G. Gordon Liddy is now 84 years old and he's enjoyed a very full life. A former FBI agent and lawyer, he served 4 and 1/2 years in prison for his part in the Watergate Scandal during the Nixon administration. His life after prison was even more interesting. He wrote books, performed in movies and television, and was host of a nationally syndicated Talk-Radio program. He must be content with all of that.
In 1988 OMNI magazine commissioned him to write a fictional projection of what happen to America if it were hit by a team of well trained and motivated terrorists. (It was published in their January 1989 edition.) By coincidence, Mr. Liddy was writing his piece just about the time Osama bin Laden was founding "The Base" or Al-Qaeda, and it would be years before the young Saudi would appear on anyone's radar. Liddy's tale has the Soviets assisting in the attack, and at the time Liddy shared in America's total preoccupation with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. This background dates the story, and as a result it will likely never be reprinted. That is a shame because on my recent second reading I found that it still holds up. As a public service I thought I would take the time to extract the text from amid the vintage ads and other clutter.
It takes only fifteen minutes to read. I will meet you at the bottom. (click on photos to enlarge)
"Liquid Metal Embrittlement (LME) agent"
"EHV transformers"
Many Americans love putting up Girls and Guns type calendars.
Gordon Liddy was a master of self-promotion, and having served both
in the FBI and in prison, he was a natural fit for the genre.
"The EMPG, cruder and more bulky than our own classified device..."
"the prayer of public officials has always been..."
"The Capital Hill Riot"
There you have it. What is unique in this fiction is that the author resisted the temptation to describe the American retaliation, which is inevitable and is which is always disproportionally greater than the original offence against the Stars and Stripes. Of course we now know that it would be a cunning band of Saudi Arabians which would execute the most effective surprise attack on the Americans since Pearl Harbour. But there was no way at all for Liddy to know, in mid-1988, what the geo-political fallout would be to United States pro-insurgency in Afghanistan.
And finally, the one thing in the story which seemed bogus, turns out to be true. Liquid Metal Embrittlement or LME. I had never heard of it, but there is a Wikipedia page and much more on the Internet. In a few minutes I found plenty to catch up on, including a recent U.S. Army study on LME which might further improve the lethality of U.S. munitions by "making a round with selectable fragment distribution". Just what the word needs. Improved lethality.
Liquid Metal Embrittlement (LME) for improving
the fragmentation properties of U.S. explosive ordnance.
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