Reprisal!- The Eagle's Sorrow Page 7

  “They are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the greatest threat that America and the Western World has ever known—far worse than Hitler and even worse than the old Soviet Union or the central banks that Rothschild runs.” Bob ended his report and waited for reaction from the group.

  The senator looked down at her list. Her mouth dropped open as she exclaimed, “My God! I’ve had dinner with this man. He seemed so warm and friendly, so polite. I even helped arrange for the sale of some jet fighters to his country,” she stated out loud as she checked over the list, although she was talking to herself more than the group.

  “I’ve had some of them to my house in California and in Virginia. I’ve sold all of them computers and software. In fact, I am still selling all of them computers and software. They are the leaders of their countries in many cases. Some of them are called ‘king,’ for Christ’s sake,” Steven shared with the senator.

  Chip chimed in. “They also make the list of the worst human rights offenders on the planet.”

  “How long have you known?” the senator asked, glowering at Bob.

  “I’ve known about the rumor for years, but as far as the actual proof, the general just provided it a couple of weeks ago,” Bob replied unceremoniously.

  “General, how did you get this information again?” The senator turned her attention to him and probed. She hadn’t believed the story about the airport in Madrid. Chip could see it in her eyes. The general cleared his throat and looked at Steven for guidance. Steven made eye contact and nodded, which the senator noticed but did not question just yet, so Chip explained how the information had come to him, truthfully this time.

  “Senator, as the chief security officer for Kilauea Corp., I have at my disposal a group of men and women who travel the world looking for threats to the corporation. These men and women are highly trained former members of the U.S. military.

  “Most, if not all, of the threats that would affect the corporation will also affect America, and from time to time, our operatives in the field receive information about things that are of national security interest to America and her allies. This was one of those times; and we had a chance to speak with Ashrawl before he was transported to the States from Baghdad, a little over two months ago.” Chip stopped and looked at the senator for questions, and she didn’t disappoint him.

  “Didn’t the Israelis try to capture him, losing a dozen soldiers and a helicopter in the process, only to have him disappear?” she asked, although she already knew the answer.

  “Yes, the Israelis had a bit of trouble when they tried to capture him—for the U.S. government, by the way,” Chip began, attempting to explain the whole situation to her.

  She held up her hand and asked another question. “I wasn’t told that we had asked the Israelis to capture him. Who authorized the move? And how did you happen to get to talk with this Ashrawl fellow?” Her eyes bore into Chip’s for a moment, before shifting her gaze to Steven, who just smiled politely at her.

  “As near as we can tell, the president authorized the attempt, and the NSA made the arrangements. That way, if it failed, we could wash our hands of it, and that is exactly what happened. When the Israelis failed to capture him, the request for them to go after him was withdrawn. Knowing that he was a high value target, we went after him ourselves.” Chip stopped and let that bit of information sink in.

  “We did? Who is ‘we’?” the senator asked, already feeling she knew the answer.

  “We did. Kilauea Corp. Security,” Steven answered, and the senator’s heart skipped a beat. That wasn’t at all what she expected.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “You did what exactly?” the senator curtly demanded.

  “We sent a team of highly skilled operatives into the West Bank and kidnapped him. In the process, we believe that a couple dozen Al-Aqsa Brigade members lost their lives that night, but there are no reports so far by any news organization or by any intelligence service of any disturbances or that Ashrawl was taken,” Chip explained.

  “The Brigade has kept very closed-mouthed about the whole thing. Our people were lucky to survive, but they got the job done. While extracting Ashrawl, we also turned over a spy working for the Brotherhood who helped confirm the Ashrawl story prior to his elimination.” Chip stopped, knowing that the senator was unusually sensitive about any dead combatants, even if they were Al-Aqsa Brigade members.

  “Eliminated him? You killed someone?” the senator asked, not believing what she was hearing. “Was this action authorized by anyone in the government?” Neither Steven nor Chip answered her, and her anger flared.

  “Where do you get off kidnapping a foreign national from a foreign country? There are laws against this type of thing!” She was practically screaming at the men as she started to rise. “I can’t be part of this. I’m a senator, for Christ’s sake!”

  “Sarah, sit down,” Steven politely yet firmly ordered. She complied, while staring at him with a look that could melt steel. “I understand how you might feel that way, not knowing the complete facts, but we’re only doing this to protect America,” Steven explained softly in a calming tone of voice. “If we don’t do it, who will? Starks and his administration? I doubt that. They can’t move fast enough to limit the country’s ability to fight terrorism.” His voice grew more intense.

  “They’ve already cut defense spending to the bone, and Starks is trying to pull the military out of Iraq, despite the military telling him that it would be a fatal mistake for us and the Iraqis. In addition, Starks has gone so far as to say, despite the evidence, that the attacks in Houston and San Antonio were gang-related, homegrown terror.” Steven’s voice was now rock hard, filled with his conviction that he was right.

  “Hell, he’s even ordered future prosecutions of terrorism suspects be done by civil courts, giving the terrorists access to our legal system for free and a forum from which to spout their hatred for America. As a senator, how can you not take action?” Steven asked, putting the senator on the defensive.

  “Steven, it may be well-intentioned, but it’s illegal,” the senator explained, as if to a child.

  “Yes, it’s illegal here in the States, but we don’t operate here in the States. The operation is headquartered overseas. It’s a foreign corporation and any action taken is taken overseas,” Steven assured her.

  “Besides, did Washington and the founding fathers worry about whether it was legal or not? Hell, no! They saw the problems, and they went to work to fix them. That’s all we’re doing.”

  “You don’t think that foreign countries have laws against waging a war on or from their soil?” the senator asked, trying to make the idea of it sound ludicrous. “How naive do you think I am?” she asked sarcastically.

  “I didn’t think you were naive at all, until just now,” Steven stated gruffly. “I thought you would be smarter than the average person being the chair of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee.

  “You see the reports and the raw intelligence. You sit through hearing after hearing, listening to the threats that face this nation. Yet you think that because they call themselves our allies, they should be able to hide terrorists without any repercussions? Don’t tell me you think that I’m the only one with a private security force, either. Hell, Sarah, every large corporation has a security force. There are thousands of private armies across the globe, most of which don’t like us,” Steven said.

  “I know that! I know you face as many threats as our country does, but a private army? Isn’t there a more civilized way?” she asked sheepishly.

  “No, there’s not! Our enemy is determined to crush us under their boots. They are religious fanatics, controlled by men of great wealth, who hide in the shadows pulling the crazy people’s strings, while smiling at us because we bend over backwards to be nice to them for their oil.

  “These so-called friendly Arab or Islamic nations or moderate Muslims are simply a ruse used by them to lull us into a false sense of security. We’ve been at war w
ith them for over two hundred years, from our very inception as a nation.” Steven was in full-preach mode, his voice filled with passion and patriotic fervor.

  “Where we allow free access to our country for them, they refuse to allow us, or any non-Muslim, to touch their soil without minders because we are unclean in their twisted view of religion and of the world. Most of the names on that list you’re holding are complete despots who, when traveling abroad, forget they are Muslim and partake in wine, women and song until they drop from exhaustion or are forced to return home, where they act like they’re perfect Muslims again. But it’s just an act; they are all hypocrites or worse.”

  When the senator didn’t have any comment, he continued, “Last year, I had to bury two of my senior staff members who had been kidnapped—one in South America and one in Pakistan. They were both killed for no reason other than they were American. I spent over five million to save three others, and that’s only part of the reason I need to have a private army.

  “I hope you know that private armies are everywhere. Our own government has used them in places like Turkmenistan and Columbia. They were used during the Vietnam War by both sides. We used them in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.” Chip rolled his eyes as Steven began to ruminate.

  “Corporate interests are the interests of America. You know that as well as I do. Without corporations, there would be no America. Terrorism is bad for business, and if it is bad for business, it’s bad for America.” Steven spouted a line he had used for years to push legislation he favored or disliked depending on the situation. It worked both ways.

  “The current administration isn’t looking out for America. They are too preoccupied with looking PC or diplomatic, rather than standing up for what’s right for the country. Starks is too busy trying to look like a statesman, forgetting that if he doesn’t get results, he’ll just look like a fool, trashing the country in his wake,” Steven concluded and sat quietly as the senator looked over the list again.

  “Currently Starks has issued over four hundred executive orders, half of which are in direct violation of the Constitution and exceed his power as outlined in the Separation of Powers Act. Starks is providing himself with the fundamental powers of martial law.” Steven shared his assessment of the president’s latest illegal actions.

  “This new executive order changes how Americans are arrested and how they are no longer provided with due process. In fact, it eliminates due process and provides the president with the right to have citizens detained indefinitely without charges. He can also have citizens assassinated simply because they are suspected of harboring anti-American sentiment. It has redefined protests from being the most fundamental of rights—that of civil disobedience, our First Amendment right—to an act of terrorism.

  “It also changed how this country goes to war by granting either the Pentagon or the president the power to declare war without informing Congress prior to the declaration, and then they are only required to give notice. It used to be required that Congress vote in favor of any declaration of war, thus approving the declaration prior to any actual action or public announcement, but not anymore.

  “And last, but not least, is the TSA and how it operates outside the laws and the Constitution of the United States. Its whole existence is due to an executive order that basically provides them with blanket cover for whatever action they perform.” Steven fell silent, letting the impact of the information sink in.

  “I know it looks bleak, but after the next election, we can take steps to reverse President Starks’ executive orders. We just have to be patient,” Senator Bains stated, though she doubted the veracity of the statement herself.

  “That’s if there is a next election,” Chip mumbled, and the senator acted as if she hadn’t heard him.

  After several moments of silence, Bob spoke up. “The next problem on the list is Roger Bascome. What can we do about him?”

  “What can we do? The man is the National Security Advisor to the president as well as the director of the NSA. He has the right to check out anything he wants that might affect national security,” the senator stated with her own authority.

  “Well…” Bob stated as he looked at Steven, unsure how much he should say in front of her.

  Steven stepped in. “Sarah, how badly do you want to keep Starks from making the changes he is continually proposing? On more than one occasion, you’ve shared with me your frustrations over Starks’ complete lack of concern for the Constitution. There has been a steady flow of bills that propose clearly unconstitutional changes to our laws, designed to take away our rights.”

  Steven paused briefly and then continued, “The health care reform bill is a naked power grab designed to force Americans to purchase medical insurance from approved government carriers, all of which the Starks administration has taken over via regulatory reform acts, cash bailouts, or straw man stock purchases. He has used the new regulations selectively to drive companies into bankruptcy if they refuse to do as he tells them. It’s been discovered that Starks holds stock in every single company on the approved list. Of course, he’ll claim his stock portfolio is managed by an executor, and he has no input as to which companies the executor chooses. His wife sits on the boards of seven different corporations, all of which gave her extravagant pay raises when her husband was elected president. This is blatant corruption and obvious conflicts of interest.

  “Then we have the Energy Reform Act which will overregulate oil drilling and coal production to the point we can no longer produce energy cheaply enough to afford to heat and cool our homes. Of course, as usual, some companies will be able to apply for an exemption to these new rules. Who gets it is determined by how much of a campaign contribution they gave, all of which will be overseen by the Commercial Energy Credits Board which is controlled by friends and family members of Starks. The new regulations will limit how much energy a corporation can use to do business. Plus, it will limit the amount of heating and cooling that can be used commercially by limiting the amount of electricity that a corporation can use in its everyday business applications. However, there will be a way for the rich to get access to more energy. They can trade for or buy the extra energy credits to offset the hugely expensive fee that the government will charge for any electricity used over the allowable limit. These credits will be traded just like stocks on the CECB or Commercial Energy Credit Board.

  “In addition to that stuff, Starks is undercutting law enforcement by dictating who they can investigate and how they go about policing their communities. Plus, he’s changed the rules of engagement for the military in such a way that they cannot defend themselves without the risk of being court martialed.

  “When it comes to protecting this country from terrorists and foreign interests, I’d have to say Starks has done his best to leave us vulnerable, very vulnerable.” Steven stopped and looked at the senator, unsure if he got his point across.

  After a moment he went on, “I believe that Bascome has overstepped the legal line with his involvements with foreign elements and that his attacks against you and me, along with anyone else who speaks out against the administration, are wholly fabricated. As in your case, he can and should be prosecuted, as he is slandering a U.S. senator. He’s tried at least twice to create scandals involving you and me with faked documents. Not to mention this David Ashrawl situation.” Steven summed up Bascome’s involvement, then went on to the bribery.

  “Part of the information that Ashrawl provided was a claim that President Starks and his staff, along with over three hundred members of Congress, have been bribed by the Brotherhood. He provided bank account numbers and codes, names, dates and the official action that the money was to have purchased.

  “He even provided information about all fifty state legislatures and the members in each who have accepted bribes for their vote, for or against something as the Brotherhood has required,” Steven concluded without emotion, the information shocking the senator into momentary speechle
ssness.

  Finally, she asked, “Do we have real proof of this, or is it just a dead man’s word against the words of a sitting president?”

  “We have real proof,” Steven replied. “Mr. Ashrawl kept a notebook which we acquired. It contains all the information on all of the bribes. In addition, some friends I have in the media—yes, I know it’s hard to believe that someone in the media could be friends with a conservative like me, but I do have some—have shared rumors with me, about how the president’s election campaign was on the verge of grinding to a halt due to lack of campaign funds after the convention. Suddenly, overnight, they were swimming in cash.