Chapter Sixty-Two Creating Fear

Standing before a crowd of thousands in the Iranian capital of Tehran, President Mahmoud Khasajani announces to the world, “Iran is coming closer to its destined position in the world. We will unite the Muslim world. We will fight the Zionist. We will conquer the land of Israel. Then the United States will taste what it is like to be alone.”

The throng gathered in front of him, there by invitation in the form of bribery, erupts into wild cheering to such an extent that Mahmoud cannot continue his speech for a full five minutes.

When he’s finally able to resume, he tells them, “Allah be praised, as I stand before you this day, you will see all of this come about.”

Every word Mahmoud speaks is being transmitted over Al-Jazeera, BBC and CNN.

Analysts the world over wonder, and start writing about, what this saber-rattling and rhetoric might signify. Is it just clichés, something to whip up enthusiasm for a populace who has suffered long and hard under sanctions imposed by the West? Or is something deeper being revealed to the Iranian people?

Is the president preparing his nation for war, or is he still just a politician full of hot air?

Two days later, London experiences another subway bombing, again at rush hour. The 2005 bombings had resulted in fifty-two deaths; this bombing kills hundreds. No one claims responsibility for it. Scotland Yard receives only a one-sentence call, made from a phone booth by a man with an Arabic accent. All the man says is, “This is just the beginning – if you continue to side with the Great Satan.”