Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 05 (28 page)

 
          
“Do
you think it is
wise
to slap that
warhead like that, Admiral?” Buzhazi asked acidly.

 
          
“Perfectly
safe, sir,” Tufayli the idiot replied, not understanding Buzhazi’s meaning at
all—Buzhazi meant to ask if he thought it was wise for Tufayli’s
career
and continued good
health
to be scaring the chief of staff
like that.

 
          
“Yes
... and the other canisters ... ?”

 
          
“Still
all one-thousand-kilo high-explosive contact warheads on all the rest,” Tufayli
replied. “We look forward to getting more warheads such as this one for our
other missiles.”

 
          
“That
appears unlikely,” General Buzhazi said, “unless we can convince the President
that the Islamic Republic needs more nuclear warheads to counter our enemies in
the
Persian Gulf
region and elsewhere.”

 
          
“President
Nateq-Nouri would be happier, I think, if
Iran
had
no
warships or missiles at all,” Tufayli said. “This proposal to ban all warships
from the
Persian
Gulf
and
Gulf
of
Oman
? Ridiculous. You should advise the
President that it would be in all of our best interests to continue an
aggressive weapons buildup and develop a better indigenous weapons
manufacturing—”

 
          
“Yes,
yes, Admiral, you are correct, of course,” Buzhazi interrupted, shutting off
this egotistical, strutting popinjay. Any other officer would be immediately
dismissed for trying to tell Buzhazi how to do his job—but he needed Tufayli to
outfit this batde group and get it out into the Gulf of Oman, where it would
have maximum psychological effect against the GCC and the West...

 
          
...
or could be best used to spearhead a drive to close off the
Persian Gulf
, and ultimately propel himself to the
presidency.

 
          
“How
soon can you be on station in the
Gulf
of
Oman
, Admiral?” Buzhazi asked, as he headed for
the hatch to go back up on deck.

 
          
“We
have a few minor repairs to conclude, nothing too serious,” Tufayli said. “We
should be fully operational, with a full complement of aircraft and weapons, in
two days.”

 
          
Judging
by the looks of things in the aircraft hangar, Buzhazi thought, this idiot
Tufayli wouldn’t be ready to fight for two
years,
but he didn’t say that. Instead: “Very well, Admiral. Good work. In two
days, I will see you on station in the
Gulf
of
Oman
, ready to counter any seagoing force which
may threaten the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic. Good luck, and good
hunting.”

 
          
“Thank
you,
sir!”
Tufayli said in his best
academy parade voice. “You will be pleased and gratified by the trust you have
placed in me.”

 
          
Just
don’t get sunk by your own stupidity, Tufayli, Buzhazi thought. Do what I will
tell you to do,
whatever
I tell you
to do, and you will do just fine. When it comes time to launch that missile,
don’t think about it—just do it.

Washington
,
d.c.

20 April 1997
,
0906 hours ET

 
          
“A
mysterious attack on an island in the Persian Gulf that some claim was
perpetrated by the United States against Iran; a bold so- called defensive move
by Iran’s new aircraft carrier battle group into the Gulf of Oman, punctuated
by a recent deadly attack against an unarmed rescue vessel; a military arms
buildup by Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan unprecedented in two decades,” Tim
Russert, the host of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” began. “In the aftermath of
the collapse of the
Soviet
Union
and the glut
of high-tech weapons of mass destruction on the worlds arms market, the
Middle East
is becoming an even more dangerous powder
keg. Is it ready to explode?

 
          
“Joining
us to help put all this in perspective is today’s very special guest, the Vice
President of the
United States
, Ellen Christine Whiting. Madam Vice
President, welcome to ‘Meet the Press.’” “Thank you, Tim.” The image of
Russert, the “saber-toothed teddy bear,” flashed in her mind, almost making her
laugh, and instead prompting her famous “ten-million vote” smile.

 
          
“Finding
the first one hundred days challenging enough, Madam Vice President?” Russert
asked.

 
          
It
was the patented Russert disarming tactic, she thought: hit the guest with his
boyish, chubby-faced smile, then the light, easy banter, the brainless question
she could answer while half-asleep. He liked to make his guest feel at ease, as
if this were going to be an easy Sunday-morning chat, then
whammo
... “It’s a challenge I’ve been savoring ever since I was a
young campaign volunteer in
Frederick
,
Maryland
, Tim,” Whiting replied. “But let’s get
right down to the issues your viewers want to hear about.”

 
          
“Indeed,
let’s,” Russert said with a smile, but his voice turned decidedly harder after
being upstaged like that. “Let’s first talk about what seems to be on
everyone’s mind, Madam Vice President, and that’s the attack on those disputed
Iranian islands, allegedly by the Gulf Cooperative Council, the launching of
Iran’s huge nuclear aircraft carrier battle group, the attack on that rescue
vessel with the loss of about a half dozen lives and a dozen still unaccounted
for, and the administration’s apparent wait-and-see, do-nothing attitude. What’s
the latest on this, Madam Vice President?”

 
          
“Tim,
at the risk of sounding like a broken record—and I know most of your audience
still remembers what a record is—we’re looking into exactly what happened out
there in the Persian Gulf,” Whiting replied. “The Gulf Cooperative Council is
preparing a full report on their attack on
Abu
Musa
Island
, but claims it was a defensive, preemptive
strike on Iranian offensive missile emplacements that threatened ships in the
Persian Gulf
oil lanes. Given
Iran
’s huge military buildup on that island
since their illegal annexation of those islands in 1992, their explanation
seems somewhat justified.”

 
          
“And
Iran
’s claims that
U.S.
and Israeli commandos were involved in the
raid?”

 
          
“Nonsense,”
the Vice President replied. “This appears to be a GCC operation, and the White
House was not notified of the action before or during the attack.

 
          
“As
far as the salvage ship
Valley Mistress
attack, the
U.S.
company, Jersey Tech Salvage, out of
Elizabeth
City
, is currently under investigation by the
Justice Department for its recent activities,” the Vice President continued.
“Apparently the ship that was attacked by Iranian aircraft was involved in some
... illegal operations, taking advantage of its U.S. Naval Reserve Fleet designation.
These operations have something to do with shipping weapons, possibly to
Iraq
, possibly to anti-Iranian government
rebels.”

 
          
“So
the reports that this was a spy ship are completely false?” “The ship may have
done some government or defense work in the past,” the Vice President
acknowledged, “but it was not operating under a government contract when it was
attacked and hadn’t received a government contract since the Gulf War. The
President has asked the Justice Department to thoroughly investigate Jersey
Tech Salvage and all other contract and Naval Reserve Fleet companies to see
that abuses are quickly stopped.”

 
          
“But
what about the Americans reportedly being held by the Iranian government?”

 
          
“We
are not positive whether or not anyone
is
being held, or if they are American citizens or legal employees of
Jersey
Tech Salvage,” Whiting replied. “
Iran
is not cooperating with anyone, yet they
continue to throw unsubstantiated rumors and wild accusations around every time
a reporter cruises near. Now Jersey Tech is not cooperating with State
Department officials because they’re under investigation by the FBI. It’s very
frustrating.”

 
          
“But
surely the
United States
has spies, intelligence personnel, in the
area? Can you tell us anything they’ve learned?”

 
          
“Tim,
you know I can’t talk about any ongoing intelligence operations,” Whiting said
seriously, letting her smile turn stern and disapproving, as if gently scolding
him. Her hope was that the viewers would scold him in their minds and side with
her, not him. “That’s strictly off limits. As a veteran journalist, I’m
very
surprised
you
asked me about that.”

 
          
“I
wasn’t asking you for specific information or specific sources, just general
information ...”

 
          
“Tim,
you know about this—we’ve talked about it before,” the Vice President said, not
recalling if they had or not, but trying to sound as if he were pumping her for
information he knew was supposed to be off the record. “We can’t go into
specifics, as you very well know. Let me say this” —a brief pause as the camera
moved closer, building a little anticipation that she was about to reveal a
very inside piece of information—“yes, we have analysts working ’round the
clock, studying events all over the world.

 
          
“But
I have to tell you, Tim, that one source of information we use has been the
press, not just in the
U.S.
, but all over the world, and frankly the
media has the intelligence community going around in circles. The intelligence
folks follow up every news item, every piece of so-called evidence, reinterview
so-called experts, and check every lead, even if it’s only to completely
discount it. It may be enlightened speculation to the press, but every bit of
speculation adds to the confusion.”

 
          
“But
what about
Iran
’s aggressive military buildup, and their apparent drive to become the
warlords of the Islamic world?”

 
          
“I
don’t think the American people want us
speculating
on something as important and as far-reaching as this, Tim,” Vice President
Whiting said. “The press can afford to speculate all it wants, and when we hear
a news item from a supposedly respected and authoritative source, yes, we check
it out. In this particular case, the media has been all over the place, so that
hasn’t been a good source lately. The fact is that
Iran
is not on the warpath—far from it. In fact,
they’ve proposed a bold new peace initiative that would eliminate the threat of
that aircraft carrier from the
Persian Gulf
.
No one seems to believe
Iran
is serious about that initiative except the
President.”

 
          
“So
the White House is going to do nothing else about
Iran
, Madam Vice President?” Russert asked.