by Doug Raber
Nodding to Quentin Walker to acknowledge the role of the Defense Department, Morrison continued. “We have a team at the National Security Agency that we’ve cleared for this operation. They’re looking for anything about smallpox. Anything, anywhere. And as you know, on Friday the President authorized the NSA and our other national security agencies to extend their normal activities to domestic surveillance as well. Unfortunately, our team has reported no hits yet.”
“Does this absence of any information suggest that this attack might have been carried out by a non-state actor?” National Security issues weren’t in the normal realm of Treasury Secretary E. J. Salcines, but heads around the table nodded at his perceptive question.
“You raise a good point,” Morrison said. “Al Qaeda and its spin-offs, for example, have shown remarkable discipline in their ability to minimize communications traffic before a terrorist attack. But we don’t think that this is likely here. Strictly speaking, any smallpox sample must have originated in what once was the Soviet Union, so that means Russia and the various former Soviet Republics. And, of course, we have to include second-generation countries that might have inherited biological materials after the collapse of the Soviet Union.”
“You’re saying it wasn’t a terrorist group?”
“Even the most radical of the regimes in question would never be so foolish as to provide smallpox to terrorists. Those groups have a well-established pattern of changing their minds about just who they think the enemy is. Everything we’ve learned from across the entire intelligence and diplomatic landscape …” Morrison glanced over to see a reassuring signal from the Secretary of State. “Everything points to a rogue state. Someone with a terrorist background may have assisted, but there can be no doubt that the attack was planned and executed by a national government.”
“Then this is getting simpler if not easier.” The Vice President was trying to steer the conversation. “It’s becoming clear from remarks all around the table that we need to identify the perpetrator of this cowardly attack on our citizens. Secretary Walker, the DoD has been working closely with the CDC. Do you have any updates?” The question was part of a set piece, and Richards knew exactly how the Secretary of Defense would respond. They had practiced the exchange beforehand.
“Yes, I do, Mr. Vice President. Mr. President, with your indulgence, I’d like the Under Secretary for Intelligence to report to this group. It’s my understanding that he has some information that he has not even been able to brief me on as of yet.”
Robinson Edwards stood up from his chair at the side of the room and walked toward the table where Secretary Walker pointed to an empty seat. He described all the small pieces of evidence that he and his team had collected, not mentioning that they’d had much of it for several days. He, Walker, and Richards had agreed beforehand that they would present this entire package as if it were newly acquired information. There was no need for the Director of National Intelligence to learn that the DIA had been withholding virtually all its information from him.
When Edwards finished, he turned to Walker. Once again, the conversation had been rehearsed. Walker looked over to Richards at the end of the table. “Mr. Vice President. We still expect to obtain additional information. But this is what Under Secretary Edwards was able to describe to me on the short car trip over here. Everything we have—absolutely everything—points to Iran.”
There was a long silence. Finally, Cunningham spoke. He addressed Edwards, but he kept his eyes focused directly on Walker. “You’ve presented a compelling set of arguments, but I return to my earlier point. We must act cautiously. Cautiously and prudently. Everything we’ve heard here today has been powerful. I agree that it may point to Iran, but the evidence is entirely circumstantial. We must have something more solid before we can recommend any action to the President.”
This time the Vice President actually smiled, albeit only briefly. It’s so much better when you can get someone else to make your points for you. The President’s National Security Advisor had begun the meeting by expressing his doubt that the smallpox outbreak had been the result of a hostile action. Now he was merely advising that they should move cautiously before they responded against Iran. It’s just a matter of time.
“Thank you Mr. Cunningham.” The Vice President’s sarcasm was muted. “We appreciate your wise counsel, and unquestionably, this group cannot recommend any action until we obtain confirmation of our preliminary information. And certainly, that confirmation must be strong. It must be unambiguous. But I have no doubt that our very capable intelligence services will be able to obtain the necessary evidence. I can only encourage them to do so with all possible speed.”
“Mr. Vice President?” It was Secretary of State Calebresi, again.
Richards didn’t like this. She’s no better than a two-bit whore, and she can be just as much trouble.
He used his most diplomatic voice to respond. “Yes, Secretary Calebresi.”
“There is a question that we haven’t discussed yet. If we are to respond to this outbreak …” She paused, straining to control her anger.
“… this apparent biological attack in New Mexico—we must address the type of response that we should undertake. If we anticipate initiating a major diplomatic initiative, I will need to get my people moving. It would involve far more than just the Near East Section. Presumably, we would want to involve all of our allies, in NATO and elsewhere around the world.”
“I’m sorry, Madam Secretary, but it appears that you are forgetting. The United States of America already has a policy in place with regard to how we would respond to an attack such as this one. It is an attack with a weapon of mass destruction.”
Calebresi glared at the Vice President with a mixture of anger and loathing.
The Vice President continued. “Let me remind you of National Security Presidential Directive 17—also known as Homeland Security Presidential Directive 4. It was signed by President Bush on September 14, 2002. The complete text remains classified, but as you are certainly aware, it has never been rescinded, and it remains in effect. The document clearly enunciates the American response to an attack with chemical or biological weapons.* Permit me to read you the relevant quote:
The United States will continue to make clear that it reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force—including potentially nuclear weapons—to the use of [weapons of mass destruction] against the United States, our forces abroad, and friends and allies.
The room went completely silent. Not a single person dared to look at the Vice President.
* * *
Day 27: Contingency Planning
The four officials were gathered in the office of Juan Allesandro, the President’s Chief of Staff. The others were Parker Cunningham, the National Security Advisor; Bertram Morrison, the Intelligence Advisor and DNI; and Caroline Calebresi, the Secretary of State. The mood was somber, depressing even.
Calebresi spoke first. “What just happened in there? I feel like I’ve been run over by a train.”
“Worse than that, it’s like we’re in another rush to war.” Those words from Bert Morrison.
“We were blindsided,” Cunningham observed. “They had that entire thing orchestrated ahead of time. The Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Plus that weasel, Edwards. This has created an extremely delicate situation. We find ourselves participating in plans to initiate a war—a nuclear war—without any adequate justification. We’ve have to counteract this push. We have to protect the President.”
“The President can protect himself.” Allesandro knew President Alexander better than any of the others. “But he needs the rational input that will allow him to do that. So, he does need our help. We have to make sure he is working from facts, not guesses. So far, I don’t think he’s been given reliable information.”
“Are you going to tell him that?” Cunningham, again.
Allesandro answered without hesitation. “I
believe the President already understands the problem. If we get hard data that point in a different direction, I can assure you he will learn about it. But we can’t act like a bunch of kids tattling on the school bully. If there are hard facts to be presented, and perhaps disputed, the President will want it to be done in an open meeting of the NSC. That’s how he makes his decisions. Watching us debate with each other is as much a part of his process as looking at the actual facts.”
“Then there are two areas where we need to get better data. First is on the intelligence front …”
All eyes turned momentarily to the Director of National Intelligence, whose face flushed with a mixture of anger and embarrassment as Cunningham continued his assessment. “The other is in the policy arena. They caught us off guard today, and we can’t let that happen again. I should make it clear that I’m not one of those ‘peace at any cost’ types. If there’s proof that Iran or some other government initiated a biological warfare attack on the United States, I’ll be one of the first to vote for a military response. But it would have to be the right response, and I can’t imagine how nuclear war would be appropriate.”
“How did we ever get a policy that even suggests a nuclear response for something like this? And how come I never even heard of it before today?” Allesandro, whose background was in the private sector, was genuinely puzzled.
Morrison leaned forward in his chair. “The answer is amazingly simple. It’s a little bit like the Suez–Hungary thing in 1956. In the middle of the Suez crisis, the Soviets sent troops into Hungary. Most people remember only one of the stories—as though the other never happened. Somehow, it’s exactly what happened here. Bush signed the policy in 2002, but it was secret. The Washington Times obtained the classified wording about nuclear response and published it several months later.”*
“But why wasn’t it a big deal? That should have been front page for every newspaper in the country.”
Morrison frowned. “That’s my whole point. The story was published on January 31. Early the next morning—February 1, 2003—the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Every TV station, every newspaper, just about every reporter in the country turned their attention to that tragedy. The nuclear policy was completely forgotten. I can only remember one news story. It only said that the White House declined to comment on the original Washington Times report. The whole thing just died. It shouldn’t have, but it did.”
“So it’s still in effect?” The Secretary of State was clearly surprised. She had expected to learn that the Vice President was misrepresenting the facts.
“It was never rescinded. At least not completely. It just seems to have fallen off everybody’s radar screen. Even mine, and that embarrasses me. The next administration did take it off the table for response to an attack from a non-nuclear state, but Iran and North Korea were explicitly excluded. So the answer is, yes. The policy is still in place.”
“Please get each of us some specifics on this, Burt. I need to clarify this for the President before the Security Council meets again on Thursday. If we’re not prepared to debate these issues competently, the nuclear option could get pushed through.”
Morrison nodded to Allesandro. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll also get you a copy of the Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations, which dates back to 2005. We need to be ready for something that’s pretty well buried inside, but it’s there. It’s the notion that an effective strategy of deterrence means that the U.S. is willing and able ‘to preempt or retaliate.’ That word ‘preempt’ is really important, because it could be used by our friends in the NSC to justify an attack against Iran, even in the absence of clear evidence that they actually attacked us with smallpox.”
“Bert, may I bring up a somewhat awkward question?”
“Of course Madam Secretary.” Calebresi was the only one in this group of power players holding cabinet rank, and the others showed the appropriate courtesy when addressing her.
“If I read the tea leaves correctly, it appears to me that our colleagues from the Defense side were not entirely forthcoming in reporting their intelligence findings to you. Would you concur?”
Cunningham and Allesandro both nodded in agreement with the Secretary of State’s observation, while the DNI screwed up his face as he thought for a moment. “I can see why you might conclude that, but I can’t say for certain that it was intentional. We’re working on an extraordinarily short timeline here, so it’s possible that the Under Secretary of Defense didn’t get his information in time to share it with me before the meeting.”
Calebresi smiled wryly at the DNI. “I thought diplomacy was supposed to be my bailiwick. You’re showing remarkable restraint.”
“In the absence of more compelling information, I really have no choice but to accept what we heard today at face value. That said, we need to pursue the intelligence side of this crisis really hard. I want each of you to exploit whatever avenues you have available. In particular, I plan to speak with my senior staff to make certain that moving forward, everything from Defense will get routed through my office.”
“If I may speak for the others, we’ll take your suggestion as our marching orders,” Calebresi said. “I’m not quite sure what we can put together over at State, but I’ll call ahead and have the Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research waiting in my office when I get back. Should we use the same dodge that was employed by our DoD colleagues? That we’re looking into preparations for the next Review Conference for the Biological Weapons Convention?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea, but make sure they know it’s urgent. And you’ve got to emphasize the highly classified nature of what we’re looking into.”
“Good point,” said Cunningham. “My staff and I are close to key people in the other agencies—people whose loyalties lie with our country and not with any individual. But we all have to be very careful with these inquiries, or we’ll cause a civil war with the Defense Department.”
“As his Chief of Staff, I’ll be meeting with the President this afternoon, and there are a couple of things I can do. I’ll discreetly let him know that there are some serious differences of opinion within the National Security Council. That won’t surprise him, and it won’t appear that I’m speaking out of school. He’ll be glad to know that his advisors are taking their jobs so seriously. I’ll also make sure that nobody—and that includes the Vice President—nobody meets with President Alexander unless I’m present.”
The informal meeting ended, and Caroline Calebresi stood up first. “Gentlemen, thank you for your cooperation. We’ve been put in a very difficult position, but you are serving your country well. Let me remind you that patriotism reflects people’s love and support for their country, even at great personal risk. In contrast to what others have suggested, it’s far more important than a pin on your lapel.”
* * *
Chapter 17
Sarah
Section 4001 of Title 18 states: No citizen shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an Act of Congress. … As we explain below, the President’s authority to detain enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens, is based on his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief. We conclude that section 4001(a) does not, and constitutionally could not, interfere with that authority.
—Justice Department memo, June 2002, on the legality of military detention of United States citizens‡
Day 28: Cortez, Colorado
Raymond took Sarah’s large backpack out of the bed of the truck and motioned her to follow him into the house. They were greeted by the gentle smile of a woman who didn’t seem that much older than Sarah.
“This is my wife, Annie. She’ll show you to your room, and then we’ll be able to sit down for dinner.”
Raymond stayed behind as Annie led Sarah to a small room at the far end of the house. “I hope you’ll be comfortable here, Sarah. The bathroom is right across the hall there. You can wash
up and then come and join us for dinner.”
Sarah felt greatly comforted. Strangers had taken her into their home and were treating her as one of the family. I hope I’ll be this generous if I ever have the chance.
A few minutes later, she found Raymond and Annie sitting at a table in the corner of the living area nearest the kitchen. The table was set for three, and they motioned her to sit at the remaining place. Annie pushed a mug of hot coffee toward her and then spoke somewhat hesitantly. “I hope you like coffee. It’s a customary drink for us.”
“I do.” Sarah inhaled the delightful aroma as she took a sip. It tasted wonderful. “It’s really good. Thank you so much.”
Annie smiled and got up from the table. Raymond put down his mug. “While Annie gets dinner finished, let me tell you more about what’s going on in Farmington.” He explained that Annie’s cousin was Evelyn Redhouse, the woman whose child was the first to die in what people had been calling the chickenpox outbreak. “And it was her husband Jack that introduced me to Annie. We served together in the first Gulf War, back in ‘90. We’re both Marines.”
“You’re still in the Marine Corps?” Sarah was surprised.
“No, we both finished up by ’94, except Jack’s reserve unit got called up after we went into Iraq in 2003. But once you’re a Marine, you’re always a Marine. No such thing as an ex-Marine. Anyway, one time a few years back, Jack invited me over to their place, and Annie was there. Best day of my life. We got married six months later. Jack and Evie have been good friends to us, even though we don’t see them so often, what with them living down in Farmington and us here in Cortez. It’s less than 50 miles as the crow flies, but it’s twice that by car, and it takes at least two hours in good weather.
