does.”
“And—?”
“He is not a happy person,” said Church. “POTUS had wanted to stay out of the loop on theResort operation until it was done and we had a clean case to take to the attorney general and Congress.”
“Plausible deniability,” I said in exactly the same way you’d say “jock itch.”
Church didn’t comment. “He is very much in the loop now. I shared the mission specifics with him. We cycled the AG and the judge advocate general into the conversation. It was not the most pleasant half hour Ihave spent.”
“I can imagine. Will the DMS take the hit for this?”
“No. However, this will be very bad for the Agency. Probably bad enough to damage their effectiveness.”
I nodded glumly. While we all despised the splinter cell within the CIA responsible for the bin Laden con game, the Agency as a whole did a lot of good. This could—and probably would—crush it. Maybe to the point of having itreplaced by another department. That would be a logistical nightmare, and it would very likely open up a lot of vulnerable holes in our intelligence-gathering process. If that came to pass, people would die. No question about it. From the grim look on Church’s face, he knew it, too. Our operation had been intended as a bit of surgery—cutting off necrotic tissue in the hopes of saving the healthyflesh. Now … this might become one of those instances where the surgery was a complete success but the patient dies.
“Mind playing that one more time?” asked Top. Church did, and we all listened to the mechanical voice make its threats.
When it was done, Bunny asked, “So … this is who? Al-Qaeda? Hezbollah? The frigging Taliban?”
“If it’s any of them,” I said.
They all looked at me. Churchsaid, “Go ahead, Captain. What are you seeing?”
“Well, I’m sure as hell not seeing this for what they intend,” I said. “I mean, come on, they get the most damning footage imaginable, but they release it in bits? Bug was explaining to us about building a viral message with social media. They’re doing that.”
“Clearly,” agreed Church. He reached out of frame, took a vanilla wafer from an unseenplate, and bit off a piece. “Go on.”
“We’ve dealt with every kind of religious nut in the world. Extremists of all faiths, every splinter group, sect, and cult that thinks their version of god needs to kick everyone else’s god’s ass. And one thing that marks genuine religious extremists is the clarity of their message. When they make a statement, they make it big, and they shove it up the assof everyone else. Doing that not only scares the crap out of their enemies, it also serves as a clear rallying call to their followers. We’ve seen that with al-Qaeda. We saw it with the Soldiers of Jesus. We saw it with that Buddhist kill squad. Religious nuts are not particularly subtle. They can’t afford to be, because if they do anything that makes it look like their agenda is anything other thana mandate from God, then they know how much public support—active or tacit—they’ll lose.”
Church ate more of his cookie and waited.
“So, we have this message. It appears to be another call to arms for a militant group within Islam. They drop the right words. ‘Fatwa’ and ‘jihad.’ Everyone knows that those words are scary as hell. Not just to non-Muslims, but to the bigger part of Islam, to theMuslims who don’t want to burn down the rest of the world.”
Bunny frowned. “How’s that not this?”
“’Cause,” said Top, stepping in, “they didn’t hit us with the full punch. They put part of the video on the net, and they made their statement to a switchboard. No, I’m with the cap’n on this. It’s too calculated and restrained for outrage. You know what would be going on right this damn minuteif they tagged that message onto the full video and put that on the net?”
“Sure,” said Sam with a shudder, “there’d be blood in the streets. Cities would be on
“And—?”
“He is not a happy person,” said Church. “POTUS had wanted to stay out of the loop on theResort operation until it was done and we had a clean case to take to the attorney general and Congress.”
“Plausible deniability,” I said in exactly the same way you’d say “jock itch.”
Church didn’t comment. “He is very much in the loop now. I shared the mission specifics with him. We cycled the AG and the judge advocate general into the conversation. It was not the most pleasant half hour Ihave spent.”
“I can imagine. Will the DMS take the hit for this?”
“No. However, this will be very bad for the Agency. Probably bad enough to damage their effectiveness.”
I nodded glumly. While we all despised the splinter cell within the CIA responsible for the bin Laden con game, the Agency as a whole did a lot of good. This could—and probably would—crush it. Maybe to the point of having itreplaced by another department. That would be a logistical nightmare, and it would very likely open up a lot of vulnerable holes in our intelligence-gathering process. If that came to pass, people would die. No question about it. From the grim look on Church’s face, he knew it, too. Our operation had been intended as a bit of surgery—cutting off necrotic tissue in the hopes of saving the healthyflesh. Now … this might become one of those instances where the surgery was a complete success but the patient dies.
“Mind playing that one more time?” asked Top. Church did, and we all listened to the mechanical voice make its threats.
When it was done, Bunny asked, “So … this is who? Al-Qaeda? Hezbollah? The frigging Taliban?”
“If it’s any of them,” I said.
They all looked at me. Churchsaid, “Go ahead, Captain. What are you seeing?”
“Well, I’m sure as hell not seeing this for what they intend,” I said. “I mean, come on, they get the most damning footage imaginable, but they release it in bits? Bug was explaining to us about building a viral message with social media. They’re doing that.”
“Clearly,” agreed Church. He reached out of frame, took a vanilla wafer from an unseenplate, and bit off a piece. “Go on.”
“We’ve dealt with every kind of religious nut in the world. Extremists of all faiths, every splinter group, sect, and cult that thinks their version of god needs to kick everyone else’s god’s ass. And one thing that marks genuine religious extremists is the clarity of their message. When they make a statement, they make it big, and they shove it up the assof everyone else. Doing that not only scares the crap out of their enemies, it also serves as a clear rallying call to their followers. We’ve seen that with al-Qaeda. We saw it with the Soldiers of Jesus. We saw it with that Buddhist kill squad. Religious nuts are not particularly subtle. They can’t afford to be, because if they do anything that makes it look like their agenda is anything other thana mandate from God, then they know how much public support—active or tacit—they’ll lose.”
Church ate more of his cookie and waited.
“So, we have this message. It appears to be another call to arms for a militant group within Islam. They drop the right words. ‘Fatwa’ and ‘jihad.’ Everyone knows that those words are scary as hell. Not just to non-Muslims, but to the bigger part of Islam, to theMuslims who don’t want to burn down the rest of the world.”
Bunny frowned. “How’s that not this?”
“’Cause,” said Top, stepping in, “they didn’t hit us with the full punch. They put part of the video on the net, and they made their statement to a switchboard. No, I’m with the cap’n on this. It’s too calculated and restrained for outrage. You know what would be going on right this damn minuteif they tagged that message onto the full video and put that on the net?”
“Sure,” said Sam with a shudder, “there’d be blood in the streets. Cities would be on
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