© Copyright by John B. Gargett 2008/2009 All Rights Reserved
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The attention to detail that Suegali put into an operation was enormous. Most successful CEO’s hire smart people to run their empires, but Suegali was a man who did not believe in having any more people involved than necessary. He knew that the more people involved, the greater the likelihood it would fail. And Suegali did not want this operation to fail. He had been shocked by what had been done to his country by the West and this operation, with his handpicked Warlords, was personal. He selected the best men from around the world, briefed each one and paid them very well. The Warlords knew they Suegali’s Professional Soldiers and each had total allegiance to Suegali. They were loyal was complete and their dedication complete. Their families were rich with the spoils of their fights and Suegali would, if one of his warlords were killed, ensure the family would continue to receive a very substantial “retirement” income. They were as trained and effective as any Special Forces unit in the world.
The Suegali Warlords, the “winners” of the Dervish Sales Company annual contest, were leaving from Telegraph Cove on the morning of the 19th for their two-day “nature” cruise. Of course, none used their real name; Suegali gave them their pirate names along with complete traceable life histories. The three Somali’s, Asad, Abdi, and Abdikarim, the two Malaysian’s – Aban and Abdul, the four Filipino’s – Bayani, Datu, Dakila, and Igme and the Pakistani’s Hussein, Bahaar and Salim all were ready for the mission. They told the owners of the M/V Gikumi that they wanted to anchor on the north end of Wishart Island and Deserters Island for the night – supposedly to observe local birds and explore the shallow waters between the islands. They would be leaving Telegraph Cove, run up past Duval Point, across Goletas Channel, into Christie Passage and across Gordon Channel into Shelter Passage. They would, of course, never reach Shelter Passage. The Warlords would take the M/V Gikumi as they entered Christie Passage. Suegali did not want the owners of the boat killed – quite the contrary. He wanted them to be sure and provide a complete report back to the Canadian Government that they had been hijacked by an international group of pirates in retaliation for the destruction of poor nations by Canada and the West.
The Radiance of the Seas was booked with 2000 passengers and had left Vancouver on the 11th of September. Currently the vessel was on its way up to Alaska and would be returning south to Victoria on the 18th. On the 19th of September the Radiance of the Seas would be heading south across Queen Charlotte Sound and entering Gordon Channel at approximately 1800. Gordon Channel starts at Pine Island, and is between Nigei, Balaklava and Hurst Islands on the south and Redfern, Kent, Staples Islands on the north before passing the Deserters Group and entering Queen Charlotte Straight. In total it runs about 15 miles and it is deep, running from 600 to 2400 feet. Almost due west of the southern tip of Staples Island (where Bolivar and Shelter Passages meet) lays Alex Rock. Alex Rock is not in Gordon Channel proper, and therefore not a problem for the cruise ships, but it is a hazard to navigation for smaller vessels heading up Bolivar or Shelter Passage. Alex Rock was where they would execute the mission.
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Suegali had been planning this mission for several years. He had taken time to select and train his best of the best to carry out his attack since 1994. For years he had planned how to get everyone into Canada. Some had come into Halifax, others into Vancouver, Calgary and Prince Rupert. Two entered through Victoria, one drove up through Blaine from Seattle, and the last entered in Toronto. While they had all ended up in Abbotsford BC working menial jobs by December of 2009, the first of them entered Canada in 1999 and the last entered in 2006. When they entered, they did not know the “names” of the other ones until they met in Abbotsford. Suegali had, of course, been subsidizing their families back in their native countries and making sure the warlords had plenty of money to keep them above poverty, but not middle class. To keep them in shape and fine tuned, they carried out exercises in the mountains above Harrison Lake. The three Pakistani’s were, after all, former members of the 3 Commando Brigade of the Royal Marine Commandos, the elite amphibious raiding force, tasked with attacking from the sea, coming into shore in boats or helicopters.
By the time the Pender Pirates had smuggled them into Victoria in January of 2010, all twelve passed as Canadian citizens. They had morphed into immigrants and all played their roles well. By February, with two of them working as Whale Boat operators, and five more working on the cruise ship docks, they were invisible members of an immigrant city. By March five of them were in their jobs at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, Fort Rodd Hill and Canadian Forces Base Rocky Point where their observations of the Canadian Forces convinced the men that they presented no real threat to their plans. When they met with Suegali in April, everything was in place. The crews working the docks in Victoria kept their ears open for special alerts or additional security. The crews working on the bases simply monitored the deployment and movement of personnel and ships. By September the reports showed little in the way of any planning by the Canadian Government for a pirate attack. The Suegali Warlords were coordinating all their activities via Nexopia, a popular Canadian social networking website, a site for young teenagers that did not get any monitoring from the Canadian or US governments.
The Dervish Sales Company winners were taking different ways to get up to Telegraph Cove. Some took a bus, a few used late model cars they had purchased, but the Malaysians were hiring a sailboat to take them from Victoria to Stubbs Whale Watching. The FEG Hungarian AMD 65 AK47 guns were the paratrooper model with folding stocks and were easily hidden in their duffel bags. Aban and Abdul, the two Malaysians, told the Captain of the sailboat that they wanted to try out some electronic gear they were buying for the Whale Boats. They were going to bring along an Icom MXA-5000 Automatic Identification System (AIS) along with a plotter and GPS. The purpose of the AIS would be to track the Radiance of the Seas as it approached Pine Island. AIS provides all the details the Warlords would need – in real time it showed the name of the ship, its exact location, speed, course as well as other data that would ensure that the call to the bridge of the Radiance of the Seas (Call sign C6SE7) would occur at just the right time. AIS also showed other vessels in the area, such as BC Ferry Boats. By monitoring AIS traffic for the last few months, along with tracking maritime traffic of all types on the web, the timing of taking the Radiance of the Seas had been set such that there would be no other commercial vessels nearby. The time of the attack was set for 1900 on the 19th of September, just before sunset.
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The same day that Bahdoon had been killed in the car crash, a Sunni Imam showed up who just happened to be staying on the island and said he would ensure that his body was treated with Islamic tradition. First his body was cleansed and wrapped in three layers of clothing. The Imam talked to Bahdoon to let him know what was being done as it is believed the dead can hear and understand what is being said to them. The Imam also told Bahdoon what would happen at the gravesite and the correct things to say, so he would be able to see glimpses of heaven before his soul rests waiting for Judgment Day. He was told that the two angels Munkar and Nakir will meet him and ask Who is your Lord? Who is your Prophet? What is your religion? To which he was instructed to reply Allah, Muhammad and Islam, respectively.
Had Bahdoon died in Somalia, he would not have been placed in a coffin, however British Columbia prohibited burying a person without one and so a simple wooden box was used. His body was placed in the box on his right side and the box was placed in the ground so that his face looked towards Mecca. After his body was lowered into the ground, verses of the Koran were recited and small mounds of dirt were placed over the body. Once the hole was filled in, a stone was placed at the head and foot of Bahdoon’s grave and then a branch was placed near the stones and the Fatima, or the opening chapter of the Koran, was read. Three days later a morning feast was given during which a tray filled with flowers and a container of scented oil was passed around. The flowers were dipped in the oil and then after the feast the flowers were placed on his grave. Bahdoon had a number of friends and nearly thirty people attended. Following Islamic tradition, there would be a number of other feasts given for Bahdoon in the months to come – at 40 days, four months, six months and nine months following his death.
On the day of the 40-day feast, those from the Pender Island Community who knew Bahdoon met at the Hope Bay Café. There were almost fifty people there, including Derek, Ryan and Jason. The three of them had been extremely upset by the death of Bahdoon. None of it made any sense, Bahdoon did not really drink, they had only seen him drink once or twice since they met him, and then more than ½ a beer. They knew that someone was controlling him, and when they started looking into it a few months back, the only thing they found was that his uncle was named Suegali Osman and that he had visited him in Victoria in January. Other than that, they had only found a picture of Bahdoon and Cheryl Larson taken at the Saturna Ecological Educational Centre when they went to the graduation of one of their friends. They also knew that Bahdoon was simply not capable of putting the connections together to make the smuggling runs. They knew that Bahdoon was nothing more than a front man. His death did not make any sense and it deeply scared them. They agreed that they would no longer smuggle. They agreed they were out. They agreed they would talk to David Henry who was coming over to Pender on the 17th.
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Ruth met Celeste and Mary at Bellingham Station on Friday the 11th. Celeste showed up with Ricardo who she lived with in Mexico which was a big surprise. Ricardo was a psychologist, and he had just received his Visa to the U.S.A. the week before the wedding. Everyone had wanted to meet Ricardo, but until now without a Visa he could not visit. Ruth thought of his getting a Visa and being able to come as a sign that good things would happen with her marriage to Adam. Friday evening they had all stayed at the Tide Catcher. Ricardo and Adam really got along well. Ricardo was from an old town in Mexico, Cuidad de Guzman, but as it turned out they both had been to Tapalpa, a beautiful alpine mountain town between Guadalajara and Guzman. They had been in Tapalpa for the “Festival de la Luna” or Luna jazz festival held on the full moon around the end of October each year. Ricardo was also the only other male out at the Tide Catcher that night, so Adam and Ricardo talked well into the night. Adam found the discussions they had focusing. He realized that he needed to “walk freely with the wind” on the next leg of his life’s journey.
On Saturday Ruth, along with her daughters Mary and Celeste, and best friends Bunny, Louise, and Jill went to La Conner for lunch and to relax before the wedding. They were all going to stay at the La Conner Channel Lodge Saturday night. Ricardo was tagging along, but he did not mind, he had never been in the US and as far as he was concerned it was a chance to see more of America. La Conner sits in the delta mouth of the Skagit River and was founded in the May 1867 by Alonzo Low who named it after the Post Office – Swinomish. It is the oldest town in Skagit County and was first settled after the Civil War, although the Swinomish Indians had been living here for hundreds of years. A couple years later, in 1869, John Conner purchased the town plus 70 acres for $500. He renamed the town to La Conner after his wife, Louisa A. Conner. The town kept going, albeit slowly, with fishing, logging and farming, until it became a center for artists beginning in the 40’s. Some famous artists based in La Conner included Morris Graves, Guy Anderson, Richard Gilkey and Clayton James. By the 70’s La Conner had been “discovered” and it now is a tourist area with great art all in the setting of the peace and quiet of an old fashioned town. Ruth loved La Conner and thought it was a great place to spend time with her friends.
The morning of the 13th was a perfect September morning for a wedding. Adam awoke refreshed. He had spent the night by himself on the beach at the Tide Catcher, in front of a beach fire. Everyone had wanted him to join them in La Conner but Adam just wanted to be himself and think the night before his wedding. He needed to filter out all the stuff in his head, and he had done just that. He had reached his decision, he was going to blow up the train remotely from Poets Cove while on their honeymoon, then live with Ruth and run the Tide Catcher. He had closed the sale on the Tide Catcher in August, and after the wedding Louise was going to be moving back to Bellingham. Louise had told Adam that when her Grandparents had run the Tide Catcher they had worked the place in the summer and after Labor Day they went to Baja, the Keys or the Desert the rest of the year. It was the life he was looking for and Global Transnational was over. He made his decision after talking with Ricardo.
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By 1:00 everyone in the wedding party was at the Tide Catcher. Jill the Brides Maid, Bunny and Louise as readers, Celeste and Mary as flower girls, Dave was the Best Man, Hugh and David Henry were the Groomsman. The women got dressed in the Brant Cabin; the men got dressed in the Mallard Cabin. Father Kevin joined the men in Mallard and enjoyed a glass of scotch with Adam and Hugh. For both Adam and Ruth the clock was moving ever so slowly. They watched the hands, but they seemed not to move; yet they kept moving. The sun was radiant, the flowers were blooming, and the wind was still. Ruth, Jill, Bunny, Louise, Celeste and Mary were having a glass of wine and talking about what the newlyweds planned to do after the honeymoon. It was shaping up to be a classic situation – women in one area, men in another area, bride and groom both nervous, family and friends excited, with the hands of the clock keeping on moving to the appointed hour.
Jon and Lisa Blackwell were the first of the guests to arrive about 1:45. The one thing that neither Ruth nor Adam planned on was what to do with them as they arrived. After all, the cabins are small and won’t fit many people. When they drove in, Adam leaned out the door and told Jon they were in Mallard and the women were in Brant. Right after he said that it struck him – actually the sun struck him. It was 72, bright sun, the tide was almost in. Why were they inside? All of a sudden Adam upset the plans to have the two of them walk out of the cabins and join hands at 4:00 for the ceremony. He called for Ruth to bring out the wine, he asked the guys to bring out the food, and before anyone knew it, everyone was outside, drinking wine and beer, eating the food, and laughing. More people kept showing up until nearly fifty people were there. Some brought food, some brought beers from Boundary Bay and Chuckanut Brewery. Wine was flowing. By 3:50 it was not clear if there was going to be a wedding or not but the party did not look to be stopping. Everyone was having fun. It was great.
Adam set off the big brass starter canon right at 4:00 from the top of the Eider Cabin. Ruth thought something blew up, but when she turned around Adam was walking from Eider towards the now quiet group with Father Kevin. As they started walking, speakers, hidden between the cabins, started playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D major – Ruth’s favorite song, but Adam had not told her it was going to be playing. Ruth was smiling as his eyes locked on hers as he walked up. She was standing on the deck of Brant, everyone else was quiet. Then Adam took her hand dropped to his knee and asked if she would join with him in a new life. Father Kevin took their hands and began. Neither Adam nor Ruth really heard any of the words, not the words of Father Kevin, the readings of Bunny, Louise, Hugh or David. They did not see the tears of joy in their friends’ eyes; they only saw the beauty of the day and each other. When Father Kevin said they could kiss, Adam and Ruth took each other in their arms and a new journey began.
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Adam and Ruth are married and heading up to their honeymoon at Poets Cove Resort and Spa, but will something happen? The rest of the wedding party will begin arriving on the 17th, but what will they be in for when they get to Poets Cove? Suegali and his Warlords have started their operation to take the ship on the 19th. And what about the three Pender Pirates – what will become of them? Be sure and attend the Final Chapter of the Pirates of Poets Cove on September 19th and help write the conclusion!
Photography and Image Credits
Image 10-01 Charts from Canadian Geographic Service, Pirates from CNN
Image 10-02 AIS Charts from Premen Marine, AIS Position from www.marinetraffic.com, Gun from www.gunsamerica.com
Image 10-03 Photos and Images from Google Images, searched by Islamic images
Image 10-04 Photos by John Gargett, Tide Catcher, July 2007
Image 10-05 Photos by Cam Rutherford, Wedding, April 2006
Image 10-06 Photo by John Gargett, Birch Bay Evening, September 2008
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