Captain America (vol. 4) #25
Homeland: Part 3
Captain America has been asked to be part of a jury in the treason trial of Fernand Hedayat, an Iranian born American. The trial is set to take place at an off-short military prison that is the subject to much controversy. On his first night there, there is a perimeter breach. When they go to investigate they discover General Marty Oliver has been murdered. His killers then tied his corpse to a cactus using barbed wire cut from the fence.
As a team works to remove the body, military brass try to make sense of how this could have happened. That’s when someone discovers that someone stuffed a baggie full of devices in Oliver’s mouth. Upon closer inspection, Senator Lester Paley — who is acting as defense for Fernand Hedayat — recognizes the devices as GPS tracking chips. This raises more questions, as nobody knows where these chips may have came from. Regardless, Paley suggests that they conduct a bed check. The moment he says this the power suddenly goes out at the base. Captain America orders the soldiers to hold their fire while he goes and investigates. He finds prisoner footprints leading from the prison and away from base. Eventually he loses the trail but finds Fernand Hedayat’s prayer cap on the ground. Looking up to see where they might have been going, Cap sees that they were heading in the direction of Cuba.
When Steve gets back to the prison the power is back on and a bed check conducted. Along with Fernand Hedayat, fourteen detainees have managed to escape. The worst among them is a terrorist named Khalid El-Gamal, a dedicated religious extremist. The rest of the escapees, other than Fernand, were all El-Gamal’s former soldiers. While the military brass instantly assume that Hedayat was a willing participant in the break out, even though he has no known connection to El-Gamal or his men. Steve changes the subject by asking about the GPS trackers. That’s when General Tony MacPherson admits that he was the one who ordered the prisoners implanted with them, saying that they were testing out the technology. Captain America then asks General Lincoln Barron what their options are. Barron figures they can either return home and get reamed out by the White House, or they can figure out a nice and quiet way to invade Cuba and get them back.
Soon, Captain America and Lester Paley are searching Fernand’s cell for clues. The Senator insists that Hedayat wouldn’t have willingly went with the other escapees. He theorizes that he was forced to go along because he was the only prisoner who was fluent in Spanish, a huge benefit if they were to flee into Cuba. He is certian of Fernand’s innocence because he was devoted to stamping out religious extremism after his aunt was murdered by hardline fanatics five years earlier. He was denied justice as the one accused died in an “accident” while awaiting trial. Lester is convinced that Hedayat is an American, regardless of the fact that his citizenship was revoked and Cap needs to save him.
Captain America then meets with the military brass and insists that he go into Cuba to recover the prisoners alone. When they balk at this, Steve says he’ll have help and sets up a holographic project so he can put in a call to Nick Fury, the Director of SHIELD. Fury is annoyed that Steve chose to contact him while he was in the bathroom, but after hearing about the situation he has some important intel to share that might explain why El-Gamal and his goons are heading into Cuba. As it turns out, there were biological weapons smuggled into Cuba from the Middle East intended to be used on the island nation. The plot is to attack Cuba because blame will be put upon the United States given their historic animosity toward the small nation.
Before heading off on his mission, Steve asks Senator Paley to contact Rebecca Quan if anything goes wrong. Cap then crosses over into Cuban territory. He he crosses the terrain he ends up running into a troop of Cuban soldiers. They are led by two commanding officers, Arturo Gutierrez (who is convinced that he is given visions in his dreams from the Orishas), and Luisa Prohias. When Arturo trips on some loose gravel his gun goes off. The bullet then bounces off Captain America’s shield giving away his position. The Cubans then open fire on Captain America until they are ordered to stop by a commanding voice coming from the newly arriving SHIELD Helicarrier.
Soon, a floating platform carrying Nick Fury and the leader of Cuba lands on the ground. The President tells his soldiers to stand down, telling them that Captain America is a champion of the Cuban people.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, SHIELD (Nick Fury), Khalid El-Gamal, Lincoln Barron, John Boyle, Tony MacPherson, Lester Paley, Fernand Hedayat, Arturo Gutierrez, Luisa Prohias, Marty Oliver (corpse)
Topical References
This story is stated as taking place in December of 2003. This date should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication.
The prison that most of this story is set around is the Guantanamo Bay military prison off the coast of Cuba. At the time this story was published in 2004 if had just recently opened to house those captured and charged with terrorism in the fallout of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It had already gained infamy for reports of torture and prisoner abuse and the fact the prisoners were often held without trial for years on end. At it’s height, it was home to over 700 prisoners. Time of this writing (February, 2023) there are less than 40. With talks of shutting the prison down becoming more common in recent times the place will probably be closed sooner or later and as such its reference here should be considered a topical reference. Modern readers should interpret this location as an unidentified off-short prison that is unique to the fiction as opposed to a real life location.
There are a number of facts about Khalid El-Gamal and his father that should be considered topical. They are:
He is said to have been involved in the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Sadat was the President of Egypt from 1970 until he was assassinated by Muslim fundamentalists in 1981 as they were opposed to his government and his recognition is Israel.
It is also stated that his father served alongside Osama Bin Laden during the Soviet-Afghan War that took place between 1979 and 1989.
Regarding Khalid El-Gamal, he is stated as being captured trying to flee into Pakistan following the initial US victory in the invasion of Afghanistan which took place in 2001-2002. These events are said to have happened recently.
With regards to El-Gamal’s father, as the Sliding Timescale pushes the Modern Age forward, it will become increasingly impossible for this man to have been involved in these historical events. As such, they should be generalized as a political assassination in Egypt and seeing unspecified combat in Afghanistan respectively.
El-Gamal’s reason for fleeing into Pakistan would have to be generalized as the event referenced here happened over 20 years ago time of this writing (February, 2023).
Senator Paley states that Fernand Hedayat’s aunt was among a number of Iranian intellectuals that were murdered by hardline Muslim extremists. This is in reference to a chain of religiously inspired killings that occurred in Iran from 1988 to 1989. All told, 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens were killed. It is strongly believed that those who were rounded up and killed without trial were scapegoats to cover up the real perpetrators, allegedly well known clerics, who were responsible. This is a topical reference for the same reasons the ones for El-Gamal’s father.
When discussing the chemical weapons in Cuba, Nick Fury states that these are the unaccounted Weapons of Mass Destruction created by Saddam Hussein. Following 9/11, President George W. Bush justified an invasion of Iraq in 2003 under the pretense that its leader, Saddam Hussein, was creating WMDs that were then given to terrorists. The fear was that groups like al-Queda (responsible for 9/11) would get ahold of chemical or nuclear grade weapons. I’m not about to get into the intricate details, but while Iraq had a history of developing chemical weapons that were then used against their enemies, any notion that Hussein was creating WMDs for the reasons that justified such an invasion proved to be wrong. This didn’t stop the US from invading and later executing Hussein that same year. At any rate, since Hussein is now dead, the invasion is 20 years over, and the fact that no WMDs were found, this should be considered a topical reference as it was never factually accurate to begin with. Modern readers should interpret this instead as WMDs created in some unspecified region of the Middle East by an unspecified dictator. Likely in an instance unique to the fiction since the assertions were fiction themselves IRL.
Fury states that the main reason why Cuba is being targeted is because of strained relations between it and the United States. Relations between the two nations have been strained since the 1950s as the United States attempted to influence developing countries in an effort to combat the growth of Communism globally. Particularly during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. For many years the US has had a trade embargo against Cuba that has softened in recent years during the Obama administration. Still, there is a long way to go. Either way, references to animosity between the US and Cuba should be referenced as being historic in the event that the two countries ever kiss an make up.
The President of Cuba is depicted as Fidel Castro. This should be considered a topical reference as Castro stepped down due to health reasons in 2008 and later died in 2016.
