraft. I am placing this platform on yellow alert. Clear the flight deck and prepare for aircraft launch and recovery. Off-duty crew report to emergency stations. ”
There were about ten people in a large room of computer consoles and radar screens, a room resembling a smaller version of Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Men and women were on their feet, expressions of confusion and fear visible on their faces. “Take your seats and watch your sectors, ” an officer was shouting, his voice visibly shaking. He was obviously the senior officer, returning to a console slightly raised above the others. “Get your life jackets on but continue monitoring your sectors. Do it!”
Technicians quickly moved back to their consoles, working with quiet efficiency, but the tension in the command center was obvious.
“Sundstrand-351, acknowledge, ” came the voice of one of the female controllers. “You are exiting the entry corridor and approaching restricted airspace. Turn left to heading three-five-zero immediately. ”
“Twenty-one, your target is at eleven o'clock, nine miles. You are cleared to engage. Suggest left turns to evade. Seagull One is at your four o’clock, five miles, on auto intercept. ”
“Mike, Homestead is launching alert fighters in support. We’ve got one F-16 designation Trap-01, thirty miles out and closing at Mach one-point-two. ”
“Damn it, ” the senior officer could be heard saying, “keep making warning calls. Tell him he’s about to be blown out of the sky. ”
“Michael…?” The senior officer’s head jerked toward the speaker.
“Tell twenty-one to intercept and identify that bastard, ” the officer named Michael responded quickly, as if startled into answering. “Tell the F-16 to break off the attack and stand by. ” A few seconds later, they heard a loud, sharp boom. Heads visibly rippled across the command center at the sound. “I want a standard intercept, light signals, and warning flares. Get on his ass, get a light in his cockpit, but don 7 attack until he sees your FOLLOW ME lights. Is that clear? Get beside him, twenty-one. Close to gun range. Try a warning shot…"
“Warning shots are for losers,” the guest interjected.
“I don’t understand that, Admiral,” the host said. “You’ve got to be absolutely, positively sure. Can you do that from a radarscope?”
“If you break the law, if you violate restricted airspace, you should suffer the consequences,” the guest responded.
“Shoot first, ask questions later, eh, Admiral?” the host asked.
“It would have saved lives in this case.”
“In another, it may have wasted innocent lives.”
“I don’t buy the argument that we should be prepared to let a hundred guilty persons go so that we make sure one innocent life is saved,” the guest said. “The fact is, the innocent rarely are involved — we just end up letting the guilty go. It’s time we stop this insanity.” No one replied, but heads in the audience were nodding in agreement.
The host saw himself losing control of his audience to his guest’s arguments — this audience wasn’t quite as liberal as he wanted. He made a mental note to speak with the producer about this. “Let’s continue with the scene, shall we?” he said quickly, and the attention turned back to the replay.
“He’s heading right for the platform — he’s too close… I’ve got a missile lock, ” another excited voice being transmitted over a radio shouted. “Am I clear to engage?”
“Hold your fire. Get beside him. Make him turn away. ”
“He’s going to hit. Am I clear to engage? Am I clear to fire?”
Suddenly, a different voice boomed over the radio, a frantic, completely terror-filled voice: “Don ’t shoot, don’t shoot, can you hear me, don’t kill me! ”
“Get him turned away from the platform, Angel, ” the senior officer shouted.
“Target turning right, heading zero-four-zero, climbing… well clear of the platform, ” The audience could see shoulders slumping in relief all across the control center— in fact, the audience's shoulders relaxed as well. But just a few moments later, they heard the same female radar controller call out, “I've got two targets bearing zero- seven-zero, ten miles, altitude five hundred feet, speed four Jumdred knots, closing on us fast. One more up high, near the F-16."
Then, a high-pitched male voice: “Mayday, mayday, mayday, Trap-01, five miles southwest of the Hammerhead One platform, I am under attack. I am hit. I am hit."
“Three planes… no, I count four, four planes just appeared out of nowhere… coming at us at high speed… no ID… attack profile."
The videotape stopped abruptly.
The audience was stunned into silence.
“Of course, we all remember what happened then,” retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Ian Hardcastle said to the studio audience as Phil Donahue stepped to his marie to make his guest introduction. “The U.S. Border Security Force air operations staging platform called Hammerhead One was hit by two cluster bombs and two Argentinean- made antiship cruise missiles. Forty-one men and women lost their lives.”