won’t be just the insurance companies who benefit from this investigation. No doubt you’ll have a better chance in the elections after a scandal of this magnitude.”
Shiloah listened to Al-Saud with his eyes on the floor and a hand on his chin.
“I’m now thinking about how best to prepare the terrain to take advantage of this news. What do you think the El Al plane was carrying?”
“Mike thinks that we’re dealing with compounds used to produce chemical weapons: nerve agents such as sarin gas, tabun, soman and others, all used by the Nazis during World War II.”
“What makes him suspect that?”
“A very interesting conversation he had with the air-traffic controller who was supervising flight 2681’s takeoff. The guy swears that after the pilot informed him that he couldn’t get control of the aircraft for the emergency landing and the plane seemed doomed, the tower at Amsterdam-Schiphol asked him repeatedly to try to ditch in Lake IJssel. Why would a pilot, an Israeli air force veteran with twenty-five thousand hours of flight experience, be unable to steer the plane toward the lake?” Al-Saud answered himself. “Because he wanted to avoid the water at all costs, even though that meant crashing in a densely populated area. A chemical weapons expert explained to Mike that dimethyl methyl phosphate and chlorine thionyl, both components of sarin gas, react furiously on contact with water. If the plane had ended up in Lake IJssel, the catastrophe would have been of unimaginable proportions. I think that the pilot did what he had to do to save the population of Amsterdam.”
“How would the pilot know that the dimethyl…chlorine…or whatever they were would react so lethally with the water? That’s hardly something everyone knows.”
“Either the pilot was warned about the cargo he was carrying and the dangers that were involved, which seems improbable, or the fourth man played an important role in the decision to crash into the Bijlmer estate.”
“Are these chemicals used in other processes that don’t involve making chemical weapons? Insecticides, fertilizers or pharmaceuticals, for example?”
“According to the UN Convention on Chemical Weapons, thionyl chlorate is classified in table three, which is to say that it’s listed as used in the manufacture of chemical weapons as well as other legitimate industrial products. Its sale is controlled and restricted. Dimethyl methyl phosphate, on the other hand, is classified in table two, elements that are essential to the production of chemical weapons and that aren’t used in large quantities for civilian purposes. Sale of table two substances is prohibited.”
“My country hasn’t yet ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, has it?”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“They might claim,” Moses said, “that they need these products to manufacture small samples of lethal gases so that they can learn about their behavior and create antidotes in case of an attack from our enemies. You already know that during the Gulf War a great threat was the possibility that Saddam would use chemical weapons. We all ran around with masks on our backs and built sealed rooms where we could survive an attack.”
Al-Saud was well aware of the dangers of war. A gas mask was always part of the complex set of equipment that an NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical defense) aviator took with him on missions.
“It’s a plausible justification,” he admitted. “Since its creation in 1948, Israel has been surrounded by enemies ready to erase it from the face of the earth. They have a right to know what weapons they might have to face. However, there are details that don’t fit this explanation. If the situation is as you describe, why not admit it? I’ll tell you why. Because of the quantities being transported. It’s one thing to transport small amounts for sample studies and analysis and another for large-scale weapons manufacture.”
“Tel Aviv maintains
Shiloah listened to Al-Saud with his eyes on the floor and a hand on his chin.
“I’m now thinking about how best to prepare the terrain to take advantage of this news. What do you think the El Al plane was carrying?”
“Mike thinks that we’re dealing with compounds used to produce chemical weapons: nerve agents such as sarin gas, tabun, soman and others, all used by the Nazis during World War II.”
“What makes him suspect that?”
“A very interesting conversation he had with the air-traffic controller who was supervising flight 2681’s takeoff. The guy swears that after the pilot informed him that he couldn’t get control of the aircraft for the emergency landing and the plane seemed doomed, the tower at Amsterdam-Schiphol asked him repeatedly to try to ditch in Lake IJssel. Why would a pilot, an Israeli air force veteran with twenty-five thousand hours of flight experience, be unable to steer the plane toward the lake?” Al-Saud answered himself. “Because he wanted to avoid the water at all costs, even though that meant crashing in a densely populated area. A chemical weapons expert explained to Mike that dimethyl methyl phosphate and chlorine thionyl, both components of sarin gas, react furiously on contact with water. If the plane had ended up in Lake IJssel, the catastrophe would have been of unimaginable proportions. I think that the pilot did what he had to do to save the population of Amsterdam.”
“How would the pilot know that the dimethyl…chlorine…or whatever they were would react so lethally with the water? That’s hardly something everyone knows.”
“Either the pilot was warned about the cargo he was carrying and the dangers that were involved, which seems improbable, or the fourth man played an important role in the decision to crash into the Bijlmer estate.”
“Are these chemicals used in other processes that don’t involve making chemical weapons? Insecticides, fertilizers or pharmaceuticals, for example?”
“According to the UN Convention on Chemical Weapons, thionyl chlorate is classified in table three, which is to say that it’s listed as used in the manufacture of chemical weapons as well as other legitimate industrial products. Its sale is controlled and restricted. Dimethyl methyl phosphate, on the other hand, is classified in table two, elements that are essential to the production of chemical weapons and that aren’t used in large quantities for civilian purposes. Sale of table two substances is prohibited.”
“My country hasn’t yet ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, has it?”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“They might claim,” Moses said, “that they need these products to manufacture small samples of lethal gases so that they can learn about their behavior and create antidotes in case of an attack from our enemies. You already know that during the Gulf War a great threat was the possibility that Saddam would use chemical weapons. We all ran around with masks on our backs and built sealed rooms where we could survive an attack.”
Al-Saud was well aware of the dangers of war. A gas mask was always part of the complex set of equipment that an NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical defense) aviator took with him on missions.
“It’s a plausible justification,” he admitted. “Since its creation in 1948, Israel has been surrounded by enemies ready to erase it from the face of the earth. They have a right to know what weapons they might have to face. However, there are details that don’t fit this explanation. If the situation is as you describe, why not admit it? I’ll tell you why. Because of the quantities being transported. It’s one thing to transport small amounts for sample studies and analysis and another for large-scale weapons manufacture.”
“Tel Aviv maintains
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