then the light, easy banter, the brainless question she could answer while half-asleep.
He liked to make his guest feel at ease, as if this were going to be an easy Sunday-morning chat, then whammo … “It’s a challenge I’ve been savoring ever since I was a young campaign volunteer in Frederick, Maryland, Tim,” Whiting replied. “But let’s get right down to the issues your viewers want to hear about.”
“Indeed, let’s,” Russert said with a smile, but his voice turned decidedly harder after being upstaged like that. “Let’s first talk about what seems to be on everyone’s mind, Madam Vice President, and that’s the attack on those disputed Iranian islands, allegedly by the Gulf Cooperative Council, the launching of Iran’s huge nuclear aircraft carrier battle group, the attack on that rescue vessel with the loss of about a half dozen lives and a dozen still unaccounted for, and the administration’s apparent wait-and-see, do-nothing attitude.
What’s the latest on this, Madam Vice President?”
“Tim, at the risk of sounding like a broken record—and I know most of your audience still remembers what a record is—we’re looking into exactly what happened out there in the Persian Gulf,” Whiting replied. “The Gulf Cooperative Council is preparing a full report on their attack on Abu Musa Island, but claims it was a defensive, preemptive strike on Iranian offensive missile emplacements that threatened ships in the Persian Gulf oil lanes.
Given Iran’s huge military buildup on that island since their illegal annexation of those islands in 1992, their explanation seems somewhat justified.”
“And Iran’s claims that U.S. and Israeli commandos were involved in the raid?”
“Nonsense,” the Vice President replied. “This appears to be a GCC operation, and the White House was not notified of the action before or during the attack.
“As far as the salvage ship Valley Mistress attack, the U.S. company, Jersey Tech Salvage, out of Elizabeth City, is currently under investigation by the Justice Department for its recent activities,” the Vice President continued. “Apparently the ship that was attacked by Iranian aircraft was involved in some … illegal operations, taking advantage of its U.S. Naval Reserve Fleet designation. These operations have something to do with shipping weapons, possibly to Iraq, possibly to anti-Iranian government rebels.”
“So the reports that this was a spy ship are completely false?”
“The ship may have done some government or defense work in the past,” the Vice President acknowledged, “but it was not operating under a government contract when it was attacked and hadn’t received a government contract since the Gulf War. The President has asked the Justice Department to thoroughly investigate Jersey Tech Salvage and all other contract and Naval Reserve Fleet companies to see that abuses are quickly stopped.”
“But what about the Americans reportedly being held by the Iranian government?”
“We are not positive whether or not anyone is being held, or if they are American citizens or legal employees of Jersey Tech Salvage,” Whiting replied. “Iran is not cooperating with anyone, yet they continue to throw unsubstantiated rumors and wild accusations around every time a reporter cruises near. Now Jersey Tech is not cooperating with State Department officials because they’re under investigation by the FBI. It’s very frustrating.”
“But surely the United States has spies, intelligence personnel, in the area? Can you tell us anything they’ve learned?”
“Tim, you know I can’t talk about any ongoing intelligence operations,” Whiting said seriously, letting her smile turn stern and disapproving, as if gently scolding him. Her hope was that the viewers would scold him in their minds and side with her, not him. “That’s strictly off limits. As a veteran journalists I’m very surprised you asked me about that.
“I wasn’t asking you for specific information or specific sources, just general information …”
“Tim, you know about this—we’ve talked about it before,” the Vice President said, not recalling if they had or not, but trying to sound as if he were pumping her for information he knew was supposed to be off the record. “We can’t go into specifics, as you very well know. Let me say this”—a brief pause as the camera moved closer, building a little anticipation that she was about to reveal a very inside piece of information—”yes, we have analysts working ‘round the clock, studying events all over the world.
“But I have to tell you, Tim, that one source of information we use has been the press, not just in the U.S., but all over the world, and frankly the media has the intelligence community going around in circles. The intelligence folks follow up every news item, every piece of so-called evidence, reinterview so-called experts, and check every lead, even if it’s only to completely discount it. It may be enlightened speculation to the press, but every bit of speculation adds to the confusion.”
“But what about Iran’s aggressive military buildup, and their apparent drive to become the warlords of the Islamic world?”
“I don’t think the American people want us speculating on something as important and as far-reaching as this, Tim,” Vice President Whiting said. “The press can afford to speculate all it wants, and when we hear a news item from a supposedly respected and authoritative source, yes, we check it out. In this particular case, the media has been all over the place, so that hasn’t been a good source lately. The fact is that Iran is not on the warpath— far from it. In fact, they’ve proposed a bold new peace initiative that would eliminate the threat of that aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf. No one seems to believe Iran is serious about that initiative except the President.”
“So the White House is going to do nothing else about Iran, Madam Vice President?” Russert asked.
“Tim,” the Vice President responded in an exasperated tone, exaggerated slightly for the viewers at home, “it sounds like you’re suggesting that we send American troops twelve thousand miles from home back to the Persian Gulf to threaten Iran simply because they are choosing to deploy weapon systems such as the Khomeini carrier group. It seems as if you’re suggesting we do something just because. I don’t agree with that view, Tim.
“I think the American people out there want us to be ready to act if America, her allies, or her vital interests overseas are threatened. Otherwise, I think America wants our military forces to stay home with their families. We will proceed with extreme caution, and trust that diplomacy and common sense will win out.”
ABOARD THE B-2A SPIRIT STEALTH BOMBER AV-011, OVER THE PERSIAN GULF 23 APRIL 1997, 0113 HOURS LOCAL TIME
“Let’s go into COMBAT mode,” McLanahan announced. “Give me consent.”
Tony “Tiger” Jamieson flipped a red-guarded switch near his left elbow, checked all the rest of his switch configurations, then nestled his butt deeper into his seat and tightened up his lap belt and shoulder straps. “Consent switch up. Clear to engage.”
McLanahan pressed a small switch light on the eyebrow panel marked COMBAT, and just that quickly, the checklist was complete for arming the weapon systems, configuring the threat warning and defensive systems, and preparing the computers, aircraft systems, and avionics for combat. Both men checked the MDUs (Mission Display Units) as the computer reported all of the subsystems’ status, and then prepared themselves to penetrate enemy territory.
It took only thirty seconds to confirm that the computer had switched all systems into COMBAT mode. “We’re in COMBAT,” McLanahan announced.
“Confirmed,” Jamieson responded—and that was the most he had had to do in the past three hours.
There was one thing that Tony Jamieson hated more than anything else, and that was sitting idle. As a B-2A Spirit stealth bomber mission commander, he did anything but—the MC was by far the busiest crewman aboard. Although they still called the B-2A left-seaters the AC—the “aircraft commander,”—he was no longer responsible for the success of a mission, as were other aircraft ACs. The AC’s job was to fly the plane and monitor the systems—in the B-2A stealth bomber, it meant to follow the “blue line,” the computer-generated course line on his lower-center MDU, and to respond to computer-generated WARNINGS, CAUTIONS, and ALERTS, or WCAs. Any good AC kept up with the mission progress and was ready to complete the mission from the left seat if something catastrophic happened to the mission commander; although the B-2A was ultra-reliable and redundant and the AC rarely intervened, he had to be prepared to drop weapons, navigate, communicate, and operate all of the defensive systems from the left seat if necessary.
The damned problem was, Jamieson wasn’t prepared to do that in Air Vehicle 01 1. This fucking plane had been so heavily modified by the plane’s current MC, Patrick McLanahan, the now-defunct HAWC, and his Intelligence Support Agency engineering pukes that he didn’t recognize a thing on the right side of the plane. From his studies over the past several days, he knew that he could do a number of’ things from the left seat, but in the heat of battle he seriously doubted if he could fly the plane and run a checklist at the same time. All he’d really done so far on this
