“Jackson’s sure this is the real thing, right? I mean, State’s going to come unglued that their ambassador hasn’t been clued in on any of this.”
“Well, we’ve warned them about the deteriorating conditions with our relationship with the Israelis. This is exactly why I sent Stonewall over there — he’s essentially my personal representative to Tamir. I had a feeling something was coming down and they weren’t comfortable enough with State to let them know. I didn’t think it would amount to their attacking Iran, but I had a feeling something was in the works.”
“Well, let’s go,” Jones said as their limo arrived at the White House. “Don’t be surprised if both State and the chief of staff hit you up on failing to pick up on Iran’s nuke program.”
“I’m expecting that. The real issue here is the Israeli’s pending attack; I won’t let them diverge from that.”
“You do that, and I’ll be there as well to help you out should one of them try and get you off track. After all, we weren’t the only ones who underestimated the Iranians: MI6, the KGB… hell every intelligence network not named Mossad missed this.”
“Yeah, but we’re supposed to be better than all the rest, right?” Carmichael responded.
“Keep telling yourself that,” Jones replied. “Remember, the other….”
“I know, I know… the other guy wants to hide his activities as much as we want to figure them out.”
As they walked into the White House, Carmichael noticed that they were the last ones to show up — everyone else’s limousines were already in the lot.
“Off to a great start already — looks like we’re the last one’s here.”
“Yeah, I noticed that, too. Well, might as well get the show started,” Jones added as they approached the Situation Room.
Sure enough, Carmichael noticed: everyone was here, that is, everyone except President Barre… and the front podium was empty. Jim walked right to the podium and Jones took his seat at the middle of the conference table. No sooner had he gotten his briefing outline pulled up on his iPad than the president walked in and took his seat.
“Good morning,” President Barre said to those seated around the table. “I understand we have something pressing so I won’t take up any of your time Jim; you can proceed whenever you’re ready.”
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Carmichael replied. “I received a call from Colonel Tom Jackson first thing this morning. Tom’s an assistant of mine that is acting as a liaison for me with General Tamir Pardo, the head of Mossad. It seems that the Israelis have had a very high level asset in Tehran. This morning, they managed to smuggle him out of Iran. We all know him, or at least know of him, as it’s none other than Dr. Ali Bagheri, the deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the man who led their negotiation team in Bern.”
“Ali Bagheri is Mossad’s source on all of this?” asked Secretary of State Andrea Johnson.
“That’s correct. Jackson called me from Baku just as they were flying back to Tel Aviv. The team set off a car bomb in Bagheri’s driveway to cover their tracks — and completely took out both the house and the garage — there is literally nothing left. In fact, NORAD actually picked up the detonation so the explosion had to be massive. Obviously, the Israelis want Tehran to believe Bagheri is completely out of the picture. However, what is more important is that Jackson also noticed that the Israeli Air Force has prepositioned four of their advanced EW aircraft at Baku. I called Axe as soon as I got off the phone with Jackson and let him know that things could get real hot for our folks in the Persian Gulf.”
“I let Admiral Fischer know of the possibility of any action and I’ve ordered the Teddy Roosevelt to make best possible speed to the gulf,” interjected Axelsson.
“Good, because we’re going to need the firepower,” Carmichael replied. “Jackson went straight to General Pardo when he arrived back in Tel Aviv. With their asset now cleanly out of Iran, the Israelis will be attacking at dawn tomorrow morning. In fact, their planes will be taking off in roughly ten hours or so.”
“What?!?” Tom Fleming, the White House chief of staff, and Secretary of State Andrea Johnson blurted out in unison.
“You’ve got to be kidding?” added in Pamela McDowell, President Barre’s national security advisor.
“I wish I was,” Carmichael replied. “You see, the Iranians are only a couple months away from fielding a nuclear bomb — if even that long. Jackson managed to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions with Dr. Bagheri for several hours; they are much farther along than we thought possible. The Israelis wanted to get their asset out before they attacked — and they just accomplished this so the attack will commence as soon as practical.”
“How did you miss this?” McDowell demanded.
The “you” of McDowell’s question did not escape Carmichael, nor Jones.
“Damn near everyone missed this, except the Israelis. We’d been reporting that the Iranians were probably farther along than we expected, though we did not think they were this close,” Jones immediately replied.
“You also told us that the economic sanctions would work!” Secretary of State Johnson interjected.
“No, we said that the sanctions would work as part of an overall strategy. However, you have instead allowed the sanctions to be our entire strategy — and we told you, this would not work,” Jones emphasized. “Our diplomatic strategy, aside from the sanctions, has been pretty weak. We’ve always warned that the Iranians were going to pursue the bomb regardless of any sanctions. A bigger stick was needed rather than simply relying on sanctions.”
“And just how do we know that your assistant, Colonel Thomas Jackson, is reliable? The Israelis haven’t said ‘boo’ to our ambassador in Tel Aviv. It would seem to me that if they haven’t bothered to tell our ambassador, and go through our official channels, they are simply trying to embarrass us.”
“Andrea, they haven’t told our ambassador as you wouldn’t believe them even if they did,” Jones shot back.
“Ambassador Richards is a very trusted supporter of the president, and has been so for years,” added Fleming. “If the Israelis are really serious about this planned attack, there is no reason they couldn’t have notified him.”
“Tom, even if they had told Ambassador Richards, not only would you not have believed him, this administration is so tuned into economic sanctions that we probably would not have even listened. As for Jackson — he’s as reliable and trust-worthy as they come,” Carmichael interjected. “He’s been a member of the Fifth Group, Special Forces, for many years — three of those years he led the CIF team for the group — and has his doctorate in Persian studies. He’s been monitoring the Iranians for several years. Finally, he was a part of the mission to grab Dr. Bagheri and get him out of Iran.”
“Wait a minute! We had US troops on the ground in Iran?!?” Pam McDowell demanded.
“No, we had one Special Forces officer accompany an Israeli Sayeret Matkal team on the ground in Iran.”
“Who authorized this? Eric, did you authorize this?” Tom Fleming demanded of the secretary of defense.
“Jackson has been on temporary assignment to the CIA for a little while, so, no, I did not know about it.”
“Colonel Jackson is one of very few men we have suitable for just such a mission,” interjected General Stan Kaufman, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “Jackson has served with the Fifth Group for more than fifteen years and has served several tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Between his military training and his academics, he’s as qualified as anyone for a mission of this type.”