Doug’s next target was an suspected terrorist training camp called “Hickory Wood” in Bolster, Ohio about fifty miles south of Columbus. He was going to stay at the Lakeview RV Park in Columbus, Ohio. There was talk of a lot of terrorist activity in Ohio so Doug wanted to check things out for himself.
In 2003, an Islamic terrorist from Columbus, Ohio was accused and arrested of giving aid to al-Qaeda and attempting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison. In 2006, three terrorists from Toledo, Ohio were arrested and charged for allegedly planning to build bombs for use by the terrorist in Iraq. One was sentenced to twenty years, one received thirteen years and the other one eight years in prison. In 2008, a couple in Toledo, Ohio was convicted of trying to send $20,000,000 to a terrorist organization in a vehicle they were attempting to ship overseas. Doug was happy when he read that a retired United States Special Forces soldier helped the FBI to uncover a “wannabe” training camp in Ohio. Three terrorists had contacted the soldier to help them in coordinating “jihad training exercises.” What the terrorist didn’t know is that the retired soldier was working with investigators all along. The three men raised money for the operations, considered setting up a front charity organization and used an indoor shooting range for target practice. They were all found guilty and received prison time. (19)
Once Doug was settled in his campsite he drove to a remote area and put on his disguise; a cap, mustache, goatee and sunglasses. He then went downtown and walked around to see what kind of information he could find out about the training camp at “Hickory Wood.” He was told that it was about an hour’s drive from Columbus and in a remote area of the woods. One thing he knew about the terrorist training camps is that they consistently tried to set them up in the most remote areas they could find. They wanted to be away from neighbors and road traffic and this camp was no different. They try, and succeed, in staying very low key until their time is needed to perform their act of terror.
He went back to his campground and just relaxed that evening. The next morning he went back into town. He changed into his Muslim disguise and left his car at a shopping center. He walked downtown until he found an inexpensive but reliable car for a few thousand dollars that was for sale by the owner. He gave the owner the cash and a fake name and told the owner he would go the local Department of Motor Vehicles in a few days and change the title to his name. Of course he knew that was never going to happen.
He filled the car up with gas and headed to “Hickory Wood.” When he arrived at the camp there wasn’t a guard at the gate so he cautiously drove into the compound. It wasn’t long before he was stopped by a large muscular guard carrying an AK-47. He asked Doug what he was doing on the compound. Doug said, “I am looking for a dear brother of mine and was told he may be here.” The guard asked him what his brother’s name was and before Doug could answer his question he began to ask him other questions to see if his brother was a Muslim and where he was from. Doug used a similar name to what he had used at one of the other camps as he said, “His name is Amid Youssef.” The guard said in a deep voice, “He isn’t in this camp because I’ve never heard of him.” Doug didn’t want to agitate this guard any more than he was already so he just said, “Okay, thanks for your help.” The guard seemed very suspicious of him and told Doug to pop his trunk and get out of his car so he could search it. The guard took his time and looked over the car very thoroughly. He even checked under the seats and in the glove compartment. Doug was extremely glad he hadn’t brought his Mercedes with him.
After the guard was satisfied he was not a threat to the camp he relaxed a bit and his attitude changed toward Doug. He asked him what his brother looked like and Doug sort of laughed as he said, “He looks a lot like me, but much, much older.” The guard chuckled and Doug knew that everything was okay with him from that point on. He asked him if there was a place he could turn around before he headed out of the camp and the guard said, “Just go up to the building ahead and make a U-turn. I will signal to the rest of the guards that it’s ok.” Doug couldn’t see the rest of the guards he was talking about but thanked him in Arabic. He slowly drove to the building the guard had pointed to and as he turned his car around he memorized every building location he could see.
There were about ten mobile homes in the camp and a couple of larger older buildings. In back of the mobile homes and buildings was an area where all the trees had been removed. Doug assumed this must be the place where they did their training exercises. He saw trouble in doing an attack on this camp because there was only one dirt road into the camp and it was about seven miles to the main paved road. There was nowhere for him to hide or escape without getting caught on his way out. As he drove out he used his watch and timed how long it took him to drive from the camp to the main road. It took him exactly twelve minutes because of the slow and winding dirt road. Once he was out on the main road he found a place to hide in the trees where he could observe the vehicles that came out of the camp.
After watching for a few hours Doug followed one of the vehicles coming out of the camp from a distance as it went into town and parked at the local grocery store. He followed it for a few hours until they finally drove back to the entrance of the dirt road. He soon came up with his plan on how to take out his next target. He drove back to the RV Park still dressed as a Muslim and told the manager he was staying with a friend in one of the camping sites and paid him to park his newly acquired vehicle for five days. He waited until dark then took off his Muslim disguise and stuck it in the car trunk.
For the next three days he drove the car out to the dirt road that led to the camp and observed all the vehicles as they came and went from the camp. Each day he took a sack lunch, a couple of bottles of water, and material to read with him. There was a white van that seemed to be the main vehicle that was used the most from the camp. Usually there were three or four men in it each time it came out of the camp. Doug though this would be a good target for him. Each day he followed the same procedure once he got back to town of parking in the visitor parking area and waiting until dark to take off his disguise.
The night before his attack he went back to the RV Park, put on surgical gloves and took a block of C-4 and rolled it up in a local newspaper. He attached one of the “pay as you use” phones to it and attached the detonator wire into the C-4. Once he had everything in place he took duct tape and wrapped it around a couple of times at both ends so the bomb and phone were secure. He took two more pieces of the duct tape and wrapped it half way around at each end leaving enough of it so he could attach the bomb to the van he had been watching.
The next day Doug put on his Muslim disguise, took his C-4 bomb, placed it under his front seat and headed to his observation point once again. He took another “pay as use” phone with him. He waited all day long but much to his disappointment the van didn’t come out of the camp that day. That was just a wasted day but he had now gotten use to waiting and taking his time. He had to come back the next day and wait again. Finally the van came out of the camp with four men in it. He followed it into the town of Columbus. After stopping at a local grocery store two of the men got out and went inside and the others stayed in the car. When the two men were finished shopping they drove to an older part of town and parked in front of an old house that was located in the middle of the block surrounded by other houses. All four men got out of the van and went into the house.
After they went inside Doug drove past the house and he could see there were other men that greeted them and it looked like they were having some kind of meeting. By now it was the middle of the day and there were a few people walking around the neighborhood. He wondered how he was going to be able to attach his bomb to the van with all this activity going on. He figured he only needed five seconds to attach the bomb to the van, since everything was ready to go. All he had to do was wrap the two loose pieces of duct tape that was partially wrapped around the bomb to
one of the wheel bars under the van. The bar was exposed and easy to get to but he couldn’t let anyone see him do it. He had to create some type of diversion to take the attention off of him and the van.
Doug drove down the street and got an address off of a house about two blocks away. He called the local fire department and told them a house was on fire at that address. He drove back down the road about a block away from the van and got out and started walking toward it. He had turned on the phone that was attached to the bomb and put the bomb under his Muslim robe. It wasn’t long and a few fire trucks went blaring down the street past him. People came out of their houses to check out what was going on. Some people were running in the street and following the fire truck. Doug walked along the street near the side of the van as if looking at what was going on. When he got close enough to the van he quickly bent down as if to be checking one of the tires and attached the bomb to the wheel bar. Doug then turned around and hurried back to his car. He didn’t know if anyone actually saw what he had done but he wasn’t taking any chances as he jumped into the car and left. As soon as everyone realized it was a false alarm they went about their everyday business.
Doug drove back to his hiding place across from the dirt road entrance to the camp and waited for the van to return. After about two hours the van pulled into the dirt road and headed toward the camp. He timed the van from the point where it left the main road to what he thought would be the camp. He waited fifteen minutes just to be sure they didn’t have any unexpected stops along the way and then turned his phone on and called the phone attached to the bomb. He heard the explosion in the distance and knew he had gotten another target. He drove to a shopping center near his camp site and wiped the car clean and made sure there was nothing left in it and left it there. He took off his Muslim disguise and put it in a shopping bag and walked back to his campsite.
The next day it was reported on the news that the “American Terrorist” had struck again on a camp near Columbus, Ohio and six men and one woman were killed and two wounded. Doug was disappointed that his bomb didn’t get a few more from the camp but at least he got seven and that would get the attention he wanted. According to news reports the explosion had gotten law enforcement attention and he figured that would be good enough. He knew law enforcement would be doing a full investigation into the camp since it was one the “American Terrorist” had targeted. Law enforcement had already figured out by now that the only targets the “American Terrorist” was hitting were the ones where there was suspected Terrorist activity.
Doug read in the local paper that because of all the protesting that was going on in the United States, “The government decided to do some Martial Law Drills conducted by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in Indianapolis. It was a coordinated effort by the Mayor of the town and the military in twenty six areas and it involved two thousand three hundred Marines. It lasted for two weeks and they were actually putting the Marines in a police role to do civilian law enforcement. This seemed to be a major objective of the exercise.”
According to the official story the Marines were there for pre-deployment training in a realistic urban environment. The commanding officer said, “Our aim in Indianapolis is to expose our Marines to realistic scenarios and stresses posed by operating in an actual urban community.” The government wanted to get an idea of how everything was conducted and how people would react to this type of take over. (7)
Doug knew the government was getting ready in case they had to use the Marines to impose martial law in cities and towns all across America if they had to stop rioting or aggression caused by all the protestors and Muslim terrorists. He was happy to see the government step in and do this type of training. He felt like it was at least a step in the right direction. He knew it was going to be needed if the Muslims and Christians ended up in huge clashes in cities throughout America.
Doug was hoping the American people would start protesting the war in Afghanistan to bring our American troops home like they had done during the Vietnam War. He thought why should we be fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries when we have our hands full right here in America? He hoped America would see the ongoing threat at home regarding the terrorist organizations and put pressure on the President, Congress, and the rest of the government to stop the killing and maiming of our young men in those countries.
After being on the road for a few months and blowing up his targets Doug started to wonder if his acts of vengeance were having any effect on the Muslim terrorist organizations. He also wondered if his efforts to inform the American people of the terrorist hiding places would have some kind of impact on the Government led fight against terrorism. Regardless, he wasn’t going to stop his mission. He still had a lot more targets he was going to hit.
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Chapter 25 - Niagara Falls - New York