The Rings of Allah

Errors noted in early reviews have been corrected in the third edition.

Usama bin Laden's career is ascending like a rocket. One successful attack after another, each one larger than the previous one. Bin Laden is a long-range planner and a patient man. His ultimate goal is the destruction of the Great Satan (America) and the Little Satan (Israel) and the birth of a new caliphate that will rule the world. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has provided bin Laden with opportunity and an almost endless supply of blooded jihadits and weapons-Soviet and American weapons. Now, the Soviets are preparing to leave, and bin Laden is storing weapons in caves for future use.

Sitting quietly in a cave in Afghanistan, bin Laden plots and plans how to establish al-Qaeda cells in Europe and America and increase the scale of his attacks against American troops and installations. He envisions destroying American military barracks filled with troops, bombing American embassies, and a plan for attacking the Great Satan's financial center; New York City is taking shape in his mind. He wonders if it is possible to knock down one of the Twin Towers. Yes, there must be a way. Perhaps a truck bomb in the basement. Confident Allah will show him the way, he allows his mind to think past such a successful operation. How, he wonders, can I top the destruction of one of the Twin Towers?

Later, he receives word that the Soviet Union is beginning to collapse, presenting opportunities only Allah could provide. Bin Laden's string of successful operations has brought him financial support from wealthy countrymen, and he realizes Al Qaeda has the funds to purchase weapons of mass destruction from a Soviet general. A nuclear weapon placed in the belly of the Great Satan is the final attack he has been visualizing, and he sends his new lieutenant, Mohammed al-Mihdar, to meet with a KGB colonel, a member of Gruppa, to purchase WMDs. Colonel Valek discovers a long-buried Beria secret while obtaining weapons to sell to bin Laden. There were two 1949 Soviet atomic bomb design teams, not one, and the search for bin Laden's atomic bomb begins.

This story, Written in 2003-4, is alternative history fiction. Alternative history assumes one or more historical events happened differently. For example, a story assumes President Lincoln was not assassinated.