“But let me point out something here,” Hardcastle said. “At the height of the Hammerheads’ manning deployment levels, we were able to conduct radar surveillance of the entire southeast United States and seal off all of Florida with rapid-response aircraft. Drug use dropped significantly because availability of drugs like cocaine and marijuana plummeted—”
“But gang violence and violent crime increased because the pushers and users were fighting for whatever product was on the street,” Donahue added.
“Phil, my mission was to get drugs off the street by cutting off the supply lines into America,” Hardcastle insisted. “We did that. We were successful. No one can doubt that.” “I think we’re here because we all doubt, Admiral,” Donahue said, rolling his eyes.
“What we have now are borders that are wide open to invasion of all kinds,” Hardcastle warned. “No Border Security Force. A downsized Border Patrol, Custom Service, and Coast Guard. Back then, I could call on four Air National Guard fighter units for help — now there is just one. A hurricane took care of one unit — Congress killed the other two. Ladies and gentlemen, we have only twenty air defense units in all of North America — yes, twenty. That’s about forty planes ready right now to stop an intruder.” “What intruders are you talking about, Admiral?” Donahue asked. “The Russians? The Chinese? The North Koreans? Who wants to take on the United States these days? Aren’t you being just a bit… paranoid?”
“Phil, we proved in Operation Desert Storm and the fall of the Soviet Union that no nation can beat the United States in a conventional military conflict,” Hardcastle said. “But we have no defense whatsoever against w/iconven- tional conflicts. Terrorists are better armed, more mobile, and more sophisticated than ever. How do we respond to the threat? We cut funding for defense, security, and counterterrorist programs.”
“Admiral, I’ve got some real threats to America’s security to tell you about,” Donahue blasted back. “We’ve got forty million Americans with no health insurance and over a million homeless Americans — men, women, and children. We’ve got an average of three hundred Americans gunning each other down per day, and we’ve got fifty thousand Americans rotting in overcrowded prisons, getting no help for their drug addictions and violent, dysfunctional upbringing. In an era when we can’t take care of the people living on the street outside this building, here you are, collecting a generous pension from the Coast Guard as well as a very generous stipend from the conservative Project 2000 Task Force, asking for funding for programs to stop these shadowy bogeymen that no one has heard of and that don’t directly affect anyone’s lives.”
“Tell that to the fifteen thousand people working in the World Trade Center back in 1993, or to the one hundred thousand people affected by the 1994 terrorist mortar attacks on Heathrow Airport,” Hardcastle snapped. “Ladies and gentlemen, America is becoming a target for terrorism because we’re allowing ourselves to become a target. And I’m no longer just referring to a hijacker or kidnapper or letter-bomber or gang warfare — I’m talking about a campaign of terror against America, on the scale that nations in Europe and the Middle East have experienced for decades. We need a military — and more importantly, an administration in the White House — ready to deal with the dangers before they impact the lives of millions of Americans.”
“You’re talking about isolated incidents of fanatics, or of terrorist attacks overseas between factions that have been fighting for years,” Donahue said dismissively. “I don’t see the connection.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, what if I told you that there are over three thousand known terrorist groups operating in the United States right now?” Hardcastle interjected. “What if I told you that over three hundred pounds of enriched plutonium, enough for thirty nuclear weapons, is reported as missing every year? The United States had three long-range radar systems patrolling the skies four years ago. Now we have one, and that one operates only forty hours a week. We sent a hundred Patriot air defense units to Saudi Arabia last year — any guesses as to how many Patriots we have operating in the United States? That’s right, zero. The sky is filled with unidentified aircraft.”
“Your point is…?”
“What I’m saying is that we as Americans shouldn’t allow our defenses to slide like this,” Hardcastle said. “Everyone thinks, ‘There’s no threat, why spend the money to prevent something that may never happen?’ I’m telling you, based on all my years in the field of border security and national defense, that the threat exists. I’m not talking about Saddam Hussein invading Washington — I’m talking about drug smugglers owning American banks, arms merchants shipping black-market weapons on our highways and through our airspace, and government buildings open to direct assault from relatively low-tech, easily conceal- able terrorists. We don’t have to put up with it.”
“Yeah,” a young college-age caller said. “I heard you got fired because of alcoholism and because of getting stressed- out from your time in Vietnam and family problems and all. Frankly, old man, I don’t think you got what it takes to go around tellin’ the President how to run the military.”
There was a smattering of applause from the audience.
“Making assumptions without all the facts is like trying to shoot a gun without bullets, son,” Hardcastle said. “First of all, it’s true: I suffered from a stress disorder brought on by my years in Vietnam and by alcohol. I’ve never shied away from admitting my faults. But I’ve also got almost thirty years of military service, most of it dealing with the difficulties this country faces when we fail to enforce our sovereignty and protect our borders. More importantly, I’m an American, and I’ve got something to say about how our country’s being defended. I’ve got the facts and I’ve got the experience, so I know what I’m talking about. Question is, who’s willing to listen?”
There was another round of applause, this time a little louder than before.
“Not me, man,” the caller said. “I think you’re crazy,” and he hung up.
“And we’ll be right back,” Donahue said. The music rose, and they cut away for another commercial.
PART 1
Chico Municipal Airport, California
2108 hours, PT, August 1995
“Get your butts in gear,” Henri Cazaux ordered, swinging the AK-47 assault rifle on its sling from behind his back, holding it high so everyone in the hangar could clearly see it. He noisily jacked the cocking lever back, allowing a cartridge to spin through the air. The spinning brass glinting against the overhead lights made heads jerk all around the hangar. The sound of the cartridge hitting the polished concrete floor seemed as loud as if he had pulled the trigger. “Move, or I’ll end your miserable lives right now. ”
Cazaux was perfectly capable of threatening any one of the burly workers before him even without the antiquated Soviet-made assault rifle. Born in the Netherlands of French and English parents who were residing in Belgium, Cazaux was a former commando in the elite First Para, the “Red Berets,” of the Belgian Army. During his youth he was in and out of trouble. At age fifteen he was caught smuggling drugs into the U.S. Army barracks near Antwerp, Belgium; he was incarcerated and abused by U.S. Army soldiers for two days before his identity was established and he was turned over to Belgian authorities. At that time he was offered a choice between a sentence of ten years in the Belgian Army or ten years in prison. He enlisted. He had some expeditionary assignments in Africa and Asia, but got in trouble with the authorities, again, and spent two years in a Belgian stockade until he was given a dishonorable discharge in 1987. He entered the drug trade in Germany, graduating to black market weapon sales, mercenary activities, and terrorism.