Chapter 44 in Col. Josh Abrams travels in Iraq and discoveries about why we are at war in Iraq. The theocratic conspiracy to form the Christian States of America (CSA) unravels.
Talking Heads
Der Spiegel ran a banner headline the next day. The stately German newspaper was barely distinguishable, for one day only, from the German copies of American tabloids. "Americans bid to clone Jesus!" The byline was Leipzig, Germany.
"The fucking Germans fucked us good this time," said Carl Love to George Bush about 0300 Washington time which was 0800 German time.
"Bastards couldn’t even wait to give us a heads up on this. How much do they know?" asked the President. "Where did they get their Intel on this? Where’s the leak. Jesus, can’t anyone keep his mouth shut in Washington?"
"George," Carl Love replied, "We’ve gone over the interim report filed by Ortiz with his SF headquarters. In addition to picking up Ms. Glass from her holding area in Tikrit, he the flew the entire team of himself, Glass and Abrams up to Leipzig to consult with a Professor Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. This guy is working on cloning Neanderthals and is the European leader in this field. He’s a pinko, his political leanings are well known to be leftist and not sympathetic to the US. While there, the team left their blood samples of Mustafa along with the bloody swatch of cloth with his laboratory. Heaven knows if the Germans now have some of the blood from that piece of materiel for their own future use. This was a grievous breach in security of classified materiel. We don’t understand Professor Paabo’s motivation for breaking this story other than to establish his own preeminence in the field that is being called resurrection molecular biology. However, this could be part of his attempt to discredit our Nation and our war effort and commitment to Iraq; an interest he has been on record in German to vehemently disagree with. Regarding Sergeant Ortiz, I think we should get his ass for this......."
President Bush interrupted him, "Save it Carl. These SF guys are beyond our reach. They all hang together very tight, and let’s not forget, Sergeant Ortiz really pulled off Mission Impossible. He found this boy and answered our questions. I’ll grant you we don’t care for the answers, but I have enough on my plate without being accused of trying to kill the messenger for some information I don’t want. That’s what Cheney did to his aide over this issue just yesterday. Had the poor bastard beaten and then coerced into signing a confession. I’m not going to do the same. What I need from you are some courses of action (CoA). Like what do I do and say now that this has become a giant press story? Can plausible deniability work for me? I have a national security issue to either work or hide behind. Come on Carl, I need your help. You’ve got to flesh out these answers for me!"
Carl Love looked around the room. It was just the two of them. The room was lit by natural light. It was a lovely fall day in Washington, DC. He twirled his ballpoint pen. Then he said, "George, I don’t think this is going anywhere. This is a hair brained idea out of the grasp of most Americans. They won’t even want to hear of it. I will work this issue for you and present you with the CoAs you desire. But we’ve been through a lot worse. I don’t think this is anything."
"Thanks, Carl. Thanks a lot," the President said. "I sure as hell hope you are right."
At Ben Gurion Airport Colonel Abrams was perplexed, and worried. "Sergeant Ortiz, how the hell did word of this get out?" he asked the Sergeant. The Colonel was unaware of the German leak and thought the Israelis must have fed the story to the press. The media was everywhere at Ben Gurion Airport and even though Ortiz, Glass, Abrams and Muhammed and Mammma and three other SF troops had slipped in through the import security gate, it was no secret they were leaving.
"The German Professor held a press conference late last night, Sergeant Ortiz replied. "This is the top story around the world. I don’t know how the local press knew we were moving today, but there are few secrets in Israel."
The microphones, really a sheath of them, were right in front of Colonel Abrams mouth. Questions were being fired at him with machine gun speed. He looked around to make sure that Muhammed and Mammma were out of the center of interest and the SF guys had formed a protective envelope about them and the press couldn’t get to them. The Israeli Police were standing by watching the media event.
"No, I can’t answer that question at this time," said Abrams. As a surgeon he had spent his career trying to stay out of the press and the glare of the media. "No, I am not a molecular biologist. No, we do not know anything about a clone of Jesus. Yes, I am leaving."
At this point Rachel Glass, who had been standing quietly next to Colonel Abrams, spoke up. "I’ll tell you," she said.
"Oh shit," said Abrams and the microphones shifted ever so slightly to Rachel Glass. Colonel Abrams figured his options of cutting her off or knocking her out weren’t going to work so he stood by as she began to speak.
"We’ve been working on this for five years. This J Genome Project came directly from the White House and it was based upon the same faulty intelligence as the weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi alliance with Al Qaida. The President and his pals wanted to set up a Christian Theocracy based upon the second coming of Jesus and they wanted this so badly that they believed some erratic information that they were given. They stole the last two elections and now were out to steal the country forever. Thank God their plans didn’t work out......."
Before she could finish, Sergeant Ortiz had managed to get back through the crowd and grab her. He physically lifted her up and pulled her out of the crowd and continued on toward the gate where the SF troops along with Muhammed and Mammma were. Colonel Abrams followed after. The media were stopped at the gate.
"Had to do that, didn’t you," said Colonel Abrams.
"It felt good," said Rachel Glass.
"I don’t think you can go home," said Sergeant Ortiz to Rachel Glass.
"I didn’t think that was an option," she said.
"It ain’t now," said the Sergeant.
Senator Walker needed a police escort to get through the crunch of journalists and reporters on his way to his Senate office. On his way from the Vice President’s office to the Senate Office Building he had driven by the Viet Nam Memorial Wall. He had gotten out of his limousine and had briefly walked along the wall. He hand leaned against the name of his brother, Craig Harry Walker and brought his hands over his eyes.
After a few moments he made his way back to his vehicle and got in.
"You all right? Sir," asked his driver and long time friend from Idaho.
"Yes, I only wish I could look inside the walls of my heart as easily as I can look upon the Viet Nam wall," he said. "This black wall says it all; truth, honor, duty and courage. When was the last time I showed any of these values?" he asked. His friend remained quiet.
They drove the rest of the way to the Senate Office Building where they were greeted by the Washington Press Circus. The Senator had been reading the news on his I-pod. Rachel Glass was all over the internet. He knew it wouldn’t be pretty. He didn’t even remember how he walked through the crowd.
Once in his office, he poured himself a shot of whiskey and sat down in an oversized leather club chair he reserved for difficult moments. He called to his secretary, "Tell the press I shall address them at 1400 in my office. First come, first serve." Then he poured himself another drink.
The announcement was brief and no questions were allowed. Senator Walker of Idaho stood in front of his desk and read the terse announcement.
"It is with deep sorrow that I must announce that I am withdrawing my name from the election for the President of the United States of America. Revelations have come my way over the past few days and have made me realize that I have been wrapped up in a major plot to steal this election by running as a Christian Candidate for the Nation’s highest office. We are not the Christian State of America nor should we aspire to become the United States of Christians. The founding fathers got it right and it is not for us to change the separation of church and state to serve the machinations of politically hungry men. I was one of those men; I am no longer one of those men. I pray that this act will allow me to fulfill one hundredth of what my brother, whose name is on the Viet Nam Wall, gave in terms of some real values; truth, honor, duty and courage. Thank you for your time."
The press corps was stunned. They began shouting questions, but the Senator from Idaho, had turned and walked through the back door into his inner office.
The rest of the day was a high point for the press; local, national, and international. A news and journalism industry had evolved into an organism that provided content and commentary on a 7/24 basis. Today it was overloaded with pundits. Edward Murrow, Peter Lisagor, Walter Cronkite and Daniel Schorr from the past had morphed into an ever-expanding set of Talking Heads. The collection of these talking heads formed the new punditocracy, the United States of Pundits. These were individuals who couldn’t write their own copy. They showed up and read script or teleprompter cues and came across as part of the right, the left, or just the stupid. Anyone who had spent time in the combat zone and had been part of any activity, warfighting or nation building that had been covered by the media knew how poor the coverage had become. Part of this was the security aspect of reporters walking the beat. It wasn’t possible in Iraq so the news organizations paid for Iraqi stringers to walk the beat, which was extremely dangerous for the Iraqi partners. The stringers then would send the media correspondents their view of events. Often these views originated with a US Army Public Affairs Officer (PAO). The army had a cadre of Majors and Lieutenant Colonels who had masters degrees in media, communications, and journalism. The media had almost no one with prior military service, It wasn’t a fair battle, but after the coverage of Viet Nam, the Army wasn’t looking for a fair battle. And as to the enduring value and contribution of the fourth estate in a liberal democracy, a dictate of war has it that "at the first bullet, the first casualty of war is the truth." So that night the reports came fast and furious that the US National Presidential Election had been scuttled by the withdrawal of the Senator from Idaho. The far right pundits were putting forth their view that this was a liberal conspiracy to steal the election. They were going so far as to suggest that elections should be cancelled to allow for a fair race with a new and invigorated GOP candidate. These same individuals were flooding FOX NEWS with requests for an extension to the term of George Bush while delayed elections were conducted in 2009. On the left, there was a sigh of relief and a quest for more answers. Who was involved, were statutes involved? Could high crimes and misdemeanors be invoked? These commentators were asking for an immediate Congressional inquiry and insisted that the election continue as planned. The night time comics had the best of both worlds and devoted their entire network shows to this issue for three consecutive evenings. This was an interest even greater than 9/11 or the Superbowl. Best of all was Comedy Tonight. During the reign of George Bush ‘Comedy Tonight' had come to be the number one source of news for Americans under the age of thirty. Their spokesman, John Stewart, was the most seriously taken jester since the days of Shakespeare.
"That was tough," Senator Walker’s limo driver said to him. He was more than just a limo driver. He put his arm around the Senator’s back and said, "Let’s get a drink." The two men left by a back door. He was a friend.
At about the same time that Senator Walker was pulling out of the US race, the US C-130 Hercules took off from Ben Gurion Airport with Sergeant Ortiz and Rachel Glass at his side, Colonel Abrams, Muhammed and Mammma. Three US SF forces and a translator were also along. The entire team was in civilian attire, the omnipresent khakis pants and shirts. Even Muhammed and Mammma were in this uniform except Mammma also had on a filmy brown scarf around her neck.
"Yunis will be coming later in the week," Sergeant Ortiz told Muhammed through the translator, David Cohen, who had agreed to come along to help with the homecoming.
"Back to Fallujah, as part of the US Army Fallujah resettlement plan," the translator said. Muhammed didn’t understand exactly what this meant, but he was happy that his mother seemed to be lifted out of her dark gloom for the first time in many years. Also, he was thinking that his father and brother Yunis would all be together again and a smile spread across his face. He put his arm around his mother and kissed her cheek.
"Muhammed, my son, we are going home," she said and tears rolled down her thick brown cheeks.
To Be Continued.......