It was addressed to Stein but contained no return address. She grabbed her letter opener, sliced through the top of the envelope, and pulled out the sheets of paper. After reading the first paragraph, her heart began to race. She started to read again from the top, and this time her hands began to tremble. She took a deep breath and read on. After finishing, she jumped up and threw open the door to Stein’s office.
Ryan yelled his name and held the sheets of paper up in the air.
“Mark!”
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Stein, who was on the phone, looked up and waved her away. He swiveled in his chair and turned his back to her. He was talking to his boss in New York. “Carol, I need more video crews, damn it! I need more reporters. How in the hell do you expect me to get all this footage for you? It’s a goddamned zoo down here. We’re falling all over each other trying to get the story. It’s too big, we need more people!”
Bridgett walked around his desk and waved the envelope in his face.
Stein pulled the phone away from his head and placed his free hand over the receiver.
“Bridgett, I’m busy! Not now!” Stein started to bring the phone back to his head, but
Ryan was not to be deterred.
“Mark, this is really important!” She thrust the papers and envelope forward. “We just got this in the mail. It’s addressed to you and I think it’s from the terrorists!” Stein grabbed the sheets of paper and started reading quickly. His boss could be heard in the background asking what in the hell was going on. When Stein was finished, he yelled into the receiver, “Carol, go to your fax, this is big!” Garret had calmed down and was noticeably quieter.
McMahon and Kennedy were discussing the latter’s theory when the door to the
Cabinet Room opened and Jack Lortch entered.
He was the special agent in charge of the President’s Secret Service detail. “Excuse me, gentlemen, NBC is announcing that they have a letter from a group claiming responsibility for the murders.” Lortch proceeded to the wall behind the President and opened a large cabinet containing a bank of six television sets. He turned on the four to the left, which were pretuned to the major networks and CNN. The top right TV was carrying the NBC signal. He turned up the volume and stepped away. The familiar face of George Blake, the NBC news anchor, appeared on the screen.
“I would like to caution you one more time that this letter is from a group that is claiming responsibility for the murders of Senator Fitzgerald, Senator Downs, and
Congressman Koslowski. We have no proof that they are actually the group that committed the murders. The letter was received by mail at our Washington, D.C studio just moments ago.
It states the following.” Blake looked down and read from the fax paper: “‘In 1776 the founders of the United States of America sent a Declaration of Independence to the King of England. In that Declaration, Thomas Jefferson wrote “That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive. it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” We are invoking this right to rise up and alter the course of our government.
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You have had your chance to correct America’s course, and you have failed. “‘Senator
Fitzgerald, Congressman Koslowski, and Senator Downs were killed as a warning to the
President and the remaining members of the House and Senate. Your days of deficit spending and partisan politics are over. During the last twenty-five years, you have spent money we do not have on Federal programs we do not need. Every year you have promised the American people that your number one priority is to cut spending and balance the budget. Despite these promises the Federal budget has continued to grow.
“‘You have had the time and the opportunity to bring spending under control and you have done nothing. You have shown that your own personal greed and the goals of your political parties are more important to you than the economic security and future of
America. As a result of your selfish and incompetent leadership, we are now burdened with a national debt that is more than five trillion dollars.
A national debt that is growing at a rate of more than a billion dollars a day and is projected to reach ten trillion dollars by the end of the century. If the national debt is not confronted, it will plunge our country into economic chaos.
“‘The time to act is now. We are directing the President to withdraw his budget that is before the House, and with the help of the Office of Management and Budget and the
General Accounting Office, to construct a balanced budget using zero-based budgeting.
This budget will contain no new or raised taxes and will cut all unneeded Federal programs. It will introduce means testing to control the growth of Social Security and
Medicare and will adopt the military cuts as proposed by the Joint Chiefs without political interference. After this budget is passed, the President will submit a national crime bill that will focus on keeping violent criminals off the streets and in jail. The
President, the House, and the Senate shall also implement a two percent national sales tax to be used solely for the reduction of the national debt.
“‘If you are incapable of restoring the limited form of government that the framers of the Constitution intended, quit and go home. We will be watching your actions closely.
This is the only warning we will give.
If you do not respond to these demands, you will be killed. None of you are out of our reach-not even the President.”” As THE NEWS ANCHOR SPOKE THE WORDS
