Several months ago Dan Gordon, author of Day of the Dead, spoke with Financial Sense Newshour about a chilling scenario where terrorists use pre-existing drug tunnels under the US-Mexican border to stage a major attack on San Diego. After recent events in Paris and elsewhere, many of Gordon’s concerns regarding the capability of ISIS have taken on renewed significance.
In Gordon’s novel, ISIS buys a network of drug tunnels to send terrorists from Tijuana, Mexico into San Diego armed with anti-tank missiles, machine guns, grenades, tranquilizer shots, and handcuffs. The objective is multifold: kill, maim, and kidnap as many American women and children as possible, drag them back through the tunnels into underground cells in Tijuana, and execute them on YouTube for maximum impact. Additionally, Gordon writes, ISIS concludes the worst terrorist attack in history by infiltrating one of the Navy's largest bases located in San Diego—home to the Pacific fleet—taking out ships and killing as many military personnel it can, since many servicemen and women are not armed on base.
If all of this sounds a bit far-fetched, Gordon believes that people should look at the facts surrounding both the US-Mexican border as well as the stated intentions of ISIS. Regarding the border, Gordon explains how, unlike Israel, “American surveillance is minimal, there is a denuded border patrol, and we don’t maintain an aerial cap” of the entire region. Concerning ISIS, Gordon points to the presence of the organization in Gaza where, under the leadership of Hamas, terrorists in fact pulled off six attacks on soft targets in Israel with the aid of underground tunnels during the summer of 2014.
Gordon maintains that as of now “everything we are doing is guaranteeing that the next battle we are going to fight will be in the United States”
Gordon, who has spent decades in the Israeli Defense Force, laid out a nightmarish scene from last year’s attacks: “Imagine living in a suburb and your lawn opens up like a scene out of Night of the Living Dead, but instead of zombies coming out of tombs, a dozen terrorists come up right there on a lawn on your street, armed with two RPGs and each RPG can take down a row of houses. They also are armed with grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition.” Scariest of all is that, like in Gaza, these suburban terrorists have tranquilizers and plastic handcuffs to drag many more victims back through the tunnels and take them as hostages.
The 2014 Gaza tunnel attacks in Gordon’s opinion served “as a dress rehearsal” for other more sophisticated attacks elsewhere in the world. Gordon asserts that ISIS is “an enemy that doesn’t stop evolving” and they are arguably the “best funded terrorist organization in history.” Tracing the growth of terrorism since the 1970s, Gordon is concerned that the US government does not respect how sophisticated terrorist groups have become: “the worst mistake you can make is having disdain for your enemies—you have to overestimate them.” And he bluntly told Financial Sense Newshour, “I can guarantee you that they [ISIS] are in the planning stages” for an attack like the one seen last year in Gaza.
While he is pessimistic regarding the ability of the current US administration to take an aggressive stance toward ISIS, Gordon does believe that the group possesses vulnerabilities. “ISIS has made a mistake now that they control territory. They can be found and armies are great at taking back territory,” he says. However, the US needs to have the will to fight. For example, instead of only running around 15 bombing raids a day, western powers need to pound ISIS with 200 raids or more. Gordon also recommends arming the Kurds and giving military aid to other nations, like Jordan, who are in a position to help the US win the fight against ISIS.
But Gordon maintains that as of now “everything we are doing is guaranteeing that the next battle we are going to fight will be in the United States.”
Listen to this full podcast interview with Dan Gordon on ISIS and his book, Day of the Dead, by clicking here. For a complete archive of our broadcasts and podcast interviews on finance, economics, geopolitics, and the market, visit our Newshour page here or iTunes page here. Subscribe to our weekly premium podcast by clicking here.
