kitchen.”
Wishengrad was not a fan of metaphors, but this one made certain sense. The other witnesses elaborated on what Hickey had said until committee member Senator Martha Carlisle asked, “Are we so ineffective in our overseas intelligence-gathering capabilities that we are not able to discern which arms dealers might be engaged in such activity?”
“Far from it,” said Hickey. “Over the past dozen years we’ve identified and curtailed more than two hundred such operations. We work in extremely close concert with intelligence organizations from other governments. The German authorities are currently investigating more than twenty German firms suspected of attempting to feed Middle Eastern nations the various components necessary to develop a bomb.We’ve successfully shut down arms dealers in Brazil, Switzerland, and Japan.”
“That’s impressive, Mr. Hickey,” said Senator Carlisle, “but it doesn’t address the scenario you brought up earlier. If an arms dealer, or group of them, has handed over a bomb, intercepting and shutting down those others seems academic to me.”
General Getlin, vice chairman of the JCS, broke in. “I’ve been sitting here thinking exactly the same thing, Senator Carlisle. It is all academic now that he has demonstrated the bomb for the world to see. Of course, we should keep looking to identify those dealers who seek to do business with unprincipled nations, but the fact is, the bomb is there. We’ve all seen the video of it a hundred times or more. I get the feeling that what’s being attempted here is to close the proverbial barn door after the horse has blown up in our faces. The bomb is reality. It completely upsets the balance of power in the Middle East, and threatens to have severe impact upon the rest of the world, including this nation. I respectfully submit that this is not the time to second-guess how it happened. Instead, we need to have reinstated immediately that money that was cut from the defense budget last year, and to add to it.”
They talked for another hour, chewing on the same sour food, Wishengrad and some of his colleagues pressing the need to know
how
the Arab leader obtained the bomb, the witnesses at the table dismissing that as a wasted exercise and pushing for funds to ensure a strong counter to the threat.
It was Bruce Massingill, undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon, who made the final statement from the witness table. “I certainly recognize the need for this committee and for all of Congress to gain a better understanding about why this unsettling event has happened. But while this process drags on, each day brings us closer to the use of a second or third bomb in that region that could render it, and eventually the rest of the world, unrecognizable as we know it today. I appreciate the efforts of the secretary of state and others in the administration to seek some political negotiation, but Isuggest that while the State Department fiddles, Rome will most certainly burn. Or explode! By Rome, of course, I mean Israel. Or Egypt. Or Cleveland—or the District of Columbia.”
Wishengrad was glad the hearing was over. Massingill’s final comment stuck in his throat like a large vitamin pill that didn’t wash down. He’d intended to hold a staff meeting immediately following the hearing but canceled it.
“Not feeling well, Senator?” Foxboro asked after they’d returned to their offices.
“I’ve felt better, Jeff,” Wishengrad responded. “I suppose what’s really bothering me is that they make sense. That son of a bitch with a rag around his head has the bomb in his hands, and we have to do something about it. Sorry to sound anti-Arab. I’m not, as you know, but I sure as hell am anti-nuke. I think I’ll take a twenty-minute catnap. I have a headache.”
10
“You were great, Major,” Max Lanning said when Margit returned from the press conference. She had the feeling he’d been lurking in the hall for her
Wishengrad was not a fan of metaphors, but this one made certain sense. The other witnesses elaborated on what Hickey had said until committee member Senator Martha Carlisle asked, “Are we so ineffective in our overseas intelligence-gathering capabilities that we are not able to discern which arms dealers might be engaged in such activity?”
“Far from it,” said Hickey. “Over the past dozen years we’ve identified and curtailed more than two hundred such operations. We work in extremely close concert with intelligence organizations from other governments. The German authorities are currently investigating more than twenty German firms suspected of attempting to feed Middle Eastern nations the various components necessary to develop a bomb.We’ve successfully shut down arms dealers in Brazil, Switzerland, and Japan.”
“That’s impressive, Mr. Hickey,” said Senator Carlisle, “but it doesn’t address the scenario you brought up earlier. If an arms dealer, or group of them, has handed over a bomb, intercepting and shutting down those others seems academic to me.”
General Getlin, vice chairman of the JCS, broke in. “I’ve been sitting here thinking exactly the same thing, Senator Carlisle. It is all academic now that he has demonstrated the bomb for the world to see. Of course, we should keep looking to identify those dealers who seek to do business with unprincipled nations, but the fact is, the bomb is there. We’ve all seen the video of it a hundred times or more. I get the feeling that what’s being attempted here is to close the proverbial barn door after the horse has blown up in our faces. The bomb is reality. It completely upsets the balance of power in the Middle East, and threatens to have severe impact upon the rest of the world, including this nation. I respectfully submit that this is not the time to second-guess how it happened. Instead, we need to have reinstated immediately that money that was cut from the defense budget last year, and to add to it.”
They talked for another hour, chewing on the same sour food, Wishengrad and some of his colleagues pressing the need to know
how
the Arab leader obtained the bomb, the witnesses at the table dismissing that as a wasted exercise and pushing for funds to ensure a strong counter to the threat.
It was Bruce Massingill, undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon, who made the final statement from the witness table. “I certainly recognize the need for this committee and for all of Congress to gain a better understanding about why this unsettling event has happened. But while this process drags on, each day brings us closer to the use of a second or third bomb in that region that could render it, and eventually the rest of the world, unrecognizable as we know it today. I appreciate the efforts of the secretary of state and others in the administration to seek some political negotiation, but Isuggest that while the State Department fiddles, Rome will most certainly burn. Or explode! By Rome, of course, I mean Israel. Or Egypt. Or Cleveland—or the District of Columbia.”
Wishengrad was glad the hearing was over. Massingill’s final comment stuck in his throat like a large vitamin pill that didn’t wash down. He’d intended to hold a staff meeting immediately following the hearing but canceled it.
“Not feeling well, Senator?” Foxboro asked after they’d returned to their offices.
“I’ve felt better, Jeff,” Wishengrad responded. “I suppose what’s really bothering me is that they make sense. That son of a bitch with a rag around his head has the bomb in his hands, and we have to do something about it. Sorry to sound anti-Arab. I’m not, as you know, but I sure as hell am anti-nuke. I think I’ll take a twenty-minute catnap. I have a headache.”
10
“You were great, Major,” Max Lanning said when Margit returned from the press conference. She had the feeling he’d been lurking in the hall for her
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