Undeclared War by Dennis Chalker Read Free Book Online Page A

jeopardize any benefits that would come to him down the road. His discharge is already in the works.” Straker neglected to mention that the discharge would be an honorable one. “I’m certain Chief Reaper can be shown the benefits of ending his career.”
    Captain Straker had a bad taste in his mouth even as he said the words. They could keep Chief Reaper from facing any kind of trumped-up charges. The fact was that a number of Balkan-area Islamic groups that had been supported by the State Department had turned out to be terrorist organizations. That was something that State didn’t want talked about. The situation in the Balkans was a mess, and the present administration didn’t seem to be able to do anything about it as things got worse. Getting Reaper the hell out of the line of fire would be the best Captain Straker could do. He would just have to get by in the civilian world.

Chapter Four
    In the years following the massacre of Muslim civilians at the village, the story never left the immediate area of Bosnia or the halls of the U.S. State Department, Intelligence agencies, or military. Coming from a land that had seen the worst of war for years, the story of a handful of villagers being slaughtered didn’t make even a footnote in the international news.
    The loss of a few personnel to the Intelligence community and the Navy, even the small ranks of Naval Special Warfare, were absorbed without notice. Lives were changed in major ways, without directly affecting the U.S. government in the least. In other parts of the world, the policies of the U.S. administration of the 1990s, especially those of the State Department and Intelligence community, were going to affect the government, and the world.
    A large part of the operating funds that al Qaeda and other organizations depend on came from their involvement in the illegal drug trade. Growing opiumpoppies had always been part of the Afghan farming scene. When Iranian drug merchants came into Afghanistan, fleeing revolutionary justice in Iran, they helped set up drug processing labs inside the country to convert opium first into morphine-base and then into heroin. The high-quality heroin produced was quickly slipped into the drug pipeline.
    The Balkans had been developed by al Qaeda and others into a southeastern approach into Europe. The drug pipeline stretched from Afghanistan and central Asia, through the Middle East, north to Bosnia, and on to Italy and beyond.
    Heroin flowed by the metric ton from al Qaeda labs in the mountains to addicts in Germany, Norway, and England. These were productive markets and money poured into the coffers of al Qaeda as Afghan heroin saturated Europe. That money helped to finance a number of extensive operations by Islamic extremist groups.
    In spite of the success of their narcotics trade, what was desired above all by al Qaeda and their brother organizations was a secure connection into North America and the United States markets. Having returned to the States while still maintaining his contacts in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Cary Paxtun was happy to supply that connection.
    Paxtun had come from the large Arab and Muslim community in southeastern Michigan. His ethnic Middle Eastern background had served him well when he had been working as an intelligence agent among the mujahideen in Afghanistan. But he had been out of the United States and away from his home area for a long time.
    What Paxtun needed was a local contact to help him set up a major drug distribution network. He found that business partner in Steven Arzee, a younger Muslim who had been running a small nightclub in Detroit. Out of his club, Arzee had also been conducting some drug deals and other illegal business with the assistance of a number of his extended family members.
    The fastidious Arzee was not a soldier, in spite of the airs he gave himself. But he was a dedicated Wahhabi Muslim with a good deal of street smarts and some very loyal and