"Anything from the State Department side?"
"Yes, sir. With the media really jumping on this Colombian angle, their government has been getting nervous. As you know, their ambassador has been making all sorts of public exclamations of shock and outrage. On the private side, though, he requested a meeting with the secretary of state to discuss the situation."
Strom consulted his notes. "They met last night, and the Colombian ambassador still denies any knowledge of the people behind this crime. But he's smart enough to realize that something has to be done. He flew back to Bogota after the meeting to confer with President Alegre. There's another meeting set up between the secretary of state and the Colombian ambassador tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. to find out what they've decided."
Hanks assimilated the new information. "OK, Strom. I want you to let me know immediately what's happening with that. Tell our source in State that this is top priority. I want to know what comes out of that meeting."
"Yes, sir."
Hanks peered at the ceiling. "What about the DEA?"
Strom flipped through his files. "I've got a summary of the DEA's report to the president. They take the old party line in it."
Hanks reached out. "Let me see it." He scanned the document. He was only slightly surprised at the bluntness of the language. Cory Mullins, the acidic new director of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), must have had a hand in the writing.
The Colombian government can deny it all they want, but cocaine is their primary export and a mainstay of their economy. They've pretended all along that the drug trade was something they were against and trying to eradicate. Quite frankly, they've been presenting us with a smoke screen.
The conclusions drawn in this report are based on years of DEA field experience in country. Without the tacit support of the Colombian government, the drug cartel would never be able to do the amount of business it presently conducts. Corruption and graft are an accepted part of the culture in South and Central America. Judge Santia was threatening the drug cartel with his extradition order on the three members of the Ramirez family. Santia was a problem and the cartel got rid of that "problem" the only way it knew how. Subtlety is not a trademark of its operations.
We are not saying that the government was behind the assassination; we believe the drug cartel was. But in Colombia the line between those two institutions is very vague. Drugs, money, power, and politics all go together down there. Colombia's economy relies more heavily on the drug trade than on the coffee business. We estimate an approximately 5O billion dollar a year business in the cocaine and marijuana export field and we believe that estimate is on the low side. Any political movement against the drug trade is a self-inflicted economic wound for the Colombian government.
Admittedly, President Alegre has been making some progress in the war against drugs. However, the progress has been mostly cosmetic rather than real. Since the summit in Cartagena the Colombian government's efforts have at best cut the export of cocaine by approximately 10 percent, a rather insignificant dent in the torrent of drugs flowing out of that country.
There is no doubt in this agency's mind that the Colombian drug cartel was behind the events last Friday in Springfield, Virginia.
Hanks shook his head in disbelief as he finished the brief summary. "Mullins actually sent this forward to the president?"
Strom nodded.
Hanks laughed. "Since when does the DEA have a collective mind?" He threw the report down. "I would like to come up with some tentative courses of action in response to this assassination. I need your people to give me options to go on if the president hits me up."
Strom made a note on his pad. Hanks gestured toward his subordinate's folder. "Anything else I should know? What about the Department of Defense? What's their stand?"
"Secretary of Defense Terrance is still against using active forces in the drug war. He sticks to the legality of it. The old, it would be illegal if they were used domestically, argument. Also, the same old, it would deteriorate the state of readiness of our forces, argument."
Hanks shook his head. Terrance better get off his ass, he thought to himself. The Old Man wasn't going to buy those lines much longer. The sooner the Department of Defense (DOD) got behind the president's policies, the better.
Strom found a note he had buried in the back of the folder. "Even though the secretary of defense isn't too thrilled about using the military in the drug war, I have information that General Macksey is war-gaming various military options for retaliation."
Hanks sighed. "They have to have a target to retaliate against and they don't. Is that it?"
Strom nodded.
Hanks stood up. "Whatever comes down on this, you're going to be responsible, so I want you to stay on top of everything and keep me up to date."
"Yes, sir."
CHAPTER THREE
"I'm not sure what form any action would take, even if we are asked to do something, so I want to be prepared with a wide range of options." General Macksey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fixed Lieutenant General Linders, his deputy chief of staff operations for Special Operations (DCSOP-SO), with his dark eyes.
"The conventional boys are shaking the dust off their plans for a sea and air blockade of Colombia. The president is pretty pissed about the Springfield attack yesterday and he wants to be able to put the heat on the government down there to gain some cooperation in finding the killers."
Macksey leaned back in his chair. "What I want you to do, Pete, is get your people working on contingency plans using the Special Operations folks. I want a plan for sending some of your people to Colombia to react if we find out who was behind the attack."
Macksey trusted Linders. Although relatively young, the DCSOP-SO had done an excellent job in an unenviable position. Linders had worked hard over the past six months to build up the strength of the military's Special Operations Forces in spite of fierce opposition from the tradition-bound, conventional infrastructure of the various services. Over the years, the Special Operations branch of the Pentagon had been handed a lot of dirty missions to plan, such as this one. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the perspective, they had been authorized to actually implement only a few of the plans. Nevertheless, Macksey wanted to be prepared, just in case.
Linders had taken a few notes and looked up from his notepad. "Anything else, sir?"
Macksey shook his head. "No. Whatever we do, if anything, depends on what the State Department uncovers and how the president decides to react. Most likely, we won't be doing anything down south. The Colombian government would have a fit if they knew we were even war-gaming some military action. I think this whole mess is one the politicians are going to have to play with. Maybe the FBI can come up with some solid evidence, but even then, State will have a hell of a time extraditing anyone."
Macksey dismissed his subordinate. "Get your people thinking about it, and I'll get back to you if anything comes up."
Linders stood up and saluted. "Yes, sir." Then he spun on his heel and left for his office. As he wove his way through the Pentagon's labyrinth of corridors, he considered the tasking. As an air force officer, Linders still felt uncomfortable dealing with his army and navy Special Operations counterparts. He knew any sort of mission into Colombia was going to require ground forces from the army. As he entered his office, he brusquely shot an order at his secretary. "Get Colonel Pike up here ASAP."
Linders settled down behind his desk and used the time before the colonel arrived to consider his position. He viewed his job as the Pentagon's highest ranking Special Operations staff officer as a political one. Budgets and lobbying at cocktail parties with senators were his forte. He usually left the actual operations to his more experienced subordinates. So far, in the six months he had held this position that philosophy had worked well.