Ruling Class Smackdown

Ruling Class Smackdown, the Novel, or, Hellfire Revenge
Ruling Class Smackdown, the Novel,

or, Hellfire Revenge
Robert M. Park © 2010
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Preface
The resemblance between some characters in this book and real people having similar
names is not entirely accidental. In most cases, the association is well-deserved, whether
they be villains or exemplary individuals. The imagined behavior and attributes of these
and some other characters in this book who have the same names as real people may or
may not be welcomed or condoned by those people, in public or in private. None of them
was consulted in this appropriation. The construction was all mine. It‟s a novel, not a
biography. The primary protagonists (Ari, Sasha, Ben, Jasmine, Julie, Norm, Mahmoud,
etc.) were not modeled after any individuals known to the author but they surely exist.
Historical events and conditions described or alluded to may be open to different, perhaps
more valid, interpretations, but all are plausibly observable in this our world. It‟s a novel,
not a history book. The inferences drawn from events whether or not accurately
portrayed, are alleged to be valid generalizations.
A careful reading of this book would not lead most thoughtful citizens in most situations
to acts of terror. Actually, the general conclusion might be that dramatic changes are
possible but only when sufficient numbers of people achieve a class perspective on their
own fate; and resorting to the murderous behavior of the boss class is generally going to
be counter-productive,.. probably. It would be much better to keep the acts of terror
virtual and vicarious, savoring the revenge, fueling class hatred perhaps, but
concentrating on the main prize of collective wisdom and action. On the other hand,
responding in-kind to immediate acts of violence committed by institutions of the ruling
class is not terrorism, but it might be very ill-advised tactically.
Despite negative reflections in this book on organized religions of any brand, it should be
observed that this book recognizes the right of individuals to subscribe to whatever
religious beliefs they choose, as long as they do not seek to impose those beliefs and
practices, or their consequences, on others in society, and providing those practices do
not infringe others‟ constitutional rights. Nobody has all the answers.
Copyright and Conditions
This book is freely available for download and sharing freely. It may not be made
available through any means, electronic or otherwise, for financial gain, without the
permission of the author. Copying or printing for distribution at-cost is permitted.
Therefore, without permission, it cannot be made available, even at zero marginal cost,
from sources such as password protected web-sites that charge for subscription or that
advertize. Any sharing of this book must include the present statement on Copyright and
Conditions.
Translation to any language is welcome and encouraged, however, translation of more

that de minimus portions of this book (as defined by current U.S. law) into another
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language for free distribution (as is permitted for the current English version) is permitted
only with permission of the author, in order to assure the veracity of translation.
Anyone who, upon reading this book, is thankful for having had that opportunity should
consider making generous contributions of funds to, and engagement in, organizations
that they perceive to be contributing to “collective wisdom and action” of the working
class.
Syntax
Quotation marks are generally absent in this book. In place of quotation marks is the
following convention:
“…” means one person stops talking, and maybe the other person starts talking
“..” means a pause when someone is speaking, or, an author commentary starts or ends
“.. ..” means a really long pause
“.. and / but..” means somebody interrupted someone else
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Chapter One
The Plan: Make the Killing Field More Level
1. The Central Dogma
1***
OK, there‟s another 50 „fires with all their little tags and ribbons, tucked away in their
cozy pods. Hey Molly, what d‟they use these things for, anyway?... John said they‟re for
stopping terrorism. This ship‟ goes to Israel… I know, but what do they shoot „em at,
airplanes? I thought terrorists there are just guys blowing up restaurants.. they shoot these
at them?... Naw, I think it‟s those bosos shooting rockets across the border from
somewhere.. I don‟t know, but they do seem to use a lot of „em.. the overtime‟s nice...
Ya, LockheedMartin doesn‟t skimp when the goings‟ good. Someday I‟m gonna ask that
DOD procure geek what they do with these.. it‟s not classified is it?... I don‟t think so,
most of „em go to Iraq and Afghan.. LM-Dallas shipped 450 last year.
[DOD – U.S. Dept. of Defense; LM-Dallas – major defense contractor
LockheedMartin‟s plant in Dallas, TX]
2***
Ben detested the draft and dreaded showing up but getting put in the IDF IT unit on “real-
time targeting” sounded kind of cool with state-of-the-art stuff. He was surprised when
they put him there; later found out IDF was losing a lot of their high-level technical staff
to the private sector. The last war was another pointless exercise that proved once again
what a bunch of dead-enders the Israeli boss-zionist class is, but maybe he‟d learn some
new stuff. Ben‟s parents long ago figured out that making Palestinians pay for the
Holocaust was a bad idea that would fester forever, and now the end-game seemed to be
apartheid with strangulation, especially with Hamas winning the election in Gaza.
Building settlements connected by walled freeways cutting up the countryside. Grabbing
water resources. But real-time targeting.. he guessed that meant tracking and zapping
Saddam‟s or somebody‟s missiles, costly but relatively harmless. And he might get to see
how these IDF people think, on the inside. Luckily he took some courses in digital switch
design and network architecture, and he was pretty up on telecom technology. He thought
about eventually looking for work in the U.S. but the animals running that show may be
worse. The shared U.S.-Israeli enthusiasm for continuing assault on Iraq had been really
revealing. His buddy Ari got stuck in some high-security warehouse attached to an IDF
helicopter base. In two weeks, on break, he‟d find out what that‟s about.
[IDF – Israeli Defense Forces, the military; IT – information technology]
3***
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Ari was a little over the top, it‟s amazing they took him at all. Probably his dad‟s record
helped. At school he got the peaceniks in big trouble documenting page by page Israel‟s
strategic goals and their implementation over the past 50 years, and hooking up with kids
from the West Bank and Gaza. Their stories were unbelievable. It was pretty wrenching
for a lot of students when it finally sunk-in, what the deal was with the Palestinians and
with the Israeli machers, their American enablers, thugs, and all their money and
bulldozers and weapons systems. Made for a lot of conflict in their families too.
[peaceniks – activists protesting Israeli government policies toward Palestinians; machers
– hustlers, “real men,” stand-up kind of guys]
Ari arrived at the base and was toured around the whole facility but they only took him
inside the ordnance/tech-ops prep building, basically a very expensive warehouse. The
mission was surveillance and interdiction so Ari figured there would be lots of
surveillance cameras and scurrying around to stamp out terrorist actions. He never could
quite figure out what the Palestinians should do – and rocket attacks over the border
seemed to be futile and possibly harmful distractions. It was pretty amazing how they did
it, though – a lot of it was free-lancers and all sorts of local activists.
Base security was tight and he heard there were these encrypted reports that come in from
somewhere, that were processed for the helicopter operations. He saw his first Hellfire as
it was being loaded onto a helicopter. His job was to keep track of Hellfire inventory,
schedule preps, sequence the loading operations, and return the secure shipping
containers with empty pods. But it didn‟t quite add-up: how do they use these things – it
seems like it would be pretty ineffective – trying to stop these small groups of guys that
appear from nowhere, fire off a crude little rocket and then disappear again. He got some
clarity a week later at lunch – sitting with a woman he knew from school who works in
the operations-communication unit. She had been a sharp student, very focused on her
business career. Her dad had created the major secure telecom network used by all the
multinationals in the Middle East. So she didn‟t so much mind the draft and really liked
managing the system that routed the intel coming in. She said: The helicopters don‟t only
do interdiction. The problem is that just when the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah
group were finally maturing into manageable organizations that Israel could work with,
there were these other groups that kept popping up and ruining everything… (Ari:) So,
how does this work. What do helicopters do?... Well, I don‟t want to get into details but it
turns out that local spotters are really critical – Israeli agents on the ground who identify
and report the locations of high-value targets. People don‟t know this but a lot of them
are actually Fatah members, who make a lot of money spotting… Interesting.
Ari finally got a good look at one of the choppers in the maintenance bay a few days later
and found they have this thing that turns out to be a very fancy optical system. The
American contractor guy servicing the unit was quite happy to describe its amazing
attributes: The chopper gets the real-time coordinates of a target from intel and the
chopper camera system is able to find and focus on that target from 5,000 feet in the air
five miles away… Incredible… So if some guy they want gets in a car and drives off,
they can put a Hellfire missile into it and incinerate him – hence the name. It doesn‟t
actually blow the car up – just burns everything to a crisp.
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Then it came back to him. Ari remembered reading a news story about this U.S. base in
Florida where a guy sat at a monitor watching some pathetic Iraqi who was out walking
around near his house at night, and the asshole in Florida would decide if this guy was a
friendly or not – could be planting an “improvised explosive device.” If the decision went
against the sucker, a helicopter several miles away would take him out with a missile,
maybe a Hellfire, who knows.. For all we know, the guy was taking a leak, looking for
his goats, or couldn‟t sleep.. or,.. placing a bomb against an occupying army. Just
unbelievable.
He started remembering news reports about this-or-that leader of a Palestinian terrorist

organization killed in a car along with three companions, or his family, or whatever, in an
early morning attack, or sometimes on a crowded street. The epiphany came quickly and
was hard to shake off – Israel was using Hellfires to assassinate the leadership of
Palestinian organizations they found uncooperative. It wasn‟t enough that Israel had
exclusive, overwhelming air power and ground forces against the Palestinians, controlled
their borders, electricity, oil consumption and water, they could actually remotely
eliminate just about anyone they wanted. And all those guys with their toy rockets were
probably being fingered – spotted – too. No wonder there was all that communication
traffic with routing to choppers in the air.. I wonder if Ben knows about this?
4***
Molly, did you see on TV about one of our Hellfires hitting a car with some guys in the
Middle East?... Ya, Tess, it was in the paper too. It was in Israel or, no, Palestine –
wherever “Gaza” is... It said they got in a car and then a few minutes later it got hit with
the missile.. I didn‟t know the „fire went after cars. Isn‟t that amazing? How do they do
it?... Yeah, I guess.. But, Tess, I‟m starting not to feel so good about all this. What if
these are all lies too? I just read that Jimmy Carter book; I don‟t usually read that stuff
but I saw him interviewed one night when I couldn‟t sleep and they had it at the library.
He‟s pretty awesome, what he does. Anyway, it‟s incredible how some people can do
almost anything they want. You know, the people that run the world. If you look at all the
problems over there and what we‟ve been doing there all along, in Iran, and now Iraq and
with Saudi Arabia.. and all the suffering and billions of dollars.. What if they just go after
anyone they don‟t like and blow „em up? Sometimes I have to stop thinking about
things.. now they‟re even doing it Somalia.. remember “Blackhawk down!?” We got
the Ethiopian army next-door to go in and get the Moslem group that won an election,
and we‟ve been hitting them with missiles and aircraft too!
5***
Ben and Ari hooked up Thursday at the Nile. It was pretty quiet that night and they could
actually hear each other. Ben was fairly upbeat, said he was getting to know the system,
but hard to keep track of all the different channels and specifications. The links were
pretty neat; some went through US military satellites that were very reliable although
there were occasionally priority conflicts. There were these coded satellite phone feeds
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that came in and had to get routed to operations bases. Ben had no idea what was going
on – most of the techies didn‟t have the complete picture, probably top security. It was
rather depressing, actually, when he thought about what this whole system was designed
to do, especially in the larger arena with Syria and Iraq and Iran… We‟re caught up in
this vast enterprise that is fundamentally corrupt and corrupting.. and what‟s the way
out?.. Remember that guy that leaked the nuclear story? They ruined his life, just for
telling the world what people already knew.
Ari was quiet for Ari but finally started. He explained to Ben how he came across the
chopper with its optical guts exposed, what the guy had said, and what Sgt. Sasha
Lieberman had told him about locating high-value targets. Ben was computing,
connecting the dots, and sinking. So this was real-time targeting. Not incoming ballistic
missiles, Palestinians. He knew Hamas was actually a fairly responsible organization,
making the best of an impossible situation. They got elected because they rejected the
Palestinian Authority-Fatah capitulation, corruption and patronage scams. They have an
administrative support network in the neighborhoods to help people survive these awful
times… There has to be a way to negotiate a settlement with those guys. It‟s so obvious
that most Israelis and Palestinians are losing in this fucked-up stand-off. And the odds are
so overwhelming – how can anybody fight back against the gang you and I are working
for? First it was bulldozers, then blowing up peoples‟ houses and exploding cellphones,
and now Hellfires… What about the one-state solution, why couldn‟t that work? They
never really explain why “right of return” is such a big deal. Of course, settlements would
change hands, there‟d be a lot of anger and moaning from the crazies but it would
eventually work. And it would be good for the capitalists – cheap labor, low security
costs. They could even subvert some of the neighboring Arab states – it would be so
much better for Moslems here… Ya, but, you know, just having a Jewish state is such a
huge deal to most people. [“right-of-return” – rights of Palestinians ejected from Israel to
return to their homeland and property]
Ari had been doing some internet research: It‟s not just helicopters. In Iraq, Afghanistan
and Pakistan they had these pilotless planes – drones – called Preditors, that had the
same system – high resolution laser-cameras and satellite links and carried Hellfires. At
Bagram in Afghanistan there is a whole command center running Preditors all over the
place. The contractor doing the optics said he spent the last two years at Bagram doing
nothing but Preditor support. Nice work: gets $750 a day plus R&R in Dubai every six
weeks. LM sells Hellfires for $79,000 ea. and they go through about 20 a week in
Pakistan and Afghan, probably more in Iraq.. Of course there were problems; getting a
spotter network in place that wasn‟t riddled with bad guys wasn‟t that easy, especially in
Pakistan where a third of the intel crowd was on the other side.
It was just the outrageous injustice of it all. (Ari:) How can people resist this? If the
Israeli people only knew the criminal alliance they are part of and where it is headed. Not
to mention the Americans,.. but then they (almost) elected Bush, twice… Ben had just
read that new book on Shiite politics and had been wondering what a good resistance
movement in Iraq would actually look like.. They‟d have to get past the religious baggage
and figure out a strategy that would fly with most Iraqis. They actually had it relatively
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good in the early-Baath days back before Hussein, with help from the Americans, wiped
out or crushed the progressives in Iraqi society – intellectuals, journalists, labor
organizers, communists… The Shah‟s Iran all over again, with Israel an enthusiastic
junior partner. And now, after 600,000 Iraqi deaths, over a million internal refugees and
desperate living conditions, bombs going off everywhere, the Sunni-Shiite civil war..
how do people keep their sanity? And all for a neocon-corporate adventure in empire-
building. [Baath – Arab-socialist political party following British colonial period]
It was getting late but Ari and Ben plunged onward, doggedly seeking resolution. They
even stopped noticing the young couples discretely slinking out into the night… It must
be so godammed demoralizing out there, you have suicide junkies and Islamic-fanatics in
Iraq, the entire U.S war machine, and now automated murder and treachery in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and southern Lebanon… That‟s probably a big reason why
they go after Hamas leadership – to totally demoralize and grind these people down so
they can‟t even think about organized resistance… Ya, it‟s just like [IDF chief of staff]
Moshe Yaalon said, “the Palestinians have to be made to understand that they are a
defeated nation.”
(Ben:) It‟s so evil and so trivially accomplished it makes you livid.. What could possibly
change this picture?… Ari was fantasizing: What would it be like if other people had
things like Hellfires.. what could they even do with them – you need this whole high-tech
operating system and air-superiority.. But damn, if the other guys took out a few of our
“high-value targets” it certainly would get people‟s attention… (Ben:) Only, if the tables
were turned, what legitimate role is there for violence directed at the actual architects and
deciders of this global outrage and what good would it do? Sure as hell would change
some attitudes, wipe the smirks off some well-fed alpha-faces, but acts of so-called terror
don‟t usually win revolutions or mobilize the masses or consolidate popular solutions.
They just bring down more repression and random brutality… It sure would be inspiring,
though.. God,.. it would be fantastic: eye-for-an-eye bigtime great… Yeah, a ruling class
smackdown.
Well the Nile closed and Ben and Ari were heading back home as promised to parents or
friends. But loose ends compelled re-engagement so they decided to talk further Saturday
night at Uri and Angela‟s, before climbing back into the war machine.
2. Gathering Threads
1***
Sasha was rushing around getting ready for a demo. IDF generals, some Mossad heavies
and engineers from three major IT companies were convening. Four U.S. guys were
joining from NSA and Defense Intelligence – nobody knew exactly why – and there was
a guy and a woman coming from Itek, the optics people, and an engineer from
LockheedMartin. It was gonna be a great opportunity. First they were meeting for a
power lunch at Desert Oasis up in the hills district. Then a tour of the base telecom
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hardware and a presentation by Col. Barschauer on the system architecture and some of
the problems they were having. The Hellfire cameras had these complicated self-
correcting mirrors that were pretty finicky and occasionally got confused by acoustic
interference from the turbines, and it threw off the onboard processors that were tracking
the bogies and talking to the base servers. So the camera could lose the target at an
inopportune moment. The other reason for the visit was the program Sasha was lead on.
They were piggy-backing a tracking capability onto the real-time targeting system in
order to find out which spotters might not be reliable. It was hugely important to the
whole program which was why Mossad was there.. and maybe Defense Intelligence.
[NSA – US Nat‟l Security Agency (major collector and processor of global surveillance
information); Defense Intelligence – the spy agency that ballooned inside U.S. DOD
under Secretary Rumskull; Mossad – the Israeli CIA]
2***
Eighteen months ago as the U.S. occupation was struggling to complete the heist of Iraq,
Ari and some of the engineers at school who were not totally enthralled with military
innovation or corporate prostitution had this on-going discussion at lunch-time about
technological options that could change the face of U.S. thuggery. These guys didn‟t used
to be such “critical thinkers.” It was the reaction to 9/11 and the treatment of prisoners
that really woke people up. Even engineers understood there were issues of survival and a
tolerable future that were driving Arab desperation, and not just in Palestine. Before that
they had heard about Sharon enabling the massacres at the Sabri and Shatila refugee
camps by the right-wing Christian Phalangists in Lebanon in the early „80s; that got some
of these guys thinking. Then it was those pictures of “detainees” or “unlawful
combatants” tied up in rows in U.S transport aircraft, strapped down on their knees for 18
hours going shit in diapers and wearing black hoods with sound proofing so they couldn‟t
hear or see anything. And then the torture and “renditions.” [Ariel Sharon – Israeli tough-
guy IDF general/prime minister]
Everyone agreed that challenging airpower was key – and of course the obvious Stinger
option was discussed: small shoulder-launched missiles that can bring down helicopters
and close air-support aircraft. Everybody had them. Even the Taliban had been selling off
the American leftovers from the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghan. But the dialectics of
war technology had quickly evolved counter-measures against these infrared (heat) -
guided devices as soon as the Russian versions hit the street: shooting out flares and all
sorts of other tricks from E-Systems Corporation hustlers and their clones. So things were
at a bit of a stand-off. But the guys, especially the gamer-junkies, were really psyched: If
you can have cameras in cellphones, and transmit images real-time, why not have visual
over-rides and multiple guidance redundancy so that the counter-measures wouldn‟t
work? The surprising thing is that it hasn‟t already happened… Probably because the
organizations that could pull this off are top-down and don‟t see lugs on the ground
controlling these things. For another thing, they wouldn‟t want them becoming too
available, might come back to bite them. Iran could do it, China for sure and some dot-
com-ers in India could too.. but at some risk… Yeah, would be called “extremely
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destabilizing” in the western press – no shit: it would basically cripple U.S. global
military operations.
3***
Lunch at LM‟s Dallas Hellfire production facility was kind of spooky. The high-
explosive pyro guys and a few women came by shuttle and always smelled bad and
looked like they needed a drink. After lunch folks from the clean-room areas had to go
through the air showers and change rooms to emerge wearing their little booties and
paper gowns. The company had flatscreens everywhere at lunch with the usual stock
quotes and military talking heads, and then somebody had the bright idea of showing
actual footage from Hellfire hits. At first people thought it was cool – more fun than
Google Earth – but then local footage off the internet starting showing up with charred
remains being lifted out of vehicle skeletons and lunch didn‟t taste so good so they
stopped that. One of the gals brought in a story about a bad guy they just got. She
googled the guy. He was a university professor, an economist, and had five kids. Once
studied in the U.S. at NYU. Molly looked at his picture and the old churning started
again. They killed his brother-in-law, one of his sons, and some other Hamas functionary
with the „fire. Five people on the street were also burned. Israel announced that another
major terrorist player had received justice and retribution for attacks on Israel. Molly
asked out loud: Does anyone believe this stuff?.. Silence and consternated glances
replied… Why not.. said Pete, former Air Force lifer and final assembly supervisor…
Without thinking, Molly shot back: Do you believe what LM says about production
costs? Did you fall for the WMD fairly tale and the mushroom cloud?.. Well, I guess you
did – we all did… (Someone else:) Ya, what a crock… Nancy from optical calibration
piped up: But if we don‟t stop them / Stop who, Molly demanded, I‟m so sick of that shit.
What did Iraq do?.. Did anyone here see Munich, that movie about going after the
terrorists from the Olympics? It‟s the same thing and it just goes on and on… But then
the DOD guys over at one of the corner tables started getting a little too interested, so talk
settled back to the weather, local crime, that jerk that killed his wife‟s kids, gas prices and
the Cowboys.
4***
The Oasis lunch was exciting. These guys are really sharp; it‟s just amazing to hear their
banter, and every once in a while they drop a little nugget: gossip in DARPA or corporate
screw-ups or stories from Iraq. And then there‟s all this money being thrown at things.
The Itek duo were rather quiet and answered questions carefully. Basically they were
saying the platform specs they were given just weren‟t real-world, and so they‟re having
to re-engineer not only the camera mount but some of the software. The woman started to
get into something really technical that Sasha didn‟t understand – something about
“nonlinear harmonics” - but her handler waved her off. The LM guy was taking notes.
Later at the base, after Barschauer‟s powerpoint, it was Sasha‟s turn. The Mossad guys
were pissed-off about something and started whispering into their space-sticks but other
than that it went well. People were really impressed with the power of this thing and
Sasha was exuberant and glowing.. that is until General Dyen hit on her – this guy has
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some history. He was acting really interested in her program to track spotters‟ movements
– without them knowing – and wanted to see the displays and feed-logs, but after the
Mossad guys left he kind of got interested in Sasha‟s breasts and almost had her bra off
when she hit the red button. For some reason the design of Israeli female dress uniforms
makes that really easy. She was worried what he‟s going to do – she agreed to say hitting
the button was an accident, but later she called her dad on a secure line for damage
control advice. After a pause and sigh, he said he was very sorry but he couldn‟t talk
about this, not now, call him later... Sasha didn‟t look good at lunch next day.
[DARPA – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (research funding agency
inside U.S. DOD]
5***
Uri and Angela‟s loft was over near the Arab neighborhood on the north side of the old
market. Millions of great little stores and restaurants and endless alleyways. The rent
wasn‟t bad and they had a nice view down into the old sector. Half the party was out on
their balcony drinking the sun down and waking up points of light. Ari was already there,
reminiscing on the couch with Rachel. They had been very close once – lovers for almost
a year – but things diverged. On the face of it it was politics, but really deeper than that,
at least Ari thought it was about levels of honesty. Rachel was doing well, got into a
graduate program in public administration and seemed more able to hear what Ari was
saying. Ari was noticing his articulation skills had improved and was feeling like he
could express contentious positions without being as annoying as he used to be. They
both looked rather damn good to each other. Ben climbed up and quickly got the lay of
the land. He nodded to Ari and gave Rachel a hug and kiss and joined in the slightly
nervous small talk. It was starting to get crowded; people there knew only about half the
others . There was a klatch from the business school, several entrepreneur types
complaining about this and that, some biotechies and medical wonks, and the usual
contingent of military-servers with war stories. Ari and Ben moved to the bedroom for a
little conferencing.
Neither wanted to go first but Ari soon blurted it out in a whisper: We have to liberate
some Hellfires. I have a plan… Ben felt like he should react negatively and call for
careful deliberation, but badly needed to hear the plan. He hoped it was a good one. (Ari:)
Actually all I have is step 1: getting a container of HFs off the base into the right hands,
if we could figure out who that is... But how could anyone use HFs – don‟t you need the
whole system?.. Ari had the basic outline of how it would work but lots of details were
missing. Besides the HFs, they had to liberate one or two of the laser-cameras. The base
had several spares because they had to swap them out whenever major servicing was
required. To get them to work together, there were a couple of critical black boxes and
some antennae that they needed. And of course a power supply. The black boxes were
pretty available but Ari couldn‟t think off-hand of where to grab the power supplies or
antennae from. The bigger challenge would be the technical manuals and software
uploads. They‟re all on disks that are extremely carefully managed. But he had seen some
lying around when the contractor guy was working. Maybe he could copy a few over to
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his network folders or onto his jump drive sometime when the guy was deep into the
work.. or at lunch?
6***
Barschauer figured out something bad happened as soon as he saw Sasha after the
important people parted. The presentations had gone quite well; he didn‟t worry much
about Mossad – they‟re always mad. He heard about the alarm but didn‟t know what
happened. Although he could have jumped right in and extracted the facts quickly, he
asked discretely about Dyen‟s interest in the program, enough to figure out that the
pompous fiend had laid hands on her. It‟s always a tough call how to proceed in these
situations – you never know how higher- ups will behave but usually it‟s badly. Sasha
had always perceived his integrity and commitment but this was new territory. She was
feeling a crushing gmish of outrage, betrayal, grieving and violation; didn‟t know what
was next. The colonel ordered Sasha to take leave the rest of the day and grabbed the
phone to arrange for coverage. He asked when was her next weekend pass. She had just
had one. He told her she had done a superb job, almost put a hand on her shoulder,… Try
to get past this.. and then left, looking pretty disgusted.
7***
OK but how do we get HFs off the base, Ari?... It‟s kind of complicated but I think I have
a scheme that‟ll work. I‟ll explain it in a minute but we‟ll have to make plans. This is
really big. We‟re going to need help. Who can we trust? How does trust work, anyway.
Furthermore, we don‟t have time to work out all these issues now; we need a short-term
game plan.. Ari was going to work on the HF liberation details, and Ben was to reactivate
some old contacts on the other side to figure out how to hand-off the HFs. That was going
to be really difficult; the trust thing again, in both directions. And all while stuck on IDF
property most of the time. Ben needed to think more about the big picture; how would
they want this thing to play out if they could even control it. Now that he understood
“real-time targeting” he was going to examine the whole system in a new light. Is there a
central loop when the HF gets locked on and is ready to be fired? How long does it take
to cover 5 miles? Where does the final decision to launch come from? Is there a database
of IDF targets that he could get access to? How much of this does Mossad control. Who
in IDF could he conceivably talk to about any of this?… (Ben:) OK, I‟ll set up a meeting
with Jusef. Where can we meet and not be noticed? He looks fairly Jewish, how about a
synagogue downtown, or maybe that new mall on the way to the airport, if he can get into
the country at all? There‟s a big restaurant there and it‟s noisy. Maybe one of us should
go over there first and talk to him on his own ground; this is going to be a shocker.
8***
Suddenly things had turned a little tense at LM. Management was planning to eliminate
35% of the plant workforce and replace them with a rent-a-gang – people with no
benefits, no security, no pension, no nothing. Some of them were orphans from foreign
wars and other misadventures who hardly spoke English, but followed orders well,
12
worked hard, and seemed to know the military drill. In fact they won‟t even work for
LM, they‟re hired by some outfit set up by retired generals that “services” the aerospace
sector. Also, they announced there would be no annual increase this year due to the
slackening economy – when they actually have more work than they can deliver on. So
when the flatscreen showed some footage of Andy Smarshal accepting an award from
DOD Secretary Rumskull to LM for “excellence in defending freedom” there were more
than a few muttered words around the tables. The CEO of LM was up next, addressing
shareholders somewhere recently in golden splendor, and going on about private equity
groups and other enigmas. This really didn‟t go down well either. Last week someone
brought in an article showing the guy making 4.3 million last year plus twice that in stock
options. A snap seminar on stock options followed with several theories thrown-about but
everyone by the end was convinced that this was another win for them, loss for us. Even
the HR manager, who tries to “eat with his people” at least once a week looked a little
embarrassed and left. For a lot of people, Smarshal was an icon; a smart affable engineer
who worked his way up through data systems to head the AGM division and he‟s also a
game fanatic – really into war games. The rumor is he‟s taken footage from Hellfire hits
and built it into his games. The little smoldering bodies lying around are real ones from
Fallujah! Lately Molly had noticed that Smarshal has been getting a lot of face-time in
the media and had mastered the art of making high tech murder a public virtue that
millions of dollars can‟t be enough for. [AGM – Air-to-Ground Missile Division of
Lockheed-Martin]
9***
Sasha was sitting alone when Ari came in for lunch. As he joined her he was more than
surprised at her appearance. “What‟s wrong” was his immediate thought but he needed to
think before firing off questions… Are you OK,.. is it something here?.. She nodded but
tried to be normal. She shifted in her seat and made a quick sweep of the mess hall to see
who‟s there… Something really awful happened but I can‟t talk about it. Not here.. They
ate in silence. Ari was switching back and forth between his HF scheme and Sasha‟s
mystery… Is it over or are you worried about it right now?.. She thought it was probably
over but couldn‟t be sure: Why don‟t you meet me for a drink in the base lounge around 6
or 7; it‟s usually pretty busy and people wouldn‟t notice us.
10***
Jusef was at the district office taking calls and on the computer, and found the e-mail
from Ben… He sounds pretty cheerful and wants to come and see me. I miss those guys,
we really learned a lot from each other. I wonder why he wants to come here? I guess it
won‟t be that hard for him to get through, especially in his smart uniform. I really want to
hear his stories from inside the beast. I hope he hasn‟t lost his way. He wants to meet next
Friday.. I‟ll have to hurry up on the construction supplies to be free then. And I„ll have to
tell Abdul about it. He‟ll be quite interested and can make sure nobody gets upset seeing
me with Ben, but we‟ll have to keep him out of harm‟s way… It took Jusef a lot of
talking two years ago to convince these guys that some Israelis are not only ok but really
on their side in some ways. What got to them were the risks that Ben, Ari and Bella used
13
to take and their willingness to organize public actions that invite arrest.. It‟s amazing the
IDF took them. Maybe they‟re so “goddamned” confident they don‟t even have to worry.
11***
Ben was supposed to be chasing down some bugs but it was getting him into the guts of
the satellite links and procedures for setting up secure channels. The guys that really
knew the system were happy to explain it and demonstrate various amazing little tricks,
and liked having a fresh mind around who was totally up on some of the proprietary
code. They could actually follow on-going operations, including listening in on
conversations of pilots, spotters, controllers, and kill-enablers. But of course the Mossad
links even they couldn‟t get on. He learned how to establish new lines with protected
access and how to patch through to satellite phones. Sometimes he forgot about the
alternate enterprise he was constructing, but at night it would all come back; it only took
a few minutes of TV news to refresh that screen.
12***
Ari waited a few minutes then got up and ordered a beer. He observed mainly support
guys and a few officers he didn‟t know at some of the bigger tables. There were several
women in uniform, some of them ranking, and having a good time. Sasha came in and
found his secluded spot quickly. She looked a little better – she always looked good – and
cast Ari a fleeting smile. Her day had been pretty good. With a gin-and-tonic she
described yesterday‟s events with the visitors including the highlights and windfalls. She
digressed to talk about Barschauer: Have you met him? He really is a good man.. and
then she descended into the darkness. Ari picked up on the likely outcome as soon as he
heard Dyen asked to go back to her post and look at displays. But still it was hard to
believe; you‟d think after the Israeli President got nailed like Clinton these guys would
clean up their act. At least Barschauer was civilized. Ari wanted to hold her and say he‟s
sorry but didn‟t know her that well, and there was still this separation between them. He
held her hand across the table and she was quiet with a few tears running down. In her
class position, it must have been an incredible shock – her father could hurt that guy,
even a fucking general, but won‟t. Did she tell her mother?... NO. The “never
should‟ves” would never end.. After a few minutes of quiet Sasha said she knew Ari and
his friends at school were always up to something but never understood what exactly or
got that interested... I‟ve certainly come to see the Palestinian problem as a lot more
complicated than everyone wished to believe but still, I don‟t see any other way.. Do
you?.. For the first time she made eye contact and kept it. It wasn‟t so much she was
expecting enlightenment, she just wanted to understand Ari‟s thinking. Ari had to re-
boot, where to begin? He decided straight-off this would have to be a long and continued
discussion if it worked at all, so, start with small steps: Where did your parents migrate
from?
13***
14
The „fires were scoring hits in the caves of Afghanistan, LM was proud to report. Finally
getting those terrorists (at about $30,000 per kill). They just drive choppers up the valley
and take „em out, left and right. Somebody asked Molly if she thought those were lies
too? This was a big one to get one‟s arms around. Taliban Islamists are pretty hard to
defend. She had to run this one on her feet, pulling down theory as she went: Well, how
come we armed them against the Russians?.. Why would anybody join up with such a
lame crowd (the Taliban) if they had any decent options at all?.. She remembered Jimmy
Carter talking about Palestinian refugees but couldn‟t quite make the leap to Afghan.
Then one of the quieter employees offered up that when he was there, the U.S. (CIA) was
making deals with the worst war lords and criminals they could find to go in and destroy
the basic social fabric under Soviet rule, including schools for boys and girls, clinics and
workplaces. Not that being a Soviet province was better than being an American
province, but we could have left it alone; it all came down anyway… Yeah, just like
Vietnam,.. someone else said: we lost 50,000 of our guys, two million Vietnamese died,
we, quote, lost the damn war, and now Coca-Cola, Nike, GAP, Intel and for all we know
LM are moving in to grab cheap labor. Why do we do these things?... (Someone else:) I
don‟t know what the big attraction was in „nam – besides cheap labor – but in Iraq it‟s oil
pure and simple. The motherfucker wanted to go into Iraq no matter what and there was
no one stopping him, including the goddamned Congress. It‟s unbelievable; we let ONE
MAN hearing voices do this to us… You have to believe they all kind of wanted it,
including jump-on-band-wagon Hillary, and we‟ve been paying real big ever since. Don‟t
know what Obama would do.. Everyone was quiet. It was almost time to go back to
making more „fires.
14***
Ben hitched a ride with an army patrol down to the border crossing and then sauntered
across, flashing his ID and looking like he was on a mission. He was, and caught a bus
into town. He saw Jusef standing where he said he‟d be and then followed him, half a
block back, for several twists and turns ending in a food mart. They went out the back
door and up a stairs into a comfortable apartment. They had a good hug and close look at
each other. It had been almost 14 months. What was Hamas focused on these days? How
were people surviving with the shortages? Were they still shooting it out with the
Authority guys?… How was it in the IDF? And Ari, was he doing OK? Whatever
happened to Bella and Juliana, and what about Rachel? Are you finding out anything
useful for us in the IDF?... Jusef made some tea. Ben started. He said he had learned a lot
about the missile attacks on leadership. Jusef nodded, eyes fixed. Did he know that Fatah
people were cooperating with Israel?… Of course. We caught some of them. It has really
caused a lot of grief. Our people can‟t go anywhere out in the open... Ben said that he and
Ari are embarking on a project that could dramatically alter the playing field. That it
would require participation by people on both sides and eventually in other countries –
Jordan, Iraq,.. everywhere, and that they had to find a way to identify players that they all
can trust. It would be very dangerous but could conceivably have a big impact. Jusef
disclosed that he was being prepared for a higher position in Hamas, not something
someone would say absent trust. Ben said he and Ari are becoming intimately
knowledgeable with the Hellfire missile system.. and would like to make it more
15
generally available.. He also gave Jusef three names at the top of the IDF hit list currently
being spotted. Could Jusef get back to the city to meet with Ari and Ben someplace
where no one would notice? Maybe they could come up with some reason for him to
travel to the university. There is much less surveillance there. We need a secure
messenger who goes back and forth.. too bad they don‟t let custodial workers commute to
the city anymore.
15***
Things were getting busy at the base because Israel had expanded its range of interest
into southern Lebanon and Jordan, pursuing its divine right to attack anywhere. Ari
started the paperwork – actually cyberwork – to order another container of HFs down
from central IDF assets management. He decided to be pro-active, order two containers.
Normally they would be shipped by truck with an armed escort. The empty containers are
returned by commercial shipper. So step one in the liberation of HFs was to return a
container, but to a different location,… and it wouldn‟t be empty. The containers are bar-
coded and have various IDs and tracking devices – they can even see them by satellite –
so he would wait a week before sending the first new arrival on to freedom, and he would
arrange for a late afternoon pick-up so the satellites couldn‟t see where it ended up that
night in case someone was watching. With two new containers, he would be able to
juggle inventory so that no one would notice the contents of one were missing.
16***
At the local council meeting after regular business was over, Jasmine announced that
Jusef had something to bring up. He was a relative new-guy-on-the-block so people were
curious. Jusef glanced at Abdul, looked around, and said he had met up with an old
buddy from school who is now in the IDF. Ahseem went byserk – you met with him
here!? Did you clear this? Are you crazy? You could have /.. (Abdul jumped in:) Hold off
guys, I knew about it and we took precautions. Let‟s get some facts here. Some of Jusef‟s
friends are ok, and this contact is possibly quite important… (Jasmine:) Let‟s just go on,
Jusef? Jusef gave a little background on Ben and Ari and the other activists, and what
their thinking was like back when they were students together. He explained that he had
actually learned a lot about the whole situation being with that group.. They really
brought a different perspective to history and all the conflicts that seem never to stop.
They were for solidarity among all working people, against what they called “capital”…
Some tentative nods surfaced and Jusef went on: They know how the missile attacks
work, from the inside.. Eyes grew wider and the rustling stopped.. One of them works in
the computer center at IDF and the other got put on a helicopter base.. Now he really had
their attention… How do you know they weren‟t sent to get information on us, Ahseem
enquired politely... Well, I know these guys better than my own father and uncles, Jusef
replied, but Ben also gave me this, and he put down a piece of paper with three names on
it... Considerable curiosity morphed to extreme curiosity –What is this?.. they
demanded?... These are three names on Israel‟s attack list. They are watching these
people... Silence happened as the comrades explored the significance and implications of
this revelation. At the very least, they need to be warned (Abdul and Jasmine: they
16
already have been). Secondly, we will be able to identify the spies much more easily if
we know who they‟re watching… How do we know this is real – they could have given
lots of names… Jusef replied: One never knows with absolute certainty.. but Ben and Ari
have a plan. They want to “liberate” some Hellfire missiles for other people to use… This
required another pause for contemplation. Meetings of the council are usually way less
astounding, just problems getting electricity or water restored, emergency food relief,
moving security forces around, repairing schools, countering Authority or Fatah lies, and
of course the usual family crises that erupt under these conditions. Abdul mentioned that
the leadership in Gaza and Damascus had already been given a brief heads-up and there
would be a meeting on this tomorrow. Meanwhile they need to work out a plan with
security, and Jusef will be getting instructions on how to proceed on all this. Needless to
say this was information not to be shared.
17***
They both wanted to get off base and explore the surrounds a bit, so early one afternoon
with leave they picked-up lunch-to-go from the mess, already had boots on, got a car and
headed several kilometers up into the hills. Sasha‟s grandparents on her mother‟s side
were from Hungary and had come to Israel by way of Italy in 1947 before they were
married. They had both been resistance fighters. Her father came in „66 from the U.S. but
his family were from Russia. He got into the telephone business early and made a lot of
money on defense work in the „70s and „80s, and then when all the telecom stuff took off
with satellites and internet, he made some smart moves and alliances. Israeli capitalists
wanted access to systems that weren‟t totally dominated by the telecom giants out of
Europe or the U.S. Especially lucrative was IDF work as Israel got more interested in
security applications in Africa and Latin America… What in Latin America? Ari asked,
surprised… Oh, I don‟t know, he was always talking about “security systems” and.. and
dealing with surveillance information and agitators,.. he talked about Guatemala a lot.
They had some trick for monitoring city water usage to locate where people were meeting
together.. I didn‟t quite get it at the time... Wow, you mean they were working with the
Guatemalan army and the Americans? Against the popular movement there?
Disappearing people?.. Ari was shocked. He remembered about the nuns… Ya, he was
really proud when he out-competed the American companies. Got to do some great
traveling too – he talked about staying at a fabulous villa belonging to one of the Somoza
families in Nicaragua.. I got to go to South Africa one time when I was about 8 or 9; it
was so beautiful… As they ascended a gentle rise, plodding past olive orchards and
grazing sheep, Ari was reminded, again, that she and he were from different planets, and
not Mars or Venus. She continued: When I was there, there was this feeling I got that
wasn‟t so nice. Now of course I understand that it was anti-Semitism; it was the first time
I had experienced that… In the distance every once in a while they could see a mosquito
rise from the invisible base. On the way back Ari said: It‟s really all about justice, and
although the creation of Israel was responding to a grave injustice, it has created a whole
new one and keeps getting worse. Israel is now deeply and globally involved on the
wrong sides of peoples‟ struggles for a decent life... “Grave injustice,” is that all?... Ari
asked if she knew how many Congolese people had died as a result of King Leopold‟s
private colonization venture in the Belgian Congo, or how many Vietnamese died in the
17
Vietnam war? Or the Armenians.. or Madagascar?.. We could discuss history and

culpabilities, but there‟s really no getting around the fact of Palestinian oppression and
strangulation.. What do you think about Iraq?... Her dad was pretty candid about it: Oil
and stabilization of the Persian Gulf region for.. well, the “multinational corporate elite” I
guess you would say, although it seems to him the Europeans have a smarter approach…
Yeah, the generals and PM apparently don‟t agree, cheering the Americans on… My Dad
used to say “you just can‟t know enough about each individual” – really vital for
coordinated police-military activities. For a while they thought Islam could be useful but
now things seem to be unraveling, just look at Hezbollah... (Ari:) Do you like being part
of a social order built on lies, one where people do things because they can do them
without consequences, where wealth and social status grow out of a giant mountain of
corruption and self-deception?.. Maybe he was being too hard on her, he remembered
Rachel under attack, but she came back: I‟ve noticed for some time how self-serving and
groundless a lot of attitudes and arguments are in my parents‟ crowd. They mostly work
pretty hard and they are absolutely sure they deserve all the rewards, that they have
earned them, even the ones that are out-and-out crooks. My Dad always laughs at them,
says they‟re an inevitable and necessary part of this incredible system we have.. A lot of
the younger ones really turn me off – just mindless preppies. My mom tells these
incredible family stories about fighting the Nazis and “organizing” workers and
communities, and of course the kibbutzim, and then it morphs into defending Israel. I
thought I could ignore these things and just become really competent at what I do and I‟d
get to good positions, but I‟m starting to have my doubts.. Last week didn‟t help. I can‟t
imagine ever trying to change the system but I also can‟t see myself ever comfortable
with it either.. She gave Ari a sad forlorn gaze.. I‟m feeling a little adrift at the moment.
Do you have something.. I could read,.. that would help?.. He did. [PM – Israeli Prime
Minister]
18***
Ben was wondering who could help. His main concern was whether they could really
figure out the HF system enough to get it to work. Like any complex digital device, if
you don‟t get it right it doesn‟t even pretend to be alive. Maybe ask one of the engineers
from school, some of them were still around and he‟d seen a few at some protests. How
could he approach them? There weren‟t any that he could imagine embracing this whole
project but he could see one or two of them agreeing that the assassin missiles are an
outrage and maybe helping decipher the system without asking too many questions or
wanting answers. Tomas might do it; he was working for a Nokia subsidiary and traveled
a lot to Jordan, Yemen and Egypt.
19***
The Gaza Council‟s questions were direct and comprehensive. The concept of going after
“leadership” intrigued them and the irony was hard to suppress. A professor from the
university engineering faculty, the one that normally deals with electrical grid
complexities, asked: How can they do this, this is not a trivial system, but was impressed
that the two Israelis appeared to be technically proficient. Interesting. The consensus
18
quickly developed that Hamas cannot be directly involved; that they should identify a
reliable working group that would function independent of Hamas but whose goals and
judgment they could trust. Some candidates were discussed and a plan made to explore
avenues. They were especially interested in the prospect of exporting this capability to
other areas of conflict, most immediately Iraq but then,.. the possibilities were endless.
Abdul did most of the responding but Jusef was engaged on how this project would be
presented with potential recruits, and what agreements would be needed, what security
concerns addressed. It was agreed this was not just a fancy anti-tank weapon (which
some Hellfire versions are) but a new strategic tool for very limited, special, defined
targets.
20***
LM was delighted to announce that Hellfires are being integrated into weapons systems
in other countries. Sweden already has them in their coastal defenses, France has
successfully test fired their helicopter version, designed for anti-tank operations, and
Australia has signed-up too. Molly wondered about Australia. Their Prime Minister
Howard was one of the few remaining standing (and soon to fall) in Bush‟s “coalition of
the willing” in Iraq against mounting opposition of the Australian people. The terrorist
attack on a club in Bali a few years back had caught a number of Australian tourists.
Looks like Howard is taking the high-tech road; not a big surprise. She wondered what
sort of targeting Howard had in mind. Maybe he had plans to work with the Indonesian
military going after Islamic militants in the region if things heat up. Indonesia has the
largest Islamic population in the world, and they‟re a lot more sophisticated, politically,
than the Taliban losers.
21***
Jasmine had worked as a medical social worker for years in the refugee camps and had
acquired a lot of experience in administration and stealth. She was tasked with tutoring
Jusef in trust. She was about 38 or 40, widowed with two kids and to Jusef was really
beautiful. She liked Jusef because he was direct and open to alternatives but at the same
time astutely critical. He was rather attractive to her, too, even though only about 25 or
26. Fortunately, both understood that personal explorations would have to wait. They first
talked about goals, how people‟s fantasies and dreams bear on their thinking, and how the
discipline for struggle depends on these things and sometimes doesn‟t quite get there.
They discussed the local leadership and others they had known, some successful, some
not so good. Jusef‟s experience with the Israeli students intrigued Jasmine. She had had
dealings with the other side at various times, low level military people, and Lebanese
supporters and foreigners of various stripes with whom a certain level of trust had to be
established, but never on a high stakes project like this. She wanted to talk more about the
grand plan for this new tool and how to control it. There were many ways it could go bad,
for everybody. They made a schedule to meet and map the Hellfire diaspora in its new
life.
22***
19
Tomas was glad to see Ben. His job was hard but going well. And he had a new girlfriend
in Tel Aviv, but something was missing. He really missed the group from school and
more and more was feeling alienation and despair. He was thinking the other day about
Mohammed Ata – the guy that flew a plane into the World Trade Center in New York.
He had just read about him somewhere. Here was a guy that got his architecture degree in
the U.S., but was so despondent about the future, his future, anyone‟s future in Egypt,
that he went over to the crazies… I know things are really repressive in Egypt, the
government totally corrupt and worthless, and the economic prospects for most people,
including some with good degrees, abysmal.. I feel a little desperate too, you know what I
mean? Even though I have a great thing going, I want to be part of something positive,
something that can change things, something smart. Iraq is really pushing me away –
Israel is totally complicit; you should see all the refugees in Jordan and the stories they
tell. It makes me not want to spend time with clients in their corporate clubs.. So how is it
inside IDF, Ben? Must be pretty weird… Ben described the colossus and the Hellfire
system, and Hamas. This didn‟t improve Tomas‟ spirits until Ben said: Ari and I have a
missile plan… Tomas was surprised and searching.. What sort of plan?.. What could it
be?... Maybe you don‟t really want to know but there are things we need help with… You
mean technical help? I know telecom but not aerospace, really.. My friend Stash might
help, though. He‟s a good guy, an aerospace émigré from Russia and very informed and
passionate on what‟s going on all over the place. It‟s interesting, they taught those guys
Marxism and now they‟re supposed to forget it all, but Stash isn‟t forgetting.. I‟ll talk to
him and see if he wants to get together… Great, but we need to be really careful; I‟ll
think about a safe place.
23***
A week ago Ari gave Sasha some classic books and essays by Amos Elon, an Israeli
dissident, and then one by Chomsky, the American who has written a lot about
everything. She had just come back from weekend leave and was happy to see Ari come
in to lunch... I met this guy at a party my parents were at over at the Rosenblum place –
modest but really quite nice, even my Dad was impressed. Anyway, there was this guy
there who was arguing with the elders about Iraq and it started to get pretty heated –
mainly because he was winning. One brave executive wife took his side and some of the
younger folks threw in friendly sarcasm here and there. Then he brought up the
Palestinians and the roof blew off. Finally he said “OK, sleep with the dogs and build
your empire with blood and sand but it‟s all going to come down around you, and I‟ll be
somewhere else building the future.” The generals, CEOs, bureaucrats and board
members were relieved the debate was over and everyone settled into schmoozing and
really good gnashing.. So I went over and introduced myself. He‟s a developmental
economist, has worked in Argentina, Brazil and Algeria. I told him I was doing my time
in the IDF – in communications – but that I had started reading those books. Of course
he knew all about them, has even talked with Chomsky. I‟ve never met someone so
articulate and knowledgeable with a whole different outlook,.. I mean,.. within my
family‟s circles.. Thanks for helping give me some new directions to consider, Ari.. So
what could be done about all this. I suppose you talk to Ben a lot. Do you see him on
20
leave?... We meet whenever we can and we‟re talking about things,.. We have some ideas
for something to do... Ideas like what?... Ari didn‟t answer right away.. Well, some things
I can‟t talk about right now.. Remember when you didn‟t want to get into details about
helicopter communications?.. well, it‟s sort of like that... Sasha was a little alarmed and
studied Ari with steady eyes, then looked away and they were quiet for a while.. I have to
go.. she said, finally,.. please be careful.. She looked anxious again and then was gone.
24***
The Russian guy wasn‟t Jewish; he came to Israel for a job in satellite communications.
Lots of unemployed Soviet engineers were scattering that way. He was totally in synch
with declaring the fundamental crime in the Israeli central dogma. And it wasn‟t anti-
Semitism either, although he did let-on that he had been well schooled in that too, in
some Moscow venues. He was aware of the missile attacks on Hamas and other state
enemies but hadn‟t really thought about the technical aspect. As Ben filled him in he
quickly got the picture: But really, what‟s so different about blowing up the rocket
launchers vs. the leadership; they‟re both engaged in a just and probably hopeless fight;
they‟re both valued and precious fighters who Israel can snuff out at their convenience…
Ben thought for a moment: that‟s true, but it‟s more than that; there‟s something so
demeaning and demoralizing about having the leadership that people have chosen –
everyone said it was a fair election – picked off with impunity. That‟s why we want to
turn this system around; point it at the leading criminals on the other side… That was
when Tomas, who had been listening quietly but looking at his watch, jumped up and
said he had to go. As he gathered his things, he added: I don‟t disagree with what you
guys are saying, but I can‟t get involved, at least not right now. But if there are ways I
can be useful, you know, without knowing or danger, I will help... After he left, Ben
smiled: You know, Tomas has a new girlfriend.
25***
Some students from the university worked closely with Hamas, doing special projects or
just helping out on endless mundane tasks. Jusef knew some who were particularly
engaged, trying to make sense of their world and where to go in it. What he needed was
people that had connections in Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq, connections to people there who
could relate to and join an international undertaking with extraordinary objectives, who
were savvy and able to improvise solutions, who could embrace and develop a new
strategic perspective. Actually, some of the student crowd here were refugees from Iraq
and other countries who had come to Gaza seeking comfort and sanctuary with fellow
travelers.
A meeting with a few of the university people was to be arranged. Jusef got their names
and some background, and went over them with Jasmine. They asked each other
questions and took notes. When they were finished, Jusef asked Jasmine how it was being
a woman in Hamas. She thought for a few seconds, and said it was difficult at times with
a wry grin. Actually, some members of the higher leadership were very hostile,
sometimes acting as though she didn‟t exist in the middle of a discussion that she was
21
contributing to. They were totally into traditional roles and very “strict” interpretations of
the Koran, which of course meant their interpretations. Most of the top leadership
recognized how valuable her experiences and contacts were and so suppressed whatever
their personal problems were with her being there. And a few of the Marxists and other
more modern thinkers in the organization acted like they didn‟t even notice her gender,
most of the time.. although they did look at her like she was a woman, once in a while.
Age didn‟t seem to matter much; the younger members were of course better, except for
the fanatics.
26***
Sally was off for three days from LM because her nephew got killed by a road-side bomb
in Iraq. The plant made an announcement and held a moment of silence during lunch.
They showed his picture and had a TV interview with his high school coach. Molly kept
quiet and read her book in between bites. Some people felt the need to say something to
honor him for serving his country. Molly wanted to scream: Every time you say that, you
put a nail in another soldier‟s coffin, you idiots. They weren‟t serving their country; they
were swindled into sacrificing themselves for big oil and the neocons; they were
manipulated into becoming hired killers for the people running this country... Sometimes
Molly wished she was back teaching school, even though it wore her out: declining
budgets, increasing class sizes and cyber-kids less and less interested in understanding
anything important. Matt whispered: Hey Molly, how come you„re so quiet today...
Molly looked over at him: You know damn well. Why don‟t you jump up and say it?...
Matt wasn‟t quite ready for that, had to think about it: Well, I think we can.. all agree that
Sally‟s nephew died for.. for all of us... He didn‟t die for me, Molly shot back, getting a
little loud. He was murdered in spite of me, and I‟m not sorry nearly as much as I‟m mad.
I‟m fucking furious, she yelled.. The HR guy, sensing a meltdown, came over and put his
hand on Molly‟s shoulder... Lets try to be respectful – I know we don‟t all agree about
this but can‟t we / NO said Molly, we can‟t. And I‟m sorry Mr. Farnought but it‟s time
we all started saying NO. Is your kid over there? Is this the government you want?
Maybe we all ought to reconsider our career goals here, what sort of monster are we
contributing to? The whole end of the room by now was pretty quiet. There were no
happy faces and it wasn‟t just because of Sally‟s loss. People were looking at their plates,
the floor and occasionally their watches.
27***
Ari had another long conversation with the Hellfire contractor who had just returned after
a few weeks away. He was getting ready to re-assemble a system that had been taken out
to trouble-shoot some problem. Ari was actually pretty taken by the elegance of the
design and didn‟t have any trouble asking innocent and perceptive questions… Well first,
the system gets the coordinates of the target and the on-board computer directs the pilot
to a good vantage point to hover at. Meanwhile the computer tells the camera exactly
where to aim itself. It‟s all image-stabilized, of course, since the chopper is bouncing
around with air currents and rotor wash and everything else. With such high-power
magnification on a distant target, without stabilization any little motion would throw the
22
image off-camera. Then the pilot on his (or her, the guy smiles) display, or their handler,
actually picks out the target based on spotter descriptions and locks on the visual pattern
for the system to automatically track as the target moves along. When they are ready for
the kill, the laser is put on it, and off it goes. Takes about 12 seconds to take it out… Ari,
looking at the Hellfire mounting brackets, said: So how does it actually launch?... The
contractor explained the timing sequence from pushing the button, the release, and actual
ignition and all the little steps along the way. After the tutorial, Ari went off to get a
maintenance crew to help re-install the camera in the nose of the chopper. Later came the
computer disks and reloading, testing and certifying readiness. Then, lunch-time. The
contractor was going off-base with some officers for a nice bowl of lentil soup, falafel
and tabouli. Ari hung back to clean things up a bit and copy some disks to his jump
drive.
28***
Sasha was taking her job a little less seriously. Barschauer noticed and was glad she had
come through her bad experience alright. But things were heating up a bit with the
expanding IDF operations into southern Lebanon. For the first time, Barschauer allowed
himself to wonder whether the Israeli leadership was really up to the task of figuring out
what they ought to be doing. The Palestinian problem never seemed to get smaller. The
Iraq adventure was going badly and he remembered how the PM, generals and IDF staff
were so enthusiastic at the beginning. There seemed to be something just a little
inappropriate about this program of incinerating Hamas leaders, but he couldn‟t quite
articulate what it was.
29***
Ari and Ben were able to coordinate another long weekend leave and met again, this time
at a lounge up in the technology park next to the university, and this time with Stash.
They had a good time getting to know each other. Ben‟s family had come from Poland
right after the war, and Stash had lots of stories about Russian misadventures there. He
talked about the education he got, both technical and political. … Ben and Ari marveled
at how this guy managed to shake off the Soviet dogma and preserve a clear class-
analytic perspective as well as develop a modern critical appreciation of the “democracy”
concept. The whole Soviet party apparatus was designed for decisions to be made high up
in the organization and then implemented by reliable elements all the way down with
little discussion or critical feedback. It wasn‟t so much that classical Marxist theory
required this, it was more that top-down was all that anybody knew, just looking at the
societies they were replacing. Stalin trained under the Tsars and Cossacks. The concept
of local initiatives, mass participation based on shared knowledge and responsibilities, of
open discussion on analyzing problems, developing solutions, on accountability of
leadership and government at all levels, of the value of openness in public media. These
were all new ideas that actually could have saved the Soviet system, but instead it
collapsed without them. Then the purveyors of “shock treatment” from Harvard quickly
moved in followed by multiplying privatizers and capitalist thugs, and life in the Soviet
Union plummeted to a new low. Jobs, healthcare and pensions vanished.
23
They got around to the Hellfire system and Ari shared his latest findings: If some
Hellfires can be liberated, we need to know what would it take to be able to use them.
Stash had been thinking and now had some things to say… Well, you know, in some
ways this is much simpler than if we were trying to replicate their system with helicopters
or drones. If you‟re going to launch these things from fixed stable sites like trucks or roof
tops, all this complicated positioning, vectoring and tracking gets much simpler. Still it‟s
a complex system and we‟d need to have documentation on the various loops,
sequencing, detectors, external inputs and decision logic in order to figure out how to
make it work.. Ari said he had a copy of the system manuals on his jump drive, in his
pocket. He also had the access code that the contractor uses – it was written in the guy‟s
note book, inside back cover. Would Stash be willing to take a look at it? They discussed
the considerable significance of this possession, and the consequences of them being
discovered. Stash smiled: It reminds me of working in the Soviet defense sector, and the
schemes we used to come up with to bypass security.
30***
Jasmine and Jusef arrived separately at the place where they were meeting with three
students. Two of them appeared at about the appointed time but the third was 10 min late.
Punctuality is kind of important in high stakes security operations. The guy explained he
had been stopped by one of his professors, a Fatah hustler, and didn‟t feel he could get
away without arousing suspicions. All three had been reliable players in previous Hamas
actions, including some quite sensitive and dangerous ones. Jasmine asked each in turn
how they saw their lives evolving and what goals they had imagined. Jusef pried into
their feelings about Jews, about the various forces contending in Iraq and what they saw
as winning strategies. It was explained that this project would require travel to Israel,
Jordan and Iraq and possibly other countries, and how did they feel about that? It would
mean trying to identify individuals and groups in these arenas who could be trusted allies
in a program that no existing group in those areas would know about. One of the guys
said he really was committed to the Hamas program locally but was a little apprehensive
about operating in strange and dangerous milieu; he wasn‟t saying no, but he needed to
think this through. He also said he had a good Iraqi friend who was totally trustworthy
and really sharp, who goes back and forth quite often. One of the students was in
mechanical engineering, one had been pre-med but wasn‟t sure how to proceed, and the
third was in IT. Jasmine gave them two things to read and they set a time and place to re-
convene in a week.
31***
Molly took some vacation time; she had 12 days accumulated so she took a whole week.
The stress of the evolving debate at the plant was tiring even though gratifying – she
could see the earth shifting bit by bit. Assembling the little solid-fuel rocket engines into
the Hellfire frame was pretty interesting although exacting; they only weighed about 28
lbs. She could tell a lot of thought went into this magic device, but it was also depressing.
When she requested time off, she was sent to see the HR guy and they had a serious talk,
24
with the door closed. He had been in HR at a GM plant in California that closed 3 yr ago.
He felt really fortunate to land the LM position and enjoyed welcoming new people into
the family and watching them grow.. but it was starting to wear on him. He asked how
her job was, and her supervisor?.. No complaints and Molly was about to get up and go
but he seemed to want to talk more. He had moved to California for GM because he
loved the land and the concerns that many people there had for the environment, for
conservation. The more the global energy crisis developed, the more he looked for
leadership in America, the less he was able to find it. It was just unbelievable what a
waste the war was at a time when we should be totally remaking our housing stock,
public transportation, urban recreation and basic manufacturing and agriculture for
energy efficiency. And now LM starting to outsource his own workforce was about the
last straw. He looked so sad Molly wanted to give him a hug. She told him she was glad
that he had shared this with her, that she agreed totally and these were difficult times for
her too. We have to help each other through this, she said, and start to somehow build an
alternate vision – I guess no one else is going to do it, but she flashed over to Carter and
Gore. They both got up and he wished her a nice week off as she held his hand tightly.
32***
The Chainy VEEP was in the Middle East again, threatening the lessers, bribing co-
conspirators, intimidating inferiors, inspiring the pathologically demented and
intellectually challenged, flying unannounced between safe havens and rushing down
sanitized highways in armed convoys between stops. There was a news clip showing
Blackwater hired guns in their Armani shades keeping him safe from the world. It was on
Al Jazeera. Ben, Stash and Ari saw it. Jusef and Jasmine saw it. Sasha and Barschauer
saw it. Almost no one liked it. But it was interesting.. that highway from the Baghdad
airbase to the Green Zone had sections that were long and straight. Ari and Stash noticed
there were lots of apartment buildings with good views. Hmm.
[VEEP – Vice-President of the U.S.]
33***
Ben made another visit to Jusef. It was safer than e-mail. There was a rally going on as
Ben got off the bus. It was all in Arabic but it wasn‟t hard to get the full blast of rabid
anti-Semitism, and there were pictures. Ben thought, I guess if the only Jews they know
are Zionists in blatant denial of Palestinian rights, incinerating their leaders, one could
understand how the confusion could arise, but it was pretty disturbing. It makes one
wonder how sophisticated the Hamas leadership is, though, if this is the level of their
agitprop. When he saw Jusef, he discretely pointed to the commotion and made sure Jusef
got the message for subsequent examination. They convened several minutes later in
another apartment, and Ben unexpectedly found himself with Jasmine. He had heard
about her but was still a little jolted. The three of them delved into their respective pasts
for inspection and reflection. Ben wondered how she was able to get locals in Beirut to be
so helpful with the refugee problems and Jasmine asked Ben about his parents and family
and when had they started to question the central dogma. There was a lull and they were
about to focus on the next steps in HF liberation but Ben needed to bring up the rally. It
25
wasn‟t easy to figure how to approach it and get a positive result. He started by
reminding Jusef what he was witnessing right before they saw each other. Jusef was
ready but nervous about Jasmine‟s reaction; he quickly reconstituted the image and the
obvious problem and then looked at her, deferring for answers. Jasmine got the picture,
straightened-up, and then said there are many things in Hamas that are not perfect,
including matters that affect her very directly. On anti-Semitism, racism toward the
Jewish people, she said there were several currents. Some members seem to believe it and
can‟t be bothered to examine whether that really advances their cause. Others are
opportunistic, it‟s easier to use it than disabuse it. Of course, under the circumstances, its
pretty hard even for the most disciplined and objective observer not to feel some pretty
raw emotion on it. The better educated Hamas leadership and, of course those schooled in
correctness, generally were fairly careful to distinguish but everyone‟s language slipped
now and then. She shrugged and said to Ben: I‟m sorry but that‟s about the best I can
do... Ben smiled, took her arm and said it was better than he had hoped, and let‟s get on
with business.. Ben was thinking maybe he should give counter-examples of Israeli
racism toward Palestinians expressed in even the most refined venues – the university
faculty club came to mind – but decided that can wait.
Progress in recruiting operatives in Gaza and securing technical support back in Israel
was discussed. Then they turned to the need for a mission statement. What exactly were
these HFs to be used for, Jasmine asked, and how was that to be accomplished. Ben laid
out his and Ari‟s thinking. The precedent set by Israel of taking out Hamas leadership
(well, not exactly a precedent; the U.S. had tried to get Khadafy, and even Saddam
Hussein right before the invasion, and then there was Allende (Chile),.. and Lumumba
(Congo),..) was to be answered by taking out selected “high value” targets of theirs,
highest level officials most directly responsible for and publicly linkable to the global
criminality we are now observing, but also their influential backers... It was to be an
attack literally on the ruling class. Its main value was inspirational; to undermine the
political foundations of their enterprise and embolden the oppressed, including those in
their own societies. This was fairly high theory for a Hamas leader who normally dealt in
survival and small continuous calamity. But Jasmine relayed that the Hamas leadership‟s
thinking on the HFs was along similar lines and they found it quite an interesting
scenario. They would assist in making contacts in other countries of course but would
largely stay out of the operational details. However, they did need some assurances and
controls in place in order to move forward on this. The three conspirators mapped out
questions needing answers, and then Ben slipped out into the street. Jasmine leaned back
for a moment of rest and took Jusef‟s hand. They shared an impression of getting
involved in something big and it was humbling. They needed something familiar to hold
on to.
34***
Stash laid out the hardware requirements. We need the release mechanism that is driven
from the HF system and the brackets with explosive bolts. Ari said he had noticed some
extra launch rails; they had been removed from a downed chopper. And they had all the
other parts. He could probably walk out with two or three – they‟re not very big – but
26
maybe it was safer to slip them in the containers with the liberated pods. Launching the
HF would require building some sort of frame in which to install the launch rail, from
which to hang the HF making all the appropriate connections. Next, the cameras, with
their control modules and displays. They seem to be fairly self-contained and integrated,
fortunately they‟re also not that big, but way to big to walk out with. Ari had given this
some thought. There were shipping containers that spare cameras had arrived in. He
could ship them out by DHL or FedEx, saying they needed reconditioning, especially the
early ones. This had happened before. U.S. export rules require that they be shipped via
secure military carriers, but whose checking?: Ari. On the operating system, Stash was
confident that they could disable some of the features they don‟t need and bypass some of
the system checks, but he was a ways from fully understanding it. The manuals were for
operations not design modification, innovation or adaptation. Finally, Stash mentioned he
had an Iraqi friend who was very proficient – had been to the USSR for SAM-II missile
training – who they may want to talk to. This made Ben and Ari a little nervous. Have
you told him anything?... Well, I did mention that I was working on the attacks on Hamas
leaders.. don‟t worry, this guy is very solid. He‟s been badly treated by every country
he‟s had experience in, including Israel. Right now, he‟s working for an Israeli contractor
in Iraq and other Gulf countries… That was even worse; he was probably being
monitored by Mossad. They explained to Stash that there could be no discussion of
anything in e-mail, by phone or regular mail. Stash was chastened but swore that nothing
so far could lead to a problem. He would explain all this to his friend, in person. [SAM-
II, a sophisticated Soviet anti-aircraft guided missile for downing jet fighters and high-
flying bombers]
35***
Sasha saw her economist again. He was around for a few weeks doing a seminar series at
the university and some consulting. They took a trip to the beach together and did some
nice hiking: He doesn‟t have family here but knows a number of people in his field and
has some relatives… (Ari:) What does he think of your work in IDF?… I wanted to talk
to you about that, Ari. I said I worked at the base on helicopter communications and
described the systems a bit and he fairly quickly figured out that we‟re the ones going
after Hamas leaders. He asked what I thought about it. I‟m so torn; I don‟t know what to
think; this is not something I had ever thought about or even knew about until this job
and everything I have ever learned – until recently – supports this endeavor. I tried to be
honest but I could see he was having a difficult time not reacting harshly. This is very
upsetting; I like this guy but I can‟t just throw everything over because I meet some guy,
you know? And maybe I should reject the entire shtick of Israel but I‟m not there yet and
may never be... Ari relished serving up wisdom on the politics of life: You have to
acknowledge your class position in life and then decide how you want to play it. Plenty
of people in privileged positions are able eventually to cut through the class obfuscation
and conceit to see what is really going on. Most chose to accept it, some relish it, some
chose to reject it various ways. Do you remember Rachel Kavetsky? The girl I was with
at school for quite a while? Well, she was raised in a fairly prosperous family and it took
her a while to understand the basis for that success, to make an honest assessment of it.
She isn‟t exactly tearing down the system but she is very committed to learning public
27
administration and is looking forward to a future when she can help rebuild this society
after it has come to its senses. You have to decide what role you need to play in this
drama; it‟s not so much an ethical as personal decision, who you want to be. If someone
has a burning desire for justice, to change things, and they design their life around that,
they can‟t judge badly other people whose gratifications are elsewhere. You have to deal
with people pretty much where they‟re at.. Ari fixed on Sasha‟s eyes.. that‟s what I do
with you. I really like you a lot, you‟re very attractive, but I know that you and I are
probably on different tracks. If I can do things that help you achieve an honest appraisal
of your world and your self, that‟s what I want to do. It would be really great if you came
to share what are also my goals but that is not a condition for our friendship. If this
journey of discovery is one you ultimately chose not to accept, then we‟ll probably drift
apart, with a sad shrug… You might learn something too, you know… Ya, I know, I will,
and I do.
Sasha was relieved to have a roadmap that made sense. At least she knew what the
choices coming along might be... Thanks Ari, that helps a bit.. I think I can talk more
easily with Aaron now, and we‟ll see if he can accept where I am.. and, I where he is.
3. Migrating the Justice Factor
1***
When Ari returned from lunch the two containers were sitting there on a camouflaged
Volvo flatbed military truck on the tarmack, its diesel engine purring. They were
gleaming white in the afternoon sun. The escort guys were standing around with their
Uzis, smoking and bored. The paperwork got done, they cranked up the overhead
traveling crane in the helicopter bay, and soon the containers were settled into their new
home. Now things would have to move fast. They needed warehouse space somewhere
near the West Bank where a liberated container would be shipped. They needed a way to
remove the HFs from their somewhat bulky pods, wrap them safely and securely with
their detached fins and accessories, and then dispatch them, a few at a time over the
border into the West Bank and then to Jordan and on to points unknown. It shouldn‟t be
that hard to get them across those borders; they‟re pretty small – only about 34” long.
The big challenge was bringing bad things into Israel, not taking them out. [Uzi – Israeli
submachine gun]
Ari was remembering students from the West Bank that had been part of their activist
group. They had to be really careful otherwise Israel would boot them out of the country
but a core group of them consistently met with the Israeli activists to share observations
and agitation. Several of them were very knowledgeable and sophisticated thinkers, some
had connections with Syria, Iraq and even Iran. What Ari needed was a space in Jordan
where HFs could be stockpiled while awaiting transit, and pairs of eyes all along the way
to help it happen. It shouldn‟t be hard to ship a few at a time.
28
Then there were some in the Israeli peacenik movement that might be ready to join this
enterprise, including some older and very experienced fighters. That would be an
interesting discussion, some of these folks had seen everything. Maybe Eli, or Beth for
sure. They had both been in and out of jail several times but just got stronger and had
forced many Israelis to reflect on the dogma.
2***
Most people acquainted with Molly at LM thought lunch without Molly would be a
welcome relief but every once in a while the lunch crowd looking at the flatscreens were
wondering, What would Molly say? People who hadn‟t spoken out before felt a little
safer floating their opinions and others in replying but it often felt like something was
missing – a clear bottom line was elusive. Some analyst guy on the screen was describing
the utilization of „fires in Iraq and mentioned that during the battle of Fallujha, over 40
were used. Damn, that‟s almost four million bucks.. somebody said.. and what did we
get?... (Someone else:) A bunch of very expensive corpses, and not that many.. The
pontificator on screen made the mistake of crediting Al Qaeda with the Fallujha
resistance and more than one luncher threw the insult right back. Molly would have been
proud.
3***
Stash had proposed a walk with his Iraqi missile-expert friend. They met up at a coffee
shop Saturday afternoon, got provisioned, and headed out. Iraj was a good sport and
listened patiently as Stash set the stage. They both seethed at the arrogance and brutality
of the U.S.-Israeli global combine. When Stash got to the point of disclosing the HF
liberation plan, he turned to Iraj and said he has some things to explain further but they
were extremely sensitive and dangerous; it would mean going against not only the IDF
but the entire global security situation. They both needed to trust the other, essentially
with their lives, if they wanted to proceed. Iraj asked whether Stash was already
compromised in this matter… Yes, I‟m looking at highly classified documentation…
After a minute, Iraj said he would like to proceed with the discussion but that he might
want to opt-out if at some point. Of course he would never divulge anything; he knows
how casual comments can be fatal, from experience with Saddam‟s secret police, not to
mention the KGB which they both knew well.
[KGB – Soviet secret police]
Stash then quickly walked through the Hellfire system and highlighted the challenges.
Iraj was juggling the technology and the attack strategy. So this would be used against
Israeli leaders? Stash explained that the intent of his friends, he chose not the use their
names or affiliations, was to find reliable operatives in several countries who could use
this against the most egregious examples of ruling class criminality everywhere, against
both government and private instruments of power. This novel concept inspired a tangent
of speculation and fantasy; it seemed to be historically without precedent. Iraj agreed to
look at the documentation and try to solve some of the hurdles. Thinking ahead: I have
friends in Baghdad who might be helpful in implementing the Iraqi part of this plan. The
29
target list there would be luscious. Visiting U.S. officials, top military and intelligence…
What about senior Iraqi collaborators?…That would require more nuanced consideration,
given the tribal context – various strains of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.. Who would
decide these things?
4***
On his next weekend off, Ari met with four of his West Bank comrades. They were doing
okay, in teaching and business, but things were not easy. Ari talked about the IDF and
said there was a plan to make some trouble. He needed help on a dangerous project that
will substantially alter Israeli‟s ability to attack Hamas with impunity. It involved moving
some military equipment from Israel to Jordan. He described the pods without saying
what they contained. Not everyone was totally happy with Hamas‟ performance but all
agreed the attacks were barbaric and wanted to hear more. One of the four said he would
be interested in helping but was involved in his family business and really couldn‟t put it
at risk, so many people depended on it. It was agreed he should probably not hear any
more details so he left saying there may be things I could help with, like trucks, or
something. They asked, how many pods? Well there‟s 50 in a container, two sections of
five across and five rows high, and probably a few would stay behind in Israel. So Ari
proposed that maybe two or three pods could be brought each time to a safe place in the
West Bank and then subsequently taken into Jordan, somehow. They discussed how that
could be done. It was generally agreed that trucks coming out of Israel into the West
Bank were not routinely inspected but doing it over and over was really pushing their
luck. Why not ship the whole container to Jordan in a fruit truck or something, someone
asked. Those trucks are going back and forth all the time. The big search is when they
come into Israel from Jordan, not when they leave. Habib said his cousin has assorted
warehouses with lots of space near a wholesale market in Jordan and would be an
enthusiastic supporter, as long as it‟s done right. He was a long-time fighter for
Palestinian rights in Jordan and has a lot of family ties with the refugee community there.
Sounded like a plan. They would ship the container from the base to a trucking hub near a
West Bank gate. The fruit truck would pick it up from there as soon as it arrived and take
it to Jordan, less than a 2 hr trip. If the container was discovered, the driver could have
been told it was an empty refrigerated shipping unit. The conspirators agreed that for now
it was better not to know what the container had in it. Once successfully transferred, they
could discuss the next steps. So various assignments were made. Habib would talk with
his cousin and find a sympathetic and reliable fruit shipper who could bring back a
container. But they would need independent confirmation from their Hamas contacts, that
this endeavor is legit. Ari would arrange that.
5***
Sasha spent time again with Aaron just before he was to return to his work in Algeria and
Morocco. He was staying at the apartment of a friend who was out of the country. It took
some time together before either was ready to tread on thin ice. Sasha had rehearsed her
spiel and got it out without blemish the next morning after breakfast. Aaron concurred on
where personal commitment comes from. He mentioned a woman he had known in
30
Washington D.C. who he had met at a UN developmental conference in North Africa.

She was an observer from AIPAC, the lobbying and research organization promoting
Israeli interests in the U.S. It became clear rather quickly that she was totally in tune with
the central dogma and Israel‟s role in the Middle East. Palestine, an obnoxious irritant,
was proving far more costly than anticipated to deal with, but success was ultimately
assured. Despite mutual attraction, no amount of philosophical discourse brought any
narrowing of the chasm they faced. And it wasn‟t mainly disagreement on facts or
history, it was more basic – willingness to contemplate justice. So, they never got
together. Sasha talked about the recent twists in her journey and said she was starting to
question lots of things for the first time and: I don‟t know where it is going but I hope
you and I can continue to see each other and continue this conversation... (Aaron:)
Definitely yes; it isn‟t that easy for me to get to Israel but I‟ll try. What about meeting
somewhere else, like Rome or Athens?
6***
Beth was a veteran labor organizer from Histradut and had no illusions about class
togetherness in the Jewish state. First among farm workers and later in clothing and
electronics she had watched the Israeli bosses emerge from their terrorist beginnings and
make their historic ascent into the monied class, clawing their way on the backs of poor
Jewish immigrants and displaced Palestinians, merging with international capital and
growing military capacity. Eli taught history and the classics at university, usually at odds
with prevailing faculty opinion. Ben visited Beth and Eli at their lovely apartment, where
many meetings had taken place over the years. They laughed recalling past escapades,
pranks and solid hits together and commented on more recent developments, with special
interest in Ben‟s IDF adventure. Ben suggested they take a walk, it was so nice out.
Relatively certain that others weren‟t listening, Ben quickly laid out the whole vista.
There were penetrating questions at various junctures and then the presentation would
resume. For these experienced warriors, the excitement of this bizarre plan was balanced
by the gravity, responsibility and challenge of constructing a process that would in fact
deliver what was intended, not something else. In the wrong hands it could be a disaster,
ruining a lot of very good people in the process. The issue Beth and Eli focused on was
defining the mission itself, and how decisions on targets would be made and enforced. At
a café in late afternoon, a proposed structure was hatched to achieve these goals. As the
network of HF users expanded, the decisions on targeting and timing would require
unanimity among them; only one HF launch-team would be authorized and enabled at a
time; communications by some secure route would have to be worked out (Ben had some
ideas, based on the satellite phone systems he was learning); and lastly, some device was
needed so that an HF team could not fire an HF without collective consent. As dusk was
coming, the threesome returned to the apartment craving a stiff drink.
[Histradut – the Israeli federation of labor unions that has occasionally been mildly
restive on the Palestinian question.]
7***
31
The many threads that had been assembled were being woven into a tight collaboration
against not only the hijacking of the Jewish European catastrophe by religious zealots,
racist nationalists, capitalists and other opportunists but more generally, against the
American century of empire consolidation and structural adjustment. Some Israelis who
had held back because existing initiatives lacked critical substance or seemed hopeless,
found a venture they could commit to. Some preferred not to see the full picture. Among
those with a prior basis for trust were several who, when apprised of the mission, found
agreement and became engaged, welcoming the concept of class justice and retribution.
Several others expressed respect for the mission goals but for one reason or another chose
not to participate at this time, offering best wishes. Others just said they didn‟t want to
hear more but good luck, something has to be done.
8***
With help and planning, one white HF container safely found its way from the IDF base
to the freight dock at a building where Tomas‟s cellphone company maintained
inventory, sharing space with several other busy enterprises. A container showing up
would attract no attention, especially with some of the plaques taped over and labels
spray-painted. Moving the container to the Nokia space and, with Stash‟s help, removing
four pods and packing them in Nokia cartons was easily accomplished that evening. The
next day the cartons were carried away in Stash‟s car to safe-keeping and dissection, and
the container was again commercially shipped, this time to a loading dock near the West
Bank border where a fruit truck would rendezvous. Initially Tomas didn‟t want any part
of this enterprise but couldn‟t stay away from the discussions, and eventually decided he
would do a friend a favor, not knowing that what was inside was other than telecom
paraphernalia. A week later, three crates containing HF camera system components also
arrived at Tomas‟ workplace and one was dispatched again, reduced to its pieces, in
Stash‟s car.
9***
With his HF attached to a launch rail hanging in his living room, Stash finally worked out
the enabling launch code: all steps responding GO on the display. It took a little doing to
produce a 400 volt power supply like aircraft have. One of the problems he encountered
he had to discuss with Iraj because he didn‟t understand the point of the loop. Iraj almost
immediately recognized what the HF controller was trying to establish: The arming step
almost always does something like that with these systems... So things looked like they
were ready to go. Iraj asked if they were planning a test firing. Stash explained that they
had discussed this and decided it was too risky, someone might see something, and
besides, if the HF system says its ready, then it ought to be ready. They had tried to
launch it with the arming ribbons still attached and got the right error message,
fortunately. The first use of it would be their test, and it looked like Baghdad was the
winner. Iraj was pleased to have helped. All Stash had to do now was copy some code to
disks that would accompany each camera.
10***
32
Sasha hadn‟t seen Ari for over a week and was getting worried. She e-mailed him
suggesting lunch tomorrow. They arrived at about the same time, examining each other
for signs of concern. Nothing more happened as a result of General Dyen and her
tracking project was moving along alright. It turns out one of the problems was that
spotters who were unreliable might be directing hits at a different set of foes – friends of
Israel or even just personal enemies. (Sasha:) How are things with you.. still dreaming up
some “plan?”.. with a sly grin. Ari said it was actually going rather well; that if it were
successful, she would definitely hear about it, but probably shouldn‟t know anything
more till then, and absolutely should mention it to no one. He added that this might be the
most important thing he ever did in his life, which didn‟t ease Sasha‟s unease. She said
her reading was pretty intense. She was beginning to see the basic elements of the
counter-dogma and she could see how someone might hold those views, but it would still
be a big stretch for her. They agreed on Chomsky‟s assessment of the media in western
countries which profess “freedom of the press” and then they dissected the various Israeli
organs. Al Jazeera was certainly an amazing development. Sasha wanted to come back to
the “plan”: I can‟t imagine what it could possibly be… (Ari:) That‟s a good thing and it
should stay that way unless at some point you make some rather fundamental choices..
She wished there was some way she could be involved in something constructive. But
what could that be?
11***
Iraj, on his next business trip to Iraq, didn‟t relish making another contribution to his
employer‟s piece of American war largess by day. But by night he was able to find some
of the invisible fighters keeping their heads down while trying to imagine a feasible path
out of the morass of U.S. and tribal brutality. The conversations had to progress quickly,
moving from outrage to affiliations and personal goals. If the discussion got that far, the
idea that some Israelis were organizing a challenge to ruling class brutality was a good
test of attitude and sophistication. Iraj found a small group of former students and union
members who once studied the classics of class struggle with their elders while
navigating the hazards of Hussein‟s autocracy, and who had skills and family resources.
What was needed was a location overlooking the airport highway to the Green Zone, a
building with a good roof, clotheslines, plants, satellite dishes...
The idea was to identify returning families, Iraqi refugees who had sought safety in
Jordan who were starting to come back to neighborhoods that seemed to be quieter, now
that the Sunnis (or Shiites) were run out of them. Included in the chaotic truckloads of
their belongings would be a well hidden HF or laser/camera or other HF system
component, wrapped in rugs, bed-rolls or other textiles. Even if discovered by Iraqi
border troops, which was unlikely, there was a reasonable chance that a wink or a wad
and a gesture would suffice for safe passage.
Iraj‟s other goal was to find a spotter, someone working in the Green Zone who was
privy to the movements of “high value targets,” who would know when U.S. officials are
arriving or leaving. Educated officers in the new Iraqi military who were being tutored on
33
empire administration in the Green Zone easily learned to wear the disguise of the
grateful subject. It didn‟t take much prying to find such an officer who personally shared
none of the illusions of the client state and who had intellectual traffic with underground
warriors. The idea of a mishap befalling some of the arrogant protagonists of imperial
repression and brutality was attractive, without needing great detail.
12***
Ben worked out the sat phone channels. He could set up secure lines to phones that no
one could intercept and connect them to others. It could be done disabling the usual
recording option so no record remained – that was Mossad‟s favorite. The phones got
programmed at a IDF site and then sent to be handed-off to the appropriate entities. Ben
created 8 sat phone installations and had the phones delivered to Ari‟s base, to Ari. The
only possible risk was that someone in Sasha‟s unit might notice that 8 new phones came
through their base and wonder what was going on. At lunch with Sasha, before the phone
order was placed, Ari asked how sat phones are administered. He said their “plan”
involved them and he needed to know a little more about it. Seemed innocent enough so
Sasha explained the process steps, including notification and coding identifications. Ari
asked hypothetically: So, if 8 new phone hook-ups came through who would normally
see it?... Well, I would and Barschauer, but usually he leaves those details to me… Do
you have to do anything?, like enable the lines?... Ya, it‟s just a cut and paste transfer of
some codes and update the directory log… OK,.. here was the big question: Sasha, next
week 8 new phones are going to come through; could you kind of just do what you
normally do and not ask questions or point anything out to Barschauer?
Anyone watching would have thought they were in love, they way they looked at each
other for a long time without saying anything. Ari added: Actually, we‟re probably going
to do it and just take our chances, but it would be nice to know.. Ben has an alibi: he was
being “pro-active,” in case the base operations had to deliver phones to remote
locations… Sasha said she knew they were really against the assassination program and
assumed this was related; she didn‟t like it either but this was a big step, she needed to
think about it a bit… OK, I understand,.. thanks a lot, Sasha. Want some coffee?
13***
Several weeks ago, Jusef got invited to participate on a panel at a university in Jerusalem
on “Student Initiatives and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process,” at 3:00 PM on a Friday.
It wasn‟t easy to get there, even with Hamas “connections.” He recounted his own
experiences when a visitor in Israel and how his mixed group had struggled to construct a
common understanding of the problem and solutions. His talk was well-received until he
mentioned the one-state solution, when the audience of 35 began to get restless. Someone
asked where his family had come from. Others of course worried that Jews would be
outnumbered by returning Palestinians. Jusef tried to offer negotiable positions
addressing these kinds of concerns but questions were now coming fast and furious and
time was running-out. Soon the moderator thanked everyone for coming and it was over.
Afterwards Rachel escorted him to meet with Ben, Ari, Stash and Iraj at a nearby
34
Lebanese restaurant with secluded booths and quiet conversations. Everyone was pretty
much up to speed on the Plan but it was good to review several of the parallel initiatives
and let each hear the other comrades‟ views, perspectives and concerns. Beth Engels
joined them a little later. Ben did introductions in some detail so that Beth and the rest of
the group would understand the experience base they were dealing with. Iraj was
especially intrigued with Beth‟s leading some tense labor confrontations, and sometimes
winning.
They went around the table for updates. Ari reported on the HF liberation process and the
anticipated transport of HF1 to Baghdad and a good home in the near future. The network
of committed fighters in Jordan was amazing and Baghdad contacts suggested by Iraj had
been critical. People seemed to have an instinctive appreciation of the importance of this
endeavor and the security aspects. It was too important to brag about; it was way above
the fray of tribal conflicts or competing sectarian alliances. Stash said they now have a
functional launch system and outlined the requirements for putting it in the field. He had
cobbled together a couple of power supplies that go with the system. Of course in
Baghdad, the on-and-off electricity could be a problem. Iraj reported that his Baghdad
sources had been contacted by the group Jusef‟s Gaza friend knew about and had been
helpful in finding the launch apartment and vetting the neighbors. Ben explained how the
satellite phone network would work and suggested some protocol for using it keeping in
mind that even though secure, suspicious activity might get them noticed. One of the uses
of course would be coordination on target selection and timing. This led into Beth‟s focus
on defining the overall mission and how to implement it. This topic had come up one
time or another but only Ben and Beth had really examined it at length. Iraj, Stash and
Jusef could tell from her presentation that Beth was a seasoned fighter as well as having
an impressive command of very fundamental organizational and administrative issues
bearing on this effort. Initially, Iraj and to a lesser extent, Jusef, were having difficulty
focusing on what she was saying, so novel was this woman. But the need to keep up with
the flow and the dangers soon forced them to forget who was talking. The idea that
launch decisions would be collectively based on discussion among participating teams
had both elegance and functional simplicity. It placed another premium on carefully
choosing Plan collaborators associated political networks. Next Jusef reviewed the
Hamas involvement and how connections to groups in other countries were being
developed. The Hamas leadership understood very well that if this project were
uncovered, the IDF wouldn‟t be the only military organization coming after Hamas. It
would be like the cruise missile parade of Presidents Clinton and Bush to the Al Qaeda
bases in Afghanistan.
Based on general priorities earlier debated, the network Jusef was constructing was
seeking to transport the HF system to other countries, the U.S. being at the top of the list,
but with Europe included, possibly Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and maybe even China. It
was late. Dinner followed by several rounds of coffee had passed and now it was agreed
that Beth would write down the general approach she had described and the conclusions
from their discussion, and also propose some specific targeting choices and timing.
Meanwhile, everyone agreed Bagdad was the place to start. The chaos there would make
it much harder for the rulers to figure out what was happening, the justice quotient was
35
enormous, and the public impact would be global. Then the Plan board of directors
dispersed into the night.
14***
The displacement of 265 workers at LM by the generals‟ rent-a-gang scam was coming
next month. Molly‟s job wasn‟t affected but jobs all around her were. Emotions surged
daily between anger and defeat and not just from the immediate victims. After several
weeks, it occurred to Molly that some of the edge had been taken off people‟s willingness
to fight by the gradual acceptance by at least some of them that this work of their‟s was
less than totally honorable. After considerable thought she decided there was an
alternative to faking it, as in wrapping their jobs in the flag and saying “we are protecting
America, so protect us.” Her alternate was: we didn‟t decide to make these things; but if
you‟re going to, you‟re not getting a free ride; you‟re going to pay us like you pay the
damn CEO, no slave labor for Hellfire.. There wasn‟t a union at this LM plant although
there was at some other LM facilities – just depended on what was there when they got
bought. Molly‟s husband had a good friend who was a labor lawyer on the innovative
side. He explained what “protected concerted activity” was all about and what kinds of
mischief LM workers could engage in if they stood together, especially given that their
product was in demand and inventory low. Working-to-rule was another ploy – doing
exactly what the official manufacturing procedures require, which normally hobbles
production in most real-world situations. Then of course, there are the mishaps that can
happen.. A public revelation on the generals‟ promising cash cow, contract labor on the
cheap, would be very helpful too. Molly had a new topic for lunch.
15***
Two of Jusef‟s Hamas travelers from Gaza had returned from a foray to Iraq. Passage to
the western world was taking shape, through Turkey. They had traveled through Syria
and with some Hamas introductions they had met members of the old Iraqi communist
party. These aging comrades had a lot of history under their belts and long-time relations
with progressive Kurds in the northwest of Iraq bordering Turkey. Like many Iraqis,
these folks were disgusted and saddened by the lethal Sunnis-Shiite conflict, a huge and
costly distraction from liberating and rebuilding Iraq, just like the Iran-Iraq war promoted
by the U.S. had been, 20 yrs earlier. The discussions evolved to the point of trust and
commitment on a project that promised to alter the course of things. Once past the folly
of blind random terrorist acts, agreement came quickly: some important equipment needs
to get through Turkey into Europe with some of it going on to the U.S. Hand-woven rugs
were one possible device for packaging HFs. Cameras might be shipped labeled as
research equipment being returned to a U.S. university from collaborators in the Middle
East; maybe Lebanon? Maybe Israel? So far there were no project people on the ground
in the U.S. but there were ideas..
16***
36
Sasha met up with Aaron in Athens for a long weekend. Barschauer had given her two
extra days and her dad had sprung for the ticket and nice lodging on the Aegean Sea.
Some of Aaron‟s colleagues there had family that had been involved in the Resistance in
WW II and then the Greek communist party. Discussion over dinner had of course at
some point turned to the war in Iraq, and then to the involvement of Iran. Sasha was
struck by how divergent news and public perceptions were here, from Israel. Someone
remarked how history might have turned out quite differently if Mossadegh had not been
removed. Aaron explained, partly for Sasha‟s benefit, how a popularly elected
progressive and secular government in Iran in the 1950s had been overthrown by a U.S.
CIA-funded private army that then installed the Shah of Iran as America‟s favorite thug.
Mossadegh, a remarkable son of the aristocracy, had made two mistakes. First he acted
like he thought Iran‟s oil belonged to Iran, not Royal Dutch-Shell or British Petroleum.
Then, when threatened, he consulted on security matters with their northern neighbor, the
USSR. Discussion then played on the politics of relations with the USSR back then. The
Greeks had some opinions on this, having had their own progressive movement smashed
and activists murdered by Truman‟s cold warriors in the late 40s and continuing beyond.
Recent revelations as the entrails of the former Soviet society have come to be examined
confirmed what local communists in Greece perceived at the time: that Soviet
geopolitical motivations were largely driven by a paranoia, not entirely unfounded; that
Greek leftists of several varieties were quite capable of defending Greece from Soviet
domination even though some comrades had a naïve fondness for the “socialist
fatherland.” Tito did it even without democracy, in Yugoslavia. The bigger threat was
clearly post-war capitalist realignment and the burgeoning corporate agenda of the
American Century.
The next morning, however, nothing interfered with warm and invigorating adventure
along the Aegean coast. In the afternoon, after explaining some of the politics of
microloans for promoting sustainable agricultural in various countries, Aaron had some
modest questions about IDF activities against Hamas. Sasha responded and then
mentioned that she had two “radical” friends from school in the IDF who were very
opposed to the assassination program and Israeli policy in general. She said they had
some sort of “plan” but she didn‟t know what it was. Aaron was somewhat surprised that
there was such a plan, but more so that she knew about it and that he was hearing about
it… This is very dangerous, you know.. looking at her intensely.. do they know what
they‟re doing? And why would they tell you? Have you mentioned it to anybody?...
Sasha was a little defensive and not very comfortable answering … Well, I trust these
guys a lot and I‟ve been talking with the one on my base; they‟re very sincere and
extremely knowledgeable – sort of like you. I‟ve come to see a lot of things differently –
he gave me those books to read, remember? I‟m actually rather concerned and don‟t
know what to do... About what?... Well, their “plan” involves using secure satellite
phones that they have “acquired” from IDF… Holy shit, they‟ve involved you in this?...
No, no, not really; they told me it was happening and kind of requested that I didn‟t
notice it – I have to process new phone linkages… Jesus, this is really risky. What if
someone else notices?... It‟s not very likely, and I can just say I thought it was part of the
expansion into Lebanon. My superior officer would back me up. I think I‟m OK… So
what do you think these guys are up to?... You know, I really shouldn‟t be talking about
37
this, even with you. It was kind of reckless of me to have mentioned it at all. I‟m sorry,
I‟m not very experienced in this kind of intrigue. It should be mentioned to absolutely no
one. Obviously you know that. I guess I trust you,.. with a warm but searching gaze.
17***
With the successful transfer of HF1 to Iraq, HFs 2, 3, and 4 were dispatched from Jordan
to Baghdad, some for trans-shipment to Kirkuk, a Kurdish city, and the warm embrace of
wool rugs. Six weeks later, a second launch system (camera, black boxes) would make its
way from a lab doing atmospheric research at the Weizmann Institute to Washington
University in St. Louis.
18***
Beth and Eli went to Gaza on a university historical research project. There they met with
Ben, Jasmine and Jusef. Ben, out of uniform, made introductions and then produced the
document that Beth had drafted on mission and policy governing the Plan. The mechanics
of it seemed appropriate, but what if disagreements developed on targeting or timing?
What if things go awry – a missed target, bad casualties among innocent bystanders, a
security breach? Ben described the satellite phones and then there were questions about
that: can the system locate where the phones are? what if one phone falls into the wrong
hands? Ben described the various defenses that the Israeli and presumably U.S. military
had come up with for just those concerns, but no system is perfect. What happens when
they figure out these are liberated HFs? Clearly there would be important questions and
possibilities as the Plan evolves. What if Hamas decides to pull out? Are there Israeli
agents inside Hamas? …(Jasmine:) There probably are but we‟re pretty sure the major
councils are clean. The bigger problem is listening devices planted everywhere. As it is,
nothing about the Plan has been discussed in full Council meetings… What about public
statements as the Plan unfolds – could we safely use Al Jazeera? Would they agree –
they‟ve had some bad experience. A missile took out one of their reporters, remember?
After deliberating, the group relaxed with tea and special treats that Beth had brought
along. Beth asked Jasmine how her husband died… He was found shot; we never knew if
it was Fatah or an Israeli agent. He was involved in smuggling people into Israel… Jusef
was interested in how the university faculty now divided on issues like the one-state or
two-state solutions: Was discussion expanding among students?
19***
Ben had been fast-forwarding to when their HF scheme gets uncovered. When they
finally figure out it‟s an HF, the U.S. security chiefs will assume one or two HFs leaked
out somewhere, like Baghdad, France or Sweden.. and there will be this intense search
that will extend to all HF users, including the U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghan and even
Israel. Ben was wondering…could we set up a false trail? What if three HFs were found
to be missing from the French or Swedish arsenal? And some Algerian guy or Turk who
had access, like on the base custodial crew, had recently disappeared? The ruling class
38
would issue a great sigh of relief after HF3 debuted, confident that the nightmare was
over, and then things would quiet down, .. until HF4. They might even not go public with
it, hoping to keep the whole episode secret. So, let‟s activate contacts among Hamas
supporters in France or Sweden and look for someone who works on a military base. It‟s
a long shot, but would buy some very valuable time. All the guy would have to do is hide
three HFs somewhere on the base – could take them out of their pods and stick „em in
trash bags and dump „em on the recycle pile. And then take a scheduled vacation.
Problem is, the spooks will be really mystified about how someone figured out how to
shoot HFs. Its about more than just stealing a rocket. They‟ll start inventorying cameras
as well as HFs. Better talk to Ari about this.
39
Chapter Two
The Attack
1. The Hit from Nowhere
1***
The Baghdad team had 7 members: two ran the HF control system, with wires running up
the outside wall to the roof, along with about 15 satellite dish cables. Two worked the
roof handling the missile, and three others had various duties like clearing kids and others
off the roof, watching for unwelcome observers and keeping track of roadway traffic with
binoculars without being very obvious. The message from the Green Zone had said high
U.S. officials were arriving tomorrow mid-afternoon. At 1:00 PM, the team assembled in
apt. 11D for a quick lunch and a tense wait, with excessive smoking. When the call came,
the message was “Musef has moved” and “will you come to the party?” and Team
Baghdad stepped up to action. The curtains in 11D parted slightly, the camera was
uncovered, and the Appian Way appeared on the display. On the roof, binoculars trained
toward the airbase while a load of laundry was about to make history. HF1, wrapped in
pillowcases, was waiting below the launch rail, ready for momentary installation under a
bedsheet shroud, most ribbons removed, and about to be armed for action. After 13 long
minutes, the black string of five SUVs came into binocular view. Installation now. Ready
routines indicate go. After the convoy rounded the bend at the adjoining square a block
from the apartment building, it sped on toward the Green Zone two miles further. Aim
camera on center SUV and lock image tracking. Arm HF1. As practiced many times on
city buses and random vehicles, the drill was flawless. Now it was up to HF1 to do its
part. Laser on, adjust tracking to upper body of middle SUV. Fire!
The swoosh was violent and deafening but then totally gone. It took 4 seconds to catch up
to Musef and then hell‟s fire was in SUV 3. The convoy convulsed and wobbled.
Blackwater shooters spilled out from all sides firing at anything moving. Their instant
assessment was “RPG” - lock the neighborhood! call air support! Swarming side streets
and rushing corners, they shot two of their own. Spastically-arriving backup was filling
the street.
[RPG – rocket propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched, short-range, unguided rocket]
2***
Jim Speller never fit-in in intel. Every time he pointed out some little detail that
countered the current interpretation his career suffered. Arriving in Iraq as part of
Rumskull‟s new military intelligence apparatus, things got worse. No one, especially
Bremmer (top U.S. boss), wanted to hear about reality in the colonial army, or talk about
class divisions and historical ethnic conflict within Iraqi society. Worrying about
stockpiles of artillery shells (used to make IEDs) was way boring for the accomplished
40
victors, so Jim ended up sitting in his Green Zone office cubicle, plotting the birth of an
insurgency. When he heard the pop and gunfire and then within seconds the call for
backup for the convoy transporting Megroponte and McClonel, he jumped up and ran to
find any agency vehicle heading for the gate. The blaze was past its zenith when Jim got
close. With his ID he got past two perimeters and came face to face with a sweating
Blackwater gorilla guarding the burning hulk. The first obvious fact was that it was not
an IED; the vehicle body was intact. RPG was a possible choice.. but the fire looked
different, it had been much more consuming than you usually see from RPG hits. Jim had
been studying hundreds of photographs of insurgent attacks. He was stunned when he
realized this looked just like the hits by soft-target Hellfire missiles fired against the
Sadrists and Sunni insurgents that he had seen over and over on film. The more he
examined the smoking wreck, the more he was convinced this was an incendiary missile.
Five minutes later he was headed back to the Zone, reflexively composing his assessment
when he caught himself – why bother? They‟ll dismiss it, they won‟t even read it. Shit,
let‟s just sit back and watch. This could be interesting.. Wow, this could be a whole new
ball-game, and he started imagining the possibilities for people who somehow got their
hands on Hellfires – or their equivalents – and learned how to shoot them!
[IED – improvised explosive device (roadside bomb)]
3***
Sasha was putting the system to bed when a high priority message flashed on her screen:
U.S. Undersecretary of State and intel chief assassinated in Baghdad rocket attack. Sasha
was shocked and scared; hardly breathing she quickly spun a frightening scenario
threatening her well-being. Reading on, she came upon the RPG theory as fact and
melted into her chair in relief. RPGs were standard tools of Iraqi insurgents. Tears flowed
and she needed company. She called Ari over at the chopper shop to see if he was still
around. Let‟s have a drink she said in a fragile voice and Ari quickly agreed.
When they walked in, everyone was crowded in front of the bar flatscreen. Over and over
the pyre was re-enacted and U.S. military spokespeople were interviewed on this latest
outrage against the apostles of democracy. The IDF base personnel were subdued but
even they couldn‟t suppress an occasional jab at the colossus. Ari and Sasha sat at a
nearby table to join in the ritual while frequently checking each other out with prying
looks and thoughts. Ari was trying hard without showing to be superficial and match the
ambient awe. Sasha was trying hard to decide if Ari had anything at all to do with this
but reflecting, was starting to suspect her initial reaction was silly, and felt embarrassed.
She leaned forward and whispered to Ari: My first thought was that you guys were
involved, sort of silly of me.. she grinned… Ari‟s reaction wasn‟t quite what she was
expecting. He shrugged: I wouldn‟t know about this.. and nothing more. He smiled
slightly and turned back to the facts in the case.. A pretty amazing hit by somebody; will
be interesting to see how the U.S. reacts, and Israel too... Now Sasha was at sea, she
didn‟t know and couldn‟t ask, and she turned back to the screen. Then (Ari:) I‟m really
glad you called, and please be patient with things; things are going to be alright, for you..
Have you talked with Aaron?
41
4***
Presidential candidates Clinton and Obama were angry and embarrassed but had to put a
seasoned face on it – this was the “ups and downs” of the difficult effort to deal with the
mess in Iraq created by the Bush administration. They could have been singing a duet: In
this struggle against terrorism and in defense of our vital national interests and
democracy, sadly two great Americans have joined the many others who have made the
ultimate sacrifice in this mission... Of course any suggestion that individuals responsible
for this mess should pay for the mess was unthinkable – would be “politicizing” an
American tragedy. These Democrats were not going to let this terrible event influence
their campaigns for President, and it didn‟t.
5***
At LM, excited discussion filled the lunch room… I guess in Baghdad you don‟t need
„fires to get a carload of targets, things are so bad even when they‟re so good… Ya, they
sure got Megroponte whoever that was, and McClonel, the “intelligence czar” – I guess
his intelligence wasn‟t so good,.. again. How did they know he was coming?… Damn,
that looked just like a Hellfire hit! Did you see it burning on cable news?... Nervous
giggles and frowns from the management types across the room. (Molly:) This guy
wasn‟t exactly a sweetheart. According to Wikipedia, before Megroponte became U.S.
occupation ambassador in Iraq, he was the chief hit-man in Central America, working
with the Honduran army to eliminate dissidents and orchestrate that Contra thing against
Nicaragua. Seems he was already processing “unlawful combatants” back then. And
guess what, his dad, a, quote, Greek shipping magnate, from one of the ruling families in
Greece, was doing the same things there after WW II. Actually he‟s part of the gang of
neocons out of Yale, was buddies with one of W‟s uncles, the CIA‟s former Goss boss
and various of the other honorable statesmen who brought us Iraq. You can read it all on
the internet… People who used to stare at Molly after her revelations now just looked off
in other directions, thinking. (Mel:) I can see why someone might want to do him in.
Wow, they‟re getting as good as we are.. This whole situation seems to be sliding down a
slippery slope to hell.
6***
Speller had joined the Company [CIA] right out of Princeton – totally fell for the
neoliberal line that good intelligence will allow the U.S. to pick progressive alternative
leadership in “failed states” and intervene to bring about changes leading toward our
democratic way of life. The theory eroded quickly as Jim saw what went on. After he
kept getting waylaid at Company headquarters in McLean, VA he jumped at the
opportunity to sign-on with the new military intel group being formed for Iraq. Maybe
actually being on the ground he would be able to present data to decision-makers that
would favor achieving the alleged mission. That illusion didn‟t last long at all. First it
was the privatized military, and the single-minded focus on setting the stage for a
compliant state with favorable rules for future oil production; the constant greed-fest of
the contractors from KBR, Halliburton to Blackwater and CACI, including the asshole-
42
contractor-cowboys actually doing intelligence-gathering, interrogating and killing.

Mercenaries for Bush‟s a-Merica.
Reconsidering, Jim was thinking he probably ought to float his theory on the Megroponte
hit even if they don‟t react, could be important down the road just to have it in the record.
But so far, procrastination was winning. He was kind of curious when the second shoe
would drop. Maybe this was a one-time adventure. Alternatively, maybe it wasn‟t a
Hellfire at all, maybe it was someone else‟s missile, but what country would do that. It
was pretty clear that the major players in the Iraq insurgency were not involved: there
was no intel traffic just prior, but immediately after the hit, the entire insurgency
communication nexus lit-up with frantic queries: Jeez, who did that? Find out who did
it!! What the fuck did they use??!!
7***
The national Hamas Council meeting was jubilant. No one in-the-know mentioned
anything about the HF liberation front but everyone had something to say about the
spectacular fall of Megroponte and his laid-back assistant. It was a rare burst of
celebration in an otherwise seemingly downward grind. The mastery was unparalleled
and provoked enormous praise and respect. Jokes flowed easily for once and the Israelis
shared the brunt. All at once‟t of a sudden, the IDF didn‟t seem so invincible but pain
was never far away.
8***
The local networks of vital supporters in the West Bank, Jordan, Gaza and Israel had all
been carefully immunized: when startling news comes from Iraq or other places, be
startled; act how you would anyway, and expect more of the same. Now more than ever
we have to be careful. The entire future of the effort and any real gains it promises
depend on it, not to mention our personal safety. When they figure out what‟s going on,
the scrutiny‟s going to be blistering. There will be paid-eyes, ears and sensors absolutely
everywhere.
Stash and Iraj needed another long walk. They almost couldn‟t control their excitement.
It was better than the best Hollywood thriller. This was unbelievable and only the
beginning. (Iraj:) I never before thought about my life possibly ending early but with
compensating accomplishments – and I‟m not a suicide bomber,.. laughing… Stash said
he got involved in this kind of on principle and in despair, wanting to help what seemed
like a real long-shot: I still can‟t believe it worked… They talked about how their various
colleagues had reacted. People were amazed that even though the U.S. occupation
seemed to be consolidating its grip this kind of organized hit could still take place.
Apparently no one was offended at the choice of targets. Seemed perfectly natural.
Stash said we still have another camera system to reconfigure. Now we need to be even
more careful. Maybe we should wait a week before transporting more Nokia cartons. And
43
probably Iraj should have no more involvement for a while. They should meet only in
public view at their usual haunts, like before.
9***
Ben set up a satellite phone conference call. He picked a time when IDF phone traffic
was busiest. The Plan board of directors were going to discuss in five minutes the HF1
result and plans for 2 and 3. Discussion of non-detect of HF1: in retrospect not that
surprising but with implications: they should do a second hit in Iraq. Would increase the
impact when HFs do go public. Looking ahead, transfer of an HF to U.S. was
progressing. Of course, with a U.S. hit, their HFs would be out-of-the-closet for sure..
HFs always leave identifiable debris – if you‟re looking for it! Suggestions: Chainy,
Grates, McCane, maybe the leading senator-hawk? Finally, Ben summarized progress
setting up the false trail in France or Sweden, and then they said strong but nervous good-
byes.
2. Collective Punishment
1***
Despite the Megroponte setback, the consolidation of the Iraqi client state was
continuing. The course that George stayed was possibly working. A plane load of high
dignitaries was assembled to affirm progress and celebrate success. In a heartfelt display
of bipartisan commitment, a substantial gang of recently domesticated neocons and
fellow travelers joined a few real-world Democrats and Independent Joe Sliezerman from
Connecticut, all comfortably disposed, to validate the occupation. The strategy of
selective elimination of unsuitable Iraqi leadership making liberal use of Hellfires along
with hit-squads on the ground, was having an impact with few U.S. casualties. The
Israeli-designed intelligence actionable-database was really paying off. A schedule of
significant U.S. withdrawals was now imaginable. There had been a lot of debate within
Hillary Clinton‟s and Obama‟s national security teams, which had been briefed prior to
the taking out of Muqtada al Sadr and his second string, but after that it became more
easy, especially with 30,000 detainees in prison and new walls going up everywhere.
Among HF Plan members, a heated discussion ensued on whether to respond. But
listening to gloating fat imperialists as conveyed nightly by Al Jazeera and, of course in
U.S. media, was too much and so a proposal was hatched to stop what John McCane had
approvingly called “Straight-talk Express III”. An HF could take the plane out before it
left the ground. There would be collateral victims (the imbedded press, crew members,
low level staff) but the egregious upbeat promoting of the final earth-scorch in Sadr City
and the enthusiastic celebration of the subjugation of Iraq was too much even for the
Hamas conservatives consulted by Jasmine.
The best aircraft target would be while on takeoff-roll; we need a slightly elevated launch
site 3-4 miles away that lines-up with the main runway... On the phone, the Baghdad
team didn‟t require much persuasion. They had already outfitted a truck with the camera
44
and black boxes immediately evacuated from apt 11D after HF1. They engineered an
adaptor for the power supply to run off a welding generator. The truck was painted to
look like the satellite-dish maintenance vehicles which had become ubiquitous since the
elimination of Saddam Hussein, with all sorts of wires and electronic boxes.
2***
The airport gala press conference included smiling generals and a satellite hookup with
soon-to-be-gone President Bush in the White House. There was enthusiastic speech-
making, and grateful thanks from the client subjects. Then the visiting imperialists
climbed joyfully into their ride home. HF2 was patient but ready and image-tracking was
already on the beast as it slithered up to the end of the undulating runway in the distant
desert heat. The image stabilization was impressive. As soon as the roll commenced, the
laser was put on the black radome nose of the Air Force C-141 “Starlifter,” or something,
and HF2 hanging from its tripod set up next to the truck leapt off on its mission. The
aircraft nose gear support structure weakened, crumpled and collapsed within four
seconds of the incendiary hit.. leading to lazy cartwheels by the plane near the end of its
take-off roll. It was spewing bodies, almost looked like HF footage from Afghan caves..
or that hall in Basra when the U.S. put a 2000-lb smart-bomb into a meeting hall filled
with more than 200 Baath party officials and administrative staff during the first days of
the invasion. In the proud TV footage that night, you could actually make-out what
looked like little carbonized bodies flying through the air. Let‟s see, if Saddam„s Iraq was
a democracy, then we could in some sense hold lower level Baath party functionaries
accountable for Hussein‟s crimes, right? But it wasn‟t, remember? If the empire junkies
understood this simple distinction, they probably wouldn‟t have dismissed the entire Iraqi
army, turning it overnight into an insurgency engine,.. but that‟s smoke up the chimney.
Some of the passengers at the rear of the plane survived; they weren‟t burned by the
Hellfire, and they got separated from the cartwheeling inferno when the tail section broke
off. Man, were they convinced those Iraqi terrorists are really something. George was
right, this is the fight of the millennium!
“Bomb in wheel-well” was the almost immediate diagnosis – no time to lose in these
situations. The airbase went into high lockdown: SUVs with machine gun mounts racing
everywhere, no holds barred. They had always worried about some of the Iraqi airport
workers and now despite intense screening, surveillance and other deep precautions, one
of them had successfully smuggled a bomb onto the base and planted it above the front
landing gear of the Starlifter. Right under their nose! A few eyewitnesses popped up
saying they saw something streaking across the field right before the plane exploded;
their stories were so consistent they were dismissed as an intentional rumor to distract the
investigation and interrogation. Other witnesses decided not to bother. Command said:
There was no way an RPG could have done this; they don‟t have the range or accuracy
from outside the base perimeter. It couldn‟t be a Stinger because it hit the nose, from the
front; Stinger-type rockets come from behind aiming for a hot engine. Besides, the
Stinger detection system didn‟t scramble, so there was no missile. Case closed… This
was the worst part of the HF campaign – the repressive attacks that inevitably follow,
45
especially when the responders don‟t have a clue that HFs are involved (or rather, have a
clue but can‟t see it). Several airport employees were disappeared.
3***
Jim was monitoring cellphone traffic from the Kurdish region looking for signs of
dissident breakaways that might make trouble for the American agenda; the TV in the
corner of his office was muttering and hissing. The airport press conference and media
spectacular had been predictable and the parting aircraft was a non event except when he
glanced over again, after a period of silence, he saw on the screen a black cloud billowing
up in the distance at the far end of the airfield. He turned up the volume and soon heard
chaotic voices and shouts. He switched on his network communications channel and
heard orders being barked and soon he could hear commotion in the Company offices and
scurrying agents. Switching to the Command channel he heard someone at the scene
claiming that the VIPs had been hit with what looked like a bomb at the front of the
aircraft. Jim was about to jump into crisis mode but then remembered. Could this be the
other shoe? Could a Hellfire take an aircraft on the ground? Did anyone see anything?
When the reports of eyewitnesses flew by only to be dissed, he was close to certain. And
he had been right; this was going to be interesting.. actually astounding.
At the briefing later that afternoon, the station chief outlined the quarantine procedure for
triaging the corralled airbase employees. Several staff were already there along with 35
MPs and an extra squad of marines. A plane had been ordered up to take suspect Iraqis
off to the Bagram detention center in Afghan for “processing” to identify the culprits. He
said it was a damn good thing Congress hadn‟t stopped torture, but not all the mutterings
in the room were supportive. Jim offered up that there were eyewitness reports, could
there be anything to them? Was there any surveillance video or audio that could confirm
a missile?… Negative. Couldn‟t be a Stinger and there was no radar intercept…What
about forensics.. is anybody combing the wreckage? The chief paused and then turned to
Jerry and Pam: call base command and have the wreckage sequestered for investigation.
They may not be too interested; they‟re still extracting, you know.. remains.
Jim decided he better write down that intelligence opinion about HF involvement. He
had gotten no cooperation from anybody in tracking down possible evidence in the VIP
hit so he just offered a speculative proposition for consideration: an incendiary missile
had hit both Megroponte and the aircraft. Like a Hellfire, for example. His documentation
of the SUV fire attributes and the anecdotal eyewitness accounts of the VIP hit should
have raised red flags. None appeared. Oh well.
4***
After the devastating news about the aircraft bombing in Baghdad, LM needed an
uplifting story for lunch-time viewing. Eager to demonstrate the „fire‟s versatility, the
LM PR office had released some footage of HF hits in the recent Israeli campaign in
southern Lebanon. They were especially proud of all the types of terrorist targets they
could get, for example, local administrative offices, bank branches, electric power
46
distribution, clinics and other social infrastructure operated by the evil terrorist Hezbollah
organization. At lunch this generated a whole new landscape for quiet reflection. (Molly:)
You know, Israel created Hezbollah as a kind of Islamic dead-end to confuse and
immobilize resistance to Israeli plans. Problem is, the people over there didn‟t get the
memo, they made Hezbollah a administrative organization that provides credit to small
farmers, runs schools, organizes clinics, stuff like that. Maybe that‟s why the campaign
didn‟t go so well, hmm. Used a lot of „fires, too, and illegal cluster bombs.
5***
Journeying by truck, trans-shipment of new textiles through Turkey on the way to Europe
was pretty routine. The EU border crossing required a tedious wait shared by 200 other
pollution-belching trucks, but inspection of truck contents was fairly perfunctory and the
paperwork routine. And once inside, a truck can go anywhere, in this case, to a
cooperative Iranian carpet dealer in Lyons who did a lot of business with New York.
Upon invitation, some trustworthy Lebanese students in Paris had joined the fray,
stimulated in no small part by Condi‟s ringing endorsement of the Israeli attack on
southern Lebanon going after Hezbollah. But finding suitable operatives in the U.S. was
proving difficult. Finally, a Lebanese student, Amal Francois Lebesque, who had just
won a post-doc to Washington University in St. Louis, agreed to do some moonlighting
for justice and had some very reliable friends already in the U.S. His family, on his
father‟s side, had been part of French colonial society in Lebanon in the „30s. For his
apartment, he was to receive a very nice hand-woven rug, rolled-up like a big log, with
narrow rolled up runners stuck in each end, straight from New York City. To be safe,
HF3, with fins removed, would be wrapped in Lyons in several layers of airtight plastic
bags with packets of activated carbon to suck up any traces of solid rocket fuel,
electronics or explosives, odors that Homeland Security dogs might catch outside
shipping containers arriving by sea in Newark.
So far HFs 1 and 2 had meted out some grim justice but it still wasn‟t clear by whom, or
representing what. Finally, it was agreed that HF3 should make that clarification; it was
time for LM‟s HF to take full credit, and Chainy VEEP was selected as the messenger.
Beth had argued that although about to leave office, Chainy was a major node in the
right-wing imperial constellation that would continue to influence opinion and policy in
the U.S., and that his crimes were monumental, almost epic. No one had a better idea. But
then the Green Zone mole reported to Team Baghdad that General Betraeus was due back
from D.C. early Friday morning. The Plan reconvened: why not take him out?; the airport
drill was already proven and still not suspect. A sat conference call the next day
confirmed the new HF3 target.
6***
In Sweden there were some comrades working in the coastal defense bases but no one
was willing to take on a special project even of global importance. Things were a little
tense these days in Scandinavia for immigrants from the Middle East, and this assignment
meant going underground to boot. On a French base there were some Algerians friendly
47
with French activists who were willing to talk. Their base had the new helicopters.
Jasmine decided it was time to propose a Hamas site-visit, and the Hamas informal HF
subcommittee agreed. The task was to ascertain that a secure network of participants
could be affirmed, and that there was a base worker ready to return home unexpectedly, if
necessary. The alternative was to have the worker after putting three HFs in hiding,
pretend to know nothing about it, or there was some mistake. That was more risky if a
heavy interrogation were to result from three missing HFs. Of course, they could always
admit under duress that they did it; say they sold those things, didn‟t know what they
were, to somebody from Lebanon. Sent them out with the trash. Entrepreneurial initiative
always gets some points.
7***
It was still dark when the diligent satellite dish truck pulled up to its vantage point
without its lights on. They had slept in the truck in a nearby industrial area to avoid
suspicion of early morning travel past check-points. Before setting up, the team wanted
confirmation on the ETA. No word had come from the Zone but an independent source
appeared. At about 5:45 AM all sorts of military vehicles started roaming around the
distant air field, sniffing at the perimeter fences, lining up along stretches where the
runways were visible from airport roads. It was a clear indication that the big guy was
expected soon. With binoculars scanning the lightening sky, still no sign. Typically these
planes approach the airport high and then swoop down suddenly in order to avoid hostile
fire and any Stinger possibilities. It‟s kind of a show-off thing for the pilots and a Disney
ride for new visitors. So the team expected they wouldn‟t see the plane until almost
touchdown when it would probably switch on its landing lights. Of course it also might
land from the other direction, but arriving flights almost always take that same route.
Either way, the runway marker lights were there and so they had a good idea where the
thing would be rolling. HF3 was readied and then there were twenty minutes of taking
turns peering at the barely visible image on the display focused on the end of the runway..
Suddenly it was there, on the ground with no lights, charging toward them. The image
was fixed, the laser lit, and off went HF3. Four pairs of eyes watched, two by binocular,
two by display. The suspense was tough because the sucker might turn off the runway at
any moment just when the HF was closing in, and it could lose the laser spot. Fortunately
for security reasons they land rather fast and thus have a long landing roll. Not to worry,
the cockpit suddenly lit up like a roman candle and shoots of fire shot out both rows of
windows. The plane wasn‟t going that fast and slowly veered off to one side, settling into
a ditch, now fully engulfed. All the sleeping vehicles around the base suddenly awoke
and rushed forward to do nothing.
[ETA – estimated time of arrival]
3. Getting Their Attention
1***
Panic of an entirely new kind had suddenly taken hold. The Baghdad command was
frantic. They were in a new war and they really didn‟t know who or what to shoot at or
48
bomb or torture, much more so than usual. An emergency meeting of all command and
intel chiefs was set immediately. SUVs were screaming everywhere; Blackwater was
charging hours like nobody‟s business. The possibility of a guided missile could no
longer be ignored but all entities reported no observation of hostiles in the area. The
Betraeus plane had come from Frankfurt, probably the most secure facility in the world.
After a pause, the intel station chief cleared his throat and said: Well, I guess we have to
consider all possibilities.. a guided missile could have done this, and the VIP plane. The
marine colonel said: You mean like, one of ours? Everyone quickly computed. A rogue
operation? But, no one was airborne this morning, no Warthogs, no choppers, no
Preditors, isn‟t that right Bill? Affirmative. There could have been for the VIP but not
this one. I guess it could be a ground-launched, but who has that? Maybe we can get
satellite pictures of the base environment when the VIP got hit.. A nod to Lt. Casey..
Somebody call base operations and get a log of all Hellfire sorties on that day. Any other
ideas?... What about the VIP eyewitnesses,.. Jim asked. There was a pained silence.. Did
anyone record who they were? More silence… (The chief:) We could ask but then the
genie would be out of the bottle: 1) it would be public and 2) why didn‟t we listen the
first time… What about sifting the wreckage, someone asked; there‟s almost always
hardware left behind… OK let‟s get a team together – Jim, can you prepare a protocol for
that and what they should look for?
That wasn‟t that hard to do. The solid propellant rocket engine in a Hellfire ought to
withstand just about anything, after all it contained a continuous explosion for 10- 15
seconds. It took the search party about an hour and a half to find a metal vessel sort of
like a large wine carafe that had once screamed fire. It had ruptured on impact but was
still clearly recognizable and matched the image e-mailed to Jim from Defense. Even had
a Rocketdyne part number etched on one side.
Baghdad command was perplexed. They needed to report this finding to the Secretary of
Defense, but wanted to cover all the angles first. How could a Hellfire, twice, do this. It
was as baffling as it was embarrassing. They were pretty damn sure it wasn‟t an inside
job, but who could have done it? No non U.S. nationals get even close to operating these
systems. Nobody wanted it, so Jim got the job of drafting the missive to Washington; he
seemed to know more about missiles than anyone else. Try as he could, Jim couldn‟t
make it pretty. Command had walked themselves into a bad situation. This was going to
be read (slowly) by the President‟s men. Fortunately, Jim‟s memo was in the record.
2***
Ari and Sasha hadn‟t talked since the Megroponte hit. After the VIP plane affair, Ari was
pretty busy with the camera transfers and keeping tabs on HF4, plans for moving HF5, 6
etc. It was urgent to get lots of HFs placed before the rulers figured out what was up.
Using various disguises, a bunch were dispatched for Dubai and Saudi Arabia as well as
another 5 or 6 to Europe. Also, he didn‟t need Sasha‟s inquisitory stare. Sasha had her
own reasons for avoidance – fear of knowing. The Megroponte attack was credibly an
Iraqi achievement; the VIP plane was an astonishing escalation and really worrisome, and
now Gen. Betraeus: it was just too much to account for. Then she overheard discussion
49
between Barschauer and some Mossad guy saying they didn‟t believe the U.S.
explanations.. that was really scary. She tried hard to hear what their theory was, but
someone closed the door. Later she innocently asked Barschauer what he thought was
going on in Iraq. He thought for a moment and said:,I don‟t know but it‟s a pretty big
deal, might involve missiles but no one knows where they‟re coming from, apparently
not even the Americans. Might be Iran. It‟s a dangerous development with unforeseeable
consequences,.. looking at Sasha with eyes wide open.
Sasha‟s worst fear was being validated hit by hit. On the one hand she was almost at the
point of breaking off all contact with Ari but his views had enough of a hold on her and
now Aaron‟s influence,.. she needed to talk again. Was it better to meet for lunch or in
the lounge, or less publicly. She decided lunch was the least suspect, especially if they
arrived at different times, and called Ari.
He came in when she was half-way through her lunch and reading the paper. They were
glad to see each other and spent several minutes catching up on normal things. How was
Athens? What progress had she and Aaron made on the justice metric? What were
Aaron‟s reactions to the Megroponte event and the VIP plane? Had she talked with him
since Betraeus? Sasha asked what had Ari done on his last weekend leave, and with a
genuine smile – any good parties in the city? Symphony? Then she leaned forward and
cut to the quick: Ari, what is the point of all this slaughter, what good is it going to do?
Where will it end? Even if I agreed with the basic complaint, what is the point beyond
some primitive retribution? It won‟t change anything… Ari was caught a little off-guard:
The people doing this probably have a plan, will at some point make demands and may
be able to negotiate some significant concessions in the context of new public scrutiny
and vision. That is the only way this makes any sense.. with raised eyebrows.. We‟ll have
to wait and see… After a long pause (Sasha:) I used to think I could be neutral and not
have to choose but I now see there is no middle – if I do something, it helps one side, if I
don‟t, it helps the other… Ari caught the quandary and sensed the gravity: There are
times in history when individuals are caught in that dilemma. Your grandmother probably
could have told you about a few from the Resistance. When neutrality is no longer an
option; it gets squeezed out completely. I think you should wait to make your decision on
a more complete assessment than can be made at this time. I‟m confident you will make
the right decision if you wait, Sasha. It would be nice if we had a little warning but that‟s
up to you.. So,.. what are you reading these days?... Well,.. sigh.. Aaron gave me some
books by Third World writers, like V.S. Naipal, Franz Fanon, .. even Giap from
Vietnam.. chuckling. Really strange and interesting perspectives.. He has to explain
some of it for me, of course, but we have good discussions, he really has to think.
3***
Ben met Ari at the bus station and then they drove to a public park and found a nice
bench. It was a warm balmy evening and they were both almost shivering. The HF Plan
was working beyond their wildest expectations. They not only got Betraeus, they got the
Deputy National Security Advisor, the one who said waterboarding wasn‟t torture and
should be used whenever needed, and they even got a high-level IDF officer that no one
50
knew was ever involved in Iraq. The Baghdad command press officer almost let that one
out by mistake. Ben heard about it at work and was trying to find out what the guy was
doing there. Several top corporate execs vying for new contracts were also on board.
There were a number of really important things to work out, but that discussion should
wait for Beth and Jusef. But between just the two of them, they urgently needed to talk
about what this was going to mean in their lives, perhaps a little late to be considering but
now a felt need. Of course, they both had recurrent qualms about planned executions of
the top bad guys, and bystanders, but were always able to justify it upon review of the big
picture. And it wasn‟t just “ends-justify-the-means” nonsense, whatever that means, it
was that the enormous continuing crimes against humanity were going to be substantially
inhibited if this worked; that huge benefits could come with plausible probability. What
they needed to talk about right now, though, was where this takes them in life. Both had
concluded that someday they would be exposed. What would happen next spanned a
wide range of possibilities from instant elimination without mention to global fugitive
status – Bin Ladens with no Pakistan to hide them. There was also the fantasy that world
political upheaval against the oppressors might create some breathing space and even
recognition and respect for the HF liberation front, but that was a real long shot. Opening
a third apex in the global war on terror didn‟t automatically guarantee protections of the
Geneva Conventions.
There was another problem. Ben had met this woman, a civilian systems analyst at IDF,
and they were just starting to see each other. This brought the issue of collateral damage
close to home, and was creating a lot of stress for Ben because he couldn‟t talk about the
thing that was most consuming his waking thoughts. Ari described his recent
conversations with Sasha which, while raising some anxieties in Ben, were also not
immediately applicable. It seemed like Sasha had progressed quite far in class self-
realization and was to some extent to be trusted, whereas Naomi was a big unknown. Of
course she wasn‟t happy with Israel today – who was? – and she was a pretty
independent thinker and really well-informed. Still, it would be a huge leap to get to
global class war. And at this point, Ben couldn‟t even predict how she would react to
knowing he was involved in anything untoward. Obviously there are rules, procedures
and threats that are triggered just knowing something within IDF. Ari suggested that it
might be helpful sometime for several of them to get together for dinner, maybe even
Sasha with her economist, if he were around. Maybe Rachel would come too. Finally Ari
suggested the book ploy, see how she reacts to reading some of the modern prophets of
justice.
4***
The U.S. National Security Council was appalled and almost speechless. They were
grilling the Joint Chiefs repeatedly and without mercy. A LockheedMartin VP was sitting
in a lobby in the West Wing, nervously taking calls on his i-phone under the gaze of two
spiffy Marines, and expecting crucifixion at any moment. How could this happen? Who
could operate these things? Do they sell these at Wal-Mart?? What are you doing about
it… The Secretary of Defense prostrated himself saying this was an unbelievable situation
51
that defied explanation. He quickly laid out the current thinking. Some HFs have been
stolen from a base somewhere, apparently along with the supporting control system.
Someone has reverse-engineered the thing enough to be able to fire it independent of the
platforms for which it is currently configured. The problem is there are now at least 35
bases where Hellfires are located around the world, not counting the U.S., of course…
They‟re not under our control?... Well, no, LM has sold them to several countries and
adapted several other platforms. It‟s been a rather successful marketing venture for them
through the Pentagon weapons export program... Ya right!. Like who?... Well, Sweden,
France / FRANCE? / Australia, I think that‟s all, but the U.K. may have them. We could
ask Don DeLay, the LM VP out in the lobby... Nevermind.. Jesus Christ, I thought we
had export controls that deal with these matters… Well, we do but these are our allies,
even NATO members… So go on, what are you doing... We‟ve put out a high priority
request to all militaries with HF assets to report their inventory immediately and any
unaccounted-for missiles. We‟ve requested unlimited military attaché and intelligence
access to all bases with HFs. It‟s a little sensitive because we don‟t want it public that we
suspect HFs… Ya we know; it‟s a little late for that. What about.. ah.. technical
solutions.. can‟t LM modify the systems or disable them so others can‟t use them?...
Ah..well, we‟re in discussions with them on that right now. It‟s difficult because of
course the nature of the system is rapid response once a target has been located.. As you
might expect, flexibility is somewhat incompatible with high level control… Oh, great.
5***
Beth and Ben had been debating: when the confrontation is clear, should we issue
demands on “behalf of the world,” and what would they be. We could possibly do it
through Al Jezeera although they may be a little skittish by now. It was clear that the
rulers had to be extorted, the people desperately needed some victory and relief. At the
very top of the list, Demand No. 1: liberate all prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel,
Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, for starters, and from all U.S. client states holding “unlawful
combatants” and Guantanamo; including public disclosure of who they are, how long
they‟ve been held and all the evidence against them. For prisoners of war and other
political prisoners, compensation will be paid at release. This of course raises lots of
issues, what about “real” criminals, what about reprisals, etc. The demand would require
liberation to a safe haven of the prisoner‟s choice but local authorities would have to step
up to judicial responsibility and public accountability. Lots of lawyers could be needed.
Demand No. 2: end all military and intelligence “anti-terrorist” or offensive operations in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in Gaza and the West Bank. It would be up to local
resistance fighters to decide how to respond to this change, like Hamas, Hezbollah, even
Taliban. Demand No. 3: convene Middle East summit to plan U.S. exit from the Persian
Gulf. Elected delegates from all regions would be able to attend along with accredited
NGOs and any citizens or refugees wanting to participate. This one is complicated too,
maybe a pre-conference would have to come up with a proposal for public review. The
leaders of nations not complying with the substance of these demands would be at risk
for future accounting.
52
This seemed like a good start. Regardless of how things play out, some more profound
demands – Tier Two – would be developed, having to do with the growing world food
crisis, regulation of oil, and workers rights; and climate change; women‟s rights; maybe
freedom from religious persecution; the list was endless… Maybe we need some help and
public input on this. Let‟s start a global dialog on demands. Maybe get them going in
every country. Would Al Jazeera host a blog on it?
6***
Suddenly all mention of HFs vanished from the LM lunch menu. Nobody noticed for a
while but then Nancy asked during a lull, I wonder why they don‟t show us „fires
anymore?... Molly had to rewind a bit: Let‟s see, it‟s been about six weeks – ever since
Betraeus got betrayed. What could that mean, she wondered out loud.. No one had a
single theory.. It‟s not like they‟ve stopped using „em, especially in Pakistan, you read
about hits almost every day from a drone... Someone offered: Maybe it‟s a security thing.
Maybe with the new employees they‟re expecting… Molly hadn‟t had the nerve to bring
up the impending lay-off and what to do about it, but now she dove right in.. I‟ve been
wanting to have some discussion on this and I have some ideas.. People weren‟t used to
good news from Molly and so were easily interested.. I don‟t like the war, I don‟t like
making their grizzly machines of war, and I‟m sure not wanting to let them make „em on
the cheap. We built this place into a big money-maker and we should have a place at their
stinking table. Maybe someday they‟ll be making something they should be making,
something we could all be proud of. So here‟s my idea; let‟s get the union guy over from
Plant 8. There are a whole bunch of things we can do legally to upset their applecart. We
could research the rent-a-gang thing, find out how it went other places, and who owns it.
Track down who they know in Washington, lobbyists, find out how this scheme got
hatched. We can do what they call “work to rule,” which means you do everything
exactly the way you are supposed to down to every last detail. It would slow production
to half. We could disclose the short-cuts LM‟s been taking to the DOD guys… Molly‟s
ideas were only the beginning. Imaginations were starting to run wild; people almost
couldn‟t wait to run home and start their search engines.
7***
Most foreign students coming to graduate school in America – if they can get past the
visa gauntlet and travel insults – experience a variety of culture shock. Even people
trained in history and class conscious political thought have a lot of absorb, calibrate and
adjust to. Abundance, waste, cheap gas, poverty, crime, media assault and refined
prejudices all hit at once. Amal Francois in St. Louis was resilient but also had buddies
already in America to ease the transition. A weekend in Chicago brought them all
together. Amal had told one of them he had something important to discuss so, after
eating Moroccan just north of the Loop, consumed with rapid-fire stories and jokes, they
hiked across Lakeshore Drive and walked north alongside the lapping black sea. There
were five of them. Amal said there was a plan unfolding that Hamas had some connection
to: It‟s a very serious operation; the attacks in Baghdad are part of it, Megroponte,
Betraeus etc.. He stopped talking and let the news percolate.. There are many aspects that
53
I won‟t divulge to protect the operation but also to protect you. But there are two things I
want you to understand: 1) the goal of the operation is to bring death and terror to the
people, the class, at the very pinnacles of power who are behind waging war on the
Palestinians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghanis, and 2) that the folks developing this plan
are smart, careful and absolutely committed to principles that we all share; they come
from several countries.
The group of five had found a fountain-sculpture to sit around the base of. With a gentle
background accompaniment of murmur, gurgle and hiss they had a good view of the
glittering Gold Coast high-rises, rising smugly into the dark threatening sky. Dinner
parties and other features of the good life were happening within a soft glow of
opulence… What I am asking is that some of you join me in conducting some operations
here in America. Whether you decide to be involved or not, I am asking you to never ever
mention a word about this to anyone, not even to the love of your life or your favorite
uncle, the bomb-thrower. The repression is going to be intense and will directed at us.
Anyone who has heard anything will be at risk. If they get you and you get to the point
where you have to talk, tell them that you heard some rumor from some guy Rahim at a
meeting at school but you never saw him again. If you want in, this may be the most
important thing you do in your life… Someone asked: Who will be the targets?... I don‟t
want to give any more particulars until we‟re clear who‟s participating. This is not about
bravery, or 75 virgins, or any of that shit. It is about a very serious decision in your life
and future, and you should feel no pressure in either direction, from me, or us. That‟s all
I‟m going to say for now. Why don‟t you guys discuss it a bit. We could walk some more
if you want... They walked on a considerable way in silence, past empty parking lots,
dark museums, under restless, creaking trees and someone suggested they jump over to
the parallel city street a block away, to get something to drink. The collapse of the Sadr
movement in Iraq, which nobody especially liked, had been a depressing indication that
the U.S. imperial design in the Persian Gulf may yet succeed amid mindless and amnesic
approval in the U.S. Mahmoud said this seemed like a special time in history, global
recession was possible, there was obscene wealth from Manhattan to Dubai while
millions were facing personal devastation or catastrophe, in all countries. Maybe if
someone actually had the means of personally threatening these criminals, the people
would be emboldened to take some steps and leverage some fundamental changes. The
others nodded... You know Mohammed Ata got a nice education here, but he thought the
options were so bleak back home in Egypt he lost it... Someone else: these people have to
be stopped. Otherwise there is no limit to the devastation they will wreak. The U.S.
Democrats are obviously less stupid than Bush but still on the same basic agenda… There
was further commentary from each walker and around 12:30 am they decided to head
back. Getting close to their origin with raindrops starting to hit, Amal suggested that
maybe they should think about this matter and they could talk again. (Mahmoud:) That
might be a good idea, but I, personally, would like to sign-on.. I am assuming that if I
find I can no longer go along, like if it was too likely to fail, or its mission got corrupted,
I would withdraw, remaining loyal, I guess, of course.. was that an option?... Amal,
retrieving a line from some trash TV show, said “failure is not an option,” smiling. The
others all looked quickly and then laughed as they split up. All said they were supportive,
but some wanted to think some more on it, and at least one wanted to think less on it.
54
They especially wanted to go back and look at those spectacular hits again, with new
eyes.
8***
Reports back from HF owners were varied and not very reassuring. Sweden had
distributed 100 HFs around various locations with variable security arrangements but
they were eventually able to account for all, including the one they had test-fired at an old
ship-wreck. The situation at Bagram was total chaos. Base management was contracted
out to DynCorp. They didn‟t even know how many they had fired. But some Air Force
guy had kept a record of empty pods returned and the accounting was pretty close to
expected inventory, maybe off by one or two, if that helps. Non U.S. nationals were not
admitted to the HF loading and maintenance areas. Baghdad was much worse; they were
now going through about 75 each month; pods were piled up outside the hangers; some
were being used to transport machine gun rounds and some got sent to the dump by
mistake. Someone saw kids playing with one in the Tigris River. The air force inspectors
were about to write a report no one would want to have read when the U.S. military
attaché in Paris wired that three HFs were missing at the Le Bourget base. Two months
ago a custodial worker had misread some instructions and sent three pods to the recycle
area and they had disappeared. It wasn‟t clear where those instructions had come from;
his French literacy wasn‟t very good. This bad news was extremely well-received: three
loose HFs and three unsanctioned HF-hits. The front line heavies could breathe easy
again. They sort of forgot about the cameras for a while. During the HF hunt at the
French base, the Algerian worker reported each night to his contact at a local bistro. He
stopped in one last time on his way out of town heading for Algiers and so the Plan knew
about uncovering three missing HFs before Washington did.
55
Chapter Three
The Dance
1. Terms of Engagement
1***
Three weeks after the Betraeus hit, and three days after the French-connection, a
computer disk arrived at Al Jazeera purporting to be from the group behind the three
Baghdad attacks. It was in Arabic and English. They called themselves the Justice
Committee. In their note introducing the demands, in simple ASCII text, they mentioned
that three HFs had been discovered missing at a French air base, information that was not
public. Al Jazeera immediately contacted the U.S. consulate and said they wanted to
make the group‟s statement public, and was it true about the French discovery? Forty
minutes later, the Consulate called back and requested that the French report not be made
public; Al Jazeera agreed, having recorded the conversation (which they disclosed), and
then they delivered Demands 1 to the world, along with the postscript that if the demands
were not met, further attacks on members of “the global ruling class” would follow.
This called for re-aligning intelligence operations and serious spin-doctoring; a multi-
agency task force was convened over at State, under the direction of the National
Security Council. The twenty-eight assembled functionaries were jittery and nervous,
considering the threat to be extremely credible, and were surprised that the higher-ups
seemed less worried. The going-in line was the old Israeli tried and true “we don‟t
negotiate with terrorists” but, when that didn‟t quite pass the laugh test, the basis for their
complaisance was divulged. The threat appeared to be over; it was a one-time very
unfortunate and tragic episode but a breakthrough in intel and a fast response by military
intelligence led to actions that with high probability had eliminated the threat: We believe
the demands are a bluff. Releasing thousands of terrorist criminals and enemies of the
new Iraqi state is out of the question. Abandoning our fight for democracy in Iraq just
when enormous progress is being achieved is inconceivable. No way would Israel go
along... The story line would be that a previously unrecognized terrorist organization was
behind the three attacks and had been identified and was now being disabled by U.S.
counter-terrorism agents, including Navy Seals. The means of attack in the case of
Betraeus‟ aircraft is classified information (that is, classified from the American and
other peoples). Station chiefs around the world, meanwhile, were instructed to be
listening carefully for any trace of involvement in this affair. Code red security
precautions are now in force (at high-visibility places like airports, stadiums, political
rallies and other fear-feeding venues). NSA would re-program their surveillance systems
to watch for tips relating to the demands and targets. A full military state funeral and
memorial service is scheduled for General Betraeus and other victims of the attacks, to be
held on the Washington Mall in two weeks. FBI wanted to know if there were additions
to the watch list, what new profiles had been generated; CIA asked if there were reasons
to re-visit interrogations of people already in U.S. custody, or the foreign detainees. As
the session spun down, there were questions like, who do we think is behind this, and,
56
what if they are not totally disarmed, what precautions should be taken for protecting
their targets, the.. ah.. people they think are responsible for things... Meanwhile,
shouldn‟t we be challenging their fundamental premise, and explain how decisions are
made in our democracy?... (Disagreement from leadership:) This is not a debate we want
to get into, or legitimize… (Someone:) But, how would we go about protecting these
people, the “rich and famous” and powerful, if needed. (Someone else:) Well, a lot of
them already have bullet-proof cars… This is matter for private security firms to address;
we already have FBI and Homeland Security developing guidance in this area.
2***
The Hamas subcommittee called for a review. Jasmine explained that HFs were now
stockpiled in several countries along with several launch control systems. Transport was
getting more difficult even though the rulers were temporarily deceived on the extent of
their HF problem. Future targets were discussed for a moment but then Abdul said that
they should really stay out of that for several reasons. If there were really important ideas
on this, see Jasmine later but be very careful. As long as the HF front was conducting
good planning deliberations, and making careful choices of collaborators, we should just
advise Jasmine on generalities. On demands, they said opening up the global perspective
certainly was challenging and offers great hope. There were many other struggles that
deserved input just like their own. Why wasn‟t Somalia part of the demands one
committee member asked? Jasmine had read the U.S. was financing and cajoling the
Ethiopian military to invade Somalia to destroy the Islamic forces that were actually
winning elections. It was Algeria all over again. A Hamas guy said the U.S. was flying
missions with devastating fire-power from those AC-130 monsters with machine guns
that fire 6000 rounds per minute and also was using the Hellfire and cruise missiles
against leadership on the ground. Those Somali guys aren‟t exactly our ideal but these
attacks are totally unacceptable. Jasmine reported back to the Plan.
The French connection, on the other hand, was quite worrisome. What if they go after
that guy and he discloses his contact? Jasmine was reassuring, explaining that the contact
had been told the connection in the Middle East was a breakaway group in Iraq (partly
true). And as a bonus, the front had picked up three extra HFs in the process from their
new-found colleagues that handle the French air base‟s waste. The U.S. embassy wanted
all base employees including contractors sequestered and “interviewed” under NATO
provisions but France said “non” (it was too late).
3***
For the hysterical right-wing talk-radio nuts, the attacks were an outrageous display of
Moslem ingratitude proving again that only America has its head screwed on right. Still,
it was unnerving and disconcerting until the Administration announced the dispatch of
this latest threat. The statement didn‟t reference the demands, not wanting to dignify the
ruling-class concept. Talk radio didn‟t either. Instead, everyone settled down in
anticipation of catharsis on the Washington green when Americans from high and low
stations in life would be remembered together. At LM, Rush Limbogh had been loosing
57
penetration for some time, and his rant on this latest set-back only caused a brief pause in
his slide. (Molly:) Damn, where‟s Al Frankem when we need him? Well, maybe even Al
couldn‟t do jokes on this one, yet... Meanwhile, the LM plan for in-sourcing cheap labor
was moving ahead smartly. LM AGM Division management had never met an obstacle
they couldn‟t overcome, on time and under budget, and until recently, felt invincible with
their Hellfire. But workers with a mind of their own wasn‟t in their business plan. So
when the local paper started a series on rent-a-gangs, found links between the generals, a
local Congressman, and big LM donations, they were sure a communist conspiracy had
taken hold and called for backup. Their New York law firm recommended an
attorney/publicist firm with a long track record in union-busting: Allston, Burlap and
Knave. Fire two or three ring-leaders, release damaging stories about their personal lives
and the union, and hold captive-audience sessions to intimidate employees, making clear
they are all expendable. LM top management was impressed but Farnought was holding
back… You don‟t understand the climate in this plant.. this could really backfire. We
have a highly skilled and tuned workforce that you cannot replace overnight... Actually,
Farnought almost wanted them to go ahead with their stupid plan just to see it “crash and
burn” as they would say. Corporate counsel, in charge of the strike force, intoned “this
was no time for wimps,” but Andy Smarshal, the war-gamer, was imagining how things
might not work out so well. He would like to try some nice-talk first, offering some
concessions and buy-outs to ease the transition to slave labor. Never really liked the idea
of stiffing the workers.
4***
Amal had his first satellite conference call while sitting on a park bench along the
Mississippi River late one crisp morning watching the glittering surface. He reported he
had a team of four, including an American. This interesting development couldn‟t be
accommodated on this call but Jasmine and Amal agreed to talk further later. The main
topic was whether to proceed with HF 4 on the VEEP. Jusef said he liked the angle that
this was responding to the original perpetrators of the war while opening the way to move
on to the war-mongers likely to follow. Ben said the VEEP was technically a fairly easy
target with high likelihood of success, given his Wyoming ranch property, and Beth
pointed out how globally despised the man is. Next targets? (Ben:) There is a Davos
conference in two and a half months in Switzerland, under the title: “Structural
Adjustment – Success and Failure after 30 yrs.” Ari explained that these annual
meetings attract the world‟s governing and corporate elites to discuss current topics. They
typically have a range of contending view-points but almost all within the confines of
empire and corporate hegemony. (Jasmine:) This sounds pretty far removed from the
people‟s agenda for survival… Beth agreed but explained: A properly focused hit here
would accomplish two things: it would brightly illuminate these members of the world‟s
ruling class, and it would help promote division between the hard-line proponents of full-
bore repression and those elements of the ruling class that have a rational class-analytic
perspective and have come to recognize that the current system of capital optimization
has gone too far – it is degrading or decimating the very populations upon which its
wealth and security depends. George Soros and Warren Buffet are two examples. These
guys are not on our side, to be sure, but under the right conditions, we could work with
58
them, we could make them want what we want… Time was running out so Ben
proposed that a Davos plan be developed by Ari and that others think of more targets and
research them, especially something on the Persian Gulf?... Team Baghdad said the
crushing hardships in Iraq make them to want to strike out at some prime examples of the
super-rich right where they live. Amal concurred: Some of these guys live in $25 million
apartments that take up an entire floor or two of these unbelievable towers in Chicago –
or New York, not to mention Hong Kong, Dubai, or now, Shanghai. All agreed, these
should be on the list – and they‟d be so easy, they were designed to be hit by an HF..
Might take some researching to figure out who lives where, though.
5***
Ari missed talking with Sasha and besides, he had a couple of questions for her. He called
and they decided they would take their next weekend leave together and she would give
him a ride to the city. Thursday afternoon, Ari ordered another container of HFs for the
base, and requested transfer of an empty one back to where it‟s supposed to go on the
same truck. Sasha cleaned up her maintenance log, cleared off her desk and then grabbed
her bag and headed out to collect Ari. It was a nice drive and along the way they stopped
for a snack and beer while gazing out over a vista of pristine new settlements, barbed
wire, walls, Palestinian orchards, hovels, and army check-points. Neither commented on
the obvious. Instead they talked about little things at the base, some of their colleagues,
religious sillinesses, and then the HF demands. Sasha allowed the demands were rather
clever, clearly designed to win wide approval and of course absolutely impossible for the
“rulers” to comply with on their current course. She also said Barschauer didn‟t think the
threat was over, carefully studying Ari for any hint at all. Ari said he didn‟t think it was
either, and further.. You probably won‟t disapprove of the next one... Sasha rolled her
eyes, then glared; he‟s taking me for granted, like he trusts me, or is he really stupid after
all? Which do I want?... Ari quickly regrouped and posed his question: have you noticed
any satellite phone activity out of the ordinary?... Well, yes.. I‟ve noticed that a certain
five or six phones occasionally have what looks like a conference call going. They
contemplated each other, and then she whispered: You know, there are better ways to
arrange a conference call so it‟s not so obvious. Tell your friend Ben to check the manual
under “scheduled connects.”… Oh, OK, thanks, Sash. Ari got up and came around to her
side of the table, bent and kissed her hard on the cheek, twice. She smelled so good... I
guess we ought to go.
6***
Secretary of Defense Bob Grates was coming to Baghdad. Bush wanted to demonstrate
that security had returned, and Grates was the lamb. Grates wasn‟t his favorite servant
anyway, kind of got forced on him when he had to ditch Rumskull. There were a number
of loose ends on the whole HF affair and Grates was detailed to deal with it. Besides,
they were a little short-handed at the top on the intel side these days. Jim Speller heard
about the trip 36 hours prior, even though Command knew about it for more than a week,
and Jim was the gofer on preparations. He figured they would want to review each hit:
where the HF could have been fired from, what sort of team would have been needed and
59
what equipment. Jim had been thinking about a lot of things over the past month. He was
gradually losing enthusiasm for the new American Century to the point that he didn‟t see
any great imperative in getting to the bottom of the HF affair right away. It had taken him
a while to admit he was intrigued by the demands and this class view that they projected;
he was curious to see the next demands. He couldn‟t believe that such a skillful operation
would limit itself to three HFs, and was wondering where the fourth shoe was going to
fall.
Grates was bringing along a couple of LM guys to help out, and Defense Intelligence
would be there along with some Mossad and IDF types. Jim figured this calls for careful
planning. He shot off queries in all directions: what area searches had been conducted
right after the Megroponte hit? (none; they thought it was an RPG); what possible launch
sites for an HF had been subsequently cataloged when the missile possibility surfaced?
(none; too dangerous for investigator team and command says it‟s low priority;
estimating that roughly 200-300 buildings could have provided a launch vantage within 5
miles of the hit); what HF systems were in vicinity of Baghdad airport at time of VIP hit?
(three marine choppers and a Blackwater chopper were operating in the area; interviews
of crew identified no suspect conditions.); what satellite images are available of Baghdad
at time of VIP hit? (no images available in the one hour time window of the hit); what
about witnesses along the route of the Megroponte hit (probably no one would have heard
anything because the convoy had air cover – helicopters and other noise machines); what
launch sites exist for the VIP and Betraeus hits? (an array of old industrial properties,
some of them abandoned or destroyed, exist in line with the main runway, extending 3
miles out from base perimeter; together with many roads and alleys; probably 75 possible
launch sites). The eyewitness underworld was more interesting and promising. By word
of mouth, Jim had been able to track down several witnesses and quite useful information
started accumulating right up until the demands appeared, and then people didn‟t want to
talk so much. Something small and very fast streaked along the path of the on-coming
plane and went right into it. It wasn‟t even audible over the plane‟s noise. It was about 8-
15 feet off the ground the whole time.
Jim was thinking the whole scheme through. If you had HFs and knew how to shoot
them, what would you do with them? Certainly a truck would offer the most flexibility
and ease of movement. Wouldn‟t have to be very big, could be disguised as almost
anything. Would require some engineering, but maybe not too exotic. Clearly stopping
and carefully searching all small trucks would be the obvious move if a rigorous
interdiction effort were launched; they‟re almost there now looking for IED planters. Of
course, the HF system could be transported in pieces, in cars, they are all pretty small,
then assemble with cables and wing-nuts. You could put almost any HF component under
the rear seat of a car with a little effort.
There is a long tradition of double agents in the spook business and Jim was starting to
have some respect. The Philby episode in Britain was legendary and in retrospect looking
at the demise of the USSR and the marauding U.S. empire, things weren‟t quite as clear-
cut as they used to seem. Still, Jim was a minor player and at this moment was
entertaining only modest shifts in perspective. Thinking ahead, Jim figured the HF
60
runners would probably go after the top Iraqi collaborators in the occupation at some
point; it might take them (whoever they are) some time to decide who to hit. The more
interesting question was whether there would be hits outside Iraq. Since the French
connection, no one seemed to be thinking about that, so Jim decided to leave it alone. But
where had the HFs really come from? The French finding could have been an irrelevant
fluke, or more insidiously, a trap. Where could a group of bad guys get their hands on a
whole bunch of HFs? He had seen several what looked like shipping containers for HFs
on the Baghdad base back when the HF caper was first being investigated. Given the
chaos, conflicting and undefined roles of contractors, military guys and security
functions, it wasn‟t difficult to imagine a container of HFs slipping away. Someone could
have sent a container over to base-maintenance for a new paint job.. The loose HFs could
still be in Baghdad! That would be a good morsel to throw out: distribute pictures of an
HF container and have the occupiers scour the whole city and all surveillance records for
such an item, possibly in some new incarnation.. Maybe I‟ll save that one, for now.
7***
For LM it was starting to look like a stiff breeze before the perfect storm. The workers
had totally out maneuvered management, not only pre-empting the rent-a-gang idea, they
even got cancellation of the recent hike in their health care. And now the „fire plant was
unionized, in spite of a union that was a little sleepy and run by a clique of aging ex-
military cold-warriors. Furthermore, Molly, the first elected LM AGM shop steward, was
on track to bringing some storm into the union, but first other things were troubling the
members. Three families were losing their homes, two of them black workers in their
first-ever house. Now that anger against LM had been productively channeled, attention
turned to this even darker cloud.
For LM the dark cloud was the escaped HFs which already had briefly threatened to blow
them out of the water. Despite the apparent reprieve, some in management could imagine
a difficult future. What if a lot of HFs got into the wrong hands? The CEO of LM called
an emergency meeting of all top management and brought in the top two layers of AGM
division. First he warned that he had some classified information that not all of them may
have received yet: all three hits in Iraq were by Hellfire missiles. Most had heard. Next,
he laid out an agenda: 1) how to redesign the HF system to make it immune to hijacking,
2) how to detect launch sites, 3) what is our liability here, 4) how to find out who has
stolen our HFs, and 5) what targets could „fires be used against and what are their
defenses. The three hour morning meeting evolved into an all-day meeting and then
morphed into a day and a half. Every discussion seemed to open a new can of worms;
things were spinning out of control. For the first time, the CEO felt he was actually
earning his $4,900 an hour, and even that wasn‟t enough. It was fairly easy to task the
engineers on item one (additional authorization loops, launch codes held only by the
central commands of HF owners; kill codes when unexpected changes in software
settings are encountered, etc.) but at a cost in system user-friendliness. Item 2 opened up
a long debate about light scatter from lasers in urban environments and how one would
design a detection system that could locate a laser source. There were a number of
problems like interference from sources besides loose HFs, including surveyors tools,
61
toys, guns and pointers and discussion got mired in alternate laser choices and
wavelength inventories. The bottom line was there was no easy solution and if they tried
one, it could be quickly defeated by a smart enemy – shooting low power lasers randomly
everywhere all the time from small moving sources. Or periodically shooting a high
power one at a tall highly reflective structure. Anyway, some proposals would be
prepared; it was likely the government would be funding some emergency no-bid
contracts. The lawyers took over for item 3 which focused on U.S. export controls and
they were pretty nervous. The best they could come up with was that maybe they could
shift blame to the Pentagon. Besides, lawsuits in other countries were pretty easy to block
especially with a national security angle. If an HF got stolen in the U.S., somebody
suggested LM might be protected under “right to bear arms” but that didn‟t pass the
smirk test. Item 4 got into more highly classified issues and some of those insufficiently
trusted had to leave the room. More clouds. The intel community was in disarray, more
so than the usual CIA vs. Rumskull disconnect. Someone asked if the servicing people in
the field might actually unknowingly have contact with the perps and was there some
way to address this. And were the contractors doing HF servicing reliable?... Well, one
subcontractor tried to outsource their help-desk to India, but we caught that one… More
layers of complexity… It depends on the HF owners, some have more in-house expertise
than others. In the grand scheme of things, the Israelis have the most competent and
effective organization, followed by the Swedes, and it was downhill from there. The U.S.
in Iraq was total chaos, Afghan not much better. Again, assignments and timelines. The
executive secretaries where punching megabytes of minutes.
Finally, item 5 (targets) was supposed to be straightforward, and the lesser executives
returned to the meeting. Well obviously it can hit planes rolling on runways from some
distance away. It could hit ships, trains, less likely moving vehicles unless the guys have
an airborne platform… What about buildings?... Sure, piece of cake.. There was silence
as people compiled building targets: government, military base, office buildings…
residences.. Someone mentioned the demands and threats and someone else, a young
lawyer prodigy, asked: What exactly is the “ruling class?” Does that mean elected
officials, government leaders? Congress? The debating executives respectfully deferred
to their ranking class member, looking at their CEO… Well, I guess they mean going
after high-level people throughout our society – government, private industry, banks, law
firms, universities, whatever... Corporate counsel, finding this discussion distasteful, said:
Well I suppose they could go after members of boards-of-directors too, but I don‟t know
how they would find them. Besides, it will not come to that, the problem has been
contained… Andy Smarshal, who hadn‟t spoken much outside of technical issues, said:
Ya, they would need spotters... People started wondering who would be spotters for the
rulers. The VP for Governmental Affairs said: This “ruling class” thing is an archaic
concept, although some Democrats occasionally try to foment class war in America with
irresponsible rhetoric. Fortunately though, not Hillary or even Barack… But getting out
the dirty laundry was becoming a little embarrassing, so the CEO brought the discussion
back into focus: What defenses are there for attacks against buildings from, say, 4 or 5
miles away?... An executive from a different division enquired: Can they aim it at a
specific part of a building from that far away?... (Smarshal:) Oh yes, that‟s what it‟s
designed to do quite reliably, nodding; it has very sophisticated optics, and buildings
62
don‟t move… Some technical approaches were tossed around but none was an obvious
winner. The CEO asked the AGM engineering team to prepare an options paper in case
the federal government goes down that path. Then he ended the conversation saying that
the demands of these new terrorists were as absurd as their actions were reprehensible..
Let‟s hope we can all pull together and put an to end this thing soon,… and they finally
adjourned, some despairing, some confused and some curious.
8***
Jasmine rang up Amal to talk about the American partisan. Besides himself, the St.
Louis/Chicago team had Mahmoud and two others. The American, Norm Roth, was a
guy from his department at the university, actually an associate professor (middle rank of
professor but with tenure) in remote sensing, which is using instruments to measure
things like air pollution or other atmospheric contaminants, or using satellites to measure
agricultural things. He was about 36 or 38 and his parents had been heavily involved in
the Vietnam protest movement as part of the SDS. Jasmine had heard of that. The guy
was active in progressive causes in the U.S. He almost didn‟t get tenure because the
university Board of Trustees went after him over his positions on the Middle East and oil.
It became such a big issue and the guy was so obviously qualified the Trustees had to
back down. He and his wife were very interested in talking about the Middle East with
Amal when he arrived. Long discussions went far into the night on several occasions. The
guy is Jewish and his parents were big boosters of Israel but he and his wife (Julie
Prescott), a professor in political anthropology, are totally opposed to Israeli policy and
the war in Iraq. In their third discussion they had joked about the recent set-backs with
Megroponte and Betraeus and were very impressed with whoever was doing it, and the
demands that followed.. Amal had said to them it would be nice to take some walks, and
they understood. He said he knew a little about the attacks but they didn‟t press him for
details. They talked about security issues in the U.S. for foreign students, especially
Moslems. Time was getting short on the phone again, so Amal said that after a series of
contacts with Norm he had concluded that the guy was reliable and had explored some
new items with him. They had discussed an intended target and Norm and Julie although
stunned at the audacity and unsure of the advisability, did not question the justice for a
minute. Amal‟s plan was to divulge nothing about the source of their HF system or who
else was involved, but talk about what sort of supporting role they might be willing to
play. It would be extremely helpful to have seemingly normal Americans involved.
Jasmine trusted and respected Amal ever since meeting him in Paris, and was satisfied
with the arrangement but suggested small steps and caution with any sign of trouble, and
reminded him to be ready to leave the country on a moment‟s notice.
9***
The weekend of the unexpected Ari kiss going home, Sasha again saw Aaron who had
become creative in finding ways to return to Tel-Aviv. Based on intelligence gleaned,
Mother Lieberman decided it was time to meet this young man up-close so a dinner party
was arranged for Saturday evening, which no one in this crowd objected to. Another
young couple was invited, a good friend of Sasha with her current consort. Sasha‟s dad
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went along; he knew Aaron was way out in left field but viewed Aaron like all crooks, as
necessary and even entertaining parts of a healthy system. Besides, these were strange
times and the more ears to the ground, the better. Sasha‟s friend was in urban planning
and design and her friend was an internist. Before-dinner chatter among the youngers out
on the terrace was light and amusing, recent travels always being a popular focus over
wine and hors d‟heurves. Greece got high praise and Aaron also lobbied for Senegal.
Daniel, the internist, recently attended a workshop in Sardinia which was really nice.
Carol‟s last trip abroad was a few years back to Geneva for a UN conference on public
housing. The kitchen commotions receded and Joe, Sasha‟s dad, breezed in with a hug
for his Sashita. Names and careers were quickly cataloged and then they went in to
dinner. After more gaiety and derision over current follies in their midst, conversation
ebbed and Sasha turned to her dad .. So, what‟s happening in the ruling class these days,
Dad,.. smiling and not thinking too carefully… Normally this would be a casual joke not
even noticed; this time people were more tentative and watching... Well,.. not too much,
of course there‟s quite a bit of interest in recent events in Iraq.. No one seems to quite
know what‟s going on.. (Something that people like Joe find rather unsettling).. IDF is
intimately involved and, as you may know, we lost our top man in insurgency
management along with Betraeus… This was news, but Aaron held back. Carol asked,
What was he doing there, do we know?... Joe hesitated for a second, sipping his wine and
assessing the room, then continued,.. Well, he was helping implement a system that we
have found quite useful here, basically a sophisticated database for collecting information
on people‟s activities and social connections… Aaron badly wanted to keep this
conversation going but didn‟t want to be seem too eager. Sasha, watching him, stepped
in, again speaking a little ahead of thinking: So, do they have spotters in the community
there, like in Gaza?... (Daniel:) What are spotters?... The conversation was rapidly
veering toward discomfort and abortion, so Aaron jumped in: Those are people in the
community who are in communication with the authorities and kind of keep track of what
the local insurgents are up to; probably a dangerous occupation these days in Iraq…
Sasha rebounded: .. So Dad, does your company have business there?... Yeah, well
there‟s a fair amount of commercial traffic and IDF has some special operations that we
contract on, nodding... Aaron decided this was enough; time to strike out in another
direction: I wonder what sort of response there will be to the demands on Al Jazeera…
(Carol:) Wasn‟t that amazing?... (Sasha‟s mom, Bev:) Yes! Isn‟t it? It‟s so different,
involving multiple countries, even Israel!; who could these people be?... Joe got back in,
forgetting himself: It‟s quite certain that none of the usual Iraqi groups is involved.
They‟ve starting looking at some of the traditional dissident players there, setting up
some new surveillance nets, but they‟re hard to track… Like who, said Sasha... Well,
there‟s been a communist party there forever; had ties with the USSR and used to be
quite influential in early Baath elections until the U.S. helped Hussein get rid of them. So
they‟ve been lying low for some time, what‟s left of „em… (Daniel:) What happened to
them … (Joe:) Killed, imprisoned.. with a shrug... (Bev:) Well,.. what were they
doing?...( Joe:) I don‟t know, exactly,.. organizing workers, starting unions, especially in
the oil sector, calling strikes, writing things.. a pause.. So, these guys could be
contributing some strategic thinking and maybe some social networking, but they
wouldn‟t have any missile experience… (Carol:) The demands included Israel; are there
Palestinians involved?... No one had an answer to share so Aaron opined:.. Well, these
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various groups all talk to each other; it‟s certainly conceivable that there has been some
coordination with, for example, Hezbollah or Hamas… Joe said he wasn‟t aware of any
evidence but the matter was being intensively studied.. The problem is these people have
pretty much figured out they can‟t safely talk on cellphones or e-mail, so we‟re having to
establish other surveillance systems like directional acoustic, laser interferometric and
recognition technologies. The NSA from the U.S. is quite interested… More news.
After a third glass of sugary wine Beverley became more talkative wondering out loud..
Where is all this going; this kind of Israeli involvement certainly wasn‟t part of the plan
the original Zionists had in mind, at least not the ones I grew up with... Sasha asked,..
Well what exactly did Irgun or Likud think was going to happen with all these
Palestinians, were they just going to disappear, drift off into other Arab societies?... Joe
sensed the Central Dogma being set-up, and launched a pre-emptive strike… Well, what
exactly was the alternative for Jews in the late „40s?... (Daniel:) The western countries
weren‟t very accommodating, that‟s for sure… (Carol:) It was a major social emergency..
I wonder what would have happened if the displaced and decimated population had been
some bunch of Christians, for example… Aaron weighed in.. Well, those were different
times in a lot of ways. Ethnic discrimination was much more tolerated and human
catastrophe was pretty normal. Today, what would or should happen is that a civil
authority would be empowered to resettle and compensate victims; truth commissions
would address unacknowledged crimes and communities would be forced to face up to
their recent history. Multinational occupying armies would enforce the new status quo…
Joe was frowning.. Would never work; the only thing that saved us was our own
initiative... But Dad, it hasn‟t exactly saved us and some of us are looking for a better,
more sustainable solution... Well, if you‟re not careful, you‟re going to bring this whole
thing down. In case you haven‟t noticed, they want to push us into the sea… (Aaron
returned:) Taking that slogan literally is a little silly just as the people saying it are
disingenuous. Clearly the Palestinians are trying to bargain an acceptable arrangement
that addresses their needs today, not some fantasy of returning everything to pre-1948.
Abbas is ready for just about any solution, the problem is he can‟t sell it to his own
people. I‟m not saying this would be easy, but at least let‟s be honest; that‟s the first step.
Then some respect, and substantial concessions... Sorry, I‟m not ready to give up the
store.. Joe rising.. I hope you youngsters figure out what‟s up before it‟s too late. We‟ve
created wonderful opportunities here; sooner or later we‟ll get past these problems..
Looking out through the French doors onto the city and fading western sky: They were
hoping that re-making Iraq would be a big step, and it‟s been rather disappointing
although not that surprising, to me. The party is discussing various options if the U.S.
fails; they‟re not very attractive, but do-able.. Joe said good night and retired to his study
for some peace with Mozart and the city lights.
Later in his borrowed apartment, Sasha and Aaron replayed just about every word, and
analyzed them and each other every which way late into the night. Class realization was
advancing.
10***
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After the Grates visit, U.S. intelligence decided complacency was not the way to go and
they really needed to squeeze every bit of info out of the Iraqi situation. They brought in
a whole team of IDF data miners fluent in Arabic and were going through everything,
including phone records, which wasn‟t that easy. Ever since Hussein got toppled, the
newly delivered cellphone market had been invaded by a hundred hucksters and
compiling electronic records was a nightmare – this wasn‟t America‟s DHS with Verizon
and T-Mobile at their service. Someone thought it might be a good idea to look at calls
out of the Green Zone in the days before the Megroponte and Betraeus hits. It was a big
task and it wouldn‟t work anyway – apt 11D gots its messages relayed by a human from a
bakery in another part of town. Jim Spelling was acting helpful but didn‟t exactly rush to
respond to every whim of the visiting brigade, and one particular phone in the Green
Zone that they passed along for investigation, he found interesting and kept for himself. It
was good of the IDF guys to narrow the field, though. Another major focus was going
after the old survivors of dissident groups in Iraq. Hussein had successfully marginalized
them but in this new game, maybe they were coming back. This led to mining paper,
going though voluminous records from Hussein‟s secret police in Arabic, occasionally
finding helpful products of U.S. intelligence in English for tracking down enemies of the
state. After a remarkable hunting expedition involving dozens of agents and interpreters,
they brought-in for questioning some of these old guys and women who just laughed at
their inquisitors. They made up complicated stories to entertain themselves and were
fearless, pretending that they (the spooks) knew that they (the commies) probably knew
nothing useful. Well, not quite nothing; some word had got around, but the masters of
torture couldn‟t quite bring themselves to abusing wise educated old people, and Jim
wasn‟t going to let it happen anyway. If needed, he had a plan. The bottom line for the
empire was that nothing was learned; very frustrating and very unsettling: “We are in no
position to deal any kind of response.”
11***
Ben had been worrying about the sat phones. What if just one of them got into the wrong
hands. It‟s possible they wouldn‟t even recognize what it was, and of course initially they
would not understand its significance. Still, if it was passed along to a competent
organization, things could unravel very fast. The Israeli-based HF liberation front would
be exposed and eliminated. The whole group could be picked off almost instantly by
Interpol and cooperating intel agencies… We need some rules... Ben drew up a plan and
set another agenda item for the next conference call. One thing the phone users have to
learn is how to remove the memory card on short notice and destroy it. A cigarette lighter
would suffice. Ben would distribute an innocuous substitute card to install if time
permitted. Even this wasn‟t a guarantee; if theygot phone serial numbers, they could trace
them to the IDF, which would be disastrous.
2 Terror in the Homeland
1***
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The St. Louis-Chicago team was going fly-fishing in Wyoming, with a side-trip to
Yellowstone. Norm and Julie were actually into fishing but had never done Wyoming.
The Chicago guys came down the day before and the five of them did their seminar on
missile operations in Amal‟s apartment, including hanging an HF from the tripod in the
living room and pointing the camera at a university research building two miles away.
Amal had been through the training but still had some questions and so made a quick sat
call to the HF guru, some guy named Stash. Earlier they had decided Julie would come as
well; it would look less suspicious having a separate couple along. Norm and Julie had a
pick-up with a camper on it. The others would travel by car: Amal, Mahmoud and Nabil.
Amal looked pretty close to American with a French dad; the other two were pretty dark
and decided they were from India, studying IT if it came up.
Chainy‟s place was about 18 miles from an air field that could accommodate a mid-size
Air Force jet; normally it just handled corporate aircraft, oil and gas exploration
operations and hunting or fishing parties. The VEEP was so paranoid he had a ground-to-
air missile defense system installed at his ranch. The team wandered into town and found
a good lunch at a mom and pop diner. After dessert they asked the waitress: Chainy lives
around here, doesn‟t he?... Ya, his convoy breezes through every two or three weeks. We
always know when he‟s coming „cause the Secret Service brings two SUVs around to the
airfield the day before and the guys in blue suits stay up at the Ridgeway Lodge..
Where‟re you folks from?... We teach at the university, in St. Louis, and these guys are
visiting from India; we‟re going fly-fishing and then take them up toYellowstone. We‟ve
heard there‟s some good places… Ya, they‟re up there, pretty popular… At the gas
station, Norm asked if they ever see Chainy… Oh ya, and usually there‟s some tourists
hanging around just to watch „em go by. They usually don‟t clap or anything, they just
watch. He‟s not very popular any more. And of course the road is closed for a while
before he gets here… When‟s he coming through, anybody know?... Well, it‟s been a
while, probably this weekend; usually comes through late afternoon on a Thursday or
Friday.
It was Wednesday so the team headed out toward Chainy place looking for venues with a
good view of straight stretches of road in the distance. There were lots of turn-offs, into
fields, abandoned sheds and occasionally oil or gas wells. After several exploratory
asides, they found an active gas well with a shed and various past and current structures.
It wasn‟t visible from the road coming from town and there were some old roads that
meandered off into the trees where the car could hide. The truck could easily pass as a
gas maintenance vehicle. The main road continued winding over rises and dips for
another mile or so and then swung north. To get a good alignment with the straight
stretch, the camera would have to be about 50 yds away from the gas facility which was
do-able.
They drove back through town and another 12 miles down to the inter-state to stay at the
Super Motel 8. At dinner nearby, surrounded by sportsmen, truck drivers and oil people,
they talked about growing up in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Lebanon and Syria; about
religion, Israel and Iraq. Finding an opening, Julie queried about women‟s roles. Nabil
said in Syria some parts were modern, almost like Europe, but his family was very
67
traditional and it was difficult for him when he arrived in Chicago: At first I couldn‟t talk
to girls and so most of them just ignored me like I was a dummy, but one of them, a
woman from New York, kept on my case. I think it was a challenge for her to break
through and “liberate” me. The way I was made her angry. Finally I could actually talk
and we discussed a lot of things. She was very interested in the whole Middle East
problem. She introduced me to some friends who were studying the classics. It was an
important part of my education in class struggle,.. smiling appreciatively.. We‟re still
good friends but I don‟t see her much any more… Julie had some aunts and uncles that
were pretty traditional too: They don‟t know what to do with me. They know there are
people like me out there and they think we‟re seriously misguided and sick, but when
they see Norm and me and how we live and think, it sort of messes up their beliefs. Some
of them seem to be struggling inside themselves with these issues, especially with the
Bush idiocy.. but they‟d never admit it.
It had been a long day but they still needed to discuss tomorrow so they retired to Norm
and Julie‟s motel room. With the TV running, they made a plan. Sight-seeing in the
morning, maybe some rafting if it was warm, and a nice hike in early afternoon, and then
returning to town. If the SUVs were there, they would head out to their gas rig; if not, do
some twilight fishing.
2***
The Davos plan was progressing. A team in Lyons had been assembled along with the HF
parts, and a scouting visit was next. Two French activists and an Algerian were to drive
over into Switzerland and up to Davos to survey the situation. They had been researching
Davos and were compiling a list of notables planning to attend. All the best were again
represented, from CitiBank, ExxonMobile, DeutchBank, UniLever, ConAgra, Microsoft
and Google, along with their colleagues in government and members emeritus.
Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to address the gathering and a special session on the
food emergency was announced.. They looked up news accounts from past meetings and
got a good list of fancy villas where the rich and powerful liked to stay including, in some
cases, who stayed where. They called some villas (using calling cards from public phones
while on the road) looking for accommodations. After being asked who they were
representing they were assured there was no space for that time period.
Arriving in Davos the team had a list of 10 high-end villas to case, some of which
weren‟t that easy to find. Virtually all had magnificent views and large common terraces
or decks on which exclusive gatherings could happen. Sometimes one of the French guys
would go in with the Algerian woman from their group, dressed in casual-chic and make
enquiries. Sometimes the establishment had a written schedule posted of coming events
showing, for example, a Davos reception sponsored by UBS or ING or Credit Suisse First
Boston. The convention center itself was easily examined and floor plans were available
as well as advance programs for the event in two weeks. A bored security guard at the
Davos Center explained that most of the security was provided by private companies –
too much for the local authorities to handle. They rent space nearby and set up their
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communications systems. Pretty exciting. They provide all the transportation, too, which
local drivers don‟t like. The team took some taxi rides around Davos.
3***
Local banks were about to grab two more houses of LM employees. Molly got the union
to announce a picket line at the banks and they researched LM‟s connections to the
problem. Like in the 1930s, they got dozens of LM people and others from the
community to surround the properties and fend off sheriffs with eviction papers. LM‟s
ties with hedge funds knee-deep in worthless derivatives and booby-trapped mortgages
were displayed along with the small print from mortgage agreements that suckered their
friends and colleagues into financial collapse. The union substituted for embarrassment
something called solidarity. They demanded that LM take steps at the national level to
address the problem of financial terrorists in our midst. It took a week but it worked; the
mortgages of stressed LM employees were miraculously rewritten with terms that were
liveable and LM workers could breath easier until the next time. The black families and
some of the white families at LM now understood what Michelle Obama meant when she
said she could be proud of America,.. sometimes.
4***
Ben liked to spend a few hours in the IDF library each week, perusing the aerospace trade
press. Besides the nice view from up there near the top of the IDF tower, he found that
Aviation Week and Aerospace News from the U.S. had been spilling technological war
secrets forever, and the HF system had been an all-time favorite, as elegant as it is lethal
and so successful. The relationship between AW&AN journalism and the arms industry
was way beyond incestuous, more like multiple orgasmic. The ins and outs of various
guidance systems get debated, countermeasures discussed and performance in the field in
different arenas is a hot topic. Ben was thinking forward to the time when the HF scandal
breaks, and what sort of uninhibited speculation will flood these pages before DOD
handlers reign them in. The debate on countermeasures and defenses against HFs will be
effusive. The European press in death technology may not be so responsive.
Sometimes Naomi would take a break from planning new architecture and dealing with
system incompatibilities, and join Ben in the library to read the foreign press. She was
quite intrigued by the remarkable set-backs in Iraq for the Americans… Who do you
think they are,.. she asked Ben.. Have you heard anything?... Well, they‟re certainly not
the usual Iraqi crowd, and they have a peculiar internationalist perspective suggesting
they come from different places… Do you think other countries, governments, are
involved?... Ben thought it was possible but unlikely,.. would be acts of war normally
inviting pretty nasty retaliation… So what are their goals... Well, the demands kind of
point the way; like progressive people just about everywhere, they take the Palestinian
side of things, which I happen largely to agree with.. Naomi, we haven‟t really talked
about this; do you feel any particular attachment to our policies in Gaza, the West Bank,
the settlements, you know, the whole situation?... They had been talking in library-quiet
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mode but now even that seemed inadequate for the subject matter. Let‟s talk about it over
dinner, Naomi suggested.
5***
After the Davos scouting trip, some decisions needed making. There were basically two
choices: 1) hit one or two of the villas in the evening around cocktail time, or 2) hit the
Davos meeting itself. This was not an easy discussion and got into some more-basic
questions that Plan members had to discuss among themselves off-line. The Davos event
was unquestionably top level ruling class but it was also relatively forward looking – at
least these people agreed there were serious and even urgent problems that needed
creative thinking. And many participants were from other, much more civilized countries
some of whose ruling elites were somewhat appalled at U.S. behavior. Then there were
academic and other NGO people who were advocates of serious, progressive change who
made the Davos pilgrimage more out of hope than conviction. The Plan decided to hit
one of the villas during a fancy reception, preferably one that would be restricted to the
big players. More research would be needed but it looked like it could be done on site
during the early part of the conference. [NGO – non government organizations, like
Oxfam, Amnesty International, Red Cross,..]
6***
Ari had been working hard for weeks. His commanding officers were impressed with this
young man‟s total commitment and saw a future for him inside IDF. They had heard talk
about his youthful indiscretions and there was kidding at his expense. Then there were
those periodic annoying Mossad queries, but he seemed to have found his way and was
pretty smart. Meanwhile Ari kept coming back to thinking about Rachel and wanted to
see her but it seemed so problematic under the circumstances. So when Rachel called him
at the base he was surprised and conflicted, knowing he should decline, but failing. He
didn‟t have a weekend off for another two weeks so Rachel offered to drive down to the
base sometime to meet him, if he could get an evening off.
She arrived in the town minutes away from the base and called. Ari gave her directions
and took off for the base main gate. He had left the HF den at 4:30 pm to go clean-up and
look nice. She pulled up just as he was passing through security and he jumped in,
pleased to be getting out with someone special. They did a quick hug and headed for
another town more remote from the base crowd with some places to eat. They had a lot of
catching up to do since that party on the couch and then all the amazing goings-on in
Iraq. Rachel really wanted Ari‟s take on these things, and Ari, of course returned the
interest… Do you get information on the inside?... Ari was initially comfortable sharing
his observations on the three Baghdad hits and Rachel was firing back with penetrating
and not particularly disapproving questions about who was doing these things. But she
was sensing Ari not being forthcoming, that there was something between them, and was
starting to feel badly.. disappointed… Is this stuff you‟re not allowed to talk about?.. she
asked. Ari presented a pained silence for a moment, and then: I know some things about
Baghdad, and I didn‟t learn them from IDF... Oh,.. she was looking at Ari full bore but
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thinking way past him, remembering their past. He continued: You‟re even visiting me
has placed you in danger… Oh,… I‟ve been wanting to see you for a long time but didn‟t
want to entangle you. If we just have a nice visit and then you disappear, I‟m quite sure
you‟ll be OK. Rachel took Ari‟s arm and after a moment: Well, can‟t you tell me a little
about it? I can keep a secret, Ari. I don‟t like them either, you know… Rache, this is
about more than not liking; I‟m involved in a conspiracy that could change the world. It
could also blow up in my face at any moment and destroy a whole bunch of wonderful
people in many countries. You shouldn‟t know any more than what I just told you unless
you‟re willing to face these consequences. When they get ahold of you, you don‟t keep
secrets.. I‟m very sorry to dump this on you, it‟s why I haven‟t tried to see you, but I let it
happen anyway.. Do you want to know more?.. Maybe before you answer, we should talk
some about what‟s been going on in your life and what you‟ve been thinking lately.
They talked about currents at the university, common friends, and Rachel‟s work,
including her perspectives on some government planning options that her professor
shared concerning the next 20 yrs of Palestinian “management.” He‟s really a pretty
decent guy but that‟s where the money is these days. I think he personally would favor
something like a one-state solution and has actually thought about how to implement it in
terms of housing and infrastructure planning, but he can‟t talk about it with most people
at the university. It was getting late and Ari had to get back. They returned to the
enigma… Well, you know that hit on Megroponte, and on the plane-load of imperialists,
and General Betraeus?.. I‟m working with the people who did that. I‟m not going to give
you details.. By now, Rachel was almost ready for shocking news.. We could, if you like,
talk about what the strategy is, the lofty goals, the demands and how we want it to play
out, but that‟s a long discussion. If you‟re up for it, we could talk more when I come to
the city.. or if you want to come back again, before then. I knew this wasn‟t going to be
easy. I assume you know you absolutely cannot mention this to anyone.. looking deep
into her soul.
Rachel was immensely relieved; Ari cared after all. The baggage, however, was pretty
heavy and she would need to do quite a bit of thinking. They kissed and hugged they way
they had in the past, and then she dumped him back onto the killing field.
7***
After some nice touring and a picnic lunch, the St. Louis-Chicago team arrived back in
town around 2:30 pm. The waiting line for rafting had been too long but they hiked along
a raging river to get the general idea. They stopped by the airport, avoiding surveillance
cameras. From inside the small terminal, Julie in sun glasses and sun hat saw two black
SUVs parked out on the right side of the apron and some guys in suits were milling
around. There were some other dudes in identical suits reading papers in the waiting area.
She walked back out with some recently arriving travelers but got into the pick-up. By
3:15 they were setting up shop and by 4:15 were ready. The afternoon sky was starting to
deepen. The sun would be dropping behind the range in 20 minutes The road was still
luminous but things might start to get dark pretty fast. Mahmoud and Nabil were perched
in a crevice on an outcropping where they could see the road coming from town.
71
Listening on local AM radio, they learned that the VEEP sure enough was coming
through town, around 4:45 pm. It seemed like traffic had stopped but then a single SUV
came through at high speed around 4:35 pm. There seemed to be just two guys in it so
they let it go. Good practice for the camera crew. Looked like the mandatory sweep
before the VEEP, and 20 minutes later it came charging back looking at nothing. Quick
consult, and the decision was made to prepare HF4. The tripod could be made fairly
inconspicuous on the far side of the truck. If someone stopped, Norm had a story:
measuring atmospheric particulate levels.
At 5:10 Mahmoud shouted that two SUVs were coming fast. HF4 was ready and waiting.
Forty-five seconds later the convoy sped by with dark windows, surfing the ups and
downs for a few minutes before settling into the straight stretch. Image was fixed and
laser lit on SUV 2. The road was still undulating but the system seemed to be able to
handle the tracking. The launch team, Amal, Julie and Norm, all nodded and HF4 was on
its way. Everything was proceeding quickly and as advertised but then the two SUVs
went into another of those dips just when HF4 was about to pounce. SUV 2 dropped three
feet and HF4, 150 yards out and traveling 550 yards per second, tried but couldn‟t drop
fast enough. So instead, hell‟s fire filled SUV 1, which twisted and squealed and SUV 2
slammed into its left rear, then rolled, ending-up on its armor-plated roof and scraping to
a stop right against the flaming hulk. Chainy was hanging upsidedown in his belts with
the conflagration right outside his bullet-proof window… Jesus Christ, what…, can‟t,..
where‟s… thoughts were getting a little muddled now but then he was lucid again: maybe
we were it a little too..., maybe we should of… As the choking toxic smoke filled the
armored carcass, and the dashboard and interior trim started melting, all the king‟s horses
and all the king‟s men couldn‟t save the VEEP and his collateral guests, and they died
trying.
The car had already been retrieved from the woods, the tripod folded, and once the
camera was stowed, the vacationers were on their way back to town. They passed through
gently without stopping and then took a different longer way to get back to the freeway
and on to Yellowstone. At a Denny‟s they limped in like vacationers having too much fun
and found everyone crowded around a TV behind the cash register… Oh my god, we
were just over there! When did it happen? The other onlookers were perplexed and the
new arrivals didn‟t seem important. Many meals were left un-eaten, some not even paid-
for, and these vacationers tried not to appear too hungry.
VEEP encounters were pretty routine for the state police over there and so after the two
SUVs flew past their road block, they folded their tents and went back to catching
speeders on the interstate. But calls started coming in around 5:15 saying a fire was
burning out along rte 26 and shortly thereafter, a secret service emergency call came
through requesting the whereabouts of the VEEP convoy. It wasn‟t until 6:05 that the
authorities arrived on the scene. Curious neighbors had arrived as early as 5:25 and with
cellphone calls the whole region of ranchers, sportspeople and energy extractors was
soon converging. A perimeter was immediately marked and police started taking notes
from onlookers and confiscating pieces of physical evidence that people had already
scavenged. A metal object that looked like a large wine carafe was extracted from
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somebody‟s trunk. Before giving it up, the unhappy camper did record the markings on it
and took a few additional phone-pictures, and when reporters started converging at the
airport later that night, he was eager to share his findings about something that said
RocketDyne on it. Another object found in the ditch nearby and passed around for
numerous curious eyes was a piece of light-weight shaped sheet metal with inscribed on
it words like “Lockheed-Martin,” “Model 114N” and other inscrutable numbers. One of
the neighbors, when they got home, googled LM and there it was, proudly displayed on a
velvet background. Model 114N: “incendiary, for soft targets” unlike other models, for
example 114G – anti-tank missile.
8***
It didn‟t take very long for the National Security Council to realize that another HellFire,
number four, had struck, and this time close to home. In case there was any doubt, an Air
Force investigative team from Colorado Springs came to the same conclusion, to their
considerable surprise, within about 30 minutes on the scene after running into reporters at
the airport. The Air Force was well along in organizing a search for possible rogue
elements in their ranks when the Secretary called it off – “already know something about
the source.” The mid-level Generals had been worried for some time about the discontent
and even outright contempt for the Bush team among some officers, and feared that
someone locally might have operationalized it. They got the big picture a day later from
the newspapers: this was the same as the Betraeus and Megroponte hits! Someone has
stolen our missiles! HOLY SHIT!! The NSC had just been getting into the thick of debate
about whether to go public on the HF debacle when Denver‟s Rocky Mountain News did
it for them, based on a tip and cell-phone pictures from Cheyenne.
Even before the second set of Demands appeared the next day, the NSC was digesting
this devastating news. Out-going President Bush wanted a comprehensive plan by that
evening for his second press conference. Thoughts went back to the Manhattan project,
but bigger and faster. Some were proposing an unprecedented national lock-down:
curfews, every vehicle and piece of property to be inspected. 9/11 in the skies and on the
ground. Every FedEx box opened. Homeland Security to deputize all police organizations
and the National Guard. They starting drafting ominous retaliatory threats against any
government complicit in these outrageous attacks against America. The authoritarian
masters of repression had center stage and their imaginations were waxing fulminant until
someone pointed out that this really wasn‟t very good for a sinking economy and a
vanishing dollar; did they really want to sell the whole country to China? And the PR
really doesn‟t work that well either – the people don‟t feel like they are under attack.
These aren‟t your father‟s terrorists, they have very specific targets that apparently don‟t
include ordinary people. This response you‟re talking about kind of feeds the notion that
there is a “ruling class” that is responsible for everything and controls things for
themselves, and we‟re protecting them.. It was that Jim Baker thing again, always
bringing calm reflection onto troubled waters. But this class matter was a whole new
angle that didn‟t fit the usual paradigms of crisis management or spin. So, what to do?
The NSC didn‟t know where to turn
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The Pentagon was working up a statement on the missing HFs and drafts kept flying back
and forth between the West Wing and DOD. Normally it would have been Dick Chainy
and Megroponte orchestrating the fine tuning, now it was subChainy #1, who wasn‟t very
creative flying solo. The national media had figured out that Megroponte, the VIPs,
Betraeus and now Chainy were victims of the same smoking gun.. They‟re using our
missile? They got Dick Chaney? They‟re operating inside the U.S.?.. The media didn‟t
know where to start. It didn‟t fit any model of their reality. All of a sudden those silly
“demands” and new threats had a fresh ring of credibility and looked much more serious;
this was a national crisis without precedent. Formulating explanatory theories took
second place to conjuring responses to this unpredictable and uncharacterized menace. It
was so bizarre even the blame game was confused. People kind of lost interest in the
Bush administration‟s explanations. New talking heads sprouted on TV from no-where,
full of knowledge about the Hellfire missile system and who could have it. Ex-generals in
cardigan sweaters with serious affect debated the extent of the problem and the technical
nuances. But everyone agreed that it was targets unlimited and no answers.
3 National Emergency
1***
George W looked really awful – like someone had ripped off his right arm and killed his
mom. Like an IDF bulldozer had just leveled his ranch, or like an Afghan father whose
home had just received a Hellfire for a suspect terrorist but it also got his kids, wife,
extended family and neighbors too. The world‟s best make-up artists couldn‟t fix him.
The press office ordered no close-ups and a disciplined body of respectful listeners were
placed in the first five rows of the briefing auditorium... The heights of terrorist treachery
know no bounds.. George proclaimed.. taking one of America‟s greatest statesmen…
People stopped to think, who‟s that, oh, oh, Chainy. George whined that America faces a
crisis of unprecedented magnitude and complexity and announced that he had called an
emergency meeting of a bipartisan working group of the finest minds in the country from
industry, academia, the clergy, and government (in that order). He didn‟t divulge where
this ruling class steering committee would be meeting, for obvious reasons. He was
ordering all federal agencies to advance this mission. George demanded that every
American be vigilant for the people who had stolen some of our weapons of minor
destruction and were using them for extortion and terror against the people who invented
them, to derail our mission in Iraq, our fight for freedom.
2***
FBI and Defense Intelligence were all over Chainy territory. Everyone got interviewed at
least twice. They were asked questions like: how they felt about their mother, what do
they think about people that are different from themselves, what about abortion, and who
had they seen out-of-the-ordinary in town in the weeks just before the tragedy. The
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waitress at the diner was pretty annoyed with these creeps, she didn‟t get tips for this, and
couldn‟t think of much to report. There are always a few weird hunters that come through
and occasionally an obnoxious truck driver, but she couldn‟t remember anything worth
mentioning. After they packed their equipment into their Suburban and left, she asked
herself, well, if I knew something but didn‟t want to tell it, what might it be? Then she
remembered the Missouri vacationers and their friends; they were a little different. Could
they be involved someway? That was when she first realized she wasn‟t entirely sorry
about Mr. Chainy, and went back to clearing tables. Maybe some good will come of this.
The military forensics guys flew in with all their sniffers and gadgets in four different
planes including one that disgorged three trucks. They were searching every nook and
cranny along rte 26. Unfortunately it had rained the night before they got there. On their
second day, when they checked-out the gas-well facility that was the scene of the crime
there weren‟t any traces except that little red ribbon on the ground, attached to a metal
tab, that they stepped on about four or five times along with the usual bottle caps,
indestructible candy wrappers and cigarette butts. Anyone from the LM lunch room
would have recognized the ribbon instantly.
3***
The second set of demands also appeared from Al Jazeera but a fringe TV station in
Baghdad got a duplicate just in case. Demands 2 was like the difference between
Windows 2.0 and Windows 3.0: a lot more depth and interconnectivity. First the
preamble noted that none of Demands 1 had been complied with or even seriously
responded to in public discourse by governments or institutions that routinely speak for
the world‟s ruling classes. If they want global class war, they are on the right path. Then
came the new demands addressing: 1) the world food emergency, 2) the credit crisis, and
3) Palestine and Somalia. The text made clear that they were object or goal-oriented, not
process-focused demands. They were not prescriptive of exactly how the ruling class
should fix their miserable and corrupt system, but rather what the ultimate results would
have to be. The rulers were reminded they had nothing to lose but (some of) their lives
and, eventually, any semblance of their way of life. The demands gave some historical
examples of previous innovations in times of stress that had been costly and contentious
within ruling circles but that had made material improvements in the lives of tens of
millions of people. Speaking of innovation, the Demands came with a link library (sorry,
not in hypertext) pointing to public documents pertaining to the present issues, and
invited people everywhere to build on it, start their own blogs for class justice. They
asked for suggestions on new demands and what the priorities should be. The expanding
response was encouraging.
4***
The Bush committee on the present emergency was a maddening farce. It was worse than
sitting on the Titanic, listening to the fucking orchestra. The right-wingers were clueless
amateurs but took up a lot of air time ranting about the wages of liberalism, appeasement,
individual responsibility, markets, policing objectives, data-mining, and the American
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Way. And they prayed, early and often. The senior class-analysts finally got the group to
set up committees that quarantined the idiots but also included a strategic options
committee that would be meeting in New York, and an inter-agency coordinating
committee that would oversee implementation in D.C.
Starting later that morning with calls to the CEOs of CitiGroup, JPMorgan Chase and
Goldman Sachs, the network of top players in finance capital, global corporations, their
lawyers, and their peers and assistants coalesced into a gathering of 225 executives and
some key party leaders and government officials including the acting-Megroponte,
people who knew Roberts rules and class discipline when needed. They were to meet the
following morning in an auditorium buried in the city‟s venerable Health Department
building in lower Manhattan. At 8:00 am, the executive committee, which had met last
evening until 2:30 am, started by having Harold summarize the present situation. 1) An
unknown number of missiles was in the hands of a dangerous, competent and totally
unknown organization, and they could be shot at virtually any target from a distance. 2)
The group was making demands that potentially could be enormously disruptive and
costly. The demands focused on major current problems affecting vast numbers of people
in the world, problems that could quickly feed massive instability and political crisis. 3)
While it was likely that sooner or later parts of that conspiracy would be uncovered, it
was possible that remnants could continue functioning indefinitely. 4) The group was
making very explicit reference to social class as the basis for political power and, if this
focus were allowed to continue, could begin to undermine the fundamental underpinnings
of our society, and bring the international market system as we know it to its knees…
Comments? No one present objected to the summary. Many had questions and reflections
but held back, respecting the process in play.
Next for the executive committee, Lloyd Bankfine from Sachs laid out what they saw as
their choices. Lloyd thrived on challenges: The danger here is not primarily that some of
our colleagues – some of us – may fall victim before this ghastly problem is contained,
the real danger is the stimulation of false understandings and expectations within our
societies, the perception that only we in high positions of authority and decision-making
are at risk, and that we somehow are the ones responsible for these major systemic
problems… Furrowed brows started to appear.. What if it‟s true? Well, it is true, well
not totally but largely, it‟s our game… The divide between honesty and wishful story-
telling was pushing upward again.
For these reasons, we need to act fast to arrest this ascendancy, and not appear
defenseless. We have to shift the terms of the debate showing that the decision-makers
are who they are because we are the experts, we understand complex national and world
systems, modern institutions and organization of basic production, we are the ones with
the experience, the ones who can fix things when they need to be fixed. In order to make
this case convincingly, we have to immediately craft some credit industry regs that at
least appear to dramatically alter the rules, and that provide actual, substantial redress for
at-risk mortgagees and the affected credit markets. This will hurt for a while. We may
even have to cover some of the risk, down the road.
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We have to come up with restrictions that re-balance world agriculture toward food away
from energy, at least in the near-term, and probably ditch our corporate farm subsidies
pretty fast. We need to outline a serious commitment to energy conservation and
efficiency that addresses climate change. It‟s not like we‟re just discovering this and we
can show that we‟ve been on it since long before this crisis hit. To some extent we can
make the Bush gang the fall-guys, which is very convenient under the circumstances, and
God knows those idiots deserve it.. Some bipartisan murmurs of assent.. How did we ever
put those guys.. oh well.. never mind.
Any questions, other ideas?
What about the earlier Demands,.. someone asked. The executive committee looked
puzzled for a few seconds... Oh, the Iraq things, yes, the foreign policy committee should
look at that first off; of course we‟d have to convince Washington but maybe there are
some gestures or modifications that would suffice for a start. We‟ll be getting Henry, Jim
Baker III, Zbig and some of the others in for this… Well, good luck, but I don‟t think
these guys are going to fall for cosmetics. It‟s either a major stand-down or they‟ll keep
coming after us. And what about Palestine?... Well, of course, that depends on the
Israelis.. Who can talk to AIPAC? Maury? OK; they should have people here with us on
foreign policy – if they don‟t already – grins.
(Another question:) Lloyd, what about the EU? Are they going to cooperate or just watch
us twist?... That‟s a very good question and we don‟t know. Probably they‟re trying to
figure out if they are on the enemy list and, if not, how not to get on. This is a key
question for all committees to examine and start making enquiries. How much
coordination can we get through the multinationals and banks, and NATO… Then of
course there‟s Russia and China…and India.
Harold got up: We are proposing a set of committees that need to begin right away on all
these problems. Here‟s a slide with suggested chairs, secretaries and some key players for
each. We‟d like all of you to join the committee you feel you can contribute most too,
keeping in mind some balance in terms of, you know, finance, regulation, history and so
forth. Of course, your first task is to construct an agenda and objectives. We have the use
of these conference rooms… and a nice lunch is being brought in at 11:45.. Oh yeah,
probably the most urgent work is feeding stuff to the media committee which we all need
to contribute to; we absolutely have to stop this exploding debate about power and class
and being sitting ducks, and focus on creating the perception that government and
industry are – and have been – working together to fix things and that this is the only way
we can go. The networks and cable and papers really have to get on this page right away.
And those talk-show jerks. Maybe someone should call Murdoch.. you can Jerry? OK.
If that asshole doesn‟t go along we‟ll have to kill ‟im before they do; this is no time for
free-lancing or experimentation. Also, get Clearwater and Fox… (Someone:) It‟s going to
be difficult arguing that business and government are – and have been – working hard
together after we‟ve spent the last 20 years trashing “government” and dismantling
regulation... Ya, well, that‟s something for all of us to think about.. maybe we went a
little too far, spent a little too freely..
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5***
Two days after HF4 and still no apparent response even to Demands 1. The President‟s
press conferences have degenerated into slogan-fests and promises of imminent and harsh
emergency measures. Homeland Security, the people who ruined air travel and, along
with FEMA, watched New Orleans drown, were setting up command posts all over
America with plans for ten thousand road blocks and digital check-points. Thousands of
racially-profiled police stops and home invasions have produced nothing but resentment
and a bunch of visa violators who used to think they wanted to live here. People
meanwhile were casually wondering who would be the next important victim; it seemed
inevitable. In some ways, this was more interesting than Survivor or American Idol or
Lost , or even Law and Order – Special Victims Unit. There was talk of a new game show
– Spot the… – but it got canned when the memo came down.
The Plan had a conference call and quickly agreed that NYC was next with HF5 and
maybe HF6 in waiting. Team New York had been studying Forbes and the New York
Times‟ financial pages and came up with several appealing candidates. It was a tough
choice, but Goldman Sachs seemed to have the edge. The conferees gave updates on local
reactions to the Chainy hit. Hamas was incredulous and most were really glad they had
no role in this. In Baghdad, the already demoralized army of occupiers dropped another
notch or two wondering, on the positive side, if maybe there was hope for a stand-down
after all. Beth thought most Israelis didn‟t yet quite get the significance of the developing
confrontation, although it was disconcerting that terrorists had gotten their hands on one
of the weapon systems that Israel relies on, thinking: “thank God for our tight borders.”
6***
HFs were back for lunch at LM. Management felt that they couldn‟t sit this one out while
the U.S. media dissected every little feature and habit of the 114N. Molly found the
whole situation quite remarkable and spent some time reading and walking through the
possibilities. Somebody had hijacked a bunch of „fires and figured out how to shoot them.
Not only were these guys rocket scientists, they seemed to have a political agenda that
was miles above the usual conflict players. Were they just some clever arm of another
screwed-up country trying to profit from U.S. insanity or was it something more
significant… For the LM workers, this was about the last straw. They had seen
everything. The Second Coming would not surprise them and might even disappoint at
this point. They had picked a fight with LM and won, they stood up to the mortgage
mafia, and now someone had stolen their LM missile system and was shooting it at the
very people who sit atop corporate America. Molly had nothing to add for the moment.
7***
The Lloyd C. Bankfine residence was the 41st floor of Trump Tower, overlooking Central
Park, the Met, and other Manhattan gems. It took some careful floor counting but Team
New York finally came to agreement on which windows corresponded to floor 41. Nice
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spread; the Trump web-site showed 3,800 sq.ft, four bedrooms, three fireplaces, five
baths, views of Hudson River from the master bedroom. Cherry paneling, granite and
marble galore with gold-plated sink-ware. It was exactly the kind of opulence Team
Baghdad had in mind for a smackdown. Certain positions on the top of a parking garage
in Queens provided a view of Trump between many intervening buildings and along built
canyons. To the naked eye, it was invisible; on the HF display, unmistakable. The guys
parked their truck the previous late afternoon in the position of their choice, checked
everything including battery charge, and then walked the bridge to Second Ave for some
good Italian food. They stopped back at the truck at 10:30 PM and binocular views
confirmed someone was home. Nighttime wasn‟t a good time – the laser would be very
visible and the HF noise more noticeable. Next morning at 5:30 AM in a light fog, they
climbed back up five flights to the top level and went through their drill. With the image
caught, they threw up the tripod and launch rail, made alignments with the spotter scope,
and then studied floor 41.. No sign of life but a gentle glow from sconces in the hallway.
Jaabil was scanning all adjoining vistas for any curious onlookers. They had pulled out a
spare tire and put it nearby so that someone might think they were dealing with a flat.
Several apartments exhibited signs of awakening but all seemed too busy with life‟s
chores to be studying cityscapes. HF5 was installed under a dark towel; final checks and
alignment adjustment. Jaabil saw one woman peer out briefly at their little roof party but
then disappear. OK lets go. HF5 leapt off the roof, tore down St. Boniface St., out across
the East River and then Manhattan in a streak of fury. From 2nd Avenue to 7th Avenue in
about 3 ¼ seconds 200 ft above the sidewalks, and climbing. In the morning twilight, you
could see on the HF display its little incandescent tail making lazy doodles around the
laser spot until they finally met on floor 41. It was those Afghan caves all over again.
Blinding fire from hell everywhere and then just ordinary apartment fire. Floor 41 was
finished, ruined, but the sprinkler system Donald was forced to install saved the building.
The elevators didn‟t make out so well and the inhabitants of the floors above and below
41 had to make their tearful way down on foot, in elegant bathrobes, carrying boxes of
documents and disks in plastic bags… What happened? How would someone know they
should do this to us? Where can we be safe?.. Not all residents of Trump Tower deserved
this treatment.
At first, other people thought it was a gas explosion – all those pesky fireplaces with fake
logs – and it was so startling that people forgot all about the Threat. Then they
remembered. Oh my God,… its happening! City, state and federal officials sprang for
their cellphones. Did it come across the Hudson from New Jersey? A straight shot and
lots of launch site opportunities, and across state-lines! Witnesses remembered loud
noises early that morning from all over the city, although there seemed to be several
going across from the east, an unlikely route, with so many buildings in the way. And of
course all those echoes. NY Metropolitan Police favored New Jersey. The FBI was a little
more cautious but put a lot of assets into Jersey too – didn‟t want to be scooped by state
troopers and an activist Democratic governor. Authorities didn‟t know where to begin or
end: forensics or protection. Snipers on rooftops wouldn‟t cut it. The ruling class was
leaving in droves; open the vacation house back up; obscure hotels, safe countries. The
interstates out of NYC were bumper-to-bumper in highest-end SUVs, Jaguars, BMWs,
Mercedes, Infinities, taxis, limos, you name it. First-class air travel out of Kennedy was
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way over-booked with huge wait-lists. Lesser rulers were thankful they had fewer
windows, on lower floors, with unsatisfactory views.
8***
It was another weekend in Tel-Aviv and Sasha was reading curled-up on the couch in the
den Friday evening when she overheard her dad mention on the phone that IDF picked up
some guy with missile training in Iraq working for an Israeli contractor. He was being
held in Baghdad. When he got off the phone, Sasha asked him what this meant… Well,
he could have some connection with the terrorists using the missile; they got him because
he had calls from the Green Zone in the several weeks before the Megroponte attack. It
was a chance finding; Mossad was tracking this guy as a matter of routine surveillance
but has been working very hard with the Americans... Sasha went back to her reading but
wasn‟t reading; couldn‟t. What might this mean? Should she warn Ari? She had his cell
from their last drive together. Was it safe to call? Was he under “surveillance?” It was
10:15 pm; would it be too weird if she went out to meet him? Why should she get
involved at all? It was the vanishing middle again. She was growing desperate doing
nothing: she would call, just as a friend, and suggest a drink somewhere. He was only 20
min away, probably. She took her cell out on the terrace and called.. Hi Ari, how‟s
everything?... Wow, hi, how are you. This is a surprise… Well, I was getting bored and
was wondering if you‟d like to meet somewhere for a drink … Oh, really, ya, I guess, ah,
there are things I need to do, but.. I can get away, for a little while; where did you have in
mind?... Well one of those clubs on the water would be nice.. In a lower voice: I have
something to tell you… Oh,..OK, ah, can you pick me up – or I could take the bus… No,
I‟ll get you,.. at Meir Place by the statue.
Mom, I‟m going out for a little while, won‟t be late… Aaron isn‟t back in town is he?...
No, just a friend from school. She threw on a scarf and nicer slacks and spun down to the
main drag going east. The night crowd was out in force and it took a little longer than 20
min but Ari was patiently waiting in his IDF shirt. He jumped in and made a side-kiss, a
little longer than either meant to. Heading back toward the waterfront Ari asked about the
home front and her Aaron friend. Sasha gave minimalist answers and then.. Ari, I have
some important information you may need to know… Suddenly Ari was scared for the
first time since HF liberation… Yes?... Sasha repeated the intel... Oh my God, I have to
go back, right now. I‟m sorry, Sasha, I‟ll take a taxi. Stop! Thanks, this is a really big
deal / I‟ll take you / No! It‟s too dangerous, you‟re already in danger, let me go... I‟m
going to take you, it‟s my decision. I just said I was going to meet a friend from school
and that‟s what I did… Ari was onto the next battle. He had to get the phone, leave his
apartment, call Stash, call Ben who should conference everybody on this emergency,
including Team Baghdad. This could be the end if they already have confiscated a phone;
fortunately, there was no need for Iraj to have one. Ari directed Sasha where to let him
out, but she parked instead.. Sasha! You really shouldn‟t come and I don‟t have time to
argue.. Sasha didn‟t either, and followed just slightly behind as Ari almost ran to his
building and up three flights of stairs… Sorry about the mess.. but he wasn‟t, retrieving
the sat phone, a pad and pen, a flashlight, a light brief case, and then back down to the
street and a fast walk up Ben Gurion toward the park. Sasha was getting cold and had
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grabbed a jacket for herself, and a dangling sweatshirt for Ari as they left… Ben! Mossad
has Iraj in Baghdad. Call the Plan and everyone go into secure mode.. I‟m calling Stash
right now. Maybe we should use our cellphones over the next 24 hrs until we know
what‟s up... Ya.. Bye.. A long series of rings.. no answer… Damn... Sasha was rubbing
his shoulder and helping him on with the sweatshirt… I‟ll call Tomas on my cell and tell
him to have Stash call me if he can.. Hi, Tomas, this is Ari, how are things?.. Ya, listen
it‟s very important that Stash call me immediately, OK? can you help with that?..
Thanks. Bye.. Iraj, the guy IDF has in Baghdad, is a good friend of Stash‟s. They‟re both
telecom guys, like your old man,.. and he gave her arm a squeeze. Sasha was trying to
figure out why she was there when the phone rang… Stash! They have Iraj in Baghdad!..
I know. Get rid of everything. They could show up any minute.. Can you get the camera
stuff back to Nokia or some other safe place?.. Ya.., and get rid of the all the
documentation and wires and stuff you had to pull together. Can you do it?.. Should I
come over?.. OK, call me on my cell if you have to, until we know. Bye - good luck.. Ari
sank down onto a bench, distraught.. It can‟t end now.. Like you said, what is the point of
all this, if it ends now?... Sasha sat and took him and hugged him tightly, kissing his
tears; she wasn‟t in love with this man but for some reason cared tremendously and
couldn‟t just go away and leave him right now. She let go and was fiddling with the
phone, had never really seen one up close, when it went-off in her hands; almost stopped
her heart. She handed it to Ari with a heavy smirk… Hi, Beth,.. yes, I think so,.. yes…no.
We just have to wait and see.. I can‟t tell you now, I‟m worried we may already be
breached.. It was very solid information I‟m afraid. Lets meet tomorrow morning, at your
place?.. The café? OK. At 10:30.
As they started back to his place Ari stopped Sasha and held her tightly, washing his face
in her hair. Thank you, Sash, I can‟t begin to tell you how much. Sasha was silent and
conforming. They stopped for that drink and caught the late news in a noisy bar. It looked
like just another of those high-rise fires with flames and black smoke coming out on one
floor, in Hong Kong or Singapore, or Milan or somewhere. Then the interviews that
looked American and they continued forever, the faces perplexed, and an endless series
of what looked like various officials. Sasha shot at Ari those inquisitor eyes again, and
they finished their drinks in restrained contemplation, and then headed out. Ari paid.
They walked to her car and Ari insisted that she leave now but he didn‟t need to. He was
upset that she was involved at all, and now this. He almost couldn‟t talk. The weight of
this adventure was beginning to crush him. She gave him back his jacket. He remembered
he was seeing Rachel tomorrow. She hadn‟t been able to drive out to the base again, so
they still had this big discussion going.
9***
Jim Speller‟s fortunes had improved now that he was the prescient missile guru in
Baghdad station. He got promoted to assistant station chief, which meant he signed-off
on all important moves. Early Friday morning the call came from Mossad: they had a
person of interest they wanted picked up, preferably by Americans under Jim‟s
supervision. They found an Iraqi working for an Israeli satellite phone vendor who had
been to Baghdad repeatedly and took some calls from the Green Zone in the weeks
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leading up to the Megroponte hit. He had been on a Mossad watch list and, according to
his employer, had trained on SAM II missiles with the Russians under Hussein. Jim
immediately recognized the significance but responded calmly that he would take care of
it, just send the details. When the guy was brought in, the IDF guys were waiting to work
him up, but first some paperwork, and Jim explained that the process would take place at
this station, and under his rules. When a CACI private contractor poked in and asked Jim
why his guys weren‟t doing the interrogation, Jim said “too stupid.” [CACI – one of the
private security companies contracting in Iraq.]
As he was leaving at 6:45 pm Jim stopped in to see what was happening. The guy was
about 30-35, fairly tall and well-proportioned but didn‟t look good. Jim asked to see the
query log and when did the guy last have food or water? Their answers caused the
process to be suspended and food and water brought in, actually some good stuff the IDF
guys had located for the long evening ahead. What had they learned?... Well, nothing; he
does communications work for various of the major contractors, including Blackwater,
KBR. Travels in and out a lot; has extensive contact with Iraqis – people he knew before
– including several that work in the Green Zone, and insists he has no ties with the
terrorist organizations in Iraq or elsewhere.. We think he‟s lying. We‟re trying to locate
some family connections to apply a little pressure... (Jim:) I want 5 minutes with this guy,
does he speak English? And I want you guys out of the area.
Jim didn‟t have a game plan but needed a first impression. When he went in, the guy was
eating and looked at him as though he were the “good cop,” and was waiting for the spiel.
Jim said hello, sat down and started talking about the occupation, the incredibly bungled
policies that had led to the current miserable state of affairs, and asked where had he been
during the invasion? Then he fast-forwarded to the HF hits, saying it was quite a
remarkable feat and that the demands were extremely unusual?.. looking for some
indication. Getting up, Jim explained that he was the Assistant CIA Station Chief, that he
would make sure that he was not mistreated and that, if by morning the Israelis didn‟t
have anything, Jim would have him released. Then he fished a piece of paper out of his
shirt pocket. It was the phone number in the Green Zone that the earlier IDF surveillance
brigade had uncovered for evaluation. Apparently the Mossad guys didn‟t know about it,
just that there were calls from the Zone. He showed the number and studied the man.
Pretty skillful but not professional; yep, the guy was probably on the HF team. Jim called
the IDF back in and said he wanted this guy fully intact the following morning, and that
he was taking over at that time if nothing had developed.
Next morning at 6:30 am, Jim walked back to the CIA offices near the edge of the Zone
and got IDF‟s report on the Iraqi detainee: nothing. They wanted him shipped to Bagram
for enhanced treatment. Jim said no and he was taking over; he now had authority over
detainee transfers. He took the case saying this guy might be a useful asset and thanked
the IDF guys for their work. They were miffed but welcomed signs of intelligence. Jim
brought Iraj up to his office and put him in a comfortable chair and ordered food sent up
and then laid out his plan... I don‟t know if you‟re involved or not with this missile group.
I‟m going to get you out of here as a contracting agent but will expect nothing. We will
not surveille you; Mossad will be watching you of course, and probably your employer
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will cooperate, but most likely they won‟t do anything as long as you are our‟s. They‟ll
probably be pretty interested in your satellite phone accounts.. I would like you to come
and see me each time you‟re in Baghdad just to talk. You‟ll have to do some paperwork
first and I‟ll get you some ID.. A pause.. Do you know about hedge funds?.. Well, you‟re
my hedge fund,.. he smiled and got a smile back.. Of course you must be very careful
now that they‟ve noticed you. You should maintain contact with your usual friends, but
not others. I will write your employer through the Zone administration. OK?... Iraj
nodded, with the look of someone who just signed six pages of uninterpretable small
print. Then Jim called for an agency car, got the paperwork, and sent Iraj off to catch
some sleep in his room at one of the Baghdad Hiltons.
10***
The morning plenary session was tumultuous. Somebody had just taken down their
biggest and brightest… How did they get Bankfine!? Do they have spies everywhere?...
Well, no,.. Lloyd‟s been pretty visible in the media lately with the hedges, sub-primes
and SEC stuff, sadly, he was not an improbable target for outsiders… Harold didn‟t know
where grieving should fit into an emergency agenda and so briefly reiterated the obvious
urgency of their work and then suggested some of Lloyd‟s friends might say a few words
if they wished. There were three takers, who did quite nicely, and then Lloyd‟s
replacement, Robert Rubane a CitiGroup VP, solemnly picked up the agenda with
committee reports. Rubane was a slick crisis manager, former Treasury Secretary for
Clinton – saved their hides in Mexico in the „90s – and now seemed to have a pretty good
head on what‟s needed. He said let‟s start with the media committee. Ron came up to the
podium and reported the media representatives had met last evening, including
Murdoch… It wasn‟t easy getting Rupert to change his flight plans and he really wanted
to stay out of the City (dark snickers), but good sense prevailed. We got an easy
consensus that the “ruling class” thing would disappear from public discourse, that there
would be lots of discussion on the technical options behind the credit crisis and world
food and, despite the complexities, some immediate steps were being taken. Bernacke is
doing a press conference with the SEC chair and some of our finance committee and lay
out an emergency program on mortgages for Congress. We already have the lobby
network on board. You‟ll get more about this in the Finance Committee report, we‟ve
been coordinating quite well. The line is that the complexity of new financial markets
together with regulatory errors by the Bush administration and other unforeseeable
factors had all conspired to create this very unfortunate but temporary disruption, and
we‟re going to fix it. And have been addressing it over the past two months. The
networks, cable and press associations have been briefed and individual phone calls were
going out to the major dailies... Rubane asked what about the independents, what about
NPR. Others worried about all the internet voices and blogs and smogs, whatever, how
were we going to manage that debate? Ron said major advertising groups were being
caucused with and that the NPR and PBS boards were totally in tune. By the way, we
understand Bill Moyers is resigning to concentrate on teaching; his latest taping on global
food markets will not be aired... The internet problem is being intensively explored and
we‟re talking with AOL and Google about filters. Yahoo is a problem but we think we
have a way. If all else fails, of course transmission contracts can be abrogated, and
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systems can develop technical problems… Actually, Ron said, there are a lot of control
options already in Homeland Security legislation, nodding. We have also agreed that
demands are never to be mentioned, and future missile hits are continuing terrorist acts
trying for repetitions of 9/11 that would soon be stopped. It‟s a new chapter in the world
of terrorism but we will prevail. [Bernacke – head of Federal Reserve Bank]
The foreign policy committee was a little less confident. The Administration was
absolutely adamant on blowing-off Demands 1, and Israel of course was in total
agreement while offering everyone advice on containment strategy and implementation.
Their focus is to set up a massive surveillance capability and grab the terrorists before
they can do much more damage. The problem of the select nature of the missile targets –
people like us – doesn‟t seem to be important to the DHS guys, they don‟t get it. So I
guess our only approach for now is just to not talk about the demands, like Ron said. The
room was no longer in consensus. Several jumped in: This is crazy! It just justifies their
Demands. We‟re being held hostage by failed Middle East policies and it‟s going to get
worse. Like Harold said, people are going to start distancing themselves from our
problem with this. Every hit will push them further. What exactly do they intend to do:
roadblocks, checkpoints? Eavesdrop everything? Rounding up thousands of probables
and sticking them in stadiums? There will be massive disruption... (Another:) People
won‟t tolerate it… Bill was nodding: Ya I know, it‟s a deadender, but what can we do?...
Most guys in the room were silent, perplexed and at a loss… (Someone:) Maybe we
should re-visit impeachment. Where‟s the RNC on this, or Jim Baker. What about Henry
Kissingher or Madeline Alblight?... (Someone:) they‟re off in Tasmania for a Carlyle
Group retreat but I hear they‟re coming back. They were on a flying tour over Antarctica
when Lloyd got hit… (Someone else:) This wouldn‟t be the first time some individuals in
the NSC have discussed impeachment among themselves, and the Roundtable has had
some discussion and some paper on it – you know, “what-ifs.”… Someone else: I agree,
we need to re-assess the whole Middle East situation in terms of energy policy and Israel;
I think we need a new idea.. What do people think about bringing in Jimmy Carter?...
(Someone else:) That will be very contentious but I see no way to avoid it if we‟re going
to make progress… But then: Hold up guys, I think we need to slow down here; we have
a very robust system, you know; let‟s not lose perspective: we must protect this at all
costs; it may take a while but we‟ll get these guys… Ya, I don‟t see any substitute for
good intelligence and police work; maybe we need to expand Homeland security and get
military intelligence involved domestically… (Bill:) Yeah, right, well, OK, maybe the
committee should broaden their discussion and put together some additional options; we
have a visit with the NSC on Wednesday. Thank-you gentlemen. [Business Roundtable –
gang of top CEOs who meet periodically to discuss problems troubling their class]
Next, the weary defenders waded on through finance and food committee details. The
lawyers had been feeling pretty challenged and had to strain to remember the anti-trust
regs but did finally agree that some major crop marketing restrictions should be
implemented globally with the possibility of running price controls on food in some
areas. Better get World Bank and IMF in on this, and of course State and Dept. of
Agriculture; they‟ll have to do the permitting and emergency exceptions on current
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lending rules and export controls and, remember, it‟s still the Bush crowd… After lunch,
it was committee meetings with more networking and system tinkering.
4 Checkpoint W
1***
Since before the Manhattan hit, George had been getting nervous that people weren‟t
sufficiently impressed with his determination, so God told him to order DHS to start
immediately with checkpoints on the NJ Turnpike and I-95 north out of NYC. And,
roadblocks and checkpoints on all parallel roads that people, in desperation to get to work
or home or the daycare center, would be exploring. The result was arterial pandemonium.
State troopers had every flashing light in service. Donut and sandwich trucks abandoned
the small plants they usually serviced to re-deploy to freeway ramps. They had to re-load
every 45 minutes. The AM radio stations were excited with lots of live interviews, but
conversations didn‟t quite go as expected; new flavors of patriotism were being created
as they spoke. TV stations had aerial shots of traffic from horizon to horizon deep into
the night. YouTube and Facebook filled-up with self-portraits of furious Americans
trying to cope... Why don‟t they just do some of the damn demands? We should get out
anyway… Why don‟t we tell the Israelis to stop trying to jam a square peg into a round
hole, we can‟t afford this craziness... So what if they get another fucking billionaire –
maybe they‟ll stop stealing our money, and homes – and jobs – and start fixing things...
Maybe they‟ll stop buying our elections, writing our laws and leasing our government…
How did our missiles get into their hands anyway; what, was Halliburton selling them out
the side door? Did they have a LockheedMartin franchise? Did they have training and
consultation contracts in how to use them? The blogs were going nuts with imaginations
exploding. Ideas started appearing that suggested compliant patriotic citizens might take
matters into their own hands. Again, the messages didn‟t reach the Decider or the
Decider‟s deciders.
The DHS roll-out plan had specified Detroit, tomorrow, as the next anti-terrorist
demonstration. It has a big Arab population, it‟s on the border of a foreign country, and
has a lot of African Americans. It didn‟t particularly matter that Detroit was a major
NAFTA transport hub, or the home of a teetering heavy industry. DHS Director Ternoff
was concerned about compliance and so requested the Michigan, Ohio and Illinois
National Guards (if there were any left) to be ready to roll. All incoming communications
from the NYC area were pointing to massive meltdown, but George was hearing mostly
good news: 30,000 vehicles scanned per hour. Twenty-eight suspects wrestled to the
pavement and detained in the first day, and 3 hospitalizations, with great TV coverage on
the perps. When Republican governors and senators started calling, George insisted this
has to be done: it‟s my responsibility as the Commander-in-Chief... The National
Security Council, however, didn‟t wait to be called; they convened an emergency late-
night meeting... This is an untenable situation. What is the DHS plan?... Ternoff
appeared, apologizing for being a little drunk, and said this crisis demands sacrifice.
Someone is attacking America with guided missiles,.. his blood-shot eyes glaring at the
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nay-sayers… Did they expect to extend these checkpoints to all cities? For how long?...
Ternoff said that private vehicles passing inspection are being given a scannable
windshield sticker that is tamper-proof and will allow them to go through subsequent
checkpoints quickly. NorthrupGrumman is field-testing the scanners in NY right now.
(Someone on the NSC:) OK, in other words, a terrorist just has to get through a
checkpoint the first time clean, and after that they‟re good to go with anything the next
time?... Ternoff caught the drift and came back: You know, we really expect to break into
the network very soon, we have highly sophisticated phone, e-mail and other data
surveillance software running, stuff you wouldn‟t believe; it‟s just a matter of time. Plus
we‟re doing random stops of all cars registered to foreign nationals. The checkpoints are
really just to condition the nation to this new era. We‟ll be easing off in NY starting
tomorrow evening.
2***
For the Davos hit, a used TV truck complete with telescoping tower for the transmission
dish was acquired and given a new identity. It was a TV station from Germany. There
would be lots of trucks like it crawling around Davos, the electronic paparazzi on the
ruling class. Besides, one more weird camera won‟t raise any suspicions at all. Nice
uniforms with freshly embroidered logos would cinch the deal. Well-dressed and coifed
reporters could enquire at the villas about scheduled events and possible interview
venues, and at the Davos media office itself. The HF TV truck came through the French
Alps and was stationed at a modest hotel two kilometers out of town. They had recruited
another comrade, an Egyptian student studying in Germany, and so were language-
enabled, if needed. The target villa had been located and various venues for the HF
launch had been explored. One was particularly good because it afforded views of several
of the Davos-dedicated villas and so was a plausible perch for the media but was
sufficiently remote from the main road that it would not be readily visible. It had taken
quite a few hours of work to pin down. Schedules had been compiled and the villa with
the HSBC reception Wednesday evening was chosen. Besides a big draw for all the
bankers and top corporate players and their peers in government service, it had the
advantage of competing with another reception that would pull-in a lot of the NGO,
academic and lower level government people, out of harm‟s way. The HSBC party was
on a huge deck overlooking flowing pastures, farms and villages descending down to the
river below, and situated within a cacophony of mini-towers, pods and wings, with
chimneys, balconies and sweeping suites enjoying all directions cradled in jagged peaks.
3***
One week before Davos, the Plan issued a warning: if credible, global solutions didn‟t
appear soon, the attacks would widen. The initiative on the credit crisis was a good start
but Demands 1 were being ignored. Having been following the blog debate in the U.S.
and other countries, and the absence of same in the U.S. media, and speaking directly to
the American ruling class, the Plan offered a refresher for Poli Sci 101. You people run
the two political parties at the top; you decided other parties are inappropriate; you decide
which potential candidates are acceptable, you finance all their campaigns, your media
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get the right slants, and your lobbyists work closely with whoever is elected and their
congressional committees, writing legislation, counting votes and taking names. You
financed Bush. If an elected official steps out of line, you solidly finance an opponent in
the next primary. You people could end the assault on Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow.
You haven‟t. You could renounce permanent bases in Iraq or the Persian Gulf and
unqualified military support for Israel. You haven‟t. Nor have you proposed a transparent
process to develop a global energy policy addressing today‟s crisis or the future of life on
this planet.
This was an important message not only for the world watching but for those ruling class
sub-committees in NY who seem to have gotten off onto the wrong track: the problem
wasn‟t the passing incompetence of the Bush administration, it was the continuing
competence of the ruling class in seizing and retaining overwhelming power and its
reckless application in national and global government. This has to change.
Another problem. Sitting back and watching, feeling no danger and sensing opportunities,
the European governing elites were not just showing a shameful lack of class solidarity
with their American colleagues (which was a good thing) they were also exhibiting no
positive support for responding to Demands 1 and 2. Their role in NATO as enablers of
U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan has to change. Finally, the Plan said: Oppressors in
small countries with insignificant air forces should not feel safe, specifically mentioning
Zimbabwe, Sudan and Burma and their corporate and state supporters. Past colonial
outrages were no excuse for continuing, bungling, self-aggrandizing oppression of their
peoples. And we‟re sick and tired of election fraud.
Someone was listening. The Swiss army silently mobilized, checking all cars, searching
all trucks coming into the Davos area, but the German TV van was already in place.
Israeli embassies around the world quietly mentioned that they could broker very high-
tech surveillance services to any governments needing them, at prices competitive with
U.S. vendors, and they have a far superior track record.
4***
Ari and Rachel met up for dinner at one of the nicer places near the university. Ari didn‟t
yet know whether the whole HF enterprise was collapsing or safe, so it was another high
stress encounter. It didn‟t take long for Rachel to figure something was up and of course
that meant nagging questions, again. Is it me? She decided to take charge: Ari, are you
glad we‟re together tonight?... Yes, I am, very much… Are you worried about some
specific “thing” or is it just your overall.. ah.. project that has you distracted? upset?...
Something came up last night that is very scary and we still don‟t know what‟s
happening, exactly. It‟s all the more reason for you not to know things unless you‟re..
ready to… Can we talk here?... I guess so. If they‟re listening, it will be evident that you
have not been a part of this. And if they‟re listening, .. well, it‟s all over… Rachel.. taking
a deep breath: OK, one step at a time. What‟s your ultimate goal?... Well, it started out as
just a kind of justice effort, “leveling the playing field” as they say, but it‟s evolved into
something bigger. I guess you could say the ultimate goal is a fundamental shift in class
87
power. An enabling of the global working class to take on their rulers and negotiate a
much better deal… Ari, really, how could you possibly do that?... Well, that‟s what‟s so
interesting. We‟re not really altering basic material reality; what we‟re doing is helping
demonstrate that people can make a huge difference just by acting in concert and being
clear what the problem is and the goals, which also isn‟t new.. What‟s new is that we
came upon a gimmick that can sort of catalyze this transformation in people‟s
awareness… A gimmick? Like what, a computer game?... No-o. It‟s the missiles being
used against the celebrity targets.. they have created a situation that brings discussion of
class out into the open and exposes vulnerabilities. It has changed the terrorism paradigm.
Ordinary people understand they are not the targets and kind of understand why the
others are. These terrible weapons are exactly what the guys in power use to get their
way, and they are so casual about snuffing out other people‟s lives, effortlessly
incinerating people who oppose them, so it does level the playing field but also opens up
discussion on fundamental power, on policy. In the U.S. people are facing huge problems
and the guys running things are off somewhere doing this very costly war, or gaming the
stock market with fucking mathematicians and physicists. Even when the people clearly
demonstrate that their preference is to disengage, to get out of Iraq, the government
bought by these rulers surges forward. And now it‟s all coming apart in the U.S. Even
though confused about “progress” in the war, people told George W. Bush to stick his
checkpoints up his ass. Ruling class committees are deliberating, trying hard to channel
the discussion. Some of them recognize the Frankenstein monster they have created and
will be trying to change course. Others, of course will reflexively go into defense mode,
circle the wagons, no matter what. We think this might be an opening for some political
leadership that is not dependent on or controlled by corporate money and that will seek
global alliances for just solutions. Of course it‟s an unstable situation, ruling classes have
miscalculated before with catastrophic results, Nazi Germany being, you know.. George
W – or Israel – might attack Iran and have everything become undone... Well, at least
Chainy‟s gone; that was a good choice… Ya, so, anyway, that‟s the deal.
This is sobering.. and somewhat terrifying.. Wow, you guys don‟t think small; you‟re
incredible dreamers and probably delusional, but I‟m impressed you‟ve pulled it off this
far. How did you do it? And what‟s next?.. Oh, I‟m not supposed to know,.. for my own
safety… I always liked your sense of humor Rache. Actually, I‟ve been thinking about
what people in Israel could be doing at this juncture to promote this transformation. Also,
there is a bigger concept that comes up in this context. Israel, as you may know is a world
“leader” in actionable surveillance technology for managing insurgent political
movements, and specifically for targeting military or paramilitary responses. They are
marketing it to control social unrest everywhere. They are deeply involved in Iraq. It‟s
really the end of democracy when these guys can collect all this information and act with
impunity wherever they want. Aside from the irony considering the idealism of some
early Zionists, this politico-technology presents a challenge; we believe when people
know about it, they will reject it. We‟re hoping our little scheme will facilitate that
process.. Do you remember Beth Engels? the labor activist and major pain for Menachin
Begin? She would be a good person to talk to, if you‟re interested. It seems pretty likely
that as this crisis develops in the U.S., Israel policy will become a big issue there. It
would be good for the peaceniks to frame that debate with an internationalist perspective
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and put forward a workable one-state solution that most Israelis could imagine living
with... (Rachel, agreeing:) I think the recent developments in Iraq – apparently thanks to
some people I know – have started to eat away at people‟s confidence in the Israeli
miracle. At school they are starting to look for alternative endings. It comes up in class
discussions, in dissertation topics and the school newspaper. Invited speakers seem a little
more polarized on current policies. I do want to be in on thinking the alternate plan.. ya,
you can talk to Beth about me.. Is she one of the.. ah .. “conspirators?”… Ari.. smiling..
I‟ll give her a call.
5***
Following the enormous shock from HF 4 (Chainy) and HF 5 (Bankfine), the great HF
caper was back on radar screens of the intelligence and military authorities. Finding the
leak and knowing the extent of damage was the highest of anybody‟s priorities. This
time, every slab of concrete would be looked under. Ben, the strategist, saw this coming
and discussed it with Ari. It was essential to be able to document every supposedly empty
container shipped from his base. Options:
1. order an extra container – have three on the floor two “unopened” but half empty;
have documentation for returned containers, just hope no one notices where one
was sent. The invoices don‟t show the address but could be traced. Problem:
Central IDF is still missing a container from somewhere.
2. Somehow return the liberated container from Jordan have it cleaned up, spray
paint stripped off, and shipped back to central IDF stores as though coming from
the base. Problem: risky, someone might recognize it in the wrong place or notice
where it was shipped from.
3. Have the liberated container in Jordan shipped to Baghdad full of household
belongings, later to be discovered (scratch out numbers) at a dump somewhere
with a few empty pods inside..
Options 1 and 3 seemed the easiest and safest.
Iraj had been back from Baghdad for almost two weeks when he ran into Stash after work
one night at their regular bar. They didn‟t want to spend too much time talking so Iraj
quickly explained the whole strange ordeal and even stranger ending and then they joined
others watching soccer. Later, having ascertained from Iraj that the sat phones appeared
to be safe, Stash called Ben on his cell and they set a conference call. The next day Stash
repeated Iraj‟s report to the Plan members. This had been a close call and there were
lingering doubts and major weirdness. Who was this CIA guy and what was his deal? He
sounded pretty alienated from the imperial plan but who knows what his agenda is. All
agreed that Iraj had to play along but sharing no critical information. And he and Stash
should work out a way to communicate safely – maybe Iraj could visit Nokia on business
and they could go to lunch. (Ben:) No, that‟s too dangerous – we need to keep the Nokia
connection out of it, but lunch may be OK.
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Ari said there was another job for Iraj and explained the Baghdad container scam, which
was proceeding. An HF container could appear in a Baghdad dump, or at a scrap
collector, in two weeks. Jusef worried what would happen if they tried to trace the
container‟s custody back to Jordan. Ari said Team Baghdad was handling that and would
be careful to de-couple the transport step from Jordan from the delivery step in Baghdad.
The biggest problem was moving the container around Baghdad – they may be looking
for one, we just want them to find it when we‟re not around. Maybe pay someone to
move it but keep it covered. Probably leaving it at a dump would be safest; and then
arranging for it to be discovered a week later. Job for Iraj: tell CIA guy where he might
find a container.
5 Upping the Ante
1***
Davos had been going strong for two days with no glitches; the rulers were starting to
relax. Animated debates were peppered with fancy graphics in powerpoint and clever
jokes. The special discussions, hastily arranged, on global food shortages raved on the
accomplishments of the Green Revolution and discussed the political obstacles to even
greater success with only modest concern over inputs (fertilizer, pesticides and diesel
fuel). Small scale sustainability and crop biodiversity got the short end of the program
and globalization came out the winner as usual. Vandana Shiva from India had been
invited at the last minute. She flattened the green revolution within minutes explaining in
biological detail how modern corporate agriculture was not only killing the farmers but
the soil itself; how thousands of years of ecologic collaboration were being savaged by
high irrigation, high chemical assault with actually diminishing yields! The corporate
flacks grinned and left early. The ten thousand farmer suicides a year in India had no
place in their calculations.
In the main program, the essential role of markets in adjusting to a new energy
environment was examined by several heavy-hitters although some small voices called
for a global planning initiative that would stabilize food prices while assuring
availability. Surprisingly, a senior U.S. banker in one of the panel discussions actually
suggested international regulations and restrictions are needed and said discussions were
under way. A paper on innovations in sustainable small farm credit and marketing
received polite applause at the end of the day and then the masters of the universe went
off to their villas to spiff up for the evening‟s festivities.
Many side-bar conversations sooner or later drifted to gnawing concern over terror on the
rich. It seemed rather abstract and paranoid in this environment and most of the thinking
and small-talk focused on who was behind it and personal avoidance precautions. The
Demands were amusing hypotheticals that, for most Davos participants, didn‟t rise to
serious reflection. At le Chateau Michel de la Montagne, the hors d‟heurves were already
gracing the tables arranged around the deck and the four open bars were armed and ready.
The rulers and their significant others began drifting in a little after 7:00 pm. Last night
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had been the formal banquet – black tie – tonight was casual-beautiful. Really nice
moccasins, pumps, sandals, slacks and fitted shirts, dresses, sleeveless tops, silk scarves.
Clusters of party goers were forming. Usually the second-string bosses arrive first, to be
joined in due course by the CEOs and their associates. By 7:35, there must have been 200
partygoers on the deck and waiters were working hard to keep up. The noise was
significant and smiles ubiquitous. That was when the nicely dressed woman who had
gotten through security with a press badge, went up to the maitre-dit and asked, in
French, if it would be possible for the service staff to be called off the deck, briefly,
because some short, confidential announcements were to be made at 7:45. She made her
way back through the lobby to a car at the far end of the parking area, close to the road,
made a sat phone call and then pulled out and back down the road.
Over at mobile Channel 128 from Dusseldorf, the deck party was on the HF display.
They could almost count the shrimp. HF6 was wired and ready. At 7:43 the shroud came
off and the laser was inched up to a railing support on the deck du Chateau, carefully
avoiding anything or anyone on the deck that might initiate a stampede. Important people
had become very nervous about bright little spots of red light, like other hunted
individuals around the world. It looked like the waiters and bar tenders had withdrawn so
HF6 was sent on its way. It was pretty horrible, even on the HF display. When the initial
blast of hell fire dissipated, a swath about 20 people wide had been mowed down and
many others were staggering and falling in smoke. Expensive, pretty flowered sun
dresses were flaming, sort of like that Afghan wedding party that was interrupted by a
Hellfire about 18 months ago, the one that made Karzai act like he was really pissed-off.
The smell was very bad, burning people and plastic all mixed together. Bill Gates came
limping out through the smoky lobby onto the parking lot, his hair worse than usual, his
silk shirt ruined and his pants largely missing – lucky for him he he‟d been coming back
from the men‟s-room just off the party deck. Before that, he was having a really
interesting conversation with Vikram Bandit, CEO of CitiGroup, about the wonderful
possibilities for eliminating poverty in Third World countries using personal computers.
He was patting himself down, looking for his electronic tether: This is so terrible.. he said
to anyone.. we have so much important work to do. Where‟s Melinda? And
Condoleezza?.. Don‟t they understand they‟re just going to make things worse?...
Coming behind Gates and surviving unscathed was Jeffrey Sachs, the U.S. professor
from Columbia University who has recently been atoning for past service to the ruling
class by arguing there is no reason why world poverty couldn‟t be eliminated, if the rulers
really wanted to do it. Sometimes justice just happens. Alan Derschowit from Harvard
Law wasn‟t so lucky and neither was Andy Butt, the president of SEIU, the union of
service employees in the U.S. Butt was the leading union advocate for corporate
collaborationism in the U.S. labor movement. Dozens of other world corporate leaders
and friends were running, trekking or crawling to safety. It was unbelievable, how such a
wonderful time could suddenly change to unimaginable horror. The fire had been quickly
contained; fortunately, there was only a light breeze and hotel workers doused it.
Reporters were everywhere snapping shots. The maitre-dit was shouting orders and
chateau management was doing well what they had been trained to do. Kitchen and
housekeeping workers were mobilizing to tend to the injured. Table clothes covered the
dead, in three rows. SUVs with dark windows were taking off the walking wounded for
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medical treatment and a string of ambulances was climbing up the mountain road to get
the rest. Also climbing up the road was Channel 128 from Dusseldorf, to get a closer look
at the breaking news. Police cars which had been quite discrete until now were visibly
plentiful with officers and agents scurrying and talking into phones. They weren‟t
worrying about forensic security at the chateau because it was widely understood that the
anti-ruler weapon originates somewhere else, kilometers away. Some agents were taking
photographs with telephoto lenses off the charred deck into the expanses of green valley.
After things had calmed down a bit, the maitre-dit returned to that request to clear away
the service staff and gave it some meaningful thought. This was new for him. For some
reason, he wasn‟t sure he wanted to report that particular event to the authorities. If it
came up – someone would put two and two together – he would say he hadn‟t thought
about it in all the confusion and horror. And he didn‟t remember much about the woman;
she spoke good French, was wearing a dark purple dress and heels. He was sure he forgot
she looked Algerian.
2***
Jusef (just back from Baghdad) was getting ready to move on to Dubai to set up the
spotter/shooter network there. Plan discussions had always assumed that as the HF
revenge progressed, the rulers would seek safer havens for their discussions and
meetings. And now Davos had given them good reasons. Dubai and Saudi Arabia were
perceived as secure, and just to be sure, Blackwater and other protection contractors had
been brought in and were setting up command posts. Quietly, Dubai police and their
contractors began checking all vehicles coming into the city and scanning license
numbers into a database for activity tracking and linking with credit cards. Unfortunately
for them, six HFs were already safely imbedded in modest apartments with good views
across the city of the waterfront high-rise palaces. Another six were in Riyadh. In Israel,
the ultimate in safe havens, the masters of security in a dangerous world, the supply of
HFs was actually inadequate, in retrospect. Early planning hadn‟t anticipated future
sanctuary for rulers and so the Plan debated how to supplement the HF supply in Israel.
The idea of returning several HFs from Jordan was rejected as too risky. The focus turned
to liberating a second container from Ari‟s base. Ari and Ben would study this carefully.
Meanwhile, in Dubai, Jusef would be working the edges of the young intelligentsia,
searching for soft spots where critical thought and class outrage combined for the desired
capabilities. What was needed was some educated professionals in positions within the
corporate and municipal structure who, one way or another, would hear about important
goings-on, like where OPEC was meeting, or where KBR‟s corporate offices were, or
what high level meetings of world travelers were coming up and where. Spotters. People
who also could understand the HF plan, commit to it in small but critical ways.
3***
Beth and Eli had been watching the debate unfold in Israel with each stunning HF hit and
were reconnecting with some of their old acquaintances. Peaceniks who had burned out
and retired from the fight for justice were reappearing and the Israeli left was finding
some new theoretical underpinnings; resolution with the Palestinians was not so hard to
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imagine when the alternative was sliding further down into the swamp of global criminal
enterprise. A public meeting sponsored by a student organization at the university with
presentations on Options for a Negotiated Peace attracted a huge crowd, and for once
someone willing to talk about the one-state solution was even on the agenda along with
multiple two-staters. Questions from the floor made reference to the attacks on western
leaders and the developing crisis in the U.S. where some of Israel‟s strongest supporters
were under assault with little public sympathy. Some people seemed to feel the class
perspective was quite natural to talk about, which was new. Someone brought up the
attacks on Hamas and Hezbellah, and the room was actually somewhat divided.
(Someone else:) But those jerks are primitive religious fanatics,… to which several others
replied, What about ours?... The role of Israel in Iraq, being revealed almost daily, was
even more clearly troublesome and it seemed to Beth that arguments were more grounded
in real facts and historical analysis than previously.
Rachel attended along with some other graduate students and they ended up joining the
crowd of left-wing elders in a coffee shop discussion afterward. For several of the
students, listening to Beth, Eli and others of that generation was a startling experience.
These were articulate, highly informed and likeable people who had a history of taking
on the Zionist establishment and sometimes winning, admittedly small battles. The
discussion at one point settled on who is the Israeli ruling class? Candidates were tossed
around and a pecking order established… When did this transformation begin, of going
from merely Zionist determination with a clearly focused land-grab strategy to becoming
world-class imperialists?... Was it an Israeli hustle or were they cultivated by the
Americans, or was it American Jews that dreamed it up?.. The discussants were falling
asleep but insisted that this discussion should resume and plans get made. Rachel was
into it.
4***
Sasha and her Mom were meeting for lunch. It was a nice day with the early morning
clouds evaporating and a warm breeze coming off the Sea. The restaurant had about
twenty tables with umbrellas overlooking the classy coastline and beach on a fairly
spacious deck with tropical plants, modern sculptures in metal, and a soft Schubert trio.
They were in no hurry. Bev was curious about the routines of life on a military base for
an educated woman, the food, and other sundries, and how the officers treated her. Who
was this other student friend assigned to that base and what did he do? What sort of
family did Barschauer come from. What exactly was it that Sasha did? Of course Aaron
came up and Bev allowed that he seemed like a good man, sort of reminded her of men
she knew in college. Sasha asked if it bothered her that he took such critical positions on
things. Does it upset Dad? (Bev:) There was a time when I really paid attention to those
things, back in the 60s and 70s, but after I met Joe and we got married and then the
family, I sort of lost track; I guess I let Joe take it over. I‟m not entirely comfortable with
how things have developed. It seemed like that was the way our whole society was
moving. We came, you know, from pretty different backgrounds; his people were never
intimately involved in the struggle to survive in Europe; of course they had to deal with
Russian pogroms now and then… What do you talk about with some of the other wives,
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your friends? Do they all agree with their husbands on these things?... Well, some do,
some don‟t. Sandra says she and Herb can‟t really talk about politics anymore; she says
he‟s gone over to the dark side because those are the people he deals with.. It does bother
me that some of these people really believe they deserve everything they‟ve walked away
with; it‟s like they grew up on a different planet, they‟ve totally revised history… Mom,
did grandma ever talk about doing really dangerous things during the Nazi period?...
Every once in a while she would describe some particularly harrowing adventure where
they outsmarted the occupiers and were successful. She alluded to others that didn‟t turn
out so well but didn‟t like to talk about that much, at least not that I heard… I wonder if
there were times when they had really difficult decisions – neither choice was a good one,
where you couldn‟t just sit and watch… I‟m sure they had situations like that, especially
when some of their people or their non Jewish comrades got caught. They didn‟t talk
much about those days when I was eventually old enough to really comprehend, at least
not in specifics… Bev was leaning forward on her elbows, watching the water with
distant sail-boards and swimmers, fishing boats.. and stayed quiet for almost a minute.
She took a sip of wine and then: I lost my first love because of a situation like that… This
was a startling revelation.. Well,.. who was he?... (A pause).. He was a Palestinian.. His
family lived near the kibbutz where we grew up. We used to play together with other kids
in the fields, in the stream – whenever it finally rained – and in the orchards. Then I
didn‟t see him for a while. There was always fighting going on over the land; the parents
tried to keep their kids from “fraternizing,” and he had to travel a long way for school.
Then he came back one summer. We were 16 or 17, I guess. We took long walks, planted
things and talked a lot about what was going on, which we only partly could figure out. I
really missed him when I went away to school in the city.. and then one time when I was
back home I went looking for him.. and we just,.. fell in love. He was the most perfect
guy I could imagine ever being with. He worked so hard and was driven to try to
understand everything.. (Looking at Sasha approvingly).. pretty silly, of course, but
that‟s the way it was. We had a wonderful three weeks together, saw each other almost
every day. Had to make all sorts of excuses. Then the ‟67 war happened. There was
enormous pressure to isolate and cut-off the Palestinians. Some of them had been close
neighbors and a lot of the kibbutz people worked with them and really wanted to find a
way to co-exist. But the Zionists were organized all over the country and totally
committed to their program and assembled a rather nasty group of.. I guess you would
say, thugs, to enforce their way, their discipline. They confronted my parents, your
grandparents, with an ultimatum: “you‟re either with us or with them,” something like
that. They didn‟t see that they had much choice.. I never saw Salim again... His family
disappeared. Their house was demolished… Bev looked away for a while.. Mom,.. does
Dad know about this?… No..
Anyway, my little lamb, why do you ask about all this? Is Aaron involved in,.. in
dangerous things?... No, not really,.. unless you call being despised by the elders
dangerous. And he may never get a job here. He did almost go to Davos, so that was
pretty scary. No, I‟ve just been thinking and reading a lot about everything that‟s going
on and it‟s rather astounding and worrisome. I don‟t see a good ending, and yes, Aaron
has influenced how I see things,.. and some of my other friends. I‟ll be alright, Mom.
Thanks for telling me these things, and she got up and kissed her own mom and sat again.
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They sipped the last of their wine examining each other for several minutes and then got
up to go.
5***
After Demands 2, students at Washington University, like many places, started a local
discussion blog which quickly metastacized into a hundred debates. Several threads
examined social class and got into some subtle issues. Professor Norm Roth had been
watching and got engaged on the question of class competence. This was the idea that the
ruling class inherently has expertise and competence because they naturally cultivate the
institutional infrastructure to support it – universities, foundations, media, political
parties, leadership experience, etc. But Norm argued: It‟s important to understand that
their competence nonetheless is riddled with class prejudice and conceit, a class
perspective – they think they have the answers and deserve the benefits. Their views,
their interpretation of empirical data, are colored through and through with these
prejudices. You can see it in the neoclassical agenda; they convince themselves that free
market globalization is great for everybody when their own analytical tools, if honestly
applied, would show otherwise. The working class, to over-simplify, has the
disadvantage of not having that institutional access but the advantage of a history and
class culture that captures and preserves profound truths; it has resources that grow out of
grass-roots struggles and the collective efforts of diverse elements to build and sustain a
vision for a counter-reality. And history shows that, when class confrontations force
innovations from rulers, as in the 1930s when industrial unions and an innovative
communist party were ascendant in the U.S., the ruling class can accommodate such
changes. That was part of Roosevelt‟s genius. Of course the pressure to reverse working
class gains is always there – look at Taft-Hartley, McCarthyism; look at the 80s and 90s!,
at deregulation, at Clinton‟s retro-navigation to the “middle.”… Other bloggers quickly
filled in the gaps, honed some fine points or argued alternatives. Norm added: A lot of
people in every class never quite get with the program – understand the big picture – they
just go along. That‟s why a lot of capitalists hated Roosevelt even though he saved their
butts. Why a lot of workers, if they even still voted, went for Reagan or Bush or, for that
matter, a Clinton or Obama.
Julie was in a discussion on making the leap from morality to class consciousness. There
was no scarcity of pain in observing the victims of New Orleans, Iraq, Burma, poverty,
crime, Sudan, racism, the seemingly endless tide of sexism, or of defeatism in facing a
flawed criminal justice system, election fraud, or economic recession. A lot of young
people are appalled and want to help, people who themselves have significant challenges
and obstacles to achieving a decent life, obstacles that daily appear to expand. And they
see not enough interest or support among their peers, or where they came from, for fixing
these problems. So Julie and some others joined the discussion: Who benefits, who loses,
how do things get decided, what would be a good policy from the point of view of most
people‟s actual interests. For example, has racism been good for most white Americans?
Let‟s add it up: 1) white skilled tradesmen had to migrate west from the southern states
under slavery because they were starving, they couldn‟t compete with plantation slave
carpenters, wheel wrights, stone-masons, blacksmiths or bricklayers (but who did they
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blame? Slaves or slave-owners (i.e., slavery)); 2) the legacy of that racism kept the South
largely union-free when the rest of America was loosening the grip of private capital, it
paved the way for the first wave of de-industrialization in America when shoes, textiles
and electronics moved south from New England; 3) discrimination against African
Americans produced urban ghettos, crime, drugs, plunging property values; white flight
represents an enormous write-down of urban property value. White families spend a
significant part of their lives (a) looking for good school districts (big-city public
education has been de-funded and decimated by racism and its consequences); (b)
defending against or making choices that avoid crime (spend a lot on alarm systems,
gasoline to live in the suburbs; don‟t go “downtown”). 4) Only America among modern
societies doesn‟t have universal health care, in part because in the late 1940s it would
have meant integrating hospitals in the south (and “socialized” medicine).. Should I keep
going?
Re-casting societal problems into interest-calculations instead of moral crusades opened

up new hope for inspired young minds. It transformed the problem from focusing totally
on “be good” to include “be smart; figure out what your best interests are and who to ally
with.”
Another thread explored on many blogs and websites was what a responsible global
energy agreement would look like. One that balanced climate change concerns with
lifting Third World countries out of poverty and preserving some form of decent life for
the working classes in the industrialized countries. This debate seemed to be popping up
lots of places, now that peak oil was upon us and other crises were closing in on the
rulers.
6***
When Bush‟s Dept. of Homeland Security attacked America again, this time on I-94 and
I-75 in Detroit at 6:00 am, within minutes production lines at the Ford‟s River Rouge
complex were inoperative. Two hrs later, some white guy in a Ram Charger with a
Cummins diesel and a UAW sticker pulled out of the thirteen-mile lines of creeping
traffic over onto the narrow shoulder and charged forward spraying gravel. Hundreds of
seething Detroiters were watching. Maybe he has a pregnant wife. Maybe he‟s one of
them, bringing coffee. The DHS guys saw him coming and considered pulling their
weapons but hesitated, looking for guidance. The truck shattered their mobile
surveillance console, their communications stand and blasted their rent-a-john into the
weeds. It took about 4 seconds for number two to spring forward, a black guy with his
whole family in an aging Dodge Caravan, and then the dam broke. The DHS guys ran for
cover, pulling their pummeled apparatuses behind them and soon I-94 was moving again.
People that didn‟t witness the breakthrough saw plenty of forensic evidence as they
streamed by and cellphones were blazing. Folks over on I-75 heard the news within
minutes and it was just a matter of random noise before the first vehicles broke loose and
joined the revolution. Within 25 minutes it was a normal day again in Detroit: bumper-to-
bumper but moving along. Most shifts lost less than 3 hrs of work. The NAFTA super-
highway was soon humming up to the Ambassador Bridge and flights leaving Detroit‟s
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Metro airport were filling up again. Tipped off, TV crews from local and national
networks had been setting up since early morning on this second front in the great War on
Terror. First they just filmed history, speechless, and a lot of it broke in live on the
morning shows all over America. The network execs didn‟t have rules for this possibility.
They wanted to interview the participants but the people were all long since on their way
and the DHS guys weren‟t authorized to talk. Local officials quickly decided they had
nothing to lose by dissing DHS and the frisking of America and soon lots of officials
almost up to the Governor were speaking approvingly of the people‟s actions, asking why
real problems aren‟t being addressed like foreclosures, the economy, or the fucking war.
Many were thinking: maybe we should lose a few more billionaires, it‟s worth a try.
Recent memories of four and five- dollar gasoline were prompting creative reflection.
DHS decided on its own to delay implementation in Chicago, Houston and LA. George
didn‟t know what to do. Once, he reached for the phone to call Dick forgetting they
already got Dick. He didn‟t want to talk to Ternoff. He ordered the executive committee
of the committee on the present emergency to report to him the following morning. His
mind wandered to the Iran thing again. They were probably behind these missile attacks.
Maybe this was the time to act, but God wasn‟t being clear. Call the Israeli ambassador to
a meeting with the NSC and Joint Chiefs at 4 pm. It was time to do the leadership thing
again.
7***
To the LM lunch crowd the NYC and Davos HF hits were amazingly gutsy, but not that
surprising after Chainy,.. and the rulers just keep on truckin‟. Maybe they expect to crack
it soon, maybe it‟s an acceptable cost. These guys are tough, almost like Hillary. But it‟s
interesting, they are making some noises about fixing the mortgage disaster, and even
real energy conservation and price controls. HF hits in the Middle Eastern wars had
disappeared from the public media but LM continued the litany, needing to affirm the
valid uses of its product. After the Bankfine hit, there was another economics seminar in
the LM lunchroom: what are hedge funds?... Well, it‟s sort of like balancing stocks and
bonds and pork bellies or whatever so it doesn‟t matter so much what the interest rates
are, but a lot more sophisticated. (Someone else:) Ya now they got these fucking geniuses
that invented ways of packaging and selling debt and telling when to buy or what to sell,
and they‟re so complicated even they can‟t figure out what the stuff is worth. It‟s like
trading in mortgage futures, whatever that means. (Molly:) I don‟t understand how it
works, I just know these creeps walk away with billions of dollars in good years – they‟re
stealing it from somewhere – but when they have a really bad year, we have to bail them
out... When our government steps in with our money, how come we don‟t end up owning
these guys… (Matt:) They don‟t even pay taxes on a lot of it… (Someone else:) Ya, and
these are the guys that want to keep the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Almost enough to
make you look forward to more „fires hitting in all the wrong places. Grins and then
thoughts… Hey Molly, when‟s our next union meeting? I got some issues.
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Chapter Four
New Administration – New Escalation
1. Baghdad Revisited
1***
Eight years of G.W. Bush trashing America combined with Repuglican self-destructive
behavior, lastly in the form of the John McCane/Sarah Palin re-enactment of Bonnie and
Clyde, conspired to create an opening for the first black president in America. But Barack
Obama had crafted a massive movement of hope on his own with eloquence and drama.
However, hope reality does not make and it didn‟t take long for the new Obama to reveal
the true Obama.
The Obama administration stepped up to the plate. Having dispatched the Clintons,
finally, and somehow defeating McCane despite never saying what change should change
or ever permitting class war to show its beckoning face, Barack had stolen the prize.
Wanting to prove he deserved it, Obama set out to out-do the bungling Bushies and out-
perform the McCane wannabees. Bullying Afghanistan and Iran was again on the agenda
but first, finish the job in Iraq and bring at least half of the unwilling and savaged cannon
fodder back home, or send them somewhere else. The Al Malarki administration seemed
on a steady course of submission having delivered that give-away petroleum law and
permanent military bases that everyone had worked so long and hard for. The anti-Sadr
offensive was in the post-mopping-up stage. Meanwhile HF assaults were continuing in
Pakistan despite fairly convincing protests from the post-Musharraf government, and
Afghan was stalemated.
The Plan decided it was time to hit the Green Zone. The defiling of Demands 1 and 2 had
gone on for too long. This had off-and-on been a major worry of the Baghdad command,
being as they were easy and deserving targets. The Green Zone mole was asked by Team
Baghdad to identify a meeting room where Baghdad Command routinely met with their
high level Iraqi subjects for consultation and direction. There were a couple of
possibilities none with an easy shot from outside the Zone but one allowed a fairly close
hit. It was an eight-storey building used by Command staff with a conference room on the
sixth floor. Weekly two-hour meetings were scheduled for 9 am Wednesdays. They also
asked for a map of embassy and other key locations in the Zone. The plan: hit meeting,
hit three other Command/Embassy sites in a row, plus the power plant and
communications center (HFs 7-12). It was to be shock and awe all over again, up close
and unfriendly.
Popular frustration with the sectarian groups had been evident for a long time in Iraq,
manifest as alienation and migration, but most had succumbed to hopelessness. But now
people were being teased by the Demand performance. They started composing their own
demands: get out, no bases, no partition, establish and protect secular political parties,
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multi-national UN supervised security with transparent administration excluding

participation by the U.S. and others of the “willing.” It was that simple. And hands-off
our oil. The concept of a global energy agreement was intriguing, after all, they could see
the peak too. The Middle East had the buried treasure but it wasn‟t going to last forever
and they wanted more left behind than just palaces, racing pavilions and the investment
portfolios of the super Sheiks and sovereign funds. Baghdad Command called up Google
for help in cleaning up public discourse on the information two-lane highway in Iraq, but
it was too late and besides: Just because we helped China pull that off, doesn‟t mean you
can do it anywhere. You need 1000s of internet police who are in synch with the
program.. you need an old Stalinist communist party structure to run it, they said.
2***
Iraj called up Jim Speller, his handler at Baghdad Station, and made an appointment. A
few days later it took several minutes for the Zone Security system to admit Iraj, what
with redundant system checks and a previously unsurfaced ID but he got in with a pat-
down, sniff-around and x-ray of his brief case under searching stares. Jim had faxed him
a map and a suggested walking route to the Company building. More security checks:
they didn‟t want just any Zone inhabitant walking in but a call from security did the trick
and Jim came down to escort his new asset to his new digs. It wasn‟t a corner office but
did have a pretty nice view of the city and a bend in the river. Small talk. Jim asked Iraj
about travel between Jordan and Baghdad and his current job activities, new customers,
etc. Iraj and Stash had been talking and came up with some questions for Jim, just to keep
the conversation flowing and balanced: What was reaction among Jim‟s colleagues to the
Chainy hit? Bankfine? Davos?... Jim appreciated the irony of being questioned thusly,
and played along: Not too much love lost on Chainy once people got past the macabre
novelty of it; the Bankfine hit was a little mysterious, a lot of people didn‟t immediately
get the connection and most still don‟t. Same for Davos but a little more clarity,
especially with the demands accumulating. The targeted group, on the other hand,
definitely gets the connection.. smiles. Jim asked whether Mossad was making a pest of
itself and Iraj replied that they were invisible, although his employer was asking for a lot
more detail on his travel itinerary and looking at all his calls, but that was about it. Jim
asked what other countries Iraj did business in. Some in Doha, the Emirates and Saudi
Arabia once in a while… They don‟t like that it‟s an Israeli company and pretend not to
notice but are relieved to discover I‟m Iraqi, and they really need the phone systems.
Iraj changed the subject: Do you ever attend the meetings on the 6th floor over in building
H?... Sometimes.. nodding and thinking… Another question: Are people looking for a
missing missile shipping container?... Yes, we‟ve been wondering about that and are
about to issue an advisory here and at Bagram. Do you know about a missing
container?... Well, I heard that one just appeared at a metal recycler dump over on the
other side of Sadr City, out past the rail maintenance depot. It might be under canvas…
Oh, I‟ll have it checked out. Thanks,.. nodding gratefully.. Anything else?... Do you
fellows keep a close watch on OPEC?... This was a new one for Jim to contemplate..
Well, yes, some of us do, not out of this station but yes, and probably there will be some
interest in what gets said at the next meeting in, let me check (he wakes up his computer,
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scans in his thumb, punches in several queries) .. looks like it‟s in Dubai, with raised
eyebrows; had been scheduled for Vienna but I guess the peckers are a little nervous..
More smiles.. Venezuela had been considered for the meeting but was rejected – too
provocative at the moment.. Two nods. The Plan had heard that OPEC was coming to
Dubai but it was good to get confirmation.
Iraj asked if Jim had any other questions and then rose to leave. Jim got up, shook his
hand and said he was interested in this global energy debate stimulated by recent events.
It‟s getting some traction in lots of places; will be interesting to see how – or whether –
various players respond - China, Iran, Russia, Brazil, Venezuela,.. the U.S., .. and OPEC.
(Iraj:) Yes, they really should all get on board if they want to get along… Yes, it‟s time
for a global, transparent agreement that addresses several fundamental concerns, isn‟t it?..
More nods and parting smiles.
3***
Four dollar a gallon diesel had been fueling the engine of recession. People were driving
less, buying less, and working less in a giant gently descending spiral that everyone could
feel. The good union jobs were missing overtime. Seniority lists were being examined
daily to see who‟s next to hit the street. Another $150 billion dollar Iraq appropriation
just whizzed by – this time in the Budget – with some minor horse trading by the fringe
Democrats against the President Democrat. At least Dennis and Barbara Lee held firm.
The airlines were selling planes cheap or backing out of leases. Food was going up – that
energy cost thing again – and other food was rotting in the fields because the Republican
hate machine had poisoned the well on immigration reform and the Democrats were still
middling the road. People were noticing all these things but then, not stopping,
wondering about those targeted “decision-makers,” the deciders of corporate America..
When was something going to give?
It first started to give way in Long Beach California, and it wasn‟t from the top, or the
bottom. The labor council there had been on an activist roll for some time. Longshore
workers had disrupted ship transport several times protesting not only the war but also the
flood of goods from really-cheap-labor China. Remember the Christmas panic of 2006
when Wal-Mart couldn‟t get their stuff from China through Long Beach? Then of course
there‟s their own deteriorating situation. ILWU members were trying to hang-on to the
few hundred non-automated port jobs that were left. The California nurses union had
terminated Governor Terminator‟s presidential prospects and nearby hotel and office
custodial workers in LA had won a string of victories. Some of the weird theories about
“sustainability,” “conservation” or “empire” from those intellectuals were starting to
sound right. But the revolt actually began when owner-operators of the big 18-wheelers
finally couldn‟t take no more on diesel prices and decided to blockade the Long Beach
shipping terminal with their thirsty rigs. Now normally, the longshore union might have
puzzled on this – these aren‟t even union guys, and they‟re costing us work. This time, it
just seemed like blockading the terminal wasn‟t enough and within hours they had set up
supporting picket lines on the entire LA waterfront including all rail access. ILWU
members had lots of conversations with truckers and trucker-spouses and found plenty to
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agree on. And word was spreading fast. Teamsters all over America were sympathetic on
principle, even though they didn‟t buy their bosses‟ fuel. The LA labor council dove right
in and called for an emergency meeting of all union leadership in Southern California.
First it was scheduled at the Communication Workers‟ hall but when that became way
too small for the growing excitement, they got the big auditorium at a local community
college. The council exec board was trying to grasp what was happening here and how to
steer this thing. Everyone agreed it was time for the right change and it wasn‟t coming
from the Bama. We didn‟t elect this motherfucker to be respectable. And picking off a
billionaire here and there was a good start, sort of a softening-up process, but things just
weren‟t happening the way and as fast as they were needed. Of course setting some
demands was natural – that‟s what unions do – and lots a clever ideas were blossoming:
stop all fuel shipments to Iraq and stand-down all U.S. military operations world-wide
that suck down huge volumes of hydrocarbons. Bring the troops home, now, and
immediately stop all home foreclosures; create local community mediation centers for re-
negotiating financing agreements with mandatory arbitration. Force the banks to
exchange preferred stock for federal assistance, make them help finance a public
emergency fund on home financing. And make these corrections retroactive so families
that have already been devastated can begin to recover. Create a huge national program
for energy efficiency – peoples‟ houses, apartment complexes, commercial buildings,
public transportation and community re-design. The idea that smart design, construction
and development can both create good jobs and displace huge amounts of future energy
demand was catching on. Fix health care too: make a publicly funded universal system
like other countries already have. It‟s healthcare, stupid. Already 1,300 union
organizations had endorsed Michigan Congressman John Conyers‟ HR 676 bill for
universal “single-payer” health care that gets insurance companies out of the business
except as lowly claims-processing contractors (like with Medicare, now). The country‟s
big-city mayors had voted unanimously to endorse HR 676 at their annual meeting, but
where is the fucking Party or President on this? Silent. So, forget the leading
Demodummies with their schemes to keep the medical cash cow on life-support. Time to
move forward.
4***
At LockheedMartin in Dallas, Molly was watching Long Beach like a cougar on a limb.
Was this a flash in the pan or something with traction? People in the wide area from
which LM workers commute were beginning to understand that mega-schools and 50
mile treks for the soccer games of 8 yr-olds just doesn‟t make sense now, if it ever did.
All over America plants were slowing or closing. Detroit couldn‟t give away SUVs and
pick-ups. What were they thinking? In retrospect, it seemed so obvious: why are we
spending more than ONE TRILLION DOLLARS – that‟s a million millions! – in the
Middle East when we are facing this huge challenge? Even if the war ended tomorrow
and we grabbed their oil, China and India and Brazil are going to grab their share
somewhere else, and we‟ll still be screwed, not to mention the planet. We‟re throwing
5,000 lbs of carbon into the air for each American each year. China does 1,000 lbs; that‟s
a lot of catching up for them to do. So where is the national energy policy that addresses
energy efficiency, conservation and climate change, like other modern countries have.
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The future of food production is threatened and we don‟t even know the risk. Europe is
building wind-mills and solar everywhere. Germany has a huge solar collector subsidy
program. Europe pays $4 a gallon in taxes, we pay 18% - way less than a dollar – and
Hillary says: Let‟s cut the tax for summer vacation. Are we nuts? What is wrong with us?
Or rather, “our leaders?” Then there‟s U.S. war casualties: deaths, mutilated bodies and
minds, walking cluster bombs by the thousands with their benefits stolen, families ruined.
And what about the Iraqis‟, we don‟t even count their‟s. And who ran for President? A
judgment-impaired veteran married to a beer inheritance who wants to stay the course
forever, a slimy Democrat married to a slimy President-Democrat who talked about
protecting U.S. vital interests in Iraq with permanent bases, and a quick-change artist
married to a straight shooter who, like the others, backs Israeli apartheid and high-tech
thuggery. Way before the election he practically did a blow job on AIPAC. Those missile
Demands are making more and more sense.
[AIPAC - American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Israel lobby]
2. Middle Capital
1***
Speaking of class complexity, the NY emergency committees were struggling with class
disunity. The upper reaches of power in America aren‟t inhabited just by NY finance
guys and some S&P-200 CEOs; there are all kinds of other business titans and mini-
dictators, thousands, in insurance, pharmaceuticals, real estate, food, oil, IT, agribus,
health care, telecom, transportation, all with their own corporate interest calculations.
And now the googles… For a lot of them, talk of acknowledging basic systemic problems
and making concessions to “fix” things was not the way forward. For some, questioning
Iraq war objectives was a shameful loss of fortitude. The anti-regulatory storm
trooper/lobbyists were still on the front lines. The mid-cap warriors were starting to
organize on this new crisis in terror, and the small-caps were following. Reagan was
right: NY bankers are way too articulate. Davos, though tragic and startling, wasn‟t such
a big deal – bunch of corporate liberals and geeks anyway.
Lots of these smaller companies are privately held; families that hit it big with some
patent, gimmick, corner or niche one, two or three generations back, franchise networks,
techno start-ups, spin-offs. Old money and new. They really missed Dick. The difference
between these guys and those Wall Street billionaires is that these guys know they
deserve their hundreds of millions, they earned them. At least some of the guys on the
Street know that they don‟t deserve theirs – and actually, that neither do these other guys.
Getting doesn‟t necessarily mean deserving in some deeper political-historical picture. Of
course, there are exceptions.
Initially excited about lockdowns in NYC and Detroit, the mid-cap warriors cooled when
they saw the outcome and started imagining other developments. Some of them had seen
angry workers before, one time or another, or heard about them. Maybe this was another
example of a problem too big for government, or for democracy, and their minds
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wandered to that classic response: private vigilante networks – but now, high-tech. They
started talking to Blackwater and had some people in NSA. An emergency meeting was
called at a Sarasota Springs, Virginia resort. It was promoted, reported, and bombasted
with creative input from neocons everywhere. The talk radio and TV imbeciles awoke
from their depression and rallied for the cause. The media, assuming this was legit, went
with it. Security was expensive but tight... This is no time for weaklings or appeasement.
Terrorist extortion has to be rooted out and destroyed. The Bush war effort was noble but
flawed; they tried to do it on the cheap, not enough sacrifice.. Daily press conferences
were held; some leading lights called for setting up armed community committees, for
local police swat-teams to coordinate with national intelligence agencies. They were
about to call for mobilization of the National Guard but then remembered, the National
Guard is in Iraq.. Watch for traitors, identify and investigate liberals, get those miscreants
who are against our nation. We should finish Iraq taking out Iran if necessary, and then
finish the Republican agenda. Especially Social Security.. Some wanted to outlaw unions
but others weren‟t quite ready for that advanced notion… The FBI was observing with
divided opinion. CIA was anxious; NSA was guardedly hopeful. George was making
calls, pulling levers, and spreading the idiocy, working his longest hours ever at the
ranch. Laura was getting sick of feeding the visiting legions of angry and dirty old men in
cologne and black hair.
A lot of the people watching all this were not moved. In fact, they were kind of disgusted,
this seemed to be going backwards: Where have these jerks been for the last five years?
Maybe the missiles should be a little less discriminating.
2***
The Los Angeles County Central Labor Council had an unusual agenda: how to grow the
revolt. The central focus of challenging the ruling class didn‟t come up explicitly, it was
kind of obvious and a little embarrassing to say out loud. And they didn‟t want to be
labeled “terrorists,” but everyone just about was ready, even the operating engineers and
some cops, and people wanted to move on to the tasks at hand. Toward the end of the
standing-room-only meeting at the community college, the forces were thirsty for more
knowledge and hungry for action. We need to call a big rally, someone said… Or, how
about a march?... Imaginations were stirring. We need to communicate to all our people –
all the people – what‟s going on, what has to change. Then, in the midst of the collective
brainstorm, someone yelled: let‟s get the stadium! The exec board without discussing it,
said, nodding, we‟ll look into it and people went home excited.
It wasn‟t just the leadership that wanted in; members were clamoring on-board. The
Orange County Board of Commissioners at first tried to deny them the stadium venue but
when sanitation, fire, teachers and even some police started walking toward the exits,
they backed down. It was agreed that some fundamental core demands need to be issued
immediately to set the tenor for the stadium assembly and attract the foot soldiers; to
show that this was not union business as usual. This time it wouldn‟t be grandstanding for
union elections, introducing four layers of union hacks in the proper order, or sucking up
to spineless Democrats, or repeating empty platitudes about jobs, health care, fair trade
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and America It was how to reach out to your locals all across the country, how to pick
targets to shut down, getting into community debates, how to elbow our way back into
the media, how to engage the people, the majority, who don‟t have good unions (or any
unions) but badly need them, how to re-make politics, in short, how to clean America‟s
clock.
Someone said it, a term that rarely flickered in the deep recesses of older workers‟
memories: “general strike.” Most union members had never heard of it. The exec board
discussed it and came up with some names of retired guys that could maybe provide a
little history for the assembled masses. Sam Loppet from the west coast ILWU was a
leader in a city-wide work stoppage back in the late „40s. Then there was Joe Demassi
from the Teamsters in San Francisco. Or Maggie Frumkin from the canning operations...
Why didn‟t we think of this before,.. someone said… Yeah, we let the little trucker-
capitalist fuckers lead the way? We should be ashamed.
3***
The OPEC bosses never get too excited; things are always pretty good. With the prospect
of declining global demand they had been successful in pre-emptively restricting output
and nicely sustained price rises followed. The western oil giants were playing along
wonderfully and it helped that speculators and futures gamers were on board. The OPEC
members that perhaps could play a responsible role found the money was just too good,
and so went along with the Saudi and other petro super-thugs, Dick‟s friends. The
emirates were buying up damaged corporate goods everywhere and global capital was
edging their way. A few minor OPEC players were bailing, preferring to go it alone
without output restrictions, which was a little annoying, but the bigger worry was this
rogue missile team, definitely a loose cannon, and the unpredictable energy debate that
was growing in leaps and bounds. The Saudi princes had been thinking they had internal
social unrest under control, making little adjustments here and there for women and
voters, and refining their Islamic scam, re-arranging the furniture in their tents. Begetting
Al Qaeda fanatics was a little embarrassing and somewhat costly but manageable.
Producing sympathizers and participants for the HF liberation front was a lot more
dangerous and the growing scrutiny on ruling classes everywhere was downright scary.
So far, their surveillance and intel systems were working, they thought, but they weren‟t
taking any chances. They said: Those Israelis are really on to something; maybe Jews
really are smarter.
4***
Although Sadr City offered the most friendly and convenient neighborhoods for targeting
the Green Zone hits, as many mortar attacks had demonstrated, the Plan decided to cross
the river and find some more distant and less conspicuous venues. Again, returning
refugees provided excellent cover. It wasn‟t that hard to put together some launch teams
made up of Sunni adherents who had broken with the new collaboration game and had
come to have some respect for Shiite resistance. Three teams were fielded of which two
would be chosen for the actual hits. Considerable thought had gone into the power plant
104
targeting: how best to land an HF to do the most lasting damage. Since the HFs were not
high-explosive, it was essential to identify the fuel vulnerabilities of the power source. To
be safe, two HFs would hit it. The Embassy executive offices and Command operating
centers were distributed across several sites, with a lot of the top level guys in a remote
but discernable top floor in building Q. The communications center on the other hand
was a piece of cake, with satellite dishes and other electronic jewelry sticking out
everywhere. In the trial period when cameras were being situated and test-run, the
plotters could see sniper nests and lots of nervous defenders peering into fancy optical
devices atop Zone buildings, but they had „em beat with their HF system. Still, they were
careful – operating out of shadows and small apertures with half-mirrors. Some
unemployed physics and engineering graduate students in Baghdad were very helpful.
5***
With the groundswell of labor unrest, the right-wing was getting frantic; they demanded a
dramatic response to show those people their proper place. Several major rail hubs were
closed and the ports in Newark and Seattle were moving in that direction fast. It looked
like air-freight was next. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) had
organized emergency roundtable discussions in all major cities, trying to get the bosses of
America on the same page. Constellations of trade associations were caucusing. The
media sub-committee over in NYC was loosing control. Power was starting to leak away
from everywhere and the rulers of finance couldn‟t figure out how to stop it. The usual
mechanisms weren‟t working.
The Plan had been watching the situation, especially the internet discussions and decided
to mete out discipline to a larger constituency. It was time to take on the mid-cap warriors
directly. Julie in St. Louis: We really have to keep the initiative so the awakening
movement of working people won‟t be intimidated by the coming attacks. It‟s going to
get very ugly very fast. They‟re inevitably going to mastermind some spectacular
atrocities and blame them on us. It‟s the classic Haymarket syndrome. We need to keep
the rulers off guard while preparing people for the worst... What about going after
something like NAM in DC, Mahmoud asked… What about AIPAC too, Ari added; let‟s
do a two-fer. Those guys have had a free ride for way too long; they‟ve been sandbagging
progressive politicians and democracy in the U.S. for years and most Americans have
never even heard of them.
A new team was assembled for the DC actions. Norm had been meeting with old
comrades from the anti-Vietnam campaign and had made good use of some trips to DC
for his work –discussions on climate-change research funding and coming conferences
with EPA staff. Like in Baghdad, the drill that seemed to work well was exploring
personal political journeys and casual discussions of the HF liberation exploits. It wasn‟t
that hard to figure out who could be engaged in more serious deliberations and escalating
involvements. A series of issues was an almost perfect litmus test. The interesting thing
was how much the ruling-class focus seemed to cut through so much of the usual
sectarian distraction and permit concentrating on primary strategy. More sat phones were
needed. Time for Ben and Ari to procure another batch.. would require some careful
105
examination. Maybe they should seek a second source and not endanger their IDF
connection… Hmm, maybe Iraj can create a dummy corporation for a sat phone account
with encryption … maybe Jim the spook could help; would need some funding. This
requires some exploration.
6***
The Dubai plan was developing nicely. A team was now in place that Jusef could trust
and was pulling in tons of intel. Blackwater‟s operations center had been located as had
the venue for the OPEC meeting. The three favorite hotels for visiting corporate globe-
trotters were identified. The juiciest piece of news was that just as OPEC was ending,
there was a private conference of finance capitalists meeting to discuss future “re-
alignments” in our changing world. It was invitation-only and hosted by the sovereign-
funds of the emirates. As result of the continuing slide of the dollar with the energy crisis
and Iraq, all sorts of low-hanging fruit were there for the picking: U.S. companies and
real estate of all sizes and sectors, and whole banks; buying the world one multinational
at a time. A Plan guy in Dubai heard something about the private meeting from a casual
acquaintance at a cocktail party and then made some discrete enquiries among his other
banking buddies. So the plan was: hit OPEC on the last morning and the private confab at
the same time; wait 10 minutes, then take out the Blackwater command center just as the
masters of private security were powering-up.
Mahmoud wondered about the plans for Saudi Arabia. Hitting Dubai would surely end
any complacency in Riyadh. Beth agreed but things weren‟t far enough along to act in
Riyadh, and besides, it might be better to let things stew a bit while setting up the Saudi
elite for their dues. These guys are quite vulnerable in their own societies with their
backward social conventions (cutting off criminal‟s hands), whole armies of indentured
foreign labor, deals with other ruling classes; we should wait to get them at the most
advantageous time. Also, Ben pointed out, success in Dubai will shake loose some
potential collaborators in Riyadh that at this point are probably not ready to take the
plunge. After Dubai, Al Quaeda won‟t be the only game in town for folks disgusted with
the kingdoms of oil.
7***
Ari hitched another ride home from the base with Sasha. They talked about the news
coverage that had come from Davos. Amid the various personal tragedies shared among
rulers, there were some flashes of dark humor that Sasha was able to appreciate with a
quick hearty laugh and expanding insight. It seemed like she was at peace with her
predicament for the moment, and actually enjoying a little vicarious terrorism. Ari
explained about the nuances of ruling class distress in the U.S., aspects that were pretty
much not visible to casual or even informed observers. The right-wing secession from the
NYC crowd was interesting and had parallels with debate among the movers and shakers
in Israel that Sasha had witnessed first-hand or second-hand from parents. Ari relayed
some of the Plan‟s discussion going on about NAM and AIPAC. Sasha had just been in a
social setting a few weeks back where AIPAC was hotly debated among some of Aaron‟s
106
colleagues and collaborators, including several who hadn‟t abandoned the Central
Dogma. The drive to the city was over too soon. As he was getting out of the car, Ari
mentioned he was seeing Rachel tonite and suggested maybe they should all get together
sometime. Sasha suddenly was looking perplexed and Ari eased back into the car-seat…
Does she know about what you‟re doing? All that‟s happened?.. Sasha was intensely
curious, anxious… Ya, she knows the broad outlines, no details. She was – and is – pretty
astounded but is basically ambivalent with it, from a distance; she‟s a pretty solid
comrade, you know?.. Eyebrows raised for those worried eyes.. Of course, it‟s a pretty
scary involvement as you could probably imagine,.. with a smile… Yes, I could imagine
and still do; and I never imagined for an instant that I would ever be part of this
situation… But she wasn‟t fearful or resenting. This time they kissed and Ari got out with
his stuff. I‟ll give you a call, if you like?... Ya, sure, I think Aaron is coming.
8***
The K-Street lairs of the monied fixers were phenomenal. Every “special interest” was
represented one way or another. Unfortunately, for workers, the AFL-CIO had acted so
badly for so long, they could almost be – and were called – another special interest, not
the voice or force of the working class which is what they should be. They were there
too. NAM had a smart 6-story structure on Pennsylvania Avenue with a grand pent-house
conference room allowing a visual tour of the Capitol and Mall and peeks at the White
House during deliberations or nice lunches. AIPAC was a little less accessible over on H
Street: tall five-story connected townhouses in a very fashionable stretch with beautiful
grounds and a secret garden in back with their parking garage. The NAM building was a
straight shot from lots of places – roofs – around the area, even from across the Potomac;
AIPAC would require access to only a few possible launch sites fortunately including a
third string hotel roof about two miles away that had a tiny window of access to both
NAM and AIPAC across many K-Street and other backyards.
This was going to be the most dangerous action so far. A black SUV with gov‟t plates
seemed like the best cover for the DC hits. Black, home-made T-shirts with “DHS” on
the back in 3” yellow lettering. This was going to require some significant funds. So far,
the Plan had been a shoe-string operation, with travel and shipping funds lifted from here
or there. Now some serious money was needed. Hamas could provide a little; the
peacenik network in Israel might be able to scrape together several thousand $ or euros
but it‟s risky; money trails always leave something behind. What about Agent Jim?
Maybe Iraj should earn some significant compensation as a valued asset? Ben wondered
at loud: what about funds transfers from IDF to their spotters; maybe we could set up an
account that pays into one of Iraj‟s corporate accounts. Might need Sasha‟s assistance..
maybe Naomi would help. Could be too much Mossad control to get past.
9***
Mugabee in Zimbabwe was giving anti-colonialism a bad name and, unfortunately,

wasn‟t the first to imitate the colonial oppressors. At Jasmine‟s suggestion, Jusef and
Anjolie from Algeria had been investigating. Having participated in booting the British
107
from power in their Southern Rhodesia, Mugabee had proceeded over several decades
finally to bring his country to abject financial ruin. Huge numbers of starving
Zimbabweans were fleeing to become refugees in South Africa, Mozambique or other
less desperate places. Inflation was triple digit! Mugabee had apparently missed several
important lectures in national liberation and working class power despite his Marxist
credentials. Fundamentals of Democracy was one of them; another was Land Reform
101. He took a thriving agricultural plantation mecca for European capital and turned it
into a dysfunctional wasteland. Instead of negotiating long-term leases with ultimate
transfer of white ownership to rural cooperatives, or some other device, and modest
incentives for the previous owners to stay involved in the management of lucrative
estates and in training a new skilled workforce, along with writing good labor law, he just
expropriated the land and handed it out through his patronage apparatus to loyal boss-
wannabees who knew nothing about modern farming or markets. He then managed to
lose an election despite massive fraud on his behalf, refused to let the results be
published, he then contrived a run-off while beating up the opposition candidates and
terrorizing the people with his impeccable organization of police and army brutes.
Despite embarrassed intervention by some African nations, nothing changed. South
Africa, sadly, felt little need to interfere even after South African dock workers refused to
unload a shipload of arms from China purchased by the Mugabee mob.
The Plan discussed this situation and decided to end the neglect of Africa. Besides, the
U.S. was ending its neglect having just established its African Command, a new element
in its global security apparatus, with active ongoing involvement in Ethiopia and murder
in Somalia for starters, and leering glances at Yemen. The American strategy? Respond
to outrages like the embassy bombings in Kenya with policies guaranteed to make things
worse. So, it was time to generalize class war and inspire another continent of the
oppressed. Also, South African rulers needed some reminding of their own ANC roots.
An African safari was planned. Fly from Algeria to SA with the camera in a shipping
container labeled wild game photographic equipment. Send two HFs rolled in new
carpets from Lyons to some comrades from the old SA communist party who had come
on-board. These guys had a long and frustrating relationship with the ANC since long
before the end of white rule, and understood exactly the HF liberation strategy. They also
had some ideas for post-Mugabee SA.
[ANC – African National Congress, the organization that ended apartheid]
10***
All over America, people were anxiously awaiting CHANGE from the deciders but still
nothing much was happening at that end. Maybe some significant movement on
mortgages and lots of talk on energy but that was about it. Even as the Long Beach virus
spread, the news media were pretending nothing unusual was going on, so people just
stopped listening to them. Millions of working people were getting a fast tutorial from
their kids on internet news sources and googling, and eyes were opening wide all over.
People were going to bed later and later, and not because they were watching Lederman
or Leno. There was lots of police excitement in most cities, partly because some folks
were calling in suspicious behaviors: dawdling trucks, dark skinned people who appeared
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nervous, strange cartons on roof tops. It wasn‟t clear how sincere these calls were, but
someone had to check them out. After about fifty false alarms, most cops figured out it
probably wasn‟t such a good idea to rough up the perps until they knew they were perps.
Meanwhile a new urban sport had arisen: shooting laser pointers at the abodes of the rich.
It was sort of like ringing doorbells at night in the „burbs when you were kids: you push
the button and run and hide, and then observe the irritated adults peering out into the
rebellious night. Now anxious heads appear in high windows and point at likely perches
of the obnoxious (they hope) faux-spotters. Their doctors were recommending they wear
dark-glasses to avoid eye-damage. The spotters were anticipating new municipal
ordnances prohibiting laser pointing. Sales were brisk.
So when refineries started going off-line because of labor refusals and pipeline
maintenance issues, leaving bloated but stranded super-tankers, the people, eternally
hopeful, again watched for signs of change. Losing a few of their own billionaires
apparently was distressing but not distressing enough for the ruling class. Surely they
would understand energy strangulation. Big plants were shutting down. Every week a
new major airport joined the casualty list. Some of those celebrity liberals in Hollywood
were back in the act, and some of them had backed the Bama! They organized a
shutdown of new productions until “things got fixed,” and explained why, convincingly,
in internet interviews.
11***
At the LM union meeting, every seat was taken with people standing at the back and on
the edges. The first membership meeting after the contract had attracted about 65
workers, mostly out of curiosity and gratitude. Normally numbers like that dwindle, but
at LM each meeting pulled in even more. Molly from the gitgo had decided that
membership meetings were, literally, going to be members‟ meetings. The agenda put
current concerns and how to respond at the top, right after news updates. Discussions
initially were rather erratic with some people not accustomed to being brief and to the
point, but gentle guidance was working and good debates were increasingly addressing
critical issues. Volunteer committees were formed on the fly whenever more digging was
required. So when the Long Beach news arrived, there were lots of questions. Somehow a
brief clip of an LA Central Labor Council exec board member talking about a general
strike had slipped onto the national news. The newsroom probably didn‟t recognize the
term. The guy was perched on the hood of a purple Freightliner with chromed high-rise
exhausts surrounded by hundreds of truckers and supporters with 300 trucks lined up
behind them and the giant shipyard container-cranes standing idle in the background
beside gleaming white ship superstructures… What is a general strike? Is it legal? What
can they do to them? How does it spread? Do they do any good? Have there been general
strikes in this country? What happened? Did they win?
Molly‟s lunch room experiences had taught her that questions are good; that she doesn‟t
have to be the only one trying to answer them, and even coming from hostile questioners,
they can be opportunities for collective enlightenment. But she had seen this one coming;
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the internet sites were providing hour by hour updates from Long Beach and elsewhere.
She saw the issues erupting and consulted that labor lawyer guy for some help.
A general strike is like saying the opposition, the problem, is more than just your own
employer – it‟s like all of them in the area. It‟s time for a change in the rules; for a new
“social contract” is what some people call it. Like the 8-hour day; it took a bigger fight
than with any single employer.
It‟s hard to reduce 150 yrs of class struggle to a few well-constructed sentences.
They‟re usually not legal, in fact, some really important ones happened before any strikes
were legal. Usually general strikes erupt without any leaders sitting down and saying,
“OK, let‟s do a general strike.” What happens is thousands of people get so pissed-off
they just walk, and it spreads like a California brush fire in the Santa Ana winds. There
are leaders but in many cases, the leaders are running like hell to catch up with events,
not exactly leading them, at least not initially. Molly was just getting started and already
feeling lonely when others jumped in. Jim, a guy who was stationed in Korea in the „70s
explained how, when he was there, Korean workers took on the 18 rich families than ran
South Korea – called “Chaebol” – like Daewoo, Samsung, Hyundai, etc., and had pitched
battles with the army, shut down whole cities, and won the right to have strong unions in
basic industry: steel, auto, shipbuilding, and later, electronics. The U.S. embassy in Korea
wanted the U.S. army to step in and crush these revolts but were afraid they might ignite
the whole country. Today, Korea is an amazing place but it was pretty scary. Liz from
electrical harness assembly said: Yeah, I remember seeing pictures of students and
workers over there fighting the army together in the streets for something. Janny Nortin
from the tool crib recalled that her grandfather was in a general strike in Milwaukee;
something about minimum wage or the 40 hr work week – that‟s how they got it… Wow,
lots of nods and eyes wide open.
So the outcome basically depends on how strong and united the people are. Typically the
bosses get the courts to issue injunctions against this or that person or group and try to
lock-up a lot of people; but if there‟s a thousand workers surrounding the sheriff‟s band
of enforcers, usually the people win. If they can‟t break the strike with intimidations and
jailings or other means – turning people against each other, and they‟re pretty good at that
– then they either bring out the national guard and shoot people, or, they sit down and
negotiate. For the rulers, sometimes it‟s a tricky call; the national guard may not be
enthusiastic about shooting down their neighbors or their own family members so it‟s
risky to push them too far. They could start shooting in other directions. The bottom line,
though, is if people are really solid and clear on the issues, they can win. Charges get
dropped, people released from jail, even compensation paid for injuries, and agreements
framed on key issues.
Lots of people weighed-in with snippets of history and more questions. No one left early.
It was exhausting and exhilarating. What should we do? Molly summed up, saying we‟re
at an important crossroads in our own history; there are opportunities and challenges.
Does anyone have any ideas for things we should think about doing?... The silence went
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on for 8 or 9 seconds. Everyone was wrestling with this. This was way more difficult than
football plays. Someone asked: well, do we have a labor council?... What other unions are
around here?... Maybe we should have a meeting with all of them in the area… Someone
reported there used to be an active Central Labor Council back in the early „80s but since
the big consolidations in aerospace, you know McDonnell/Douglas, Northrup/Grumman,
Lockheed/Martin, things have been pretty quiet… Someone offered to contact some other
union members they knew. Someone else would research the unions in other local
industries. Molly asked, so, do we think it‟s a good idea to try to pull together a big group
of people from all the unions around here and discuss what‟s happening, what maybe we
should be trying to do, altogether?.. Lots of affirmative nods.. How about a committee to
draft a proposed agenda, meeting location, and possible dates?.. A bunch of hands shot
up.. How about a media committee, any internet junkies? And let‟s dig up some of the
old-timers around here... The earth was starting to move, again.
12***
The NY media subcommittee was close to apoplexy. Unbelievable things kept

happening, and faster each day. Local news organizations were breaking ranks – it‟s kind
of hard to pretend that the sky isn‟t falling when it is. First they tried “breaking news”
interviews with the labor-activist screwballs trying to shut-down America expecting them
to embarrass themselves but they actually made some sense. The new Administration was
totally ready to do whatever was needed to stop this rebellion, but what was that? Twenty
or thirty or forty years of downsizing, “free trade,” deregulation and empire maintenance
were coming home to roost. The Democreeps had lost their grip; the one thing they were
good for – chilling-out the class struggle – they no longer knew how to do. Large chunks
of labor were breaking off and drifting away; it was like those Alaskan glaciers in Al
Gore‟s movie. The focus of repression was shifting to the internet which was like trying
to stop an avalanche: We have to abort this cacophony of subversion… AOL and Google
said “OK, give us the parameters; where do you want the tide to go?” Yahoo top
management was pretty much ready to go along when their senior systems VP reported
that the troops weren‟t actually going to do that… They are refusing to launch and
manage the filter software and in fact have disabled the archiving systems that permit
tracking everyone‟s navigation forever and custom-manipulate their search engine
criteria.. Moreover, the revolt had already begun to spread to their peers at Google and
even AOL, although the AOL guys were a tough sell. The fact that the top Goo-goons
weren‟t aware of dissention in their ranks was indicative of how far these guys were
going to fall, not to mention their stock holdings. Apparently this palace revolt had been
simmering for some time as indicated by the defense measures the nerds already had put
in place. The whole system was booby-trapped but no one knew it. There were
placements even inside private corporate internet servers. It was Google‟s China
collaboration-capitulation-betrayal that really started this hacker revenge. And then the
concessions to Beijing by the Olympics committee. The Yahoo VP was explaining how
the foot soldiers could do a great deal of damage if they were pressed.
All of a sudden the Wall Street hedgers and the mid-cap warriors were mostly back on
the same page: How do we shut it down? Let‟s get with FCC and NSA and FBI right
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away. These are acts of national sabotage, treason. Get the AG and federal prosecutors –
we need to come down hard right away on these idiots. Get personnel lists from Yahoo,
Google and AOL, get FISA warrants and home addresses. Deputize the police.
[FCC – Federal Communications Commission; FISA – law authorizing wire-tapping for
“national security;” AG – Attorney General of the U.S.]
3. Bellies of the Beast
1***
A few months back Grates had publicly reported what W wanted to hear: Iraq was back
on track, and now Obama was gingerly choreographing some high-visibility withdrawals
making sure that the client security apparatus had full U.S. air support and Hellfire
coordination to keep things quiet. The new Reaper, the next generation of pilotless terror
in the skies, was performing as intended. The Israeli-style surveillance machine was fully
implemented and expanding into all “liberated” neighborhoods. Wednesday morning was
like any other as the squad of imperial functionaries trooped into the conference room in
Building H, sixth floor with their laptops, Blackberries, papers and cellphones. After
another conversation with Iraj about Green Zone highlights and attractions, Jim had
written a memo for the Baghdad command – evidence that an attack on GZ was
developing – and worked hard to contrive some supporting data. It was a bit of a stretch.
He argued that maybe we should release some prisoners and suspend the HF attacks for a
while. As always, no response from the top guns. For this Wednesday‟s meeting Jim
Speller wasn‟t invited, thankfully, but he was worried about some who were. This was a
new situation, being on the knife edge. He called up Iraj Tuesday afternoon to get clarity
on when the visitor might arrive; Iraj called back early that evening: 10:45am tomorrow.
There was an army colonel, a specialist from State, and some Company guys that Jim
really didn‟t want in there if an HF came through the door. The two Company guys he
got pulled for an emergency investigation, the guy from State he arranged to be paged for
a phone call but he couldn‟t figure out how to protect the colonel. This was a guy from
Delaware, fluent in Arabic, that Jim had had many long and frank conversations with and
this guy was very sour on the occupation, from top to bottom, and with empire. Jim
struggled all evening and finally called the guy at home saying he ought to take a potty
break around 10:42 am and maybe make a phone call for a few minutes from a lower
floor of Bldg H. There was an awkward silence which Jim allowed to go about six
seconds, and then said: This is a very difficult call for me; it‟s like the entire weight of
this criminal occupation has landed on my shoulders; I hope you can understand. Tell me
if you need to know more but I think it‟s better if you don‟t.. You know, I tried to warn
them.
So two of the Americans managed to excuse themselves. About 22 assorted heavies

remained including about a dozen U.S. military and civilian operatives and contractors, 7
or 8 Iraqis and one Israeli contractor, who all seemed comfortable in their assigned roles.
HF 7 arrived on schedule. The Ambassador, the top U.S. general replacing Betraeus, and
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al Malarki weren‟t in attendance for this one. The agenda item being discussed at 10:40
am was inadequacy of security checks for Sunni recruits in Iraqi police units. The HF
came in through the western side windows and detonated in the vestibule outside the
conference room, blowing in the doors and filling the room with lethal chemical fire. The
Halliburton furniture joined in the conflagration. Fire spread through plastic partitions to
adjoining office suites but most were able to escape. Those on other floors found usable
stairwells, joining the two rescued meeting participants who might now be perceiving
that they have something important in common. Building H would have been the
morning‟s main event except that the entire communication tower within minutes was
itself engulfed, with antennae drooping and dropping on three sides, and several other
embassy and top command suites had also been fire-bombed. The power plant was a
disaster. HF 11 managed to find the incoming fuel lines, hastily assembled back in the
early days of the Zone when little details like isolating valves and installing remote
control-systems were not seen as important. Diesel fuel was running in rivulets along
several street gutters wafting clouds of surging black smoke. The Green Zone was
suddenly without electrical power, and missing a big-slice of imperial power.
Nervous Jim had decided to take a mid-morning walk and was able to witness at least
three of the HF hits. He ran back to join in damage control and rescue operations but with
a heavy pounding heart. The horror of colonial war had struck very close to home.
Almost immediately there were swarms of choppers over the Green Zone armed to the
teeth with HFs and all their cousins and scrutinizing every nook and cranny of buildings
within miles of the Zone. Two choppers collided: a Blackwater and an army. Four or five
distant roof-tops were assaulted with missiles and heavier armaments but they were the
wrong ones. Team Baghdad decided to stay put; they had two nice venues which seemed
to be secure, and were ready for new tasks. Some people nearby had heard the HFs jump
off and maybe a few had seen it but nobody was talking. Just in case, the team had some
street walkers available to offer sage advice and encouragement on the bigger picture to
witnesses, and to pick up on threats.
2***
All of a sudden the beaming Baghdad cake walk had come apart, again. Obama called his
war team for a late-night review and they debated and scenarioed like seasoned
imperialists; these guys were a quick study. Maybe it was time to take out Iran… they
must be behind these hits somehow.. despite repeated denials and zero evidence.. Maybe
our intel system there still needs some tweaking. Let‟s call up Israel and make sure we‟re
in-synch; we have to think this through together… They were just about to break for
organic snacks when the communication channels woke up and the red phone rang. The
OPEC meeting in Dubai had just be hit; a dozen fatalities, and the top floors of the high-
rise Palm Jumeirah peninsula-marina were in flames. Private equity groups of some kind
had been meeting there with some of the sovereign funds – the oil money hoarded by
various emirate and other governments around the Gulf. The Bama ordered the war room
activated and pulled Defense Intelligence into the loop: Who do we talk to in Dubai on
internal security?... The national intel-meister explained the channels but also mentioned
Blackwater‟s got an operation there; they probably know what‟s happened… Call up Eric
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Prinze, quick… Eric, the privileged prince of mercenaries, the king of privatized global
thuggery, was traveling according to Blackwater headquarters, but then commotion;
something was distracting the officer on watch. Orders were flying-in from overseas
operations,.. from Dubai!.. from Eric!! Five minutes later, the red phone rang again:
another hit in Dubai, unknown target in another part of town; embassy investigating.
Then Defense reported that secure lines leased by Blackwater on U.S. military satellites,
coming from Dubai, had gone off-line.
At 4:00 am the war team took a 4 hour sleep break in the war room facilities. The task
after breakfast was to convene with the full NSC to assess the situation and come up with
countermeasures and policies against this metastacizing terrorist cancer. National
Intelligence started off with a quick update on Dubai, including details on the investor
meeting and the status of Blackwater assets there… They got Rudy, someone said.
“Giuliani?” several queried?... Yeah, the former mayor‟s security firm was doing some
work with the equity guys… Stunned, the Bama enquired: Why is it so difficult to catch
these guys?... A second level Defense specialist explained that the HF system they were
using was pretty easy to operate and transport – once they knew how – and of course,
can be fired from a considerable distance and quickly disappear into the environment. A
CIA guy added: Normally we would get some tips and pick-up some talk, see suspicious
events, but somehow this campaign seems to have attracted some sympathy – sort of like
a Robin Hood phenomenon… The Bama had to think on that one; rang a bell from
somewhere.. Well, how many missiles could they have?… They get shipped in containers
of 50, and Baghdad Station just reported finding a discarded LockheedMartin Hellfire
container hidden at a dump out by Sadr City so we‟re assuming one container – 50
missiles – has been acquired by this terrorist organization. It looks like they‟ve used,
ah..let‟s see,.. about 10 or 12 of them… They all did the math: 50 minus 12… Damn, 38
to go… So then discussion moved abruptly to countermeasures. Defense reported on
several very high priority projects progressing on this, some with promise, but best case –
would take months or years to implement them on a comprehensive basis. Just then, the
red phone rang again (Barack looked, thinking, could that thing be put in silent mode?).
Two buildings in the DC K-Street area had just been fire-bombed – only a few blocks
away!! Holy shit!!!
3***
It was a 9:30 am meeting in the NAM conference room. Some mid-size corporate CEO
messengers were to report on the roundtables being held around the country. Several
were late owing to the multiple layers of security for travel not just by air but around DC
itself. The general consensus being reported was that the core messages – defending
democracy, promoting our way of life, making the sacrifices demanded in these difficult
times – were not moving most Americans to any degree. The public basis for serious,
severe legislative solutions to the terror crisis isn‟t there. And the growing labor unrest
was very disturbing… Which unions are leading this? Why can‟t they be stopped?...
What about RICO suits, court orders, injunctions, or arrests, or Homeland Security regs?
Or black-bag?... We are facing an unprecedented assault! They can do enormous
damage. And what about the internet??... Where is Obama on this? Is NSA tracking
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communications?... (Someone:) Obama called in the major labor leaders and some of the
key Democratic county leadership but we don‟t know what transpired. He‟s sort-of
burned a few bridges in that area.
[RICO – a federal law originally designed to go after organized crime racketeering
conspirators, but increasingly used for other targets]
Discussion turned to integrating police functions at the local and state levels, and what
kinds of paramilitary organizations might be feasible. What about veterans‟
organizations; or some of those militia groups? Someone drawled, “we oughta bring back
the KKK,” but was shushed quiet… We need to stomp down hard on these picket lines,
sweep up supporters, open up struck facilities.. The NAM committee on national security
was going to be caucusing with several agency officials and Congressmen later today and
come back with some proposals.. What role could businesses play; what about the
churches?... Almost on cue, one of the minor mid-cap CEOs stood and suggested leading
the group in prayer. Just then a red spot danced across the Pollock on the far wall, over
the cadenza with the cut flowers and sparkling flavored waters, coffee and tea, and
gourmet pastries. Most didn‟t see it; of the four or five that did, only one instantly
grasped its message, and leapt toward the exit yelling something about missiles. The
CEO of NAM, former right-wing governor of Michigan, almost made it to the stairwell
before HF16 made it to NAM.
Eleven blocks away, the AIPAC morning staff meeting on the fourth floor had just
adjourned and the senior executives and staff were revisiting informally the amazing
topics of the morning: three hits in Dubai, including Blackwater and Giuliani… Whoever
is doing this is just under our radar; our systems weren‟t designed to pick up something
like this. Not only that, this public scrutiny of Israeli involvement in actionable
surveillance technology, whether in Gaza or Iraq or anywhere is very damaging... It‟s
even getting into public discourse in Israel. And this sophomoric discussion on “class” is
becoming distracting and corrosive… Yeah, the media here have been working hard to
contain it but it keeps coming up, and of course, it‟s all over the internet.. A muffled pop
noise came in through the open window but didn‟t elicit much notice. Sirens two minutes
later, however, started the worry neurons firing and that‟s when a crash and loud thump
shook the building from below. Heavy smoke came rolling up the elegant central
staircase along with shouts and screams. Then came the flames. There was no other way
down so the startled execs ran for the back stairs to the roof. Unfortunately the door down
into the adjoining AIPAC townhouse had been blocked-off in the renovations, and the
entire roof area had been made extremely secure against almost all uninvited guests. A
quick inspection of the perimeters disclosed no escape routes. These international
manipulators and hitmen huddled in panicked cogitation. They weren‟t ever before on the
receiving end of missile brutality. One called the Israeli ambassador; another called
Israel; they didn‟t have the right phone to reach Mossad. Others called various U.S.
Congressmen with whom they worked closely; one called Nancy Pilati. They all called
home. Smoke and flame were now coming up both the front and back sides of the
building. Sirens were closing in; how long are those ladders? They called 911, earnestly
wishing for competent public infrastructure.
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4. Roman Games Bottom Up
1***
The California Orange Bowl workers‟summit was set for Friday at 10 am, and the
expanded exec board of the Los Angeles CLC was deep into planning. At least four other
labor councils had signed on. It was almost like that NYC cabal of bankers, with
committees, reports and collective angst. Things were happening so fast people were
scampering just to keep up with the news. So first, review of the week‟s events.
Getting Eric Prinze in Dubai was uniformly pleasing. Nobody liked privatization – giving
away public assets and responsibilities to private corporate hustlers; creating private
armies with no accountability for racist joy-riding killers was just plain offensive and
deplorable, as subsequent events had demonstrated over and over… Remember that video
footage of these assholes just randomly shooting a 50-caliber machine gun at people‟s
cars on Baghdad streets from their fucking Hummer? War is bad enough without turning
these low-lifes loose. No wonder they hate us… You know, it‟s starting here; we‟re
already privatizing the prison system. Can you believe what it‟s like to be locked up by a
corporation with nobody watching?... Some of the brothers could definitely imagine…
We have one of the highest incarceration rates in the whole world; is that sick or what?
And Giuliani? – no need to comment there – had the same tenor as the Chainy and Prinze
hits. Hitting OPEC, on the other hand, was like opening a closed door. Who are these
people that control world oil supplies? Does anyone benefit besides big oil and the oil
barons in the Middle East, Nigeria, Sudan, Burma and other outposts of repression?...
What sorts of deals did Chainy make with the Saud crowd anyway, before he went south?
How come Venezuela doesn‟t have a better idea?... So where is a proposal for a global
energy plan that people could get behind?... Some of the unions had developing
connections with parts of the thinking underworld that weren‟t joined at the hip with the
Democreeps… We need to network more with those folks. Can we get one of them to
speak Friday?
So what is NAM someone asked?... National Association of Manufacturers. It‟s this big
trade association and lobbying outfit loved by most of our bosses that is about a five
minute walk from the Capitol (not that they ever walk). They orchestrate all sorts of
campaigns promoting business, meaning, anti-regulation, anti-labor, pro-war, pro the
most backward asshole politicians. Is – was – directed by former Michigan Governor
John Spengels,… and they claim climate change is a giant hoax... Yeah, and they‟re
pretty vicious when it comes to squashing organizing efforts. They‟re the right-to-work
guys and now they‟re calling for a lockdown of the whole country; vigilante squads,
martial law, the whole nine yards... Yeah, they actually were a pretty good target, you
know, if you‟re trying to be clear who‟s who… And of course, they‟re totally opposed to
any kind of universal health care – they‟re the ones who blew Hillary out of the water on
national health insurance – it wasn‟t the big insurance companies like Cigna or Aetna;
they liked her.
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OK, now what the hell is A-I-P-A-C anyway. Jeez, why don‟t they hit things we
understand?... Damn, you almost have to go do homework after every newscast...
American Israel Public Affairs Committee. That‟s is a high level gang of power brokers
that gets American support for Israeli objectives and is very deeply involved in global
security related to Israeli and U.S. corporate interests and schemes. In return, the Israelis
do a lot of dirty work that the U.S. can‟t or won‟t do in running the world. They‟re
heavily involved in tracking the bad guys in Iraq… I know Israel is a big problem over
there that we get sucked into but I don‟t really get the big picture… Well, for Jewish
people, my people, Israel has always been an important symbol and beacon of hope. Still,
things seem way out of whack.. Have gotten off on the wrong track. Maybe we should
get a committee together on Israel, try to come up with an angle we can all support?...
OK, but let‟s just mention that AIPAC is a really destructive monster in America. They
put huge amounts of money behind candidates they like and even get rid of good people
already in office by financing right-wing opponents in subsequent primaries. It‟s a well-
engineered activity, a major attack on our democracy – what‟s left of it. One of their pet
scams is that every time someone criticizes Israel or American pro-Israel policy, they
jump up and scream “anti-Semitism!” They have this whole network of influential
supporters in academia and the media that join the chorus like that guy Dershowit from
the Harvard Law School who didn‟t quite make it out of Davos in Switzerland. And
they‟re not all necessarily Jewish, either.
It was getting late as the stadium agenda was reviewed and fine-tuned. Bob Dylan had
offered to sing A Hard Rain‟s Gonna Fall and make a few observations starting with
Woodie Guthrie. Several other peoples‟ prophets from the last 60 years were sprinkled
throughout the program: Springsteen,.. even Pink Floyd. Al Gore was invited but begged
off apologetically, insisting he was not ruling class and saying something about retaining
some respectability; but he provided detailed advice to the committee folks formulating
climate and energy demands. After some arm-twisting, Amory Lovins from Colorado
agreed to talk energy conservation options. Two elder labor activists were going to talk
about past battles and were meeting with some university types including the people‟s
historian Howard Zinn by conference call from Boston to pick the topics and decide how
to package it. It had to be pithy, hard hitting and really clear what was up. History we can
learn from. Barbara Ehrenreich was pumped and agreed to breath fire on workers‟ rights
or the lack thereof and Rose Ann DeMoro from the California Nurses Association was
going to lay it out on health care. Getting some of these folks here wasn‟t going to be
easy. The idea wasn‟t in one long afternoon, to solve the world‟s problems, but rather to
show that our current ruling class isn‟t doing it, actually is the problem, have their own
reasons for not doing it, and who needs them and their hired help anyway? We have the
people and the smarts to do it all if we are clear and united.
At least as important as hearing history was showing the way forward and so several
speakers from the cutting edge actions growing around the country were to give brief
updates, starting of course with the Long Beach bowlers and followed by refinery
workers, rail and communications unions, steelworkers and on up the line. DeMoro had
some ideas on making big changes, fast, in health care. National SEIU representing
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millions of workers in the service sectors and previously the poster child of union-
corporate collaboration was changing course fast, now that Andy Butt was out of the
picture (Davos, again) and begged to be on board. Their last annual convention had
endorsed HR 676 for universal publicly-funded health care. Some Democrats were
invited and, after having had the objectives of this summit made very clear, a few agreed
to participate in the gathering awakening. One was Barbara Lee, the only Congressperson
to vote against authorizing blank-check military force against terrorism one week after
9/11, Bush‟s first step toward trashing the constitution, and Iraq.
2***
Finally the Tel-Aviv gang of six was queued-up for dinner.
Ari and Rachel had been talking often, lately, about developments at the university,
especially since the Dubai spectacular. The assault on OPEC was at once intriguing and
unsettling for most mainstream intellectuals in Israel – who else can they hit? What might
be the consequences of a major global energy policy agreement? Would U.S. financial
support for the Israeli military be affected? And striking at the heart of emirate big-oil
money was very ominous, especially for Central-Dogma fundamentalists. It seemed to
indicate that their future wasn‟t cut-and-dried – diverse scenarios could be imagined,
some better than others, that maybe fixing the Palestinian problem wasn‟t their only
worry. Rachel proposed to her comrades that now might be a good time to sponsor a day-
long conference, something like “Israel after 60 Years, the Sequel.” The 60th yr
celebration of Israel‟s creation had already passed in an enormous gush of national self-
congratulation and smug adulation with fawning foreign dignitaries sucking up
everywhere, including one-armed George, sporting a new grin and novel takes on history.
Rachel‟s conference could begin with a session “Post-Holocaust Strategic Alternatives
for Jews” and then migrate through several others, ending with: “Zionism at a Crossroads
– Global High-Tech Thuggery or Semitic Rapproachment?” It was both audacious and
shocking but the time seemed right.
Naomi and Ben were traveling a tortuous road. As they descended deeper and deeper into
core beliefs, neither yielded ground without drawing blood. But Naomi sensed that Ben
was winning, and not because he was smarter but because he was right. Got it from
somewhere. The HF demands provided endless avenues to explore alternative
interpretations of reality… Ben, why do you think the west should just up and leave
Afghanistan? Do you not know how awful the Taliban is?... Ya, I know how some of
them are and you know how they got there. And further we‟re just making the bad ones
stronger. The NATO forces are confirming every sick distortion of progressive western
enlightenment. It‟s too late for the doers to undo the damage. The British did it, the
Russians tried, and now half of Europe and Canada are fronting for the U.S. there. Create
a global trading system that offers locals a piece of the action and the Taliban will fade
into history. Strong women and few good men will show them the door… So, you think
Israel is part of the problem?... Absolutely. We‟ve engineered modern repression more
successfully than anybody else. That‟s what you and I help do… Naomi, changing the
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subject: so who d‟you think is behind the missile attacks? Is it Iran, or some other
country?... No, it‟s a group of some sort of revolutionaries that aren‟t connected with any
government… How do you know this?... That‟s what everyone is saying.. Mossad, IDF,
the U.S.. and besides, I have some connections with reliable sources outside Israel, and I
don‟t mean governments,… How do you do that?.. You just call-up old friends and they
call up old friends?... Well, would you be comfortable knowing this? Would you feel
some responsibility to pass that information along,.. you know… Well, I don‟t know, it
would depend on whether I trusted the persons or respected what they were up to, I guess.
This is a little abstract… Well, maybe we should re-boot. We‟ve been having some quite
engaging discussions, which I really like, but,.. do you? Is this an important part of your
waking thoughts or just amusement or something I‟m dragging you through?... Naomi
pushed back: I‟m interested in pursuing this where-ever it leads, and I will tell you when
I‟ve had enough, won‟t go further, when I no longer share your goals or values... But I
need to know that you will tell me that before you get to the point where you think you
need to tell somebody else... Alright, I‟ll have to think about this some more, Ben,.. OK?
Sasha called Aaron to see when he was coming through: We have another dinner
engagement… With elder Joe and your mom again?... No, with my friend Ari from the
base, and some of his friends... Oh, well that might be interesting. I‟d like to hear more;
when I get there I guess would be best… Sure, I‟ll fill you in; its going to be a little
complicated… Yes I can see how it might be… Ari had explained that four of the six
were aware of some of the basic facts behind the HF liberation front; that Rachel knew
that Ari and Ben were in cahoots with the missile gang in some vague manner, and that
Naomi was a sympathetic fellow traveler but still quite a ways back on the road. And
Aaron, where was he on this? The dinner discussion would have to avoid any proprietary
specifics on the HF operation.
They met at an outdoor café at 7:00 pm. Ari and Rachel were first, and sequestered a
table somewhat separated from the others. It was on a street with significant random
noise but quiet enough for hearing each other without speaking loudly. Sasha and Aaron
came up and Sasha introduced Ari and Aaron and Ari presented Rachel to the arrivals.
They settled in with drinks and queried Aaron in depth on his current adventures.
Ben and Naomi straggled in at 7:35 pm, apologizing, and Ben introduced himself to
Aaron, hugged Sasha, kissed Rachel, and then gave Naomi to his friends.
The dramatic situation developing in the U.S. was in the news and seized the
conversation. It appeared that stampedes and dust storms were gathering quickly in
cowboy land. Local Israeli media were gingerly and inconsistently reporting it. The BBC
was better and Al Jazeera was pretty good, but the internet provided the most detail, from
a circus of viewpoints. Theoretical explanations were interesting but this confluence of
issues driving popular discontent in the U.S. with some of the Demands from the upstart
missileers was remarkable and had awesome implications. Israel was already feeling
economic ripples and the policy waves were on the horizon, not to mention fears of a
tsumani as the AIPAC story unfolds. Governments everywhere were huddled in disbelief,
drafting wide-ranging contingency plans... (Aaron:) It looks like the U.S. situation is
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impossible to resolve; they‟ve ignored energy issues forever and deregulated everything
to the point that the financial engineering caste is free to try just about any gimmick in
gaming the system. The U.S. majority population is at risk of sinking into the Third
World and those people aren‟t going to go gently. It could really get ugly… (Ben:)
What‟s new is that social class is becoming a regular topic in the national debate there,
fed by the bankers‟ debauchery, despite efforts to suppress it. The class-sensitive missiles
may have helped change the landscape... The Democratic Party has lost its high-road
position and a lot of people are really thinking outside the box of phony big-money
politics, including Obama-politics... Rachel was worried: There is so much latent conflict
and suppressed anger, ignorance and absurd miss-conceptualization there, almost
anything could happen, most of it quite bad... (Ari:) Yes, they‟re surely going to launch a
high-profile attack on the people doing these shut-downs. Local authorities have already
had some skirmishes but are looking to Washington for guidance. Their problem is that a
lot of it is mushrooming up from the bottom; they can‟t just pick off some leaders and
throw down some injunctions and hope it goes away. They are inevitably going to seek
divisions and create conflicts among the people… (Naomi:) It wouldn‟t be the first time
that ethnic differences or racism became a handy tool for manipulating threatening
situations.. of course,.. that‟s what Hitler did. (Sasha:) Like, what could they do? Can
you give an example?... Rachel explained that in some U.S. cities, the black population
had born the brunt of the mortgage meltdown and were leading the charge against
foreclosures. In some of the more aggressive unions, African Americans are often the
most vocal and clear thinking on basic power issues – not so many illusions to sweep
away… So, Ari jumped in, they could orchestrate some.. altercation in which some white
people, maybe unrelated bystanders, get injured, and they can blame it on black activists.
They could even provide the thugs that do the deed, with – it so-happened – ample video
footage. Then they find some wishy-washy white union leaders who are clueless on the
big picture and get them to denounce the trouble-makers and violence. The possibilities
are endless for the Karl-Rove rambos who thrive on dreaming up these kinds of insults to
humanity. Or they could go to one of the industrial sites that has been shut-down and find
a bunch of white employees who are not quite with the program and encourage them to
disrupt a union meeting or stage a counter-demonstration with a little help, like sound
equipment, media access, selective interviewing. There are lots of mainstream
Democratic apparatchiks sidelined on the local level who would gladly step in to help
suppress the people‟s brush fires of outrage. [apparatchiks – Soviet term for flunkeys,
operatives, agents]
Ben went on: As this crisis develops and deepens with major economic disruption, of
course some political leadership in the country could seize this opportunity to craft
comprehensive solutions – on energy conservation, fair trade, climate change, and so on –
and then promote these solutions in the expanding debate. If people saw these as
solutions and saw them being implemented, the connection with the Demands, or charges
of “submitting to terrorism” would quickly dissolve. But not much like that is happening
yet; so far there isn‟t strong leadership apparently willing to step forward with such a
program.. So,.. it‟s going to be a race between the neo-Nazis fomenting race war against
blacks and Hispanics (and labor activists, and gay people, and people like us) and the
progressives finding the backbone and voice to construct an alternative vision.
120
I wonder what the missileers will do next, Aaron asked absently. What other countries
would they hit? (Naomi:) Could they hit Israel?... Sasha, Aaron and Rachel all casually
glanced at Ari and Ben for a second and then abruptly gazed away in random directions.
Only Naomi stayed focused on Ari… I guess they could, would be quite a shock but
they‟ve done it several other places. They don‟t seem to be running out of missiles.
(Naomi:) Well, who can fire these things, can just anybody shoot them if they got their
hands on one? (Ben:) No, it would take some considerable skill and.. knowledge.. to be
able to use them. It‟s the same missile the IDF uses, you know, against the Palestinians
from helicopters.. it‟s a very complex system... You seem to know a lot about this; how
do you find these things out? (Ari:) Well, for one thing, my job on the base is to manage
the Hellfire missile inventory and supervise processing these things for missions.. I hear
the technicians and contractors talking. But, of course they don‟t know exactly what‟s
going on either. Ben and I talk a lot... (Sasha:) Yeah, Ari and I see each other at the base
fairly often – not too many other folks there that we want to spend time with… (Ben:)
Like you and I were discussing the other day, Naomi, these are rather sensitive topics and
Ari and I have some connections / OK, but I am the only one that‟s clueless here?
(Aaron:) This missile gang is clearly a sophisticated group and, as far as anyone can tell,
seems to be independent of all major powers or other “terrorist” organizations. They have
two essential requirements: 1) not have their source of missiles identified, and 2) not have
their launch team network uncovered. They could probably survive a team or two getting
caught as long as the others weren‟t revealed but it would be a real set-back. (Sasha:)
Naomi, I actually know a few things about what‟s going on but there are some rather big
gaps, things I don‟t know. It‟s been a difficult time for me dealing with these things and
the broader context over the last 6 or 8 months. You know, my dad is one of them, the
“ruling class” of Israel, and intimately involved with IDF, so I hear it from both sides.
I‟m still not OK with the extortion scheme behind those Demands but I‟m starting to
understand where they‟re coming from, and I‟ve decided that it is important for me not to
discuss certain things I know with most people, not even my closest friends or relatives.
This decision that I have come to wasn‟t easy.. Aaron and I don‟t know where the
missiles are coming from and who exactly is doing it.. and I think we don‟t want to
know.. looking at Aaron for confirmation. If this conspiracy goes off in some really bad
direction, of course I‟d have to re-evaluate my position, reaching out to Naomi.
Gosh, you people play high stakes.. I wish I could see some solutions, examples of how
things might get resolved. Israel is up against some nasty opponents, you know? The
world isn‟t pretty. Syria is flakey and reckless, Egypt is repressive and feckless, but
predictable and Iran of course is kind of nuts, at least the current Ayatollah regime…
(Ben:) Ya, what an idiot, denying the Holocaust; doesn‟t he understand that that just
reinforces the Central Dogma?... (Sasha:) What do you mean?... Well,.. if saying Israel‟s
creation wasn‟t legitimate because there was no Holocaust, it sort of follows that its
creation was legitimate if there was a Holocaust – and everyone knows there was. Stupid!
(Aaron:) Yeah, think what these guys could do if they got it right, you know,
administrative accountability, transparency, workers‟ rights, gender equality... They‟d
have the entire corporate world by the.. ah.. neck.
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(Ben:) OK, so let‟s talk about a one-state solution for the Palestinian problem, and then
maybe talk about how Israel fits in the American empire, and is this a role Israelis want to
be playing? Is this good for us?... The discussion went late into the night, with moderate
drinking. Eventually they moved on to addressing strategic and tactical questions that the
HF liberation front itself was struggling with but by then they were down to half of their
working synapses. They went home enriched and trusting; Naomi was starting to bond
with these surreal people.
5. Class struggle evangelism: the Awakening
1***
It was bigger than the Super Bowl. People were organizing car-pools by the thousands to
get there. Hundreds of school buses were recruited. Teachers were bringing kids and
parents after the teachers‟ union put out an APB: Be there! This is going to change your
life – for the better – but only if you come. School bands came from as far way as
Oakland. Some of the cops were unbelievable: kept everything moving perfectly,
organized the parking and even helped with setting-up porta-potties in the satellite
parking areas. Other cops looked confused and disoriented. The State police were on their
radio‟s a lot and were scurrying around for no apparent reasons. And then there were all
these other guys in plain clothes with very serious expressions that seemed to be
whispering into their collars and with nervous ticks, who occasionally conferred with the
cops in the white hats wearing the most stripes. At the beginning there were these really
annoying and deafening police and military helicopters flying low everywhere but they
got pulled back real fast when it looked like hostages were about to be taken and
equipment damaged by bulging crowds of irate workers.
The beer counters were 100%-juice bars, with lots of fresh fruit brought from the Central
Valley by the Farm Workers and Teamsters. Huge amounts of cold-cuts and good bread
were arranged by UFCW – the grocery store worker union – and of course, hot dogs and
some soft drinks. They had garbage cans for collecting donations to pay for the stadium,
the food and the future. And re-cycling bins. There was live local coverage and even
some of the national media couldn‟t stay away. Unions had placed radio and newspaper
ads, got some TV interviews. They bought ads by Google, but those suddenly stopped. A
speaker from Yahoo was added to the agenda after some excited late-night calls and
consultations in all directions. It seemed the e-movement was catching up with the class
struggle.
About every half hour, on the jumbotrons they had a few short clips of famous labor
events with narratives. Later, a few scenes from Salt of the Earth and Matwan, and that
film with Sally Fields organizing textile workers. Al Gore too, was up on his ladder from
his climate DVD. After every few speakers, they had open mikes for questions,
comments or testimony. Hundreds of union activists were recruited to circulate and seek
out worried faces offering explanations or recording concerns. They were making random
solicitations “what question would you most like to have discussed,” and then feeding the
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intel to the stadium organizing committee behind the yellow curtain. Halfway through,
Judy Collins taught the crowd the words to some verses of Solidarity Forever, and then
they tried it out with unrehearsed accompaniment from 14 bands. After a few of the really
stunning presentations, they had 5 minute discussion breaks in thousands of random
clusters across the rows of seats: what does this mean? What should we do?
People were hearing things they had never heard said before in public, on a radio or on
TV. Amazing things that were obviously true – they‟re talking about my life! And most
other people‟s. And they have solutions, things that could be done, things that would
work for millions of people, things that all working people everywhere could support for
their own good.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee painted a remarkable picture. Speaking with the authority
of someone who has been to the imperial well, she explained exactly how things have
been set up to work so well for the rich in America. She swept away clouds of
obfuscation and revealed simple paths to solutions that we and the other peoples of the
world need and deserve. Even grumbling union bosses there under duress were moved or
at least confused.
Angela Davis from UC Santa Cruz talked about racism, gave compelling examples of
how white people fell for the scam and got screwed but not nearly as much as the primary
victims. Made the obvious parallels with the oil war in the Middle East and the
immigration fiasco infecting the country today. Talked about the Kennedys and Clintons,
and now the Bamas.
Jane Fonda was back, with newly regenerated backbone, and people loved it.
The kid from Yahoo blew everyone away with his blow-by-blow on the contest to control
internet communication. He explained the basics of e-power, gave examples, including
China and Iran, and then spelled out what the movement has to do right now to preserve
this medium for the people. The stadium was silent and rapt observing the new age;
people stopped eating, and then exploded in applause. Teen-agers stopped texting – they
were textless with far-away looks.
A guy from the steering committee talked about how to grow the work-stoppage in
transportation into a general strike, focusing initially on energy and local war industries;
he listed specific companies deserving immediate attention. He asked for a show of hands
of people working in these plants and ready to “not-work for the right change.” There
were forests of waving arms and fists. “We have to get these words out.” There were
assignments for union locals: reach out to all your locals across the country. Organize
committees to help create and make happen labor council plans. Look for the politicians
that are ready for conversion, to be born-again. Learn and work the internet. Shut-down
business as usual except for food and medical. Upping the ante: block access to naval
bases, impeach Bush and the neocons (can we do that after they‟re out of office?), strike
war production, stand-down in Iraq and Afghanistan, shutdown Wall Street. Be creative.
Be angry.
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2***
People didn‟t want to go home. The significant numbers of people leaving the stadium
early were only the parents with seditious children, or people who had to go to work and
weren‟t quite ready to implement a general strike. It was a different country and people
wanted to move there. You could see expressions of grieving as they left. It was like a
Billy Graham extravaganza except these guys are talking about fixing this life, not the
next one, and it wasn‟t faith-based – taking somebody‟s word for it… These guys had
charts and graphs, and history I never heard of. Great things that have happened before…
The production folks from the media didn‟t need instructions to get to work. Within 2
days five different edited versions of the Awakening lasting 4, 2, 1 hrs, 30 min. and 15
min. were circulating. This on top of home movies popping up on YouTube in droves.
Send them to all your friends, all your union members everywhere and all their friends. If
your local‟s leadership won‟t send them out, do it person-to-person. Request local TV
stations do re-runs and have panel discussions. Invite corporate leaders and their
politicians to explain themselves and how they‟re going to fix things.
Over at AOL, they were watching it spread. Tens of thousands of e-mails with
attachments and links to the Awakening were swarming America. The Goo-goons and
AOL management quickly decided to try to stop it, without even consulting Homeland
Security, first by limiting attachment size and then by selective content filters. Over-
night, an emergency communications protocol was drafted and sent out to all internet
service providers: any ISP not conforming would be shut-out. But the hacker-nerds with
the fingers on the key-boards wouldn‟t do it. The Yahoo contingent called the LA Labor
Council and asked how many guys can you get up here right away? DHS and FBI were
really pissed; you should have gone through channels: we could have blocked access with
State police and local military units. When people heard that the internet was under
assault up in the Hollywood hills they walked, drove and rode bikes to join the defenses.
The management locations of all major ISPs in the country were posted and people
encouraged to investigate the policies being implemented locally. People could encircle
internet provider locations: are you for us, for democracy, or against us? and then take
appropriate actions.
Within days, six more worker assemblies were being scheduled at big city stadiums
around the country, and hundreds of similar events on smaller scales. Maybe those big
taxpayer-funded stadiums for the sports franchises were worth it after all; who would
have guessed democracy as an unintended consequence? After the Super Bowl travesty,
the mid-cap warriors went pro-active. They organized hundreds and thousands of
corporate groupies, gun clubs, fanatics for capitalism, fellow travelers for freedom and
other susceptibles to picket future stadium events and harass their fellow citizens who
were exercising freedom. Problem was, when many of these blackshirts went inside to
make trouble, they were shouted down and, worse, started to hear things that made sense;
some got infected.
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Awakenings 2 happened at Fenway Park in Boston. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO

brought in their own fighters emeritus for some history along with Howard Zinn, that
Chomsky guy, and Steffie Woolhandler, the country‟s expert on universal health care.
Congressman Barney Frank, fresh from the mortgage finance wars, and feeling a new
sea-breeze, expounded on what government could be like. Al Gore, sensing the timing
was right after the California trial, also got on board for a 20 min hell-raiser on his 10-yr
plan for a carbon-free America. Sometimes Al is a little slow and cautious. He now
supports universal/single payer health care; if he had when he ran for President, he‟d
have been our President despite Republican election fraud and more Floridian Democrats
voting for Bush than for Nader. It can happen: the people can win elections even when
there is massive election fraud against them – just look at Kenya or Zimbabwe. Speaking
next in Boston were the climate change people from Harvard, energy wonks from MIT,
and then the latest on the battle over the internet and what people could do about it from
some of the people who invented it. They had great visuals and music – even a brief
brush with a Beethoven romance from a Cambridge quartet. As occurred in California,
the people stayed. Participants from Vietnam-era teach-ins in the „60s briefly got lost in
reveries but then quickly rose to the challenge of teaching democracy to the younger
generations sitting beside them. People from Dollars and Sense, which started out as an
alternative fringe economics, ran the numbers and showed what the future could be like.
The Boston cops were on good behavior but watching carefully for signals from the
catcher; this was weird and totally unpredictable. It‟s one thing when a Federal judge
makes history in South Boston (school-bussing); it‟s another when the people do it, all
around you. Around Boston, GE was a prime target and the IUE guys from Lynn
Massachusetts, who for forty years had been showing GE employees the way forward,
were at the top of their game. Other targets were the hundreds of high tech spin-offs from
Harvard and MIT that had flourished on war research and empire technology for decades.
Students were organizing their own strikes, once again turning the institutions of higher
learning into institutions of learning. [IUE – International Union of Electrical Workers,
in the ‟50s a solid anti-communist cold-war ally of the ruling class]
3***
Watching history unfold, Julie from the St. Louis/Chicago team was getting both
delirious and distraught: They‟re going to attack one of these stadium events – it is so
obvious. They need a huge disaster to scare people back into fearful passivity and to
reverse this wave of mass disobedience growing up in the country.. Although most
people were still safely in the clutches of Fox News and the rightwing media masters,
they could see the cracks appearing. It would be so easy – just get some guy in a beer-
shirt to carry in a cooler full of high explosive, park it in a good location for TV
coverage, head off to the head after one of the big speakers, and never return. The spooks
could put one together in 5 min, with radio ignition and booby trapped if some one tried
to open it. Then they would say, “look, these terrorists are against all of us, see what
they‟ve done, those hideous criminals?”
The NAM consultations with FCC, FBI and NSA were coming to the same general
conclusion. After tip-toeing a few steps down the black bag path, they decided it was
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better to have a more obscure subcommittee take it from there. A subcommittee most of
them would never hear from again.
The next peoples‟ convocation coming up was in San Antonio. Julie got the HF Plan to
put security in the U.S. peoples‟ campaign at the top of their next phone conference
agenda. The discussion started to get off on some bad tangents: prohibit coolers, search
bags, the whole Homeland Security pathology, when Ari said: Hold-on guys; we‟re not
them. We don‟t do that. What we do is explain to the people the danger and where it‟s
coming from. Then we ask for their help. We make it very clear that something terrible
could happen – that‟s one of the things that occurs when you‟re doing the right thing –
the enemy acts like the enemy. They are absolutely ruthless, remember? We need to get
this discussion into the public sphere as soon as possible… (Julie:) We‟ll get in contact
with the San Antonio organizers right away and start some blog, tweatie and wiki
commentaries going. It may not be an easy sell: some union leadership have a paranoid
distrust of their own membership, let alone people off the street. The idea of disclosing a
pending danger and asking for mass-participation rather than fighting it behind closed
doors using “relationships” with the bosses will be new to them. They‟ll want to call up
the Justice Dept and FBI!!
4***
Awakenings 3 was moving forward quickly in San Antonio. Molly Spirens and several
others from LockheedMartin in Dallas were on the organizing committee, having
networked together the drowsy labor councils of Texas and Oklahoma and discovered a
sleeping giant. Farm workers were going to have a huge, enthusiastic contingent and
Spanish was to be a significant part of the spoken words. They got the Dixie Chicks for
free and when they performed, people almost started to cry. They got Jim Hightower and
Wendell Berry on sustainable agriculture. But on the afternoon before, the planning
committee almost self-destructed. Someone from St. Louis had called; they‟re working
on the Chicago event for next week. They said that we should understand that the forces
against us are getting desperate and could very plausibly carry out an attack on one of
these events in order to scare people away and destroy this whole movement for a new
America. They might bomb a stadium.. They gave some examples of how this has
happened before, something about the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago… After about
two seconds, twelve people were talking all at once… Maybe we should cancel!... Set-up
inspection of everyone coming in… Ask the State Police for surveillance… Have unions
issue invitation cards for members only… Molly couldn‟t believe what she was hearing.
Fortunately, some of this important debate had just started on the internet with input from
St. Louis, among other places. This was the scariest moment she could ever remember;
this whole thing could go down and there wasn‟t anyone she could count on for sure.
Then one of the older guys in nice cowboy boots said: Hey, if you‟re afraid of what they
might do, you shouldn‟t be here. How do you think we got here, got unions, got overtime,
got health care (well, used to have health care). Who do think stopped that insanity in
Vietnam? It wasn‟t George McBundy or whatever the fuck his name was from Harvard.
It was the Vietnamese people with help from a lot of decent, smart people in this
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country… Someone else: yeah, I just read somewhere about that Tonkin Gulf fraud;
Lyndon Johnson‟s guys invented this attack from some little fishing boat on the U.S.
Navy so they could start their air war on Hanoi… (Someone else:) I can remember some
contract fights where management was willing to do some pretty crazy things, confident
they wouldn‟t get caught… Yeah, some companies will stop at nothing; Coke-a-Cola‟s
been killing labor people down in Colombia, South America, for years; the oil companies
in Nigeria, Ecuador... ya, they basically do whatever they can get way with… They could
bomb a stadium, nodding..
The collaborationists came back: Well, we have a responsibility to protect our people and
if we can‟t assure their safety / there is no safety; you can lose your house, your job, your
life in Iraq… So,.. you‟d just go ahead with this thing and wait and see what happens?
(Molly:) Actually, there is a third way. We can explain publicly what the situation is and
why this is happening. We are challenging raw power and it‟s working. We can say we
want this event open to everyone who wants to join us. We can‟t stop some racist sicko or
secret agent from coming in, it‟s a risk we have to take. Of course, people should be
reasonably vigilant: if some guy goes off and leaves a cooler or backpack or something
we should be ready to clear a section and maybe, I don‟t know, throw sand bags on it or
something. Maybe we could propose a rule: if someone is about to go off leaving
something behind, the neighbors could reasonably request a peek inside. This isn‟t
Baghdad, you know, with suicide bombers,.. yet... OK, but if that‟s what you‟re going to
do.. it‟s all on you. I want this in writing. We‟re gonna have our counsel take a look at
this… (Someone:) Now there‟s labor solidarity for ya... (Someone else:) Come-on guys;
this is really important. No one is looking out for us anymore; if we don‟t stand up and
move forward, it‟s all over… I agree; I think people will understand what we‟re saying
and share our vision; they know there are risks, they watch TV news,.. sometimes. We
have to start something that people will want to take responsibility for and make
sacrifices for because it‟s their future… OK, but I‟m still gonna have to run this by my
exec board. (Molly:) Actually, it would be good to have this whole discussion on dangers
and security in your membership meetings. Some blank stares.. We‟re calling an
emergency meeting for our LM members on this but also to get thousands of people to
the stadium and drag the local media into it,.. the schools, the churches. We already have
69 buses going from Dallas.
5***
Nothing bad happened. The agents in the SUV with fogged windows on the freeway were
getting close to San Antonio with an unmarked State Police escort several cars back when
they got the call: Stand down. Abort. Bring the Coleman back disarmed. Too risky and
bad environment. Return to base. Plan B. The guys were relieved. This job had been
contentious and stressful. It‟s hard enough when a mission has self-evident rationale to
get things in place on a short time frame. This one wasn‟t self-evident, and these are guys
who sit around dreaming up outrageous criminal acts in case Dick calls up (or now,
Leon) and wants one done in the interests of “national security.” They did things that
ordinary people would go to prison for life for. The only down-side was, if they talked
about it, they wouldn‟t live long enough to get to prison. When the higher ups sent the
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task order down to Covert Operations, it required a little extra explanation. We‟re going
to bomb one of our stadiums filled with Americans? Sure, people are going on strike, the
economy is tanking, Iraq is breaking loose.. but whose the enemy behind this? Some of
these issues being raised are real; this is our response?... Normally these guys didn‟t think
too much about the bigger picture or about anything,.. but this wasn‟t normal. Several
layers of supervisory wisdom and coercion had to be called-in before the black baggers
were ready to move but still not happy… Damn, maybe we‟re working for the wrong
guys this time.
From the ashes of Bush-embarrassment, WorldCom lunacy and Enron greed, rose a new
Texas star that got the worried attention not only of ExxonMobil in Houston and the New
York committees but corporations everywhere, even aerospace execs. Some started
thinking their own hedge strategies: what technologies should we be looking into on
climate change or energy conservation after oil is over, or if peace breaks-out, hmmm…
The Bama was getting mad: I‟m the one supposed to be making changes, not mobs in
stadia ex parte. Damn! This is all wrong. What would Hillary do?
6***
Then there was Chicago – the new Cominski Park – and then New York City, and
Cleveland. Obscure labor history resources were suddenly in great demand: speakers,
visuals, clips, veterans of classic confrontations. And Chicago had lots of history.
Retirees from steel, meatpacking, manufacturing and railroads talked of past
confrontations. Norm from the St. Louis/Chicago HF team was asked to summarize the
big picture on climate change. Beth from Tel-Aviv had arranged the Norm invite through
old Communist Party contacts in California. Back in the „50s, the Party there had been
very creative in standing up to the witch-hunting McCarthy dogs and bullies from the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senate. And those guys called
and woke up their Chicago buddies. Two days before Cominski Park, the organizing
committee called a press conference and brought in union members from all over the city.
The event was held at Haymarket Square and it soon became clear why. At 3:00pm the
secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Central Labor Council stood before about 200 workers
and 25 media folks with cameras and quickly ran through the list of grievances plaguing
America, a list of things he said, we‟re going to fix. Then he brought up bombs and
stadiums. This got the attention of wandering minds fast. He explained how ruling classes
react when things don‟t go their way, giving some historical details from the obvious
example where they were standing, and pointed out that things aren‟t going their way
today in America. He said we will not be intimidated by murderous assaults; with the
American people, we will do what has to be done. We are doing what needs to be done.
Suddenly raucous applause for the first time and shouts and promises and threats. Union
rallies weren‟t usually this spontaneous. TV cameras became whirling dervishes trying to
catch the unexpected action. News anchors were hastily adding a second and third
paragraph on this expanding news item and nabbing people to interview. They were
calling for backup and up-sizing plans for the stadium coverage.
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In Cleveland, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, past candidate for President, helped pull
together the collective wisdom of the rust belt and expounded on the possibilities of
municipal power entities in energy conservation. But his greatest contribution had to do
with war: that despicable and ruinous tool of ruling-class domination. He could feel, for
once, a groundswell for justice and peace that could wash away the evil. People in the
audience who once laughed when Dennis said, as President, he would rename the
Defense Dept the Department of Peace, weren‟t laughing now. Lawyers Stoughton and
Alice Lynd brought some labor history and inspiration to the table and then described the
prison-industrial complex, the American Gulag, that most people know nothing about.
The Steelworkers in Cleveland and Pittsburgh were already on a roll. Like SEIU, their
national convention had endorsed single-payer health care, and, they had figured out that
surviving the future required hugging the environment. At the national level, the
steelworkers had made a strategic alliance with the Sierra Club, the people that brought
us the National Parks and were now on the leading edge of activism on climate change
and energy conservation. This Blue-Green Alliance had been shaking up the Dems in
some places by taking initiatives instead of waiting for the Party to exhibit signs of
intelligent life. In the Ohio Sierra Club Chapter there was this guy Ned Merc who knew
more about the economics and technology of energy production, efficiency and
conservation than any legislator, public utilities commissioner or utility exec. He was
usually unemployed.
7***
The labor movement didn‟t have to shut down Wall Street after-all; it was shutting itself
down. Trading was so out of control some days the NYSE had to pull the plug. The
programmed trading algorithms for the big funds were never designed to deal with mass
revolt and started making crazy decisions. Instabilities exploded from feedback loops
creating wild swings that even the most seasoned systems‟ traders couldn‟t keep up with.
Stock exchanges in Europe and Asia had already blocked trading in U.S. securities,
which wasn‟t that easy.
The work stoppages were spreading haphazardly. Rail, truck transport and air freight
were in the lead; unionized steel, coal and telecommunications were getting on board and
isolated outbreaks in non-union companies had appeared. Most workers had only heard
rumors and didn‟t exactly get the big picture: where was this going, how long would it
take. What if it doesn‟t work? In a lot of big companies, internal e-mail was spreading the
word. On the internet there were many elaborate sources of news on the rebellion but
following closely behind was a blizzard of misinformation and scare stories designed to
inspire conformity and good behavior.
Food production was staying strong. At one point the NYC bosses‟ committee launched a
plan to curtail food distribution hoping to generate scarcities and panic, but the workers
in the affected industries refused to go along. The UFCW union was really out in front on
that one. Some corporate offices in the food sector were surrounded or invaded when
managements exhibited a new-found interest in slow production and falling output.
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The crisis was creating interesting divisions and categories. Among Democratic Party
leadership an auto-triage developed. Most wanted to stop the revolt outright with
whatever savagery was required, but didn‟t know how. Some sought to update the co-
optation pathways, trying to quickly get savvy on the fierce currents sweeping the
country so they could inject new leadership back to nowhere with slogans like “change is
in the air, let‟s all pull together.” But there were some glimpses and sightings of the third
way: embrace the future, join the class struggle, and it wasn‟t just limited to the few
brave souls who appeared at the podium of an Awakening. In the first category were the
vile Blue Dogs, Dems who were really Republicans that missed a turn and ended up in
the wrong party. Bill Clinton was a hero although not quite one of them. Then there were
the lap dogs, like Kerry, Bidden, Hillary, Schumer, Dingelbat, and probably the Bama.
Actually, these were the lap top-dogs. Closely related were the laptop dogs; these were
the young MBAs and lawyers who were enthusiastic proponents of free markets,
deregulation and high tech adventure who never actually knew a party that was any
different. They didn‟t know any history either. The lap dogs were agents of the ruling
class just like the Blue Dogs, only usually a little nicer about it,.
For the shock-jocks on radio and TV, the calamitous drop in ratings produced not a triage
but more like a bi-age. They were betting either short or long: when will the ruling class
regain control of our system? The die-hards hung on to silly and laughable positions and
stoically watched themselves disappear. The swingers, droolling over the internet frolics,
fearlessly re-invented themselves as populists although they had some difficulty grasping
some of the basics like class solidarity, actual democracy, or the social basis of law. Jerry
Springer discovered that ordinary people are interested in the exercise of power in
between throwing chairs or relating personal sexual conundrums before 25 million
people. Oprah was confused. None of her brain trust saw this coming. They didn‟t know
which way to turn or to whom to offer money. The race angle was really complicated and
Colin Powell was no help at all. Charlie Thorn‟s late night TV interview show on PBS
kept trying to find interviewees that would inspire revulsion at the class warriors and their
dupes infecting America, but couldn‟t. Whenever the dialog took an unexpected turn
supporting the troublemakers, he would open up with both barrels, unleashing salvos of
questions to stifle any possibility of answers. It was like the time he interviewed
Chomsky; but Chomsky fired back with a GE Dual-Vulcan machine gun manufactured in
Burlington VT.
Local union leadership was a little more complicated, more like quadrage: 1) ignore
what‟s going on, 2) actively fight against labor rebellion with all the resources the nat‟l
union and county Democrats have to offer, 3) go along to get along, or 4) epiphanize:
discover something they may not have known was missing in their lives and
enthusiastically join a real workers‟ labor movement.
8***
In NYC, the executive committee of the committee on the present danger was caucusing
with Jim, Madeline, Henry and Zbig. (Jim Baker:) This is the situation you never want to
be in; the great error that W has made was pushing the envelope too far in too many
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places without adequate theoretical foundations, or contingency or exit plans. W never

was much good at business plans. Now we‟re in a very difficult position. Just about any
attempt to change the direction of this thing helps it grow… Henry Kissingher: Exactly.
We have to proceed very carefully so as to not make the situation worse, while at the
same time taking absolutely ruthless measures when appropriate, if necessary. Madeline
Alblight: There‟s got to be a way to rein-in the lower level leadership in the unions and
some of the local Democratic committees, I just can‟t see how to do it, and it‟s not just
unions, there are a lot of community groups springing up; we don‟t have operative
political or police infrastructure at that level. We‟ve lost control of the internet debate.
All of a sudden there are seemingly articulate challenges to our basic positions being
broadcast. The mortgage proposals are working to some degree but the energy issues are
still very preliminary with daunting financial complexities and international conflicts…
(Zbig Brzezinski, Bill Clinton‟s guy that cleverly armed the Taliban in Afghanistan
against the Russians): Yes, the pressure to resolve this at the global level just isn‟t there
yet in the boardrooms. However, with OPEC maybe we are seeing some movement. Of
course, if this paralysis goes on for very long and spreads to other regions, we may find
support for negotiating some significant changes. I just don‟t see how to get China on
board and, unfortunately, it will all be very public with intense scrutiny by
knowledgeable people all around the world.
Harold from Goldman and Robert Rubane from CitiGroup tried to sum things up. They
looked tired with dingy clothes and facial stubble. The emergency meeting of national
union leadership convened by the DNC had not been productive. Half the major unions
stayed away and the ones that showed had few ideas on how to regain the initiative with
their members; they were looking to the Dems for answers, as always. A proposal to
bring together a bipartisan assembly of public officials to hear grievances from the
nation‟s labor leaders was met with curious frowns. The world as they knew it had gone
away. [DNC – Democratic National Committee]
The mid-cap warriors were a little more subdued. It‟s complicated. Some had been
engaging in introspection, examining their roots. Others had been talking with their elders
and friends. The bravado thing wasn‟t working very well and they needed new ideas.
There didn‟t seem to be any good solutions. This wasn‟t like the usual war where you
work hard, get other people to make huge sacrifices, and then win. This was, well, class
war, and sometimes you just don‟t win everything… Well, actually, we didn‟t win in
Vietnam either,.. or Korea,.. or Iraq.. except maybe later.
6. Expanding Debate
1***
Discussion of “global demands” at Washington University had attracted a lot of attention

from both sides, especially with the internet presence. The local Young Republicans club
at the U was approached to play an important role in trying to halt this plague. A public
forum was announced and Norm and Julie were invited to participate along with some
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other university faculty as well as some prominent local business leaders, including
members of the Board of Trustees. The format was to have 10 min presentations by
several speakers including Norm and Julie, followed by a panel discussion. It was widely
publicized and had full media hook-ups locally. A strategy had been worked out in detail
by the Young Repubs, their handlers from DC, and local affiliates. First there would be
some presentations on the mortgage crisis (blame the victims) and energy issues (you
bought those cars), and then, make the convergence of those issues with the missile
demands. The coup de grace would follow: “Why are you dignifying and legitimizing
this whole collection of demands from a terrorist organization that has invaded our
country, rejected our democratic process and is engaged in brutal extortion?” It seemed
like a slam-dunk. When word of the St. Louis forum spread among the DC fixer crowd,
somebody suggested making this a national town meeting so they could skewer these
suckers on nation-wide TV. Karl-Rove sharks were hired to help.
Norm, Julie and by now a sizeable group of fellow-travelers met to discuss the response
to this challenge. The Plan had earlier talked about it and was confident that their St.
Louis comrades would handle it well. This was a gift-horse with a mouth, but it would
take some skill to nuance it to maximum advantage. First they asked for a little more
balance: one more speaker for radical energy change, and one fewer from the business
phalanx. Then, they said there should be room for questions from the floor, having people
line-up at open mikes. The right didn‟t like this at all and was ready to shout no-way
when the university facilitator from the Dean‟s Office said that was entirely in keeping
with the university‟s commitment to free and open discourse, and of course there should
be questions from the audience. Perhaps the event should run a little longer to
accommodate them. The rightists had to cave but consoled themselves with images of
long lines of clean shaven or smartly clad individuals jumping up to ask the right
questions. Might take a little preparation, though.
Publicity filled the auditorium. The first speakers threw out technical details mixed with
admonishments for bad behavior and pessimism, but when Norm‟s turn came he painted
the big picture in energy, climate, agriculture, and workers‟ rights; the challenges facing
the American people as long as private corporations are calling the shots. That was
exactly the blasphemy the right had been waiting for and they jumped right in with a guy
from the Business School.
How come you‟re asking for almost exactly the same things those terrorists want? With
these complaints you are dignifying and legitimizing this whole constellation of demands
from a terrorist organization that has invaded our country, utterly rejected our democratic
process and the rule of law under our Constitution, and is engaged in brutal extortion by
mass murder? And now the whole country is sinking!
Instead of wilting under this withering assault, with bright lights and cameras zooming in,
Norm calmly replied: If we had democracy here, we would never have invaded Iraq; the
majority of our people very sensibly opposed it, unlike our so-called “leaders.” We would
have securities regulation that would never have permitted the mortgage bubble in the
first place; people don‟t really want to own homes they can‟t afford. We‟d have publicly
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funded universal health care like most other countries, like most American‟s have stated
they want here… Before the creep could reply, Norm went on: You don‟t have
democracy when half of the people don‟t vote, for obvious reasons. When both parties
conspire to exclude new parties, when it‟s winner-take-all representation, when both
parties are bought and paid for by big money and then work closely with your lobbyists
to get the laws right. We don‟t have democracy when organizations like NAM or AIPAC,
to mention two good examples but there are hundreds of others, can run good candidates
out of office by financing opposing primaries. We don‟t have political parties with long-
term solutions that are in the vast majority‟s interest as opposed to short-term return-on-
investment for private wealth. And now we‟re paying the price, a very steep price, for not
having democracy. This country is facing grave threats to our well-being and we, the
people, have had almost no control over what gets done,.. until maybe now...
At NAM (fifth floor), at Republican Party headquarters, and in NYC the rulers sipping
their scotch or martinis were watching but, as it progressed, were not liking what they
were hearing; it was suddenly going very badly, word by word.. Shut it down!! Shut that
ASSHOLE OFF! Who the hell organized this thing, the terrorists? Calls to NBC, to FCC,
to St. Louis... Shut it down? Why?,.. the technicians asked,.. it‟s a good picture, good
debate, that guy makes sense.., oh...
It mostly didn‟t get shut down. The network execs were divided and a little offended.
They have some standards. One of the other speakers, a progressive faculty member that
Julie didn‟t know very well, took over: I can‟t believe you had the nerve to mention our
Constitution; do we still have one? I suppose you agree with military tribunals of
“unlawful combatants,” torture, “extraordinary rendition,” extrajudicial executions,
unlimited wiretapping, the corruption of the judiciary, not to mention criminal
prosecution of undocumented workers... Changing the subject, another panelist fired
back: So, it would appear you approve of firing missiles at people and meetings to get
your way? Is that your democratic process?... (Julie:) A very important discussion has
developed in this country and around the world, well, most of it, .. and I‟m sorry and
embarrassed that it took missiles aimed at some powerful rich people by some unknown
int‟l gang to make it happen. By the way, these people – the targets of the missiles – seem
to be very happy to use these same weapons against the people they disagree with. They
do it all the time. No, this is not how public debate and decision-making should proceed.
It‟s despicable. Is it worth it? We‟ll have to wait and see what changes, won‟t we? The
President of Hope and Change doesn‟t seem to be on our page, does he?
The rightists were sputtering and losing badly. Another panelist took a wild swing, this
time with the anti-communist thing that used to work so well: You people are pawns of
some organization, probably communists, out to destroy our way of life... (Julie:)
Actually if it weren‟t for “the communists” we probably wouldn‟t have gotten industrial
unions or a civil rights movement in this country when we did. The people who called
themselves communists made some serious mistakes that allowed them to be destroyed
by the right wing in post WWII America, but that‟s a long discussion for another day.
There was a time when “communist” to some people meant tied to the Soviet Union.
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Which sort of communists did you have in mind?… Mumbles and inarticulation,
betraying ignorance.
Finally, one of the panelists, an industrialist and member of the university Board of
Trustees, made a valiant and respectable effort to recover some ground... One of the great
features of our America is the extent to which efficient market mechanisms have
allocated resources for optimum growth and prosperity. There are disagreements on
exactly what regulations need govern these markets and these can be settled in an
appropriate way among honorable men – ah.. people – but we do seem to have arrived at
an important juncture. The climate issue is new and there may be some valid concerns
regarding global trade and energy. I just hope that we can all work together in defining
solutions that will preserve our..ah.. very successful country, way of life... Norm asked
gently: Would you then support changes in our laws to favor more diverse political
parties and to eliminate the enormous influence of private money in our political
process?... Well,.. yes, to some extent. Of course one of our advantages compared to
Europe has been stability – we don‟t have governments changing every other month or
so.. and as to influence, it is important to maintain access for the people most
knowledgeable about our economy, our institutions and technology and so forth... For the
ruling class? Norm suggested, smiling with eyebrows raised.
Many from the audience were seeking elaboration from Norm, Julie and their allies, or
challenging the keepers of the status quo directly. Several questions from a right-wing
perspective provided further platforms for debate and revelation. Some of the rightists
were starting to understand why Karl Rove always insists on “captive, invited
audiences;” really makes a difference.
2***
Members of the New York HF team had watched the St. Louis town meeting on a large
screen at a public showing in a Hunter College auditorium in Manhattan. About 250-300
people stayed for discussion afterward. Many of them had been to the NY stadium event
and were very engaged in what happened tonight on this national stage. They weren‟t
disappointed at all, but this communist thing was unexpected and had some people
perplexed. So after talk on energy conservation and financial regulations, some youngster
stood up and asked: Could somebody explain what the communist party is? Do we have
one? What do they do?... The crowd was pretty mixed and included 10 or 15 folks that
maybe were alive in the 1930s or „40s. There were some student activists who had
studied the classics and others who taken a course that touched on U.S. political history
from one or another vantage point. A young faculty member, probably in history or
political science, started in on a socio-diarama giving numbers of members in what years
and who was the leader and what cities were they in when the questioner interrupted / but
what did they do? What was their strategy?... While the professor was trying hard to
compile an answer, a woman in long grey hair at the back of the hall stood up and said:
My parents were in the Party in the late „30s, and I joined in 1963. The CP was an
attempt to organize the working class against capital, against the powerful and rich that
then, as now, ran America.. and most of the world. Communists were people who
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understood class power, who fought against injustice everywhere and devoted their lives
to building a new social order. My mother helped organize the women garment workers
of this city into the ILGWU which brought them out of sweatshop servitude to decent
wages, dignity and respect.. until their jobs went south to the Carolinas. My dad fought
racism and mob domination on the docks.. until they killed him in 1951. The Party had a
huge following in this city in the late „30s and „40s, we were electing Borough
Councilmen, they were creating a working class power base,.. but there were problems.
Like that young woman said tonight, mistakes were made. Some really important things
they just didn‟t get right.. I‟ve spent a good deal of my life trying to sort this all out. I‟m
really glad these questions are being asked.. but I don‟t want to monopolize this
discussion so I‟ll stop now… People were turned around in their seats squinting and
studying this apparition. Here was someone who knew profound things about their city
that they had never heard before. They didn‟t want her to stop but didn‟t know what
question to blurt out. The HF shooters knew some of this stuff from books but had never
seen a live one. Recognizing the need to keep this dialog going, one of them jumped up
trying to think of a good question on the way: Well.. what happened? With all that
support in the city, winning elections, what went wrong?... The elder looked out across
the eager faces querying permission to continue, and got it…Well, there were a couple of
really important things.. Where to begin.. A lot of it had to do with some sort of naiveté;
people were really excited about what was happening in the Soviet Union.. a workers‟
party had brought down the Czar, Russian feudalism, and was creating a workers‟ state.
But it seemed like a desperate situation. First they came under attack from the capitalist
European countries and then they were sacrificed to the Nazis.. they lost 26 million
people in WWII. The U.S. Party didn‟t understand that the best defense of workers in the
USSR was to build a strong working class political base in this country. And that lapses
in human rights in the USSR were not a passing oversight or temporary necessity but a
fundamental, fatal flaw.. For 10 yrs the Party had been patiently constructing
organizations in this country to fight for workers‟ rights, creating massive industrial
unions in steel, auto, coal.. and fighting Jim Crow – racism – especially in the South. But
then suddenly they decided that defense of the USSR was more important. Of course
their Soviet comrades were more than enthusiastic consultants in this decision. It was an
enormous error. Workers slaving in factories for war production while the bosses were
raking in the dough, were abandoned, told to stop defending themselves, ignore racism,
support the bosses‟ war efforts at all cost: it was called “the no-strike pledge.” People in
the South who were taking courageous stands for racial equality and justice had the rugs
pulled out from under them and were left to the dogs. It was a huge betrayal and the end
of the CP. After the war, the ruling class pounced. They had seen the threat we posed to
the political hold of private capital in America and made it Job One to exterminate us. By
then, our base was in shambles; abandoned, demoralized and scared.. That‟s what she
meant, about McCarthyism – they cleaned out the unions, the schools, the neighborhoods,
all levels of government. Anyone with ties to the CP – “fellow travelers,” progressives in
any kinds of organizations, were called enemies of the state, conspiring to “overthrow the
government by force.” They lost their jobs, got hauled in before grand juries, forced to
identify their friends, thrown in jail. And just to make sure people got the message, they
electrocuted the Rosenbergs, with graphic full-page pictures of the act in Life magazine.
Unfortunately, the Party‟s response to this assault again showed their errors. A lot of
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people pleaded the 5th when they should have gone on the offensive, used the public
attention to show who these inquisitors really were, waged class war. In California, the
Party actually did that and it worked quite well, but it was too little, too late..
Looking back, I think people didn‟t comprehend some very basic requirements that a lot
of us now understand about this thing called democracy. It was kind of new in those days.
The Party was pretty much top-down, secretive even when they didn‟t need to be, and
arrogant (and sexist). A lot of Party intellectuals actually thought they were smarter than
the capitalist government and if they could just sneak their way in – it was called
“burrowing from within” – they would be able to change things for the better from inside.
They wanted to join Roosevelt‟s team, thinking he was on the side of workers and ready
to defeat the Nazi machine that was devouring the USSR.. Really naïve, as we now
know. So the charges that they were a secret organization trying to influence power were
partly true! Of course, it‟s OK for the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers
Association, the National Association of Manufacturers (what‟s left of them, giggles),
the NRA, the Mormon Church or the Zionist mafia to do exactly the same things (and
I‟m a Jew!).. chuckles.. Well,.. thank you for your interest in this.. I‟m getting a little
tired… But, people couldn‟t stop. The moderator suggested that the discussion continue
but maybe some others could contribute some history and insight. Now that the ice was
broken on the c-word, lots of other folks stepped up with questions, mysteries and
answers until nearly midnight when the custodial workers finally invaded with their
brooms.
The HF guys were impressed. We have to figure out how to grow this dialog. Everyone
can learn things from these people. I never knew about the „40s here… Yeah, wow, what
a great treasure. There‟s probably a lot more of them out there.
[ILGWU – Independent Lady Garment Workers Union, one of the several unions that
survived as UNITE HERE until recently]
3***
As part of its strategy to keep them off-balance, the Plan decided to hit NY again: this
time the target was Richard Crasso, the creep that was paid $139 million for sprucing up
the NY Stock Exchange; the guy Gov. Spitzer tried to nail before he tripped on his own
shenanigans of a different kind. It wasn‟t easy to find out where this guy lives, although
you could rule-out 99.994% of possibilities without even looking. People in his circles
had become reticent about discussing their domiciles but pride and bragging often broke
down barriers and after breaching only two degrees of separation, a Plan guy found
someone who knew, in a Wall Street bar full of unhappy traders.
Another target suggested itself: the corporate headquarters of ExxonMobil. This was a
slight deviation: going after a symbolic site rather than specific individuals, although,
they might get lucky and have both. ExxonMobil had been raking in windfall profits on
the pain of the American people and laughing all the way to the bank. “We need these
profits to incentivize increasing production,” they said. Wow, if ever a smackdown was
needed.. It seemed that CEOs generally still had an attitude problem. So ExxonMobil
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statements from the past year were retrieved and some Houston architecture studied. The
HF camera in the U.S. needed to be transported back to NYC from DC, and then a long
drive to Houston. This was really getting tedious and expensive.
4***
The American economy was verging on free-fall. For the ruling class, the intensive and
so far futile search for the missile shooters now seemed a secondary priority compared
with work stoppages and the spread of this cancerous debate. Congressional Committees
were hastily arranging hearings on the crisis. The judicial oversight committee demanded
a legal strategy from Justice Department officials to stop the slide, to identify the
workers‟ leaders, organizations and means of communication, and prosecute under
emergency powers. House and Senate committees dealing with labor unions were grilling
labor leaders under oath about their treasonous activities. The problem was that almost all
of these labor leaders could make a fairly convincing case that they were not leading this
thing; it was welling up from below from hundreds of locals. Some said they had tried
putting wayward locals in trusteeship (legally removing elected leaders) but it made no
difference, the members stayed with the leaders they liked, and worse, more locals joined
the revolt. Some of the usually placid and fawning union leaders were getting irritated at
being blamed for the situation and began firing back: What‟s with this war you people
voted and continue to pay for? Did it ever occur to you that global so-called “free” trade
was going to decimate American industry, the working class? Where have you been for
25 yrs on energy conservation when the rest of the industrialized world was doing
something about it? And tax cuts for the rich? For the criminals that have vandalized
America? Give me a break! Are you people totally bought by these guys? All that AFL-
CIO campaign money meant nothing??
CNN coverage was getting more exciting with each passing day. Not only was testimony
documenting the basic core complaints, intentionally or not, serious Congressional
opposition was beginning to surface. Previously unheard-from Congresspeople were
starting to say things that didn‟t match the DNC script only, this time, on the people‟s
side. Startling proposals were appearing like: immediate withdrawal from the Persian
Gulf, nationalize the mortgage industry, publicly funded universal health care because we
can‟t afford not to, negotiate a world energy protocol on climate change and
conservation. The stay-the-course advocates of traditional capital were sinking into
irrelevance. A new Congressional caucus appeared; they called it the “Party‟s Over
Caucus” and the people joining it included not only the usual suspects like Barbara,
Dennis and the closet radicals emerging inside the Democratic Party, and Bernie Sanders
from VT, but even a few Republicans who had finally slipped their moorings. Proposed
legislation was starting to be drafted by dedicated-to-the-people law-makers, not
corporate lawyers and lobbyists!
Probably the most contentious and urgent debate concerned regulation of internet content.
The House oversight committee on telecommunications was hoping to quickly upgrade
Homeland Security legislation to enable rapid responses to eliminate all traffic pertaining
to activities that “threaten the national interest.” They came in with draft language
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worked out with Google/AOL, Verizon and ATT, and of course, FCC consulting with
FBI, NSA and DHS. Not only was this a solid frontal attack on the Constitution, people
also immediately recognized what this would do in the current case of the ruling class vs.
the American people. There was a national audience of 15 million and overflow crowds
at the hearing itself. The nerds were allied with street-fighters for labor rights and
constitutional lawyers and some new-found allies in Congress. They were unstoppable.
The oversight committee gorillas were almost ready to conclude that it was time to go
straight to Plan D: martial law, suspend major parts of the Constitution and declare war
on the forces of evil ravishing America. Threats and counter-threats appeared live in
televised repartee. The internet defenders openly described the measures that they and
many others will take if the channels of free communication in the internet are
compromised, measures that will effectively bring the entire economy to a standstill. The
CWA communication and IBEW electrical workers unions in the audience were nodding
in agreement, and they had friends in other telecom companies that weren‟t unionized.
Over at CIA, FBI, NSA and DOD there were people watching this debate who knew a
real threat when they saw one, and they were seeing one. It wasn‟t from a foreign
country, or from home-grown agents of a foreign country either, it was from.. some of us,
a lot of us, possibly most of us. This was new territory. Some were thinking, maybe the
corporate model is.. well.. over?
5***
The Plan was discussing Demands-3 and accompanying commentary. They decided to
begin with a report card on U.S responses to the critical issues of our times:
Mortgage/finance: C-
Energy policy: C+
Middle East War: F-
Climate change: E+
Democracy: D-
Israel: D double -
It wasn‟t a good report but they welcomed EU initiatives on protecting food production
from encroaching energy consumption and of course, conservation efforts. But Al Gore‟s
call for a 10yr crash program to make energy in America carbon-free was a good place to
start.
Demands-3 was very explicit: hands off the internet, “hackers of the world unite, we have
everything to lose; period.” Get with the new movement to cut the ruling classes down to
size in all countries. The commentary for the first time delved into strategy for class
warfare in the current crisis. It pointed out that selective missile attacks on the rulers
won‟t by themselves lead to change; these are mere pin-pricks that ruling class solidarity
will weather handsomely. Comprehensive economic and policy changes driven by an
aroused working class was the one threat that ruling classes take seriously and fear. The
people have to pick up the ball and run with it. It will be difficult for many working
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people to survive this storm and we must help each other and join the assault on the rich;
it is our only chance to escape the devastation that these rulers are bringing us.
Hoping for wide distribution of Demands-3, and seeking authentication at a time when
bogus messages of unknown origin were competing for peoples‟attention, the Plan added
at the end that another hit was about to take place, soon, this one aimed at another
personification of theft-enabling, to be followed by a hit on one of the prime examples of
corporate parasitism in America.
6***
The Dick Crasso clan had a floor on one of those old-looking modern towers in lower
Manhattan near Battery Park; he liked to walk to work. It was like The Barkley in The
New York Times Magazine ads. The HF team set up in Brooklyn on top of an old
abandoned factory where workers used to make a living. It was a good perch and they
could hang out for a few days if necessary; they were hoping to catch some elegance in
nighttime entertaining. Then on Friday around 7:30 pm it started happening. It was a
beautiful night. From the 49th floor terrace the gathering party-goers were sharing the
blood-red sun sinking behind the misting NJ hills, and darkness creeping in from the
Atlantic with a light chilling breeze. Airliners in and out of Kennedy and Newark and
freighters on the waters below were silently going about their duties without needing
supervision. The Statue of Liberty was reliably present but not too obvious, reassuring
the anxious rich in these very worrisome times. The service staff were flitting like
humming birds; hopefully they would withdraw at some point in between hors d‟heurves
and dinner. Or maybe we should wait till after dessert and aperitifs when most of the
servers would have gone, restoring complete ruling class privacy. They had tried to
identify the Crasso‟s caterer but that was like asking for bank records.
At 10:15 pm HF 18 streaked across the shallows, over Governor‟s Island, and rose to
extinguish the party. The trajectory was quite noticeable so the HF team had planned a
very quick getaway, everyone running down 5 flights of unlit stairs each with their own
piece of HF hardware to the waiting van. Just to be safe, another of the team had started
shooting off some fireworks to provide some cover from an adjacent pier a few minutes
before the HF departed. A particularly noisy and flashy rocket went up right at 10:15.
Then across the way at the southern tip of Manhattan, high up on one of those vertically
extended dark castles, bright flashes and little slivers of light or fire or something seemed
to be climbing.
If the Bankfine hit was a little too subtle, the people got it with the Crasso hit. That
expensive and successful court fight to hang onto his 139 mil had gotten a lot of press.
His balding “I-got-mine” smile was seen by millions of colleagues and victims.
7***
The Plan released some detail on Zimbabwe to progressive media in neighboring states
immediately before the planned attack and also to some e-lists provided by the SA
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activists. The focus was on the post-HF transition. In the new government, former
members of the police and army should come to work if willing to participate in a
professional non partisan defense of the public peace and testify in truth commissions;
otherwise we‟re going to get you. People: take notes and pictures. Same for prosecutors,
judges.
The Plan had contact with one person inside the Mugabee administratiion, an economist
the government needed and who kept waiting for disaster to somehow turn. He reported
on meetings of the inner circle, where internal security received heavy emphasis.
The Plan team rented a Land-Rover in South Africa and did some nice touring on the way
north. They found a modest private villa owned by a reliable family 3 miles from
Government House. Election 2 had been much more successful for Mugabee than the
previous one, by using the “upstream strategy” – total intimidation of voters, beating and
jailing opposition candidates and extinction of any democratic illusions. Focus now was
on cleansing the state organs of any lingering disloyalties, and rewards for the faithful.
Last on today‟s cabinet meeting agenda was this strange new communication originating
with those missile shooters in the Middle East. The Mugabee clique was in the midst of
actually handing out import licenses and allocating aid management monopolies when
HF 19 arrived across the dewey formal gardens and parking spaces of elegant
automobiles. It came through the balcony screen doors and hellfire swept right up the
enormous tropical hardwood conference table to embrace Mr. Mugabee and, along the
way, his sycophants of misery. There was almost no tyranny left to try in court.
The cops were hesitant, circumspect, almost polite sometimes. The army was MIA and
AWOL. The blackmarket price of army uniforms when from a lot, to zero, and then to
less than zero; soldiers were burning them. The opposition parties, given one day‟s
formal notice (and two weeks private notice in select cases) were ready for the challenge,
and proposed measures to establish a different kind of security and begin the long march
back to basic rights and prosperity. The people were dazed and it took a little while to be
sure they weren‟t watching some American made-for-TV special, but the dramatic sea-
change in official thug behavior was very convincing. They ventured into the streets with
smiles and partying although there was little to eat. They started writing lists of names
and taking pictures..
In South Africa the Mugabee hit sparked covert crisis management. The government
immediately offered food aid hoping those people would forget its long toleration of this
band of thugs. They put out the usual platitudinous drivel about restoring democracy and
the rule of law, as though it were the people‟s fault it went missing. They started looking
around for little items to place in the store front to show things were different and much
better in SA. The Communist Party of the late Joe Slovo – husband of murdered activist
Ruth First, long-time friend of Nelson Mandela, an immigrant Jewish guy from Lithuania
who played an epic, astounding, unbelievable role in bringing down apartheid – was
ready with some bigger items needing attention. Along the way, they pulled together the
stats on the new ruling class of South Africa, which was no longer lilly white, definitely
oreo. Normally the media would have known what to do without hesitation but they had
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been watching events in the U.S.. they were thinking hedge and so a little real public
debate happened and the legislature began to tilt a little in new directions. COSATU, the
SA labor federation had jumped in immediately to help their brothers and sisters from
Zimbabwe and now was ready to run with the ball in SA.
[COSATU – Congress of South African Trade Unions]
8***
The Israel-after-60 yrs conference sequel went really well. A lot of people worked very
hard to pull it off. Ari spent almost all his leave-time for a month on it and Rachel and
Beth were doing nothing else outside of work. A lot of it was negotiations with fence-
sitters who were reluctant to take the plunge, risking careers and friends. Most of the
hard-core opposition – the establishment thinkers who sustain the Central Dogma –
would have nothing to do with it even though they were offered prime-time slots to
defend their positions; but some came. Naomi got into it, especially the last sessions on
where-do-we-go-from-here, but of course couldn‟t be publicly visible as a civilian IDF
employee. She provided some information on IDF contingency plans and past
involvements around the world that were not widely known. Aaron got some colleagues
involved who helped get some live media coverage and a thorough electronic record. A
lot of Israeli Arabs were very enthusiastic and some Palestinian academics were also able
to attend. Hamas was represented somehow and Hezbollah was carefully watching from a
distance.
The mainstream Israeli media were still dwelling on Prime Minister Olmert‟s fall from
grace and George W‟s lost legacy on “Middle East peace,” despite Condi having raced
everywhere. At the conference, discussions were happening that might actually change
something. It took a lot of tugging to separate personal family historical tragedies from an
objective calculus of justice, collective self-interest and feasibility but considerable
consensus developed for exploring the OSS – one state solution. A joint Palestinian-
Israeli Peoples‟ Conference was proposed that would attempt to negotiate what the OSS
transition would look like – somebody‟s gotta do it. The meeting participants
enthusiastically took ownership. They would seek a friendly venue, perhaps in Jordan,
France or Lebanon, with technical support from wherever it would come.. maybe even
Saudi oil money or Soros loot. The Israeli government and media of course ignored this
silly idea or mocked it, but lots of people weren‟t laughing.. on either side of the borders
or walls. Most Washington deciders never heard much about it.
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Chapter Five
Up the Down Escalator, Changing Course, or, New Day on Earth
1. Reconstruction Re-visited
1***
The Green Zone hits were the straw that broke the camel‟s back, actually backs; several
camels went down. Taliban and Al Qaeda rank and file had been struggling to understand
this HF phenomenon from the very beginning. It didn‟t quite fit anywhere in their world
schematic. And it was working. New recruits were wondering if they had signed-up with
the right organizations. Suicide was looking less attractive – they wanted to wait and see
what happened next; forget the virgins and all that stupid memorization. Dubai was
spectacular – these missile guys were taking on the Islamic infidels and their associates
and not because they were Christians or Jews, but because they were going after the
world‟s capitalist bosses, the supreme commanders of greed and exploitation. They were
talking about global problems and global solutions that ordinary people in Pakistan,
Afghanistan,.. everywhere, needed. Women training for suicide missions in Iraq said:
Wait a minute, maybe there‟s another way.. The Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership
huddled in their secret places in Pakistan and Afghan, feeling like they could lose the
whole enchilada, in their own backyard! Potential recruits were making innocent
enquiries about how to contact those other guys. Local remnants of progressive
alternatives who had been hiding for years, decades, said: We don‟t know, but we don‟t
have to wait to meet them; we can start to be them.. and they‟ll find us.
In Iraq it was the signal for the secularists to rise again. The old communists and their
friends shook off their depression and started networking with a new list of principles.
The missile debate had inspired hope and creativity. Working with the frustrated and
oppressed labor unions, they started neighborhood organizations that confronted the
crazies with ultimatums of their own, like: get with our class-based program or get outta
here. They infiltrated the fraudulent Iraqi Sunni “Awakening” groups organized by U.S.
military social engineers and got them on a different track. Another Hezbollah syndrome
but without the Koran. They could keep their Koran, just don‟t bring it to meetings.
Suddenly the foreign occupiers seemed vulnerable, and not just to their own missiles.
They kept bragging about how well Iraqi police and military forces were doing on
security, so why not leave?.. right now. Close your bases and, by the way, forget those
agreements on oil, and we want all our $80 billion in oil money bank assets released. You
can leave quietly or we can make it ugly. The internet dialog surged up again and soon
the print media and TV were taking a peak. Even the top Iraqi collaborators were feeling
a draft and thinking hedge. Meetings of high-level administrators were being scheduled
that the desert suits in beige boots didn‟t know about. Attendance picked up in the Iraqi
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parliament. Change was in the air. Mossad was alarmed. These were yet another network
that they didn‟t have well mapped in their actionable surveillance systems and those
systems were starting to disintegrate. They called up Washington. No answer. Other
problems.
In Canada, involvement in Afghanistan was never popular. Canadians were dying, but
even worse, kept getting caught up in missile-massacres of Afghans that didn‟t fit the
picture of liberation and nation-building. Canadians didn‟t like being pressured into the
legions of the “willing” for cleaning up post-colonial devastation on an American agenda,
so, as soon as hints of rising secular governing appeared in that Iraq, making demands for
withdrawal and fair global trade, people turned to Parliament for action, and got it. The
Bama was miffed: How can I bring democracy to Afghanistan without an army? Without
boots on the ground? We can‟t do everything with missiles. This is a people problem.
2***
Jim in Baghdad Station was not seeing these as bad developments. He had already begun
sharing data and opinions with some Iraqi colleagues who trusted him. Some of the plans
for permanent installations and shared intel networks that were not public made their way
to activist parliamentarians. Also, some of the small print in the oil law and contracts
being signed with Big Oil and in myriad other “agreements” forged by the occupiers got
passed along.
Iraj came in for another debriefing. They weren‟t quite as congenial this time, the Green
Zone massacre still weighing heavily on Jim. Additionally he had actually lost a friend in
the communications tower, which he mentioned to Iraj. This was going to be difficult.
Iraj said he was very sorry, with genuine sorrow, staying silent for a minute and thinking
about other random acts of blind incendiary injustice. Iraj had had lengthy discussion
with Ben, Beth, Ari and Stash and had a full agenda to explore. Finally Iraj asked what
effect this had had on U.S. commitments. Jim said he didn‟t really know; there was a
great deal of confusion and uncertainty at the moment; the U.S. ship of state appears to be
somewhat rudderless. He had heard some of the generals talking about staging areas and
prioritizing critical equipment removal and most offensive operations were on hold. The
Iraqi forces were being a lot less cooperative than usual, preferring to wait and see. Some
other countries were exploring calling for a regional conference not dominated by the
coalition of the “willing,” to plan for future security arrangements and economic
cooperation. Iraj wondered whether a Plan B was in a formative stage within U.S. ruling
circles: Is anyone proposing fundamental policy shifts in empire, trade or energy? (Jim:)
The analyses circulating inside the Company are hinting various options but nothing
concrete has yet appeared. There‟s a lot of strategizing and speculating going on, and
some maneuvering. It‟s a pretty complicated empire calculation now that Russia is
standing up for itself and all the other changes going on in India, China, Brazil..
everywhere. Lots of shifting alliances and blowing sand… We think the global
discussion is progressing rather well but we‟re having resource problems. The Demands
are not being widely enough disseminated or publicly debated.. We were wondering if
you have any funds you could send our way, like, for my services, perhaps?.. Jim was
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thinking about the ramifications, not the least of which would be gaining some leverage
in extracting information from these doers but also, an opportunity to perhaps influence
their choices? The lights flickered and went out. (Jim:) We‟re having power problems –
dependent on the Baghdad grid at the moment,.. with a wry smile. Then the rusting
Koehler diesel emergency generators kicked-in, sort of, belching black smoke. Should
have gone with Caterpilar.
Iraj explained that the Plan needed to set up a secure sat phone system within his
company that would be paid for from some reliable legitimate foreign source. Perhaps
make it look like a CIA or IDF activity. Studying Jim, he added: Our current
communication system has limitations… What would you be using it for?. Iraj explained
that the HF team had constant communication for planning but needed to get more
involved in local activities in all the countries where the debate on global policies and
restricting ruling class power is taking place: There are people coming forward that we
would like to be able to coordinate and share perspectives with. Hopefully at some stage
things will mature to the point where we are not needed. The terrorist attacks on the
rulers are a limited and blunt instrument without concomitant public discourse and
popular movements on the fundamental issues... Jim nodded: Let me think about this. I
need to assess things within this organization. Some new guy could come along and want
to know what all this stuff is… Iraj nodded: I‟m impressed with your courage and
fundamental grounding in principles that progressive people share. We are working hard
to make a new world on those principles and we know well the pain that continues…
They got up. (Jim:) Come back as soon as you can and we‟ll talk some more.. looking at
each other with sad determination.
3***
The HF team discussed their objectives and concluded that the ExMobe hit was really
going to have value primarily as a media event, a palpable assault on a giant corporate
monster that had been mauling America. It needed to generate the most dramatic and
searing images. Breaking with all precedent, they decided to tip-off the media that
ExxonMobil was going to be hit in 5 minutes: get your visuals. It seemed like mid-
morning on a bright sunny weekday would be ideal. They also arranged to have all the
major divisional offices in the building called 5 minutes before, urging evacuation of all
staff. The IDF sat phone system they had could originate recorded calls that were
untraceable.
The launch was mapped out along a straight stretch of freeway starting about 4 ½ miles
away at a shopping mall parking structure. At that hour, the top level was always empty
and there was no surveillance camera coverage behind the elevator mechanical room. It
was also on the base-leg of the standard landing approach to Houston Int‟l Airport, so the
launch could be coordinated with a noisy aircraft. After the launch they would wait
several hours – maybe get lunch, catch a movie, do some shopping – before moving the
launch vehicle, when there was other traffic in the parking structure. They had a fake
Texas license plate just in case.
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4***
Work stoppages were growing and escalating, either because of labor actions, shortages
in parts, or lack of energy and transport. People were being forced to take vacation time.
Some workers who were not quite ready to walk-out on their own were relieved to be
able to participate in this grand experiment without directly confronting their
management or the local authorities. The sacrifice seemed worthwhile if it helped fix
America. Besides, think of the savings in gas. In their unaccustomed free time they were
discovering a new face of America from real and virtual sources.
Although local police actions were getting nasty and dangerous, it was getting harder to
figure out who was bad. The courts were increasingly hesitant to drag workers to jail
from packed courtrooms. Some judges were up for re-election. A few were uncertain
where all this was going. Others had noticed the descending corruption inside the federal
judiciary and had started to distance themselves from it. Then there were those several
jail-breaks and lost records of a suspicious nature.
The right-wing police-enforcer networks were not sleeping, however. Random vigilante
retaliations were increasing with encouragement from some federal agencies. Ex-cops,
unemployed self-employed construction workers and unhinged soldier-survivors made up
a lot of their numbers. So people started staking out police stations and following cruisers
just to keep them honest. Cellphone cameras were recording the mundane in case of
mischief. Angry men in secret meetings were planning attacks on public gatherings of the
traitors but the way wasn‟t so clear. Some of the politicians starting to stand out were
saying interesting things, like universal health care, cutting Israel loose, going after the
Wall Street billionaires, or crash programs in new smart construction to make the country
energy-efficient. This was confusing. And the usual enemy Democrats were pretty much
their typical irrelevant selves, not engaged in anything to speak of.
5***
The drive from NYC was tiring, especially since they took some non-freeway segments
to avoid prying eyes. They paid for gas with cash. Stopped at some flea markets. The
weather in Houston was cooperating and so Wednesday morning they set up shop on the
mall parking structure. The ExMobe building was a sleek inviting oblisk with energy-
efficient reflecting glass, these guys aren‟t stupid. About 60 stories high. The fifth from
the top floor was the target and easily identified by 10 am. Planes to Houston Int‟l
seemed to be arriving fairly regularly, so a call to Ben activated the programmed sat
phone messages to the media and ExMobe offices; the clock was ticking. After about
four minutes, it seemed like lots of Houston police cars were suddenly on a mission. Oh
well. HF20 had been placed on its apparatus behind a temporary screen right after the
call. Five minutes arrived but there was no aircraft accompaniment; some could be seen
approaching in the distance so they held off another minute and a half and then
dispatched HF20. It screamed over the length of the deck, rising off toward one of the
many towers basking in the distance. Eleven seconds later the Exxon tower belched some
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smoke and fire, sort of a mini-version of 9/11: 20 lbs of chemical flaming instead of 30
thousand lbs of jet fuel flaming-fireballs.
The media were pretty responsive. WTHU had a good view without leaving their
building and several other stations had mobile units in the general area that could find a
good place from which to aim their cameras. Only one of them actually had a camera
running on the right side of the building but the others quickly angled their cameras or
redeployed when the action came.
No ordinary people were hurt. Some of the VPs had to wait for the 2nd express elevator
and got caught, witnessing incendiary terror, but somehow survived. The executive
offices were trashed and there was collateral damage on adjacent floors. The media shots
were impressive. The ExxonMobil logo was almost perfectly placed above the wretching
window gapes, and the image of a surgical strike on their home base was inspiring. It ran
for hours on TVs everywhere across the country and the globe. An unscheduled press
conference materialized when reporters found a cluster of well-dressed execs with nice
shoes and distinguished hair-cuts down on the street level peering up at their smoking
gun. The CEO was indignant and fuming but his media person succeeded in getting him
out of harm‟s way so the professionals could handle this unusual turn. “ExxonMobil finds
these continuing attacks abhorrent, striking at the very heart of our democratic system.
[No shit!] We will work closely with our national security agencies to help find and
eliminate this threat. ExxonMobil provides the fuels that keep America going and we are
working hard to ensure that a growing energy supply is available for our future
generations. We will not be thrown off this mission by cowardly acts of violence or
misguided public debate.”… Just perfect. Business as usual. Stay the course. The Plan
couldn‟t have scripted a better justification.
6***
At LM the excitement of the San Antonio stadium event had settled into preparations for
the long haul. LM employees were broadly distributed on the issues of the day, but most
acknowledged the poetic justice that their product seemed to be delivering. They were no
where near shutting down production although one day per week was a distinct
possibility for a significant minority. Across the country the situation was mixed but
fluid. Despite spectacular bursts of enthusiasm and imagination from the Awakenings in
several cities, still only a small fraction of people had any personal experience with a
different way, and people who were ready for the different way didn‟t know how to make
it happen: where was the organization, the plan, the roadmap?
Locally in Dallas, a group of committed live-wires had been making trouble at several
other defense contractors in the neighborhood and a surprising amount of public debate
was appearing in the local media. The Exxon hit expanded public debate by several
decibels and inspired a new round of LM lunch-time chatter and speculation… So these
guys apparently have some kind of phone communication that the feds haven‟t been able
to crack. Pretty gutsy calling up 5 minutes before the attack... Picked a good target too…
Yeah, but those execs just still don‟t get it; what‟s taking them so long?… I guess when
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the money‟s that good you just can‟t see beyond it... Yeah, they‟re talking like some Joe
Blow nut-case blew up an oil well.. and they just keep on trucking, drilling and hoarding
and buying the future.
Molly had some news from labor councils in their region that were reviving and
aggressively recruiting members for daily forays. They had been contacted by several
state and national legislators who were quietly exploring new alliances, breaking away
from the Democreep routine. Some were willing to address union meetings and, along
with their staff, engage in some serious dialog on basic solutions. The LM union exec
committee was proposing a joint membership meeting with other unions in the Dallas-
Fort Worth area to expand this discussion. They were seeking local cable or public TV
coverage so that lots of people could benefit and provide input. Position papers were
being circulated. The local PBS station with its board of liberal corporate bosses,
university elders and court jesters resisted but the station manager saw a building
occupation coming real fast with a confrontation in the lobby and so relented, with minor
stipulations on program balance and format. Someone from the Party‟s Over Caucus in
DC was going to attend. People asked Molly, when is this going to happen? Can we
come? Some management people wanted to go.
Someone asked, is it true that they‟re not shooting „fires anymore in Iraq? What about in
Afghan or Pakistan? There were rumors and reports from people in-the-know and it
seemed to be true about Iraq, but the situation in Afghanistan was less clear. Some
countries that had expressed interest in buying their own HF systems were having second
thoughts with all the bad publicity, not to mention, unanticipated hazards. It was a minor
stock-downer for LM.
7***
Julie and Norm were discussing the ExxonMobe hit after dinner with some colleagues
who shared their views on most things but were clueless on their involvement …
Certainly nailed one of the leading global criminals.. and a lot of people were sort of
amused by it… It‟s remarkable how accepting people are of these threats when they
understand they‟re not the targets… (Julie:) Ya, what amazes me is how organizations
that resort to “terrorist” methods fail to distinguish the class enemy from the rest of the
targeted population. It‟s so self-defeating and, of course, totally unjustifiable; it‟s just..
criminal… (Norm:) I wonder if hitting other corporations would contribute to.. ah..
progress? It‟s hard to know where to start… (Colleague:) Well, if it were my decision, I‟d
go after our very own Monsanto. What a bunch of egregious crooks. They‟ve graduated
from Agent Orange and napalm to trying to seize control of world agriculture. In the
process they‟re destroying sustainable farming and impoverishing the millions of people
still trying to do it… Yeah, agribiz is totally out of control. They plant genetically
adulterated crops, and then when genes from their proprietary strains contaminate crops
in fields of neighboring farms, by pollination, they sue those farmers for theft of
intellectual property. It‟s just unbelievable. They‟re forcing farmers to stop saving seed
and instead buy it from them… It‟s an extension of the Green Revolution nightmare,
replacing ecologically sustainable – and high yield – production with factory farming that
destroys the soil and the downstream environment as well as forcing farmers into total
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dependence on high-energy (high-carbon) inputs, buying agrichemicals and going into

debt… It‟s actually kind of complicated, because a lot of farms have been so
compromised they really can‟t go back, unless there is a whole game change. They‟re
dependent on herbicides; don‟t have the soil to farm any other way. It‟s going to take a
major revolution in farm policy to undo these things. And the agribiz sector is huge in
Washington… Ya, the Dept of Agriculture is like their official lobbying firm… Did you
know Uncle Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court was on the Monsanto board for a
while? Needed legal advice.
Later, Norm and Julie tossed Monsanto around and decided to plant a seed with the Plan:
let‟s get Monsanto. It would resonate with farmers everywhere, especially the ones
committing suicide in India, S. Korea and Mexico; the ones struggling in the Philippines,
.. everywhere. Might require some explanation for American farmers who don‟t quite get
the big picture, yet. The Monsanto corporate strategy was mind-boggling. The financial
wizard-quants in league with the biotech rocket-scientists saw the whole world as their
oyster; they were going to own food production. The Plan agreed: Monsanto should pay a
blood dividend for its monstrous expanding crimes. Norm, Julie and the Chicago team
were tasked the deed.
8***
Sasha and Aaron were talking about the Zimbabwe hit. A few days previous, Sasha and
Ari had met for lunch at the base and Ari tried to put the hit in context. Sasha was making
the point that taking out governments because you don‟t like them was what the U.S.
does; shouldn‟t there be some sort of “due process” here; what if everyone started doing
this. Ari conceded that there is a fine line here but emphasized the symbolic importance
of whacking the Mugabee crowd. They had to leave before resolving this so Sasha picked
it up again a few days later with Aaron. Aaron wasn‟t intimately familiar with the
situation in Zimbabwe but had seen enough other post-colonial societies in Africa to have
a good idea of what was going on… It‟s pretty difficult in the chaos of colonial wars of
liberation to avoid corruption and patronage schemes just to maintain order and deal with
the people‟s grandiose expectations. Things can‟t get fixed over-night. Credible
democracy and transparency of administration exists in few countries in Africa (or
anywhere else!). Continuing neocolonial influence like oil in Angola or Nigeria, or now
Sudan, gas in Algeria, or diamonds in the Congo, and years of South African, U.S. and
Israeli (French, British..) criminal manipulation in other countries have taken a major toll.
You have extreme poverty – and now the HIV scourge – and no real interest in advancing
the economic participation of the masses on the part of private investors or even most aid
programs. There are of course impressive exceptions, like Namibia… (Sasha:) Well, I‟ve
heard the shift in South Africa since Mugabee is pretty interesting… Yeah, it‟s almost
like they know they have to make some fundamental changes in direction, fast, but don‟t
want to be too obvious about it – would inspire even more demands. And they‟re
definitely nervous about a missile attack… Actually Ari said the South African
Communist Party got a commitment from the missileers to leave SA alone for now. He
said they passed the tip along to the ANC leaders but with a warning: get moving and
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stay away from U.S. or other intel connections on this, or the deal‟s off.. and we have
ways of knowing… Well, that certainly helps explain some of their behavior.. interesting.
Later Aaron and Sasha were meeting-up with Ari and Rachel for drinks. Rachel was still
drunk from her 60-year conference. Plans for the peoples‟ summit on a one-country
solution were advancing in leaps and bounds even though the Israeli government was
trying every means to retard it: limiting travel, squelching news coverage, sending up
talking heads against it of all persuasions. (Rachel:) They‟ve fired-up the Jewish religious
crazies with money and promises of brand new settlements if they will re-articulate their
ominous prophesies on the end of Judaism. They‟ve prompted recent immigrants from
Eastern Europe with tales of demographic obliteration if those procreating Arabs were
free citizens with rights in our country… (Aaron:) But then those pesky Jewish liberals in
the U.S. butt-in, which really pisses-off the Israeli ruling class: “Why can‟t they just get
behind AIPAC and do what any good Jew should do? “
AIPAC was up and running again. Millions had poured-in after their tragic set-back. The
AIPAC staff had been re-built and the stringers were still on tap, pumping the Central
Dogma and their new world-vision of mutual security, but the going was getting a little
rough. A lot of their assets in the U.S. Congress were becoming squeamish and some
were outright walking away, even talking a new perspective on Israel.. and after all that
money too! “Damn that Jimmy Carter traitor.” They installed HF retardation barriers
outside their H-Street windows – stainless steel mesh 12 ft off the building face that
keeps most of the hell-fire outside the structure, making an attack much more survivable.
Not really feasible as a general solution on all buildings although some of the vertical
castles in NYC had started growing patches of these appurtenances; quite a growth niche
for installers trying to diversify from cell-towers these days. Kind of showed where the
best targets lived. At first they had trouble getting it through the zoning boards, but
money worked, again.
Aaron said he heard Hezbollah had expressed interest in this one-country summit
conference and even offered to help with arrangements in Lebanon, but there were some
sticking points… Rachel had been in on the negotiations: There‟s considerable interest,
actually excitement, among some Lebanese groups. The model being proposed would
have some application in lots of other places, like Lebanon, Syria even Iraq, Egypt,
Crimea, and Georgia: a secular society that permitted and protected so-called religious
affiliations but kept them out of public policy and administration. Some Kurdish groups
want to attend as observers, some Pashtun and even some Kasmiri, and there are Iranian
expatriates with lots of good ideas.
So considerable discussion went into defining the basic starting principles and goals of
this effort. Some of Beth‟s old comrades really came through and put in huge amounts of
time on this and lots of students were getting on board. Countries around the world
wanted to participate and help, like New Zealand, Ecuador and of course Sweden.
However, Hezbollah in examining this approach was having contentious internal debate.
The Islamic heavies were totally opposed, claiming this was an imperialist plot to subvert
Islam through the back door. Well, part of that was true, along with subverting Zionism,
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Christian crusaders and others.. and, for sure, the almighty supreme god of unfettered
capitalism.
Discussion veered off into economic development and Ari wondered what sort of
economic integration could evolve in the Middle East out of the one-country solution. It
seemed like there was a lot of potential there… (Sasha:) So, what is a good model for
third world development? Is there one?... (Aaron:) Well, actually, there are some
examples of successful local programs, like micro-loans and appropriate public works
and infrastructure construction in some countries, but it really comes down to the political
environment and the terms of global economic integration which are usually not
favorable. Small farmers have no clout against U.S. agribusiness with government
subsidies, stolen energy and unsustainable inputs.. (Rachel turned to Aaron:) Have you
seen much on the State of Kerala in Indian? It‟s pretty amazing… Yeah, actually Kerala
shows how it could all change but you can‟t do it one state or one country at a time...
(Sasha:) So what‟s different about Kerala?
Kerala is a state where a communist party of one flavor or another has been getting
elected to run the government for decades, since the „50s. There‟re still the remnants of
the traditional ruling classes and castes, living in relative opulence in their decaying
estates and palaces, but they don‟t have much power left. The communists have done the
usual things those governments do – good public education, universal health care, a very
flat distribution of income.. problem is, the global corporations avoid it like a plague..
don‟t like paying taxes, paying living wages, eliminating Marx‟s “reserve army of the
unemployed.” So there‟s little new investment and very limited employment
opportunities there; people leave Kerala to work in other countries – the Persian Gulf,
Africa, Southeast Asia – and they send money home. Eventually they return home to
retire… (Sasha:) Well, so, that doesn‟t exactly sound like a winning solution... Well, what
if all underdeveloped countries had the same policies? Labor laws, public infrastructure,
good health, education etc.? The companies would have to operate there, everywhere, on
a level playing field. It‟s really very simple and would enable a spectacular
transformation in expanding and distributing wealth. (Ben:) The problem of course, is
that local elites are often complicit with foreign corporate power and usually don‟t have a
perspective of global solidarity for establishing and enforcing unwelcome standards.
They bid for the worst deal, just like in the U.S. where cities or states are played off
against each other on tax breaks for new plants or corporate headquarters. (Ari:) And
third world governments that might want to take a stand for uniform standards and
policies are, of course, very vulnerable to abuse by global thugs: “It‟s the communists
again” (and it is).
Silence followed as the foursome thought through this scenario and tried to place it in a
Middle Eastern context. (Aaron:) You know, one of the nice things about Moslem culture
and Islam is that it‟s not congenitally tied to private property dominance, capitalism.
(Ari:) Ya, if only they could get through their heads some semblance of class analytics
and get away from the gender hang-up, they could fall into a strategy that would really
change their whole world – and ours – for the much better.. Sober nods and sustaining
enthusiasm for the future of their own enterprise.
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9***
The Chicago team was hosting Norm and Julie. They took in the Monet exhibit Saturday
morning at the art museum and then had a nice lunch. The five of them replayed the
Plan‟s recent accomplishments. Zimbabwe seemed like a win-win all around, so
justifying and change-making, with palpable impacts on neighboring countries. The
Crasso party crasher filled a need for another smack on the New York financial mafia,
but this new focus on corporate criminals as institutions seemed right. Monsanto‟s record
was revisited. Mahmoud knew a lot about traditional farming in poor countries but was
shocked by the breadth and audacity of the Monsanto assault on nature and its children.
They all agreed that violating a board meeting was a worthy objective. These people were
premeditating massive corporate crime. So, tasks were assigned: get 1) date of next board
meeting, 2) location, 3) typical agenda schedule, 4) assemble basic documentation on the
crimes. Norm was tasked with managing the hardware. The black van was assigned to St.
Louis.
2. Death Throes
1***
Outbreaks of unaccustomed behavior and local initiative were popping up around the
country. One was the revolt of railway workers in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joe Teeters was
back as County Prosecutor after being banished from the Capitol in Columbus by his own
Ohio Republicans, one of the leading lodges of public policy Neanderthals in America. A
master manipulator of racism and ignorance, he just couldn‟t understand why the guys
weren‟t acting on the developing worker rebellions in the midst of imploding economics,
collapsing banks, nationalized insurance companies.. Things were going to hell and
where was the leadership? Must be him. Huge opportunity. He called up some buddies at
Justice in DC and then they conferenced with colleagues in the Departments of
Commerce, Labor and Transportation. It seems that the Cincinnati rail hub was causing
huge delays and backups, all the work of some small band of railroad workers and
supporting fans, and their union. It was hurting Proctor and Gamble, and a whole host of
P&G sub-contractors, spin-offs and wannabees, not to mention Ford, GE Aircraft
Engines, Kroger and anyone else shipping through to the north or south on the NAFTA
railway. Teeters said this is unacceptable: We‟re gonna fix this.. The DOL counsel was
ready with injunctive weapons under the Railway Act and volunteered to call the Federal
Prosecutor in Cincinnati to get the ball rolling. The Commerce guys were going over to
the West Wing to get those ducks in a row, making sure the DNC and GOP were on
board. Federal Marshals and National Guard units might be needed.
[DOL – U.S. Dept. of Labor; DNC – Democratic National Committee; GOP -
Repuglicans]
As a matter of course, the Cincinnati Police were informed of the pending action; no one
bothered to call the Mayor or Hamilton County Commissioners. The person on police
central communications handling calls late afternoon that Wednesday in District 1 was
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Janie Wright, a member of AFSCME Local 2029. A staff person for Joe Teeters called,
asking for Chief John W. Striker; it‟s an emergency. Striker wasn‟t immediately locatable
so Janie asked if a Deputy would suffice. The guy got irritated that the command
structure wasn‟t immediately responsive and said an important action was going down
early in the morning and Cincinnati better be up to speed. So Janie patched the creep
through to the highest ranking cop she could find. A little later, she asked the guy: What‟s
up, a big drug action?... Naw, it‟s those railroad workers over in Mill Valley; they‟re
going to bust them and open up rail operations again… Oh.. [AFSCME – American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, large public-employee union]
The County Sheriff, Simon Lice, also got a call but he had already heard a lot about it
from his own DC friends. Lice was specializing in busting undocumented workers these
days with mass arrests, hoping to build his career and it had been working. But the
collapsing economy was an unanticipated complication, and now there were documented
workers that needed busting. But they vote. Would make things difficult for his
Democratic collaborators.. hmm.
Janie didn‟t used to pay much attention to union business until the City got on its
privatization kick. Large pieces of the public services sector were on the block, especially
in Sanitation and Water. It could even extend to her job in Public Safety. Getting rid of
union workers with half-decent contracts was in fashion those days for budget cutters
who heartily approved tax-cuts for the rich and corporate-welfare schemes. Janie thought
this new information might need to reach the Labor Council, those guys who had fought-
off at least some of the privatization and gotten some sort of living wage ordinance for
the immediate victims. It wasn‟t great but better than nothing. She didn‟t understand very
much about the huge things happening all over the country but had heard that unions
were starting to react, starting to say things without being asked. She called her local
union president who just happened to be driving to the monthly Labor Council meeting.
Usually, this time of year, the big items on the Council‟s agenda were organizing the
golf-scramble and planning ahead for the Labor Day Picnic where some leading
Democreep would woo the workers into reliable re-submission. Gary got the message
and picked up speed. He called Doug Sizer, the Secretary-Treasurer who was meeting
with the exec board as they always did just before Council meetings to discuss important
decisions. All of a sudden, they had a new agenda. The exec board immediately
disbanded to make calls; this was big. Actually huge, bigger than anything most of them
could ever remember. Someone called the NAACP. These Council guys were in the habit
of calling symbolic rallies whenever the bosses did bad things so this seemed like just a
super-sized version, appropriate for these times. For years the Labor Council had been
headed by Dan Radfern, a slightly progressive but passive transmitter of Democratic
programs and perspective; a wheeler-dealer who never figured out that he should be
building alliances with the city‟s African-Americans as they fought economic apartheid,
police brutality and Democreep apathy. Dan had left, taking a job with ULLICO, a union-
owned insurance company that might take a hit if single-payer healthcare happened. Sizer
the new Council guy was more pro-active and seemed to be open-minded on what the
Council ought to be doing. This would be a test.
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The main railroad yard was in Mill Valley, just down the road from the original P&G
plant complex and 3 miles from downtown Cincinnati. The jumble of tracks cut the
valley in two, with various streets crossing on viaducts and others running parallel. The
plan of attack was to show up with 10 vehicles: two county, three city and five federal.
On back-up if needed were three busloads of cops in riot-gear and ten vehicles scattered
among three local National Guard armories. CSX had flown in a replacement team for
the workers who opt for jail, to get the yard up and running again. It seemed like a slam-
dunk with no down-side until somebody in the DNC, as a courtesy, called up the National
AFL-CIO just so they wouldn‟t be “blindsided.” Imagine her surprise when they said, we
already know about it; the entire national rail workforce is probably going to strike; and
the Cincinnati Central Labor Council has been up all night getting out the troops. A flurry
of calls in Washington followed with no particular direction emerging; meanwhile the
injunction brigade was suiting-up for the 10-minute ride to the yard unaware that they
were expected. It seemed strange there were so many dark cars parked all along the
access road going into the yard at 5:45am but the agents drove on with a yawn and
another gulp of java. More strange was the appearance of a mob of two hundred workers
surrounding the yard control center under bright lights, and many with rather powerful
flashlights. Then some of the dark trains started to move, closing off access on the other
yard roads. All of a sudden, the enforcers didn‟t like this picture. Phones jumped to
cheeks and Plan B was called down. But they weren‟t the only ones with reinforcements.
The Council had heard about the National Guard mobilization – some union members
had been called up. They could put two and two together. So they had done their own
mobilization but first waited for the feds and their possies to get inside the yard gate.
They had observers with binoculars up on the viaduct half a mile away who could see
everything. Cellphones tracked it all. They also tipped off the TV and radio stations but
suggested they not make themselves too obvious if they wanted to get some good
footage. [CSX – corporate rail conglomerate: formerly New York Central, Pennsylvania
RR,…]
Joe Teeters had a lot of faith in the power of the state, but just in case the authorities lost
fortitude he put word out through the local right-wing thug network that some heads
might need to be whacked down at the Mill Valley yards. Some ex-cops and their pals
were up for it; they kind of missed the thrill of cracking heads with a baton, sort of like
cats crushing the skulls of mice – hadn‟t been allowed to do much of that lately.
When about 8 truck loads of National Guard had pulled in next to the riot buses, squad
cars and SUVs, and the megaphones were about to spout ultimatums, another swarm of
participants began to arrive, gradually choking off the access road. Cars were parked 5-
or 6-abreast across the road between piles of railroad debris, tracks with railway cars that
hadn‟d moved in months, and ditches filled with huge chunks of crud. About 18 rows of
vehicles had accumulated and still the megaphones were silent. Agents on cellphones
were seeking guidance from their superiors who were seeking guidance from their‟s.
Most of the union forces arriving were walking up to the confrontation, some detouring
around the assembled enforcers, to join the welcoming committee, others just adding
layers behind. Some union guys were back on the access road directing parking and
explaining the deal to new arrivals. Cop cars started appearing around the perimeter but
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seemed to be keeping their distance. Then two car-loads of the Teeter thugs arrived,
parked back up the access road a ways, then walked around casing the situation,
pretending supportive participation when talking to the union parking greeters, and then
withdrew and huddled… These are the enemy holding America hostage; let‟s take ‟em
down. There‟s five of them and nine of us; get the three black guys first... The lookouts
on the viaduct had noticed this arrival and were trying to figure out what‟s up. Then they
saw three of the goons taking sticks or clubs or something out of their vehicles and
huddling again. They didn‟t like the looks of this and called in to the yard contacts who
immediately dispatched 10 guys to check the situation out in the early morning light. One
of the guys on the viaduct had a pretty good digital camera with lots of flash memory that
was ready to roll... They got the first black guy from behind and he went down so fast the
thugs were disappointed and hurried on to victims two and three. The approaching
defense squad saw their second comrade beaten to the ground and immediately grabbed
rocks, sticks and iron scraps on the run and descended on the goons. It was over pretty
fast; five thugs disabled, two pinned to the ground and two running off through the brush.
The cops watching from their warm, electronics-laden cruiser were a little slow to
respond and weren‟t quite sure who to root for. Clearly these goons had assaulted the
workers, but who were they? Our guys? Agents? Feds? Private security? By now more
union brothers and sisters were running up just when the cops decided who they didn‟t
like. They started to arrest the first union worker but fifteen others made it perfectly clear
this wasn‟t going to happen. When that copper creep went for his gun they flattened him.
Other cops were retreating, yelling into their lapel radios for backup. Meanwhile new
carloads of workers continued to arrive now that the confrontation was in the media with
live shots from VideoCam5 and others. The whole incident had been caught on video
from more than one vantage. The two assaulted workers were being tended to and one
was declared a medical emergency by an ASFCME EMS worker. The downed thugs and
cop weren‟t seriously injured; they were placed in a circle and shackled with those plastic
strips cops carry in their back pockets. A call went back to the union coordinators
describing the attack and requesting a medical evacuation. No one could figure out how
to make that happen, so the guys out on the road approached another squad car and
requested them to transport the victim to Good Sam Hospital, six minutes away. When
the two cops shrugged and refused to even call-in a request they were yanked from their
vehicle, their radios and weapons removed, and hauled off to the circle of the vanquished.
Two union guys jumped in and pulled the cruiser up to where their comrade was lying
and then many gentle hands helped move him onto the back seat with a medical union
sister going along to tend to him. After a few seconds to locate the flasher controls, they
were off, threading their way through throngs of gathering class fighters.
The enforcers and their backup Guard and riot police now numbered about 125 guys and
were totally surrounded by at least 500 workers with thousands more on the way. The
entire yard was now encircled; people were arriving on foot walking along the tracks that
course through many Cincinnati neighborhoods. You didn‟t need a map. Christopher
Smiterman, the local activist NAACP director and former trouble-maker on City Council,
immediately understood the challenge when the call had come from the Labor Council.
This was a chance to build an alliance with the labor movement even if those guys didn‟t
ever do much for their African American friends in the community, and besides, we‟re in
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a class-war with huge stakes. We need to help these guys do the right things, for once.
Smiterman couldn‟t believe he was thinking these thoughts; it was so far from being a
financial analyst,.. or was it.
Meanwhile the injunction squad had finally successfully communicated to their sponsors
that the railroad strikers were not going to be dispatched today; the authorities were
massively outnumbered and potentially in grave danger. When word of the goon attack
arrived over various channels in various renditions, they really got worried. This could
get very ugly very fast. We could be disarmed in seconds… Call off the goons, whoever
they are!! Who are they anyway? Why weren‟t we told about this?... Teeters, at the
command center, was starting to regret his lack of confidence in the regular forces of the
state. He wanted to stand-down the goons but didn‟t know how, exactly. He made a
bunch of phone calls, mostly leaving incriminating messages. He didn‟t even know how
many goon squads had mobilized – sometimes it‟s better not to know; not this time.
Sherriff Lice was kind of quiet too. Unusual. The Democratic Governor, under whose
authority the National Guard was there, was very exercised by what he was hearing:
Jesus, this could blow up any minute.
Goon squad number two had a police scanner so they were getting a rather skewed
picture of the whole situation. They had staked out one of the secondary access roads and
were moving into the yard between tracks filled with dark looming railroad cars of all
shapes and sizes when they saw some workers patrolling the northern perimeter of the
yard. They decided to do their part for a-Merica. Eight guys attacked a young railroad
worker, an appalling sight witnessed by another worker with a cellphone and fast legs.
News of the attack created pandemonium with hundreds of workers streaming to the
north. Goon squad number two didn‟t make out as well as squad one. People were losing
patience. The union leaders quickly huddled and decided it was time for negotiations; we
have to disarm these gorillas carefully and methodically; if we don‟t, our members will,
and not so carefully. They sent a messenger across the lot to the authorities and asked to
speak to the individual “in-charge.” The Guard commanders edged back a bit, the federal
agents looked at each other and somehow one of them got pushed forward, two phones in
hand. He identified himself as Federal Marshall Matthew W. Sterling. The messenger
stated that the railroad union leadership would like to negotiate a way out of this situation
and Sterling readily agreed. He proposed three negotiators on each side. The messenger
returned with this response and six negotiators soon appeared in the central plaza under a
pink/plum streaked sky with light morning chop.
First: call off the goons; all cops/sheriff deputies to be ordered to identify and sequester
all goon squads. How to identify? Hint: ex-cops, white guys, no union cards, police
decals, clubs in trunk. And they better not be released back into the night; we‟re already
holding 13 of them… Agreed, with grim submission.
Second: disarm all riot cops and all National Guard; weapons (guns, clubs, tasers) to be
stashed in one police bus that will be parked in the center of the plaza with no one
permitted access… OK,.. but what will guarantee our safety?... Who will guarantee ours?
We will mingle and slowly disperse; the cops on the perimeter will facilitate cars exiting
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the yards; no pictures, no subpoenaed media film. We will request (with your
megaphone) our people remove their cars in order from the access road. We will move
trains to open up other exit routes… Agreed
Third: Federal authorities will announce they have no intention of enforcing the
injunction they carried here today or any similar injunction against the rail union
representing the workers in this yard or any other yard in America… Ouch.. This one
required higher authority. The negotiators caucused and calls went to the local command
center and on up to Washington. “No way,” said U.S. Attorney General Gerald Hammer,
huddling with the Secretary of Commerce, Homeland Security and FBI Director, this is a
national emergency; we don‟t just withdraw injunctions against massively illegal work
stoppages threatening the National Interest… Yesterday‟s Cabinet meeting had heard
briefly about the Cincinnati plan and agreed this was a great place to take a desperately
needed stand for law and order. After all, Hamilton County was a leading producer in
Republican fund-raising. One Cabinet member: Yeah, Cincinnati‟s pretty conservative
even backward; it should be real easy to slap these jerks down and show good Americans
don‟t support this kind of criminal anarchy in these difficult times.
The union guys expected resistance on demand 3. Option 1: cave and peacefully disperse
to fight another day; Option 2: refuse to disperse but let authorities walk out leaving their
blocked vehicles and weapons behind; Option 3: take hostages, lots of „em, and call-in
more reinforcements. They had played poker with the bosses before and were a wily
adversary. They discussed the options and decided to reconvene with the enemy telling
them they were considering Options 2 and 3, and: Do you have any comment?
The union response just pissed-off the AG even more and he ordered his staff to set up a
regional military command center and coordinate with the Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky
Governors and their National Guard units, with the goal of seizing control in Cincinnati
by whatever means necessary. But it turned out the AG wasn‟t the highest authority. The
Party‟s Over Caucus had been following the situation closely and had some local
representatives on the scene. They were especially interested in the national railroad
strike looming. Although not their cup of tea, they saw the workers‟ logic and passed an
emergency mid-morning resolution in support of “citizen and worker initiatives to solve
this nation‟s enormous problems.” They explained to their less perspicacious colleagues
how they were quickly running out of options; the billionaires‟ ball is over, they said, and
a brutal resolution in Cincinnati could be very costly with unpredictable, revolutionary
consequences. Even Bush-groupie-blondie ex-Congressman Steve Shabit, awakened
earlier by the call from Teeters, quietly opposed enforcing the injunction after 100
constituents including numerous railway workers and black people showed-up at his law
office at 7:35 AM, two and a half miles from the railway yard. But the deciding factor
was the Bama himself. Some of his former friends now in the Party‟s Over Caucus had
whispered in his ear. The prospect of totally shattering the Democratic alliance with
organized labor (if it wasn‟t already) and launching a frontal attack on workers was too
dangerous to contemplate. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of white and black
workers standing together in that RR yard fortress who for generations had been getting
people like the Bama (i.e., Democreeps) elected. A brutal assault could set-off a
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conflagration that would end the Democratic Party and take-up whole chapters in history
books. The Bama called off his AG‟s dogs. One of his first right-moves. He also called
another, emergency Cabinet meeting, because this wasn‟t nearly over.
The Federal negotiators went back saying they had orders to withdraw, to not enforce
their injunction. They thankfully reported that President Obama had called a retreat. But
there was no commitment on global protection for railway worker actions around the
country. The union guys returned to their huddle with long faces, but pretty excited. We
won, we beat these assholes!!... But what about demand three – hands-off other RR
actions?... Well, at least we didn‟t have to get the national unions to scuttle the national
RR strike (unless they did.. hmmm); that‟s a big plus. One of the older Labor Council
guys said: You know, this thing isn‟t nearly half over, guys; we need to think through our
next moves – we could really win big or really small. Sometimes winning requires
knowing when you‟re winning and then going for the jugular… Yeah, this is going to
take some discussion, but what do we tell them? What do we tell our people?… Let‟s tell
them we need some time; they should order 50 porta-johns and 200 cases of bottled
water and juices. Maybe one of those water tanker trucks and plastic cups. We should put
out a call for food from our people, tell „em which access roads to come in on. Big
batches of rice and beans, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and apples...
Let‟s get the UFCW and Teamster guys to crack open some of those reefer cars and see
what kind of food Kroger has brought us from California. And we need a PA system; ask
the railway guys if the yard has a speaker system we can use… Maybe we should issue a
statement so people on the outside know what‟s happening?...Yeah, and let‟s call for
people in other cities to occupy their yards, the ports.. the airports… Let‟s get it over-
with… We could put live interviews on Facebook… Yeah, we need a speaker platform,
get a team together to build one, and interview rooms, let‟s.. make a place for TV camera
crews… Find some empty box-cars and make steps for them.
2***
Norm and Julie were about to be sleepless in St. Louis, thinking the folks in Cincinnati
have to expand this thing and insert it into the larger public debate. Organizations there
have to see this as their battle and run with it. We have to grow support for the Party‟s
Over faction in Congress. The Plan discussed it and proposed getting people to call
supporting rallies all over the country, even in other countries. In NYC, the guys said
they would immediately organize a giant rally in Washington Sq; maybe the Labor
Councils could get Madison Sq Garden. The Chicago guys said we have to get our own
rail depots under control and went off to call the labor folks who had organized stadium
assembly 2.
In Dallas, the newly arisen consortium of labor organizations was discussing what their
role could be: Yeah, we can close down the RR yards, but what about airplanes? Dallas-
Fort Worth is a major air hub; that‟s what a lot of us do – aerospace – so let‟s step up to
the plate, show some leadership.. Several weeks back some of the major airports up
north and out west had been partially shutdown but leakage developed and things had
started to slide backward.. It‟s time to tighten our grip, then on to Atlanta.
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Again, the internet nazis were obsessing; how to limit exposure of this Cincinnati debacle
to the rest of America. In DC they already had a rapid-response team for situations like
this to generate fake interviews and testimonials as well as soliciting real ones from the
trusted faithful – those folks who thought W got a raw deal, who still love and have built
shrines to Chainy.. or labor leaders who were still with the old program. But the internet
defenders were solid, rapidly identifying and tracking the rapid-responders, blowing up
the debate ten-, one hundred-times, bigger; it was working.
The New York ruling class committee on the present emergency was starting to barely
make-out the writing on the wall. You would think they would have seen it coming after
the mortgage melt-down and bail-out the past year. The nationalization of Fanny and
Freddy, and saving AIG, the world‟s largest insurance company by of all people, the
Bushies, under the leadership of Goldman Sachs‟ Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulsen,
Jr., should have tipped them off. The people probably weren‟t going to stay quiet forever.
3***
Teeters re-grouped; real leaders don‟t pale in the face of sharp conflict, they rise to the
challenge. “When the going gets tough, the tough get..” (Teeters:) Let‟s get a RICO suit
going against all the unions participating in the Cincinnati rebellio.. He called an
emergency meeting of the local judiciary, including Federal judges, but one of the judges
asked what about those goons, the workers are demanding expedited grand jury
investigations: They‟ve got 13 of „em, and the cops have another 8 or 9.. Teeters hadn‟t
heard this. Some of his subordinates knew that goons were in union custody and that the
negotiations forced the others to be held but hadn‟t passed this along to Teeters – he
doesn‟t like bad news, and besides, they weren‟t sure what his role had been. Sometimes
the boss doesn‟t want to know.. OK, wheels turning fast: We can arrange grand juries..
No big deal for people like Teeters to sequester grand juries in Cincinnati that produce
the desired outcomes. Piece of cake. (Someone else:) They‟re demanding jurisdiction
from outside Cincinnati.. Wheels turning faster… How can they do this!! Now they‟re
controlling the judicial system?... Well, actually, that‟s a pretty standard recourse in
situations where some local conflict of interest might arise… Jesus Christ, where‟s this
gonna stop?.. Blank stares. In a city where deals between Democreeps and Repuglicans
had assured fair distribution of cooperative judges and prosecutors for decades, this new
development was an interesting twist. Teeters was feeling the warm water rising so he
reached for higher authority: What have the governors come up with to restore order
here.. he asked rhetorically. Then a municipal judge whose wife is a court reporter
mentioned that testimony was already being taken under oath, by union lawyers, from the
goons individually, with counsel present. Oh shit!! Really big dark clouds descending on
Joe Teeters.
4***
The goons were told they would be released unharmed to the authorities and were invited
to answer questions under oath. One of the goons was a guy with a little construction
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company who hangs out with Cincinnati cops he knew from high school. When the caper
came down, it sounded exciting given all the amazing things going on and he didn‟t want
to disappoint his buddies. Sort of like going hunting or fishing with the guys. But the
general idea behind it was murky, and when things started happening fast and he saw the
first victim clubbed to the ground he suddenly wished he‟d stayed home in bed with
Janet. He grew up in a world that demonized and ridiculed black people but some of the
guys he was starting to meet on construction sites didn‟t fit that description; a lot of them
were nice guys that worked hard, were skilled, and learned fast despite a rather hostile
environment. Some were trying to start their own companies. As he stood there in a
dazed epiphany, he was grabbed and forced down by five workers until they could locate
the plastic people-cuffs.
The deposition took place in an empty railway boxcar. They had given him a cellphone
and recommended he call a lawyer; his accountant had found a criminal lawyer that
agreed to come to the RR yard. There was a court recorder with one of those gadgets and
a camcorder. After the “state your name” and other details, came the questions. “Why did
you come to be in the Mill Valley RR yard on the morning of the 5th of April, 2009 at
6:15 AM?” … Whispering to his lawyer: do I have to tell them?... Tell them something as
vague as possible but remember, they can ask you anything, for hours, you have to
answer, and you can be held in contempt in a subsequent court proceeding. You can
discuss all your answers with me first… “I went there with some friends who were
policemen or used to be. They said there was some trouble that they had been asked to
help with.”… “What sort of trouble?”… “Well, you know, the RR workers had shutdown
the yard.. and were blocking train operations..”… “Who asked them for their
assistance?”… Whispers with lawyer. “Well, the authorities or people they know who
were trying to deal with the problem and thought they might need help.”… “Who
specifically asked for this help; what was their affiliation?”… Ed was starting to get the
picture. Soliciting goons for actions “outside the law” was probably illegal and someone
was going to get in trouble.. Who should he say asked? The police? That would really
burn his buddies and it wasn‟t really the cops exactly. He had heard Joe Teeters that
prosecutor guy was involved and assumed at the time it was legit, but now things looked
different… “Mr. Downs, will you please answer the question.” His lawyer shrugged, this
was looking bad and he had no idea where it would end up. In his work, he usually knew
who the perps were and could strategize ahead of time. “Well, I wasn‟t there but I heard
that a call came from.. ah.. well.. someone in ..Teeters‟ office..”… “A call came to the
off-duty and former police officers that you accompanied to Mill Valley RR yard from
Prosecutor Joe Teeters requesting their presence, is that what you are saying?”…
“..Yes.” “What was the intended purpose of their being there, as you understood it?”…
“Well, to help.. ah, control the situation.”… “Did the request specify what their actions
might require?”… Lawyer: this is hearsay, he wasn‟t the recipient of the request... This is
not a trial, counsel. We are asking what his understanding was of the request. “Mr.
Downs?”… Thinking back to victim one and with remorse welling up inside,.. “They said
some „heads might need to be .. ah, clubbed.‟” … “Mr. Downs, is it your understanding,
that these associates of yours perceived that they were being given license to confront and
subdue RR workers in the absence of any supervision by authorities responsible for
maintaining law and order?”… “Yes.”… “Was it your perception that they had been
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formed as a vigilante committee outside the law?”… “Well, I didn‟t think of it that way
until I saw what happened; I don‟t know what I was expecting exactly but that is what
happened.. I really wish I had not been there.”… “Mr. Downs,.. did you at any time
injure or assist others in injuring any RR worker that early morning?”… “No, sir.”…
“Did you observe any of the men you were associated with injure a RR worker without
provocation or perceived threat?”… “Yes, I did.”… “What did you see exactly?”… “..I
saw three guys run up behind a.. ah.. black worker and club him to the ground..”…
“Thank you, Mr. Downs. No further questions. Counsel? Do you have any questions?”…
“Well.. Ah,.. Mr. Downs, is it possible that your associates may have misunderstood what
was being requested of them?”… “Well, they seemed to have specific instructions about
where to go, and they knew what to take.. And there were other groups doing the same
thing.. I think these guys know what‟s legal and when they‟re being asked to.. ah.. act..
outside the law..”… “Did you see or hear any of these individuals seek guidance or
direction from law enforcement officials just prior to their taking violent actions?”…
“No.”… “No further questions..”
5***
In NYC a new text-message pyramid grew up after a televised interview with one of the
Party‟s Over Congress people. It read: “TBBIO – the billionaires‟ ball is over, pass it
on”. People started answering their phones: “TBBIO, hi this is Carrie..” It was like in
Spain after the Al Qaeda attack on the trains that killed 125 people when the right-wing
government tried to blame it on the local Basque ETA separatist movement, and
everyone started texting: “it may not be ETA.” A different, socialist, government was
elected two weeks later, and then Spanish troops were withdrawn from Iraq.
The phone companies tried to figure out how to block TBBIO text transmission but gave
up when counter-measures were deployed by millions of users. People all over America
started wearing TBBIO buttons. Within one week, people all over the country knew
about “TBBIO” and understood what it meant; they liked it a lot. A TV show host was
asked: Where‟s your button? This was a serious omen of ruling class smackdown. TV
execs were unsure how to proceed.
A Congressional hearing on executive compensation had been called by the Commerce

Committee. The audience was SRO and CNN was there. Most people were wearing a
TBBIO button, including more than half of the committee. Experts were called that
testified that in many companies the CEO pay/benefit package was a thousand times that
of the lowest paid full-time employee. There were examples where it was 10,000 times,
defying all imaginations. Then they had people talking about the compensation of Wall
Street hedge fund managers, traders and similar parasites scattered throughout our
“market-based” economy, the gamers of our misery. Most of the millionaire committee
members and Republicans were embarrassed and persuaded that some changes are in
order. The committee adjourned with a slim majority agreeing that legislation would be
drafted limiting executive pay to 100 times the lowest and with special windfall taxes for
hedgers, traders and those nice annual bonuses and stock options that buy condos,
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BMWs, yachts and world travel. Mortgage interest on castles, second, third, fourth,
fifth… homes would not be tax deductable.
Another Committee was looking at campaign contributions, again, this time without
McCane‟s help. A rising tide of anger against billionaires was sweeping Washington.
One proposal: prohibit candidates from contributing to their own campaigns – no more
Mitt Romneys, McCanes, Kerrys, Hillary Clintons… But even better, publicly funded
campaigns, based on the percent that a party or candidate achieved in the last election,
but with a maximum of 20% and minimum of 1% to any candidate/party, and caps on
total campaign expenditures for national and local elections. No more issue-spending by
swift-boaters and corporate fronts (or subservient unions); promotion of specific issues
would come out of the public financing allocations. All major issue promotions in public
media would be governed by equal-time provisions for all registered proponents. People
wondered why hasn‟t it always been that way? They already do this in Europe?
Tweaking democracy was a new concept for many people watching TV and they liked it;
they were starting to understand why it‟s so difficult to take down billionaires and their
lackeys; deconstructing their system isn‟t easy.
6***
The Mill Valley yard occupiers had discussed what to do with the enforcers. They were
concerned that they could be charged with kidnapping and unlawful restraint, so they
decided to tell the enforcers that they were free to go, actually had been all along, but
sorry about the blockage: you‟ll have to make your way out on foot. We have had
discussions with our people and we generally agree that it is not in our interest to impede
your departures… In case there was any misunderstanding, the final negotiations had
been public, announced over the yard PA system. In particular, there was one point that
the unions wanted to be clear on: There will be no attack by cops or National Guard
troops that will go unchallenged. This is not 19th century Pittsburgh. We have your
weapons and we will be the third party to use violence (after the goons and the
authorities), and we know how; we‟ve been trained to use them, all over the world. We
have already been physically assaulted by goons arranged by your authorities after our
peaceful occupation of this rail hub; this will not happen again. That includes gas attacks,
sniper hits; isolated abductions. As for utilities, our brothers and sisters who work for
Duke Energy have assured us if power is cut off, it won‟t just be to the Mill Valley yard.
Similarly water services will continue. The enforcers were nodding slowly and taking
notes.
Some people in Cincinnati, seeking to be creative for the TBBIO campaign, started
giving auto tours of Indian Hill with maps and narratives downloaded from a local
website. This is an area of gently rolling hills to the northeast that forms the primary
concentration of big money in Cincinnati. It‟s where the Cintas, P&G, AK Steel, 5/3
Bank, Federated Department Stores (Macys), many insurance and other executives live
and play while in-town. Almost as many horses as people in some parts. The Indian Hill
cops figured they could issue passes and set up road blocks to filter the traffic but then
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people just stopped at the line and blocked all access in and out and large crowds started
to tour on foot. These cops weren‟t very experienced in negotiating with large numbers of
determined citizens. Their main activities besides watching for thieves and over-
exuberant SUVs included removing lawn signs with inappropriate messages. It looked
like they might make some serious bad errors of judgment so a community committee of
Fortune 500 execs was quickly convened over at the Farmer estate and an agreement
worked out: no cars stopping in front of estates, no blocking of entrance ways, no
trespassing on any property and no excessive noise. [Farmer: owner of Cintas, industrial
laundry empire]
Long lines of full cars started snaking through the neighborhoods of Indian Hill (people
had to carpool). A few cars with cardboard missile launchers on their roofs carried laser
pointers, others had big home-made TBBIO banners. Lots of pictures flashing all night
long. The inhabitants of 16-28 room castles (most of which you could barely see from the
road) felt like they were in a scary movie and worried what would happen if the masses
weren‟t so law-abiding. Private security contractors with satellite dishes appeared on
many front yard perimeters. Helicopter traffic increased six-fold.
The Cincinnati occupation had grown as sympathizers rushed in to support it. Thousands
of Cincinnatians were taking shifts, allowing the original defenders to rotate out for a
good night‟s sleep and shower. A community advisory board had been created to work
with the Labor Council and develop communications with the general community. Public
forums were scheduled daily and broadcast over a cooperating cable channel as well as
on various internet streams. UFCW negotiated a railcar load of food a day from Kroger to
be put on their tab, and a car-load of recycles and trash was negotiated with the county.
Progressive members of Congress were showing up to offer support and use the
opportunity to promote new solutions in America. The people were listening.
People appreciated the TBBIO innovation and started thinking about other advances. Phil
Amazon, one of the local rail union leaders said, how about “EERN” – “end empire right
now.” This made immediate sense to some folks but was a little unclear to many others,
so a public review ensued, trying to tie together diverse bodies of knowledge and
experience: Viet Nam, lost jobs, hostility in Latin America, NAFTA, the World Trade
Organization (WTO), global Islamic terrorism, foreign “aid,” the Iraq nightmare and now
Afghanistan and Pakistan. A history professor explained how after the fall of the Soviet
Union, the U.S. capitalist class figured the world was their‟s to grab. The neocons
including former Vice-President Chainy had drafted a grand plan in which invading Iraq
was but one little step, the massive shifting of manufacturing to low wage areas was
another – like Clinton‟s NAFTA and the so-called fast-track deal with China, and then
CAFTA, SHAFTA, etc. The mild objections of the Democrats to this plan weren‟t so
much whether to, but how. And now we are seeing how costly empire maintenance is for
us. Empire had become a major focus of discussions in the Party‟s Over caucus in DC,
so, when it surfaced in Cincinnati, they jumped for it. This needed to become a national
debate immediately. “What is empire?” some Americans asked. Do other countries have
an empire? What if we get rid of ours and they don‟t? Will our taxes go up? What would
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happen if there weren‟t any empires? What would all the countries do? Would we have to
get rid of the army?.. What about abortion?
Joe Bidden, the Bama‟s VEEP, had worked long and hard for global capital at home and
abroad. Did special work for the banks and credit card companies. The Bama himself was
promoting “compassionate empire” and was very disappointed when EERN became
codified in this new America movement. These community organizers have it all wrong,
he thought. This is going to make bringing democracy to the Islamic world ever so much
more difficult.
In the last presidential campaign, the E-word never appeared in public discourse.
Reporters never asked, politicians never volunteered: don‟t ask – don‟t tell all over again.
Empire was off the table entirely (well, except for Dennis, Ralph, and other candidates
who were rarely permitted in prime-time discourse). Probably when the Roman Empire
was crumbling, the E-word didn‟t come up that often, either, in polite conversation.
For EERN to emanate from the Mill Valley yards was fitting. Less than a mile and a half
away along steel ribbons was Union Station, an Art Deco gem from the days of real
railroads which had been turned into a museum and public gathering place. It was the
venue from which George W. Bush shared his vision from God and launched the assault
on Iraq in March of 2003, while speaking in front of hundreds of invited, rich and
prosperous Cincinnati Repuglicans. Outside on the surrounding streets were police on
horses and 6,000 other Cincinnatians who already opposed empire. Clearly democracy
was inoperative. After the speech, the faithful returned to their spacious vehicles but had
to wait up to two hours to get out of this temporarily surrounded ruling class enclave. Big
SUVs with GM‟s On*star gps system were getting satellite messages: Are you alright,
you don‟t seem to be moving, do you need help?... Being surrounded by the working
class and other thinking people was a scary new experience that some were now
remembering. As usual, GM had no solution.
The pastors in many churches had always been a little suspicious of the billionaire crowd,
they weren‟t even that generous, and now they started finding bits and pieces of
scriptures that clearly proved that the existence and domination of a billionaire class was
not compatible with their beliefs. How had they missed this? TBBIO became a common
icon in churches everywhere, both white and especially black, except in the nicer
neighborhoods. Then they advanced to EERN. Planned, systematic murder for material
gain, it turns out, was also incompatible with their teachings. What a profound revelation;
isn‟t it interesting that lowly railroad workers first noticed this. Some of the glaring
internal contradictions of organized Christianity and sister faiths were starting to be
confronted and corrected. Suddenly discussions were occurring in places-of-worship on
topics that used to be way out of bounds and not just on empire. Health care, human
rights, labor rights, even women‟s rights and sexuality were getting air-time. Genuine
hope began to replace depression among the clergy; they were spending less time in
prayer, more time on computers and telephones.
7***
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The policemen‟s union in Cincinnati (Fraternal Order of Police) was flummoxed. Former
FOP President big Keith Hangman screamed: The end of the world is coming!... A bunch
of his people were up on aggravated assault and, in some cases, attempted murder. There
were videos and depositions. Some.. worker was in intensive care, hanging by a thread.
This never happened before when they shot, clubbed or suffocated Black people to death.
The protective blanket of former prosecutor Mike Allen‟s and Joe Teeters‟ criminal
justice system was in tatters. The authorities were negotiating with criminals. Judges
were breaking ranks. The Labor Council, their former defender, had largely abandoned
them and the Democrats seemed paralyzed. That was when Democratic County
Commissioner Todd Oportune thought he saw a chance to defuse the situation,.. to rescue
the grand juries from almost certain disaster in another jurisdiction, and set things right.
Oportune went and talked to Indian Hill Attorney Stanley Cheesley, a major player in the
local Democratic Party whose firm collected $200 million in legal fees from the fen-phen
diet drug class action settlement. The proud proposal they came up with was: empanel
local grand juries with equal numbers of nominations from Cincinnati Democrat and
Republican judges... Are you kidding? Get real Todd. Where have you been?.. and where
are you?
Most of the executive board members of the Labor Council were long-time close friends
(they thought) and supporters of Todd and some seemed unable to question this
relationship; others, looking back, were ready. Why didn‟t they get a project labor
agreement on the Banks, the huge riverfront development project that the city and county
were helping finance. African American unionists and others from SEIU, AFSCME, CFT
(teachers) and the Laborers wondered: Why don‟t we have a city-wide pre-apprenticeship
recruitment and training program to get Cincinnati youth into good union building trades
jobs, like a lot of other cities have? And now the RR yard confrontation in the midst of
national upheavals, was changing everyone‟s perspective. The community seemed much
clearer. The fight over building a $300 million high-tech jail that Oportune had
championed (promising a project labor agreement!!) against the clearly expressed (twice)
will of the electorate had opened many eyes. His alliance with Sherriff Lice on the jail,
and the Dems‟ deal to not run a candidate against the Repugs for the third County
Commissioner seat, was the end of the line for a lot of people.
Community activists said: Maybe his wife, but not Cheesley… His wife, Judith Dollop, a
federal judge, had come down squarely on the side of justice in a racial justice law suit
against the city and police department in Cincinnati after the Black rebellion of 2001.
Things weren‟t looking at all good for Teeters, maybe Lice too. Union lawyers got a
Federal court order for cellphone records. Who knows who else might get pulled down.
Indictments would open a flood of recriminations. The brotherhood of Cincinnati‟s finest
racists was dissolving. Ordinary white guys in Delhi, Cheviot, Western Hills, a long-time
base for Repuglican politics, were starting to have second thoughts about their choices.
They had already dismissed Congressman Shabit. A lot of their moms and dads and
granddads had had good union jobs back in the „50s or „70s when Cincinnati was a
“union town.” Things had gone terribly wrong, somewhere.
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8***
Ari went to the Plan with a new idea: we need to address more directly the income
distribution obscenities that exist around the world. Now that serious movement is
happening in the U.S., we should look at other areas. Of course we already did some of
that in New York, at Davos, and in Dubai, but there‟s a guy in Mexico who‟s worth $60
billion. He picked up telecom assets real cheap when the phone companies got privatized
in the 1990s. Leveraged the peoples‟ property into a huge fortune for himself. Then
there‟s the guys that own Grupo Mexico, the ones that grabbed the peoples‟ railroads and
mines. We really need to get one of them. It‟s such an outrage; it would inspire the whole
Latin continent … Other people on Forbes Magazine‟s list of top billionaires included a
bunch of superthugs in Russia who made out like bandits when those peoples‟
mismanaged treasures were auctioned off. The Plan decided it‟s time to send the camera
south of the border. Time to identify some companeros who are with the program.
While working on Monsanto Julie and Norm had been thinking ahead and decided they
might need another vacation with Mahmoud and Amal. But first they needed to research
telecom and Grupo Mexico. It was dangerous to do Google searching that would leave a
trail of who was doing the looking, so Julie headed off to the paper library. They could
put together a climate-change scientific rationale for their trip – actually there was one –
and they would look pretty legit. Norm had a collaboration with some Mexican climate
investigators and started thinking about which of his remote sensing equipment to box-
up.
9***
A satellite TV antenna installer in Dubai, a former airforce guy from Egypt, was
following some wires on a roof when he came across some blast debris and noticed some
odors he recognized from his service days. He poked around and then talked to some
building tenants. He thought he should report it, might advance his career. Fortunately the
Plan guy in the building heard about it the same afternoon and was able to warn his
colleagues before he was picked up that night and hauled off to a military facility. His
apartment was clean – no sat phone and the camera had already been shipped to Riyadh
in an oil services seismic testing truck borrowed for the trip. Additional HFs were safely
stowed in places he didn‟t even know. The Plan team in Dubai went on the offensive.
They found out where their guy was being held and then publicized the location of their
Robin Hood with calls to Al Jazeera and local media, calling for a public vigil. Lots of
Dubaiers came out, wearing scarves to retard the (Israeli) surveillance system. Rallies of
low paid over-worked employees sprang up, commending the attacks on the rich and
echoing the demands of the missileers. The authorities extracted a few names; fortunately
the guy was peripheral to sat phone communications and was able to avoid disclosing it.
There was some sympathy inside the security apparatus of the United Arab Republics..
and initially they kept the guy away from the U.S./Mossad agents who were arriving in
droves. When it started to look like the government was going to cave and hand the guy
over, he sorta disappeared, but in the good way. The imperial agents were appalled and
incredulous; very angry communications and threats followed from high places. For a
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while there was talk of a joint IDF/U.S. Navy Seal operation but the deciders decided it
probably wouldn‟t work. Nonetheless, the discovery opened a portal on the HF social
network that could now be examined in depth. Although no HFs were recovered, the
empire did learn subsequently that satellite phones are involved and immediately sprang
to investigate. This wasn‟t necessarily going to be easy; they could get Motorola
cooperation of course, but other systems, like those in Europe or Russia, might not be so
amenable these days. Although house-to-house searches in Dubai were being delayed by
hostile crowds, eventually two other team members were picked up and disappeared, this
time in the bad way. Fortunately, they didn‟t really know much about where the missiles
or phones came from or who brought them there. They just knew the reasons. Their
contacts were long gone.
These were the first team casualties. The Plan released extensive information on these
fighters for world progress to Al Jazeera, and on the internet, explaining who they were,
how they became part of the HF liberation movement, and what their contributions had
been. They called for memorial services for these fallen examples of the new way, in all
countries. Virtual services started jumping out of Facebook and MySpace.
10***
Congresswoman and Speaker-of-the-House Nancy Pilati was fighting beside Joe Bidden
on five fronts to keep the Party‟s Over Caucus from seizing control. Every time she
thought she had one region secured something terrible would happen again. Sometimes it
was one of the new Democratic House members who would suddenly turn from being a
grateful, fawning apprentice in the halls of power to being a raving populist stirring up
hoards of constituents while sprinting to catch up with the crowd. Other times it was
trusted old stalwarts who had trudged through eons of national leading and relationship-
building who inexplicably, over-night, would lose their bearings and start talking about
accountability, class domination and our civilization, or “the people.” They would
schedule hearings on energy policy without first settling on an agenda with the oil
lobbyists! They were drafting details of mortgage clean-up procedures instead of waiting
for the banks to do it! How can this government survive? The left-fringe Democrats who
used to complain a lot but never had the skills or connections to make much trouble, and
always voted reliably with compromise, were agglomerating into a disciplined on-
message team with a firm voice and no inhibitions. They were starting to dispatch
Christiano-fascists and steal their base. They had some neocons in-hiding or on disability
retirement. They were holding hearings on a national plan to help people do energy
retrofits on their homes that would force the utilities to offer and administer low-interest
loans and force the big-box home improvement companies to provide quality, low-cost
materials and participate in education classes for consumers and contractors. A Home
Depot sales associate in an orange apron told the Senators, “if they can do fancy kitchen
make-overs, why can‟t they do insulation retrofits, passive solar window placements and
water conservation. Geothermal too. And why don‟t they get out of the grass harvesting
business and promote native ground covers that don‟t soak up water, herbicides and
fertilizers and then gasoline to cut them down and dispose of them?” Another committee
was compiling green building code and best practices information from the most
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advanced cities. The cacophony of new ideas out of which salvation could come was
almost deafening confusion for Pilati, Bidden, and the old guard.
Most shocking of all was the fall of AIPAC. The Democreeps could have imagined a
bank or two failing, what with the credit ponzi schemes they had helped create, but
AIPAC? Those guys really did have God on their side but in the course of six months
they had sputtered into a heap that left them with no servicable weapons of political
annihilation. People didn‟t even want their money. Their loudmouth promoters were
being invited for entertainment. There was growing conviction that things were more
easily fixed in the Middle East without the Zionist vision. That conference being
organized in Lebanon for the one-state solution was getting lots of support from ordinary
Jews, Arabs, schiksas and goyim all over America. POC committees were inviting Jewish
and Islamic thinkers from here and abroad to give testimony on solutions in the Middle
East. Diplomats from less than progressive Arab states were being asked difficult
questions and scrambling to salvage trade and aid – especially military – programs.
Debate was advancing on some principles of resolution that could drive lots of different
conflict fixes. A plan for withdrawal of empire from Iraq and Afghanistan was beginning
to take shape. Caucus members were writing a global bill of rights, one that the Bama
might find difficult to accept and difficult to reject.
11***
Some right-wing panic and desperation was morphing into disintegration. They started
watching old movies. Some were moving to Costa Rica or Mexico or Colombia. Others
were re-locating to Poland, ex-Soviet Georgia and Lithuania. China was particularly
intriguing as the new frontier of free capital, but even there there were uncertainties. It
was so discouraging; both political parties had self-deceived themselves into financial
collapse and then they seemed to lose their firm grip of the handles of power just when
this insane public conversation on class power broke out. Depression was expanding with
no consolations, just pharmaceuticals. Skirmishes in Congress for a while pulled in lots
of defenders of the “free-market” but they weren‟t very good on the justice thing. A
whole new vista was growing up. Executive pay took some solid hits and there was talk
of turning the tax code upsidedown so that the rich would be paying for the collapse for
years.. Public works were in, again.
12***
A Congressional Committee was examining long-term military strategy. Dennis helped

identify who should give testimony. The “long war” concept which had been operative
for some time was being re-visited. The regulars were of course aware of this disease and
even progressive legislators until recently had generally conceded they couldn‟t stop
empire, but things were changing. However, the technicians of modern empire were so
busy watching their investments shrivel they hadn‟t kept up with the public pulse. They
thought the whole asymmetric war thing was pretty much worked out, self-evident; just
required some long-range planning and patient commitment. They used to speak quite
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openly about accomplishments and prospects, but now some were having trouble
remembering many of the specifics.
General McGlasstal, the Bama‟s new choice to run the war, was exactly the man for the
occasion. An expert in extrajudicial execution, he was responsible for the assassinations
of hundreads (thousands?) of Iraqis and, before that, activists in other countries working
against the empire. His program was the 21st Century upgrade of Operation Phoenix from
Vietnam. Former-Betraeus adviser Derek Barfey gushed on the great progress made in
achieving “security” by murdering the opponents of occupation in the streets, in eateries,
and in bedrooms. This was the on-the-ground complement to what the Hellfire/drone
system was doing from the sky. When asked to what extent Blackwater was engaged in
these activities, well, that was classified information, but McGlasstal couldn‟t help
remembering what a great loss Eric was.
3. Last Gasp
1***
The plan to have Israel attack Iran had been put off over and over, the last time because
there was fear in the U.S. that it might actually push people to vote for Obama, even
though the guy himself had been beating up on Iran throughout his campaign. Also, the
Georgia debacle with Russia kind of cooled off the neo-neocons and war-mongers as they
imagined that Russia might do something crazy again, only a lot worse. Then Obama
won anyway and everything went to pieces. Crisis at the top. Pax Americana was
evaporating; the war to end the Viet Nam syndrome had morphed into the Iraq syndrome:
losing after winning at a high price. Russia is acting-up after 15 yrs of put-downs as its
reward for dumping “communism” and opening the flood-gates for privatization. The
U.S. dream machine had become a nightmare, a world poster-child for capitalism run
amuk. The U.S.- Israeli alliance for repression was in danger of faltering; it was one thing
to be an impudent bully with a big guy to back you up and pay the bills. It was another to
go solo in a world increasingly rejecting your basic rationale, nuclear weapons or not.
Furthermore, some participants in discussions growing inside Israeli ruling circles were
starting to exhibit weakness. Open discussion of the one- vs. two-state solutions was
surfacing. The unpreventable assaults on ruling elites in other countries was stimulating
deviant and dangerous political currents.
The Israeli hardliners in strategic intel and the military, and their American colleagues in
consultation with their leaderships, decided to convene an emergency conference
bringing in selected fellow travelers from Europe, Asia and elsewhere to talk about the
Persian Gulf quagmire, global security, coordinated military assaults and the retooling of
the entire surveillance-action security machine to address new threats. The Labor Party
leadership in Israel didn‟t like this approach but as usual, was short on ideas, and so went
along. Normally such a conference probably would have been held in the U.S. but things
there were unsteady and other venues didn‟t seem safe. Some of those attending would be
uncomfortable being seen in Israel but it would be a top-secret event with no publicity.
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Discrete enquiries had resulted in China and India agreeing to send carefully chosen
delegates. Attendees would be arriving at an Israeli airbase by way of Italy on U.S.
military transport.
Sasha first heard about the conference at home when her dad was talking with some
generals and civilian leadership in their living room one evening over after-dinner
liquors. They were brainstorming on what to do on several different fronts including the
rogue missile network and the growing, inappropriate public discourse on political power
that was threatening their entire enterprise. She wanted to listen but there wasn‟t any way
to do so that wasn‟t kind of obvious. She did hear something about “sharing the April 19th
agenda with the U.S. and British ambassadors.” A few days later she told Ari about it and
Ari consulted with Ben. It didn‟t take long for Naomi to discover a high level top security
meeting was scheduled for the auditorium and staff conference rooms in their IDF
building beginning the morning of April 19 for five days. Mossad was involved along
with administration officials and intel agencies from several other countries. Back on
base, Sasha mentioned to Barschauer that she had heard from her dad that some sort of
important meeting was coming up on the 19th. He too had heard about it; it was to be a
meeting to explore all options in these strange times – nothing was “off the table.” He
didn‟t know how far down they would go for staff support in IDF. So far, he wasn‟t on
the list, and hoped it would stay that way.
Apparently Moses would be ready to speak, again. There would be the nuclear options to
terrorize the world – the ultimate collective punishment that the Israelis were so good
at… like bulldozing entire cities or small countries. An opportunity for the U.S. to try out
Rumskull‟s nuclear bunker-busters, especially now with India locked into Condi‟s
agreement permitting nuclear weapons development and testing. Designing upgrades for
the surveillance systems was another major focus, including next-generation processing
of all private communications to identify wayward and misguided elements in any
country. But there was some division: maybe we need to re-tool our political control
systems, enhance our negotiation resources to preserve influence through private
networks, refine our skill sets. How to pull vagabond politicians and officials back into
alignment with the ruling-class consensus (they called it “the forward leadership
consensus”). Specific proposals and insights remained to be fleshed out. Sam
Huntingdone from Harvard, the guy that recommended “strategic hamlets” and forced
urbanization in Viet Nam and a recently self-taught expert on Islamic cultures and
political systems, was working up some drafts on contract for the Americans.
The Plan discussed the pending conclave of the high-tech superthugs. What consequences
might follow from an HF attack on it? Could they go berserk and start nuking the world –
Iran or Pakistan? Would it strengthen their hand in deliberations elsewhere? Would it
scare people back into the clutches of their old rulers? Would the people understand what
was at stake, what sorts of options these guys are seriously considering? It might blow
our cover, expose the Israeli origins of our HF Front. Expose all of us. (Ben:) You know,
what would really help tremendously would be if we could obtain some of their
discussion papers and release them to the world simultaneously. (Ari:) Wow, that really
would blow our cover, but it would a spectacular show. (Beth:) Could Naomi do that?...
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Well, if she could get into the printer cues in the office network at the top of the IDF
system, or the e-mail servers, she should be able to get anything.. I‟ll talk to her. (Jusef:)
We really need to talk about what we would do if we lost Ben and Ari‟s access inside
IDF. Could we continue at all?... Well, it might take them some time but I can‟t imagine
them not uncovering our sat phone activity. The only reason they haven‟t already is that
they haven‟t looked; they can‟t imagine that we exist. If Stash and Iraj don‟t get
uncovered, I suppose we might have an alternate phone system operating by then but I‟m
sure they‟ll look at Iraj again very carefully. Maybe Iraj should discuss this with his
American colleague in the Green Zone.
One of the Baghdad team said: We are at a critical moment here; things could go either
way. I think a dramatic hit at the top of the global apparatus of repression would be very
helpful, especially on Israel which people perceive as impregnable. It would embolden
lots of Iraqis who are waiting to see what happens before deciding whether to join the
secular liberation movement here. Anjolie from the Africa team agreed but worried that
the entire HF operation could be destroyed very quickly at a time when it is still opening
eyes in many regions of the world, especially Africa. We really need to deal with the U.S.
involvement in Somalia and Yemen. Julie asked how soon would that action be ready to
go?... It‟s very difficult right now to identify potential allies in Mogadishu, there is so
much suspicion and danger. If we had a team in place there, we could move quite
quickly. Part of the problem is we don‟t even know what presence the U.S. has there;
most of their people may be operating from ships or out of bases in Ethiopia. We‟re
exploring possibilities there too, and we‟re looking at the top family running Yemen.
(Ben:) Ari, will Sasha‟s dad be at this thing? (Jasmine:) Remind me, who is Sasha?...
That‟s the IDF woman at the same base as Ari; she has helped us a little here and there
but her father is a top corporate macher – mover and shaker – in the Israeli ruling class…
Ya, OK, now I remember… Ah, well,.. I guess he might be.. yeah, probably; he‟s right in
there with those guys.. Hmm, that‟s a problem… (Jasmine:) What sort of problem?...
Well, I mean it will produce some.. ah, conflict potentially, I mean, she will know that we
did it.. She‟s sort of a peripheral supporter by now, but no one ever suggested that her dad
might be a target and get killed. I don‟t know what she would do.. I don‟t know what I
would do… (Jusef:) These kinds of family divisions are not unusual where I come from.
People have to decide what side they‟re on and deal with it… Ya, I understand.. I‟ll have
to think this through; obviously we have to decide on how to handle this but I need some
time to think. I‟ll discuss it with Ben and Beth later, OK? (Julie:) Whether or not to hit
the IDF clearly is a decision that shouldn‟t depend on some personal connection, but this
is potentially a serious problem. We‟ll need to carefully handle this. It‟s not unusual for
complications like this to come up in these situations, you know, especially when we are
forming alliances with people on the dark side, like in the Green Zone.
2***
Sasha invited Ari for a drink at the base lounge. They hadn‟t talked in almost two weeks.
They came in together and, with their glasses from the bar, found their private table.
Sasha squeezed Ari‟s hand and said, Well, how are you; it seems like it‟s been a long
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time.. She was looking into his eyes with more determination and passion than usual…
I‟m pretty good,.. Ari shrugged, and studied her indescribably appealing face.. Things are
really popping various places and we‟re really excited by some of the developments,..
with his irrepressible smile.. How are things with Aaron?… Ah, they‟re good.. we really
enjoy getting together. This has been such a good relationship for me in a lot of ways.. I
don‟t know exactly where it will end up; we‟ve been talking quite.. I guess, frankly,
about our feelings. We really are in a very similar place which makes it much easier,
looking at Ari questioningly… Yeah, that certainly helps. Sometimes being truthful takes
enormous courage; I haven‟t always had it when I needed it. It‟s one of my enduring
challenges. So, what are the long-term prospects for you two? Sounds like there‟s some
question… Yeah, I think we both could be comfortable together forever,.. but maybe
there is a little something missing; we both seem to be feeling that. It‟s sad to come to
admit this, you know?... Sure... I swing between relief and anxiety with almost no
provocation... Well, you‟ve been traversing some important territory and Aaron has been
very helpful it seems like… Yes, he has, looking down at her hands.. So, what about you
and Rachel?... I think she‟s pretty amazing; I have tremendous respect for what she has
done on the conference and then this summit project. And I want to be close to her, and
we have good talks on all sorts of things. She‟s always been quite attractive to me.. but
sometimes I wonder if I‟m enough for her. She‟s very outgoing and social, and also
ambitious. I can see her having a high-level position someday, hopefully in a very
different government. I don‟t feel like I will be her best companion along the way, and
we could drift apart. Does this make sense? There are a lot of things I don‟t have much
patience for… Well, does she know about your reservations? Have you talked about
everything yet?... We have some, but I think we‟re both avoiding it… Does she have any
issues?... She hasn‟t brought up any big problem, but I don‟t exactly trust her on this;
maybe with everything that has been happening, she hasn‟t had time or energy to sit
down and deal with these things… Seems like your “activities” would be a huge
unknown hanging over the future. Would certainly be a big issue if I were her… I think it
is an unresolved issue that she has kind of set aside for now. Obviously it will come up at
some point.
So Ari, maybe someday you and I will give it a whirl, giving his hand another strong
squeeze with a penetrating smile. What do you have to say about that?... Well,.. that‟s
something.. I‟ve tried not to give a lot of thought to,.. probably because it scares me…
Why?... Well, I could imagine getting quite interested in you but encountering
overwhelming obstacles… Like what?... Like you‟re not interested, or, like you were just
saying, my activities are.. unacceptable or irresponsible, or criminal, whatever… Hmm,
well that‟s true,.. I mean the criminal part, grinning… And we have rather different
circles of friends… Ari, I don‟t think the interest would be lacking; I guess we‟ll have to
wait and see what happens in this bizarre world,.. with cheerful grin gently nodding, and
then looking down again.
Ari, did you ever find out anything about that IDF meeting in April... Yeah, it‟s a big
deal, a major secret gathering of the top level military and intel people from all the
countries the U.S. and Israel have close dealings with. They‟re really worried about
what‟s going on and the implications for future “security.” It‟s partly a reaction to some
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of the things that our missile has helped facilitate… Remember Barschauer told me they
would be considering “all options?”… Yeah, that‟s what we think. These guys are very
capable of thinking the unthinkable; it‟s a challenge to imagine what forms of evil they
might come up with.. Is Barschauer still not going?... As far as I know … Ari (after
several moments of silence): We‟ve been discussing what to do about it... What do you
mean,.. what can you do about it?... Well,.. shrug.. we could hit them with our missile...
You could do that? In Israel? How can you do that.. her voice rising?... Sash, this gets
back to how much you should know… Whispering,. how can you get a missile into
Israel?... We probably shouldn‟t talk here. Sasha, remember when we talked about
vanishing neutrality?.. Look, this is a big decision and one that I certainly don‟t control;
let‟s wait and see what gets decided; I will try to help you do what you need to do but it
could get quite complicated. You will need to decide whether you want to know these
things, and what you would do with this knowledge. Let‟s talk again in a few days, OK?
I‟ll know more then… They got up and Ari took Sasha and tried to gentle away her
exploding fear, but it didn‟t work. The complexity in her eyes‟ was beyond engagement.
3***
Iraj was back in Baghdad. All the commotion was creating turmoil in the sat phone
business. He met with Jim and they decided to go out of the Green Zone for lunch and
private conversation. They talked about the arrests in Dubai. Jim said he heard they didn‟t
get much out of the two guys they got. (Iraj:) Their finding out about the use of some sat
phone system has generated enormous scrutiny everywhere, including at my employer.
Mossad had appeared almost immediately and spent days querying management and the
engineering staff and snooping around the system. They pretty much left me alone, after
poking around in my computer, which I attributed to my special status as a Company
asset. Mossad wants to install some electronic surveillance but management is resisting –
would be really calamitous if word got out that Mossad was listening in on our encrypted
phone traffic.. Iraj asked if Jim knew what happened to the two Plan prisoners. Jim
frowned, said they were probably dead – I know they didn‟t come through Baghdad..
Yes, there‟s a lot of discussion about the phone system they are using. NSA is dredging
up all sorts of data from their satellite electromagnetic surveillance archives. Of course if
it‟s got good encryption it‟s going to be difficult to sort anything out without the
cooperation of the phone provider.
Iraj asked if Jim had heard about a high-level April 19th IDF meeting in Tel Aviv… No..
who‟s involved?.. Jim was curious, and amazed that Iraj knew about it. Apparently the
Plan had people inside IDF! Wow, this asset was paying off! This changes everything!..
A Station Chief wouldn‟t normally know about such a meeting, but he was wondering if
anyone in the Company knew about it. If President Obama even knew about it? Could be
the intel gang that Rumskull had put together inside DOD. This would be interesting and
challenging – would take some thought though: someone might want to know how Jim
heard about it.. Maybe he could say he heard it from some Mossad guy… Yes,.. Iraj
agreed.. an inept enquiry could compromise the entire Plan operation,.. and then he
mentioned that a missile might hit the IDF meeting site… This was super-astounding.
Jim was reeling with the implications. That they could even do it, and what the
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consequences might be.. Holy shit! This was a new ball-game, again. He wanted to give
some good advice but didn‟t know what that was, really needed to think about this one.
Iraj brought up the Plan‟s sat phone resources problem again and the funding issue. Jim
was prepared on those matters and had worked-up some proposals to discuss. Long into
the afternoon they plotted and parried. Jim could pay $10,000 a month for his secret
agent and another $5,000 for a secure sat phone network with 25 phones through Iraj‟s
company, including one phone for Jim. The funds would be available through the
USBank branch in the Green Zone. There were lots of mysterious accounts there and no
one would notice this one. On the new phone system Jim would be an observer, speaking
when spoken to. The account would be handled out of a CIA front in Riyadh.
Iraj mentioned that the Plan needed another source of HF cameras and wondered if there
was a way to get some out of Bagram? (Jim:) No, there‟s no way I could help with that;
it would be extremely risky. The Company guys that maintain those systems would be
more than curious if I made enquiries… He brought the conversation back to Israel,
really wanting to ask how the Plan got inside IDF, but knew that was off-limits. Iraj
asked whether he knew any Mossad guys that „think outside the box?‟… Well, yeah, one
or two but they‟re tightly controlled and most deviants get weeded out pretty fast… (Iraj:)
Might to nice to meet one of them sometime.. looking at Jim for assent. Then they said
good-bye. All in all a very productive day as Jim trudged back into the GZ carrying a
new and unexpected load.
4***
Before the House Committee on Foreign Relations, a rare debate on the Israeli Central
Dogma was breaking out. Ever optimistic, Jimmy Carter had testified on the pitiful
history of the two-state solution, and former AIPAC lobbyists had been subpoenaed.
Jewish attention was glued and divided. This was a public discussion of their
fundamental beliefs and dirty secrets. After the Bama got elected, concern over an Israeli
attack on Iran had waned for a while but now there were bad noises coming again and
fleet movements, especially with Iraq threatening to break loose. The entire “security”
debate was opening up and this time, the E-word wasn‟t totally absent. EERN buttons
started appearing, holding hands with the TBBIO buttons. Everyone was interested.
The LM union members found this debate quite intriguing; several had seen it on CNN.
Most were hearing about this “one-state” thing for the first time... Well, what used to be
there before? someone asked... Before what? Before WW II? Before Jews were getting
slapped around and cluster-fucked all over Eastern Europe for centuries?... Molly said the
history is convoluted and wrapped up in religious dogmas and cultural sensitivities on all
sides, and of course, economics… Then there‟s the whole Roman Empire thing going on
for 500 years, and God knows what all went on with that – well, actually God does know,
they invented God - and then Christianity. (Irv:) Just look at Afghanistan and the other
„stans today and then fast-backward 2,000 years… You know, I‟m starting to get the
impression that people opt for this or that flavor of religious fanaticism when nothing else
is working: when there‟s no organized process that they can see leading to sustainable
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solutions of their fundamental problems, whether its farm land, trade, access to water, oil,
freedom from massacre, whatever. (Molly:) It‟s clear there was this Zionist movement in
reaction to European adversity that for a long time fantasized about “going back to
Africa” or somewhere, but it didn‟t really catch on until Hitler‟s “final solution.” And the
Palestinians were basically bystanders in a pleasant but colonial Middle Eastern
backwater at the wrong time in history.
The right-wing militia geeks started up again talking about the grand Jewish conspiracy
but now people who were paying attention had some answers: They‟re just one small but
clever sector in the global capitalist conspiracy to screw almost everybody, and most
Jews have nothing to do with it, stupid, just like we don‟t.. The Zionist bosses have been
really good at schmoozing with the European and American bosses and working out joint
ventures. We should be that good.
5***
The Plan took up the IDF hit decision. This malignant concretion of global ruling class
deciders and techno-thugs really needed a smackdown. They had been totally impervious
so far outside of Iraq (and Davos, Dubai and NYC). Who knows what horrendous plots
they‟re hatching. They are manipulating internal security organs at the highest levels and
making plans that could force the hands of top decision-makers in some countries. And it
was all secret, totally invisible to just about everyone. The idea of simultaneously leaking
the ensemble of discussion papers was very appealing as was disclosing who was in
attendance, which Ben was pretty sure they could find out. It was agreed that leaking the
papers would likely pre-empt any immediate adverse assaults because the participating
governments would be so embarrassed, especially those not fully aware of the
deliberations that their guys were participating in. So the discussion turned to the
downside of likely having the Plan‟s existence revealed inside, and possibly originating
from, IDF. They talked about concerns and things that would need to be done if this hit
goes forward: 1) The remaining inventory of HFs in Jordan needs to be distributed and
widely dispersed. Some of them could continue to diffuse through Iraq but other channels
are needed. Anjolie and Jusef said they had a pathway through Yemen and Egypt that
was just about ready. There were safe storage sites in Algeria and Lebanon. 2) What
about Ben, Ari, Naomi and even Sasha. Ari said it‟s possible they would still miss the
connection, but not likely. Once we are identified, then the whole network of people
working on the OSS will be dragged down, starting with Rachel, Beth. (Ben:) Well, even
if we lost the Israeli team, the rest of the HF front should be able to continue indefinitely..
provided our second sat phone system remained secure. (Jasmine:) How reliable is this
Jim guy, in Baghdad? He could ruin everything. (Ben:) Iraj just had another discussion
with the guy that went really well and I‟m waiting to get together with him on all this; I‟ll
know in a few days. We got some money out of him…How much?... $10,000 a month…
Chorus: Wow, not bad… and a new phone system… great… I think he‟s on the right side
but we need to examine all this. He‟s already had plenty of opportunity to turn us in..
probably would be an accessory at this point.
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(Ari:) One way to cover our tracks a bit would be to hit not only this meeting place but
also the IDF IT operations which are in the same building… (Ben:) Yeah, we could
wreak some havoc although these are very secure and everything of course is fire-
suppressed up the wazoo. The servers are basically untouchable but we could certainly
disrupt the whole network for a while and destroy a lot of the support infrastructure,
including where Naomi and I work... So the plan became to hit the IT section 2 minutes
after hitting the thug-fest. So we‟ll need to have phone system 2 up and running by then.
And we need a local missile team to do this one, people that have had no contact with
Ben or Ari. Beth would do some searching. Also, maybe we should ship the U.S. camera
back here so we can have several launch teams. Put the Monsanto and Latin American
retributions on hold, for now. (Ari:) Maybe I can ship out another camera from the base,
for servicing. That would give us four. Probably a good time for the hit would be around
4:30 pm, shooting from a busy, noisy Arab area with lots of trucks. (Beth:) Perhaps we
could release the documents from the U.S., make it look like a leak from there. That
might take some of the pressure off us here. (Norm:) So, we should ship the research
camera back to the university in Tel Aviv?.. Agreed… Beth, can you arrange this with
our university contacts?
6***
Ben got together with Naomi to discuss things over dinner at her place. He explained why
he thought it was really important to expose this IDF conference for public scrutiny but
Naomi was very skeptical and resistant. So Ben offered: OK how about if you figure out
how to get ahold of some of the discussion documents and.. we‟ll take a look. If you
think they should remain hidden from public view, then, they probably will – I won‟t
have them; I don‟t think anyone else can get at them. Also, if you come across a list of
attendees, that would be really helpful. And if you eventually agree that it would be good
for these things to see the light of day, we‟ll take it from there… OK,.. I‟ll see what I can
do, but I‟m not making any promises and it will have to be pretty spectacular to get me to
the point of leaking top-secret IDF materials to the world. It‟s one thing to disagree
strongly with what these guys are doing; it‟s another to opt for high treason, you know
what I mean? I gather you do know. It‟s going to take some skill and stealth on my part
but I think it‟s doable; I was looking at the front-office security systems today.
Over coffee, they talked about the turmoil that had been roiling America with an
unprecedented range of topic and opinion now in play. Naomi saw it breaking out within
Israel too; conversations on one-country were starting. Once people get past the
demographic terror and imagine a diverse, open multi-party political regime, it sort of
makes sense and could even spread outside of Israel into Syria, for example. But it really
takes some stretching for people to get there. Some peaceniks are doing amazing things
in promoting this debate… (Ben:) Yeah, they‟ve spent years thinking about this stuff and
fine-tuning the arguments, and their predictions have been relentless. And now the
refuseniks are getting on-board; before, these courageous people were mainly on moral
autopilot, now they have political theory. [refuseniks – drafted Israelis who refused to
serve in the IDF or in occupied territory; experienced intense military, legal and social
mistreatment but prevailed]
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7***
Beth found some engineers of a comradely persuasion that were willing to talk further
about an action involving “the missile.” When the conversation had progressed beyond
the political rationale to implementation, she arranged a meeting between three of these
folks and Stash. One of the guys had worked for a while in Mossad several years back, so
was pretty well versed in surrepticity. The meetings were carefully plotted. The woman
worked for an aerospace company doing both civilian and military avionics. All of them
for years had felt the weight of the Central Dogma invading all aspects of their lives but
had largely given up hope on an alternative. But none of them was into martyrdom,
either, and so a lot of time was spent designing a fail-safe operation and defining an exit
strategy once the deed was done.
They were impressed as hell with the technical exploits of the HF teams, more so when
Stash explained the details of the camera system and associated gadgets. Beth‟s contacts
in the Arab community were foraging for good launch locations – a complicated roof-top
that could be quickly configured for the act and then reconfigured immediately.
8***
Sasha called up Ari to meet again for lunch. They arrived after most of the base crowd
had dwindled and Sasha softly got right to the point: A lot of really high-level people are
going to be there, not just military.. My dad will be there. He was talking about it all
weekend with various.. people he deals with, including some Americans and Europeans!
What‟s going to happen? Do you know yet??.. with sincere fear showing. Ari had talked
it over with Ben and Beth. Things would be a lot clearer if they could see some of the
planning papers, which maybe Naomi will have this week. Assuming the worst – that
outrageous assaults on humanity are being contemplated as serious choices – they could
see three options for dealing with Sasha, starting with showing her the papers.
1. Tell her nothing more… leave her to her own devices. This was unpredictable
and very dangerous to the Plan. If she disclosed anything, the entire colossus
could descend upon her, and us.
2. Tell her just enough for her to contrive some plan to protect her father, like
calling him out of the meeting, but this too was very risky – in the blind
aftermath he might be more of a class-patriot than grateful dad.
3. Tell her what‟s going to happen and help her take certain actions that will
spare her father, but she‟ll have to do it our way, work with us. This would
involve a complex dance in which not only her father but also her mom might
get involved in difficult high-stakes and searing negotiations. Her basic line
will have to be: if I didn‟t know about this, he‟d very likely end up dead;
which do you prefer and what are you willing to abide?
Ari was trying to find Sasha and himself a way through the fog. None of the options
seemed persuasive. He offered to show Sasha the documents when they became
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available, which helped a very little, but still didn‟t address the central problem. She
couldn‟t imagine what she would do. Probably talk to her mom first; maybe she could see
the other side at least a little. He suggested that maybe Beth would be willing to meet
with Sasha and Bev to discuss the whole dilemma. Sasha demurred: Even if I agreed with
your whole shtick, what would I do?? My parents will say, how could you? And I guess I
could say the same to them, but that doesn‟t resolve the matter. Ari was searching for a
line that she could use with her father that might work, but was coming up empty. He
considered “Sasha, think about if you didn‟t know us,…” or “It‟s nothing personal
against your father..” Nothing worked. Or, “given the connection, we can use it and you
can benefit.”… Are you trying to bargain my loyalty to your insane campaign with my
father‟s life?.. They gave up but agreed to talk again in two days‟ time.
9***
Ben was waiting for Naomi in a Polish restaurant. They said 7:00 pm but it was almost
8:00. Naomi had figured out how to get copies of the available meeting documents and
thought she could locate the participant list. Getting electronic copies was a little tricky,
given all the security hurdles, and removing them from IDF on a personal flash drive
presented some challenges but she knew the system. She had to imbed them in personal
digital photograph files which took some time. Ben was reluctant to call and was
wondering if he should abandon the dinner plan when Naomi slipped in looking frazzled
and carrying a briefcase. They were both really hungry and so focused briefly on the
menu. Naomi was tense and excited. She had the papers and the list after running home to
decrypt them and then to a commercial copy place to print them, but hadn‟t looked at
them beyond identifying them. They agreed they ought to wait till later to examine the
discussion papers but Ben wanted to see the invitation list. On six pages, the names of the
conspirators included 18 Americans, six from Defense Intelligence, three from NSA, 2 or
3 from the U.S. National Security Council and Dept. of Defense, and a bunch of others
from various organizations or listed as consultants and contractors, including a Prof.
Samuel Huntingdone and, whoa, Henry Kissingher!!. There were 5 from the UK, 9 from
IDF, 7 from Mossad, and 9 other top-level Israeli government officials and contractors.
Then two from Germany and Italy, one from France, 2 from Russia, 2 from Saudi Arabia
and others from the Emirates. The list had the highest level of security protection.
After some thick borchst with a gob of sour cream, luscious kielbasa and scrumptious
potato pancakes Naomi and Ben hurried back to Naomi‟s place and set up on her kitchen
table to peek at the thugs‟ theses for saving their wonderful world. It was a lot of paper
and was going to take a while. There were some deep presentations on “our civilization,”
ideological structures, and security systems that would have to wait for later study but the
options papers were a pretty easy read. It was all there, including the worst case
scenarios. Ben was kind of relieved – no surprises, as bad as we expected – although
there were some new wrinkles, like spreading high-level short-lived radioactive sources
in mountain passes and trails in Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan to sicken the
Taliban and Al Qaeda populations; and nuclear bunker busters for a much broader range
of targets than Iran‟s underground nuclear facilities. For Naomi, it was a glimpse at the
apocalypse, things they had been telling her but she not wanting to believe. Ben was very
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tired and asked to be excused to unconsciousness. Naomi stayed up for three more hours,
pulling off parts of documents into a summary with annotations on her laptop. The
British proposals were the most nuanced and historically informed; the IDF and DOD
fantasies were the worst. Though not as dramatically evil, the proposals for apprehension
and isolation of selected wrong-thinkers in a vast international thought-reform prison
system hidden from public view or consciousness was probably the gravest threat. When
she finally crawled into bed she whispered in Ben‟s ear: OK, you win... Ben murmured,..
thanks sweetie,.. holding her and slipping away again.
10***
The IDF conference documents were e-mailed to the Plan members with encryption. The
readers were not disappointed. The depths of cynical manipulation and repressive
engineering were impressive. Huntingdone had thought a lot about how to steer the most
backward facing Islamic prejudices and cultural investments toward primitive property-
based institutions and media domination. Detailed proposals for selected targeted acts of
terror were being developed for review and fine-tuning. Fomenting internal armed
conflict within Moslem societies was looking attractive – it worked so well in Iraq. Could
be exported lots of places, especially Indonesia, Pakistan, the other „stans, China,
Malaysia and India, if needed. The early identification and neutralization of secular
critical thinkers was a another priority. Cultivating fear with a façade of modernity and
cool was central to the plan. Considerably more sophisticated than Viet Cong heads stuck
on spikes outside Sam Huntingdone‟s strategic hamlets.
It worked: the Plan was totally solidified on the IDF hit. Norm would come up with a
plan to release the documents in the U.S. at the appropriate time. Ari reported the paltry
progress in solving the Sasha dilemma. (Jasmine:) This is really not about family crisis
but a clash of civilizations: the bosses‟ and ours‟. I think we need to put Sasha‟s problem
aside and think about how this whole thing should play out… Beth had been wrestling
with this one too and had a new idea she wanted to broach: Maybe these guys are more
valuable to us alive than dead – you know, sort of like George Bush was… Several
wondered how that could be… Well, here‟s how it might work. Suppose they‟re meeting
and just after their documents hit the streets (the internet) they get this message saying
they are targeted and under imminent attack, no-one should leave the secure area and no
countermeasures should be taken by IDF, Mossad or any other Israeli, U.S. or other
security forces. And we release the list of attending thugs. Otherwise the missiles fly.
Their activities have been divulged to the entire world and now they have some
accounting to do, past and present. Then we negotiate something like a global Truth
Commission where these guys have to testify on the past activities of their ruling classes..
or face a collective demise, like Desmond Tutu and the people did in South Africa after
apartheid. (Julie:) Yeah, it would be like a world Grand Jury and without the Fifth
Amendment. (Norm:) We could start with Henry Kissingher, have him explain and
document how he prolonged the Viet Nam war to help Nixon‟s career, or describe how
the U.S. helped Suharto murder half a million (mostly Moslem) Indonesians. (Ari:) The
U.S. Defense intel guys could explain how their international gulag works and describe in
detail their collaborations with the Israelis. (Beth:) Ya, and the Israelis, Saudis and
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Chinese would have a lot of explaining to do, too. We could solicit interrogators and
expert opinions in all these areas to grill these guys, from all over the world. It would be
an inquisition dream-team for the people. The perps could hire lawyers, for what good it
would do them.. We could bring indictments and turn them over to the Hague for crimes
against the people, mass murder, grand theft global, but also have some redemption
options for those coming clean. (Ari:) We could demand full TV access and broadcast it
all over the world. (Ben:) They would have to identify their accomplices and the
documents that further reveal the historical record. Foreign governments could be called
upon to release specifically identified classified materials. For balance, we could propose
additional inquisition topics appropriate in other venues (Russia (Stalinism), Spain
(Franco), Chile (Pinochet), UK (Ireland, India..), Portugal (Salazar), China (China), India
(Kashmir), Saudi Arabia, Japan (Korea, Vietnam), Serbia, .. (the list would be long) and
suggest who the leading witnesses might be. Wouldn‟t be limited to thugs of Christian or
Jewish persuasion either.
The Plan members tentatively liked this novel idea. They were imagining the possibilities
for this media event but also the basic extortion that would make it possible. (Jusef:) I‟m
not sure just targeting the meeting will work. The logistics would be formidable. They
could sneak people out one way or another. I think we need to target the entire Israeli
elite, put them all at risk until our demands for this “inquisition” are met. Put the burden
on them to demonstrate compliance… They might have to requisition a nearby hotel to
put the criminals up although IDF hqtrs have accommodations for use in war-time crises.
It would be essential to maintain the ability to hit the IDF and other venues for an
extended period of time, even though there would be intense clandestine efforts to find
and neutralize us. Might require some demonstration missile hits to prove our
seriousness. Probably for this event, most Plan members should be mobilized for action.
The fundamental strategy might be to generate so much public interest in our inquisition
proceedings that they would continue even without the club of the Plan over their heads,
but then, public outrage has its limits – look at what happened in the U.S. on the bank
meltdown and bailout: initially people were so demoralized and disempowered (or at
least had been so-convinced) they put up with anything. Even after widespread work
stoppages and escalating clamor, the majority are still paralyzed.
The Plan argued the alternatives and wasn‟t unanimous but everyone agreed that the
inquisition path had possibilities for unprecedented gains and, if it failed, there was
always hell-fire retribution to fall back on. Ari was authorized to tell Sasha that an
alternate plan was under discussion that would avoid a frontal surprise attack. Ari was
thinking ahead: at some point there might be a role for Sasha as a go-between.. if she
should choose to accept..
11***
Jim was in on a Company conference call trying to assess the internal talk in various Iraqi
organizations concerning the unraveling of the occupation. There was intense debate
going on everywhere in Iraq, some of it quite interesting, some of it too interesting to
share with Company headquarters. Then the lead guy mentioned that a new initiative was
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going down from the Company concerning the missile gang. Someone in the office of the
National Intelligence Coordinator has decided it must be an inside job; there‟s been a
breach of security in some country‟s military… What are they doing, someone asked…
Which countries are they looking at?... Jim was very interested in this revelation offering
no comment. So far, Israel wasn‟t suspect… So, the lead guy said: Don‟t be surprised if
some guys come snooping around. At the end of the agenda, Jim from Baghdad asked if
anyone knew about this meeting coming up in Tel Aviv on the 19th? Was being convened
by IDF and the U.S. to discuss “all options.”… Silence. The section leader asked who
from the U.S. was attending? (Jim:) I don‟t know... What other countries?... I think UK,
Italy, Poland, probably some other NATO, with observers from China, India… How‟d
you hear about this?.. a pause… I was talking to a Mossad guy in Baghdad; I suspect he
wasn‟t supposed to know about it. Somebody, somewhere, let it slip, I guess… Hmm,
interesting; I‟ll make some enquiries. Do you think NSA‟s involved?... Don‟t know but
Defense Intelligence probably is… Yeah.. Lots of furrowed brows at the ends of the bit-
streams.
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Chapter Six
Safe Passage for State Techno-Thugs
1. Denial at the Top
1***
Some of the world‟s foreign ministers and national security chiefs were in intense
discussions on the IDF hijack. The release of documents was an enormous
embarrassment but nothing compared to what would come from a peoples‟ inquisition.
One tack suggested by a minor player was to dissociate ourselves from the threatened
operatives, dismissing them as rogue elements, but the U.S. and Israelis were in too deep
for that to be credible. Cutting them loose would be risking hell-fire if the missileers can‟t
be stopped before then. But this option had some appeal from another viewpoint:
sacrificing the plotter-hostages would pre-empt the inquisition, distract from the already
emerging truths, and hopefully generate a backlash of sympathy for our tireless leaders
trying to make sense of a senseless world teeming with terrorists. It would be another
traumatic and painful loss to the ruling elites but, hey, that‟s war. Sometimes you have to
suck it in and move-on. It was starting to look like the Israeli “we don‟t negotiate with
terrorists” thing was going to win again, but this time with significant parts of the
IDF/Mossad upper echelon ending-up on their own petard. Too bad for them.
The other frantic deliberations going on among some world security organizations
outside Israel concerned how to thwart the missileers directly: search, identify and
destroy before they could release more venom. Problem was the situation was on hair-
trigger alert. One sat phone call could end it. When the two debate threads (global thug-
strategists vs. global swat team) talked to each other, a unified approach emerged: try to
interdict the HF threat in Israel carefully, but not so carefully that it couldn‟t work. It‟s a
calculated risk. An HF attack is the second best option and sometimes that‟s as good as it
gets.
Orders went down from the Bama: throw everything at it you can. Fly-in our top guys
and give it your best shot. The Joint Chiefs recommended urgently assembling a carrier-
based marine assault force to the eastern Mediterranean.
2***
The IDF organization operating outside the hostage security envelope was doggedly
scheming, still oblivious to the insider role the Plan had going. At Ari‟s base a briefing
was held for all officers above Ari‟s rank. For Sasha it was like watching a spine-tingling
movie having read parts of the book. She heard from Mom that her dad was being held
but he was free to call out to all his family, friends and operatives. She tried calling but
his phone was always busy. Now that an HF attack wasn‟t automatic, she could focus on
the developing drama and the implications of swat activities being discussed. They were
putting together a massive covert mobilization in cooperation with U.S. and other NATO
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forces. The helicopter operations were being re-tooled to go after the mysterious
missileer threat. High tech equipment was being rushed to Tel Aviv for locating actively
transmitting satellite phones. Sasha called Ari and they met for supper once again in the
base lounge.
Ari, they‟re flying guys in from all over the world. They‟re landing at Palmahim and
Tochnit Hamed. And they have equipment to find sat phones…Ya we know; we‟re
keeping our phones in moving cars or buses and relaying to cellphones, but it‟s risky..
I‟m starving – let‟s get something / so, is this “inquisition” thing going to happen?...
Well, it‟s difficult. We didn‟t really work out the details, how it could work in terms of
security, access to media and ability to bring in the inquisitors we need from other
countries. We‟re exploring doing it by internet streaming but that would be a lot less
dramatic and of course, they can block that one way or another. We have some people in
the U.S. who are trying to get organizational support for a Truth Commission. Of course,
there is powerful resistance from the anti-terrorist fringe, even in these times of internal
upheaval. But there may be some U.S. Congresspeople who get on board… What about
your network here? That woman Beth and the others?... Well, we really need to keep her
safe but some of the others are scouting around to see how much support there would be
for taking public stances or active involvement.
So are Naomi and Ben inside? Are they being held with the IDF people?... No, they were
outside the conference security zone and are free to leave but of course everyone has
been pressed into the scramble for solutions. The released documents have been a huge
deal… How did you guys get them?.. Were Naomi and Ben involved?.. Ari looked at
Sasha without replying, which pretty much answered her question.. Wow, how did they
do that? My dad was obsessed with keeping those things out of sight… Ya, well, we
were obsessed with getting them into sight, out in the open, and we had the secret
agents... I looked at a bunch of them. God, it‟s really revealing to see how they think, the
overarching world-view, the rationalizations, the arrogance.. conceit,.. the systematic
development of their dogma, I guess you would say, and then the pursuit of their strategic
objectives.. It does confirm your basic line, Ari, I‟m sad to concede; really makes me
wonder.. about things, about my father, about the future..
3***
Iraj got a call from Jim. It was the first use of the new phone system. Nice and clear. Jim
had heard some important scuttlebutt from his intel crowd: if the missileers don‟t take out
the hostages, the rulers might do it themselves – with a cruise missile just to be sure
(1000 lb high explosive vs. 30 lbs incendiary). Sort of like scuttling an aircraft carrier to
keep it from drifting into enemy hands. This was a novel idea that somehow the Plan had
missed: the ruling class doing it for them. That didn‟t seem fair – it was their quarry – but
much more important, it would abort the inquisition. A hurried conference call decided
that this threat had to be pre-empted immediately and so an announcement was drafted
and dispatched to the usual outlets. To give it credibility, the Plan passed along a detail
provided by Jim that this gambit was suggested by U.S. National Security Council
Chairman Jason P. Mortman the previous day in a meeting attended by Hillary with her
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counterparts from the U.K., Germany and Italy along with the Israeli ambassador. When
the hostages heard about it, not all of them were surprised and some appreciated the tip.
Jim also passed along that the U.S. was investigating the possibility that the missileers are
an inside job somewhere. Apparently somebody in the intelligence coordinating agency
has figured out that‟s the only plausible explanation for the whole debacle. The CIA is
itself under suspicion since they actually operate Preditor/Hellfire systems a lot of places
and some CIA folks hadn‟t always been in synch with the Bush administration. Initially
Israel was not suspect, but with the hijack, that could change… This news put Iraj into
pausing deliberation. He thanked Jim and then asked what he thought of the Truth
Commission idea... Well, there‟s a lot of interest growing up on it but I don‟t see how
they can pull it off. It‟s such a direct assault on their whole system; they‟ll pull out all the
stops to end it.. like I said.. But, I don‟t know, there‟s already significant support for it in
the U.S…Yeah, we‟re worried about the logistics of the whole thing and the risk of us
being discovered. Usually we don‟t have to hang around in one place after a missile
event. Fortunately, there‟s some small but growing engagement of ordinary Israelis in
this confrontation; that may be the only thing that could save us… Yes, another in a
seemingly endless stream of ironies,.. smiles again.
2. IDF snooper-scooper down
1***
The spotters over on the Boulevard finally saw the chopper that the partisans earlier had
reported leaving a base heading to Tel Aviv in the early evening. It was flying without
navigation lights at about 3,500 feet and seemed to be slowly wending its way toward the
general environment of the IDF complex. Seen with strong binoculars, it was behaving as
though it was carefully scrutinizing roof tops and truck traffic for signs of the enemy.
Probably had some special infrared – night vision – optical surveillance gear on board.
This was a violation of the demands and, although not really a threat, needed to be
swatted down. The imperial hostages and their global audience must understand that
there are no escape options. The Plan followed the meandering chopper not just with
binocs but with two HF cameras. They could probably hit it with an HF but would be
more likely to succeed if they could get it from behind at fairly close range – less than
two kilometers. Finally at about 10:45 pm the chopper turned and began another closer-in
pass to the south-east. One of the cameras had a good bead on its tail-end and so an HF
that had been patiently waiting beneath a warm rug, on a launch rail that had been angled
up a bit was sent on its way, chasing that little red dot tiptoeing across the night-sky. The
chopper was clueless until too late. About half a second before the hit it started to whirl
and weave but LM‟s little bugger was onto them and they went down after a brilliant
flash with flailing rotor blades, smashing 17 seconds later down the front of a dark four-
storey commercial building. The pilot, one of their HF-aces, had 19 Hamas kills under his
belt and a special commendation from the PM. According to the TV and papers, had a
beautiful wife and three kids.
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Not everyone on the Plan call had agreed initially on taking the chopper down. After all,
the pilot and crew weren‟t the ruling class . On the other hand, the IDF needed to be
instructed on the new rules. The hostage situation was at a critical juncture; the enemy
could call their bluff at any moment and just evacuate the hostages from harm‟s way in
minutes. So it was grudgingly agreed to act like the IDF does in Gaza, or better, the U.S
everywhere, without a second thought – accept collateral damage. And, besides, this
wasn‟t the first time there low-level participant victims from HF hits.
IDF headquarters knew about it immediately, of course, and word was passed up to the
hostages within minutes. The news was numbing; it had been a risk worth taking but with
nothing gained. The worst part was it confirmed the missileers were in fact the threat that
they claimed. Some of the more adventurous hostages went to the windows to examine
the not-too-distant column of smoke where some of their hope had fallen. The convenors
decided to call it a night and so clusters of the caged animals made their way to their
allocated sleeping rooms, chewing on MREs with some good wine.[MRE – meal ready to
eat, army food]
2***
At it‟s giant Ramstein air-base near Frankfurt, the U.S. was staging equipment to fly into
Israel. They had every gadget that ever graced a defense contractor‟s annual report ready
to mobilize to destroy the terrorists terrorizing the terrorists. Several giant C-17 transport
planes were ready and waiting. Watching all this excitement were partisans 6 miles away
with nice Zeiss telescopes on some suburban Frankfurt high-rises. They had been
observing planes coming in all day, disgorging their treasure at one of the base hangers
and then the C-17s arrived and stayed. The journey to save the thugs began at 11:00 pm.
The Plan needed to track their progress but didn‟t have the network needed to do that, so
they had announced to the world that a few C-17s were going to be flying from Frankfurt
to somewhere, and please let us know where they‟re going. Lots of people were also
curious and knew someone who knew someone who could help. Air traffic controllers,
flight-plan administrators, commercial pilots, and military personnel in various
Mediterranean NATO countries that were routinely advised of such flights. Messages
started coming into various blogs with the latest sightings. After the experience of
tracking U.S. torture rendition flights across Europe, some people were pretty good at this
stuff. It looked like Israel was indeed the destination and so a camera /HF team was
dispatched to their nest near the main IDF airbase, the one with their F-16s, and nuclear
bunkers. Previously, the Plan had scouted out possible launch sites. After some technical
reviews, Stash and Beth‟s experts had decided that a hit from the side on the final
approach would probably be most reliable – they could be further from the base and this
would minimize the effectiveness of the electronic counter-measures the planes would be
running. The Plan issued a warning: any aircraft attempting to land in Israel risked
obliteration. The warning flashed through the empire‟s communication network but
didn‟t evoke much fear among the men in blue. They‟d defeated much bigger threats than
these amateur rogue warriors.
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Earlier discussions had concluded it wasn‟t going to be easy to locate the approaching
aircraft in the early morning darkness. Then some students from the university mentioned
that one of the departments there had these neat parabolic acoustical antennae with
earphones for locating quiet distant noise sources (like hawks, or terrorists) and so a
bunch of them were checked-out for important work. They were positioned along the
base-leg approach pattern with sat phone or cell-phone contact. It had been a long and
busy night but about the time expected, the spotters heard some heavy aircraft and
searched ahead of the sound image to find one running without lights; they were able to
alert the launch team with about 2½ minutes lead-time. The first plane was visible only
because of reflected city glow and the team knowing where to look. Like a submarine
descending out of an inverted ocean of darkness the target was quickly caught on camera
and anointed with laser light right behind the cockpit. The launchers had to gently rotate
the camera on a long board set on a steady table to stay on image. The HF was dispatched
masterfully and stayed on course for the required seven seconds. It went in right below
the wing trailing edge and dealt a nasty blow but the monster continued down its glide
path for a full second before its nose started to gently rise and keep rising until the
enormous albatross was in a spectacular stall, falling off to the right in a spinning descent
for the last 275 meters. The crash was gruesome, just inside the base perimeter. Created a
dome of brightness like the setting sun but with sparklers jumping out.. Looked just like a
scene from Baghdad shock and awe. The following transport aircraft were quickly
persuaded that an alternate destination was advisable but where would that be? Egypt?
Lebanon? Greece? Might have to land in Jordan even if not given permission. Fuel was
running low and sensitive diplomacy sometimes takes time at 6:00 am. Originally the
plan called for 200 Seals on the first plane but, lucky for them, boarding delays resulted
in one of the equipment transports going ahead and getting hit first.
Word had gotten around the plotters‟ penthouse that help was on the way. It was going to
be a class act with U.S. Navy Seals and Delta Force zombies and their whole full-press
techno swat team to join with their famed IDF counterparts, the guys that walk on water.
Imagine the disappointment when IDF General Dyen staggered in bearing very bad news.
The hostages were beginning to sense the bitter taste of humiliation, abject powerlessness
and defeat, and extreme personal danger; what Palestinians and Afghanis had known for
generations and lots of other people were learning. A new and novel clinical
manifestation in first-world depression was making its appearance.
A NATO naval armada was being quickly assembled in Italy to meet up with a marine
assault force. An HF could do some light damage to ships close to shore but it was an
acceptable cost and, besides, how many HFs could they lob from shore, and they‟d be
giving away their location almost immediately. The Plan, however, explained once again
that their observing any efforts to liberate the thugs would doom the same. That included
plainclothes agents wandering around looking too closely at anything, or any efforts at
optical surveillance. Some Israeli people were watching this unconventional drama and
not all were convinced that the corralled animals were their best friends. The documents
were rather shocking. Some people started calling in suspicious activities of the
authorities to a local talk show, including license plate numbers and even posting video
clips of unmarked cars on Facebook.
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3***
Jim Speller didn‟t see it coming. Not surprisingly, the Company and its sister
organizations for global management had assigned a fresh priority to finding the source
of the missile and document leaks. That the top-secret documents surfaced in the U.S.
didn‟t fool anybody for very long, although, if they can launch missiles with impunity in
the U.S., including taking out the Chainy VEEP and whacking ExxonMobil, then maybe
they‟ve hacked DOD intel systems. Or, maybe some military contractor has some bad
apples and fudged the security procedures. But, as predicted, the IDF ambush had
returned the spook focus to the Middle East. Jim had dutifully implemented a number of
control orders regarding missile inventory in Iraq and at Bagram and was waiting for the
next bright idea when he got a surprise: he was being detailed to Tel Aviv!.. to join the
swat brigade!!. Someone in the organization had noticed he was on top of the rogue
missile threat before anybody else and figured they needed him on the IDF problem.
With the sky fading fast into cobalt blue and jet black, Jim and his bags were out on the
tarmac next to an unmarked Gulfstream II surrounded by distant twinkling and closer
flashing lights making their ways around the base amid wafting jet exhaust. He was
waiting for other agents to board the Company plane for the flight to Tel Aviv or rather,
an IDF base in the south of Israel believed not to be under HF surveillance. He needed to
report his new gig to the HFLF Plan and so gave Ben a call; it was after 9 pm.. Hi Ben,
this is Jim in Baghdad. How‟s it going?... Oh, hello,.. quite well, thanks… You seem to
have gotten their attention… Yes, we have and we‟re trying to keep it but it‟s
challenging; it‟s turned out to be a richer and more complicated opportunity than just
another.. ah, action, you know?... Yes it looks like it has opened up some new angles for
you; it‟s really without precedent.. Anyway, the reason I called is I just wanted to let you
know that I have been assigned to work with the security team in Tel Aviv and I‟m about
to board a plane for an IDF base,.. hopefully not one you guys have your sights on,..
snickers… Well, that‟s fairly amazing.. but, you should be alright though, we really just
have the one base and the IDF command complex.. So,.. we‟ll need to think on this; it
would be quite valuable if we could maintain some contact. Can you call us
periodically?... I think so; I‟ll have to wait and see, of course, but I should be able to get
out away from things now and then, and of course I need my phone for legitimate
activities. In fact I‟m using the new phone for all my calls… There are some things I
guess we should tell you. Do you have a few minutes?.. OK, well you‟ve probably
figured out we have a presence inside IDF… Yes, it really floored me when Iraj dropped
that.. but go on… Well, I‟m in IDF IT communications with only moderate level security
clearance but I have a close friend who is a systems analyst there with high level
clearance. She is becoming a strong player with us. Then there‟s Ari, the guy that
liberated the.. ah, hardware from a base, and one of his colleagues there – someone we
knew from school – has become another fairly solid ally. What‟s really interesting about
her is that her dad is top corporate power in Israel and he‟s one of the captives. As you
can imagine, that has been a significant distraction for us. It‟s actually one of the reasons
we got off on this other tack of doing an inquisition.. It forced at least some of us to think
about other options. So.. you might run into him if you‟re talking with the Israeli hostage
186
leadership.. his name is Joe Lieberman, big in telecom and internet business applications
and a really big player in the Israeli world-security apparatus... OK, that‟s very helpful..
I‟ll probably have to get off shortly but just tell me where you think all this is headed; I
can‟t imagine things staying the same for very long… Yes, our current thinking is we
have to get the hostages removed to a neutral venue out of harm‟s way with our
guaranteeing their safety. We‟ll have involvement of third parties to provide credibility
and security but also will demand an absolute commitment to go through a full inquest
into how this world got to where it is today, a detailed accounting and exposure, and then
some process of adjudication and indictment or redemption.. We‟re kind of inventing as
we go, but drawing of course on some important precedents. Anyway, that‟s the current
fantasy… Well. thanks for the preview; you people never fail to amaze me. I‟ll try to sort
through what I ought to be doing… Yeah, I guess the main thing is to not let the thugs
anticipate our moves so that they can pre-empt them… I think you‟re right, and that is
perhaps something I can help with, steering them in other directions. By the way they are
setting up some fancy surveillance capabilities that I don‟t even know about but I‟ll let
you know, meanwhile you must be very careful. You obviously know this. OK, gotta go.
I‟ll talk with you soon.. Oh, also, could you explain to Iraj that I‟m gone for a while? I
haven‟t been able to get him. Good luck!... Sure. Take care.
4***
Before Jim left the GZ, he had a long chat with a Mossad guy he had known for several
years, going back before he arrived in Baghdad. This guy was very complicated with a
strong ethical compass growing out of the usual religious undergrowth but somehow he
had defended the substance of justice and cultural legitimacy from Zionist and other
imperial encroachments. Over several years he had gotten really good at tracking
“enemies of Israel” and he readily shared disgust with the Arab regimes and institutions
that cynically exploited anti-Semitism, Israel-bashing and managed-Islam to advance
their own mediocre systems of exploitation and class domination. But critical thinking
didn‟t stop there. Israeli collusion in imperial subduction was a big betrayal in his view,
and it kept getting worse, Iraq being the latest chapter. And the Central Dogma was no
longer working for him. He found it increasingly difficult to tell the difference between
Hezbollah thugs and Israeli thugs. The whole enterprise had been taken over by corporate
technology meisters. The one-country solution was never his ideal but inching closer. Jim
and he had explored just about every aspect of the Middle East conundrum and found
considerable common ground. They also had parallel career frustrations within their
respective organizations from which they together derived both insight and
entertainment.
They talked about the remarkable IDF quandary with occasional laughter interrupting
serious contemplation. Jim was persuaded that this guy was thinking way outside the box
and, maybe, was ready for testing… I know a few things about the rogue missiles,.. Jim
announced,.. and not from the Company… Really.. Can you talk about it?... Well, I have
to tell you I‟m not in total disagreement with some of what those guys have been doing
around the world.. If you are, then I guess I‟d rather not get into it.. As you know, a lot of
strange and big things are happening.. and I‟ve been trying hard to figure out how to be
187
on the right side of progress…Yeah, exactly.. Well, I think we‟ve talked enough already
to have a pretty good idea of where we each stand, and I think we‟re,.. actually pretty
close,.. don‟t you? with examining eyes… Yes I do too. What I‟d like to do is bring you
in, but there are enormous risks if my judgment proves wrong.. You know what can
happen… Of course. Well, I have to trust your judgment on this.. pause.. Why don‟t we,..
agree,.. that if I start to ask questions or argue points that you don‟t like, then, we‟ll just
drop it; that will be the end of it and of course I won‟t.. tattle.. unless.. it‟s ah.. you know,
totally nuts.
Jim told his story and David, listening carefully, was mostly silent and awed… You
know, I couldn‟t believe when they got Chainy, chuckling. What an incredible feat! And
Betraeus? Unbelievable. Really shocked Mossad admin; they stayed up all night trying to
figure it out. Thought it might be the Ruskies. And then all this tumult in the U.S., pushed
along, of course, by the collapse of the.. ah, neocons‟.. financial house of.. of shards.. So,
how do you think I could be part of all this?... Well, first, let me be clear, I‟m not
necessarily agreeing with their objectives, and there‟s a lot I still don‟t know about their
operation, but I‟m really impressed with these people. I don‟t think I could ever turn
them-in; I might get put-off and disillusioned, but that would just level the playing field
as far as I‟m concerned.. I need to discuss this with my colleagues but I want to put you
in contact with the Iraqi guy I deal with. Mossad has already worked him up, but now
he‟s mine. And, of course anything you hear on the inside that we would need to know,
we‟d like to know.. I‟m off tomorrow evening on my Tel Aviv adventure, but we can be
in touch?… Sure. Thanks for, ah,.. trusting me. Oy vey, this is really unbelievable, with
amazing and dangerous – and disturbing – possibilities.. You know, there‟s basically no
one else I can talk to about this, except Pam, a little… Well, actually, some of the
partisans in Tel Aviv are people you could meet.. They‟re very good. I‟ll talk to the Plan
about this. May take a few days… Great.
David was humbled by the audacity and commitment of the people he was learning
about, and the process they have fostered. Vision was happening again. His mind was
racing; what might come of this? Is there support for this? How can a viable consensus
strategy be formed? What networks could he safely query on this, and.. do I want to do
this?
5***
Harvard‟s Sam Huntingdone, Harvard and Nixon‟s Henry Kissingher of the Blackstone
Group, and Joe Lieberman of Zobat Telcom in Israel were having mid-morning coffee
along with other hostages after the latest IDF briefing. The Americans had heard a lot
about the Israeli actionable data systems and had good questions for Joe, exploring
aspects he‟d never thought of before. Wanted to know how well it had worked in the last
Gaza incursion and how many of the Hamas leadership they had killed, especially the
younger layers that could regenerate the organization. For Joe, it was interesting to hear
these guys articulate abstract policy goals and then derive the mechanics of
implementation across the planet. Henry reminisced about the good old days in
Guatemala, Argentina or Chile: .. when we could pretty easily manipulate the military
188
factors… Sam questioned whether the Israeli surveillance systems were adequately
conformal with authority structures in Moslem cultures and what sorts of research were
feasible on these issues in countries like Egypt or Pakistan,.. or Yemen. Talk then turned
to the U.S. drone missile attacks against Taliban and Pashtun targets in Pakistan and
Afghan. Seemed to be working really well... This technology is a wonderful advance;
entire groups of enemy fighters are being killed at minimal cost. Of course this is
generating some unfortunate splashback in Pakistan that we haven‟t figured out how to
counter.. and, well, of course, there is our missile problem... Yes, we really need to be
more careful with the engineering specs on these systems; I can assure you this won‟t
happen again.. They were all fighting off depression and talking shop was helping.
Nobody wanted to discuss the distasteful prospect of “an inquisition.” It was beneath
contemplation; still, something might happen. Joe asked: Why can‟t we just act like
we‟ve done the right things; we‟ve had to deal with major problems, whether it‟s
corruption, market imperfections or reluctant and backward elites... The problem, said
Henry, is that we‟re going to be grilled separately and we won‟t know what the others are
saying. Some of the people running this thing are very well-informed and, with the
coercion factor, will be able to drill down quite a bit into areas we really don‟t want to get
into… Yes, and if some authorities start releasing sensitive documents, anything could
happen. It‟s really quite a dangerous situation. Loyalties can shift quickly when the winds
change… About our only hope is that enough leadership even in the compromised states
will be potentially harmed so they won‟t let things get very far… Ya, there will be some
efforts to go after the communist – or-ex-communist – governments, these missile guys
are equal-opportunity liberals, which will help. And Pootin‟s a smart operator, not shy
about doing what‟s needed, so that‟ll be good… Yeah, but Henry, unfortunately this
focus on so-called class will be appealing to many and it cuts across all societies… Yes, I
hope our people are coming up with some good distractions that will blunt these infantile
fascinations.
Joe was observing this ping-pong match and getting dizzy. He couldn‟t see what
technical fix could alter any outcome. This was going to be a slug-fest in which a great
many good, brilliant people were going to be sacrificed to a mob of incompetents and
shits.. What is this world coming to, he asked… (Henry:) Well, I think a lot of it is being
driven by the economic downturn. As soon as we fix the financials with some painful but
temporary interventions, and make some minor regulatory adjustments, things will get a
lot better and people will forget all this silliness about class,.. looking at Sam… Sure, the
recovery is pretty straightforward in principle although I‟m not so sure about reversing
some public perceptions. This is a major debate taking place at a time when new
communication technologies have really altered the political terrain.. It‟s going to be
difficult to adjust and adapt to these conditions… Venturing onto really thin ice, Joe
asked: Well, what are the implications for Israel?... The pause was as unnerving as
Henry‟s answer: Well, you see, Israel has played a vital role in global security but at the
same time has become a liability. If we had foreseen these developments we probably
would have done things differently,… Sam nodding in agreement: It‟s clear that some
accommodation of Palestinian interests has to be made. Whether it‟s one or two states is
the current challenge.. Never liked the guy but Carter I think is right on this one, if a
189
viable two-state solution doesn‟t happen fast, it will be a one-state… Joe was dumb-
struck. Here were the world‟s top strategists telling him his Israel was about to disappear,
dumped into the Mediterranean.
3 Global Audience Appreciation
1***
At LockheedMartin the IDF emergency was as intriguing as it was unexpected, but it

didn‟t make the lunch-time flat-screens… How did they know about this secret meeting,
everyone was asking. Like most skilled observers they quickly figured out it was either
an inside job – someone somewhere high up in the global security apparatus was leaking
highly sensitive information – or, even more incredible, the missileers had breached a
top-security information system somehow. (Molly:) In some ways I‟m a little relieved to
know that my paranoid fantasies were pretty close to reality; on the other hand, it really
scares me that these people and institutions run our world,.. and look at the response –
none of the governments is asking are these revelations true? should we talk about them?
how could this meeting happen?.. Nooo, instead they‟re working overtime to crush this
outbreak, even the Bama… I find this really confusing, maybe there‟s other stuff we just
don‟t know about that justifies these plans… (Someone else:) Well then, why don‟t they
tell us that, we‟re not stupid. The bad guys already know… Yeah, they probably won‟t
tell us those things because it would just further undermine their legitimacy… We really
have to go it alone and figure out what‟s going on with our own resources… That missile
gang using our „fires has done us a service.. I mean, releasing those documents… Well,
maybe, some of their other things too… Yeah,.. maybe.. grimacing heads nodding.
2***
At a teach-in at the University of Illinois, Chicago, originally planned to discuss the

global financial collapse and how to fix it, thousands of students, faculty and, by TV,
Chicago residents were asking old questions and some new ones. One major focus going-
in was to be the role of free markets in the world economy; another was the contest for
Middle East. Sharp exchanges were taking place with a lot of input from faculty and
students across many departments. Schools of thought were emerging on the roles of
governments and strategic objectives, with conflicting policy implications. Someone
asked about past policies that have gotten us to our present situation; maybe that
confrontation going on in Israel will shed some light on things. Even though most free-
market evangelicals had been chastened or struck dumb by the near-collapse of U.S.
capitalism under deregulated greed, several of them retained enough chutzpah or neural
momentum to struggle to their feet and defend the western consensus and alliance with
Israel. A few explicitly affirmed Israel‟s Central Dogma but most focused on the Islamic
malignancy. Although there was rising opposition that was no longer buying it, the
thinking was still a little rough around the edges. So the Plan‟s Mahmoud got in line at an
open mike after one of the panel speakers and when his turn came, explained how social
progressivism is basically eliminated not only under colonial rule but, in most countries,
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in the ensuing post-colonial collaboration when rising elites, usually abetted by their
former oppressors, create the new social order and new ruling class. That‟s what
happened in Egypt, Syria, Kuwait,.. basically most countries in the Middle East, one way
or another. There are forward looking people in these societies but most are silent, in
hiding, in jail or dead. Meanwhile dismal economic opportunity for the majority was
driving many people to adopt bad ideas and dysfunctional beliefs. By the way, Mahmoud
added, a peoples‟ conference to discuss the one-state solution in Israel is attracting a lot
of those progressive elements from all over the region because many people see solutions
that are much bigger than just the Israeli-Palestinian question. And virtually all the
governments – Israel and the Arab countries – are fighting it. A flood of questions ensued
from a university population largely missing Middle Eastern history, with lots of answers
coming from foreign students as well as from some specialists, themselves learning as
they spoke.
3***
The masters of talk radio had adjusted to the era of capitalist near-collapse with
admirable adeptness, following guidance from their favorite neocons. But response to the
secret-document burst hadn‟t yet been scripted and people wanted to know: What did
those guys do? What does Henry Kissingher have to hide? What do the terrorists know
that we don‟t? How come we didn‟t know this? Why do the terrorists want this made
known? Is it true we might take out the hostages with a missile before they do?
At a press conference on the second Obama stimulus package, the one designed to
promote massive green infrastructure investment across the country, toward the end a
reporter asked about the IDF hostages and whether the questions for which answers were
being demanded were valid concerns. The Bama was usually pretty good on tough
questions. He started out acknowledging that past policies and practices for the
developing world had in many cases failed to promote the kind of progress that many had
hoped for.. that widespread frustration and desperation were understandable and that was
why he was instructing his government to thoroughly review policies and programs to
address these very issues. He gave some detailed examples of policy choices… But the
reporter, one of the new breed who believe in the practice of journalism, wasn‟t satisfied.
She continued, but what about Henry Kissingher, for example; don‟t you think we should
understand and learn from the policies that he and others were part of in Vietnam or
Indonesia?… The Bama replied that his program for change was going to focus on fixing
the future, and not dwell on second-guessing the past, and then recognized another
questioner. He should have stayed with the first. The next question was, does he consider
secular progressive elements of Arab societies an important force that we need to help
strengthen? And does he agree with past policies that have actually encouraged the
suppression or elimination of these groups, as occurred in Iran under the Shah, or even in
Iraq under Hussein, with U.S. help?.. The press room atmosphere was thick and tense;
these questions were not a passing fancy. The Bama, known for his smooth delivery, was
feeling stress and thinking hard… Another questioner: What about Moslem electoral
victories in Algeria or Somalia or Gaza? When do we decide that democracy isn‟t
working?.. Why do we intervene there and not in Kenya, or Zimbabwe on election fraud?
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Do you agree with Israeli use of American military aid against Gaza? Do you agree with
the Israeli official who said the Palestinians have to be forced to accept that they are a
defeated nation? Why are you continuing the military assaults on the elected Somali
government started by the Bush administration?... [Wow, who‟s been coaching these
folks? Don‟t they know the rules?] .. Well, I think some of these are legitimate questions
for study and discussion but I totally reject the criminal, violent, terroristic challenge that
those holding the personnel in Israel are posing to the free world. This kind of.. ah..
extortion and threat, ah.. has no place in civilized society.. Last question?... But what if
this (the hostage inquest) is the only way to force this discussion out into the open,
compelling testimony from those who know and who were responsible for those
policies?... Well, I,.. ah,.. I reject that we.., I,.. I don‟t believe.. and I don‟t agree that the
public deliberations of our democratic institutions fail to ah.. examine, and, resolve, these
kinds of issues,.. and I look forward to doing just that in my administration.. Thank you
very much… Hmm, for once the “hostile press” was asking good questions..
4***
Monsanto board meetings have spanned the world: New York, Hamburg, London, once
in Mumbai.. but the board-meeting this Spring was in St. Louis at the new corporate
headquarters. Security was high. They even hired Securitech to monitor the environment,
and had serious guys perched with fancy infra-red telescopes. The board members were
juggling multiple challenges. Presentations from contract counsel were contentious; the
stakes in global intellectual property extortion in farming were great and the behavior of
government regulators and judges was not that reliable. The house scientists were still
promising the moon and had already delivered large asteroids. Acquisitions of seed
companies were going forward on schedule and the elements of the litigation swat team
network for farmer-violators was coming together despite uncharted territories but there
were clouds. The day was growing long and finally the Chairman suggested around 4:00
pm that maybe they should order-in some good dinner and work into the night. The
caterer was on-call. These rulers have busy lives and don‟t just casually spill over to
another day.
The Chicago team had set-up in a secluded section of a metropolitan park with a good
visual path between some handsome Norway spruce. They were able to determine that
the board meeting was running into the evening. They put up a nylon fly to block prying
eyes from the Monsanto campus, with a small hole in it for their own eye. The contractor
running building services had been informed that the meeting would go on until at least
10 pm. The meeting room adjoined an atrium but there were some small windows with a
northern exposure opening directly into the lions‟ den. The Chicago team sent their
streaking messenger at 9:25 pm and were packed up and on their way within minutes,
snaking through the darkening glades past parked cars with fogged windows and
distracted incumbents. The news first reported a fire, then a connection with an important
meeting, and then the full picture came into focus: a Monsanto board meeting had been
hit with the missile. By midnight the list of distinguished board members plotting the
global heist of farming had been released, including many prominent citizens whose
activities were about to be much better known to the observing public. The mayor and
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governor raced to the scene vowing outrage and demanding federal action with very
minimal speculation on why this deed would have been done.
After someone reported seeing some fire streak out of the southwest corner of the
metropark, four miles from the devastation, armies of local, state and federal sleuths
waded through the dew at 6:30 am the next morning. There was nothing to find. The tire
tracks off a road into a small meadow had been raked over by the retreating missileers
and sprinkled with Home Depot black velvet mulch. A public call for information from
park-visitors the evening before evoked only scratched heads and fuzzy memories.
Privacy had been job-one. Corporate farms and their handlers in agribusiness weren‟t
talking much; Conagra, CPC Intl and ADM were silent, looking the other way. Lots of
small farmers, ex-farmers and disappearing seed handlers had lots to say and were saying
it. A new window on the sustainability problem had opened. Demonstrations appeared
across the globe, especially in India, commemorating farming. The Plan explained
through Al Jazeera once again why free-range capitalism was not acceptable and how
things had to change and were changing. They had been planning to delve in detail into
many aspects of world farming at the Inq and pulled up documentation on the Monsanto
piece of it for appetizers.
5***
Wall Street‟s thieves and labor‟s street-warriors had been in a dead heat to see who could
shut down the U.S. economy first, one of them through exuberant delusion, the other
through classical labor-extortion. Initially longshore, teamster and rail workers were way
out in front, but now the capitalists were pulling ahead. It seems like ruling classes can
also on occasion suffer from Marx‟s “false consciousness” (failing to grasp one‟s own
class interests) having shot themselves in the foot, leg, right arm and grazing the carotid
on banking deregulation and mortgage trafficking. A stalwart of private ruling class
wealth management (Lehman Brothers) went down in flames; others could follow! In
LA, the Central Labor Council was still trying hard to navigate, looking at some of the
same questions. On the bailout: how come we didn‟t get what Warren Buffet got from
CitiBank? He put up $5 billion and got a great deal – guaranteed 10% return. Why can‟t
they just buy mortgages, do what that Sheila Bair lady from FDIC was saying. If they
want people to spend, why don‟t they cut credit card interest rates and fees for six
months.. Lots of good ideas. [FDIC – Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S.
agency created in the 1930s that insures bank savings accounts.]
What about that Monsanto attack?.. Farm policy was a little bit off their usual focus but
the L.A. labor council guys were interested. They could already tell that the Central
Valley farm operations hogging water, destroying land and dumping chemicals were not
going to last forever. Those Teamster and United Farm Worker jobs were unsustainable.
Hearing about the basic Monsanto business plan and the projected future for corporate
agriculture opened their eyes a lot further. Made sense. Sustainability again. The
conversation returned to the meltdown and stimulus money. One of the techno guys that
the labor council had been inviting to its executive board meetings said: This giant public
works plan has some interesting possibilities using the internet. You know, usually this
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stuff goes on behind closed doors, all kinds of shady deals, pork, ear-marks, and no
accountability, although Roosevelt actually put in place a very effective oversight
mechanism. They could put it all out on the internet: requests for proposals, competing
bids, design competitions, proposed long range plans, allocations by state, county – all
the data that someone would need to sort out what‟s happening. It would democratize the
administration of public financing, would get a lot of creative input from thousands of
citizens. This is the way sustainability could happen. Would really help reporters and
journalists…Yeah, that would level the playing field when dealing with developers, local
banks, multinationals, appointed commissions, and their favorite faux-public servants.
Jerry from UFCW brought up the Inquisition thing in Israel: this is going to be
interesting; these guys have never had to justify anything. It will lay bare the whole game
– rich people running the world at great cost to the people. Nasty little conflicts between
competing elites that translate into ruinous and devastating wars for the rest of us, just
look at the Iran-Iraq war, a huge tragedy that the U.S. promoted!… Do you think it will
really happen, making these guys talk? Won‟t they just silence them one way or
another?... There was talk of blowing up the whole damn building... Well, I think that
option is gone; there are too many people watching and demanding the same answers...
The POC guys are preparing some emergency legislation that will help it happen; I heard
from Barbara Lee that Obama is under a lot of pressure to support a UN Security Council
resolution to provide UN peace-keepers for security at a site in Lebanon if some ground
rules are agreed to… Yeah, the problem is that some important people might get
subpoenaed, actually, a lot of them, like that Z-Big guy and smooth Clinton operator
Robert Rubane. And then there‟s the problem of revealing classified or proprietary
business information – which of course it all will be! That AIPAC gang is still a
significant force and they‟re fighting this thing like crazy… This is going to be like no
Congressional Committee hearing, real dirt, or worse, is going to hit the fan, fly around.
On public works, Ernesto, one of the Latino delegates in LA from SEIU brought up the
question of how the building trades will be involved. It‟s really good to make the janitor
and restaurant and hotel jobs nicer, but the good jobs are in the trades, and latinos – like
the blacks – mostly can‟t get into them except working for low wage non-union
contractors and crooks... Jimmy from the electricians: well, we have a real choice here;
we can do business as usual and get a few crumbs, a small piece of the action for mainly
our older white guys, or we can demand all these projects be union, and then make them
agree to set-up the recruitment and apprenticeship programs that will provide the workers
needed… Well, then you‟ll have to do what they did up in Oakland, fund a program out
of the construction contracts that prepares kids for apprenticing these jobs, picks up
where public education dumped them off… Ernesto: Ya, that‟s what we really need. Are
we going to do that? Get the labor councils behind it?... Jimmy: I think we should; this is
about the survival of organized labor. We should bring this up with those new politician
friends we have discovered lately, tell „em what we need, what they need to do.
6***
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The Plan‟s Beth and Rachel were scheduled to meet with Mossad‟s David Smirnoff
Saturday night. They decided to attend the Symphony, and then go out afterwards for
drinks. David did his research and discovered Beth had a track record longer than his and
a lot more significant. He read the Mossad assessments of the 60-Year Conference
Rachel had organized. Although the commentaries were politically correct, he could
detect in some a fleeting covert respect for the one-state sacrilege inside Mossad. The
OSS conference being planned was attracting Mossad participants not all of whom
seemed to be offended by it. The three met at Judah Jazz two blocks from the symphony
and had a good time, frequently forgetting who they were consorting with. Beth and
Rachel had agreed beforehand that they would divulge nothing about the Plan in this first
meeting; it was his obligation to bare secrets first, after all, what did he have to lose?
They asked all about his history with Jim from Baghdad and how he came to question the
Israeli central dogma. David described the culture inside Mossad and provided very
specific details revolving around actions in the recent Gaza massacre. He explained the
Palestinian analytical section and how information being gathered was fed into ongoing
electronic profiles, dossiers and watch-streams; how it was used extensively in targeting
Hamas residences for destruction in the invasion. He provided Rachel and Beth a peek at
the internal workings of the Israeli security apparatus.
Beth asked: What sort of tests does Mossad do routinely.. to make sure none of their
agents is going bad, you know, losing their grip on the central dogma, for example?...
Well, we have these mandatory semi-annual sessions with the house shrinks that include
lie-detector tricks. Pretty obnoxious and hazardous. And of course they monitor all
communications. The thing about their tests is you have to believe that what you‟re doing
is the right thing and be very confident of that; that all the little deviations and lapses you
have engineered are actually totally in support of the larger mission – defending the best
interests of the Israeli people and beyond.. and, of course, I‟ve come to interpret that goal
rather broadly.. grinning.. You have to practice arrogance and condescension. Can you
tell?.. smiling.. It took me some serious effort but I think I‟ve got it down. You know, in
Jim‟s outfit they were a little lax back in the „80s but they‟ve gotten a lot tougher. Jim has
given me some helpful tips,.. nodding with satisfaction.. We really depend on each other.
Lingering on the sidewalk afterwards, David proposed another getogether; how about
lunch Wednesday at the National Museum, they have a nice coffee shop with quiet
tables…Yeah, that would be ok.., wouldn‟t it Beth?... Yes, I think we can do that. Maybe
we can get into some discussion of the current IDF situation?.. Good.. So, do you have to
make a report on meetings like this? What will you say?... Oh yeah,.. I‟ll just frame this
in a generic context of seeking information circulating within academia, from people who
might know something about or have sympathies for the missileers. I can be pretty
selective in what I say… Very good, well, we‟ll see you Wednesday.. happily serious
smiles all around.
7***
Norm and Julie had a group of about 20 students and other colleagues from the university
over to their home for a pot-luck dinner and discussion on the amazing IDF hostage
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situation and now Monsanto, very near by. Working back from the remarkable IDF
options papers, people were randomly probing the policies that governed western power
for the last 60 years. Every question seemed to open a pandoran vista. The arguments
were fast and sometimes furious … But isn‟t free trade really the only engine for
economic growth, one A-student parroted?... In response, someone recited the exhausting
list of successful past national growth stories that in every case depended on judicious
and aggressive protectionist policies… Aren‟t the auto unions the main problem in
Detroit with their so-called legacy costs?.. Answers from several others: Why weren‟t
their pensions and future healthcare adequately funded by the employers? Why don‟t the
Big Three support universal “single-payer” healthcare here; they like it in Canada. How
come those companies can‟t see what everyone else sees on energy efficiency... GM had
engineers working on hybrids in the late „70s, what happened?... But the union, the
UAW, always supported the companies on fighting mileage standards; why was that?..
This issue was a little less immediately disposed of. (Norm:) The CAFE standards and
other regulations concerning SUVs and light trucks could have forced the companies to
develop a product mix with much higher fuel efficiency. But the companies and their
Democratic operatives like Dinglebat and Lovin suckered the UAW in on their losing
strategy, and now they want a piece of the bailout to finance catch-up products with one
third of their workers left… (Julie:) This is really a teachable moment in union history.
The UAW administration is been run by a self-selecting anti-democratic caucus that has
had a comfortable “relationship” with Detroit management for decades. They largely
ignored dealing with the non-union parts suppliers and reliably returned Democrats to
office despite getting nothing in return on labor rights. The UAW practically invented
contract bargaining on healthcare but then sat back and watched the healthcare rip-off
explode out of control. They stamped out dissident member participation – we saw that
here in St. Louis when black workers revolted in Chrysler‟s van plants and when they
sand-bagged the UAW Regional Director,… What about other unions, are they better?...
Not really, the UAW is probably one of the better, more progressive unions… So what
can workers do?... Well, it‟s a little late. The Democrats have really led them down a
dismal path of collaboration and surrender. Most union members don‟t know their own
history and have never been involved in meaningful decision-making on dealing with
their employers not to mention the boss class.. They get paid “signing bonuses” to agree
to contracts for which they only get contracts-for-dummies summaries… When Bill
Clinton was running the second time, he stopped and spoke to the autoworkers in Detroit
and practically laughed in their face on free trade and striker replacement, and they still
elected the mother-fucker. Blocked traffic on I-94 for two hours while he sat in his plane
getting his hair cut. If the unions had fought back hard and held the Dems accountable,
we‟d live a different country… What is “striker replacement?”… (Phil:) It used to be
when collective bargaining – negotiations – failed to get a contract, the workers could
strike and shut down production until agreement was reached. And so could management,
that would be a “lock-out.” Then in the „80s, employers started getting creative in
keeping production going even with a strike or lock-out by using management people and
striker-replacement workers, usually unemployed individuals clueless about the labor
conflict that got recruited from God-knows where. Sometimes bussed or flew them in,
put them up in hotels. Reagan started it with the air-traffic controllers‟ strike/lockout. The
AFL-CIO just sat there across the river in D.C. and watched when they could have shut-
196
down National (now “Reagan,” yuck) Airport; they could have shut down the entire air-
transport system. A critical factor favoring employers was getting injunctions limiting
picketing and against blocking access to company property... Yeah, work stoppage is a
powerful tool but it requires a high level of member and community involvement,
sufficient to over-ride courts and disable injunctions. Most unions have lost that capacity,
and labor laws have been systematically gutted to make it harder..
[CAFE – federal regulation requiring minimum average vehicle fuel efficiencies across
company‟s product mix or “fleet”]
Okay, change of subject: why was Monsanto hit? Aren‟t they doing important research
for advancing modern agriculture, ending world hunger? At Wash U they support all
sorts of students and projects doing the latest science, plant genetics, biotechnology…
The night was getting late so the sustainable agriculture discussion had to be bare-bones
but epiphany and the outline of a consensus came fast… So, do you think the university
is safe? Would they attack here?... (Julie:) If you look at the targets, they seem to go after
people at the top. I wouldn‟t worry too much.. except,.. maybe, the Board of Trustees..,
hmm, yeah, maybe they should worry. (Norm:) I forget, the Monsanto hit may already
have gotten one or two of them… (Colleague:) Yes, I think the president mentioned that
one of the victims used to be a university Trustee.
A colleague of Julie‟s: What‟s really exciting right now is the discussion going on around
the country on all these issues. In Washington, the POC is asking a lot of the right
questions in Congress, for the first time; it‟s no longer corporate business as usual. The
collapsing economy – even without the work stoppages by rail and teamsters – are
forcing a whole new debate… (Student:) I‟m really excited about all the change taking
place on the environment and climate change; people are recycling a lot more, buying
green products, driving less… (Norm:) That is encouraging. People can make a huge
difference in their personal choices.. but to really change the system, like transforming
industry toward sustainable production and serious energy efficiency, is going to require
public policy and regulation designed to force those departures from business as usual. It
will still be market-driven, but with new specs, different constraints, not as lucrative,
usually. It‟s happened lots of places and it works. That‟s where the Democrats have really
dropped the ball till now,.. maybe still.
4 Protective Custody and Sequestering a Global Grand Jury
1***
The Plan decided it was a good idea to withdraw from the IDF vicinity; they had already
established their credibility; why wait around to be caught. Besides, there must be some
good targets elsewhere in Israel that would illustrate the on-going disagreement. The IDF
crisis and liberated documents were throwing up a wide range of opinion and confusion
in the Israeli public media coming on the heels of the Gaza invasion. Predictably
offensive, cynical and ominous pronouncements and threats were coming from prominent
members of Israeli society. Ari asked Sasha who she thought might be an appropriate
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recipient of smackdown in the Israel ruling class. She looked at him with sorrowful
disgust and resignation: So now I‟m one of your spotters, too?... Ari shrugged; this is
war, their war, you know. We want it to stop the minute justice triumphs.. They‟re
working very hard to do the same thing to us.. They would squash us in an instant and
never look down. He had a list that Beth and Eli had prepared based on the public record,
but they wanted an insider-perspective, identifying a really deserving creep in both the
institutional and personal realms. Ari had already crossed Joe Lieberman‟s name off the
list. Sasha sighed and wandered down the list and then smirked, nodding, and took Ari‟s
pencil... Well, if anyone should be on this list, it‟s this guy,.. and slapped the pencil down
on the table, shaking her beautiful head.. what a dog. So,.. what‟s going to happen with
this Truth Commission thing, smart-ass?
Have you talked with your dad?
No,.. and I really don‟t want to ask him anything or extract useful information, you know,
it‟s bad enough that I‟m on the other side, but to use my relationship with him.. I just
can‟t do it.. If he volunteers something really important, I suppose I‟ll tell you. Tears
were coming. I just hate all this,.. and I know you have things you hate, you should hate
(and I do too, you know), but I just can‟t stand this. Ari took Sasha and gently engulfed
her until her sobs subsided, his cheek wet with hers. He found her ear and kissed it
softly… Here‟s what some of our people have suggested. We find a venue in some
neutral place – like Beirut – and set up this whole process with very public access but
also high security so we can promise the participants safety. We‟ve been talking with
Hezbollah and some of the other better Lebanese factions about doing this and getting
international participation. Perhaps we could combine this with the OSS conference
somehow – maybe have some parallel discussions regarding other specific problem areas,
Israel being one of many.
What about your mom? How‟s she dealing with all this?... She‟s ok;.. it‟s kind of
interesting, now that imminent demise seems to have abated.. She and I had a
conversation a while ago about.. politics, and her perspective on his, my dad‟s, activities.
She‟s much more able to contemplate alternatives but feels like she kind of abandoned
keeping up with things some time ago. Of course this has been a huge shock, but she can
kind of understand how this could happen. She‟s been asking me a lot more, in detail,
about where Aaron and certain of my other friends stand on all this. These are
conversations I would never have anticipated; I‟m getting to know her a lot better, which
I really like.. Did I tell you she had a Palestinian boyfriend when she was in college?.. I
think when this all comes out, I may still have my mom.. Do you talk to your folks about
this stuff?... My mom and dad really didn‟t like what I was doing in school and I was
never much good at explaining it. So, we basically avoid sensitive issues. I think they‟re
pretty proud of my service in the army, though.. grinning irony.. But, every once in a
while one of them says something that suggests doubt or anxiety about where things are
going, even about the Central Dogma; so far, we haven‟t had the courage to talk about it.
When things “come out,” I have no idea how they‟ll react,.. frowning and looking away.
2***
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The security dogs conferring in Rome proposed evacuating an 8.2 km radius around the
IDF site and imposing martial law in Tel Aviv. House-to-house searches and total
sanitizing. The problem was a lot of Israelis have seen life in the IDF, observed
Palestinian pacification and the Lebanese mis-adventures, and now these jokers were
going to bring in 4,000 NATO occupiers? Not everyone was buying it... Are you crazy?
Turn Israel into another Iraq? Yes, the nasties have taken over an IDF complex and are
threatening very important people, some of whom apparently need some threatening, but
occupation? They‟re aiming their missiles at them, not at us; that‟s a considerable
improvement over the Palestinians… The NATO rationale, that the expeditionary force
will really piss people off at HFLF,.. wasn‟t working, just like beating up Gaza didn‟t
turn most of the people against Hamas, and actually strengthened their base in Fatah‟s
West Bank.
3***
After 3 days of deliberation and several lengthy sat phone sessions and side-bar
consultations, the Plan came up with a plan.
With an international consortium of organizations and supportive countries

providing logistical support and security, the HFLF proposes that a Global
Truth Commission be conducted at a university in Beirut. The purpose of this
activity will be to take and, in some cases, compel testimony on critical
questions in world governance from individuals intimately familiar with the
origins of past and present policies of significant world players. A detailed
mission statement and procedural document will be prepared by a diverse
group of jurists, historians, economists and other respected thinkers and doers
committed to human rights and world progress. Testimony will be solicited from
large numbers of witnesses and many others volunteering will also be heard,
with security and, in some cases, travel funds provided. Selected individuals will
be subpoenaed and may face indictment whether or not they choose to appear;
they will be permitted to have counsel and conduct cross-examination of those
making claims against them. Policies of all countries and organizations may be
investigated. The ultimate goal is of this Commission is to identify the private
and class interests that drive policy-making, and then create the foundations for
public policy that advances the interests of the working peoples of the world.
Recommended sanctions and criminal complaints will be influenced by
individuals‟ willingness to provide candid and thorough information addressing
the issues in play. All deliberations will be open to the public and media except
where initial discussions may compromise the objectives of the Commission in
obtaining critical information or cooperation. Following completion of the
Commission, all deliberations will be made available.
The Plan invited people in all countries to begin preparations for this investigative
extravaganza. The Plan also explained that in many countries, where unaccountable
ruling classes have thrived comfortably for generations, there would be resistance.
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Therefore, a peace offering was made: in any country where a credible commitment to
good-faith cooperation was forth-coming, including extradition with probable cause,
missile attacks against members of their ruling elite would be suspended! Conversely,
for countries refusing to participate in this grand initiative in democratic transparency and
class revelation,.. attacks will continue, and not be limited to occurrences within those
countries. This was way more civilized than the enemy. Usually, the capitalists‟global
thugs just kill the people they really don‟t like without even asking questions or
proposing rehabilitation.
Reaction to this bold proposal in most establishment media around the world spanned the
usual gamut: a) act like it never happened, b) ridicule and misrepresent its substance, or,
c) insist that it is unworkable, unnecessary or devious. Surprising to many, the leadership
of some important factions and popular movements usually advancing progress weren‟t
entirely thrilled with this proposal either – it could have some unpredictable
consequences, not all good. It might give their opponents new ammunition, uncover dirty
secrets, hurt their fund-raising, or inspire unwelcome new leadership. But some of the
ordinary people watching this in Israel – and a lot were, because the novelty was so
intense that most media outlets couldn‟t resist reporting it –contemplated this reasonable
approach: Why not? What do we have to lose? Maybe this is an answer. Maybe we‟ll
find out what‟s wrong? Those guys have cost us a lot; let‟s have some accountability and
full disclosure.
4***
Jim called during a coffee break from the task force command center at an undisclosed
location. The IDF is installing 14 real-time sat phone locator antennae with fiber-optic
networking and has assembled a fleet of 85 unmarked cars with commando teams able to
be at any site in the 4-8 km band around the IDF center within 45 sec. They expect it will
be up and running within 18 hrs. Stash had some technical questions but the Plan had
already decided to withdraw from the IDF neighborhood and most of the hardware was
had been removed. Sat phone communications would be limited to more remote
locations, meanwhile cell phone and land line calls would be substituted but with a new
vocabulary to thwart Mossad voice-text analyzing software: no more mention of
“missile,” “fire,” “target,” “IDF,” “Mossad,” “hit,” “shoot,” or, to be safe, “ruling class”
or “get.” Jim reported that the Truth Commission proposal was mostly met with
dismissal but also some curiosity by the swat masters, confident that they were close to
bagging the bad guys. Ari suggested that maybe they should drive around making brief
sat phone calls in the IDF area just to keep the swatters on a futile course but the others
thought it too risky. Stash said contriving a transponder that could be hidden somewhere
difficult to find, like a taxi or city bus, might be doable, certainly would be entertaining…
Beth asked Jim to think about what he might do as it becomes clear that the Commission
idea is viable. What arguments could he advance that would undermine U.S./IDF resolve
to fight the transfer of the hostages. Jim said to watch for public pronouncements from
some prominent Israeli personalities designed to extinguish public sympathy or support
for the Global Truth Commission. He also offered the inquisition contact information
from a Company database of “suspect” progressive individuals compiled over the years
200
from all over the world. Then Beth brought up David… We had a very good discussion
and we‟re going to continue.. I was wondering, do you think he could get assigned to
investigate us, the Plan? Would that give him more access to what Mossad knows and is
planning to do about us, the inquisition?... That‟s an interesting idea.. but it requires care.
Intel organizations can be suspicious when agents propose assignments. They want to be
the ones coming up with the ideas. But Dave could probably set something up with that
outcome in mind.. he‟s pretty smart. I‟ll talk to him. Mossad ought to be worried about
the peacenik fringe these days, but I gotta go. Talk to you soon… Bye, Jim.
5***
Guzman, the guy Sasha had penciled on Ari‟s list, was the guy that called for annihilation
of Hamas several months back, as the Bush administration was sinking into its cesspool
of oblivion. It looked like a good time to go after Hamas, before the Bama took over, just
in case. So using the Hamas toy rockets as the excuse, they went in and killed more than
1,400 Palestinians, caused massive destruction, locking the rest of them in a prison
without food and water. The Egyptians guarded the back door, sealing the border with
Gaza. This Guzman guy had a real knack for mobilizing Jewish self-righteous delusion.
Trotted out the old refrain on how careful IDF is in avoiding “civilian” casualties, as
though 80% of the Gaza population wasn‟t waging war on the occupier. Even some of the
peacenik crowd got sucked in this time. Almost a majority of Israelis agreed that killing
children was the right thing to do under these dire circumstances. The Dogma runs deep.
Guzman appeared on Israeli TV on cue, speaking as chair of a Presidential Advisory

Panel: This “Truth” commission concept is absurd; these people are unhinged, they don‟t
get it and they are risking our fundamental well-being. The very existence of Israel is
being challenged, giving great aid to our sworn enemies.. He played the Zionism card, the
freedom card, the faithful allies card, the procreating Arabs card, the economy card, the
terrorism card and the loyalty card. Then a Mossad guy gave a quick primer on what to
be looking for in our midst. They had Guzman sitting in his living room with a general,
several leaders of government, a rabbi, an interviewer, and his fake family smiling but
deeply concerned, in full ethnic correctness. He called upon all elements of Israeli society
to, once again, band together, and find those criminal terrorists operating amongst us. The
Plan had compiled the goods on this corporate bully, his multinational and personal
exploits and so, in reply, released to the world a partial dossier covering his business
exploits, how he treated workers and less-well connected competitors. His publicist
rebounded with even bigger lies and insults and now the guy was calling not only for an
all-out extermination of Hamas in Gaza and rounding-up their supporters in the West
Bank (which they could do), he was demanding an attack on Iran. Benjamin Netanyahoo,
leader of the Likud Party, a remnant of the original Zionist terrorist group that created
Israel, agreed. A smackdown was authorized.
Sasha knew where Guzman lived but a partisan who worked for Israeli TV reported to a
colleague of Beth that the guy was to deliver a second rant on the extortionists, this time
from one of those modern synagogues downtown this Friday at 10:30 am, in three days.
This would be tricky; hitting his house or the synagogue would inject all sorts of
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distracting images and concerns. Jusef proposed: maybe we could figure out his route and
get him in his car, you know, the way IDF gets our guys. (Ari:) Ya, that would be really
powerful; I‟ll talk to Sasha and look at some maps. We‟ll need a good perch looking
down some straight stretch, like the Megroponte hit. Maybe we can do some spotting to
see what he travels in.
6***
Opposition forces in lots of countries, including the POC in Washington, the Greens in
Germany, the Socialist Party in Spain, Communists in France, and some Labour Party
activists in England were now actively supporting the idea of an Inquisition for the rulers
in a neutral location provided security and ground rules could be enforced. A UN peace-
keeping force was being proposed and even though Security Council members were
trashing this ridiculous idea, it was hard to argue that the main danger was from the
missileers now that people could see the governments involved frantically working to
squelch this public introspection. IDF/Mossad was networking on the hostage situation.
They were noticing that interest was growing locally in support of the public inquiry.
CIA‟s Jim suggested in a teleconference of the swat-teamers that it wouldn‟t be that
difficult to infiltrate the inquisitor panels. It‟s an old strategy of theirs, of course, but now
it has a new name from some academic slime who is working on the “internet problem;”
it‟s called “cognitive infiltration.” The Company has lots of academics wired for public
participation as independent thinkers who could steer the discussion, sabotage some of
the queries, and pre-empt some of the worst embarrassments. They could also report-in
on internal discussions and plans among the Inquisitors. Most important of all, they
would be able to target public officials in countries that were supporting the Inquisition
but who had dirty secrets of their own… We could use this to cool some of the
enthusiasm among supporting states... Of course, Jim would finger the finks before they
could do much damage; the Inq might even subpoena some of them.
7***
Guzman gets picked up every morning at 7:15 by a dark sedan that then takes one of
three routes to Guzmans‟ usual haunts: high government, high corporate or high personal
enrichment. The route downtown follows a winding boulevard and a lot of it was visible
from several venues including numerous apartment blocks two kilometers further out
from the city, but only for brief glimpses. The best view actually was the approach to the
synagogue itself on a downtown avenue. Maybe they could get him right before he
arrived. There was a building with a lot of transmission antennas on it that would make a
great launch site so the partisans went about finding a way to get to the roof. They were
getting quite skilled at locating and securing reliable cooperation for such activities.
The media had been playing up the upcoming synagogue event. The PM would be there
along with several members of Parliament and a number of other esteemed party leaders
and leading figures of Israeli society, under high security. It was to be a national call for
vigilance and sacrifice, and was starting to look complicated – many cars delivering high
ranking officials. This could get confusing; might need to have a spotter car traveling
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with the party. The team was developing new respect for the skills of IDF helicopter
executioners.
Friday morning, spotters reported that no one had left the Guzman residence by 8:00 am
but then some cars arrived, government cars, dropping off important-looking people with
brief cases and laptops. Apparently they were convening a breakfast strategy session at
the Guzmans‟. No action until about 9:45 am when two cars left. The Guzman car didn‟t
leave until 10:05 and there was now an escort of two other indistinguishable cars. The
Guzman car seemed to have some extra antennas. This was going to be difficult. The
launch team was ready, enjoying the morning sun atop the 15-story building, but nervous
about their mission. This was the first hit in Israel (besides the chopper), and in the
daytime by a novice team, and an extremely difficult target. They had a pretty good exit
strategy using a freight elevator and taxis driven by foreigners, but still, it was risky with
very uncertain outcome. Beth and Stash had to do some heavy counseling and hand-
holding over various cell phones in short conversations.
The mobile spotters were tracking several identical cars in heavy traffic.. They could now
understand why some of those Israeli hits in Gaza sometimes ended inconclusively.. or
took out nobody important. They were pretty sure which car had Guzman and so were
feeding a continuous stream of locator information to the launch team. There was about
¾ of a km with fairly tall buildings on both sides right before the synagogue when they
would have a clean shot, if they knew at what, and the three cars were about two minutes
away from there.
Out on the broad sidewalk in front of the synagogue, there was a welcoming committee
with full media turn-out. This surprise appeared when the HF camera finally found the
place. There were TV cameras and vans, TV personalities doing live reports, and waiting
dignitaries including several rabbis and wives, some feeble elders, and other patient
representatives of the governing elite. For the past 15 minutes, big dark cars had been
swooping in to deliver important personages and then disappearing under the direction of
uniformed traffic managers wearing radios, side-arms and white boots. There seemed to
be lots of armed guards lurking everywhere.
“They‟re turning onto Salud,” the spotter reported, her voice excited but firm.. You
should see two of the cars, then a white van of some kind with a police car beside it, and
then Guzman‟s vehicle a little bit back.. Can you see them?... Ah, we‟re panning back
from the synagogue,.. OK,.. ah.. yeah, yeah we got „em. Not too bad, if we don‟t clip
some of those power lines. They‟re bobbing and weaving all over; those drivers just
aren‟t happy staying in one lane… OK, you have five blocks, anytime would be good.
The laser was set on the trunk of Guzman‟s car and the shooter held off for a good shot –
a time when the car looked like it would be staying put for several seconds… We‟re
running out of time, you better go for it, the co-launch leader muttered… Okay, they‟re
heading for the pull-over lane, let‟s go. HF 24 screamed away, with due diligence. The
car was totally cooperative, soon pulling in swiftly behind the two leaders that were
already disgorging their high-value occupants. One of the rabbis had stepped forward to
shake Guzman‟s hand. Guzman and two other riders were out of their seats and just about
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clear of the car when hell-fire burst forth, some of it surging forward to the car in front.
The event was caught live on at least three Israeli TV channels in crisp color. Two of the
camera teams were unscathed and continued doing their job – reporting a history-making
event.
It is such a bizarre fire. It is suddenly there in full fury, and then, almost instantly, is
largely gone, leaving behind poorly burning debris and, of course, flaming auto fabric
and plastic. The tests LM had done on animals showed that one of the main consequences
besides blinding, and melting the fat in the victims‟ skin, is that the carotid arteries get
cauterized almost immediately so death comes pretty soon thereafter, if the victim can
still breathe. And of course there is also injury from flying parts, what with rocket engine,
electronics, optical components, batteries, servo motors, actuators, fins and all, flying
everywhere.
The swat army with its circulating commando units was still obsessing over in IDF
territory when the hit came. Although quickly re-deployed, they were way too late to
catch the exiting missileers. They had to re-program their electronic surveillance and
move some antennas to cover the downtown area. A lost cause, but a team of HF forensic
experts, including Jim from Baghdad, was on the scene within 25 minutes, looking for
evidence and asking where it could have come from. There were several directions that a
missile could have taken but looking at the debris field and then back up the avenue, a
more likely route, Jim could see that telecom tower with the antennas, and then hundreds
of other visible roof-tops squinting back at them. Jim suggested an investigation starting
with easily accessible rooftops in three directions including a number of possibilities out
past the telecom tower. He figured the perps had long-since disappeared but wanted to let
the trail cool a while before going after the most likely site. Investigators were given a list
of questions and the media were given an announcement soliciting any eyewitness or
auditory accounts including an audio segment of what an HF might sound like running
above a city street, a sound lots of Palestinian and Afghan kids would recognize.
8***
The reaction in Israel was catatonic. This wasn‟t a Qassam III rocket from Gaza blowing
some sheet metal off the roof of a rural school house or hitting a home or, more typically,
an empty field, scaring animals and terrorizing people but usually hurting no one. This
was like those people said, an attack on a ruling class, the people that own and run just
about everything important. Guzman didn‟t have a lot of friends. And it looked just like
those Gaza IDF hits on TV.. Loyalties were dividing in all the wrong places. Some
people were remembering the tough talk and threats the rulers had been making, and then
thinking about the 60 Years‟ War, the war without end, kicking Palestinians in the teeth
over and over, the bad bargain that was Iraq,.. and now this. Things just weren‟t working
out that well. Public discourse, which can be wide-ranging and scrappy within the Israeli
body politic, reacted with some predictable constriction but many contrary threads were
expanding and seemed to be thriving on adversity… Maybe it‟s time we looked into
some of the things we‟ve been told, got some straight answers from the people that do
these things, get some more of that history out into the open where we can see it… But
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others were wondering: What about our nuclear weapons, can‟t we use them somehow?
How many do we have? Is Gaza too close? Where are the Americans, the American
Jews, we need them now.
Hamas leaders were shaken and jittery. A lot of them had been killed and their security
bases and most of their administrative buildings and residences destroyed in Israeli air-
strikes and shellings during the invasion two months back. The 1,400 people the IDF
killed included lots of kids and the family of that popular Palestinian doctor who was on
Israeli TV sometimes. Getting Guzman could provoke an even wilder response. The
Hamas committee on the HFLF came together to query Jasmine and Jusef... What was
the thinking behind this? Did you know about it? What else are they going to do? This
could result in a new IDF occupation of Gaza!... Jasmine and Jusef had briefed the
committee periodically but usually they didn‟t want to know that much, which was
probably good. Jasmine explained how they learned about the secret thug convention and
the supporting discussion papers. Revisiting their general substance, she explained how
important it was to bring these to public consciousness and the political impact that had
predictably followed. Jusef reported that everyone he had talked to in several countries
was amazed at the brazen articulation and now were seeing things in a different light. It
was bringing a new strategic outlook to many struggles... But what will happen next?...
We think there‟s a good possibility this Truth Commission will take place, in Lebanon;
that it will produce major revelations on the exercise of power in all countries, and will
help people discover what they need to do to make things a lot better, everywhere. We
really have to expand awareness of the importance of this happening. There are even
people in Israel who want to see what emerges from all this. (Jasmine:) Yes, we see this
as a possible turning point, that is why the governing elites are so opposed to it. In many
countries, the opposition forces are supporting it and winning the public debate. It seems
there is a lot of pent-up resentment against ruling classes everywhere… (Jusef:) Ya, it‟s
about accountability, which interests a lot of people these days… So, what do you think
we should do?... Well, Jusef and I were thinking it might be appropriate for Hamas to
issue a statement. We think it should go something like this: The Israeli people have now
experienced an effective, lethal attack on some of their highest officials, the rulers of
Israel. The Palestinian people have experienced this too, repeatedly, for many years as
well as suffering the other features of our current occupation. Hamas calls upon the
Israeli people to reconsider their place in this world and the policies they have supported
in the past. We welcome a dialog with the Israeli people seeking a just peace that works
well for both peoples. We support the Truth Commission that is being proposed and call
for inspection of the past actions of all governments, including those in the region where
we live. We respectfully submit that the current alliance between the U.S. and Israel not
only contributes to the assault on peoples‟ rights everywhere, but is a losing and
bankrupt strategy with costly continuing consequences for the Israeli (and American)
people… I don‟t think that will fool anybody in Israel, the Jews are very cohesive, and
besides, they will blame this attack on us… That‟s not entirely true, there is quite a bit of
alienation and disenchantment there; it‟s not that different from Egypt, where just about
everyone is Moslem but with many diverse and suppressed opinions on how things
should be. The Jews have their settlers, ultra-crazies and subversive reformers; Egypt has
their Moslem Brotherhood, except many of them are in jail... (Jasmine:) Actually, the
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Israelis know Hamas is not involved in the missile attacks; they‟ve been looking very
carefully with the Americans and have found no evidence of it… How do you know
this?... We have people inside, remember? and, also, in other places... So this Truth
Commission, what if they come after us?... Well, what if they do? Is that a problem? Do
we have fundamental crimes we are trying to hide? Sure, there may be some corruption
here and there, but compared to other Arab organizations – compared to Fatah and the
Authority, or Egypt or Syria – we‟re squeaky clean… What if what comes out of this is
some consensus on secular government that we oppose?... (Abdul:) OK, this is a longer
discussion. I propose that Jasmine and Jusef write up their statement and we‟ll send it up
to the Council and let them decide. Anybody besides Harry have a problem with that?..
OK.
David Smirnoff was blown off his stride; this was way more than he had bargained for...
Holy shit, these people are insane. How can they get away with this? The heavies are
going to circle the wagons and bring down a reign of.. well,.. terror. Like the good old
days.. well, maybe not.. this could be different, but it‟s a really dangerous time. I need to
talk to Jim.. or maybe I should wait. No, it will look good that I consulted him.. Jim, this
is Dave. I‟d like to talk sometime… Sure Dave, can‟t right now but I‟ll call you later.
We‟re working on the Tel Aviv attack, you know, but feel free to call up my associates
that you have met … Ya, OK, I‟ll do that… Yeah, I would do that and spend some time
on them.. and I‟ll talk to you later, soon. OK? Take it easy.
9***
David called up Rachel and asked if they could meet again. Their meeting at the Museum
the previous Wednesday had covered a lot of ground on both sides, with Beth describing
some of the developing challenges to ruling-class hegemony in the U.S., Europe and
some Middle Eastern countries. There was considerable unease beneath the surface all
around the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia was fermenting and just about ready to erupt.
David periodically raised a deeper philosophical point and they would run with that for a
while. Beth on Islam: What was Mossad‟s assessment of the more progressive strains of
Islam in Moslem societies; what was Mossad doing to help or hinder them? Creating
Hezbollah wasn‟t exactly a sterling blow for progress although, it had developed in
interesting ways. Was Mossad involved in the past helping destroy the progressives in the
Baath movement in Iraq? Who had originally conceived this alliance of thieves between
Israel and the U.S.? What did David think about any of this?
They met at a bar near Rachel‟s university office. Beth had anticipated that the
synagogue hit might shake David‟s foundations. When they met, Beth and Rachel were
careful to suppress any excitement or glee and focused on listening to their new friend
from Mossad who was in shock. (David:) I guess I hadn‟t imagined what it would be like.
It‟s interesting, you hear about these things happening routinely somewhere else and you
study the reports, look at the pictures, but when it happens here, in a robust society, a
“democracy” with well-crafted institutions, respected powerful people, it‟s suddenly a bit
more real… Yes.. Beth admitted.. after all the attacks we‟ve.. ah.. been involved in, this
one really added some.. depth or appreciation.. of what these attacks do to people, what
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some people have experienced more than once in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Pakistan…
(Rachel:) It‟s certainly a rude education for the Israeli people; I hope we get it… Yes, but
I‟m worried where all this will lead. I‟m sure the leadership here is generating extreme
scenarios. We have staff meetings all-day tomorrow and all travel has been cancelled.
The PM will probably try to float the NATO proposal again in some form… (Beth:) we
need at act fast to avert sliding down into an authoritarian swamp. I was wondering, what
sorts of documents do you have access to? For example, I‟m sure there have been
discussions of the pros and cons of the one-state, two-state, no-state solutions and various
papers prepared. Can you get these? If there was a comprehensive review laying out quite
candidly what the elite would lose with a one-state solution, you know, politically,
economically, that would be quite revealing to most Israelis, I think; might restrict – or
extend – the decision latitude these guys are operating within… There are such
documents; the really sensitive ones – the ones you‟re talking about – I don‟t have access
to,.. but there may be ways to get them.. I‟ll think about how to do that. There are
catalogs that I can access and maybe figure out other sources to go to.. Other
organizations may not be so careful, like Likud or the Labor Party archivists.. One big
consequence of one-state, of course, would be to diminish Israel‟s security role in the
world, reduce its offensive military support for the U.S., and of course, totally
reconfigure Israel‟s relations with the Arab countries, not necessarily for the better. Like
the missileer postings have suggested, we would go from being an imposter bully and
military threat to being a political threat, offering the Moslem masses a much better
model than what they have now… (Beth:) Yeah, in next-door Egypt, where it‟s illegal to
meet in groups of more than five without a permit, this solution might be quite appealing.
(Rachel:) So how do we promote the Truth Commission at this point? Internal documents
on the OSS would help, but what else?… Beth: some of the early writings and papers that
paved the way for the Central Dogma are quite revealing, and not classified – they‟re
proudly archived in many libraries. Putting some of them up for public revisiting might
encourage debate on: “is this what we want to be doing?” For that matter we could even
dredge up European indifference to the plight of mid-20th C European Jews, seek to
engage those countries in a more constructive solution.
10***
The embarrassment was crushing. Over the years the Israeli elite had endured multiple
crises, unanticipated challenges from neighboring armies pushing back against Zionist
expansionism, but rarely threats to their divine authority, much less their immediate
personal safety, and without automatic U.S. backup. They were accustomed to striking
out with overwhelming force at will, usually with little risk of significant consequences.
But the debacle in South Lebanon three years ago was unsettling, then Gaza, and now
their very existence was infiltrated by lethal agents of class war. Now they had to think
about consequences.. The foundation of their business plan – the Central Dogma – was
starting to be challenged in public discussion by Israelis, Jewish people! Their partner in
Middle Eastern opportunism – the U.S. corporate mafia – was becoming unreliable,
more tentative, distracted. Regretfully and belatedly, they were discovering that their
firepower and nuclear threat were not working as intended.
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As far as Dave could tell there was little diversity of opinion at the highest levels of
Israeli decision-makers on what was happening and needed to be done: put Israel into
lockdown and massive self-surveillance. But in the Knesset, in substantial sectors of the
media, and society at large the expanding debate was yielding some solidified positions
that were not united. Besides the right and ultra-right positions, and the earnest liberal
Central Dogmatists, there was now a visible showing by the One Staters. A position that
previously would have been treasonous was now considered arguable and possibly a
smart choice. Beth‟s network was at the barricades again with fine-tuned analytic
commentary and demands that made a lot of sense. Hearings, interviews, and
demonstrations at universities were being streamed everywhere; segments translated into
Arabic appeared on Al Jazeera. The idea that the one-country concept could actually
appeal to the Moslem masses and undermine governing authority in the oppressive Arab
states was intriguing, a breath of fresh air. Some segments of ordinary Israeli people were
getting class. In the Histradut, perception that the physical threats were against the rulers,
not the people, enabled a new discussion free of distraction. Jasmine had suggested to
Hamas that maybe now would be a good time to hold off on those pesky rocket attacks
and let the missileers take it for a while. Some reckless labor leaders were whispering that
implementing IDF martial law was unpatriotic, that maybe Israeli soldiers should find
other ways to spend their time. Major strikes were being suggested – in airline, trucking,
public utility, healthcare – to help the Zionist bosses get the full picture. Many ordinary
Israelis were very confused. Some rabbis started to rethink their interpretation of the
scriptures, exploring new positions, like evangelicals were doing in the U.S. following
the neocon train wreck there. [Knesset - Israeli Parliament]
11***
Barschauer had just adjourned a weekly staff meeting and was closing laptop files and
collecting papers as Sasha was following the others out of the room. Their eyes met with
unexpected messages. Sasha paused and remarked: Well,.. what‟s next? Things don‟t
seem to be going according to plan… The meeting had been focused on technical details
and project reporting; Barschauer usually doesn‟t stray into informal discussion or idle
speculation with his IDF staff… No, they‟re not.. hesitating and studying Sasha‟s
thought. He reached back for the door asking, do you have a minute Lieutenant? They
sat next to each other silent at the corner of the table for several seconds both in serious
thought.. They have your father?.. I‟m sorry,.. although,.. at this point he may be safer
there than out and about... Nodding with a frown, yes, it was a lot scarier at first… They
looked at each other and then simultaneously “what do you /” and Sasha let him finish:
“think is happening?”.. A little embarrassed… Well,.. it seems like our ability to write
history is failing. Some basic assumptions are dissolving.. And some clever people have
turned one of our tools of coercion against us. She stopped, fearing she had gone too far..
But Barschauer nodded with wry assent: Yes, technical dominance is sometimes short-
lived or inadequate, when underlying conflicts just continue on. Recently I‟ve been less
and less comfortable with our “game plan” as I think we‟ve mentioned before.. and now I
just don‟t see the way forward. I don‟t see any cogent leadership. We used to have
reliable support and could force accommodation in the Arab states. Looking back, it
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seems to me that our Zionist forebears made a Faustian bargain when we joined the
Americans.. It seemed so natural at the time, I guess.. What do you see happening?..
Sasha was trying to find a way through this conversation. She wanted to engage the
substance but had to maintain a firewall… I think peoples‟ thoughts are finally exploring
other possibilities; the missile-shooters have succeeded in expanding the class dimension
of politics in Israel,.. and other places. They certainly have been skillful in exploiting the
insanity coming from the Bush administration and their deranged followers.. well, I think
they are.. I know there would be enormous and challenging problems in transition but I
can‟t dismiss the one-state solution anymore; it just seems like it should work. Of course
my dad thinks this is ridiculous, he can‟t imagine a more disastrous outcome.. What do
you think?, squinting at her clean-shaven superior officer in his ironed army shirt… Well,
it would basically extinguish the whole Jewish fatherland ideal which most Jews worship,
consider a God-given right, which of course it isn‟t.. there is no such right except through
ruthless might, and that doesn‟t always work. It worked for the Europeans conquering the
Americas, worked nicely for the colonial powers for centuries, didn‟t work for the Nazis
very long at all.
Sasha, debating whether to wade in deeper: I‟m hoping this inquisition thing actually
goes forward – it could increase peoples‟ understanding of how things work, how things
could work; I kind of really want it to happen. I know some people working on it… Do
you? Israelis? How do you know them?.. But then remembering who she was and who he
was, he backtracked.. Well, there are probably a lot of people getting involved
informally. Actually, Miri – my wife – you met her at the bas mitzvah – has a friend that
has some connection to it, I‟m not sure what. Miri and I have been discussing all this..
turmoil for some time; she has a good sense of history and she‟s forced me to confront
things I try not to think about.. I have no idea what IDF people are thinking. Army people
don‟t reveal much, I‟m not sure they think that much, and I have so little contact
outside… Yeah, I‟m kind of fortunate I have some friends from school and I‟ve met this
guy that does developmental economics who‟s been all over… Well,.. so, Lieutenant,
who do you think these people are, with the missiles? Does anybody know? Mossad
doesn‟t have a clue, it‟s really remarkable.. chuckling. They‟re almost at a psychotic
break-point. Does your father have any idea?... No. He was working really hard on it
with their systems but I don‟t think they know anything – except who it isn‟t… Yeah..
Then Barschauer had to go. He got up and excused himself, and thanked Lieberman for
her time: Let‟s talk some more… Yes, let‟s do that.
12***
In the middle of serious debate on the IDF hostage situation in multiple Congressional
committees, the U.S. military appropriations authorization bill came up. There were
several huge items, like the precise nature of the continuing U.S. presence in Iraq, the
planned invasion of Afghanistan by 35,000 new troops to crush the Taliban opiate,
spilling into Pakistan, and Bush‟s leftover missile defense shield in Europe. The missile
defense system got shot down real fast. Not only was it really pissing off the Russians
who basically would be sitting ducks if another lunatic listening to Condi Rice took over
the White House, it was premised on not resolving problems in the Middle East. When
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they got to the military-aid-to-Israel paragraphs starting on page 683 that‟s when the roof
fell in. It wasn‟t just those hyper POC people either. Going-in, a majority was already
disposed to re-think Israel, especially with the liberated planning documents generated by
Israeli forward thinkers allied with ugly Americans and their free-world groupies. The
POC caucus came up with conditions on military aid to Israel that would have been
unthinkable one year earlier. The Bama was forced to withhold aid and acted
disappointed.. and it was a pretty good act. This seemed like an opening. The military
contractors, on the other hand, weren‟t acting, they really were disappointed. AIPAC was
aghast; things were worse that they had ever imagined; worse than the Wall Street melt-
down of 2008! The grand-holy alliance was disintegrating. The two-country solution with
guaranteed Palestinian water resources and free access all of a sudden was looking good.
Returning to the IDF circus, Congressional Committees were going 5 to 3 in favor of safe
passage for the hostages to a secure location where important issues would be
investigated with compelled testimony, something many of them wished they had had
with the Bush administration. The people were intrigued with this concept of discovering
the right questions and then getting the answers. Stodgy Congressmen from both parties,
who were experiencing considerable heat from their constituencies, felt an urgency in
settling with the Inquisitors, hoping that stealth diplomacy, stage management and
advanced spin-doctoring would minimize the damage. Besides, maybe this was a way to
get that Israeli albatross from around their necks; maybe they had gone too far down that
road. Sort of got scammed by AIPAC, like they were by Wall Street and the banking
crowd, or the auto industry, or big coal, or big oil, or big pharm. They had been
especially encouraged by testimony from the CIA in closed House Intelligence Sub-
Committee hearings. An expert on the rogue missile problem had outlined the plan to
infiltrate the inquisition itself to limit the damage and tilt it more toward U.S. objectives.
Sitting next to the Director of Intelligence was a junior official, Jim Speller, with
extensive experience in Iraq and now Israel, the operative who first identified the missile
being used by the new terrorists. Flown in from the Middle East for this hearing, he
explained how the inquisition process could be twisted to advantage. Finally some smart
thinking from intel, Obama‟s intel, people were thinking.
13***
Many non-government organizations – NGOs – in the UK, New Zealand, France, U.S.,
Germany, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa, Japan, Chile, South Korea, that had be laboring
for years to win little victories for justice, like ACLU, Doctors without Borders, Oxfam,
and hundreds of others, sprang into action. They had all the arguments, all the available
facts, and now they had potential access to all the people and the rest of the facts. Here
was an unparalleled opportunity to scrutinize and hold accountable the rulers of the
realm. Sensing considerable resistance from the ruling classes and their government
bureaucracies they were coming up with a unified strategy: global boycott of selected
major multinational corporations and certain entire countries, Israel, Sudan and Myanmar
at the top of the list. The delegations of most countries in the UN had been instructed to
vote against any resolution to empower an independent inquisition but a lot of pressure
was building – Why don‟t you want to have this enquiry? Are there things you haven‟t
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been telling us? Aren‟t there other names we should put on the list? This better be on
TV!.. The vote was in play. British and U.S. strategists were scrambling to salvage the
situation. They thought they had a bullet-proof consensus among Security Council
members to dismiss this nonsense when Lebanon announced that it would go forward
with providing a venue and security for the inquisition regardless, having received
commitments from 15 other countries to provide financial and security support,
conditional on agreement on procedures.
The insolence was astounding! Lebanon was so unpredictable! Unlike many traditional
capitalist countries Lebanon had outlawed trafficking in financial derivatives, “credit
default swaps” and other improvised implosive devices by banks, and their banking
system (and India‟s and a few others) stood largely intact after the mortgage tsunami.
Large organizations were moving their liquid assets there. Their agreement with the 15
countries included extradition procedures for individuals on the inquisitor list. Several
major players, including Brazil, South Korea and Sweden had experienced remarkable
public debate, stimulated in no small part by the financial collapse, and huge majorities
were favoring the inquisition. Brazilians and Koreans were thinking back to unpleasant
events in the „60s and „70s. Some Koreans even thought it was time that the KAL 007
mystery got cleared up. Soon Venezuela signed on (with a mystery airplane crash of their
own) as did Costa Rica, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay in Latin America, and,
well, of course, Cuba. Cuba has a dismal history on human rights, only 35% of which can
be blamed on the U.S. blockade, but it‟s not a secret. They didn‟t throw people out of
helicopters into the ocean or steal their babies like in Argentina in the „70s under the
Admirals, or do mass stadium executions like in Pinochet and Kissingher‟s Chile. They
were on the low rungs on homophobia, but they had so much more to gain than lose from
an inquisition: Raoul Castro saw an opportunity to leverage the whole thing toward
ending the blockade, a huge advance. In Africa, Namibia led the way followed by
recovering Zimbabwe, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola and, of all places,
Somalia. Algeria and Libya were conflicted on it. Lots of places wanted to revisit and
clarify past injustices. Perceiving security in numbers, abused very small countries were
also getting on board even though it made some of their senior citizens nervous. Feeling
the tightening noose of extradition, and the threat of legal rendition for corporate thugs to
face certain torture – having truth extracted in public without anesthesia – the big players
abandoned Plan A for Plan B: going along but trying hard to control the process. It was
an immense surprise when China announced that it would not oppose the inquisition and
wasn‟t particularly interested in gaming the rules. Baffled almost everyone. The collapse
of the export scam – trading slave labor for U.S. debt – was a traumatic revelation, and
the exploding quality scandals like poisoning children with melamine in dairy products,
not to mention mushrooming class struggle, had shaken the Chinese capitalist neophyte
party bosses. Of course, they weren‟t going to extradite anyone or permit its broadcast. A
new faction was growing up; another Cultural Revolution was imagined, only a little
more nuanced this time. Have to pull back from market mania and listen to the people
again, listen to the parents of kids killed by toxic school construction in the earthquake,
parents of kids poisoned, farmers evicted to build opulent high-rises or new export
engines, people poisoned by most rivers, in factories,.. listen to workers all over China
who still have an inkling of class justice, and class struggle.
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[KAL 007 – the Korean Airlines flight shot down by the Russians, the result of a CIA air-
defense surveillance gimmick gone awry; Venezuelan airliner flying to Cuba: blown-up
by U.S-supported anti-Castro “terrorists”]
The vote on a UN peace-keeping force in the Security Council was close to passing but
Russia was still opposed and could veto. They were much less vulnerable to those silly
boycotts and bad image but quiet threats from the West saying they might disclose the
dirt on the Russian oligarchs regardless of an inquisition process were turning some
heads.
5. Collateral Damage
1***
In Russia, the UN debate on the Truth Commission was being followed initially with
moderately adequate media coverage permitted by a government bureaucracy unsure
where it was going but enjoying the spectacle. But as soon as it became apparent that a
significant and disseminated, articulate force was moving toward a real inquisition with
unlimited scope, suddenly it was no longer newsworthy. Reporters there were
remembering what had happened to some of their more earnest colleagues since the rise
of Russian thug capitalism (murder). So people had to switch over to the internet. Many
of the concerns driving this latest, amazing development with the missileers in Israel
resonated with Russians still reeling from the advent of freedom and, of course,
remembering from before freedom. Although things were starting to get a lot better for
some people outside the new comprador billionaire elite, things were still very bad or
getting worse for most, especially with the downturn in the world energy economy and
surging unemployment, vanishing pensions. Previously one-state-industry towns had
turned into private company towns and people were really hurting.
So it was both startling and hope-inspiring when what looked like missiles first hit the
private dacha of a new corporate tycoon in manufacturing, the guy that ended up with
Soviet motor vehicle production, and then another hit the headquarters of Gazprom in
Moscow, the huge, stolen, privatized corporate monster in natural gas. TV showed things
and then didn‟t; who knew what was going on? A frantic investigation ensued, with
technical support on loan from Obama flown in from LockheedMartin,.. just in case..
But they quickly established it wasn‟t Hellfires! It was two COPY-CAT attacks!! The
U.S. embassy didn‟t know if this was good news or bad; clamped a top-secret
classification on communications, but how could it stay that way. The Plan discussed this
new phenomenon, and then declared the copy-cats to the world before the authorities did,
saying it was pleased and honored to welcome new allies with independent means to
global class war, inviting others to join.. Apparently some of the discarded military
people from the old Soviet regime hadn‟t forgotten their roots and hadn‟t been totally idle
in recent months, making good use of left-over hardware intended for other purposes.
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President Pootin and his apprentice Prime Minister were very focused, activating all the
search and destroy algorithms from their days in the KGB. This mutiny had to be quelled
immediately; none of that mamby-pamby like in the U.S. or even Israel. The Soviet
missileers, however, weren‟t dozing in complacent self-satisfaction, or in a vodka stupor.
Four days later, their next and final hit got Pootin, in his Kremlin office-tower suite,
along with several high functionaries and three visiting Americans. The shooters
apparently had accomplices on the inside, probably those communists burrowing within,
again. They seemed to be saying to the people: “take it from here, comrades.” The failed
bullies of Afghanistan, the butchers of Chechnya, the pimps of privatization, the looters
of the fatherland, the assassins of truth-tellers, were being called to account. TV stations
opened up a little; seemed like it was a little safer.
2***
Stash was stunned. Thinking at first it was an HF operation, why hadn‟t he known about
it? Keeping him out of planning for a hit in Russia was inconceivable, devastating but,
within minutes, Ben assured him: It wasn‟t one of ours.. pretty fucking amazing, isn‟t
it?.. What effect will it have in Russian politics? Is there enough awareness and
commitment there to sustain a popular movement, something the authorities can‟t
squash?... I don‟t know. My friends there are pretty disgusted with the direction of the
new order; on the other hand, at least Pootin was standing up to the west, putting an end
to post-Soviet abuse from the Bush people. This might embolden some of the old
comrades to forge a new public platform, to re-engineer socialism with a big dose of
bottom-up democracy, with a broad appeal; on the other hand, the Kremlin could
probably,.. will probably, stamp them out. They still know how to do that, only now they
have private brigades of thugs from the cartels to help. Maybe the shooters there will
release a statement somewhere, maybe through Al Jazeera?... Stash, is there some way
you could get back to Russia and find out what‟s going on? Make contact with our
comrades, discuss a common agenda?... Well.. my company has been talking with the
Russians, government and private, about leasing satellite capacity.. Maybe I could find a
way to travel to Moscow.. Let me look into that.
3***
The Israeli government was hurriedly putting the finishing touches on their national lock-
down, about to roll out IDF martial law, computerized check-points and scanners, and
house-to-house inspections. The entire population was being re-drafted to investigate
their neighbors and each other, like the Americans had tried and failed. Electronic
surveillance was being massed for elimination of the enemy within. Joe Lieberman was
consulting from his isolation cell. Officials hardly bothered to follow the UN debate until
it was too late to imagine the outcome. An inquisition of leadership from the core
institutions of free societies? Extradition? The UN resolution passed? It was starting to
feel like the Masada, Dien Bien Pfu, or maybe the Alamo. Still, nothing was moving at
the top, except for launching the militia and collecting forces for another run on Hamas.
[Masada – a Hebrew fort from ancient history that held-out for months before being taken
by the Romans; Dien Bien Pfu – where the French were defeated by the Vietnamese,
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turning the fight over to the grateful Americans; the Alamo – frontier fort lost in Texas
(but that shameful war was won)]
The Plan quickly decided that another Israeli hit was necessary to finally dispatch
delusional thinking. The top executive offices of the IDF in government headquarters
downtown were chosen. A sophisticated prototype counter-measure against possible HF
attack had been installed atop that IDF building, including high-throughput pattern
recognition optical scanning of all vistas within 8 km of the building, looking for the
sudden appearance of unexpected structure. They were thinking maybe there‟s a global
market for this thing. While offices in other government buildings had all moved their
operations away from rooms with windows, the IDF command enjoyed the afternoon sun
and views of the Sea. That is, until a utility truck with a cherry picker mast started
maintenance work on a transformer 3 km away in the port area. The IDF pattern
computer decided it looked legit and moved-on. The generals, department heads and
prime contractors had just assembled for their bi-weekly mid-afternoon briefing on the
master-plan when a flash over in the general direction of Gaza put an HF onto their lair.
Quite a few people heard the furious swoosh and several saw where it seemed to come
from, followed by that truck packing up and sauntering on its way. Three IDF soldiers
assigned to port security saw it and were pretty sure this wasn‟t normal electrical utility
activity. The call went in immediately and within seconds swat cars were converging on
the southwest Tel Aviv port area looking for a specific utility truck. Several longshore
workers including some Israeli Arabs saw it too and were pretty sure they didn‟t want to
remember seeing it. The Plan had figured that its days of freely operating in Tel Aviv
were numbered and so had some cars shadowing the truck while listening to police and
security radio activity. It soon became obvious that the hunt was on and so the teams
executed a quick rendezvous, abandoning the truck. Three of the shooters were safely
boarded and away but the fourth was running across the street to a third safe-car when a
police cruiser and a plain car full of big guys rounded the corner and spotted the truck.
Comrade Genevieve, the avionics engineer, was apprehended along with a partisan
driver. The cops almost let them go; they were in a big hurry and this was just an
educated Israeli woman with her driver, probably on a business mission; not their target.
But the driver looked a little nervous. When they called in the contact, there was some
question about who owned the car, and then there seemed to be no reason for them to
have been there.. The sweep-meister said: bring „em in.
Of course, some of the generals and colleagues never heard about the catch. They got
caught first, together with several other top staff in their modern but not resilient
chambers, along with some of their electronic servers of terror. Some people in Tel Aviv
briefly saw the smoke and rising ash from the violated citadel; most saw the crime scene
on TV. They could have panicked into dysfunctional thought, but many wanted to believe
there was a better way forward and resisted the temptation.
4***
When they mentioned them at all, the authorities in Saudi Arabia dismissed the rogue
missile attacks of the past nine months as silly consequences of decadence in the world of
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the modern western infidels. Just look at Israel. They didn‟t talk about Dubai at all.
Nervous derision came from Sheiks and Princes. However, lots of ordinary citizens were
studying these events and the associated demands they had heard about. When a march of
the Arab slaves (and non-Arab slaves) sprang up in the main streets of Riyadh and
seemed to be metastasizing into a permanent disorder, the official custodians of Sunni
Islam got meaner. But public floggings, lopping off hands and heads just didn‟t seem to
cut it anymore, lots of their subjects weren‟t getting it. The Plan decided it was time to
insert some class clarification into this confusion. Jusef and associates were dispatched
and five HF attacks were planned with the local partisans: two palaces, an exclusive Gulf
resort, a major bank headquarters, and the private government office of a top Prince.
After the Dubai hits, security across Saudi Arabia had been ramped way up but, as usual,
too late. Everything was already in place.
The two palaces were scheduled for early morning. The launchings were competent, the
teams including some ex-al-Qaeda cross-over guys that were pretty skilled and highly
motivated. The first alabaster and gold palace, about 4 km from the center of town turned
into a smoking pavilion that went on for hours sending a pillar of remorse into the
flawless sky. The second palace got lucky. Despite an uneventful launch and good
camera contact, the „fire suddenly went berserk, veering off course and spiraling down
into an upscale mall, igniting a fancy department store full of European and Asian
flammables that hadn‟t opened yet that morning (so much for LM‟s six-sigma reliability).
While disappointing, it wasn‟t a totally inappropriate target and it would make it more
difficult for the authorities to plot the launch site. The bank building, a tall show-off icon
of the Middle East was real easy and took its hit at 9:30 am, with the fire climbing
steadily upward from the 16th floor. The resort 55 km away followed around noon. Saudi
ruling-class women with children were scattering in their difficult dress hiding Victorian
secrets and wondering what their asshole husbands were going to do about this. The bank
had been evacuated after the two earlier hits although some stubborn capitalists with
Protestant ethics got caught anyway. The government office hit was entirely worthwhile,
catching the prince in charge of internal security who was meeting with foreign security
contractors including Blackwater sans Erick at the very time.
[six sigma – a quality-control mantra of modern manufacturing]
The Saudi rulers‟ distress was palpable. News management was in a shambles. To some
people, Allah had spoken; to others it appeared that the people had spoken. It seemed like
an appropriate time to behave in a way that in other countries would be called general
strike, and it wasn‟t just enslaved domestic workers from Pakistan. Oil industry workers
(also from many Arab states but also India, Thailand, Malaya, the Phillipines) had been
increasingly squeezed as the oil barons sought to reduce their liquidity-hurt in the global
recession. Catastrophe seemed imminent. The mutual defense treaties with the Americans
were quickly pulled and refreshed. Ordinarily some prince would have been on the phone
with Chainy within minutes but now things were less certain and chaotic. President
Obama wouldn‟t be too enthusiastic about flying-in a military rescue battalion at a time
when he was mired in Afghan corruption and distracted by the IDF heist, not to mention
the obscenity of saving wealthy savages. And F-16s just don‟t fit the bill for fighting the
working class, hardly anywhere.
215
The Prince with seniority and good camera qualities was to go on TV with his top aides
at 8:30 pm. They decided to do it from the main TV station instead of a palace or some
other more comfortable setting. The missileers were ready, having predicted this
decision. He arrived in a flurry of vehicles, his going to the freight dock out in back in the
advancing darkness. After introductory rituals, a Prince of Saud talked about how
important Saudi Arabia was in preserving the fundamentals of Islam, how their country
had prospered for 50 years as a loyal partner of the great western powers and how they
were embracing modern times with appropriate reforms. He said work stoppages were
the work of Satan, that criticism of the anointed leaders was blasphemy, that the people
must seek out and destroy the evil-doers, and that the government was declaring martial
law to protect their country from these foreign devils. Watching this expected
performance on TV, the launch team decided enough was enough. HF 31 came into the
studio building through the control rooms adjacent to the interview studio. There was a
loud bang and flash that startled the sitting rulers, jolted the picture, and soon there were
churning clouds of smoke and people running in all directions. Then the lights went out
and TV screens turned to that stuff called “snow.” Soldiers on corners and key roof tops
mostly knew nothing except for a few that heard a swoosh/pop from nowhere and then
saw smoke swirling upward around the high broadcast antenna.
Initially among the Moslem members of the Plan there was a temptation to invoke a
religious motif claiming the endorsement of Allah for this Saudi smackdown, it fit in so
nicely against the Prince‟s counter-claim. But others resisted in contentious debate
arguing that religion needs separation and we really have to focus on material reality and
building working-class consciousness, especially in Saudi Arabia. The Plan Marxists
eventually won but agreed to reference the modern anti-Islam Crusades in setting the
context of the current battle. They issued a statement: keep it up, people,.. it‟s going to
get worse for the rulers,.. we‟re winning.. And like we said, a truce is available whenever
the rulers are ready.
5***
The replacement directorate in Russia quickly agreed to the UN resolution on an

inquisition after observing a fulminant resurgence of popular interest in rebuilding the old
communist party, bottom up, on top of the threats from some of their activist western
capitalist friends. But the renegade UN countries didn‟t stop with the Inquisition. Having
seen the multiple, disastrous consequences of the Bush/Rumskull war on terror, a
committee recommended extending the Geneva Conventions on acts of war to the War
on Terror (or Capital, depending on one‟s viewpoint); prisoners taken would be afforded
the full rights of “lawful” combatants. It was to be called the “Beirut Conventions.” This
innovation was sparked by outrage from many Moslem states as well as from some of the
bystander states sucked into the Bush gulag. Egypt wasn‟t one of the outraged, neither
was Bulgaria or Kazakhstan. For many, however, the only hope for making peace with
the Moslem world was civilization. An international treaty expanding the Geneva
Accords couldn‟t be vetoed by the gorillas on the UN Security Council. Of course, there
were some complicating issues. Some wars never end. Does this mean prisoners of class-
216
war are held forever? Until traded? Are released with electronic tethers? Have to
denounce their class affiliation? Have to turn-in their friends?
The Tel Aviv authorities issued a conflicted statement on the tragic IDF losses and
windfall gains from capturing two of the terrorists, except they happened to be Israelis. It
was pretty hard to be upbeat. The rulers were up all night caucusing on the newly
discovered cancer and the pending inquisition. No one could think of a clever trick to
play on the world this time. There was simply no solution. It must have felt like that in
the final days of the Whermacht; the game, a very different game for sure, was almost
over. They even called up hostage Lieberman one last time but came up empty. They had
captured two of the missileers and one of their trucks with the stolen camera but was this
progress? They were of course interrogating the traitors and examining the evidence in
great detail and had experts from LM coming in from Dallas to join the forensics team.
But it took another whole day before they discovered that the seized camera was one of
theirs!! They had sent serial numbers off to Dallas confident the camera was filched from
a U.S. base or from some incompetent country. Of course, incredulity soon gave way to
self-examination and another action plan.
[Whermacht – Hitler‟s army]
Beth had been interviewed impromptu for national TV right after the IDF hit. A rather
daring demonstration outside Parliament calling for support of the inquisition was just
winding down when several reporters caught up with Beth and told her on-camera about
the IDF attack and the capture of two missileers, asking for her reaction. This would have
been tough enough without the surprise aspect. She said Israel is veering out of orbit,
sadly the decision-makers were finally discovering the limits of their recklessness. She
was about to say this capture shows that Israelis themselves are rejecting the status quo
but then remembered that she didn‟t yet know that the missileers were Israeli. Close call.
Later, the Plan team announced through Al Jazeera that two of their members had been
captured and gave detailed information on who they were. Genevieve had written a long
statement, including video clips and stills explaining her life as an Israeli, a very good life
but for being in the shadow of a bad mountain. It was on YouTube within two hours of
her capture. Lots of Israelis studied it, multiple times, and sent it around. The driver,
Eqmal, was an Israeli Moslem, a college graduate who found new salvation in Semitic
working-class unity. He even was able to persuade his parents, a bus driver and a laundry
worker. The Plan reminded the Israeli authorities of the new Beirut Conventions and
likely future extraditions.
6***
Bev called up Sasha very upset. Their dear family friend and close confidant of her dad,
General Manny Zeinfeld, had died in the IDF attack. Bev asked Sasha to come for the
funeral; would they give you leave to come?... When Sasha arrived home several family
friends were there including Misha Zeinfeld and other wives of top Israeli officials or
corporate principals. The gentle hug from Misha just about crushed Sasha‟s constitution
and few words were spoken. Conversations around the room were broken and erratic, one
minute grieving, another fearful, and then falling back into denial or seething rage or
217
tearful despair. Bev was darting, trying hard to serve people‟s immediate needs of any
kind, but took a moment to hug her daughter tearfully.
Another daughter was there, Juliana Bernstein, a physician, who had heard some pretty
graphic detail on the IDF hit. The burns were horrible. Some of the victims were still
alive but not identifiable. People from all over the building had rushed to help after the
fire was suppressed. It was a horrific scene that no one could have imagined; people
didn‟t know what to do. Later, after the disaster technicians had done their duties with
dispatch and left, inevitably, their thoughts turned to an unshakable reality: This was one
of our weapons, or rather, the same one we use.. is this what they always do?.. Juliana
asked Sasha what she did in the IDF. Sasha was somber but clear-headed. Things she
knew were helping her maintain composure… I work at one of the helicopter bases; I do
communications management involving satellite transmissions and field operations..
Then: I actually help do the things that result in this kind of.. outcome.. killing with
incendiary missiles.. There was along pause. Juliana, a strong proponent of competency
and clarity asked: God, what have we come to?.. Does this bother you?.. looking into
Sasha‟s eyes unblinking... Yes. I‟ve been wrestling with a lot of things over the past year.
I no longer subscribe to the current.. ah,.. dogma, that we are acting on. I‟m looking for
an alternate vision for the future… Oh,.. well,.. are there others in IDF that are..
questioning things?... I know of several, but I really have no idea how widespread any
dissention might be. It certainly isn‟t apparent outside of personal contacts, I guess for
obvious reasons… Uh huh,.. have you been following this debate about the one-country
solution? It drives my parents crazy but, I can‟t.. just throw it off. Of course it would
abandon the whole shtick of Jewish homeland, but maybe that was just a fantasy, driven
by tragedy and abandonment? Things are so much more complicated than they used to
seem; maybe they always were… Yeah, I actually know some of the people promoting
the OSS – one-state solution – and I think it has some real potential. I‟ve come to
understand that attitudes can change pretty quickly when the underlying conflict gets
fixed and I can see real benefits resulting down the road.. nodding… You know, in my
practice – I see lots of academics and business people but also a mix of recent immigrants
of all income levels – what I‟m seeing is a wide range of opinion and curiosity on this. In
addition to the usual patriots and idiots calling for reprisals and “pogroms” into Gaza or
the West Bank, people are really thinking hard. And they‟re quite intrigued with this, ah,..
enquiry thing, the.. ah.. “inquisition” happening in Lebanon.. Do you think it will
happen? Won‟t IDF just stop it?.. Bev just then clinked some crystal asking for the
grievers‟ attentions. She offered some comfort and shared closeness, and then described
the plan for the next few hours. Juliana had to leave for a medical matter but asked Sasha
if they could talk some more later?... Yes, I‟d like that and discuss this further; I think
there are things we need to be doing… OK, see you soon!.. here‟s my card (and a sisterly
civilian hug on a wilted IDF uniform).
6. Setting the Stage
1***
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The inquisition needed ground-rules; everyone was clamoring for them. Cooperating
governments wanted them for insurance and their own accountability, to make sure
nothing weird happened. Inquisition planners needed them to help counter silly but
damaging claims being advanced by the enemies of revelation. NGOs wanted assurance
that the process would stay on track, that transparent procedures would be in place that
were totally defensible and focused on the principles advertised. It was agreed that no
military secrets from the past 2 years would be revealed without a special panel
reviewing them first. No one wanted to stimulate another stupid shooting match
somewhere. No personal privacy would be invaded (lurid lives were off the table unless
class criminality was involved). No religious requirements or grandstanding would be
permitted, this was to be a secular proceeding; but of course respectful of individuals‟
choices. Trade secrets would be protected to some extent by a petitioning procedure, but
there wasn‟t a lot of patience for defending offending capitalists‟ tricks. Nomination
procedures were to be established for adding to the long list of witnesses, going way
beyond the IDF 29. In the U.S., where demands for banking nationalization were in full
swing, the POC was calling for fundamental inquiry into global private banking practices
and decisions, and was compiling lists of very well-paid witnesses who hadn‟t had to tell-
all to the U.S. Congress..
Then there were the legal procedures, access to counsel, cross-examination, and of
course, the critical area of discovery – shaking loose documents from national and private
repositories that will expose entire constellations of misdeeds. Constitutional and trial
lawyers from many countries who were supporting inquisition were in intense
discussions on these details, held in open meetings. The biggest challenge was to design
an incentive plan that would encourage the masters and minions of global crime to come
clean while still ensuring that they pay some appropriate penalty for their own role. And,
failing to achieve disclosure, a procedure was needed to turn criminals over to an
appropriate authority for prosecution and sentencing, maybe the World Court, but a
memorandum of understanding was needed. This was a little different from the usual
criminal prosecution or precedents like Nuremburg; this was a criminal trial of an entire
class, the ruling class, in its myriad segments and tribes. Nuremberg only went after
selected elements of the German ruling class,.. actually only a few of their top operatives
and flunkeys.
2***
Beirut was hopping. This was more excitement than hosting an Olympics. What they
didn‟t have in expensive tax-payer-bled structures they made up for in the promised cast
of Olympic-class-thugs. The grass-root adherents of very divergent Lebanese political
forces could see the benefits of global disclosure even if their leaderships were tentative
or fretful. NGOs descended on Beirut grabbing every available venue for parallel
meetings, media centers, and networking events. It was a once-in-a-lifetime bonanza for
restaurants, almost worth the 30-yr wait. Good wholesome liberal money was flowing in
from all over the world. The Plan designated several of their people to be advocates in the
design of the whole event, including Beth, Rachel, Eli, Julie (from St. Louis) and
associated partisans, and of course, Amal Francois Lebesque, the St. Louis comrade from
219
Lebanon who helped take down the VEEP. Sasha‟s Aaron got involved in mobilizing
developmental folks from all over the world. They were especially interested in having
the proceedings streamed to academic settings everywhere. The UN offered
administrative support with the likely intent of running the whole show but the
inquisition planners always had the Lebanese card ready to flash – going it alone with
their own rules and procedures if necessary. In fact, the preliminary planning meetings
were intentionally public to make sure people stayed on message and the UN had to go
along, with heavy messaging back and forth with headquarters. It helped having a little
Soros money and abundant internet donations to supplement the UN offerings.
As the inquisition concept unfolded and took on credibility, Aaron had started to distance
himself from Sasha. Sooner or later the Plan would be busted and he saw his future career
threatened by any association with it. Even with a good overall outcome, the buyers of
consultation services in development might be squeamish in dealing with tainted
professionals, not to mention the risk of being hunted down by residual unreconstructed
Zionists (or Jhihadists or imperialists). At least as important was his feeling some need
for a companion who was a little more risk-averse and conversant in the political
subtleties of economic developmental conflict and resolution. Sasha noticed what she had
been somewhat dreading. But, the intense press of events and challenges made it easier,
and soon she was interacting with Aaron on inquisition logistics with a professional
acumen that caused Aaron to question his decision, and now she didn‟t have much time
for play.
3***
The Inquisition Security Force was being assembled from all over Europe, including
Greece, Spain, France, Bosnia, and Norway; Turkey, Canada, India and New Zealand
were sending units and there were Latin American and African contingents. Volunteers
were signing-up from Israel! The security role was largely symbolic and political,
bestowing legitimacy. No one expected state-sponsored violence but there was a real
possibility of private class-vigilantes showing up from God-knows where: Russia,
Poland, Colombia, Myanmar, Dubai, Houston? The Plan asked Jim of Baghdad to listen
carefully for any sounds of state-sponsored or private-label conspiracy that the Company
might pick-up. There were negotiations among the Lebanese factions and the other
Middle Eastern states including Syria, Iraq, Iran and the Emirates. The U.S. State Dept‟s
Hillary Clinton was largely ignored (her predecessor, Condi, had welcomed Israel‟s last
assault on Lebanon, and then there‟s Bill). The top administrative officers of the
European Union were painfully silent and conflicted.
Before subpoenas could be issued, the hostage transfer from Israel had to be executed. It
took a few days for the UN resolution and other set-backs to sink-in and for Israeli to
compose a response. Few had anticipated this unbelievable development, things had
happened so quickly. In the assembled swat team, nobody had a good idea. The die was
cast. Even if Israel refused to turn over the thugs, some of the other countries would
extradite then anyway when they returned home. They would just be digging their hole
deeper. It wasn‟t looking good for the Central Dogma either and noises for a boycott of
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Israel were getting louder. Maybe now was the time to begin damage control on the
inevitable. They didn‟t even think about nuclear weapons. The more forward looking
capitalists were imagining the benefits to a Palestinian resolution: capital flows all over
the Middle East. A new morning of opportunity. The glass-half-full gang won; Israel
would transport the hostages to Beirut in a bus convoy with an international security
escort starting at the border with Lebanon.
4***
The hit on the IDF front office followed by nabbing two Israeli traitors was a repeat,
double shock for lots of people, including Barschauer. Initially Sasha avoided him and
resuming their conversation, but she also worried about leaving him on his own. And
things were happening fast. For the first time it occurred to the country‟s elite that this
might be an inside-job; that the rot extended even into the IDF, or Mossad! They still
hadn‟t found a sat phone but now they had to consider the ugly likelihood that the
Hellfires came from an Israeli installation. It took about 15 minutes for the brass to focus
on Ari‟s base and a few other possible sources, and Ari soon became a prime suspect.
The base commander called in Barschauer and three other deputies and painted the
picture; very few people were in a position to engineer a missile heist right off a base.
Right after the capture and the call from Ben, Ari had rung up Sasha. They met for a
quick supper at the lounge and quietly examined the future together. Ari laid out the
likely scenario: they will come looking for me sooner or later; probably sooner. The
Beirut Accords on prisoner rights clearly were not yet operative in the chosen land. Ari
asked Sasha if she would take his phone; maybe erase the memory chip and stick it in a
drawer somewhere in her office. She agreed and took it, but later didn‟t erase. They had
considered an innocence strategy but it seemed inevitable that IDF/Mossad would piece
together reality rather quickly once they focused on Ari. It was better to plan for the
public drama to follow. They said good-night in a shadow and embraced for the first time
on an IDF base. It was like no embrace they remembered and they couldn‟t speak. Finally
Sasha shook him off: Ari, it‟s going to be OK. People are going to take care of you. I
will. Now just go,.. and she pushed him away. She lasted about another 10 seconds as she
walked off before the tears came and she had to run. Ari went back to his room and
removed any evidence of class war and then went about being a good soldier.
Barschauer had been in a meeting since very early morning when Sasha came in. He was
busy arranging something and then stopped by Sasha‟s desk with a contorted face: Didn‟t
you know Sfc. Ari Weisbrot?...Yes, I know him from school. We have lunch together
occasionally… Did he ever say anything that would suggest involvement in some.. plot
or activity against the.. government.. or governments?… Well, he is pretty concerned
about everything, including, you know, all the things you and I have talked about,
nodding… Did he ever talk about the missiles? About all the attacks that have occurred?..
Barschauer was intensely seeking insight from Sasha but realizing she was answering
carefully and not very responsively… Sure, we‟ve talked about what‟s been happening..
smiling, laughing.. how could we not?... Barschauer was silent, thinking very hard, and
he‟s not a slow thinker. Sasha made a quick calculation: Sir, with all due respect, I feel I
need to warn you if you ask me questions you may not like some of my answers. I‟ve
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talked with you about what is going on with our country and the choices that are
confronting us / Are you.. involved with him?... No, I‟m not. We are close;.. I could be,
but we‟re not, but I might as well.. be.. oh,.. I‟m sorry,.. did you meant, romantically?...
Barschauer had to reconfigure; he had meant “politically,” but that was suddenly too
much to contemplate, so he settled for “romantically” and nodded… Well, so,.. I want to
do whatever I can to help him, he‟s a very good and capable person.. looking firm but
also gentle, caring. Sasha remembered she sometimes talks without sufficient
aforethought but this time she was solid, said what she thought needed to be said.
Barschauer took a seat and looked off through the window at the helicopters neatly lined
up in two rows over by Ari‟s missile building.. Sasha added: I won‟t do anything that
puts you in danger, Sir.. This was so confusing, like the heat of battle with four urgent
threads needing management. He decided: One thing at a time, the rest can wait; I have to
pick this guy up and confine him.
Base security had been activated and four of them were briefed on the suspicion that
Weisbrot may be involved in missile theft. He was to be seized and all his areas of
working and residence were to be secured for careful examination. They found him at
8:49 am in the HF building updating the maintenance log. He looked kind of guilty:
wasn‟t real surprised to see them, didn‟t protest or ask a lot of questions, and when
queried, tried to engage in some dialog. The soldiers weren‟t interested and definitely
didn‟t buy the presumption-of-innocence thing. Sasha saw them below from her window
leading him quickly in hand-cuffs toward the administration building. At one point Ari
turned to one of them saying something and the guy whacked him in the face. Sasha
whipped out her cell-phone camera, to catch the subsequent events which included
Barschauer arriving and intervening with questions all around, and then the six of them
continuing.
Barschauer had authority over dealings with Ari until the heavies arrived from Tel Aviv.
Sasha wasn‟t very busy these days because operations on Israeli borders had been scaled
back after the attacks in Tel Aviv and other events reordered IDF priorities. She could sit
and calmly assess the situation. For diversion, she had some materials from Aaron to
organize into lists and summaries for the inquisition. She decided to take an early lunch
and stop by her quarters with Ari‟s sat phone, hoping she could figure out how to use it.
At the time she left, Barschauer hadn‟t returned to his office. In her room, she explored
the phone and pretty quickly was able to display a call list. She thought it was safest to
call Beth at that hour and pushed the button. Beth answered after about six rings... Hi
Beth, this is Sasha Lieberman, Ari‟s friend at the base… Yes? Hello… Ari‟s been
arrested. He gave me his phone last night… Oh my, it‟s finally happening. Have they
questioned you?... Well, my commanding officer asked me some questions. It‟s a little
complicated; he and I have had some serious conversations about things in the past. He‟s
not at all happy with the way things are, but this is a big shock I‟m sure. He knows I‟m a
friend of Ari‟s. I will have to play this carefully.. anything could happen… Yes, of
course. We probably shouldn‟t talk long. Are there times we could call if needed?... Well,
I‟m usually in my quarters in the evening until 7am. I could take a call some other time if
given sufficient warning, and I‟m on leave every third weekend… OK. Thank you for
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calling and please keep us informed on what you hear about Ari… Yes, I will… Take
care… Good bye.
Barschauer was there when she returned to the office. After a few minutes, he asked her
into his office and closed the door… He‟s not talking. Says he has nothing to say; wants
legal representation.. He seems to be acting like he thinks I‟m not just another superior
officer; I gather you‟ve talked to him about me.. eyes raised?... Yes, actually I have;.. I‟ve
told him that you‟re a thoughtful, responsible and decent individual, a mensch with some
significant concerns about current national priorities. Of course, I have no way of
knowing how you‟ll react in this rather remarkable situation and I‟m sure Ari is making
no assumptions… Well, that‟s good because I don‟t know either. Anyway, it‟s largely out
of my hands, the guys are coming in around 2:00 pm. I presume they‟ll take him away.
He said his books were in order; I don‟t understand why he isn‟t.. ah, well protesting his
arrest. Actually,.. chuckling,.. he said “if I‟m being charged with disagreeing with Israeli
policy, then I‟m guilty.”… That sounds like Ari,.. smiling, sadly.. Is there any way I
could see him before they come?... Well,.. I guess we could go down there,.. and I could
leave the two of you alone for a few minutes. We better go right now. I hope you know
what you‟re doing; this could get very bad. For the time-being, I‟m not going to mention
you in any of this; you‟re just my valued assistant. Why don‟t you bring a pad to write
on.
Ari was behind a fortified door of heavy steel screen, in a simple little room with a small
window and cot. Barschauer got the keys from the security desk and let Sasha in and then
left for 10 minutes. He had a bruised cheek and jaw but his smile was unimpaired. They
hugged and kissed over and over and then sat for deliberations… I called Beth on your
phone,.. with a proud grin,.. from my room. We‟ll be staying in touch, I guess. Is there
anything you want them told?... Well, I guess they should go ahead and release my bio to
the world, like we did with Genevieve. My poor parents. I wish there was some way.. to
ease them through this. The media will be chewing them up in no time… Should
somebody visit them?... Maybe, but that‟s really dangerous, they‟re probably already
being watched up the wazoo. If there was a friendly journalist, maybe they could get in
without suspicion, but who could that be, and talking to my parents will take some real
finessing.. You could ask Beth for ideas. There have been a few slightly less negative
articles on the OSS so maybe we‟re gaining a few friends in journalism. It could be a
“human interest” story.
So, I was thinking, maybe what our strategy could be is for me to be the Plan‟s
negotiator; if they don‟t mistreat me too much, I could be in some sort of secure
communication with you guys and then we would present propositions for their
consideration. But I don‟t know if they‟re far enough along for that… OK, I‟ll repeat this
to the group… The other thing is I wonder if Dave, the Mossad guy, or our guy Jim will
be involved at all… Who‟s Dave?... Oh, he‟s a guy in Mossad who we‟ve been talking
with, a good friend of the CIA guy working with us in Baghdad,.. I told you about him
didn‟t I… Noo, but now is good… Well, sorry, it‟s a long story – he‟s the one that
interviewed Iraj, the guy Mossad fingered in Baghdad that you tipped us on, remember?...
Yes.. My descent into crime hasn‟t vacated my memory, you know… OK so there‟s these
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friendly guys in “intel” that might help out somehow... We better finish up; my officer
will be back any minute.. More hugs and kisses but sex had no part in it – turned-off
completely by circumstance – but the physical sensations got stored in secure flash
memory.. Good-bye dear Ari… Bye, sweetheart.
Barschauer came back and they left with some notes on Sasha‟s pad. He didn‟t ask to see
them. He had been triangulating, thinking how to package Ari for the visitors and keep
channels open for future options.
5***
While the authorities were questioning Ari, Genevieve and her driver, the people were
questioning the authorities. What are you doing to them? Are they going to be turned
over to the American torturers, or do we do our own? What are they saying? Why can‟t
we see interviews; criminal bankers out on bail get interviews. Ari‟s story was put on
MySpace. The evening before, a journalist interviewed Ari‟s parents with a colleague that
Beth knows. Before the interview, the colleague explained to them that Ari was involved
with an international effort to solve some major problems and that, even if they disagreed
with his some of his activities, they should feel very proud of what their son is trying to
do, fixing things that definitely need fixing.. You don‟t have to let the authorities,
politicians or media sharks shame you into denouncing him… Then the colleague quietly
observed the video interview which was balanced and professional. Ari‟s mom and dad
were great. They talked about his enthusiasm, idealism and dedication but weren‟t clear
what he was involved in. In reply to speculative questions they gave generous but
anxious answers; said they really didn‟t understand what was happening in Israel.. It was
good practice for the days to come.
The security breach that released the documents to the world was now being looked at in
an Israeli context. Ben and Naomi seemed to have some vague association and were
under investigation along with others but nothing had been turned up. Their security
clearances were downgraded. Transaction logs in the IT systems were being scrutinized
to see who might have accessed critical files, but the people looking weren‟t trying very
hard; some of them kind of approved of the lapse, and Naomi had be very careful and
skillful. Naomi and Ben had discussed various scenarios previously and decided that if
uncovered, they would mount an Ellsberg defense, like that U.S. DOD researcher, Daniel
Ellsburg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times in the heat of the
Vietnam war. Became a war-hero to some.
So far the sat phones were still safe, even though Ben‟s apartment had been searched. As
soon as the Israeli connection broke, Dave got pulled off stalking peaceniks and was
assigned to a new team. Dave and Jim huddled and came up with a plan that would
produce a dribble of new intel sufficient to keep the harsh-methods dogs at bay. Dave
interviewed Genevieve and practically told her the game-plan before the recording
started. She produced little details on the HF operation that sounded important but really
changed nothing. She said she wasn‟t involved in the Guzman hit and had an alibi for that
day; another cell did it.
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Ari was over in IDF hands. Dave enquired as to their plans and persuaded the Mossad
higher-ups that they should be the ones dealing with Ari, not IDF, and they won. Mossad
was experienced in interrogation, but the perps weren‟t usually Israeli Jews. There was
some hesitation among the pros but finally at a high level staff meeting assignments were
decided. Some of the higher level people in interrogation were unsure about this one;
there were unknown hazards. Who does this guy know? What‟s his family background?
What are his legal rights? What effect could our activities have on missileer decisions?..
Looked like a can of worms. Couldn‟t just do anything they wanted with this guy. And
the optimum strategy in intel extraction wasn‟t obvious, yet. They finally had one of
them, and didn‟t know what to do with him. No one was itching to take this one on. Dave
couldn‟t decide if he wanted to be directly involved or not, and interro wasn‟t his main
shtick anyway, but he made the mistake of asking some good questions, so eyes turned
his way.
Initially Dave interrogated Ari in the company of some junior spooks in training and
demonstrated the art of engaging the enemy. There were professionals behind the one-
way glass mirror: spooks, shrinks, Dr. Mengeleses, and speech technicians, etc. They
asked all the usual questions for which no answers were forthcoming: who do you work
with? How many are there? How did you get involved? What countries are supporting
these activities?.. and queried on the inquisition plan: what‟s the guiding strategy, which
prominent Israelis and friends of Israeli will be subpoenaed? Later Dave suggested to his
colleagues that things might go better if he worked with Ari alone for a while, with
audio-video recording but no live audience. The sessions had been long and grueling.
Dave changed course to the soft touch and let Ari take some quiet time before resuming.
[Mengele - a Nazi prison camp MD/murderer]
6***
A date had been set for opening deliberations and people from all over the world were
making plans to visit Beirut. In the U.S. hundreds of organizations wanted to send
observers and supporters. It was to be the mother of all international gatherings for
progressives. Thousands of others including reporters, journalists, scholars and students
wanted to go. The National Security Council and NSA didn‟t see the national interest in
this and so NSA ran the numbers. They came up with 684,352 Americans to add to the
airline watch-list – people prohibited from air travel: anyone who had mentioned
“missile,” “ruling class,” “Israel” or “inquisition” in various Boolean combinations in a
context with a positive affect score greater than 4.9 – looked to the computer like they
were approving. And anyone else with whom they had had 5 or more phone or e-mail
contacts in the last 2 months. They had to fine-tune the algorithm. The first attempt
identified 45,783,994 Americans; 923,207 of them were enquiring children with library
cards.
It took about 4 hours for people to figure out what was going on. The outrage was almost
audible out on the streets. Travelocity was taking cover, disconnecting phone lines. Even
the airlines, hurting for business, were upset. Sort of like Karl said, when the time comes
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to hang capitalism, some capitalist will be there to sell the rope. The Bama had to back
down almost immediately, even had to promise that live inquisition coverage would not
be interfered with. The Europeans had been quite fed-up with the U.S. watch list for some
time and this pushed them over the edge. They immediately implemented a watch-list of
their own that they had been compiling for some time: U.S. corporate principles engaged
in price-fixing, restraint of trade, securities fraud, mortgage trafficking, torture rendition,
military contracting in Iraq, genetically engineered food or domestic spying. When the
U.S. backed down, some Europeans hesitated.
The kids at Google were psyched. They wanted to set-up a special portal and facility in
Beirut to facilitate multi-language searches and document indexing. Management smiled,
thinking this the creative and youthful enthusiasm of their unique workforce out of which
new products and advertizing platforms spring, but then calls started coming in from
places, agencies, offices they had never heard of, that didn‟t like these ideas. Supervisors
were told to down-prioritize those projects from “avid” to “hold.” The free-lancers were
on their own again.
7***
Although the U.S. finally had voted for UN participation in the inquisition, intense efforts
were naturally underway to undermine and sanitize the proceedings. Meanwhile HFs
were still hitting Pashtun communities in Pakistan and the U.S. refused to sign the Beirut
Convention. The Plan issued a threat to the U.S. saying that attacks would continue.
Although advised against, Obama chose to reply. He didn‟t want the missileers to
command the moral high ground and besides, intel was telling him the back of the missile
insurgency had been broken; got it straight from Mossad.
The Plan discussed another hit in the U.S. But getting one more rich guy living in sin
didn‟t have the appeal it used too, after all, a lot of these poor guys had recently lost 2/3
of their amassed wealth. A military theme seemed more apropos. Ben suggested hitting
that airbase in Florida where a lot of the global scheming takes place and electronic
command-and-control decisions used to originate: MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa.
On Google Earth you could see it out there on a spacious peninsula with lots of visibility
from locations on the water. The objective was to hit the executive offices of this
operation, but while they were at it, maybe take out the satellite communications center.
Four HFs were readied. Research identified the buildings. Fishing boats for hire were had
with cash. Several early morning forays starting with really big coolers had identified
some good vantage points duly recorded on a GPS log.
8***
Israel too refused, even to acknowledge, the Beirut Accords, and was proceeding with
fast-track treason litigation. The hard-liners wanted a quick and dramatic elimination of
the traitors, sort of like what the Americans Joe McCarthy, Dick Nixon and Roy Cohn
did to the Rosenbergs. Class trumps race every time. They needed to show there is no
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possibility in questioning the Central Dogma. It was to be a secret military trial because
classified information might appear, just like the Americans were doing.
As soon as this process was revealed activists all over the world sprang into action. This
was the last straw. After the U.S.-Israeli planning documents, and with the role of Israel
as crafty enforcer of American empire becoming ever more widely understood, the day of
the global boycott of Israel finally had arrived, following several dry-runs. The South
African morality play was about to encore and the response was huge. It happened before
the inquisition even got off the ground; there was no time to waste. Companies doing
business with Israel had tough choices to make. Military contractors tried hard to hide
their product sales, what was left of them after the failed military appropriations.
Exchange programs withered, in some cases with the Israeli participants in agreement.
Progressive Jewish organizations around the globe issued calls for change. Longshore
workers in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the U.S. began keeping track of Israeli
shipping, really easy to do now on the internet. Rejected cargoes started circling the globe
like that ship full of toxic waste that got spurned by an astute African country a few years
back. And oranges grown using the Palestinians‟ water don‟t last that long.
9***
The LM lunch room crowd by now was pretty well-versed in the global Hellfire contest:
imperial sharpshooters vs. rogue missileers. They actually were keeping count of the
HFLF hits, wondering when it would hit the magic 50 (= one stolen shipping container),
and would it go past that for the play-offs. The U.S. claim that the empire was making
solid progress against the Taliban and al Qaeda bandits using „fires had considerable
credibility. It wasn‟t quite as exciting as the “final four” but it did have staying power.
At a recent union meeting, there had been an extended and penetrating discussion of
those hits in Pakistan. The emerging picture wasn‟t that attractive, and now the LM
advance team was spreading out and sharing their recent insights with their lunching
companions.
Molly had said: I‟ve been reading and I just finally got-it about Pakistan. You see, the
place is run by a bunch of rich families that own most of the good land; always have,
since before the British were booted out. They are allied with war-lords in order to
maintain a massively corrupt civil administration that suits their needs. The rural
population is permanently condemned to squalor, and the urban folks don‟t do a whole
lot better. The Taliban is feeding off this situation handsomely. In the Swat Valley, where
they recently got Sharia law installed, they had dispatched twelve war-lords working for
the landed gentry, which impressed a lot of peasants. The Taliban were the only game in
town that was working for them, screwed up as it is… (Edward:) You know, I remember
back when Bush was trying to recruit invaders – ground troops – for the alliance of “the
willing” and the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and he sent Chainy to talk to “the Paks”
about doing their part. They responded with a request to be admitted to the “favorite
nation” club or something like that so that they could sell their textile exports in the U.S.
Chainy said, fuck you, we already have that franchise sewed up with China, India,
Indonesia and Sri Lanka. He put that glimmer of hope in its place… (Rolly:) When I
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was in Thailand, during „Nam, it was the same way. Major rural poverty for both Moslem
and Buddhist peasantry but they got along. Now, unfortunately, the religious angle has
been injected into economic conflict, and things are spirally out of control there too…
(Molly:) Yeah, this gets me back to the whole justice thing; when people are being
screwed and they know it, sooner or later things aren‟t going to go smoothly. And the war
on “terror” just makes it worse, encourages lots more people to sign-up with the bad
guys. [“Paks” – derogatory term from British colonial days used routinely by VP Cheney
in referring to Pakistanis]
So the lunch room talk turned to the Bama‟s plans to expand operations in Afghanistan,
with increasing use of „fires to take out the enemy. Some people said: maybe they‟re on
to something; if they can really figure out who the enemy is and zap them, them maybe
the whole thing can get resolved… But this time, the fantasy vision of the rulers was
meeting resistance. Card-carrying union members opened up a different vista to explore
and now people had some choices to make. The Bama gang didn‟t win most of them.
7. Pas de Deux
1***
Ari knew who Dave was and Dave knew who Ari was and now they were going to get to
know each other better but in kind of a round-about way. Ari and his lawyer had
established that copies of the interview record would be provided to them daily in order
for these interviews to happen.
So, Mr. Weisbrot, how did you get involved in activity against Israel?... I didn‟t… Well,
OK, in activities against Israel‟s national policies?... How far back do you want to
begin?... Where-ever you began… Well, I presume you know about my activities at the
university?... Yes, but why don‟t you tell it in your own words… Well, like many young
people growing up in Israel – or anywhere – questions come up for which there aren‟t
good answers. All my parents could do was parrot what the “leaders” were saying, and
95% of the faculty were the same way except in more sophisticated language. Gradually
it became apparent that people have reasons for their beliefs, but not always good ones.
On the bigger canvas of world history there was something wrong with this picture…
What was that?...
OK, so you reject the right of Israel to exist, is that correct?... No… Well, you seem to
reject the validity of the whole.. process getting us to where we are today... I reject the
original dogma justifying the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, that the “Jewish
people” had an entitlement to that result… You don‟t see the treatment of Jews in Europe
as a sufficient justification?... No, of course not; do you?.. Why didn‟t we grab Austria or
the Ruhr valley? Part of Hungary or a big chunk of Poland?.. not that that would have
been justified either, but at least some partial validity in terms of partitioning.. Of course
we couldn‟t grab those areas, we weren‟t strong enough; Palestine we could handle… So
you are holding the current.. society responsible for these past injustices.. you think Israel
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should reverse this “outrage?”… No. I think Israel should first make an honest
assessment of its origin. Then we should examine how we got to where we are, and then
figure out where to go from here. That‟s not happening, well, perhaps it‟s beginning to, a
little, thanks to a number of developments only some of which the activities of my
colleagues have contributed to…
So, why do you think it‟s not happening?... The history of Israel has been driven by
agendas that rarely coincided with the popular interest. Powerful and now wealthy
elements in this society define policy objectives / No, I mean, most people would say it is
happening, all the time. We have a democracy where things get discussed, voted on,
decided, governments change,… You think that decisions over last 60 years have been
what was best for most Israelis? That fronting for U.S. imperialism was in our interest?..
laughing.. Do you really perceive that a full, honest, transparent discourse has taken
place?… Well, everyone would agree that errors have been made, but, so you don‟t
believe in the democratic process in Israel, is that correct?... Yes, I don‟t believe we have
a democratic process that is class-neutral; it is dominated by people with private agendas
that are far from most peoples‟ benefit… So, you reject our form of government, and are
working to.. change it, to replace it, to overthrow it, outside of the existing processes for
orderly change?.. is that correct… Whether and how it changes will be up to the Israeli
people reacting to their (deteriorating) situation. My associates and I have been working
to bring clarity and insight to the people.
Alright, so you disagreed with our Palestinian policies. When did you decide to resort to
criminal, violent opposition to these policies?... Do you mean, when did I join in
activities opposing Israeli policies using the same methods that the Israeli government
uses in opposing the policies of others that they don‟t agree with?.. Well, of course this
began even while I was a student but I guess you‟re interested in my activities since I
joined IDF? … Yes… I guess the tipping point was when it became clear that Israeli
policy toward the Palestinians was basically surrender of all claims and rights as a nation;
apartheid in all occupied areas until their abject submission permitted installing an
administration that would reliably do Israel‟s bidding. Is that a good summary?..
2***
Mossad discussion on progress with interrogating the prisoner was mixed… I don‟t see
where this is going; seems like you‟re just giving him a soap-box from which to trash
Israel, again…Yeah, we really haven‟t gotten any specifics on the organization at all…
Dave, how do you see this developing?... Well, I think I‟m establishing that this young
man has a clear deliberate basis for conducting violent, lethal attacks on the Israeli..
government and institutions; he has a motive for treasonous behavior… OK, but will this
lead to any revelations, things we don‟t already know? We really need to get actionable
results; we‟re under enormous pressure both here and from the U.S.; they have a few
complaints against him too, you know... He‟s clearly a smart, committed fellow and very
engaged in the intellectual aspect. About the only way we‟ll get new information is from
little slips and lapses that are likely to occur in these kinds of exchanges. The usual
pressure points aren‟t really available for us. There‟s a lot of public attention. His family
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is squeaky clean. We don‟t usually do collective punishment on Israelis.. I don‟t see how
we could get away with harsh treatments in this case.. Any ideas?... Yeah, the public
scrutiny and debate is a big problem. (Mossad supervisor:) The U.S. wants some of their
guys here as observers. We may have to let one of them sit-in on some of the sessions…
OK; I‟d have a problem with a few of them, but maybe there are some we could work
with … You‟d be alright with that?... Yes; ah,.. do they get copies of the tapes? Join our
assessment discussions?... I‟ll get some clarity on this.
3***
So, Mr. Weisbrot, how many are there in your organization?... Enough, but more would
be better… Is there a leader, were you the leader?... I‟d say we are all leaders, some more
than others. We act by consensus with adequate discussion. We get help from lots of
concerned citizens.. No, I am not the leader, they will do just fine without me… Can you
tell us who some of the others are?... No… What countries are you active in?... Can‟t you
tell?.. Not Russia, though., yet. (oops, that was a slip; they‟ll be working with the
Kremlin, watching for any attempts to contact the rogue Soviet military)… Are there
Arabs involved?... Well, yes, how do you think we could operate in Saudi Arabia or
Dubai?.. By the way, you may be interested to know some of them are recovering al
Qaeda members.. (Ari couldn‟t immediately think how this tidbit would be damaging but
had some qualms about divulging it. But he needed to contribute little items now and then
to help keep the interrogators on the path of civility).
Later, a CIA psychopath joined the sessions, someone Jim told Dave he didn‟t know. He
sat still, taking notes, asking no questions and making no comments, intensely studying
and trying to decipher this evil monster who grinned from time-to-time. After several
assessment sessions, Dave thought he would open up a new avenue of exploration and
proposed it to the Mossad organization: What about bargaining – a plea or even
concessions from the organization?... You can explore it; of course we can‟t make any
offers without guidance.
Mr. Weisbrot, you do understand that you face the death penalty?.. The CIA guy perked
up.. Have you considered the possibility of reducing your penalty through cooperation
with this investigation?... Ari replied: That won‟t be necessary. Have you noticed what‟s
going on outside these walls? You guys really need me alive, even if I‟m worthless scum.
This tribunal may not have figured this out yet but your bosses have. If the boycott
expands, and the inquisition pulls the veil off a lot of your dirty secrets, you‟re going to
need all the chips you can get.. and it won‟t just be Palestinians, duplicitous Arabs and
the world‟s misguided liberals that are angry with you… The bluff worked.
But, negotiations are possible… What sort of negotiations? Dave asked… Well, you‟ve
probably seen some of our demands over the past six or eight months; that would be a
good starting point. In this case, immediate cessation of all attacks on Hamas and ending
restrictions on water, entry and shipments into or from Gaza, release of prisoners.. For
this we might suspend missile attacks on your privileged classes. On the other hand, we
might win these things without any promises; you‟re really in a pretty deep hole.
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4***
The fog was starting to lift and parts of MacDill were gleaming in the morning sun. The
bay was perfect with small chop but no swells, and warm gentle breezes. Forests of
antennae and smart administration buildings were popping into view through the fog way
beyond the palm trees along the beach. So far the audible machines of war were still
pretty much asleep. It was really quiet and peaceful until the HF crew fired up the rental
generator and started to prep #1 (HF 32) for launch. The command executive offices were
located and then a patient wait till 10:15 am. Just in case another boat happened-by, they
had nets draped and fishing paraphernalia scattered about. At 10:15 their little Darmin
marine radar disclosed no nosey neighbors and so the first HF made its way across the
bay. It was a long reach, almost at the limit of its range, but it kept on truckin‟ and the
Command offices spit out some fire and a lot of smoke. Meanwhile HFs 33, 34, 35 were
cued up and sent on their way to that building with the antenna farm of satellite dishes
that were instructing global murder. The hits were excellent and the fishers of men were
soon on their way back to land. Other boats were now out and about but banks of fog
were still rolling gently across the bay here and there. Soon they couldn‟t see any
evidence of their deeds.
Once again, the Plan issued a statement, like they ever did any good. Stop hurting people
fighting for what they perceive as justice.. hands off Pakistan and Afghanistan,.. and they
explained the role of places like MacDill AFB or Bagram in empire maintenance. It was a
good boost for the EERN movement just when Congress was mulling over the costs of
maintaining empire. The Bama‟s continuing attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan on tribal
villages weren‟t just infuriating Pakistanis; lots of people around the world were very
disappointed when the Bama permitted this barbarism to continue. People in traditional
societies have rights even if we don‟t like how they live. Maybe if our system offered any
benefits at all for them, they might consider some 20th C improvements. In a Plan sat-
phone conference, Ben reviewed the current assaults and suggested that the inquisition
early address this on-going outrage; there‟s no reason why we would have to proceed
chronologically. Jasmine jumped in: This is really basic; there are lots of diverse
behaviors and customs across Moslem society and a lot of it needs to change – just like
Christianity or Judaism have evolved over time – they got past burning witches, and eye-
for-an-eye (well almost got past). The status of women is one key area. Waging war
against the mullahs, elders and unemployed men of tribal areas is not helping women; it
is pushing history backwards for the most part, except maybe where women are training
as fighters. (Beth:)The arrogance coming out of America, not just from the political
leadership but across the whole institutional spectrum, is just astounding. Educated men
(and women) spouting primal entitlement.
5***
Statements through Ari‟s lawyer had been irritating the Israeli elite no end and it was
getting worse. So the government cut off public access to his representation, saying the
public circus was inhibiting the possibility of a fair trial, but nobody bought it. Beth
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started issuing statements that she claimed, with a wink, she was channeling from Ari but
they were as good as his. Her daily reports had become top attention grabbers in blogs
and some media. They tried really hard but couldn‟t find anything solidly treasonable on
Beth. The black baggers thought she ought to die of natural causes with all the excitement
at her age, but were over-ruled by others with a better grasp of dialectics. [black bag –
covert intelligence activities, including assassinations]
Ari was in isolation. Sasha had been getting bits and pieces of news by way of Dave
through the Plan and some from Barschauer but was getting desperate. She asked
Barschauer whether there was a way that she could see him. He replied it would require
someone in IDF central command initiating. She asked Beth if Dave could help and Dave
came up with a plan. He could try the old gambit of using a woman of a previous
acquaintance to break a tough criminal. The generals could relate. Sasha was brought to
the prison complex in an IDF car wearing a nice civilian outfit and taken to be briefed on
the state of the prisoner. Dave was there along with a Mossad shrink, some intel nerds
and assorted officers. Then they gave her a clicker gadget if she needed help and took her
to the prisoner in a room with no windows. Sasha had insisted no cameras or recording
for her participation. They knew who her father was. Ari acted appropriately shocked by
the female apparition and then they were alone. How did you do this, he laughed before
the first kiss and hug... You‟re not the only clever guys, you know. They touched and
fondled and hugged and kissed in between words as Sasha related the story going on
outside… Beth has picked up where your legal counsel left off.. she has a huge following.
They can‟t figure out how to shut her up. The global boycott is developing well… Yeah, I
heard. The guards are blaming me! Just when they‟re about to slug me I laugh, “it‟s not
about me, you bozos, it‟s about Israel,” which confuses and distracts them; they can‟t
figure things out... Ari, the bad guys really want to finish you off right away. We‟re in a
race against time here… Ya, I‟ve gotten that impression, they‟re throwing the rules out
the window almost daily… I brought you a present, and Sasha produced a slender cell
phone from her pocket, along with a charger.. It‟s brand new; Beth got it for me. Do you
remember her number? The ringer is off. They want you to call in some reports from
inside, and maybe also go into the tribunal with it hidden. Maybe initially, Beth will just
report things you‟ve told them without saying how they got it, things that nobody should
know, so it will look like a leak.. Do you ever see Genevieve?… No, but one of the
guards slips me a few details now and then about her. Says she‟s doing pretty well. She
likes pointing out things they need to know, lapses in their knowledge, which isn‟t hard
to do, and then teaches them things.. They‟ve started rotating the guys out of there.
Ben and Naomi are being watched. Also Beth and Eli. They have to be a lot more careful
with sat phones now. Rachel and the OSS crowd working on the inquisition preparations
were being obstructed and harrassed; some of them escaped through the West Bank into
Jordan and on to Lebanon for the launch.
6***
The Israeli ruling class was considering negotiation. The internal debates were vicious –
Netanyahoo was a wolverine with an Uzi – but nobody could deny the striking
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resemblance to the South African boycott situation and it didn‟t help at all that the South
African labor confederation, COSATU, was now leading the charge, the same folks that
blocked the weapons shipment to the late Mugabee. Mossad imagined carrying out a hit
on COSATU leadership – they liked those junkets to Africa – and had a playbook ready
but the political leadership nixed it; could make things much worse with hardly any up-
side. Many Israelis for the first time could imagine how they might be compared with
South African apartheid and what the consequences might be. The boycott was rapidly
expanding in Latin America, too. Long-established Jewish communities in Argentina,
Bolivia, Chile and other countries in South America, second and third generations of
former refugees from Hitler‟s final pogrom, were becoming much less reliable backers of
Israeli adventures and feeling some need to distance themselves. Besides, who needs
American empire when Latin American trade integration was moving along nicely on its
own especially after the Bush gringos got withdrawn? Businessmen were finding other
partners.
The prosecutor in Ari‟s tribunal deliberations had been talked to and told to expect some
further guidance. Ari came in for the fifth day of examination. He had no choice about
testifying but this time he was wired with a cellphone talking to Beth. The prosecution
had been dredging through Dave‟s interview tapes from Mossad and, together with a
complicated IDF report attempting to account for Hellfire inventories, was trying to build
a case that Ari was the key player in an HF heist. At one point the flustered prosecutor
exclaimed rhetorically that, well, obviously you agree with what was done with those
missiles, somebody had to provide them… to which Ari replied: Yes, and I‟m glad
somebody did. They have altered the entire debate about class power around the world
and here in Israel... The prosecutor changed key without skipping a beat: Alright, in your
view, what would it take to end this assault on democratic institutions?... The tribunal
judges looked up from their doodles; this was a different conversation. The chief justice
looked at Ari‟s counsel expecting an objection but just got a smile… Ari: well, in the
Israeli context, of course, we need to establish a path to the one-state solution… The
chief justice raised his hand: I‟m sorry gentlemen, maybe you could discuss this
elsewhere; this is a capital trial on treason. Does Government counsel have further
arguments to present on this defendant‟s guilt?... Yes, of course, Your Honor. Mr.
Weisbrot, is it your contention that all empty missile containers were returned as required
to IDF central stores?.. .. OK, can you explain why there seem to be two containers
unaccounted for in the IDF records of returns?..
7***
It wasn‟t too difficult for the Israeli policy advisers to skip past the two-state solution;
they had always understood it was really a zero state solution, the Palestinians having no
independent control of water or borders or markets. And so the stinking OSS was thrown
up on the boardroom table. Maybe this game has played out. What is an acceptable
alternative? How would we structure an OSS transition? First concern: handling the
crazies.. like de Gaulle said when dealing with the right-wing French colonialists and
Foreign Legion in the Algerian revolution: “We‟ll know we‟ve won when they start
throwing bombs.” If we didn‟t like Palestinian terrorists and their toy rockets, wait till the
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settlers in yarmulkes get their bomb factories going. They already got Yitzhak, and he
was just looking at a roadmap. What about electoral design? How do we deal with an
eventual Arab majority?.. and the settlements?.. and returning refugees?.. Let‟s look at
South Africa, again, hmm. For Histradut, the boycott was changing minds like no
reasoned argument ever had before. Vanishing markets and lay-offs were opening eyes
and ears. They were beginning to imagine perspectives, as seen from abroad. Maybe
secular Middle Eastern economic integration was a concept they could live with.
[Yitzhak Rabin - former Israeli PM murdered by a Jewish settler/fanatic jihadist]
8***
Meanwhile, things in Tel Aviv were at a standstill. The surveillance systems weren‟t
producing good leads and the arrest of two traitors seemed to have put an end to missile
attacks for a while,.. except for that one in Florida. Meanwhile Jim had been thinking
through various possibilities for the inquisition. The idea of a no-holds-barred
introspection of past policies of the ruling elites on all sides was intriguing but needed
some careful planning. It just wouldn‟t be feasible to look into every piece of treachery
against the people over the past 50 years; we should identify a good set of exemplary case
histories that would produce a clear and coherent story, testable hypotheses. All the other
details could follow later. Jim was remembering some old contacts, CIA academics who
had bailed in the 80s and 90s, people he knew or had heard about who had rejected the
central American dogmas, and who may be willing to step forward and help pitch the
inquisition. He came up with some plans to make overtures and maybe bring some of
them back-in. He needed a few trustworthy workhorses to do the field work and had
some in mind. On his trip back to the States next week he‟d get things rolling and, before
that, make some discrete phone calls.
9***
Obama‟s National Security advisors were having a hard enough time figuring how to get
the genie back in the Afghan bottle when the MacDill news arrived. The Pentagon was
already at DefCon 3 (high-level alert) and automatically retargeting nuclear missiles and
sending submarines their whale-killing low frequency audio instructions when the Bama
said, Hey, take it easy guys, it‟s just the missile gang again; this isn‟t WW III, you know.
The Ruskies got nailed too, remember?... But that was free-lancers…Ya, well, it‟s the
same thing… After the brass explained to him what MacDill did, the Bama said: Geez,
we could have almost seen this one coming. David Connectingrod smiled, nodding and
thinking back a few chapters.
8. Safe Passage
1***
The IDF prosecutor, on instruction, worked out an agreement with the Plan. It wasn‟t
easy; Ari had to communicate with his cohort without compromising them. They
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ultimately came up with an internet application that permitted untraceable phone contact
and so things moved forward. Proposed agreement: Israel will a) stop all attacks on Gaza,
b) release all Palestinian prisoners, c) submit issues of border control and water allocation
to a UN-mediation panel, d) send official observers to the OSS deliberations at the Beirut
inquisition, e) begin secret negotiations with representatives of the major interested
Palestinian organizations on a OSS transition, f) refer all prosecution of Plan participants
to an international court, and g) withdraw from U.S. empire collaboration. The Plan will:
a) stop all missile attacks in Israel, b) publicly request the international boycott of Israel
be temporarily suspended, pending compliance with the agreement, c) request Hamas to
suspend all attacks on Israelis, d) withhold public announcement of the Israeli
commitment on their sections „d),‟ „e)‟ and „g)‟ in order to prepare for angry responses of
some Israelis and Americans. Israel refused to cooperate further in the inquisition and the
Plan refused to divulge its members or its sat phone arrangement, or surrender its HF
missile assets. The Plan offered a possible surrender of all its members if appropriate
stand-downs and commitments are forthcoming from the U.S., NATO allies and all other
governments with claims against the HFLF. Not too likely. Also, Ari was discharged
from IDF but would remain under house-arrest with visiting privileges at a location
undisclosed to the public.
Progressive EU caucuses supported the agreement enthusiastically. The POC in the U.S.
was tentatively in support but the Obama administration and the top layer of the entire
government, from the Pentagon to the Dept of Agriculture were stunned and anxious. A
key pillar of the empire had just turned to salt. Maybe we should have leaned harder on
the Israelis to fix Palestine sooner. Clinton really blew it, fucking triangulator, and Bush,
and now it‟s too late for Hillary to fix it. Damn.
2***
Zimbabwe was getting fixed, with positive spill-over effects among the neighbors.
Mugabee‟s surviving cronies were all jailed or evicted from the formerly lucrative
estates; workers‟ cooperatives had been established, supported by consultative
agreements with cooperating former white owners and purchase commitments for future
output arranged through the World Bank, in a novel action. The neighboring nouveau
elites in South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya were discovering all sorts of
innovative solutions previously overlooked to address poverty and economic
development that benefited their working classes. Moslem factions in Somalia,
anticipating interesting inquisition revelations, were forming workable coalitions and
looking forward to more favorable trade opportunities than before. They might even be
able to kick the foreign corporate factory-fishing ships out of their territorial waters so
their local fishing economy can recover. Hijacking ships for ransom worked for a while
but the fishermen-pirates were no match for the U.S. and French navies. The governing
Sudanese thugs were in hiding. With the fall in oil prices, China chose to cut their
liabilities there. Also, that hit in Zimbabwe made the Chinese really nervous. They
expanded their own security envelope to watch for missile mongers sneaking into China
or snooping at foreign Chinese outposts. They wished they hadn‟t sent a guy to the thug
meeting in Israel. European and Asian businesses driving the murderous mineral trade in
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the Congo suddenly were looking for more respectable sources of raw materials before it
was too late. The armed gangs roaming and raping the Congo were running out of dollars
or euros, ammunition and recruits.
3***
Sasha got Barschauer to get her put in the IDF contingent of the multinational hostage
escort from Tel Aviv to Beirut. In southern Lebanon, she caught up with her dad. He had
heard she would be involved and was really glad, nearly overcome, to see her run up
smiling widely in her smart uniform at a lunch stop. They were traveling in touring buses
with accompanying troop carriers and humvees. After a hug and personal ascertainments
of immediate life, they moved on to the current situation. Dad, I have something to tell
you… They‟re going to kill us... Nooo, Dad; but they were worried the Americans might
do it, smiling.. What they want is.. you know, the truth.. information and disclosure,
transparency… Ya, truth, poof. These clowns wouldn‟t recognize truth if you spelled it
out with crayons… Dad,.. I think you‟re going to go through some difficult times but
you‟ll be alright and actually glad afterwards… Well, you seem to know a lot.. and where
do you get all this?... Dad, I‟m with them / you‟re with them. What do you mean “with
them?”… I‟ve been helping them in little ways, for some time... Oh my god.. you give
them money? I suppose that Aaron idiot does too?... Not really; he agrees with some of
what‟s happened but he‟s not been part of the operation until recently – helping arrange
some aspects of the Beirut situation / “part of the operation?”.. are you part of the
operation??... Dad, I have friends from school who know what‟s going on. I still don‟t
know who, or how, got the missiles but I suspect.. well, all this can wait.. Dad, look,
you‟ll still have „wonderful opportunities‟ even after the one-state goes through, maybe
not quite as wonderful as before but you‟ll probably be just fine, trust me, we‟re going to
fix things, raising sensuous eye brows and brightly smiling to his haggard denial. The
soldiers watching just couldn‟t figure out what was going on with the gorgeous
Lieutenant and that grumpy important-looking hostage. Then Sasha and Joe had to quick
finish their cokes and get back to the transport vehicles after a brief tight hug. This wasn‟t
exactly the daughter he raised but he melted with that hug and had to look away.
9. Oligarchical Impunity
1***
The architects of the world financial disaster of 2008 were comfortably riding out the
storm. Aside from a few unfortunate mishaps for some of those too close to the epicenter,
things were falling into place for a soft-landing and good years ahead. General Motors
didn‟t make out so well. “Serves them right, those union appeasers; let them go down”
said smug investment bankers who just yesterday stiffed the world and got paid for doing
it. “Too bad about Chrysler and Cerebrus, though; they had a really good plan – would
have shed the unions – but they got real unlucky on the timing.” But the worst thing
about the whole situation was that the people the Bama had brought in to fix things were
people with major responsibility for it happening. What‟s with this Ghetmor guy? This
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young arrogant asshole sat on top of central banking regulation in New York City, had
authority over all the main actors – Citi, Goldman, Lehman, Merrill, Moody, AIG.. – and
watched fraud become pandemic, and now he‟s protecting the guys that engineered the
whole thing. No wonder Wall Street rooted for him. Then there‟s Larry Winters, the
oracle of Harvard, who helped Clinton smooth the way for banking deregulation. And
he‟s really sharp, except sometimes he forgets about the other side of the probability
distribution. Like, when he said maybe women don‟t have good enough genetic hard-
wiring for doing mathematics. You see as a stochastic variable, they could have better
hard-wiring on average for mathematics than men. We don‟t know. How could we? Has
someone done the experiment of designing a society without gender discrimination? Oh
well, he‟s doing really well now in a quirky hedge fund, when he‟s not advising the
Bama. Pulled-in over 3 mil in 2007. Being President of Harvard wasn‟t that much fun
anyway, damn liberal intellectuals.
2***
The Central Labor Council in NYC called another special meeting to discuss the melt-
down… Jonathon, an economist from NEA: these guys should all be in prison: fraud,
dereliction of fiduciary trust, grand theft, falsification of financial reporting.. especially
Moody and the other fake-rating companies. It‟s just unbelievable. A black guy steals a
loaf of bread – or a CD – or scores an ounce of hash and some fucking New York State
judge with friends in the private prison industry throws him in jail for 10 years, and
these.. monsters of.. mass devastation, harming millions of people, walk away with a rosy
future and lots of spending money... (Sam:) Ya, what I want to know is where are the gun
fanatics when we need them?... (Joan from IBT:) Really. If people only knew what‟s
going on… (Millie, from CWA:) I think a lot of people do know, or certainly know that
those guys are screwing us totally.. they just don‟t know what to do about it. When
you‟re losing your house or your job (or both) and you have three kids you don‟t have
time to sit around and debate “what is to be done,” you know?... Some of the building
trades guys in NY labor had seen everything when it comes to corruption, private wealth
operatives and crimes against the people, sometimes from the inside, but the heights of
arrogance coming out of Wall Street and Washington stunned even them… Ya, it‟s like
the corruption in Afghanistan only at the tens of billions level instead of tens of
thousands or hundreds;.. I guess that‟s why we‟re invading them and not them invading
us, huh… (Leon:) That general strike thing looked interesting but it‟s not enough; people
need to see heads roll.. How do we make this happen?... (Ray, Boilermakers Local 3:)
You know, things are getting pretty hot in Queens. People are stopping evictions and
foreclosures. The cops and the sheriff are kind of not showing up; a judge got beat-up last
week.. I think that‟s what has to happen, massive.. what do they call it.. “civil
disobedience”.. yeah, and people have to start to stand together again. My father-in-law
was saying last night that back in the „30s in the Bronx when he was a kid, there were
street fights, huge mobs of people defending each other.. When enough of that was
happening, it sort of trickled up to the top and things got changed here and there.
Roosevelt was a little slow but eventually got the message… (Sam, Transit Workers,
Local 100:) Ya, we really need to text the Bama on this, show some commitment, some
feelings for change. He‟s gotten in with the wrong crowd and now it‟s time to come
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clean, take personal responsibility, you know? It‟s the adult thing to do. The Bama needs
to make some choices.. [NEA – National Education Association, biggest teachers union;
IBT – Int‟l Brotherhood of Teamsters; CWA- Communication Workers of America ,
phone and telecom workers; TWU Local 100 – transit subway and bus workers]
2***
The Orange County AFL-CIO was also assessing the state of the nation, with special
focus on bailout 3. They too could see that the wrong people were in command. Talk
turned to what the Bama was thinking… Do you think he really knows who these people
are?... Yeah, he‟s gotta; he‟s been around for a while, been on Congressional
Committees, been schooled by the Democrat elders.. he knows exactly what‟s going on...
Maybe he didn‟t have any choice, these people are very powerful. They control politics,
politicians… Yes, but he is sort of different; he raised a lot of his millions from small
donors, not mainly fat cats; he could have put together a team with very different players,
built a coalition in Congress to change the rules – he could have joined the POC – but he
didn‟t. There are lots of really smart good people who know what‟s up, and there‟s plenty
of people in academia with credentials and experience who could have fixed the banks
instead of saving the crooks… Ya, he could pump up his internetwork; there were
millions of people out there ready to do almost anything... (One of the CNA nurse
delegates:) It‟s hard to figure this guy. He‟s totally weak on healthcare at a time when he
could have made single-payer the solution. We know he understands the problem; he
knows the people promoting the solution.. It‟s like he‟s convinced he has to bring along
the opposition, instead of defeating them. Like he wants to be loved by everybody.
History doesn‟t work like that. I don‟t have a problem with trying to win over some of the
doubters and stragglers but at some point you have to rally your base, put pressure on the
weak and unwilling, and grab the prize. He won‟t do that… Maybe he‟s got a plan..
maybe he‟s sucking these scum in to cleanup the mess and then he‟s going to regulate the
motherfuckers out of existence as they know it... I wish; but if that‟s his plan, by the time
he gets there he won‟t have any street fighters left.. the bad guys will own him
completely... Ya, then there‟s Afghanistan and the black hole next door. He‟s going
along with the same old lame bunch of Betraeous clones. Its pretty scary; if he doesn‟t fix
things, the Republicans will be able to stage a comeback It‟ll be worse than Bush; this
time, they‟ll find somebody smart. [CNA – California Nurses Association]
What if things don‟t get better? Unemployment, which we all know is a fake number,
could go way over 10%...(Bill:) I read some stuff by that Russian guy, Orlov, who talks
about what could happen here. He‟s lived in both countries; saw what happened in the
Soviet Union after the fall of communism. Having gardens really saved a lot of people
there from starvation. Armed gangs end up running things when civil authority breaks
down. A lot of features of their old system actually helped people survive, things that
don‟t exist here in the land of private enterprise, private wealth, private power… Who is
this guy? Where did you find this stuff?... I‟ll get it and send it out to everyone. He spoke
in San Francisco a few weeks ago. We really need to plan for the things that could
happen… Maybe we should develop a presentation on all the “what ifs” for discussion by
our members; if people aren‟t ready for these things it could get really ugly. It‟s already
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ugly in Michigan. What a disaster for the autoworkers and the people there. And the idiot
UAW which was part of the problem, ends up owning a big piece of Chrysler-Fiat!
4***
Norm from St. Louis spoke with Molly the stadium organizer from Dallas and heard
pretty much the same story from around the country: people were getting really outraged
with bailout mania. Everyone was asking, what can we do. It seems they are waiting for a
spark but also a plan. Norm and Julie called up Ben and asked for an HFLF call. Maybe
we should take out Ghetmor; we got Bankfine and Crasso but those were still a little
abstract compared to Ghetmor; this guy is daily running defense for the men that have
ruined people‟s lives and are still in control. It would be a difficult feat and of course,
really provocative that close to the top, this guy is Wall Street‟s fixer in the White
House… The man has to have extraordinary security these days, lots of people would like
to see harm come to him. The blogosphere has totally documented where he‟s coming
from and where he‟s taking us. (Norm:) I can reactivate the DC team for a feasibility
assessment. We probably can‟t reach him at the Treasury but he‟s out and about a lot,
what with Hearings and invited appearances. Maybe we can find someone who knows his
schedule..
The Treasury web-site showed Ghetmor‟s public appearance schedule. A presentation

was coming up in three weeks at the Press Club over on 14th St NW, between the Capitol
and K-Street.. It would be a progress report on resuscitating capitalism. Meanwhile
profound depression was seizing much of the country. Foreclosure defenses were helping
some people, a little, but job losses and debt were dragging millions down. The auto
industry‟s self emolation was bringing a new and more permanent wave of crushing
defeat to hundreds of communities through Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
The Plan discussed the pros and cons. What is our objective, here? Just feel-good revenge
or would there be a positive effect on what‟s happening? Ari, who had figured out how to
join his comrades electronically once again, from his prison-home, said the level of anger
surrounding such a move might force Obama‟s hand on bank nationalization, make it a
positive, affirmative response rather than the current back-door approach designed to fade
away as soon as possible. People might come to see banking as a regulated social utility
instead of a playground for cultured high-rollers and wheeler-dealers. (Beth:) It does fit-
in with our inquisition coming up. This denial of transparency in the U.S. banking rescue
is precisely why independent inspection is needed, everywhere. (Anjolie:) Their rejection
of European proposals on the banking problem is another reason to apply some discipline
here... But what will Obama do when attacked so nearby? asked Mahmoud. He‟s already
pretty shaky on the civil liberties aspect of fighting terror; this might push him all the way
back to Bushville.. or worse.
5***
In early 2009, an international donors conference was being organized to rebuild Gaza,
after the same countries enabled the Israeli destruction of same, using American supplied
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weapons of mass destruction. Of course, clever idea, they would deliver the funds
through a responsible representative of the Palestinians – the Fatah/Palestinian Authority,
wannabe collaborators with the Israeli warlords. Really warmed the hearts of the Israeli
hard-liners – they were getting exactly what they wanted from their last assault on Hamas
– except for the global boycott, submission to missile terror, disintegration of class
control and now this inquisition thing. The collapse of world greed-capitalism was bad
enough, then the demise of the Central Dogma, and now the revealing of their inner-most
secrets. Of course, it was a little hard to distinguish the self-inflicted boycott injury, from
the world collapse-induced injury. Some hard-liners said: this boycott is nothing; we just
have to wait-out the recovery and things will be wonderful again, but not so many were
convinced. Instead the main concern of hardliners was this OSS talk and the apparent
capitulation by weak-kneed Israeli government officials and self-appointed leaders.
The Plan people brought this up with the Inquisition team. This “rebuilding of Gaza” is
already an anachronism; get a grip, guys, it‟s a new ball-game. Save your money for the
one-state transition Administration, at which time it will not only rebuild but re-integrate
Palestine. Meanwhile, focus on their immediate survival needs.. and forget the Authority.
A statement was released. People in a lot of countries agreed with this.
6***
Juliana Bernstein M.D. was back at the Lieberman residence six weeks after the IDF
generals died and the HF team got busted. She was there to continue with Sasha their
introspection into national depravity from that previous day. Life at the base had been
hard; there was confusion about what had happened, how IDF missiles got into the wrong
hands, and a lot of anger at Ari. Barschauer was being distant and just about everyone
else treated her differently. Some of her assignments were changed and responsibilities
diminished. She was glad in some ways but disappointed and hurt in others. She
wondered what role her father‟s situation was playing.
Did you know that guy? Juliana asked… Ya, we were in school together. I was aware he
was involved in protests but that‟s about all I knew. I was a pretty serious student, wanted
to get into IT management, with a wry smirk… Gotcha. I know about hard work.. So you
saw him at the base?... Yeah, we actually became rather close. He showed me things..
from another world.. I can‟t believe how far I‟ve.. travelled. I was such a good citizen,..
and came to see I was part of such a misguided enterprise. Also, I met this economist guy
over at the Rosenblum‟s and he really straightened me out. I‟ve been doing a lot thinking
and learning about things.. Believe it or not, I think my integrity is intact; it wasn‟t just
these guys hitting on me, you know, intellectually? They took my questions and
complaints pretty seriously; we had good discussions and I‟ve done some serious
reading.. Do you have people you can talk to about these things?... Ya, there are some
I‟ve known for years, but usually my work has been so over-whelming that discussions
are accidental, brief encounters.. Recently, though, I‟ve decided I have to make room in
my life for this; I can‟t just go on being a “medaholic,” keeping people well in a sick
country.. sick world. There‟s a resident over at Central Infirmary who I have good talks
with; she‟s really disgusted with what‟s happening, and my husband is pretty good when
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I can corner him but he prefers denial when possible. It‟s getting harder for him.. Well, if
you don‟t mind my asking, did you have any inkling that these guys were stealing
missiles? It‟s so amazing!... I knew they were engaged in some bizarre things and
gradually I figured out they were connected in some way to the missile attacks in Iraq. I
knew they were using.. well,.. I guess I‟d rather not get into that;.. I never,.. didn‟t figure
out who got the missiles or were shooting them. So that was fairly shocking, and of
course, as you know, my dad got caught up in it… Yes, can you talk with him? Bev said
she does fairly regularly… I‟ve talked to him periodically; it‟s difficult, knowing what I
know. I actually met with him during the transfer to Beirut, grinning; my commanding
officer arranged it. Talk about denial! I tried to argue that things might change in Israel
but he would still be able to have a good life../ how did that go? smiling… He was almost
incoherent, detesting every word I uttered. And then later I saw some of the inquisition
when he testified. Poor guy, he doesn‟t get it. But at some point it seems like he just has
to catch-on; it‟s not that complicated, and the Inq panel is really quite gentle, all things
considered.. Chuckling,.. it‟s so incredible seeing the people who engineered this country
to be what it is today being interrogated in public by people who know about lots of
things.
Sasha, so let‟s talk about the solution – one-state solution. This boycott and all the other
chaos recently have really forced it into the open. Do you think it could work?... It‟s
complicated but the discussions are fairly convincing; people are talking about how we‟d
have to negotiate critical steps, administrative changes, economic re-alignments,
adjustments. There actually are a number of precedents. It certainly will be stressful and
I‟m sure the nutcases will make big trouble, but I think it‟s workable.
Bev came in from food shopping, arms full. “What‟s workable? Being a doctor and
having kids? Rescuing an important father from the clutches of evil by the IDF?.. Saving
Israel?”… Hi Mom, Julie and I were discussing the one-state thing… Oh, you think that‟s
workable – we‟ve been talking about it. It‟s interesting; as Eula pointed out, there are all
these things we‟ve never thought much about. Past discourse has been rather restricted,
hasn‟t it?... (Sasha:) The men are always so focused / (Juliana:) and narrow, it seems to
me. They master their favorite systems and then become prisoners… (Sasha:) Well,
Golda wasn‟t exactly thinking outside the box, either, you know.. and Tzipi Livni?? Did
you know she was in Mossad once? (Juliana:) That‟s true; it must be the rarified
atmosphere up there at the top… Or the money.. [Golda Meier: past prime minister and
one of the original Zionist pioneers; Tzipi Livni: dashing leader of Kadima Party, former
Mossad hit-woman, daughter of one of the top terrorists expelling Palestinians from their
land.]
(Bev:) Do you really think it could work economically and with the language
problems?... Sure, it works now, on a small scale. It‟s really a matter of public will; if
people see it as a solution, it will work… (Juliana:) It would be nice to meet a few of
them, just to get some idea of how they think and how it could work… (Bev:) With
Palestinians?... (Sasha:) That might be doable,.. and it could be quite helpful. I could
arrange something with some of the people doing the one-state stuff and the inquisition.
There‟s that Beth Engels, you know, the one with the talk show and daily reports from
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Beirut; there‟s the woman that organized that Israel 60 Years conference… You know
them?... I‟ve met them and I know people working with them. (Bev:) But who would
they find to meet with us?... Well, there‟s a woman in Gaza, in Hamas, that would be
quite interesting to talk to, and,.. I‟m sure they could find others. Would you really be
interested, Mom? And any of your friends?... Well,.. it would require some care; I guess
we wouldn‟t want to be too public, or open, about it… (Julia:) Probably only the
participants should hear about it, initially. At least, in my family, it would be rather
controversial. Most of the men would go ballistic… (Sasha:) I‟ll make some enquiries.
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Chapter Seven
The Peoples’ Inquisition or World Truth Commission
1 Grilling the Executives of Empire
1***
Henry Kissingher with walrus voice didn‟t have to act serious this time; this was serious.
The documentation on his role facilitating the U.S. and Latin American security purges
and murders was extensive and undeniable though still a little circumstantial in places.
But some Chilean and Argentine investigators provided damaging detail from their own
military and national security archives and from subsequent public enquiries. Then a
retired professor from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
near Boston was called to testify. This guy had consulted extensively for AID and the
Kennecott and ITT corporations and later, for the CIA. Henry vaguely remembered this
fellow and was hoping for some well-placed diversion and skillful obfuscation. It didn‟t
happen. Jim Speller met the professor in the „90s at Princeton after he heard him give a
graduate seminar on “Informal government relations and private initiatives in foreign
policy.” The discussion had been quite revealing and honest; corporate players and banks
were identified and analyzed. Although the students included the usual policy wonks and
admiring climbers, a few managed to steer the discussion into topics verging on objective
class analytics. Afterwards, Jim and several other students and faculty accompanied Prof.
Weingarten to a long, relaxed dinner at Princeton‟s equivalent of Joyce Chen‟s. The
discussion couldn‟t stop there; what tacit assumptions were driving this whole process
they had been analyzing,.. and what were the implications and inevitable consequences?
One student brought up the political conflicts that boiled around development and
security policies in Latin American countries and how they were perceived by opposing
political parties, unions and other organizations. Obviously there were major conflicts –
class conflicts – and fundamental alternatives. Weingarten said, yes, these debates were
problems and took a lot of effort to control. That was one of CIA‟s challenges, how to
manipulate public opinion and manufacture consent, or at least confusion, in critical
countries. They didn‟t always succeed and so other options were deployed. Chile, of
course, was a case-in-point, but Uruguay, Peru, Paraguay and before that, Brazil, among
others. Involved “intervention at all levels” in these societies. The discussion went
further, and Jim remembered it like it was yesterday.
[AID – Agency for International Development, U.S. “foreign aid;” Kennicott – major
U.S. copper mining company operating in Chile; ITT – transnational conglomerate in
telecommunications, insurance, finance and other business operating in Chile; Joyce
Chen‟s – Chinese restaurant popular with academicians in Cambridge Mass.]
At the inquisition, Weingarten found those veins. Jim had explained in inviting him the
goals of the inquiry and found an energetic accomplice with good ideas. A lot of things
had happened since the „70s and Weingarten was not only alert but ahead of the curve.
Now that the oligarchs in the advanced countries were under serious attack, he felt free to
dive into these waters and provide corroborating details. One of the threads generated
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was the question, for Henry: How come you guys think you have the right to go in and
corrupt public debate, finance regressive political factions and manipulate repressive,
brutal military institutions, murder people you perceive as “troublemakers” and generally
trample on the rights of most residents of entire countries? Henry cleared his deep throat
and trotted out the trickle-down capitalist developmental scam and when that didn‟t
work, especially in these times of abysmal capitalism, he tried the lame communist
conspiracy thing, but that didn‟t fly either. For one thing, why shouldn‟t people and
organizations, political parties, seek support from a superpower that actually publicly
supports their goals (even if it didn‟t really help much, looked rather unattractive up
close, and had darker motives and corrupt agendas)? An Inq questioner: Where is the
evidence that significant numbers of Latin American progressives had any desire or
intention of becoming mindless agents of another empire? They could have signed-up
with the U.S. empire! It paid better.. The transparent duplicity of arguing a myth (fighting
“evil”) to justify pervasive, criminal corporate-driven assault was laughable even to
mainstream journalists uncovering this history. Actually, portraying as Soviet automatons
the courageous fighters for workers‟ rights – union leaders, peasant organizers, priests
and nuns, and others trying to claw back some of the wealth created by the people but
appropriated by local and foreign elites – was fooling no-one; it was insulting and
ludicrous, despicable. Sure, there were some pro-Soviet groupies, party leaderships that
believed defending Soviet Russia was more important than defending workers, but they
could never ascend to the top in open competition.
The record of treachery was voluminous. Later, another of the captives from Tel Aviv, a
current U.S. imperial operative, was asked how come these travesties are continuing
today in Colombia, in Somalia, the Philippines (not to mention Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Iraq, of course) actually now throughout the Arab world. This behavior even has
corporate sponsors like Coca-cola and Chiquita Bananas; hundreds of union organizers,
including teachers, have been murdered in Colombia. Ford Motor Co. did it in Mexico.
The guy pretended he didn‟t know about these activities until Inq research documentation
was produced showing him totally complicit. He had two choices: full disclosure or
criminal prosecution for participation in multiple serial murder.
This was just the beginning of the deconstruction of Henry K.; Vietnam was a huge free-
fall that most people already knew something about. And the numbers were a lot bigger:
50,000 Americans; two million Southeast Asians; enormous national treasure
squandered, a lot of it at the end just to abide Nixon‟s career preferences. Then came the
Indonesia story: the dispatch of Sukarno (courageous leader who worked hard to
organize Third World countries against the First World corporate colossus) and the
extermination of half a million of his supporters under an approving U.S. gaze. Retired
Dutch government (former colonizer of Indonesia) and academic specialists talked about
Kissingher‟s and colleagues‟ roles in bringing down Sukarno and supporting General
Suharto‟s subsequent purge of Indonesian working class progressives and activists,
mostly Moslem. U.S. mining and timber interests really appreciated Henry‟s work. And
what about the Indonesian massacres in East Timor using U.S. arms? Noam Chomsky
was flown-in from Boston with those and many other details.. brought 14 CD‟s full of
dirt on the ruling classes. But Henry refused to talk real substance, exhibiting impressive
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class loyalty. No more Fifth Avenue strolls for H. Kissingher. No more late-nites with
Barbara Wawa. But lots of other members of civilization were there to fill-in the details
on class war in Indonesia and elsewhere, on Henry‟s shame.
Many of the questions directed at H. Kissingher and his colleagues, once the basic stream
of criminality had been established, focused on the class mentality behind it, attempting
to go beyond the question of “what gave you the right....” to questions like “so how do
you think „democracy‟ should work?”.. Rich people, the ruling class, orchestrating a
public charade while defining policy and fixing decisions?” This was too embarrassing;
the inquisited didn‟t have explanations for how democracy doesn‟t work. It seemed like
this was a question that rarely crossed their minds.. Occasionally self-serving class
conceit broke through, arguing that only people in the leadership of private institutions
have the knowledge or insight to synthesize responsible, competent public policy. But
overall, not many insights were forthcoming. It seems these people drive on a super-
highway without asking a lot of questions about the back roads, passing wreckage, or
alternate destinations. Curious, one of the inquisitors asked Henry K.: So,.. how was it to
study under the masters,.. you know,.. the Rockefellers… Henry was challenged, his
resolve not to engage these ignorant scoundrels temporarily suspended. He kicked into
professorial mode: Well, Nelson was a real operator; navigated around Manhattan like an
America‟s Cup skipper in a gale off Long Island.. with a Henry sneer.. David was the
strategist with long-range vision and business leadership genius. Put in place innovations
at Chase Manhattan that changed our banking system.. (Lots of furrowed brows: did
David Rockefeller pave the way to the Great Collapse?).. He had a profound grasp of the
complexities of the Latin American social and business environment. One can‟t overstate
the importance of private citizens like the Rockefellers in the „50s, „60s and „70s in
discerning our national interest, designing our global presence… So you were evidently
quite comfortable in serving, in joining, the American ruling class?.. No answer.. Well,
how did you come to know the Rockefellers?... Henry‟s eyebrows rose with a shrug and
more rumbling: It was perfectly natural. They were important supporters of Harvard
University, they sat on Visiting Committees, the Board of Overseers, the Corporation, at
various times. It was inevitable that Harvard faculty in leading positions would be invited
to participate in these consultations. That was their purpose. Discussions with institutions
like the Council on Foreign Relations, Business Council, Conference Board, World Bank,
investment bankers, private investors, and the State Department was the process out of
which policy initiatives in our system are born and implemented, both in academia and in
government.. looking wide-eyed.. couldn‟t be more natural.
2***
It would have been nice to nail Margaret Thatcher, but Madeline Alblight was almost as
good. Margaret the-iron-fist Thatcher had put the Labour Party in its place and fully
restored Capital to the throne in Great Britain. She was the one that got George Bush, the
elder, to withdraw U.S. support for Saddam Hussein in Iraq in favor of the bigger
objective of securing the entire Persian Gulf for big Capital. After encouraging Iraq to
steal back some of their underground oil from Kuwait, the U.S. turned on this cooperative
hitman and pliant co-conspirator against Iran who, by then, was turning Kuwaiti oil rigs
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into smoky candles in the desert. But George, the elder, proved not up to the task of
finally seizing the Iraq prize; said he didn‟t have an exit strategy. We had to wait for
George, the moron, to take that step. Lots of good history for the Inq to deliver.
Meanwhile, Madeline got nabbed in Spain while vacationing in Aragon; figured no one
would notice and the private hacienda of a leading family there would be safe. The
Spanish transport union turned her in. She had some dark history but the Inq was most
interested in her current activities as a hustler for private equity: tell us about the Albright
Group in international consulting. Time to tell all, Ms. Alblight; just how do ruling
classes across the globe come together. Name names. Follow the money. Banks,
sovereign funds, private equity, lay it all out, please.
Alblight was U.S. delegate to the UN during the Rwanda genocide. She and Bill Clinton
didn‟t see the need to respond to the Canadian in charge of the UN peace-keeping
security forces there who was daily reporting on the massacres and begging for help. This
Canadian exemplified what military peace-keeper should mean, how armed intervention
can be just and correct, and minimally invasive, but there wasn‟t oil, diamonds, cobalt,
vital national interest, or anything. Yawn. As Secretary of State, Alblight watched the
brutalization of the Bosnians, genocide in Srebrenica; Moslems being cleansed from
Europe by right-wing politician-thugs, probably mentored by western intel agencies, as
the Arab world watched and pondered. Eventually, after Karadzic‟s mass-graves of
Moslem men and boys, they brought in Holbroke to broker peace (the guy Obama has
appointed to subdue Afghanistan). Then, when their right-wing protégées in Serbia got
too independent on Kosovo and started sidling up to the Russian oligarchs, Clinton and
Alblight bombed them too!
Alblight had a modest following among feminists – took steps to get more women into
the pipelines to the top, and on to the front lines of imperial power. She was a role model
for aspiring she-bosses, for challenging the old boys, elbowing into their clubs, cracking
the glass ceilings of the decrepit organizations of class domination. Claimed she was
helping women. Well, some women. Those in lower 99.998% of the income distribution
in Moslem societies wouldn‟t quite see it that way, or Americans either… Dr. Alblight,
can you explain what was the over-arching strategic goal in the former Yugoslavia and
surrounding region? What was the investment picture you saw developing there, what
institutional changes were highest priority?... She must have thought she was at an
embassy tea party promoting America‟s vision of freedom and democracy, and the
liberation of women. She smiled, welcoming the opportunity to explain the promise of
free enterprise, market-based economies, and our democratic institutions … Someone
asked, do you think it‟s important to have independent labor unions in the post-
communist societies? … Yes of course. We are working closely with some of the
(backward) European labor federations and of course, with our own AFL-CIO, to
accomplish this… Is the CIA still placing agents in the foreign offices of U.S. labor
organizations and eliminating opposition union leadership in some countries to achieve
these goals?.. A look of perplexity and no immediate response, such an unexpected
question.. OK, please tell us who are the primary clients you are working with in India,
Singapore, the Emirates, and Taiwan, for example.. and what major financing projects are
under discussion… Well, of course, I‟m not free to discuss private conversations and
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arrangements, surely you understand?... Ms. Alblight, maybe you‟re free to discuss the
circumstances that allowed you to ignore the Rwanda situation, or Bosnia?.. More of the
same spin; she doesn‟t get it. She sees transparency only when she looks up. Her future
was looking opaquely down. Another question: how do you see the role of women
changing in Moslem societies?… Again, a surge of enthusiasm.. This is so exciting! As
the security situation improves, I see enormous opportunities for Moslem women outside
the home. As you know, strides are being made enrolling female students in our western
universities. There will be obvious business opportunities for women as these societies
transition to a global, market-based economy,.. with shining smile… The Inq questioners
weren‟t smiling back… Well, the security situation seems to be excellent in Egypt, but
we don‟t see many benefits there for Moslem women at all. Your global economy is
grinding them into the dust and their men seeing no solutions from your existing
institutions are looking for hope along other even less promising avenues, and ending up
in jail or dead. And what makes you think military occupation improves these
situations?... Well.. of course, these are difficult and very challenging times. It is
important, however, to keep one‟s eyes on the long view. Our military activities are
becoming much more cognizant of the political imperatives in these societies and we are
learning how to optimize our campaigns… So you probably agree with extrajudicial
executions as a primary focus in asymmetric conflicts, as it is being implemented today
in Iraq and Afghanistan? Pakistan? And don‟t pretend you don‟t know about it. We do...
Alblight looked like she had just bitten into a slightly rotten apple… Perhaps I can
explain this. There are times when the best way forward requires some unpleasant steps;
no one likes to do these things but they are the best, least costly, way to achieve the
security and peace objectives that everyone wants… So, you approved of Chainy‟s “dark
side” activities? You are complicit in serial murder, is that correct, and you agree with it
going forward?.. You endorse the appointment of General McGlasstal, we presume?....
Dr. Alblight was starting to see the descending dust cloud. Her smiles dried up and she
took a deep breath. Dealing with these people was worse than meeting angry Madoff
investors or pushy sovereign funds or sexist oil moguls.
3***
Another of the Tel Aviv 29, Charles Damon, CEO of one of the IT contractors for NSA
at the secret Tel Aviv conference, was called to testify. This gentleman was in way over
his head. Didn‟t even know what Hezbollah was, thought it was a Middle Eastern menu
item, but was thoroughly conversant in surveillance technology integration across diverse
data and telecommunication systems. Didn‟t have a clue about Israeli history, Iran or
even Iraq, but was really good at providing whatever the super-thugs needed in IT
support and innovation. Bad career choice. He had a lot of trouble figuring which way to
shave his answers but it wouldn‟t have helped. This guy wouldn‟t do much time if he
learned how to talk, and there were lots of questions… Which countries does NSA
routinely violate in collecting as many private electronic secrets as can be culled from the
public electromagnetic environment or private communications nodes: phone calls, e-
mails, funds transfers, computer files. How do they do it? From satellites? from ground-
based antennae? from bugs? Arm-twisting local phone companies to install black boxes?
With cooperation from local elites? Who gets all this information?.. Chuck didn‟t really
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know a whole lot about that end of the business. But his NSA handler with him in Tel
Aviv did… Which organizations of enforcers around the world do you share this
violation with? Describe the analytical resources inside the NSA for interpreting these
intercepts? How many staff are involved in analyses after the computers have flagged
suspect thinking and unpatriotic communication? Are labor unions systematically
invaded? Political parties? Journalists?.. This hard-ass wasn‟t about to divulge the dirty
secrets of the democratic realm. No liberty for him.
4***
An Italian intel chief was on the stand. This fellow was very professional and dedicated
but also thoughtful on occasion. He had been somewhat skeptical of the Tel Aviv
conference idea but was ordered to attend by one of Berlesconi‟s enforcers. He had
coordinated the participant travel to Tel Aviv from an Italian air-base. Things had started
to unravel for this guy when the CIA renditions began and some of his people got sucked
into doing their dirty work. His first step on a career in crime was when he tipped-off the
civil authorities in Rome on the illegal activities of a certain hotel crowd that turned out
to be CIA with loose cell phones. Jim Speller had been watching Aldo‟s body language in
some of the IDF hostage meetings and got the impression he wasn‟t totally committed.
Some side-bar conversations confirmed this and they explored off-the-record opinions.
The last time they talked, right before the caravan to Beirut, Jim told Aldo that he would
give some favorable comments to contacts he had in the Inquisition; that he ought to
think about providing some revealing episodes of routine Italian ruling class dominance
behavior that he was familiar with. Lots of Italians and others would value this
contribution. Especially if he could describe a specific policy debate from the inside, the
unvarnished calculus of class from which working class advocacy is totally absent,
typically losing. Aldo asked whether Jim thought the missileers were active in Italy. Jim
didn‟t know but suggested there probably were appealing targets there. The collapse was
liberating some good people. [Berlesconi – right-wing PM and corporate tycoon in Italy;
an Italian Rupert Murdoch owning major media companies.]
Aldo was not effusive but not defensive either and dissociated himself from the main
thrust of the Tel Aviv conclave. He acknowledged that there are underlying issues of
major concern that the U.S. and Israeli plotters were oblivious to; that their strategy was
bound to wreak enormous damage and costs, would lead to endless warfare spreading
throughout Asia and Africa. He didn‟t criticize the Italian government directly but made
it clear that his professional judgment diverged from his bosses‟. He implied the
opposition in Italy was not doing its job. Even the Italian Communist Party seemed to
have lost its bearings.
5***
Al Jazeera expected the Inquisition to provide enticing variety in their ever-expanding

program schedule but never dreamed it would be a blockbuster. They had to hire new
staff including interpreters to keep up. Then the old worries came back; what if the U.S.
puts us in the cross-hairs again? Would Obama do that, the staff asked? After George, the
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Bama was almost manna from Heaven, but a centrist is a centrist with lots of nasty
people still at the switches. They decided to go public and ask the Inquisition to look into
the last time Al Jazeera took a hit from the U.S. military, in Baghdad. Maybe someone
caught in the truth-net would talk. Reporters from the U.S. who were covering the Inq
kept asking American officials if they intended to block Al Jazeera until finally the
Bama‟s Press Secretary declared that the U.S. had no intention of interfering with
responsible journalism in Lebanon.
United Nations deliberations were being upstaged by the Inq. Policies being debated in
New York were daily being hijacked by revelations and world-wide conversations on
past policy decisions made by important private people. Some countries wanted to invite
the Inq to New York but they were no where near a majority.
6***
Jim Speller suggested to the Plan that an appropriate inquiry topic might be who killed
Rafiq Hariri back in 2005, the popular (with some) Lebanese political leader. Jim had
proposed this back at the Company and it fit right in with their burrowing-from-within
strategy for the Inq. They said go for it, let‟s get the Syrians. Didn‟t foresee that the
Inquisition would then ask, “who killed Allende,” or “who killed Lumumba?” and then
on to a much longer list of lesser victims in the hundreds, who got in the way of the
corporate agenda or their local clients. Or who became obstacles to various state
imperatives, or angered the new Russian mafia or probably the late Pootin himself.
Included on that list of course were Iraqi dissidents executed long before the first Gulf
War. The Inquisition debated the ploy at length. The Hariri hit raised questions prying
into Lebanese ruling class activities and political conflicts, which might further strain the
Inq‟s tenuous perch in Lebanon, and was sure to piss-off the Syrians. Plan members
argued at the Inq that… we have to do this because we are equal-opportunity inquisitors;
the Arab world needs accountability as well. (They had led the way with their missiles in
Dubai and Riyadh.) We need to show that their rulers can be examined, should be
challenged. Besides, the investigation will inevitably raise questions on Israel‟s role in all
these matters and now was an excellent time to get that out in the open with the Israeli
ruling class on the ropes and the U.S. flagging.
The Inq agreed, and saw targeted political and literal assassination as a core focus. They
invited peoples in all countries to compile lists and documentation on fighters for
working people who had been eliminated by ruling class agents of one kind or another.
They suggested setting up Truth Commissions in their own countries to solicit and verify
testimony. Journalists, frequent targets of threatened elites, were included in the victim
lists. This was history that needed public acknowledgement, that many would see for the
first time.
7***
A former IMF economist now at MIT‟s Sloane School of Management, Simon Johnson,
told the PBS talk-show host that the time has come to break the oligarchs!! And not just
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at AIG. Like dictators that forever blocked progress in impoverished Central American
countries, the U.S. oligarchs, by their strangle hold on America‟s politics, had made
fundamental reform impossible. In Beirut, Johnson explained the suffocating hold of the
IMF and other financial institutions on Third World development. He talked about a
world class that generally got what it wanted and everyone else didn‟t. He came with
charts and graphs, showing how corporate globalization, not to mention the banking
meltdown, was sustaining dismal prospects for most Third World inhabitants – the rich
are too rich and powerful. The haves and the have-mores control everything. Where‟s the
political will to take these people on?
[IMF – Int‟l Monetary Fund, a principal instrument of coercion by global capital to force
Third World countries to play by the rules benefiting transnational corporations at
expense of most inhabitants of poor countries.]
8***
The lead British participant in Tel Aviv had been a Lord Jim Baker III type with broad
experience in declining-empire management. Very knowledgeable on Middle East history
going back to before Britain got squeezed out of the Suez Canal; before Egypt got
enrolled in Pax Americana. When asked about specific policies and actions that impacted
working class prospects for sustained economic advancement in various countries, he
frequently appeared puzzled, not having given much thought to such arcane queries. But,
he was really up on international banking and business intelligence. Knew leading
families in Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka. Sat on lots of boards of directors: UniLever,
Shell, HSBC,.. was actually proud of his connections and willing to describe them, up to
a point. On U.S. policies and exploits he offered opinions and gossip, including the lead-
up to Iraq adventures I and II. Discussing Israel, he was more tentative when pressed
repeatedly to divulge conversations within British ruling circles on the Israeli-Palestinian
problem. It was a useful but tiring ordeal for the gentleman and finally he said: Look, our
boys really didn‟t have a lot of influence, eh what? It was primarily an American show.
Of course, we offer guidance and share information, but... He was excused for the day but
sent away with homework assignments.
9***
Almost a whole week was spent on Brazil and Uruguay. What exactly happened with
Joao Goulart, the Brazilian President pushed aside in 1964 by army generals with U.S.
coaching? Goulart had been way too friendly with labor unions and exhibited excessive
concern over progress for the working-class. This was after John Kennedy‟s attempted
Camelot make-over of South American political culture for U.S. business – the Alliance
for Progress – and a prelude to Henry K‟s death squads and disappearings of the „70s.
Students of Andre Gunter Frank and other classic scholars of empire came to Beirut and
served up the whole enchilada of class collaboration and repression in Brazil. Their
counter-parts from Angola and Mozambique (also Portuguese ex-colonies) were inspired
and challenged to revise their history of class. The Lula administration had initially
ignored extradition requests for any of the living remnants of criminal imperial treachery,
not to mention some of their current banker and industrialist friends, but then the
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Brazilian people, especially led by the trade unions and students wearing i-pods, took a
stand for transparency and disclosure and started acting insolent. Some in the Lula
government could see an up-side to capitulation and so several generals were sacrificed,
or at least it looked that way until some of them started to talk. Apparently over the years
a few of them had had second thoughts about pimping for the gringos and now they were
ready to explain why, to the disgust of their peers. Washington badly wanted to shut them
up but couldn‟t figure out how.
Bolivia produced some patriarchs, past collaborators with the imperialists who were
recently detained for criminal activities in their fight against the new government. From
Europe, Spain produced some token elders of authoritarianism, including Franco relics,
and some Republican Army (anti-Franco) officers who asked to be extradited! France
talked a lot but no living members of ruling families were offered up for inquisition; they
did send some lesser, ageing, Foreign Legion thugs and offered some Moslem terrorists
caught in Algeria. An Italian capitalist and high-level mover and shaker on the extradition
request list was captured on his yacht off some Grecian islands along with an entourage
of lesser actors and their significant others. The Inq research factory had mapped this
guy‟s past; he was a perfect case study in Mediterranean class.
Hezbollah nominated half the Lebanese elite for appearances at the Inq. Their gambit had
considerable popular traction in Lebanon so eventually a deal was made with the
Lebanese rulers: some of yours and some of ours. The really exciting aspect of this was
the promise of disclosure of European, U.S. and Israeli involvement in Lebanese politics,
along with, of course, Syria‟s. The Inq asked Cuba if there were some government
officials that would be willing to come to Beirut and be questioned not just on U.S.
abuses but on some Cuban behavior as well. Human rights and democratic accountability
were two areas of interest. The Cubans said we‟ll send the people you ask for but you
have to drag in some of the gusanos too, from Miami or Chile, Venezuela, Spain or
wherever; here‟s our list. A Harvard professor in Latin American affairs, Jorge
Dominguez, a Cuban exiled as a youngster, volunteered to testify at the Inq. At times a
nuanced critic of both Cuban and U.S. authorities, he saw an opportunity and had the
courage to try to bring some clarity into the debate. The Inq said: We‟ll consider you a
friendly witness, but you better be ready to talk U.S. ruling-class deliberations.
[gusanos – “worms” meaning Cuban exiles]
10***
Israel‟s Joe Lieberman from Zobat Telcom, Sasha‟s dad, was at homeplate. He had been
stewing in his prison dormitory room for weeks and relished the opportunity to give the
world the real deal. Knowing some of his corporate history, the questioners had a plan for
displaying the Central Dogma as a case-study in class deception but when they observed
his demeanor and delivery, they quickly decided to let free association rule and see where
this guy ended up. He started with the creation of Israel, a topic that the Inq had already
examined in some detail, and flung around patently false myths about events he had no
direct experience with or detailed knowledge of, just rants he had heard forever. The
relentless persistence of threats and attacks on Israel were the reasons for his IDF
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activities and his efforts to bring the latest technologies to their defense. Questions pried
into the surveillance operations, what were their objectives and how did they accomplish
it?.. In this battle between good and evil, Joe didn‟t notice he was talking too much about
Israeli activities on the dark side. Back home, Sasha watching the proceedings shook her
head: Poor Dad, he doesn‟t get it at all. They‟re handing him shovels to dig his hole
deeper… When asked about people with vision and courage in Israeli society, Joe was
pleased to report on the contributions of prominent leaders, families and institutions in
the growth of the Israeli miracle and its preservation. When an inquisitor brought up the
Hellfire problem, Joe turned embarrassed and apologetic: This should never have
happened; our sophisticated security systems were not prepared for this. It has been a
tragedy and very upsetting, though in some ways not that large-scale – there have been
relatively small numbers of victims… So, Mr. Lieberman, do you approve of the use of
the Hellfire system against Palestinian elements resisting the Israeli mandate, or against
those opposing the western forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan?... Well, yes, of course;
these are terrorists attacking.. democratic institutions.. they are an enormous obstacle to
the establishment of modern governments able to function in a global economy..
Joe was earning points on disclosure but losing them on attitude. There was not a morsel
of remorse. Sasha was starting to worry that maybe things never would be wonderful
again for her dad. After his testimony, Joe was permitted to observe the others that
followed. He could even cross-examine if he chose. After a long session hearing from
Palestinian community leaders about conditions in the „50s and „60s, Joe wanted to
respond. The problem was, he had no facts to counter their comprehensive recounting, no
justifications for the Israeli policies, and actions, and no moral standing whatsoever.
Detailed gruesome accounts by diverse observers covering the expanse from the early
refugee camps to the last Israeli offensive into Gaza were hard to dislodge. But finally,
when parallels were drawn between Israel and South Africa, Joe jumped up to re-enter
the ring.
(Joe:) There is no comparison between South Africa and Israel. The South African
authorities took deliberate steps to enslave a racial majority in second class citizenship.
Israel provides equal rights for all its citizens… After some back and forth about whether
some Israelis were more equal than others, specifically Israeli Arabs, Ethiopian Jews –
forget class – one of the inquisitors asked Joe why he had had IDF-related business in
South Africa in the „70s and „80s. This bolt from the blue made Joe wonder if maybe he
should have stayed on the sidelines… Well, the two countries had some common national
security issues… Like what?... Well, South Africa had security concerns in Angola,
Namibia and Mozambique, and Israel of course had and still has such concerns with
neighboring states – Syria and Iran to name just two… So why were you involved? What
role was your company playing?... Well, we provide advanced telecommunications
equipment of course… So IDF was there to help hawk your wares?... Well, no, not
exactly, there were internal security applications that IDF was interested in and had
expertise in… Oh, so South Africa and Israel had some common internal security
challenges. How did Israel and your company help the South Africans? Did you assist
them in their pass-book administration system? Did you help spy on anti-apartheid
activities in other countries? Did Mossad penetrate progressive Jewish organizations that
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opposed apartheid? Help them with intelligence databases on local and expatriot enemies
of apartheid in Europe,.. everywhere? What about atmospheric testing of your nuclear
weapons.. what role did the South Africans have there?
It finally occurred to Joe that maybe the current South African government doesn‟t look
back so fondly on those Israeli involvements and maybe getting into this line of inquiry
was a bad idea. Again too late. These were rhetorical questions he was being asked,
because the Inq already had most of the answers. He had no Plan B or backup.
Meanwhile the OSS advocates were articulate, fully documented and resilient. As Joe
was sliding down this slippery slope he was starting to grasp that.. maybe.. there weren‟t
any good answers.. that sometimes it‟s better not to ask questions.
11***
Another IDF principal, General Levi Gashon, came up after Joe retreated. He was one of
the key organizers of the Tel Aviv convocation of thug-planners. A former tank
commander, he had studied hard and rose to become IDF‟s leading technology wonk on
the front lines of venture-Zionism. Dave and Jim had had a discussion how to play this
guy when it became apparent the Inq was going to happen. But it was all-for-nought; this
tank commander wasn‟t about to talk. The questions rolled off his armored constitution
like Palestinian pebbles off IDF tanks. Each new query solidified his position. 183 water-
boardings wouldn‟t have moved this guy. A long-time acquaintance of Joe‟s, Levi was
very serious, sometimes got impatient with the entrepreneurs who always seemed to have
another gimmick running in the background. But they had worked well together in
crafting the state-of-the-art security systems now in place.. If only they had seen the
missile treachery coming!! The insidious internal rot of dissention that afflicts every
“successful democratic society.” And now their whole game was threatened. Just
infuriating, and with the boycott hanging over their heads, probably no chance of another
made-for-television IDF/Mossad rescue spectacular.
The Inq had a long record on his career, so it was quite instructive to just have the
questions displayed and then the evidence called up in front of General Gashon‟s sphinx-
face. Got lots of play in the world media. Hundreds of General Gashons around the
world, from Egypt to Myanmar to Nigeria to Fort Benning to Chechnya to Baghdad and
Bagram to Indonesia to Chile to Sri Lanka.. shuddered to think: We could be him! How
quickly things can change, from marketing the Israeli miracle to submission to one-state
naked embarrassment. Better review our foreign travel plans.
12***
A Chinese observer at IDF‟s terror fest in Tel Aviv, of unknown placement in the
Chinese hierarchy, was on the stand. This was terribly confusing. He had never been
asked sensitive questions in front of lots of people, just his bosses. The concept that
millions of people were watching his face, reading his tea leaves, was beyond
comprehension. Way too many calculations. He finally got the western-shrug thing down
and just looked at the table during interpreted questioning. The IDF meeting in Tel Aviv
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was supposed to be five days; now it had been almost two months of detention. Questions
focused on Chinese treatment of dissidents, especially Moslems in outlying regions, but
also on workers‟ rights and trade union activities and journalism in modern China, on the
Google-China axis of repression, on Chinese trade policies with Sudan or Myanmar, and
on climate change. He was asked to describe his position and responsibilities. He clearly
knew a lot but just wasn‟t into this discussion. After a period of silence, one of the panel
members tried a different tack. The subject of inquiry looked up and studied this
inquisitor from another solar system... Look, someday, your people, all your people, will
run your country; they will value what you did here; you will be an honored person. We
will protect you until that day. But if you don‟t tell what you know, we won‟t let you go
home before then, because you now stand here as a material accomplice to global
repression and murder. Why don‟t you do the right thing? she asked.. and continued:
Chairman Mao didn‟t throw out the Japanese occupiers and remove feudal land-owners
just so a new imperial class could emerge, you know. Great things have been
accomplished since 1949. Unfortunately some of them are being abandoned, and there
were some bad turns along the way. Great things are still possible. China is going to set
the standard for civilization in the coming century. Don‟t you want that to be a good
standard? Respect for working people, for minorities, for women, for the environment,
the planet? Sustainable civilization is possible starting in China.. She stopped to let him
deliberate, let the ideas steep. He was looking off at the back of the chamber, at the
people observing him from far enough away that eye contact wasn‟t reliable. Then she
twisted the knife: Do you have a family, children?... He made an almost imperceptible
affirmative nod.. An answer!.. How many children (forgetting)?... We are allowed just
one, you know.. in passable English!.. Then without further prodding: We had nothing to
do with these schemes that Israelis and Americans were talking.. I did not want to go that
meeting, it was American Ambassador idea, he said have vital security interests in
common,.. that this Moslem problem will ruin future if we don‟t fix.. that discussion
going on around world was dangerous… How did they propose to fix it?... You have
documents; it‟s there. A lot talk about communication protocols, rapid response and
coordination, real-time surveillance, like Iraq, Afghanistan; starting little wars. Somalia,
Yemen, the Philippines. They want to identify all „bad actors‟ and kill them.. Like your
General McGlasstal.. We don‟t see problems of American empire our problem.. except
your financial mess. We don‟t kill all dissidents in China, mostly.. and, yes,.. too many…
What specific projects were being discussed involving other countries?... Well, you
know cooperation between China and U.S. on Uyghur fighters from western provinces.
They have some of them in Guantanamo.. You are asking me things that will great harm
my life in China…
This was a bizarre experience. His training had been in hard-ball diplomacy, traveling in
rival constellations, staying on message and disclosing only need-to-know information.
He was fully cyber-enabled and comfortable in intel. Before that, there had been abstract
exercises in academia manipulating principles where right-thought was generally
unambiguous. Now, this was new: revealing actual operative principles and program
details in a setting with broad consequences, with the affected watching, including hoards
of critics and analysts under nobody‟s control, and with no supervision, just relentless
drilling-down queries, and rewards for expansiveness and discosure, anecdotal stories,..
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and.. interesting questions. The Inq had permitted Mr. Chou to watch the proceeding
from the beginning, figuring this man had little reason to defend the protagonists of
Western empire and no need to coordinate stories with them. Might actually learn some
things and tell some things.
So what does your wife do?... she teach public schools in Wuhan, not the ones where
Party children go… Are they good schools, adequately funded?... No… What do your
parents do, are they working?... My father was welder in bus factories in Shanghai, my
mother taught there in private schools; she knew how to get me good education and
college… When did you join the Party?... In college it was necessary, and important
progress was happening all over China.. interesting and challenging, hard work.. We
studied not so much why but how.. But there was also difficult changes and lot of
corruption. Capitalism was quick lesson for many party officials. There was no public
discussion.. like this. It was dangerous to ask many questions… What do you think the
Cultural Revolution was all about?... The Party say it was about disloyal people, people
who don‟t trust the Party, people who don‟t care about China. People who were selfish
and reckless. My parents said it was about “capitalist roaders” but Party doesn‟t say that
now. There were big fights about how Party should organize things, about who should
decide, everything was control. A lot of it was very destructive, but I can see some good
questions were asked, good questions for now…
So would you say there is a ruling class in China? A group of people who have power
and use it to build institutions that preserve and expand their wealth and power?... Of
course. It‟s like everywhere, but has become out of control, so much wealth, so much
opportunity to do world market with huge number of cheap labor.. It‟s like your “Wall
Street greed” only at all level and very little control – re-gu-la-tion – like some countries
have. There are debates in Party and much worry about “security” and stability. I see this
as important history time.
Jim had been watching the China soliloquy and had some ideas; the guy might talk more
if asked questions permitting him to expound on issues that supported Chinese diplomatic
and strategic aspirations. Maybe explore the early discussions that began with Nixon-in-
China; how that faustian bargain was wrought which cut the U.S. working class down to
size and built the U.S. credit bubble on the backs of Chinese almost-slave labor. The Inq
agreed, proposing their Chinese guest would be most useful describing western activities
in China without directly embarrassing the Chinese government…What is the Chinese
view on the Israel/Palestine problem?... We see Israel as tool of western power, with
strong play in Middle Eastern oil; as simple historical progression except Palestines don‟t
take defeat and many people support. As you know, oil very important for China.. Israel
use Jewish influence in U.S. and Europe to build rich capitalist base there.. We can
understand this. Many Chinese community have exist all over South Asia and Pacific for
hundred years. They do commerce in some way like did Jewish communities in Europe.
Economic conflict and exploitation cause race problems. This is intrinsic capitalism,
especially when extreme poverty and class oppression. But now it seems to go bad for
Israel. Their golden cow is sick… Do you think the one-state solution would work?... My
government think that would work but there is concern how to set-up multi-ethnic state.
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We have same problem in some Chinese province, so government being very careful on
this.. I think this is good discussion happening here.. I would like one-state solution…
Wow, that was a freebie we weren‟t even looking for.
Internet suppression was the next subject of enquiry... What systems does China have in
place and what were the operating specs for software that Google provided? What
capabilities does Google have for real-time e-mail surveillance and text analyses, data-
base management? Do they do this in other countries?.. The Inq wasn‟t expecting nearly
so much detail. This guy knew the entire system; had been involved at the highest levels
in negotiating the Google contracts. Said there were people in those meetings who were
probably NSA, asking lots of questions... The process cause considerable discussion and
policy disagreement among party – whether to develop full thought-database on Chinese
people. There were problem: high false rates, unreliable internet police, cultural
complexity, people counter-measures difficult to deal with, and degrading e-
communication. The software was suspect; private Google product that, for we know,
include spy-ware installed for NSA use. Our people look very close at their executables.
The Inq negotiated an exchange: Mr. Chou for releasing some jailed dissidents and
Uyghur prisoners, and no promises of future immunities. Some bullies in China wanted
to stomp on Mr. Chou when he arrived home, but others recognized a valuable celebrity
when they saw one.
2 Class Voyeurism
1***
The daily news had become a Marxist tutorial in class struggle. It‟s all there for everyone
to see. The arrogance, self-confidence, willingness to squander the peoples‟ resources,
the voices of the hired guns, house pundits. Blaming the victims raised to a new level. At
a cafeteria table in Union Hall at Washington U, Julie and Norm were listening to some
of the more cutting-edge students talk about what this country needs. College kids were
rediscovering the classics, again. What Is To Be Done, State and Revolution, The Making
of the English Working Class.. things by Gramsci, Trotsky, Mao, Paul Baran, Harry
Magdoff, Rosa Luxemberg, Hobsbaum, Frank, William Appleman Williams, and their
progeny. Revolution fever was breaking out and spreading along i-phones and blogs. It
was an interesting challenge: what would a revolution look like, today? Who would
control the electronic barricades, just how effective would the Homeland Security
apparatus be in coordinating police repression? It was a little dizzying; could there be
consolidation of wisdom among ten thousand blogs and 300 million MyPlaces and
Facebooks? How many terabytes and what bandwidth does it take to totally immobilize
an otherwise healthy mind? What can people do locally, especially if the electronic
channels are hijacked by the ruling class? Norm and Julie were pedaling hard to keep up.
There were some good ideas but things needed research and development, beta-testing
and capitalization. Moreover, historical insights were still useful, after all no revolution
was ever simple or went according to prior plan; hardly ever on schedule. Julie said there
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actually are a lot of good things happening all over the country – around the world – that,
if other people heard about, would give a real boost to formulating a common strategy or
objectives and actions. Things that have to do with organizing opposition, legal
challenge, policy innovation, smart infrastructure design, public ownership arrangements
with transparency, and winning local solutions to vexing problems. Sometimes local
decision-makers facing big challenges and social militancy, don‟t even know what has
been done other places, things some of them could actually agree to. That‟s one thing that
activist networks can make happen – best-practice examples that show millions of people
concrete steps to the good way, demands that could fix things… Affirmative noddings
from enquiring minds.
Class hatred was a new sensation for some of the young people, coming just after they
had learned how not to hate. But the behavior of the oligarchs, daily being revealed in
surprisingly candid observations from many learned sources, was taking its toll. Class
crime seemed to demand class retribution, but how to make that happen? How do we get
the working people, the masses to join this party? The anger seems to be there, the hurt is
definitely there; where‟s the action? Some of the movement elders recalled how certain
of their comrades had gone into factory jobs in the „60s to fan the flames of class revolt.
Vietnam, the deindustrialization of New England, the civil rights movement, gun-boats in
Latin America, less-than-free speech on campus, uninhibited environmental assault.. The
results were mixed, with some very positive gains, but revolution wasn‟t one of them.
You could see, though, in the comments and actions of many graying players of all
classes, that lessons (and respect) had been learned. All this talk about accountability,
distributive justice, the class roles of institutions, them vs. us.. It was a collective
progression; race was being slowly but effectively analyzed and accepted – by some
people. At least the Bama did that, sort of.
2***
Talking on the phone with Ari was sliding toward obsession; Sasha badly missed him, his
humor, insights, and queries, his optimism. Her job had slipped into oppressive territory
and she really looked forward to their brief phone-dates. On her next leave, she was
going to try to fly to Beirut to see him and maybe her dad. On the sat phone Sasha had
discussed with Ari and then with the Plan the idea of setting up a meeting with
Palestinians, mostly women, and some potentially influential ruling class and middle
class Israeli women, wives actually, comprising her mother and some friends, and
possibly some others that Beth might recruit. Several Plan members agreed with Sasha
that it would be good to tape the discussion for possible later use; a dialog that few
Israelis or Palestinians would ever see otherwise. Ben and Jasmine would talk about
finding a few other participants in Gaza, including some not part of Hamas but with wide
experience in the occupation.
Before agreeing, the Plan parried with the implications: Why are we talking to the ruling
class? What do we have to gain that‟s worth the time or risk?.. Sasha had to conjure a
credible scenario and wasn‟t confident… Well, my physician friend is certainly
sympathetic and is not exactly ruling; she is appalled at the missile attacks – on
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Palestinians, you know – and the Gaza assault, and is genuinely supportive of exploring
the one-state.. My mother, for some reason, is not nearly as dogmatic as my dad.. she
came from an ordinary family, and she has a much broader perspective on human
conflict.. I can‟t quite explain it but it seems like some “ruling class” wives aren‟t quite as
invested in the whole power and control thing as their husbands.. For one thing, I suspect,
they experience a little “class oppression” within their marriages,.. snickering.. Of course
they do like the comforts and security,.. or did.
Ben stepped in: When there‟s gender inequality, clearly distinctive roles for men and
women in public and private life, even in the ruling class, then there‟s going to be some
slippage on the class loyalty thing. Especially in the face of continuing and deteriorating
violence. And then there are the regular government and military sex scandals that
certainly don‟t inspire blind loyalty. (Ari:) This is probably not something that we can
count on uniformly but when we come across it, it presents opportunities. I think we have
to rely on Sasha‟s judgment here. If the conversation we are attempting to synthesize
doesn‟t develop well, then we‟ll have to just leave it alone. On the other hand it could be
really powerful. It would undermine the very myths their husbands are fighting to
preserve, actually,.. maybe some on both sides of the conflict. (Jasmine:) Yes, this will be
quite interesting to observe; it might embolden a lot of Moslem women to show their
faces, speak more, reject things.
The logistics were debated and media arrangements planned. They would aim for about
10 participants who would be filmed with the understanding that displaying to the world
any segments including them would require their permission. Beth will moderate and
there will be simultaneous translation.
3***
For some members of the world‟s elites, the Inq was becoming entertainment. They were
proud to have their ruling activities acknowledged and found the gossip titillating. It was
better than watching Dallas or Knott‟s Landing re-runs, or West Wing; and they knew
some of the protagonists. Initially, liberal wheeler-dealers enjoyed seeing their more
backward colleagues on the hot-seat. Most, though, recognized a threat to the order, far
worse than from those infrequent missiles. Fundamental alternative models of
governance were being debated. Extraditions and renditions were increasing. Their travel
plans were being seriously impacted. Their foreign properties losing value.
Life in Israel was edging back to normal. The concession on the IDF thug-hostages had
released a lot of tension. No more missiles from Gaza or the rogue missileers; the
potentially devastating boycott was on hold, and discussion about the future was
becoming more civilized and thoughtful, less dominated by Zionist thought-bullies.
Unseemly disputes among segments of the ruling class were encouraging others to come
up with third or fourth alternatives. Despite the loss of automatic backup from the U.S.
military machine, the stream of revelations coming from Beirut seemed to give people
hope and courage. Understanding the conflicts in Arab and other Moslem societies and
their historical bases was liberating. Beth prepared a daily syndicated radio report from
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the Inq that was much better than watching TV news. Ari negotiated travel to Beirut and
got the other Plan traitors safe passage there too, with the understanding that their cases
would be tried in an international court and they would meanwhile remain under Mossad
surveillance. Those prosecutions had become problematic in Israel and even some right-
wingers were not opposed to their fading from view.
The challenge developing in Beirut was how to protect the Inq from increasingly hostile
behavior by the world‟s targeted classes. Although the attention and influx of dollars,
euros and yen was very gratifying to most Lebanese business interests, those with global
integration were under heavy criticism and facing consequences. The Plan scheduled
some lengthy discussion on what to do. One really helpful development was that the very
nature of the Inq was stimulating communications from people within the Lebanese
social hierarchy who were warming to the concept of transparency and had some
observations to share. They had details about the foreign banks, corporations and
governments that were lodging complaints and making threats, not expecting they would
read about them in the papers a few days later, or see the Inq examining them. Some
people in the source countries found these reports actionable and started campaigns to
defend the Inq from what their own governments might be doing. New names were added
to extradition wish-lists. The U.S. Party‟s Over Caucus opened an office in Beirut.
The novel idea that there could be a safe place for truth-telling – with global cross-
examination – was catching on. People were thinking, maybe this should be a permanent
institution, a special country off-limits to usual ruling class control. Sort of like a
Peoples‟ United Nations? Or, maybe the League of Working Classes. If we can‟t have it
at home, at least let‟s have it somewhere. This is worth fighting for. They have the
Caymans for hedge funds, the Bahamas for ship registries, the U.S. for mutual funds and
war machines, the Emirates for sovereign funds, Romania and Egypt for torture funds;
let‟s have Lebanon for truth funds. Some entrepreneurs were imagining a whole new
travel genre. Media organizations were pondering business plans that could work there. It
could become a retirement haven: after living a career in corrupt, sinful institutions,
emigrate to Lebanon and reveal all, and be honored and pampered for life. It looked
really good for future Beirut real estate. Some of the 15 original country-enablers of the
Inq were quietly trying to disengage, to withdraw security and funding support, as the full
impact started to emerge but their own Inq-supporting citizens were adamant, demanding
in some cases more funds be shifted from defense budgets to the Lebanese truth venture.
Hundreds of organizations from all over the world were clamoring for air-time at the Inq;
dedicated protagonists of many messages systematically denied access to public
conversation were seeing hope emerge. Some were from countries where overt repression
and assault rewarded views not favored by the ruling elites, but many were from the U.S.
and other “free” societies where access is controlled by more subtle means: by
advertisers, news rooms and editors; PR firms and legions of corporate lawyers; spin-
doctors at all levels of communication. The focus covered modern life. There was a surge
from the atheists. There were subversive Christian groups that advocated practicing their
beliefs; in the U.S. obvious topics were healthcare and warfare. Nutrition and life-style
design were other major topics, along with public education and of course the
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environment. Sustainable agriculture. A probing debate arose at CNN: should we cover

all this? We‟ll need new channels. These are.. interesting and popular commentaries but
controversial and sometimes rude… Duh.
A plot by rogue Israelis to attack the Inq was uncovered by Mossad and covertly disabled
just in time. Couldn‟t take the chance that the boycott would revive overnight with a
vengeance. The Obama administration was disappointed; thought maybe the boycott risk
was worth taking. David passed the Mossad intel along to Jim and the Inq issued an
unnerving statement commending Mossad for responsible and timely behavior. Other
plots got nipped in the bud at various stages partly because some people who previously
would have been totally reliable were now less so.
Satellite testimony was beginning to come-in from around the world with local
examination/cross examination. The back-channel debate was becoming front-channel
because of spreading interest and also because ruling class institutions were starting to
mount defenses and responses, shamelessly demanding equal time.
Of course, some countries had blocked Inq transmissions from the beginning. Not just the
lesser thuggeries like Iran, Nigeria, Myanmar, or pitiful North Korea. China drifted into
the Inq‟s sights again. Boycotting China was discussed – shoes, toys and electronics? –
but the global collapse had already accomplished that. However, the goal of developing a
world-market discrimination capability was decided to be entirely worthy: acting where
WTO is totally missing-in-action on human rights, worker rights and environmental
protection. [WTO – World Trade Organization, the secretariat of globalization, for
breaking down barriers to corporate penetration and prosperity]
4***
The greater Boston Central Labor Councils were trying to sort out the games going on in
Washington punctuated occasionally by those nasty smacks from the missile people. But,
did they do any good? They had invited Howard Zinn (historian of the people) to join
their discussion. The Massachusetts law forcing people or employers to buy health
insurance was now pretty discredited, a gift to the insurance industry. A lot of people still
weren‟t buying it and the funding was in trouble, but it was helping some people. The
mystery there was why did the ailing Kennedy not rise to the occasion to fix the whole
problem with the single-payer solution? They had a great opportunity to sell the real
thing. If the game plan is to get single-payer through the back door using the “public
option” trick, that seems really risky. Industry can trash and corrupt the public option to
the point that people would never support a government sponsored program again. The
bailout had become quite transparently the bankers‟ dream, and occupation and murder
were proceeding unrestrained in the Persian Gulf. Zinn began by pointing to previous
junctures in class power when big choices were being made under public scrutiny, and
how peoples‟ aspirations or fears were successfully manipulated, most of the time, to suit
the rulers. He laid out an agenda for organized labor, led by the more forward looking
parts – like Boston area Labor Councils, should they chose to accept – that could
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radically curtail ruling class options. Healthcare and unemployment were really good
targets.
On healthcare some of the building trades guys, who have their own union-sponsored but
floundering medical insurance programs, questioned whether the federal government
could do a better job. A discussion on big government ensued. What exactly is the
problem with “big government” Zinn asked?... Well they are inefficient, they bungle
everything, they‟re corrupt,.. they stifle individual initiative and local business,… They
increase taxes and spending… But who are they? In the Bush regime, the people in power
were people totally opposed to almost any government. They even tried to get rid of
Social Security just when the banksters were enabling the downfall of private security!
With their wars, they actually made the government bigger but they don‟t want most
other government programs to work. Why are we surprised we don‟t like the result?... If
you elect people opposed to government, you‟re not going to like their government… Ya,
did you see that guy the other day who yelled at a Republican Congressman “keep your
federal hands off my Medicare!!”? Unbelievable ignorance… No wonder we can‟t fix
things – the whole debate has been corrupted and sabotaged for years… The Democrats
aren‟t much better; they suck-up to the same corporate elite; they‟ve presided over the
dismemberment of working class gains since the 1950s and mainly differ from the
Repuglicans in their willingness to spend public funds on band-aid solutions to big
problems. Sure they‟re more progressive on social issues but do they fix things?
So why aren‟t Kennedy and other important liberals backing Conyer‟s single-payer
bill?... (A CWA legislative guy:) These guys are all buddy-buddy with the insurers, the
providers, the Boston medical/pharmaceutical research mafia,.. the whole system. They
just can‟t imagine throwing off this giant parasite with tentacles reaching everywhere,
transitioning to an efficient Medicare-for-all type system… But what about the “public
option” plan that Obama is promoting? Isn‟t that going to get us there?... Well, that could
get us there but they are even denying that intent. When the reactionaries complain it‟s an
unfair competition – the public vs. private options – instead of saying, “ya, your greed-
infested monster won‟t be able to match what the public choice will offer” (if it‟s
operated with negotiated prices and minimal administrative costs), instead, they waffle
and promise they‟re not really trying to get single-payer… The “socialized medicine”
ploy came up; (an IAM guy:) Single-payer has nothing to do with who delivers
healthcare, it‟s all about how it gets paid for. It‟s socialized healthcare financing. Like
Social Security is socialized retirement benefits. We‟d have total choice on providers
instead of what we have now. But on that point, you know, we actually have a socialized
medical system, run by „big government‟: it‟s called the VA. It‟s a very efficient high
quality system with state-of-the-art electronic patient management. Of course there are
other huge problems with the VA, like denying benefits or special help for veterans
whose lives have been shattered by endless-war… And then of course, there‟s Medicare
itself, a giant government-run single-payer system… (A Teamster:) I used to dread
signing up for Social Security; it looked like one of those telethon phone-tree nightmares,
like when you call up Blue Cross. But last year I was old enough so I went on-line and
punched in my application. Four days later, I get a call from some dude in Baltimore who
says he has my application. He walks me through the whole thing in six minutes, explains
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all the Medicare angles, and I‟m off and running. Tells me when my first check will
arrive and for how much; gave me his name and direct phone number! It was beautiful.
You know, those people at Social Security are union members. Single-payer would be the
same way. You sign-up, get a card, and the rest is history… (Zinn:) Yes, the system could
really be quite exquisite, but it‟s going to depend a lot on us. If we can‟t impose some
democracy on our government, then single-payer could degenerate into one giant
dysfunctional insurance company that we all happen to own. Hospital industry lobbyists
would still write the regs on performance, allowable benefits, quality goals; drug
companies would still hold us hostage; the AMA would still lobby reimbursement rates
for specialists; GE will stick very expensive machines in every hospital. We‟ll pay for all
of it through taxes. That‟s why we have to take these forces on directly, get corporations
out of the driver‟s seat, demand accountability. The POC people understand all this.
(School teacher:) Big government is such a huge issue. I have relatives in Colorado and..
it‟s like they‟re programmed from birth: government is bad, business is divine. For them,
the only good thing about big government is big Air Force. Back in the „50s and „60s
they had SAC bombers flying overhead everywhere to remind them. Now they don‟t
even have that. Everything they see, every problem or issue, gets projected into some
bizarre government-business axis, with not a clue about who runs what and why. Even
with the financial meltdown they see conspiracies of powerless people and misguided
dreamers instead of pure and simple capitalist mega-folly… The irony of it all, like on
healthcare, is that small and mid-size businesses would be so much better off with single-
payer but they can‟t see it – they‟re fucking blind to the huge benefits. The whole
crushing problem would just go away, for their employees and themselves!. It would
level the playing field, hassle-free. [SAC – United States Air Force Strategic Air
Command, run by anti-communist zealot: cigar-sucking macho-hero, pot-bellied, General
Curtis LeMay, flying B-36s, B-47s and B-52s everywhere promising nuclear better-dead-
than-red annihilation.]
There are all these problems and what look like real solutions, whether it‟s stopping
foreclosures or soldier deployments, single-payer, keeping the internet open.. but where
are our politicians?... Yeah, and what about our own union members? You know, a lot of
our guys don‟t get it, or worse, don‟t care – they have just left the discussion as far as the
union goes or even the Democratic Party. (Zinn:) Well, there is some history here, you
know, and some things that need to be said about union.. ah.. democracy, and political
involvement. Things that some of you, maybe all of you, would rather not talk about. But
let me give it a try.. that‟s why I‟m here… OK, Dr. Zinn, go for it. What do we have to
lose? We‟re all adults,.. wry smirks or shrugs or frowns, all around.
There were the usual fairly obvious defects like union leadership making private deals
with management on contentious issues out of sight of the members. Or the endless ways
that incumbent office-holders gain advantage over challengers in elections: patronage
appointments, balloting tricks, captive publications, or special treatments arranged with
colluding managements. The Boston union bosses all agreed these things go on, amid
mutual teasing, and of course, there are straight-forward solutions: by-laws and
procedures that work. What was less obvious were the consequences of these anti-
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democratic practices. Zinn explained how rank and file initiative and creativity is
squandered and killed by these practices; how the class identification and solidarity of
workers both inside and outside the labor movement gets extinguished; demoralized
people are left to their own devices, easy prey for capitalist marauders.
A federal employee and AFGE member explained how union national conventions are
choreographed by the national leaderships to advance their own agendas… For example,
for our last convention my local submitted a resolution on healthcare. We called for
AFGE to endorse the Conyers bill – HR 676 – for single payer, and to withhold campaign
contributions to candidates who won‟t also endorse and work for it. Like our Labor
Council here, hundreds of labor organizations across the country have already backed HR
676. And we had several other AFGE locals supporting it. So what happened? Well it got
watered down (removed the part about not endorsing candidates who don‟t support HR
676), and was bundled with some other resolutions; there was very little floor discussion
on the merits, and the whole thing passed with minimal dissent. Probably most AFGE
delegates there don‟t even know what single-payer is. It was a missed teaching moment.
And they wonder why the membership is so passive. [AFGE – American Federation of
Government Employees]
(Zinn:) Let‟s look at the Teamsters. It took years of organizing by a dissident group, and
federal judicial intervention, to finally force a constitution change requiring one member-
one vote for top Teamster officials like President, a huge improvement. Things have gotta
be pretty bad when the government of the corporations assists in labor reform. Actually,
their main interest was going after the Mob, especially in New York. Giuliani launched
his career on it. Local efforts to clean out classic corruption still continue in that union.
Some other unions have reform groups but just about all unions need them, and it‟s a
major uphill struggle… I understand what you‟re saying but things are complicated. You
can‟t always discuss everything and vote, you know? Look at the UAW.. they got better
contracts each time, all the way to bankruptcy. Kept delivering for the members...
Actually, people aren‟t stupid, you know, they don‟t want an employment arrangement
that‟s unsustainable, that promises a fake future, any more than new homeowners want
mortgages that are going to blow up in their faces. The problem in the UAW was that full
discussion in the membership didn‟t happen, was almost totally controlled. Major issues
were largely ignored, such as out-sourcing to non-union suppliers, or rejecting
management mythology on design, marketing and environmental issues, and of course,
endlessly backing the Dems. At least they opposed the Vietnam disaster. But they stifled
or co-opted dissent and it worked, right up to the end… (An IUE elder:) Yeah, we have
some regrets here in Massachusetts. We watched as entire industries got shipped out –
textiles, shoes, clocks, ball bearings, electronics – and our unions pretty much ignored
organizing the South or demanding fair trade provisions. We went for the safe, short term
wins for our, mostly white, aging members when we should have been thinking big
picture. We tried to ignore the people in our own membership who were the ones who
could save us – Blacks, women.. We kept them out of leadership real good. And if
manufacturing was bad, you trades guys were the worst, you know? Talk about private
gimmicks and exclusion; in the trades it was who your father or uncle was that got you in.
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Even college students back in the „60s were clamoring for “diversity” on construction
projects.
Getting back to basics, Zinn talked about what democracy would mean in a worker
organization. Gave examples of progressive union leadership and how it got there. The
discussion morphed over to political strategy and the scam that Democrats had pulled off
for decades. It was a long discussion and the retrospective was almost 20:20; where we
go from here was more difficult. But it was getting late and premature adjournment was
inevitable, so the Councils agreed to meet again in two days to continue, and some new
people were to be invited. Just that afternoon, the first in the nation Wal-Mart invasion
had taken place in Boston not far from Roxbury (long-time Black community) and South
Boston (Irish Catholic headwaters). Unemployment was over 35% in Roxbury (up from
its usual 22%) and 18% in South Boston. It was an integrated invasion. The food went
first, wiped clean, even the healthy stuff, followed by children‟s clothes, garden vegetable
plants, seeds, tools and car parts; DVDs were low priority. Leaflets announcing “free
food at Wal-Mart, 3 PM” had appeared around the area and word spread fast. Strategic
traffic jams somehow kept the cops out for about 45 minutes. The Black folks caught-on
to the deal as soon as they arrived; the white folks from Southie were a little slow but
after careful consideration, joined the party. When the first cruisers arrived, all they could
do was call for back-up and report on a novel scene. Stuff was pouring out all possible
orifices of the giant box, including through the truck docks out back. Traffic was being
directed to keep things moving quickly, no standing allowed for more than 30 seconds.
No cameras or cell-phone pictures allowed. After the huddle of store managers and
officers from the first four cop cars broke up, and they started opening trunks to extract
bull-horns and weapons of mass coercion, guns started appearing from other places too.
Some white guys, hard-core NRA enthusiasts, were thinking, this is an emergency, this is
exactly why we need the right to bear arms. The Black guys didn‟t need a theory. The
cops put away their tools. Eye-in-the-sky traffic helicopters abandoned I-93 and the
Turnpike within 10 minutes of the start of excitement. At 4:25 PM, the Mayor called for
responsible citizen behavior and restraint and a peaceful end to the looting but none of
the important actors was listening. Then he had to run to join a conference call with the
State Police, Governor, and National Guard. Among onlookers, real and virtual, many
thought feeding families was quite responsible.
Bill Shea, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Labor Council called an emergency meeting of
the Exec Board that very night. The day‟s discussion still lingering, he was pretty sure
history was happening right before their eyes. Some members of the exec board recalled
the drill from the past: the people rise up, the police smack them down, more people
complain loudly, and the policeman‟s union comes running to the Labor Council for
cover. They decided to do it different this time. It took an hour and a half, but they came
up with a statement to be issued immediately. No police officer should shoot at, beat or
otherwise harm the citizens of Boston who are collectively attempting to deal with very
difficult circumstances. When ordered, police officers should refuse to place themselves
in positions of danger, as in confronting unruly mobs, and instead try to encourage
peaceful resolutions and maintain public safety. The Central Labor Council will defend
such appropriate police behavior with the full force of the organized labor movement. We
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call upon public officials to aggressively address the crisis we are facing today in
foreclosures, unemployment and lack of food, and will hold them accountable for their
actions, or inactions.
Within 5 minutes of the televised press conference, the Labor Council phone was
experiencing “denial of service.” Every caller that could get through started, “are you
crazy?!!” First it was the local Democratic Party boss, then the Mayor‟s office, then some
city councilors and state reps. It took the national AFL-CIO a full hour – President John
Swarmy had been playing golf with VEEP Joe Bidden – but the refrain was the same.
That was a good thing. By then, Bill Shea had found his stride. After 20 seconds of
Swarmy‟s sermon on the hill, Bill interrupted. “What the fuck are you guys doing? I
don‟t see you on the barricades stopping forclosures, going after the banksters, fixing
healthcare, feeding people.. How do think that‟s going to happen? Giving more money to
the Dems? They‟re at least half the problem. You guys should either step up to the plate
or get out of the way. You might get hurt. If you want to do something useful in Boston,
get on the phone to your favorite Democreeps and tell them to get in touch if they want to
know how it‟s going to be.
5***
Jasmine and Jusef were sitting on her couch sipping tea and watching the Inq on the
internet. This was incredibly interesting, so much to learn, day after day. Fortunately, it
was being archived with audio interpreting so people could go back to catch parts they
missed. It was a full-time job. Unbelievable revelations and explanations. Dots were
being connected across history. A big picture with many connections and threads, but
mysteries too. At the last Hamas meeting half the time was spent discussing it. There was
so much talk in the community about it that some of the old codgers on the Hamas
Council who till now had successfully resisted cyberblasphemy were forced to watch a
computer screen. Reactions were complex. The younger folks and older leftists got with
the action almost immediately and were quickly addicted. In between watching, they did
a lot of pondering and quiet discussion. The middle-level stalwarts were intrigued but
committed to not letting too many facts alter their world view. Leadership was treading
carefully. In many families, for women, this was a window on a world they had never
seen. Watching TV reruns or American Idol dropped way off. Advertisers were
cancelling shows, looking for other venues. Some were calling up the Inq asking if they
could buy advertising. Google of course didn‟t ask, they just inserted advertizing.
Jusef and Jasmine were so glued to the laptop on the tea-table they had to take turns
running to the bathroom or kitchen to deal quickly with necessities. They didn‟t even
notice that their bodies were touching, almost wedged together, after three hours. Well,
OK, maybe noticed but not to distraction. At 10 PM, the close of the day‟s Inq session,
they got into a lively discussion on the politics of Lebanon, how Hezbollah should be
navigating there and who were good allies.. and were animating their positions with rapid
chatter and hoots when suddenly they both needed to hold each other and kiss that
beautiful mouth full of exciting words. Fingers flew through hair and over faces and
bodies. Tentative suspicions were roundly confirmed. The conversation was over. This
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was their first time. They were both a little rusty but not enough to impede progress, and
it was good. Jasmine‟s life experience was greater than Jusef‟s and she led the way. Her
kids were gone for the night so peace and freedom prevailed. Allah, or somebody, was
great.
6***
After reports on various campaigns and depressing developments on the employment

scene in aerospace, and commentary on the Wal-Mart invasions, people in Molly‟s union
meeting slipped into a deeper discussion on how to fix the world. Now that the ruling
class was totally discredited – not only was it rapacious but incompetent, reckless and
delusional as well – people were seeking other theories of governance. How would we
design the system if we could? People are still pretty clear that they don‟t like
government bureaucrats running the show but now the competition from corporate con-
men seems on about the same level... The problem is, we‟ve never actually had
government that you could say represented us, it‟s always been largely or almost totally
dominated by them. They have their private institutions and their public counterparts,
mostly pulling together. They have this circus of “democracy” to make people think we
are the ones in charge. But it‟s mostly their options that get debated and selected,
finally… Yeah, and it‟s pretty credible; occasionally they don‟t even get what they want,
and they do have their own squabbles. The courts don‟t always go their way, just mostly.
I guess they figure it‟s a price worth paying for a very stable and reliably favorable
system... So how would we fix it, Molly?... Well,.. there‟s this long history of debate
about socialism, democratic process, public ownership of “the means of production..” etc.
I personally don‟t think things can get fixed without some big attitude adjustment in the
whole population. If most people don‟t agree that we‟re all in this together (well, most of
us), that everyone has the same basic rights, then it just degenerates into private
scrambles and scams. Basic systems of trust and accountability can‟t form; private wealth
networks take over, know what I mean?... Ya, that‟s why our healthcare system is so
fucked up. A lot of people have bought the line that not everyone should have what they
should have. Most other countries have gotten past that… That‟s one thing I really like
about having a union, it makes us think about common objectives and how to get them. It
gives us access to lots of good ideas and information, and teaches people about
accountability, democratic control, especially when we can see we don‟t have it… Ya,
what about the IAM national convention? Are we going to send some people? We really
need to be talking to folks all over the country... (Molly:) That‟s for sure; we need to see
if our elected representatives are behaving themselves in D.C. A lot of our top officials
are out of Boeing, you know.. it‟s a problem. They‟re more interested in wrestling DOD
jet-tanker contracts from the Europeans than dealing with, you know, the world. Our
world. [IAM – International Association of Machinists, major union in aerospace
industry]
It‟s so frustrating. Our work produces unbelievable machines – really elegant – but
mostly for no good. When you think about the Hellfire system, being used against these
pathetic people who were never permitted to enter the 20th Century… Then there‟s our
decaying nuclear arsenal – what were they thinking? Twenty thousand warheads?... So
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there‟s Iran saying they have a right to a few of their own, and the big guys get all bent
out of shape, but it‟s OK if Pakistan, India or Israel have theirs. Like their leaders are
responsible?... You know, LM talks about “the market” and free competition and all that
BS, meanwhile they‟re sucking hard on the federal teat of guaranteed defense contracts
forever. Why don‟t they design something that we need, things that would save energy,
move people efficiently, save water, reduce our “carbon footprint,” things that people and
responsible governments would buy without being bribed? We are facing huge problems
and LM is still having its way with the procurement drill.
7***
It started with a taped interview put on Facebook. Then blog reports from Beirut.. and
now Ari had a weekly live internet commentary from Beirut with call-ins, questions and
answers, from all over the world. It was picked up by a radio station in Tel Aviv. The
Israeli establishment wanted to stop it but the Supreme Court couldn‟t find a way. Ari
was interpreting the developing evidence in relation to Israel and the OSS and expanding
the debate, inviting others to participate. The Inq observing this, proposed setting up
similar discussions focusing on other world problems, with engaged class-analytical
moderators on location in lots of places.
On the question of the control of communication channels, protecting internet pathways,

a consensus was emerging. We need to recruit the hackers, design a general e-strike
strategy that huge numbers of people can implement when needed. An appeal was
drafted: Hackers of the World Unite - forget trying to hack into ruling class private
chambers for mischief and join the revolution to make and defend a civilized internet, to
free the planet. Help us identify system vulnerabilities and join a democratic offensive.
8***
Sasha had less to report at staff meetings. Barschauer invited her to his office after the
morning‟s meeting… So, your dad made a pretty gallant effort, didn‟t he? I‟m afraid it
didn‟t go that well, though… No, he still has a way to go in adjusting to this
predicament.. smiling… It‟s fairly complicated. They are asking hard questions and have
lots of evidence dredged up from everywhere. I think Gashon‟s strategy is probably safer
for them but saying nothing isn‟t so good either; they‟re really in a lose-lose situation,
seems to me… Yes, it does seem to be influencing public opinion here in new directions.
What is IDF thinking about all this?... Well, they‟re pretty stumped, as you might expect.
They aren‟t used to not having options; to be operating under a cloud they have no
control over… Does the one-state idea ever even get mentioned?... Oh yes, it‟s being
debated quite openly, how could it not, everyone else is, including Israeli politicians on
all sides. Jewish opinion from around the world is divided. The future of our military
alliances is in question. Really quite a remarkable time.. So, what is the next step with
this inquisition? I assume you still have some contact with them?… Well, there‟s
discussion about creating a permanent sanctuary in Lebanon for this kind of probing
investigation, a kind of “no-fire-zone” that would be off-limits to the usual methods of
repression.. It‟s received a lot of positive interest from around the world; it‟s an amazing
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concept – to me, anyway – but, of course there are practical considerations. It isn‟t clear
the Lebanese government will continue to pioneer innovation in world civilization. And,
of course it would depend on internet access, so a lot of thought is going into how to
preserve “free speech” on the internet, globally… That‟s very interesting.. Yes, I can see
how states might find that rather threatening. It‟s also a little unpredictable, you know,
warfare at the level of the internet, raises all sorts of new things,… That is actually one of
our objectives, to have public debate and develop rules of civilized internet behavior, to
develop counter-measures to sophisticated means of political manipulation.. and to
protect against the cyber-brat-thugs. Is your wife still in touch with people looking at
these things?... Yes, they‟ve been through endless discussions and are kind of waiting to
see what happens… Do you think there is anyone in that group that would like to meet
some Palestinian women, mainly women, to discuss what the one-state solution would
mean? We are arranging for that to happen; my mother might be involved,.. grinning,..
and a physician friend of mine. It could be quite intriguing, I think, for both sides … I‟ll
ask her.. That would be a delicate situation but,.. maybe, it could happen.
3 Wall Street Smackdown Again
1***
Ghetmor‟s speech at the National Press Club continued the scam. The house of fraud was
being dismantled at homeowner, tax-payer and worker expense and the major criminal
banks and banksters were being gently excused. Goldman Sachs got a huge payoff from
AIG; evidently AIG was able to insure fraudulent investments after all, using of course
bailout money allocated by Bush‟s Treasury Secretary Paulsen, a former Goldman
principal. But restoring capitalist appetite was the brash youngster‟s, Tim Ghetmor‟s,
main focus and pride. There were some mean-spirited questions from journalists but they
never challenged the fundamental fix, and then Ghetmor scurried to his waiting limo with
fogged windows humming out on 14th Street for his next appointment. The HF team was
in sat phone contact with someone at the scene and knew Ghetmor was about to emerge.
The team had a nest 15 blocks away on top of some townhouses that were being rehabbed
into $2900/mo two-bedroom units. Some contractors were doing plumbing in the
basement. The team got settled on the roof, pretending to be doing cable work. Their
equipment was delivered in boxes by a FedEx truck with nice fresh lettering on it. The
Press Club sidewalk was just visible across the Mall through gaps between voluptuous
trees and green spaces over park benches. So, when the alert came through, HF 36 was
ready and willing. Lots of reporters were out in front of the Press Club when Ghetmor
breezed by with trailing TV cameras. He didn‟t let parting questions interrupt his
Blackberry dialog and soon was safe in his black cocoon, well, for 1.8 seconds. The HF
took to the air as soon as Ghetmor‟s staffer reached to open the car door for him. The
vehicle exploded in a flash of smelly fire and then just sat there. Several people on the
sidewalk close to the car were also injured, some fatally burned. The shocked journalists
who escaped harm immediately recognized the symptoms, having become familiar with
drone hits around the world. This was like having Waziristan in your own front yard!
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Gee; maybe this is why those drone flights over there are such a big deal. And class war
by the missileers was still alive and well in America.
Some observers initially approved this turn of events, but then were disturbed upon
realizing they had been recruited to the terrorist fringe. News commentary inevitably
returned to the issues of the bailouts of Wall Street, a motive behind the attack that was
perfectly clear even though, of course, reprehensible. The Bama was livid and directed
Homeland Security to draft a new plan for blanket security in DC. Those steel screens
were finally installed on the White House. He had a tantrum on TV that was a lot more
convincing than his performance several months earlier on “irresponsible” AIG bonuses.
His staff, however, were noticing that the people, in general, weren‟t sharing his
concerns; he was losing them. Almost nobody thought that the proper way forward had
been murder of the Treasury Secretary, like he was just another Taliban leader; but was
anyone pursuing a proper way? Obama‟s staff was making noises about the bailout
strategy, maybe we should‟ve done the Swedish thing; maybe some sort of bank
nationalization was the way. Larry Winters was computing fast but the program kept
bombing. The optimization algorithm couldn‟t find a solution that looked good for the
people. Networking didn‟t help. Stiglitz said: Make banking boring again (regulate-out
the fulminant risk infection). The Bama was discouraged and disappointed – after all he
had done to keep the family together. The financial community was storming the White
House gates but there weren‟t many others with them. The manufacturers were AWOL;
the people were watching Gray‟s Anatomy, or 24, or basketball, or trying to sleep.
[Stiglitz: Columbia Univ. Nobel prize economist.]
2***
After Boston, 119 other Wal-Marts were violated within 48 hrs. Many were in major
urban centers but rural survivorists were also getting into the act. A lot of them were
people whose livelihood Wal-Mart had destroyed as it metastacized across America,
wiping out local nursuries, clothing stores, food shops, hardware stores (along with Home
Depot), and local manufacturers. When the CEO complained on TV that Wal-Mart was
being singled out, the people obliged by invading 1,305 Sams Clubs, Krogers, Meijers,
Price Choppers, Biggs, Safeways, Stop-and-Shops, and numerous other grocery chains
within a week. Coscos were collateral damage. An emergency meeting of various top
players organized by the Bama quickly produced an accord: grocery chains would
immediately create a “food bank” capacity at every store which will provide, at cost,
basic staples such as milk, rice, flour, beans, oatmeal, fresh fruits, cheese and vegetables,
and some cuts of meat. The Dept. of Agriculture guys wanted to include baloney and
irradiated hamburger free of pesky nutrition regulations or labeling but the awakening
diabetes warriors cut them off at the trough, while the green warriors succeeded in
making sure local farm products were included.
When the news appeared that some alleged NRA supporters had participated in the
Boston invasion, things happened fast. National NRA of course condemned these
miscreants and promised to terminate memberships of anyone appearing with firearms in
support of these takings of private property. Unfortunately, they hadn‟t yet run focus
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groups on this particular issue, and suddenly thousands of NRA members across the
country started not only joining invasions but publicly exhibiting their favorite toys and
inspecting what other people were bringing to the party. Some of them were friends of
sheriffs and troopers. Huge divisions were occurring between the haves and the have-
lesses. Highway robbery and banditry at the top of the food chain (and then those
missiles) had dissolved some of the misconception lower down and some members were
way out in front of the very well compensated NRA executive leadership in making
adjustments.
3***
The Party‟s Over Caucus in Congress felt it was time to take a very public and contrarian
stand. Ghetmor‟s untimely demise was way over-the-top but they weren‟t intimidated by
the financials‟ outrage. Despite TBBIO (the billionaires‟ ball is over), the band had
played on and the Bama was still the guest conductor. The left-wing heavies in the POC
rolled-out their apocalypse-now make-over plan: total nationalization of all banks with
$20 billlion or more capitalization; massive overhaul of financial regulation; huge
changes in labor law; fair trade and campaign finance; and revolutionary proposals for
sustainability and efficiency, and, of course, healthcare. Barney Frank went on TV: look,
you may not approve of who I want to marry, or the color of my drapes, but you really
need these new laws that my colleagues and I in the POC have built, otherwise a lot of
you will die before your kids have kids. We wasted 16 years on ridiculous questions like
abortion, abstinence, faith-based whatever, and so-called free markets when we should
have been real worried about getting along with the world and the planet, and ourselves,
all of us getting along. If we don‟t fix these things fast, we will become a first-rate third
world country with unimaginable living conditions and poverty for many of you, and
internal warfare. Suicide and murder-suicide will replace cancer, heart disease and drunk
driving as leading causes of death... It stuck. Even bitter-enders and Bushies got past the
Repuglican culture trap and wanted to hear more.
Labor rights? Some of Barney‟s POC colleagues explained. In the employment

relationship, workers need organization and back-up when dealing with management,
from the local level all the way up to the global – giant multinational corporations. The
bosses are very organized. Labor unions can provide a counter-organization but they have
to be under the control of their members and workers need to learn how to do that, which
means big changes in the way most American unions operate. Democratic procedures,
open debate, full disclosure and free communication among members – including e-mail,
blogs – must replace cronyism and the private-club-at-the-top penthouse culture of many
unions. Workers at any employer should have the untrammeled right to organize
themselves and seek union affiliation without employer interference or retaliation, to
negotiate the specifics of their working arrangement.. like in the civilized countries. And,
by the way, stop unions from pimping for credit-card and insurance companies.
4***
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Fair trade? The electronic media had pretty much ignored the POC‟s labor rights
discussion, but trade seemed important, so commentators had to get up to speed on “fair”
trade. Isn‟t all trade fair? You don‟t have to buy it, you know. But new faces were being
interviewed and new concepts unearthed: You see, economic activity goes on all over the
world but the rules differ; in some places you can do almost anything you want with your
employees, the environment and, for a price, get public officials to go along. Capitalists
love to travel the world looking for the best arrangements of “inputs” and “factors” so
they can dominate markets for maximum gain. So workers in the more advanced
countries are constantly being undercut and sacrificed on the alter of free trade. But
there‟s more; the capitalists like these arrangements so much they take extreme measures
to keep the rules the way they are or make them worse in the poorest countries. Progress
is bad for free trade. Fair trade is good for progress. Fair trade means setting basic
requirements for any country that wants to participate in global trade, a uniform
minimum set of rules so that the benefits of capital accumulation are widely shared,
everybody‟s boat rises, the rich don‟t get obscenely richer; actually less rich.
At the University of North Carolina, a classroom discussion on trade had lots of local
experience to go on. First the textile companies came down here from New England
leaving empty mills along the Merrimack and other rivers and the previous holders of
unionized sweatshop jobs, with no jobs. As one of the benefits of slavery for industrial
bosses, low wages and a beaten-down and divided workforce in the South provided
wonderful opportunities for free trade. But wait, there‟s more. Low non-union wages in
the South just weren‟t low enough when you could move to Mexico, El Salvador, Haiti,
Taiwan, Bangladesh or China and pay even less. OK, so people got the basic idea that
uneven development creates instabilities and traumatic adjustments, but then technical
details come up. Undergraduates said, what are we going to do, give everybody the same
pay around the world for the same job? That obviously can‟t work… How do we make
some low-wage country change its rules and enforce it?... Aren‟t poor people in these
countries better off with jobs tied to a global market than with no jobs?... Lots of good
questions spontaneously spewing forth all over the country, and fortunately, there were
pretty good answers from people who weren‟t struggling with these complexities for the
first time. Julie in St. Louis said these are difficult challenges, coming after centuries if
malignant economic mis-development and political repression. There aren‟t simple top-
down solutions and lots of experimentation is needed. But, for example, one fairly
enforceable requirement for trade participation could be that free, independent trade
unions are permitted to operate; that basic association and press freedoms are guaranteed;
it‟s not that difficult to see when they are not. Free access for investigators from ILO or
any NGOs would be mandatory. A lot of the enforcement activity could depend on local
community organizations and individual initiative. Free access to the internet is a clear
and enforceable requirement. Another one could be that windfall profits from low-wage
areas be taxed via tariffs to then be applied to general infrastructure improvements in
those countries: public education, healthcare, transportation and community
development. These are solvable problems; the problem until now is that people with
serious financial power don‟t try to solve them. Contrast this with protecting intellectual
property rights: software and DVDs, re-runs, whatever, is a major and fairly effective
component of world trade enforcement under the current system because it was a priority
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for the rulers and decision-makers. They drive bulldozers over piles of confiscated
counterfeit DVDs on TV in China, but the murderers of workers and coal miners walk
free. [ILO – International Labor Organization, a UN agency]
Economic development under a favorable trade environment was discussed with lots of
countries examined. India‟s abysmal progress at the bottom of society while corporate
and dot.com exuberance flourished at the top was displayed. This included looking at
peasant suicide, the Kerala aberration, and Maoist opposition in West Bengal. The few
Third World countries making significant progress for their working classes were studied
critically. The possibilities for global labor union coordination and mutual support were
there if you looked.
5***
The NY committee on the present danger for the third time was reeling from a nearby hit.
Ghetmor was one of them, the youngest and the brightest, and really well-positioned at
that time. Used to meet weekly with their highest colleagues at Citi, Goldman, Lehman…
Was kind of green at first but the kid was smart and learned fast at the NY fed. He kept
bringing up these annoying little anxieties about risk propagation and leveraging,
securitization failures, the “bubble,” whatever, but we brought him along.. well, maybe
we should have given those things a little more thought… Yeah, we sort of got carried
away, didn‟t we?.. chuckles,.. kind of went too far on debt packaging. Really was an
exciting time, though, wasn‟t it?... Too bad about Tim, really a great guy.. just at the
wrong place at the wrong time… I wonder who the Prez will pick to run Treasury…
Who‟s ABA recommending? This is a critical time in our recovery… Yeah, probably we
can‟t get one of ours in there again, not just now.. What‟s Larry saying? He‟s still with us
isn‟t he?... Oh ya, Larry‟s good. He‟s working on it… What about any of the other guys
on the fed? Are there academics that would work for us??.. besides Stiglitz, that thankless
idiot. [ABA – American Banking Association, one of the most powerful lobbies in
Washington, way up there with big pharma.]
5***
At the Inq, the attack on Ghetmor produced divergent commentary. Even people totally
clear about the origins of the U.S. meltdown and Obama‟s on-going defense of the
perpetrators had a problem with the Hellfire brand. Sure, the Congressional debate was
inadequate and the “democratic process” seriously flawed, still this is no reason to sink to
the level of brutal terrorists, like.. Bush.. or maybe, Obama.. Others said, this is not what
our choice would be, but we can‟t be too judgmental on this; there is some fundamental
accountability lacking here. What does it take to change these guys‟ behavior? The bad
guys have bought the system, made it safe from influence of the people, and have caused
enormous damage – way more than the Taliban could ever dream of. What are the
alternatives for fix things? There still are people in the U.S. Congress who are screaming
for lower taxes and spending cuts at a time when we need huge public spending
initiatives. Just unreal.
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The Ghetmor post-mortem was mixed within the HFLF too. Maybe that was going too
far… It‟s not about justice, it‟s about whether or not the people are moved forward. The
partisans from New York City explained that people seemed to be getting discouraged;
even physical violence against the banker class didn‟t seem to have much effect. Massive
economic failure and before that, organized assault by labor unions had only brought
minimal change in the bosses‟ behavior. (Mahmoud:) Yeah, it‟s like those guys know
they will be taken care of, one way or another. They have their people in charge and just
have to be patient. If we could just turn the majority of law-makers against them, then we
might see some serious changing… (Norm:) The world economy is really in trouble.
Hundreds of millions of people are in desperate shape; measured unemployment here is
going to exceed 15 percent. The banksters have wreaked havoc but a lot of their hired
pols are still on board with them. How do we shake them loose, get to the tipping point?
It‟s amazing that even with fairly open discussion of their crimes, in the media and
legislatures, nothing much changes… Well, maybe the food invasions are a new
beginning, although Obama seems to have nipped that bud pretty fast... (Ben:) I‟ve been
thinking about lists. What if people all over the world starting to publicly compile lists of
local ruling-class enemies. We already have the lists that organizations have produced for
the Inq but I‟m talking about in every community. It could even extend down to the local
level, officials, people that it‟s common knowledge are in cahoots with local power and
money. Things that don‟t get said in public, might start to be mentioned and elaborated. It
could be like the Cultural Revolution in China only much smarter; we‟ve learned a lot
about how to do these things. Jim from Baghdad (back in Baghdad) proposed that
exposing and correcting local abuses of power, whether it‟s zoning boards or sheriff‟s
deputies, or school officials, would be an empowering experience for a lot of people.
Might start to peel off the lower layers of the edifice of private power. (Ari:) Actually, the
store invasions in the U.S. started to do that.. police enforcement was significantly
disabled.
4 Torture Inc.
1***
They ignored the warning signs of empire fight-back (secretly welcoming them) right up
till 9/11 and then, smarting from the sting, they launched the anti-Jihad jihad. Those
terrorists were smarter than we thought. Clearly no brutality was inappropriate in tracking
and annihilating these bad guys and anyone like them, or who could be like them. Where
they were coming from, and why, were not important questions. Who they are so we can
kill them was what‟s important, but first, torture the intel out of them and then throw their
crushed remains on the refuse pile of history.
The lawyers of private greed on assignment in the White House conjured the rules; the
Congressional oversighters, including California‟s Jane Harman, saw only what they
wanted to see. Yes, an insane zealotry run amok was what these Islamic terrorists must
be; otherwise, we‟d have to seek a more material basis for our theories, and that could
lead to unpredictable or adverse explanations.
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Yes, torture them hard because it will work (if they came after me, I‟d talk; so,.. they‟ll
talk). Because, we have to demonstrate that we can pull these weeds without harming the
farm. Because, we can – who‟s going to stop us? It‟s a really well-developed technology,
you know; we have physicians and electronics to manage it.
Jim had seen the torture mentality up close. It actually fit right-in with the standard, racist
military mind-set. When permissive was the word from above, it was a high-caffeine
power kick for the low-lifes. Blackwater thuggery is the inevitable consequence of the
covert murder machines advocated by the Chainys, run by the General McGlasstals or
Navy Seal or Delta Force. God-squads of lethal avengers; training ignorant, self-
righteous, above-the-law, state-sponsored macho-pervert killers who, if they‟re good at it,
move-on to the private sector doing the same things with less oversight and more money.
Make great spouses. When it gets uncovered, like at Abu Graib, you turn on a few of the
bewildered executioners and protect the architects. Perfect.
But does it work??.. some POC people asked, or more importantly, would we want it to
work? Does this resolve conflicts? Do we want them doing this to us? They probably are,
but we don‟t hear about it – it‟s an acceptable cost. During debate in Congress POC
activists injected new energy into the quest for underlying causes, but not all debaters
were persuaded: “..Because we are great and they are fucked, and we intend to keep it
that way.” Speaking of ignorance and collective delusion, the U.S. rightwing crowd was
thinking, what would Dick have said about enhanced interrogation techniques?.. Probably
would stand tall, say: We did the right thing and I would do it all again.. He would say it
right to the TV cameras – no doubts, no regrets. Would put those weak-kneed liberals,
including Obama, in their places.. Too bad they got Dick! He saved untold thousands of
Americans from numerous terrorist assaults because he pried vital information out of
those very bad people.. (but didn‟t listen to his own intel on 9/11).
2***
A Washington University special inter-disciplinary graduate seminar series on coercion

took up torture. The efficacy aspect was less interesting than the behavior of the torturers.
From a variety of sources, it was pretty clear that most of the intel ground out of the
tortured was worthless. But how do the people that do it sink to that level? The research
was there and lots of well-known personal experience seemed to support it: individuals,
in the absence of applied social norms, can get into atrocious behavior rather readily. It‟s
everywhere. Weird parents that lock their kids in closets for years; men that terrorize
their women in the privacy of home; cops and jailors out of public view even without the
help of racism – little subcultures of shared sadistic behavior that surface from time to
time; unsolved murders of the homeless; sexual predators… A shrink from the Medical
School: Of course this behavior has a mental health dimension, there are clearly
predispositions of various origins that come into play. Not only is it a rejection of social
norms, it is a failure of society‟s detection and restorative functions that are responsible
for these consequences… Someone else: I see bullying as the beginning of that
behavior… A graduate student: Sometimes it‟s more subtle. It can arise in employment
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situations, even in universities. There are professors – present company excepted..

smiles.. we‟ve all heard these stories – that treat their graduate students like slaves,
indentured workers with absolutely no rights. They have total power over these
individuals, steal their work, force them to prolong their dissertations for corrupt
purposes, destroy careers and even lives.. Well, I know this isn‟t the same as physical
torture, I‟m just saying it‟s on the way to it. It shows that if people can, some will, do
whatever they want… Then there‟s immigrant workers; they‟re routinely abused, robbed,
injured, sometimes even locked up in employer-owned housing, total denial of rights...
What about slavery?.. it‟s the same kind of abuse and bondage, made a little easier, of
course, by racism… Did you know they still have children slaves in Haiti?... Yeah, like
he said, people do what they can get away with; it shows how important transparency is,
having enforceable rules and accountability that is not solely the responsibility of the
potential victims… This really is about the social basis of ethics, where do personal limits
on behavior come from… Well, obviously, for some people religion is important; for
others social peer pressure works, and then there‟s the law… What happens in other
cultures.. where do ethical standards come from in.. Islam, for example?.. a pause… I
don‟t know the literature on this well, it would actually cover a number of areas, but it‟s
been shown that most ethical systems, whether explicitly tied to some religious dogma or
not, have evolved some sort of equivalent of “the golden rule” - which is an interesting
exchange relation… What‟s that?... Well, it basically says that there are groups of people
that have nearly identical fundamental interests, that individuals in those groups can
easily imagine exchanging their situation or circumstances with anyone else in the group
and be in about the same place. It‟s an empathy response that leads to communalization
of the utility function.. So, you‟d want to have rules that work for everyone – that‟s the
“do unto others..” thing that assures your own treatment... Some psychobabble that made
sense!
Norm Roth had joined the seminar a little late; he was from a natural sciences department
and not known to most of the participants. He was glad the discussion had gone way
beyond “does torture work” and was exploring fundamental issues. (Norm:) Yes, this
idea of common interest is of course the basis for social class, and the political and
economic theory and analyses that have developed since Marx got the ball rolling. It‟s
what solidarity is all about in labor conflicts. What‟s so remarkable about our society,
today, is how far many people have strayed from class consciousness. Lots of people are
waiting for things to get better for them, like it‟s a matter of entitlement, being clever,
their own hard work or good luck rather than a political achievement, winning big
concessions for everyone from the corporations, the “ruling class”. We can see it with
healthcare; although a majority supports a universal, publicly funded – single-payer –
system, there are still millions of upper middle and even middle class people who can‟t
imagine living with that. What‟s so absurd is that most of these folks are one diagnosis
away from medically-induced financial disaster and they don‟t even know it. They don‟t
yet perceive the exchange relation they are welded to.
Why are we so different from other countries?... Theories got tossed around. Rugged
individualism. Protestant work ethic. A young nation created by hard-working and
creative pioneers, unconstrained by ancient rules, obsolete aristocracies and property
275
relations. Free market innovation… Norm waited for the churning to subside and then
made his final contribution.. I think there are two major factors in play. One dates from
slavery; the other is more recent but related. Racism is a powerful, pervasive sickness that
colors all perception and sustains illusion indefinitely. It permits substituting race
prejudice for class prejudice. Poor people, people of lower social class become
reclassified as of a different race that is inferior. It‟s a total fraud, just on the numbers
alone; there are a lot more poor white people than black in this country. But with racism
it‟s natural and unavoidable that those people are poor and pathetic. You don‟t construct
an exchange relation with them because, well, “they‟re different from us.” Out of this
deception grows political and economic disproportionation – the rich get richer and, now,
most people including most white people are getting poorer, but they can‟t see what‟s
happening through the fog. The great advances after World War II, largely the result of
labor unions retrieving (“redistributing”) the wealth, have been reversed. So today we
have this obscene income distribution and total dominance by giant institutions of capital,
but with many people in the middle, educated classes still believing their main problem is
big government, false entitlement, people not taking personal responsibility, or they‟re
waiting for their ship to sail, their dot.com to take off… (A student:) Ya, if ever there was
a good example of taking personal responsibility, it‟s drug traffickers: they have a
business plan, they enforce contracts and they don‟t wait for someone else to help.
What‟s wrong with this picture?
5 The Dredging Continues
1***
Threats against the Inq were continuing but now more subtle. Witnesses were being
threatened and governments were pursuing desperate deal-making. On the other side,
book deals were being signed, TV rights negotiated, and some Hezbollah factions were
inviting labor union observers from all over the world. The other IMF (Int‟l
Metalworkers Federation) sent 25 from Germany, Sweden, France, Turkey and Brazil;
the U.S Steelworkers sent 20 staffers and the new SEIU sent 38 people from the U.S. to
observe and defend the proceedings; 75 labor leaders came from Indonesia, and not just
to observe. At one point, with escalating threats, the Inq leadership openly discussed
whether the Israeli boycott might need to be resumed and expanded to other offenders.
Inq topics had already covered enormous ground but the landscape kept expanding. A
careful look at the Congo totally engrossed the world audience. Starting with the material
of Joseph Conrad‟s Heart of Darkness and Hochschilds‟s King Leopold‟s Ghost, the Inq
narrated the extermination of sustainable African civilizations with millions dying to
enrich a few European bosses salivating over the rubber trade. Then the more recent
crimes were chronicled up through the manipulations of a Belgian mining company,
Union Miniere, in the province of Katanga and the murder of Patrice Lumumba, popular
leader, by U.S. agents or enablers, and finally present-day plunders exploiting tribal
competitions spilling over into Uganda and Rwanda. To illustrate that religious dogma
was not a monopoly of any one brand, the Inq added Barbara Kingsolver‟s The
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Poisonwood Bible to the Congo reading list. So much suffering and destruction so that
tiny gangs of rich pompous thugs could take what they want. People all over the world
were livid, once again. Then on to Madagascar, Angola, Nigeria, Sudan. When will it
stop? When will we stop it? People of all colors and most stations were asking.
2***
The cold war had to be dissected – it kept popping up, whether in Czechoslovakia, Iran,
Cuba, the Belgian Congo or Vietnam. There were lots of players from these various
arenas who welcomed the opportunity to tell their stories. Stories of possibly well-
intentioned operatives from „communist‟ societies hopelessly entangled in dysfunctional
social constellations and unwittingly providing good material for the global capitalists
trafficking in sorrow. These were attempts at justification where otherwise there was
none. The tragedy, one of them, was that the socialist vision of defeating decrepit world
capitalism actually could have worked if they had gotten it right; if they had valued
popular control and public initiative over top-down correct thought and the ludicrous
command economy. Eastern European viewers who earlier had luke-warm interest in the
Inq goings-on, even after the Pootin hit, became more engaged. Together with the melt-
down of the system that was supposed to deliver them to the promised land, these
revelations and insights had deep meaning. A special look at Chechnya was put together
following the sessions on Georgia, Ukraine and other Soviet spin-offs.
Returning to Latin America, testimony was improved by the appearance of Elliot

Abrams, one of the key Reagan fixers from U.S. operations in Central America in the
„70s. He got nabbed at a re-fueling stop in Cape Verde. Abrams was another sarcastic
bitter-ender at the Inq who wasn‟t going home. Other areas of attention that followed
included Kashmir, Japan (in Korea, in China), Armenia, Tibet, Vietnam, South Africa
and Iran. Most of the perpetrators, if still alive, of course never had to face the Inq. Class
allies prevented their extradition. But their record was established and evidence-based. At
one point, there was talk of some prisoner exchanges, and some were accomplished.
When the idea was broached of releasing Kissingher in exchange for Mumia, Mumia
from jail said “no way; keep the creep; get Rove, get (long list).” Mumia got released
anyway, in desperation.
3***
Jim Speller was assigned to work closely with the State Dept when the Inq took off. It
was kind of nice to be back in DC again especially after he met Francine Armitage, an
aide to Hillary. The folks in Foggy Bottom seemed to be taking seriously Jim‟s plan to
subvert the Inq and were working hard at it, researching every angle and generating
complex ploys and travel arrangements. Jim played along offering harmless
enhancements and was passing along occasional tasty morsels to the Plan but the guys in
Beirut seemed to be doing quite well on their own. Jim and Francine were in this
professional dance as earnest protagonists of empire, but cracks were appearing. Jim
didn‟t seem quite as upset as he should be by the daily assaults delivered by the Inq,
sometimes joking irreverently and after two months, Francine let it slip one day that
277
maybe Hillary‟s role in the Honduras coup and aftermath wasn‟t so honorable. Jim held
off for a few days and then offered that maybe it would be good for the Inq to take up
Honduras. They had some back-and-forths over several weeks and were becoming more
comfortable in probing but a problem arose. Jim had arranged for one of his former
academic schills to contribute some valuable observations in testimony before the Inq and
set up a private getogether to go over things. He had to delay a weekly meeting with
Francine in order to do it and she asked who he was meeting with; is it related to the Inq?
Jim didn‟t want to outright lie like he had been trained, but also wasn‟t ready to share
inner secrets with Francine. She was miffed, dissing his spook mentality: Why shouldn‟t
I know who it is? The whole point of our collaboration is to prime these people for
action… Jim stepped closer to the edge: Well, actually, this guy is going to be saying
some things that.. ah.. we‟re not supposed to like… You mean you‟re helping them?
Well, what sort of information?... She wasn‟t meaning to pressure him but was anyway,
trying to understand if this was some protocol thing or a clever backgame like the CIA
does, or something else. She was feeling hurt but not sure why. (Jim:) I‟ve been involved
in some things that I can‟t really talk about.. maybe we can get into it a little more
someday but I‟m not comfortable doing it now… Well, so, they resumed their walk
together. It was a good thing they didn‟t work for the same organization but even so there
was a worrisome increasing mixing of business with pleasure. [Foggy Bottom –
inadvertent and endearing term for U.S. State Department]
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Chapter Eight
The Involution
1 Closing in
1***
The economic slide in the U.S. was continuing and the banksters were winning,
recovering, returning billions so they could do it all again. Mutant mortgage and credit
sharks, and faux-fixers were cruising America, preying once more with new gimmicks.
Cutbacks were everywhere with cascading contractions. Small business credit was
missing and education funding contracting. Just when you‟d think the right would finally
shut-up, they were getting louder and now they had brown-shirts and curious fellow-
travelers disrupting “town meetings” attacking Obama‟s incredible shrinking healthcare
reform. In fact, the black savior was going down. Every opportunity to take a stand, to
affirm his campaign pledges, his vision, he managed to turn into another stunning
disappointment: on torture, rendition to client torturors, cyber-spying on Americans, war
in Asia, climate change, labor rights, and on healthcare, bigtime. Seventy percent of
Repuglicans liked his Afghan policy; 25 percent of Democrats did. Sure, he appointed a
Latina to the Supreme Court and picked a good guy to run OSHA, and for a while he
made America look intelligent and respectable again in world imaging, but on the big-
ticket items he was sinking. Time after time, following an Obama deliberation, he came
out of the fog going down the same track George had been on. Mass actions were
growing and were getting some legs whereas, before, the trucker and railroad events had
splashed big but then grew only in fits and starts. And it wasn‟t just Wal-Mart invasions.
Competing web-swarms with action plans were stalking America.
The intel coming-in to the organs of security was about to trigger escalation to DHS level
4: expanded electronic surveillance; downloading watch-lists to state police
organizations; new and improved internet data-mining. Lawmakers, encountering angry
constituents, were withdrawing to safer venues behind electronic barricades. Some
unions, observing the appearance of ignorant loudmouths disrupting public meetings,
decided it was time to rescue public discourse but it was a complicated calculation. After-
all, when did these public meetings ever really permit full examination of the issues.
Virtually none of the town meetings on healthcare included single-payer as a serious or
worthy option for discussion, just like politicians almost never really discuss the core
fundamentals of labor rights, or empire management or energy. Lots of people were
beginning to see the town meeting phenomenon for what it was: have a showy everyone-
invited meeting, with lots of break-out discussions, lots of big-character magic-marker
wall paper, citizen reports from each talking group, and then the grand synthesis, which
somehow ends up remarkably resembling what the organizers originally wanted. For a
town meeting in Cincinnati on regional transportation planning, the event sponsors (OKI)
actually wrote the report on their public event before it happened! Back in 2006 at one of
the big Congressionally-funded town meetings on healthcare options that were put on in
many cities around the country, using fancy real-time electronic voting, with 1,100
279
attendees, the cyber-staff generating the summary page kind of forgot that single-payer
was the overwhelmingly favored choice, and had to be corrected. Somehow Senator
Baucus, the healthcare reform meister, never got the feedback either, or didn‟t want it.
Some labor activists didn‟t want to simply protect undeserving Democreeps against
angry, confused and misguided mobs even if orchestrated by Repuglican consultants. The
deeper question was: why are these citizens so angry all of a sudden, when they should
have been angry all along? And how do they get it so wrong? What part of overwhelming
corporate power, private manipulation or ruling class, do they not understand?
2***
The HFLF Plan examined this question. (Ben:) Millions of Americans have just had half
their life savings stolen in plain sight by the bankers who are still being rewarded.
Millions are losing their homes and jobs. And aside from what some labor unions have
achieved there is no massive, organized, threatening outrage at the perpetrators. (Ari:)
Ya, “TBBIO” was a good consciousness-raiser, but where‟s the mass action. Some
adventurous Congresspeople are making more noise than the primary victims… (Rachel:)
Maybe it‟s a slow process, takes a while to assimilate. People are bewildered and
confused. Look at the “tea party” aberration. (Norm:) Maybe it‟s such a huge leap –
conceding that there is a ruling class that can and will take what they want, that owns the
lawmakers, the media, the enforcers, and our own minds – that people just can‟t get all
the way there in one bound. But they can start to scream at a handy nearby target. In the
U.S. it used to be anti-war hippies, then welfare moms or gay people and now, some
hapless Congressperson who still thinks the old way is working… (Julie:) Maybe it‟s
denial: the Main Street business guy can‟t admit to being in a totally separate league from
the big guys, and always will be, can never get there, and is getting totally screwed by
those guys… (Mahmoud:) Yeah, and of course, tending to their descent into cynical
abject abandonment of clear thought are the rightwingers who have moved beyond
abortion and gay marriage to confront the foundation of all evil: big government. (Norm:)
People fall for it but they‟ve had plenty of softening up by both parties, which have been
trashing government for years. Besides the Repuglicans, Clinton did it; Gore did it; the
Blue Dogs are doing it, the Bama does it.
The Boston unions came up with some ground rules: 1) public meetings on public policy
arranged by legislators will include consideration of all options, unless a more restricted
agenda has previously been agreed by a valid public meeting; 2) agendas and chairing
will respect majority preferences as determined by some adaptation of Robert‟s Rules,
appropriate for large ad hoc gatherings; 3) comments and questions for event presenters
will be permitted from the floor, not just through sanitized written-card collections; 4)
group decisions will be based on discussion and debate moderated by a neutral chair with
no special privilege granted event presenters; 5) in gatherings obeying these rules,
individuals who disrupt proceedings will be quieted or, failing that, removed. Delegated
union members will work with other event enforcers to accomplish civil public discourse;
6) proceedings will be videoed.
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3***
Around the globe, things were looking better for some people. Israel had been
significantly defanged and was on a bumpy but passable road to the one-state solution.
Coming down off the boycott fright, Israelis were divided and scrappy amid lots of
swirling currents. So when the group discussion of Jewish and Moslem women and men
appeared on the web, there was curiosity from all angles. Bev, Sasha‟s mom, was elegant
and tough, dismissing foolish rationales for the Central Dogma, if not the dogma itself.
She asked brave questions of her Moslem sisters and probed their truths. Jasmine played
opposite her and described what family crisis means in the Palestinian orb and projected
her visions of a better future. She displayed perspective and imagination that threatened
the negativism of most small thinking. Several of Bev‟s friends and other recruits started
out quietly observing but found themselves drawn into the collective epiphany: why
shouldn‟t this work? They felt safe, finally, being angry with the situation that their
prominent, mostly men had served up over the past half-century. The Moslem women
were further challenged on the roles they live and were asked how might Islam become a
force for progress, sort of like reform Judaism is.. or was.. sometimes. After two hours,
the participants coalesced on a plan to expand this dialog. Bring in other elements, more
men, youth, working people, business people. Get the conversation going in the
mainstream media. They became part of the one-state solution.
An Islamic reform movement had congealed in Beirut and was catching fire all across
Islamia. Arab governments were trying to squelch it, pulling out the old Islam cards, but
were just making it more appealing. Western governments tried to steer it toward the
market consensus but the reformers were smarter. In Iran a dump Ahmandinejad
movement was growing and his motorbiker Republican Guards were getting beat up and
blown up after beating up, raping and murdering complainers of election-fraud.
Rathsenjhani, a Moslem-type billionaire tycoon, was preparing for what would be a
Robespierre encore, a short-lived flash clearing the way only to be, soon after, cleared
away himself by a healthy three-way fight: rural vs. urban-union vs. free-trade globalists.
Shiite Moslem modernists were mediating and improvising with consulting exemplars
from Indonesia and India, the world‟s largest and in some ways most advanced Moslem
societies. The Iranian nuclear bomb got put on hold because they found a better way to
fight the capitalist infidels,.. and Israel had gone away.
China, after getting over the novelty of the western meltdown, moved on. They put
together a trillion-dollar stimulus program in weeks, got the funds flowing almost
overnight, massively expanded lending for infrastructure and green investment, even
started to clean-up filthy industry. They scored an 8.9% annual growth rate, and
discovered that Chinese workers were fully capable of spending more money, when they
had more money to spend. In Poland, small-car production was taking off. The European
economies were recovering and some were even fixing their regulations.
4***
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The White House called a top level strategy meeting on healthcare. Pilati, Bidden and
Read were there plus the Democreeps drafting various worthless bills including the major
Senator Max Blockus Baucus. They did the usual dance: We don‟t have the votes, they‟re
hurting us on the government control thing, the projected costs, what can we do? Where
to cut and space, which compromise does us the least harm with the people? After 40
minutes, Connectingrod was getting really flustered. Finally:.. Well, if you‟re talking
about looking good to the American people, the majority already supports universal,
publicly funded healthcare – “Medicare for all.” There‟s a groundswell of support for
single-payer out in the unions. Mr. President, you yourself said single-payer would be the
ideal way to go… (Blockus:) Oh, come-on, get real, we‟re not going there. We have
commitments, we have.. relationships.. you don‟t just go off and invent some whole new
game, where the fuck have you been?... Connectingrod: where have you been? Where‟s
your buddy Crassley? (Blockus:) What‟s that supposed to mean!!??... You know what it /
Hold it guys, let‟s try to stay focused here. We have to figure what we can get, if
anything at all, that‟s a net plus. Time is running out; we have to craft a plan that will
work for us in the long run, forcing some concessions from but keeping all the players on
board... And so, they stayed the course.. but some were squirming.
5***
Meanwhile, the organized slime of U.S. capitalist reaction in the form of the Repuglican
National Committee was going for the kill. It looked like Obama was toast; it was just a
matter of staying their course. Racism was still working. All they had to do was deep-six
healthcare reform and that would put an end to the stinking liberal advance. What a
relief!.. After the Bush blow-out, who would have thought the Neanderthals could make
such a come-back? But not so fast, they weren‟t the only ones with a plan.
All across America there were labor leaders conferring with their constituencies and each
other, wrestling with new ideas. It wasn‟t just the Boston, LA, or Philadelphia maverick
labor councils, or those outliers in Dallas or Seattle or Cleveland. Instead of hanging-on
to Democratic coat-tails, they were letting go and exploring alliances with the scorned
NAACP and abused ACORN, with environmental activists, with community
organizations helping people survive, with dissident candidates until recently mostly
invisible or mute, with lots of people angry for the right reasons. The POC was
networking local organizations into an unstoppable avalanche-in-waiting. These
developments had been encouraged by continuing public revelations, and by Civics 301,
the Inquisition broadcasts from Beirut which millions were watching. But not every labor
council was breaking free. In Cincinnati, coat-tail hanging was alive and well. Their
famous annual Labor Day Picnic, traditionally stage-managed for minimum conceivable
progress, was targeted by the Democreeps for a safe Obama appearance. Booths that
promoted workers‟ causes or union brands were this time going to be off-limits for
single-payer advocates. Not wanting to embarrass the Bama, they said “we can‟t give the
right-wing an edge, let them attack us as socialists or big gov.” Good choice, that
Cincinnati.
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Richard Trumpca the former second-in-command at the AFL-CIO was watching and
getting his ducks in a row. For years he talked big ideas but was never able to make much
happen from inside the immobilized organization; now things were different. Time to
reach for the sky. Although jobs were the most immediate concern, healthcare looked like
the public lynchpin for getting things moving. The Bama was back-sliding, even on the
public option. The Congressional Budget Office had politely pointed out the obvious, that
keeping insurance companies in the saddle would soon make the system unfundable (they
didn‟t use those words). State governors and unions said “no thanks” to getting stiffed
with the over-runs. A national strategy meeting was proposed by the single-payer crowd
to take place in Milwaukee, and it kept growing in numbers, in days and in scope.
Trumpca was right there with them along with 250 union officials from 35 states. Thirty-
nine POC members of Congress showed up. In no time a superb demand on healthcare
was crafted and packaged for President Obama and that was just the first page.
Foreclosures, jobs, war and fair trade got added real fast. The POC hearings and others
had said it all. It was just cut-and paste.
Talk turned to the Bama. Who is the real Barack Obama anyway? Is he a good guy
making the best of bad situation in the corridors of power, hamstrung by entrenched big
money on both sides of the aisle? Is he a smart, proud, articulate African American who
made it all the way to the top and is now content to play the game by ruling-class rules?
Was he ever a class-conscious advocate for class justice? Was he ever more than a
Harvard-law trained dilettante in social reform? Opinions were bolstered by anecdote and
text search but the answer wasn‟t entirely compelling. Probably something like: smart,
well-informed, trying to achieve an historic progressive transformation within a system
where complex relationships have to be nurtured, nudged and, as a last resort, maybe
gently coerced. The masses‟ unrealistic expectations have to be balanced with the
accustomed privileges of inherited wealth and acquired power. The continuing assault of
the media, a primary instrument of class control, has to be constantly monitored and
assuaged. Lobbyists have to be listened to.
The coalition of the angry moved on. Whatever he is, here is what he has to do.
Someone asked: So, do we keep this plan a secret until the press conference? When do
we communicate with our membership?... This was one of the game-changing issues. The
traditional labor approach would have been: a) request a meeting with the Democratic
leadership, b) politely argue their concerns far from the light of day, and c) then go home
reporting to select exec boards that hope is on the way and get out the vote (“GOTV!!”).
One of the more aggressive community activist-leaders raised her hand: If this whole
thing is going to work at all, we have to have the people totally involved. We should send
out the demands to our entire constituency immediately; we should plaster them
everywhere with explanations why…Union guys from Boston, remembering their Zinn
tutorial, were nodding in agreement and rose in support of the notion… We should state
our key objectives: to force the President onto a different track and send him flying
forward into the future.. into history… Ya, and we‟ll need to be able to document and
support all the revelations and class insults that must inevitably appear… This has to be a
huge media event with bigger-than-life expectations that turn out to be low-balls,
understatements of what‟s coming. The White House should read about this first in the
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papers, in our e-mails, or maybe they‟re listening-in right now (Hi, Leon!!)… Yeah, and
we really need to tap into the dumb anger thing on the right, and take it to a whole new
level, identifying the real perps and disarming them.
[Leon Panetta, Director of Intelligence, CIA]
2. The Showdown
1***
For the Bama it was to be real simple: if you ever want to get re-elected or have another
Democratic majority, anywhere, here‟s what you‟re going to do. The Dems‟ free ride on
labor is over. The lesser-evil disease that has afflicted generations of people and
organizations fighting for progress is about to be eradicated from most metropolitan
areas. If we‟re going to end up with another Repuglican plague, because you guys can‟t
fight for us, we‟re going to make you pay, individually, really big.
An audience at the White House was granted as soon as the steering committee of the
peoples‟ angry coalition explained that they were arranging a press conference for
Wednesday morning on the steps of the Capitol. It would include national leadership
representing more than 1,200 organizations across America. Would the President and his
staff like to know what is coming? After introductions, the thirteen representatives who
came to meet the President thanked him for the opportunity and quickly laid out their
demands, and then let the king-of-smooth go on for about 49 seconds before someone
interrupted... Excuse us Mr. President, we really appreciate your hearing from us today –
we know you have a busy schedule – but we didn‟t come here to respectfully request,
negotiate, or discuss, or tap your intellect; we came here to tell you what you‟re going to
have to do... No one could remember agents of the working class ever telling a President
what he had to do (they‟ve all been he‟s). The banksters and big pharma did it all the
time, of course, but were a lot more polite and nuanced when they presented their
prescriptions. Never crass threats, mentioning careers or personal goals. They didn‟t need
to; the money did it for them. This time the peoples‟ advocates laid out their conditions in
machine-gun-like bullet points with an accompanying, easy-to-read 15-page paper that
was already public:
Universal, publicly funded (single-payer) healthcare

Stop all forceclosures; claw back or compensate for lost homes of the non-rich
Big bank nationalization, finance regulations
Energy conservation, green reconstruction, and mass transit; going carbon-free
Labor law for workers‟ rights
Fair trade
End empire now
A cyber bill of rights
In case he didn‟t get it, they bared their game … We are going to publicly denounce your
administration as a fraud, as at best a naive and willing tool of the rich, the ruling class,
the bankers, insurance companies, big pharma, agribiz,.. the billionaires‟ club.., the
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people who are scamming America. Your administration is totally impotent against the
forces of big money. We are going to announce that our labor movement, civil rights
organizations and community activists all over America will no longer be the engine that
automatically puts Democrats in office. (They almost said: At the rate you‟re going, we
probably couldn‟t do it anyway). We are going to document on prime-time the betrayal
by the Democratic Party and your administration that has appeared at every turn. We are
going to say things that are almost never said, things that will damage most of your
friends in high places, hopefully put a lot of lobbyists out of business, things that at least
temporarily will silence and befuddle the right-wing citizen-idiots that have been
attacking you.. things you should be saying… Then they threw out one negotiable: We
are giving you four days to make-over your entire political persona. We know you can do
it. We know you might have once wanted to do it. And now we are going to make you
want to do it. You might have to re-educate or replace a lot of your staff. Put Bidden
strictly on funerals and green-building dedications. (They wanted to say: “Tell Rahm to
shut- up,” but didn‟t.) You might want to draw up lists of who you think will still be your
friends. This is an offer to save your place in history, and salvage America. If you do this
we will join a press conference announcing the new deal, igniting a national rising, but
we need commitments. Contracts. Colateral. Credible demonstrations of intent. You
better come out swinging or we will walk, for the last time. Due diligence won‟t be
enough… Discussion followed, but just enough to convince the Bama that these people
have their act together, can‟t be sidelined, are seriously dangerous and are absolutely
clear on their goals. They had fighting forces on alert that could be for, or against, Him.
2***
The DNC was on the phone immediately. Nancy Pilati was on her way over, her buddy
Harry Read was turning his plane around, and Bidden was in hiding, working three
phones. Rahm Emanuel was lurking; Larry Winters was already on the French Riviera;
Gary Locked (Commerce Secretary) was making pleading calls to CEOs, and CIA‟s
Panetta was collecting intel on foreign healthcare subversives. The Blue Dogs were
sniffing and growling, curling their lips and nervously pissing on the statuary, but
stepping backwards. The right-wingers were scared; this wasn‟t whimpy liberalism, this
was organized sedition, radical tectonics that couldn‟t be distracted or derailed by the
usual Repuglican trashy mouth. Just last week they thought they had it sewed up with the
Bama on his knees, bleeding. Now, everyone knew something big and bad had happened
but didn‟t know exactly what. It was worse than the Cuban missile crisis. Al Frankem,
finally Senator, when cornered by Fox News, replied “what‟s wrong guys, you think
maybe you screwed up again? How many times do you expect you can swindle America
in one decade and get away with it?” For months Al had been careful, reading a lot, doing
his senate committee homework and listening. And collecting bandwidth. A senatorial
Madame Defarge with electronic knitting needles. Now he was ready. He started getting
personal with the corporate scum-bags with whom he shared the Senate and their
associates, including numerous Dems. It wasn‟t at all pretty but it was pretty funny.
People got into it and wanted more and started checking the late-night shows to see if he
was there. Show ratings were rising just on futures speculation. After a few assaults on
Frankem turned out badly, the scum were scurrying and trying to hide. Here was a guy
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who could sling it right back without lying and the words were smarting, slashing and
burning. Took down Ohio‟s slick pimp Boehner like he was a drunk Dan Quayle.
Skewered a whole room-full of Southern gentlemen like they were cardboard cut-outs or
sleezy pedophiles. When the gloves come off, it‟s so easy to cream these creeps without
even yelling if you‟re not trying to preserve some phony game, “relationships.”
The lobbyist communities were working overtime and not even charging hours. They had
to get a handle on this thing fast but it kept slipping away. They didn‟t know what offers
to make, what threats to try, checks to write. Networking wasn‟t working. High-level
corporate strategists were in private conferences and not reachable. The banksters
initially figured it was just a mistake but, when calls didn‟t get returned or questions
promptly answered, or answered three different ways, they started to piece together an
alternate reality and got real somber… What if they‟re really on to us this time? What if
they go after our game? What would it take to stop this?... The New York committee on
the present danger called a special meeting. Citibank Rubane, looking rather gaunt,
pretended to know what was happening but couldn‟t explain why channels seemed to be
closing down, or why we should expect that the regulations being crafted in other
countries won‟t spread here... The usual nay-sayers among them who had been quieted by
the remarkable survival skills of the banksters started to wake-up and offer unfriendly
opinions again. Some had clever proposals that were listened to carefully but they all
seemed too late... Might have worked three months ago… ABC‟s George Steppindopolis
commenting on the chaos within the Democratic Party sounded like a horse-race
announcer but he wasn‟t clear where the horses were going or how to tell who‟s winning.
It was especially challenging because some horses were changing colors, even riders!,
right in front of your eyes, and some were turning around, or drifting off into the oval,
trampling the tail-gate parties, stepping in coolers.
3***
The angry coalition had started some small boulders tumbling into the ravine but couldn‟t
tell if the gathering tumult would become a full-scale Grand Canyon landslide, changing
the course of the Colorado River. Most were skeptical: He‟ll never do it.. The Bama had
smiled back at them with his usual strong conviction and nice teeth but there were hints
of regret and uncertainty; his eyes were darting amid unexplored options… He‟s way too
engaged with the rulers to make such a huge break; you don‟t just walk away from these
people; they have.. money.. means, ways to force your hand… But, his whole agenda is
coming apart, what does he have to lose? It‟s either do something really dramatic or he
becomes another Colin-Powell nobody, jerked around by the ruling crackers. A huge
missed opportunity.
(Hillary:) Well,.. I‟ve never seen anything like this before. It‟s totally bizarre, really, what
do they expect us to do.. smiling, looking for smiles and finding none.. Mr. President..
laughing.. you don‟t think.. we can go along with this?.. do you??... (Leon:) We better be
really careful, the missile guys could decide to go to the top… (DHS boss Janet
Napoleon:) I‟ll ramp up the DC surveillance triggers... (Obama:) I don‟t think so, they‟re
smarter than that. You know, they know we‟re in a jam,.. they‟re playing us. Things are
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happening the way they want, they won‟t risk messing it up. Besides, they‟re not the
problem, the people are. They think we can be forced to do things,.. ah, differently.. .. I
mean,.. do we want to preside over endless decline, advancing defeat?.. Well,.. I need to
give all of this some considerable thought,.. looking grim. Thank you very much.. Let‟s,
ah,.. convene again in the morning. Dave and Rahm, would you.. ah.. join me after lunch
in my office?
4***
Obama‟s first challenge was finding quiet time to re-invent his reality. Michelle and the
kids were put on short rations. His smoking habit got worse. His second challenge was
realigning his closest staff. Some of them were already there, actually got there first, but
others had been badly damaged by the Great Accommodation and were having trouble
climbing up out of the latrine, kept sliding back, kerplop. His biggest challenge though,
was the decision whether or not to make a clean break with Them. Of course there was
the physical danger, but worse were the possible consequences of mis-calculation. These
were problems he had not previously addressed. It would be a race to recapture the minds
and hearts of the working class before They contaminated everything with a new layer of
slime. Large swaths of the people had been so badly treated for so long they may be
incapable of rallying to their own cause. The Bama imagined which actors on the
national stage and in communities could join the breakaway; which leading citizens in the
liberal camp would be on the right side when the going got rough, including which labor
leaders. He was thinking back to organizing strategies for changing policies of
community leaders, or going around them. Pushing him forward was the very convincing
activist and citizen rebellion growing out on the streets capable of obliterating his career,
but pulling him as well was a glimmer of spectacular transformation, an unprecedented
and glorious leap forward. A place to be loved for all history. He had almost totally
forgotten about such a place. Michelle pulled out all the stops in her repertoire – act like
it‟s his decision but make sure the motherfucker does the right thing!
The confusion and desperation of the bankers and lobbyists was matched by upheavals
churning within the Obama Administration. Cabinet meetings were getting smaller
because the Bama was triaging. Two Cabinet members were fired and barred from their
offices with agreement that the actions would not be public for another week and they
were strongly discouraged from talking to the media. Late nights turned into all-nights.
Bob Grates and Generals Jones, Mullen and McGlasstal were replaced by unknowns;
demoted to operations logistics. Holbroke was pulled from the Afghan theatre and named
Ambassador to Cuba with orders to apply his pouty face to immediately ending the
blockade with the condition that civil liberties in Cuba have to be at least as good as in
Honduras or Colombia or Iraq, a pretty low bar. Thirteen other ambassadors were
recalled and thanked for their services; twenty-nine were given the introduction to
chapter one of a whole new game-plan still being written.
5***
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Normally the Bama spoke in public from a playbook in which lots of the well-organized
information and concepts were off-limits. Now the envelope was shifting. This required
new word-smithing and revised cadence-control. He called up leaders in the angry-
coalition and others he knew were on the same page for phone conferencing marathons
where he reformulated in real-time but also gained consensus on emphasis or direction,
on priorities in revelation.. on strategy for dealing with a numb populace in varying states
of denial or psychotic separation. He called up PNHP and they sent in 15 operatives on
real healthcare reform (including some of those doctors arrested in Senator Blockus‟ fake
hearings) to help with the new messaging and in finding articulate supporters of single-
payer all across America. The Bama said it‟s gotta be a Harry-and-Louise revenge on
steroids: The insurance execs are gonna need medication. The big pharma execs are
gonna need AIG investor insurance.. He told Baucus to get lost-us. Barney Frank and
Sheila Bair and Tim Ghetmor‟s replacement got detailed to finally fix the mortgage
problem once and for all, including significant retroactive elements. Law professors and
students were flying-in from all over the country to help write the rules. The bankers
would have two seats at the table (out of 17) and it wouldn‟t be Goldman or Citi and one
would be a community bank.
Instead of just pulling the plug in Afghanistan, the Bama called in people to design a
world summit on economic and political conflicts involving Moslem countries and the
Islamic diaspora, a meeting that few governments or leaders (including Taliban and al
Qaeda) could afford to miss. The United States would play a role among equals, but with
sustainable development, fair trade, worker rights and muzzling corporations among the
announced goals. Countries that couldn‟t commit to those goals would do so at their own
financial peril. The Inquisition had done some good advance facilitation on that one.
Hillary shrugged and promised to help, but said she wasn‟t sure how. From Beirut
Madeline Alblight piped up: “I can help” but the Inq wasn‟t easily persuaded, not yet:
Give us your proposed policy portfolio Dr. Alblight,.. they said,.. and we‟ll see if there‟s
a place for you.
Word was spreading out through thousands of networks of tireless optimists demanding
the right thing: the right thing might actually be happening; get ready. The POC fired up
its cyber engine with e-mail, website real-time news and seventy-nine hundred home-
meetings. The Bama‟s own home meeting network was also tooling up but still a little
confused. The low level right-wing bloggers and slime-ers were excited, pretending to
spoil for a fight but there was deepening anxiety. This looked different; they could sort of
tell from the frowns of their mentors and heroes; this was uncharted and might be
hazardous. To some it was terrifying: it looked like the liberals had finally discovered
wedge issues but based in material reality, not on sexual repression or racial folly, or
both. (Karl Rove:) This really could be fatal.
6***
Now, for a change, the Bama was faced with the challenge of communicating the right
messages. In some ways it would be much easier – no complex lies to juggle and spin,
bogus theories to promote – but harder, because old habits die hard. Fifteen years of
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centrist scam mongering and schmoozing with the enemy aren‟t easily reversed, not to
mention severing ties to the hands that feed. Worst of all, the Bama had to unlearn the
compromise, retreat thing: backing off and waffling when the bad guys say mean things.
This took real concentration. Connectingrod set up role-playing sessions again but now
with a different goal: disable and dismember, not turn the other cheek and lie down to
die. Seize their hooks and turn them around with quick insightful jabs and revealing
anecdotes much more interesting than their stupid myths and scare-bots. And the Bama
only had two days to get the launch together. Connectingrod and the others quickly
figured out this national apocalypse was going to take more than one day and the first day
better be astonishing. They didn‟t have to think long about who to nail first. Yep, the
healthcare mafia. A bare knuckle indictment showing exactly what these guys do – their
lucrative business plan of care denial – and how it screws most of America, with sidebars
on all the hot button issues: “big government,” “socialized medicine,” “competition,” cost
controls, choice, “death panels,” small businesses, what other countries do. And lots of
dirty laundry (bloody and contagious) of Repuglicans, Joe Sliezerman, Blue Dogs and
quite a few other of Dem dogs.
(The Bama:) Yes, there will be death panels; here‟s how it could work… The right almost
stopped breathing with excitement… Not like insurance companies, deciding who get‟s
what, if anything, or whether they had a pre-existing reason to die; playing along with
exorbitant prices when it suits their goals, and happy to keep comatose people alive
forever, as long as they‟re paid-up, and future premium increases will cover any
eventuality. In our universal health plan of the future, everyone who wants-in will be
required to have on electronic file an end-of-life plan, what is to be done when they are
no longer able to make decisions for themselves and their chosen medical provider
declares that they are approaching death with no possibility of improvement. The plan
can be anything you want. It could say, “I want heroic measures to keep my body alive
even if it costs a million dollars and I am never going to regain consciousness.” It will be
a confidential statement that only your chosen provider can access at any time. Or it
could say, “when my provider decides that my life is ending and I am not able to decide
for myself, I instruct my provider to take those measures that will keep me as comfortable
as possible but not to make a substantial effort to prolong my life.” This statement will be
changeable anytime you want. You can discuss it with whomever you choose, family,
spouse, children, whatever. Most people, when they have had a frank discussion with
those they care about, will not choose the million dollar option. In fact, the million dollar
option can come with some serious downsides. Living for weeks or months with tubes
stuck in everywhere, wires connected to obnoxious machines, relentless pain attacked by
mind-obliterating drugs. Unable to move. An honest discussion of these issues sweeps
away a lot of personal anxiety, sometimes guilt, which rarely make for good decisions for
anyone, the person dying or their survivors. OK, so where‟s the death panel?... The right
was confused: This is a TRICK! This guy is unbelievably treacherous!... Well, sometimes,
there will be ambiguities, differences of opinion. A family member may not trust the
judgment of the chosen provider. Maybe the dying person could recover. Maybe the
diagnosis was wrong; maybe better healthcare could produce a better result. That person
could challenge the decision to invoke the dying person‟s end-of-life plan. One way, for
example, is that the hospital or clinic would have an independent panel of physicians and
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other providers, including social workers, religious representatives, who in these

situations would review the entire case. They could seek outside second opinions, they
could over-rule the provider. If the family member is still not satisfied with the resulting
decision, they could appeal to a higher level death panel not administered by the
institution delivering the end-of-life care. If even after that appeal, the person is not
satisfied, they could petition to stay the end-of-life plan in federal court with the
presumption that the end-of-life plan is not to be enforced unless the provider can prove
in court beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the patient will never improve or regain
consciousness without debilitating pain. Furthermore, the medical authorities can, at any
time, withdraw their intention to follow the patient‟s plan also subject, of course, to legal
challenge – someone else may take up the patient‟s cause. So if some family member
really wanted to impose the million dollar solution on their “loved one” against their
stated wishes, they could probably wear down the doctors to the point that they would
abandon their duty to the patient. Would that make you happy?.. I hope not. But those are
my death panels. An enormous amount of the money we spend on healthcare goes to end-
of-life care that would probably be rejected if the dying person‟s wishes were honored…
The right shot back: SEE!! He is going to force people to sign the plans to kill them!...
But virtually nobody bought it. It was the Schiavo scam all over again but the fear-
mongers had again run out of gas. [Schiavo – a famous case where the husband of a
woman who had been brain-dead and comatose for several years sought legal authority to
end her life-support, and the GOP creeps (big government) butted-in, but lost in court.
Hillary, running to catch up, climbed right on board with the GOP on that one.]
7***
It was bridges-burning time for the Obama crowd and, for some, excited anticipation was
building. Al Frankem was ecstatic imagining what right-wingers would say in their
pathetic “equal time” rebuttals, sharpening his favorite knives and booking air-time.
When talk shows couldn‟t find Repuglicans or wannabe Democreeps to go up against
him, Al started standing-in for them and then replying. Las Vegas was calling up asking
what his fees are. Fortunately there were a few other articulate and angry Dems and many
others waiting in the wings and screwing up their courage to go into attack mode. And
just enough right-wing-nuts still ranting a continuous stream of really good material.
The plan was to start with healthcare, move right into empire disengagement on the
second day with a focus on fair trade and global labor rights, and then on day three, take
the banksters down. The days of the enormous financial parasites freely sucking on
America are over. For days four and five, one of the inner circle suggested two days of
rest to let the new deal percolate and give the ground forces time to get mobilized all over
America, and then pick up on day six of the roll-out with the mortgage fix, and the green
revolution (energy conservation, climate change) on day seven.
3. The Ten Commandments Again
1***
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It started out like it was just another speech, the Bama switching back and forth between
teleprompter mirrors. As he got into it though, the content took over and people didn‟t
even notice he was looking straight at them. He didn‟t have to read much. The prompter
techies were having strokes, mopping brows and popping pills… I have tried hard to win
consensus on issue after issue. I sought out lawmakers with backward views or corrupted
careers (giving examples by name, dollar amounts, legislative rewards and sponsors from
the public record), trying to find a way to move forward. The policy machine was
paralyzed everywhere.. by outside supersized pay-offs. Their lobbyists with laptops and
check-books were everywhere. Congressional committees were compromised from the
gitgo. I saw the slide but didn‟t know how to fight it, trusting that those responsible for
shameless, endless theft would at some point come to their senses, when they got enough,
but they never did. They didn‟t have to. Life was good.. It just got worse… At times, the
Bama revealed, he even lost sight of truth so relentless were the forces of class evil and
so easy the paths and rewards of accommodation and compromise. More very specific
and graphic examples… Then the people awoke… The Bama described the intense
debates that had been welling up and finally erupted in that White House meeting five
days ago, the pent-up outrage and innovation and vision inspired by.., well, the people,
lots and lots of people, not just a few loud-mouths at town meetings. How the engines of
raw power had surged into play to disable this threat.. but were being met with popular
wrath and determination. He named names, quoted key players verbatim, and ridiculed
the pretensions of the ruling elites, the arrogance of lobbyists, still quoting.
The guy was totally out of control. The ruling class was watching in awestruck disbelief
which, try as they might, they could not suspend… Hey, so we were greedy. Let‟s talk...
Too late. Dark thoughts crossed their pragmatic minds but it wouldn‟t work. The people‟s
avalanche was already in motion and these weren‟t dummies… We have to reconnect
with this guy; we played him too hard, missed the cues. Must be a race thing. Let‟s talk…
Initially Emanuel said: Sorry, no appointments at this time, but you can approach the
working committees.. if you have constructive ideas?... Some rulers were thinking: We
better keep a watch on some of the crazies we‟ve created, they might do something really
stupid and make things worse. But lesser rulers were wondering, hmm, is it time for mass
civil unrest after-all, total chaos, martial law, maybe race war?.. Back in Cincinnati, Joe
Teeters, under indictment, was feeling the old urges again.. and not from the little blue
pill.
Barack talked about joblessness. He had seen it before up close in Chicago. Now he was
seeing the regional, national and global numbers and the reality hiding behind them. He
talked about the millions of Americans who used to work two jobs back when things
were “good,” just to get by without health insurance and driving a clunker. He talked
about the minimum wage concept and living wage, explaining that as long as companies
could get dirt-cheap labor, they didn‟t have to design good jobs. He talked about so-
called “free” world trade and the colossal assault that it represented on workers in both
the advanced and developing countries, all to the enormous benefit of finance capital,
corporations and their local collaborating profiteers in poor countries. Lots of great
examples of plants going to China or El Salvador or Hungary or Bangladesh, or
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abdicating their product positions with the added benefit of shoddy merchandise,
degradation of standards and absent accountability in America: Wal-Mart and Home
Depot madness.
He talked about the jobless recovery with US un-/under-employment running at 22%.

About all those people jettisoned by the banksters‟ global economy who think they are
alone, inadequate, or at fault, and who have no options. The devastated families with kids
trying to understand their parents' nightmare in the midst of obvious excess, and not just
black families either, or poor whites, who had known this for generations.
He talked about small business, a major victim of the banking crisis. He reported how
many thousands had failed in the past year, or were on the brink. How normal operating
credit had dried up and was still missing even as the banksters were paying themselves
new rewards for avarice. The Bama explained what other countries have done in these
kinds of situations. While on the subject, he explained how the new universal healthcare
proposal was going to change their lives. Lift a huge burden so they could focus on their
core business. Save them money if they were already providing coverage, save their
employees if they weren‟t.
2***
After Obama‟s over-the-top presentation on the evening of Day One, the New York
committee executed an emergency conference call and decided to fly about 40 of their
friends to D.C. for a morning meeting with the President. They scrambled three corporate
jets out of New York, one from Chicago and one from LA. Rubane called Obama at
11:45 pm and respectfully suggested 10 AM in the White House Blue Room (big enough
for up to 100). Emanuel was up late making the arrangements; this was gonna be
interesting.
CitiGroup‟s Robert Rubane was there. Murdoch was there; 28 other CEOs from
Goldman, ExxonMobile, Wal-Mart, JPMorgan Chase, Verizon, Metlife,
GlaxoSmithKline, Wells Fargo, Boeing, LockheedMartin, DuPont, GE, P&G, HP, IBM,
ATT and assorted other representative corporations. The Goo guy was there. The pop-up
replacement for Bill Gates was there. Warren Buffet was there and the Intel guy was
there. Apple didn‟t make the cut. In their haste, the good old boys hadn‟t managed to
invite a single woman colleague; at the last minute, someone called-up that Xerox lady
(African-American CEO) but she was traveling in China. Hillary Clinton and Nancy
Pilati were there. The AG was there and non-partisans John Boehner and Mitch
McConnell, still smarting from Al Frankem, were there, plus assorted staff. They started
out calmly but very serious, describing what they saw as a grave and threatening
situation, a rapidly deteriorating America. They pointed to the degradation of public
institutions, violations of property and civility, privacy, fundamental freedoms. They
were escalating with gentle, deliberate threats, using words like “irreparable harm,”
“irreversible changes,” “irresponsible public acts that threaten the foundations of the
American system” when the Bama finally laughed out loud,… you guys have gotta be
kidding. Where should I start? Talk about calling the kettle black! Well, it is. Get used to
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it. You have poisoned public discourse on healthcare, immigration, workers‟ rights, fair
trade, terror threats, just about every issue of consequence, and infected the entire
population way worse than H1N1 or even what H1N5 (bird flu) could ever do. You
supported the assault on Iraq, sat there and watched while he trashed the Constitution,
participated in the greatest ponzi scheme the world has ever known (and I‟m not talking
about Madoff), and have collectively put this country in a rut of unacceptable,
unsustainable and unfixable healthcare that is a world-class embarrassment. And a lot of
our people think they have it good!!.. You‟ve bought and cultivated every right-wing
agent of plunder or no-change you can find, including most of the Democratic Party, and
even me, and now you come here and talk to me about being irresponsible? Hey guys, this
conversation is happening a little too late. About 16 yrs too late. This isn‟t gonna be your
year after-all. By the way, don‟t expect private conversations here; this is a public
meeting; the people will be hearing your words…
Tactical corrections were quickly deployed. Some rulers tried to dissociate themselves
from their class norms on issues the Bama had raised but still were laboring hard to turn
the fire hose back on the President when Warren Buffet cut them off. Came right out and
said “you, gentlemen, have made this bed; if I were you I would stop complaining and
start acting like you want to help fix things”.. He looked straight at Goldman Sachs,
Rupert and Wal-Mart.. Absolutely everything is fixable. Stop raiding the pantry and
holding the kitchen staff hostage. If you can‟t be constructive, at least get the hell out of
the way”… Warren was actually angry, talking very loud, which no one had ever seen
before. Carried a lot of cachet. It was beautiful… (Obama: ) Warren,.. I.. ah.. really
appreciate that; ..I‟ve always.. valued your perspectives and insight,.. and not just on
stock picks,.. grinning; serious again: Always wished your colleagues did too. You know,
people like you.. are about the only reason I can still.. ah.. defend this whole system.. and
I hope.. I hope you can.. ah.. talk some sense into this crowd. But not here. Start with Mr.
Murdoch.. talk about irresponsible, Jesus,.. shaking his head,.. don‟t get me started..
Looking right at him,.. Rupert, I have some interesting communications about to come
out of FCC; I hope you like them. Looking across the room, you too, Mr. Unmelt
(General Electric). They‟re going to change your life. Folks, have some pizza and beer,
and, Good Afternoon… Then he invited the press in to watch the ruling class eat.
3***
The FCC sent out an advisory to all media. Any programming on the topics in play in the
President‟s deliveries to the nation that does not provide fully balanced advocacy on the
issues will be interpreted as a violation of the FCC “equal time” licensing regs. And
“equal time” after a Presidential address doesn‟t simply mean inviting a Repuglican
rejoinder. It means balance of content across the whole spectrum. A marketplace of ideas,
of all things! The FCC invited listeners, readers and viewers to document violations, and
set up a hot-line for calls and e-mail complaints. Some radio stations didn‟t know what
single-payer is, thought it was insurance for single-parents or welfare moms. Others
thought “fair trade” was about flea markets or maybe e-Bay.. All broadcasters and print
media were required to archive citizen requests for appearances, op-eds, commentaries,
rejoinders, and letters-to-the-editor, for public on-line review. Some local TV stations
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tried refusing to run the Bama‟s addresses. Others ran only Repuglican rejoinders. But
they quickly learned that free speech for Presidents was still in vogue, either from their
corporate bosses fearing license non-renewal (damn that big government) or from their
viewers. Equal time for the Bama‟s addresses meant that several hours of riveting
disclosure and vision could be matched by Repuglican catch-up, but others had to be
invited too. Initially, the rejoinders from the right got so bad that people just switched to
other channels or back to old DVDs for those parts, or took a walk. Advertisers insisted
on the Bama segments, not Mitch McConnell, John McCane, Mitt Romney, Olympia
Snowe, David Brooks or Elizabeth Dole, or for that matter George Steppindopolis,
although, an argument could be made that ads might compete favorably with the content
in those segments. [FCC – Federal Communications Commission, regulator of mass
media]
The President talked about his recent visit to Cincinnati for the Labor Day picnic... You
know, in Cincinnati, they‟re talking about building a streetcar loop,.. in the downtown
area. The developers, want to make Cincinnati.. ah.. nice again, which usually means
getting rid of poor people, the working class. They want to join up downtown with
beautiful rehabbed town houses and ten foot ceilings, and the cultural center, and the
university. The African American community there, you know, opposes it, the “choo-
choo train,” and instead calls for integrated mass transit so that working people can get to
jobs, schools or shopping. They are the only organized community of residents there
asking for a modern, smart transit system,.. besides, of course, the.. ah, Sierra Club.. or
other, small, fringe groups.. Why is that? This has to change... He explained how federal
highway gasoline tax funds should go to cities with big ideas on sustainable modern
transit, not building new, or expanding, freeways to nowhere.
4***
The speech on Day One made an enormous splash like an asteroid might. The equal
timers were hopelessly out-sprayed; they didn‟t even use their full 135 minutes. The
talking heads took over, marveling at how good the President was with words even when
constructing an extravagant fantasy world, and then they selflessly paved the way for his
backslide into the real-world, repeating over and over the key defects of his impossible
dream. On the evening of Day Two, after the meeting that morning with the gang-rich of
40, the Bama came out swinging even more lethally than on day one. Now the TV heads
talking were less definite, testing other scenarios. It was hard to argue that his truth was
lies although they were pretty good at the converse, selling lies as the truth. The great
numb majority tuned in again on the second night, but just for a few minutes. They
wanted to see how far the guy would retreat from each blow but were surprised: he‟s not
backing down, hasn‟t apologized once, or “clarified;” he‟s not flip-flopping!.. what‟s
going on here? They started watching carefully, parsing each phrase, analyzing each
expression or glance or pause, just waiting for that one signal, so they could go back to
their stupor, but it never came. Some were saying, Jesus, if this guy goes on like this, he‟s
gonna be in trouble. We better get ready to help. What should we do? In bars, they turned
down the TV with the talking heads or football because they needed to do some serious
reality testing. Some were making plans.
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New talking heads were appearing. Who are these people? How did Obama get them in
there? Is that legal? Holy shit, it‟s fucking big government again! One of the newbees
asked: “which big government do you mean, the one run by corporations, or the one
overseen by people we would actually like to have in office?” Another one asked David
Brooks who his favorite billionaire was, and: When did you last dine together? Or, what
democratic reforms do you advocate for labor unions? What rules for lobbyists? Or, how
often, David, do you decide to over-utilize the healthcare system because it‟s “free” with
your good health insurance?... Brooks grinned and spitted and sputtered, trying to show
he was open-minded. He was in serious danger of being passed-over for better ballast
against the reactionaries. The center had shifted, the deck was listing and slippery.
Equal time was revolutionary. Thousands of advocates suddenly had equal access to their
fellow citizens. Dennis, Barbara, Barney, John Conyers, Ralph (Nader), Rose Ann de
Moro, John Lewis, Chomsky, Bernie Sanders, Michael Pollan, Barbara Ehrenreich.. were
becoming sleep-deprived; they started twisting arms of their colleagues who were still in
hiding or hibernation or just drowzy. People on the left were arguing with each other in
public – never before seen! Some honest and thoughtful conservatives appeared,
challenging the central dogmas of the noisy right, talking respectfully about the
Constitution, and confusing their base. Obama‟s new war team decided they had better
quickly come up with things people could do on the ground, right away. How about sit-
ins in insurance lobbies? Town-meetings with the CEOs of misery, the presiding chairs of
corporate death panels. They located good targets in most major cities. The unions
jumped for it. They are pretty accustomed to following a lead from the Democrats, even
if most of the Party bureaucracy was MIA. Local politicians got into the act. In one city,
activists created death panel theatre, with the Humana corporation on one side and a
Medicare policy committee of respected physicians on the other, both discussing
guidelines for a debilitating disease in the elderly. The Humana scum said, first run the
prior condition algorithm to see if any known history on the patient gets us off the hook.
Then do the network optimization thing to delay expensive treatments and make sure
consecutive annual deductables are fully depleted.. The Medicare committee, meeting in
public session, discussed alternative treatment regimens and parried over which ones
were medically indicated with acceptable expectations on outcomes, taking patient
particulars into account and being careful to give quality of life priority in that
calculation.. Cost was there too, but in its place.
5***
On Day 3, he laid out the grand procession of deregulation starting before Reagan and the
growth of the finance tumor that eventually metastacized into “anything goes.” Ponzi
schemes, legal and illegal, that flourished with the obvious catastrophic result. He
described the intense and frantic negotiations with Wall Street to salvage our economy
and agreements that were supposed to result in re-negotiated mortgages, restored business
credit and a stimulus for new economic activity. He admitted they didn‟t work well at all
although most banks recovered nicely. He mentioned the community invasions of big-
box stores, work stoppages, and the torching of a few insurance offices. Said he disagreed
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totally with some of those activities – but understood why they were happening. He
explained how his new emergency banking and mortgage policies were going to change
the landscape, reverse the odds that many people were facing. He talked about the
stimulus money and sustainability. Many communities could see it happening: bridges
being repaired and painted, roads re-paved – but the Bama mentioned he didn‟t see very
many black faces or women on those work crews.. and sustainable infrastructure design
was still largely missing.
On Day 8, the Bama entered the cybersphere. He complained more than he resolved,
inviting the forces of progress to come forward with solutions… Now I know, that out
there,.. in places like, Stanford, or MIT and Columbia,.. there are very smart people who
have thought a lot about these problems as we careen down the IT tunnel, people who can
help lead a national debate.. on what to do. I know there are millions of clever, cyber-
savvy people ready to participate in this discussion. For once, this debate will not be
orchestrated by those who stand to.. to reap billions simply because.. because, they got to
the.. the next killer app, three minutes before the competition did. The architecture and
configurations of operating systems have a huge impact on the directions our society is
going in, on our ability to make efficient use of these technologies, on the distribution of
opportunity and wealth itself. Decisions on their development and deployment should not
be.. ah, freely abdicated by society,.. handed-off to corporations. These operating systems
must become the regulated public utilities of the 21st Century and we need to do it right,
and soon. Like a previous generation did to Ma-Bell, we‟re gonna do a.., ah, Ma-Google.
Now we all know.. privacy is under immense attack. Over just a few years, personal
computers have turned from.. remarkable tools of discovery and productivity into.. ah..
conduits of stealth, spying and theft, exploitation. It doesn‟t have to be that way.. In
China, the government tried to install software that would control what users could do,
and they were stopped. Well, in America,.. we need to stop the free reign of Microsoft,
Intel and Google; Apple too. These extraordinarily powerful technologies must be
designed to suit the public good, the people‟s needs, first, before monopoly profits
proliferate. Costly, managed, forced software obsolescence is not acceptable.
Accumulating, dysfunctional cyber-debris is filling our homes and offices. Beyond
privacy, we are faced with insidious control of our very consciousness with database
mining on every minutia of our lives, linking buying with advertizing, with information
access itself... The citizens of the net were nodding and pondering a new world
adventure. Maybe it‟s time to get beyond hacking and start organizing, influencing basic
system design… As a first step, I am going to do my part: I am ordering all wire-tapping
and e-mail surveillance ended except in the most threatening cases, where a court-order
will be required. And I am going to bring new legislation that permits even those cases an
opportunity for judicial review. I‟m going to establish net-neutrality and, most important
of all, I am directing the FCC to develop a new, comprehensive policy proposal on cyber-
intrusion, electronic breaking-and-entering, on corporations compiling personal internet
navigation and search histories and other private data. Corporations aren‟t the only ones
with “intellectual property” worth defending. I‟m going to bring anti-trust into the 21st
Century; actually, into the last half of the 20th C., first, and then on to the 21st. I am going
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to approach the leadership of all progressive countries to join in this effort. This will
become part of the fair-trade discussion.
6***
It took several days for the media vultures to regroup; it was hard to know where to start.
At a press conference one week after the equal-time bombshell, a reporter asked: So Mr.
President does this mean you agree with that armed “Inquisition” clique that is holding
American citizens hostage and interrogating them over there in Lebanon?... The Bama
hadn‟t really had much time to think about that situation lately but he dove right in:
Knowledge and information are critical for an informed public, for understanding our
world, and making good choices. We have lived for so long under the stifling burden of
corporate media control that it has taken a truly bizarre, unprecedented situation
developing in another country, to enable the.. the curtains, to be pulled back to begin to
reveal fundamental truths… So, you agree with what they are saying?... Well, ah.. they
are saying a lot of different things in case you haven‟t noticed and not always agreeing.
That‟s the point, things are being revealed and argued about that have hardly ever been
heard before by most Americans. Quite extraordinary facts and history are coming out
and being critically evaluated and documented. The institutional barriers and private
walls that protect the exercise of raw power are being torn down in that process. Some of
these revelations are painful and distressing, but most need to come out. As I have made
clear many times, I do not approve of the violence that led to this.. ah.. these public
deliberations, but think about it, what other way was getting us there? This really should
be very embarrassing for us, for all free societies... Mr. President does this mean you will
not try to free Americans and others of our allies that are being held there?... Well, first,
there are plenty of Americans who are giving testimony there entirely voluntarily and are
free to return. Those being detained are being treated very well, unlike the people this
country has detained, and still is, for far lesser crimes.. and some will probably be
referred for international criminal proceedings. I do not at all like that.. some Americans
are being charged with enormous crimes; I like even less the crimes that they very..
possibly have committed, and the political processes and configurations in our country
that.. ah.. enabled those crimes. But, if you want to pick a fight with me on this
Inquisition thing, why don‟t you bring up some of the specific allegations being made
and then we can talk… (Another, unfamiliar reporter:) Mr. President, many Americans
recently have been very surprised to see you proposing rather dramatic changes and then
actually starting to do them; do you believe there is enough support out there for this
new, these new directions?... Thank you for that, Mr.?... Sam Donovan with The
Nation… Mr. Donovan of The Nation. You raise a very important question. And I don‟t
know the answer. Our people, have been so.. mistreated,.. for so long,.. by deceitful
public officials working for other masters, that they may not be able to recover their
senses, their trust, their ability to make good judgments and choices, in time to save us.
We have become a society that lives in fear and ignorance, that sees mainly individual
private gain or loss rather than public accomplishment and mutual benefit.. I see the
coming months as a crucial test for our very.. survival.. And it‟s ultimately going to
depend much more on the American people than on me and my administration… The old
glow was coming back. People could see it.
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4. Death Wish
1***
Born-again progressivism was flourishing and attracting huge numbers of do-ers filled
once more with hope. Real fixes were happening in some places and good elected
representatives were finding firm footing. The media revolution had opened eyes and
liberated millions of minds. Un-American debates were breaking out in full view of
millions of viewers. The Bama could see more than a glimmer and it was growing.
But it might not be enough.
So much damage had already been done to the American mind. For every blossoming
civic activist or union fighter, there were two other, deranged, Americans jumping up
dragging along several others similarly afflicted with ignorance, delusion and the small-
mind syndrome: class-blindness. It was sad to watch. Profound choices were being
regularly rejected by slim margins in the U.S. Congress even with the POC at the top of
its game. Fighters for the new world, mostly people who still read things in long
paragraphs, discovered the extent of the lobotomization of America. In many venues
calm debate was over. Empirical resolution – demonstrating progress through practice –
was practically impossible: almost all forms of local initiative, whether in the workplace
or community, had long been suppressed or perverted and forgotten, or displaced by TV
or internet psychoses. Town squares had largely disappeared, replaced by private malls
where about the most adventurous popular initiative permitted besides shopping was
selling girl-scout cookies or sun-glasses. Newspapers were following. Not that they were
ever that great as instruments of truth, but at least they were shared by members of a real
community with the physical possibility of collective local action. Inward-peering e-
communities (“social networking”.. what was networking before, “unsocial”??) were the
new social infrastructure whose class role was up for grabs, attracting high-stakes
entrepreneurs, manipulators and techno-maschers.
The Repuglicans and fellow travelers not only weren‟t surrendering, they were scuttling
America and didn‟t even know it. The anti-democracy pox had progressed too far.
Memory was receding, peripheral circulation was contracting, vital organs were shutting
down. Was America beyond the point of no-return? Could right-wing strategists retire
now, since the whole thing seems pretty inevitable? Forget healthcare reform. Income
redistribution (theft suppression), equal opportunity and smart jobs weren‟t going to
happen. Green design would be the privilege of rich global corporations, and security was
going to be our biggest industry. Too-late, the unions caught the vision fever and were
scrambling to catch-up but mostly the bad guys got there first. The POC had maxed-out:
just about everyone who could think, referencing history, verifiable theory and
imagination free of social disease at all levels of society had been reached or rescued, and
inspired to act, but there might not be enough to counter the rot on the right.
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For the first time in modern history, a vigorous unbelievably wealthy society was
crumbling from its own social pathology: race-differentiated class hypertrophy is what
they would call it years later. Well, maybe not the first; there was Nazi Germany.. but the
Soviet collapse was a different problem: end-stage disseminated power ossification.
Europe was carefully watching and hurriedly making mid-course corrections to avoid the
American malaise. The Chinese leadership weren‟t that interested, having found new
markets, and the Chinese working class was no where near the point of no return. They
could still remember the past and had a future. The rest of the world moved on, learning
from history in many cases.
2***
Someone was complaining about their kids, not an uncommon topic in the LM
lunchroom. Observing the chorus Molly was hoping for insights. Most LM employees
had families with children at various stages of succumbing to corporate dysculture.
Molly‟s own kid, now 22, had barely survived the immersion and it was touch-and-go for
a while. Loss of kid-habitat was a major part of it, and bad diet, but the TV and computer
cultures were the worst. The comedy shows have developed sarcasm and incessant
personal lying to a highly valued art form. The crime shows had beautiful people
outmaneuvering ugly, usually poorly dressed, people in a social context rarely
acknowledging reality. The reality shows were mining delusion or some other
unfortunate aspect of the human psyche not yet well described and the make-over shows
were not much better. Advertizing, the most advanced lie/manipulation technology,
surrounds everything… Computer games reveal for the first time significant unknown
skills in under-performing students. It‟s amazing our kids survive at all, Molly opined –
we‟ve lost almost total control of their environment. You know, in traditional societies
people, parents, grandparents, neighbors, relatives basically created the environment of
children, within some economic context, of course, with poverty, unemployment, good
luck and hard work when-you-can-get-it intervening. They didn‟t have to go buy
something every five minutes to keep their kids entertained or fed… Ya, when I think
back to the things we used to do, we could go anywhere, explore strange things, hide-out,
and spy on things.. our kids can‟t do much of that at all except, maybe, sneak around
malls, suck-down costly, toxic Starbucks concoctions, shop-lift, drive around suburbs, get
drunk.. or worse…(Tim, from aerodynamics engineering:) I worry about the whole
learning thing, intellect I guess you might call it. The kids, my kids, see little value in
understanding things. They‟re really quick at picking up digital procedure – cell phone
apps, internet navigation, whatever – but they have no interest in how or why things
work, how they were made, how things are designed.. How society works. Why is that?...
(Shirley:) And the ones that do, pay for it: they are the nerds, geeks, dorks, way uncool,
no-way attractive. (Harvey:) It‟s like they‟ve bought the whole shtick that to get ahead,
i.e., make money, you have to build and exploit relationships; it‟s all about attitude and
appearances, not aptitude.. Or if its aptitude, it consists of learning how to navigate in
organizations, not apply principles, theories or technical knowledge, let alone critically
evaluate. Where did this come from?... No one could put their finger on it... Shrinks and
family counselors make lots of money giving us advice and making interpretations but
seem rarely to get to the bottom of these things... Molly said she didn‟t have a good
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theory but was really glad Tommy had finally made it into law school and has started
asking lots of good questions about his world: everything from the union at LM to why
Taliban treat women so badly; how does medical insurance work; what should we do
about climate change; how old were you when you and Dad hooked up.
3***
The HF threat was affecting different ruling elites differently. The generals in Myanmar
were demolishing or seizing all buildings having visual line-of-sight with top government
buildings, within a four-mile radius. They were exhibiting a new-found appreciation of
tall tropical trees and looked like they were getting into city-planning, until one
remembered why. The Nigerian army bosses moved some of their administrative offices
but started having civil negotiations with the tribal groups poisoned by, and robbed of, oil
wealth. They included some opposition activists, reporters and elected officials. They
even apologized for past executions and assassinations. In the Congo organized rape and
ethnic cleansing weren‟t paying off like they used to. In Colombia, private armies were
being trained in Hellfire interdiction with U.S. funds but still murdering union organizers.
The ruling elites of India had been in a mild panic ever since Dubai, and then the hotel
attack in Mumbai, over a year ago; but they didn‟t know where to begin. The National
Hindu Party was being more respectful in their language, toning way down their anti-
Islamic rants. The Naxalites, Maoist rebels in Punjab, were regrouping and searching for
Plan contacts, with the secret police one step behind. In Russia, Iraj was unable to make
any connections with the missile gang there but had the strong impression they were
close by at times. The Russian partisans were being very careful. When he returned, Beth
reported that some enquiries had quietly found their way to her from interested parties
that she was pretty sure were in the old Soviet orbit.
In other places, some progress was being seen that was at least partly attributable to the
Inq. In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez seemed to have finally discovered the concepts of
transparent accountability and distributed decisions-making that heretofore had eluded
him. Instead of shutting down disgruntled right-wing radio and TV stations, he developed
some principles of responsible journalism and media behavior that were then applied to
all broadcasters and print media, including state organs, influenced perhaps by the
Bama‟s equal-time innovations. People were experiencing the challenge of critical
thinking in place of correct-thought. The Cubans were skeptical. In Bolivia, Evo Morales,
the peasant-turned Prime Minister was able to reach accommodation with the flat-land
ranchers who seemed finally to comprehend that a new social contract was their best bet
instead of trying to steal everything. Brazil‟s soon to be term-limited Lula, leader of the
labor party, was chastened by massive, continuing labor unrest that was smartly
disciplining global corporate behavior there.
4***
The Plan scheduled a series of discussions, a general retrospective and review of the
whole situation. Exploiting a once-in-a-universe opportunity to turn a savage instrument
of war against the war-makers, they had significantly changed the game, affecting the
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course of history, particularly in the Middle East. The mass consciousness had
perceptibly improved. The Inq and the associated truce seemed to be working out well,
although, plenty of more-than-deserving targets certainly remained. However, (Ben:) we
are in a bit of a bind here; we have our Inq but its survival partly depends on our
remaining a physical threat. On the other hand, if we try some other actions, the odds of
our getting caught increase. They‟re getting a lot more sophisticated in watching for us.
I‟m sure by now they have detected our phone transmissions, they just don‟t know what
we‟re saying. As the one-state solution progresses in Israel, we will lose the boycott
option… (Mahmoud:) There‟s another danger,.. that a lot of people in really bad
conditions in 3rd world countries will see this discussion at the Inq as dwelling on some
irrelevant history by a bunch of guilty liberals when they are daily living under the heel of
contemporary thugs. It was really good to get Mugabee but maybe we need to do more.
That creep in Guinea who shot 100s of protestors apparently feels no danger and then
there‟s Kazakhstan… (Jasmine:) Yes, imagine if we could have responded quickly to that
outrage. I think the western intel people are telling these guys there‟s nothing to worry
about… (Jim in D.C.:) That could be although I don‟t know what they could base that on,
not that they would have to. I think Ben is right, the risks are rising. Our most valuable
contribution, at this point, I think is to strengthen and preserve the Inq into the future…
(Ari:) But if we can carefully pull-off another compelling retribution on some grossly
criminal administration, that certainly would be worth doing… Agreement on that. They
talked on and directed that some research be prepared on deserving targets but deferred
any decisions.
After long and painful consideration, the Inq decided to down-size their efforts in
reaching out to America, and focus on countries with more hope. It wasn‟t that America
was hopeless, it just wasn‟t promising a very good return on investment on a five-year
time horizon. It seemed like there were many 3rd world countries, and China, where good
things could start happening any time… As for the Inq itself, they concluded they needed
a more sustainable operation with adequate funding. A permanent Inq secretariate was
needed. Several possibilities were considered. They could suggest a small tax on
progressive organizations all over the world. And a larger tax on the big unions. Some
governments would continue some token support. They could institute academic
cooperative agreements for visiting students and research collaboratives in the
identification and dissemination of discovered truths. Maybe one of the universities in
Lebanon could become a global institution specializing in.. Democracy and Technology
in the Class Struggle? Probably not the American University in Beirut, though. Maybe
they could sponsor progressive international retirement communities in Lebanon.
5***
Norm and Julie were walking over to the strip of restaurants feeding off the edge of the
college campus about a mile from their place. On this mild evening in early summer they
would pass though some quiet neighborhoods, normally crammed with students, then go
by a park and cross a corner of the campus. It had been a hectic spring with constant Inq
obligations multi-tasked between teaching, research and tending to community self-
discovery. The Monsanto hit blossomed into a huge revelation but it was a lot of work,
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and not exactly without stressful consequences. Their life this entire year was exhausting
but they were addicted and tonight they had rare free hours for decompression and re-
examination. They had so much to visit they didn‟t even try to structure the journey…
Did ya see that article in the Times about the DNC? They‟ve been having these
emergency meetings to discuss the “crisis in the Presidency.” What a bunch of pathetic
assholes. Probably the most exciting opening in 100 years and they‟re trying to stuff it
back in the bottle.. or distance themselves from it!… Ya, it looks like they want to cut
him loose.. throw him to the wolves..
What do you think we should do with the Plan, Jules? We‟re pretty vulnerable you know.
We‟ve been incredibly lucky but maybe we should back off things for a while… Well, I
think setting up our local Inq-support activity at school with full visibility made a good
sort of .. ah.. blind for us, besides being a great stimulus for thinking and discussion.. But
maybe we should take a sabbatical from the Plan and just deal with the Inq for a while;
get ourselves off the sat phone list… Yeah, with Obama going rogue, we have an
opportunity to really ramp up the climate thing; I could spend all my time on that alone,
and people are definitely starting to get it, make all the connections… Ya,.. and I‟ve been
thinking about starting a new focus in my department, something like, “social-class
studies.” It would support applying class analytics in other areas of the curriculum –
history, sociology, economics,.. even psychology, “social studies.”… And with the Plan
concentrating less on things in the U.S., it makes sense that we might withdraw
somewhat.. You know, I had this fantasy this afternoon of going to Beirut for a few
weeks; it would be such an incredible experience, I‟d love to meet these people, our
people… When could we do that? I bet we could get a lot of local interest with reporting
back to some local media… Maybe in late August?... Speaking of Beirut, I just heard that
one of Monsanto‟s favorite flacks in the Ag School has been making some quiet enquiries
about applying permaculture techniques in large-scale farming. We‟re going to try to link
him up with things going on in Portugal and India. This is a really interesting problem;
rebuilding the earth‟s natural loam, soil, would re-capture huge amounts of CO2… Oh,..
is the destruction of soil,.. ah.. habitat, contributing to global warming?.. I didn‟t know
that.
Cutting across a recessed glen in the park, holding hands: Normy, do you think we did
the right things, in the Plan? Do you ever have regrets? I know we‟ve talked about this
forever,.. but, do you ever.. come back to it?... Jules, it‟s hard to imagine that we
wouldn‟t do it all over again the same way, there is so much compelling justice to it, and
the appeal of class revenge is so resonant,.. but I do wonder sometimes, about some of the
hits, like the Baghdad planeload of .. or maybe Davos or OPEC. I think they were right
but it is humbling and.. sad to remember. It would be extremely depressing if we didn‟t
have spectacular things to show for it… Yeah, the class struggle can be pretty vicious at
the level of individuals, sometimes even for the ruling class.. Hopefully we will never
have to but if we ever have to justify it in public, I think we can do it, not that that would
save us, of course... Sometimes it almost makes me want to get caught. We‟d be charged
as terrorists. If all the so-called terrorist acts against this country were added up,
including 9/11, it wouldn‟t even begin to compare to the carnage the ruling class
routinely delivers. Wars, healthcare murder, poverty and associated crime, famine, farmer
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suicide, abuse, interpersonal conflict, epidemic foreclosure, unemployment, on-the-job

injury or disease.. Look at Union Carbide in Bhopal.. they killed 10,000 people there and
still haven‟t paid out compensation. In fact, in terms of costs, just think about the wars
that ruling classes routinely provoke, wars that cost tens, or hundreds or thousands of
thousands of lives. What we did in waging class war in Israel cost, about,.. let‟s see,.. I‟d
say less than 50 people died, and the benefit: a huge advance for all working people in the
entire Middle East. Of course, it wasn‟t just us that did it.. we sort of came along at the
right time. The Israelis killed 30 times as many people just in their last assault on Gaza..
As Harvard‟s Larry Winters would say, the logic is “impeccable;” the benefit/cost ratio is
massively in our favor.
I know, I know,..but, you know, a lot of people still wouldn‟t get it.. I‟ve been wondering
about the whole democracy thing. It really doesn‟t work if most people don‟t agree on
some ground rules of discourse; criteria for demonstrability, evidence. I mean how do
you debate with people whose world is “faith-based?” They can explain anything, any
way, whichever works or feels good for the moment. Or with people who accept myth
because they don‟t have the wherewithal to reject it?... Ya, this brings up an interesting
question, under what conditions in history do enough people have sufficient grip on
reality to even participate in successful public dialog, to achieve a collective, robust and
progressive consensus? And what are the structural determinants of critical thought?...
Jules, honey, we‟re getting a little too post-modern again. Where do you wanna eat? Thai,
Mexican, Ethiopian or Mid-West veggie?
Wine, butter-fat, free-range protein, fresh basil, natural caffeine and complex sugars
restored some charge and the challenge was picked up again… See, I don‟t think it‟s so
much about a bunch of clever, clear-thinking people winning the show; I think it‟s more
about institutionalizing class wisdom in the form of political parties and other
organizations that people can see and come to trust – if in fact they have been trustworthy
– and then participate in, at some level. Most people, even when they have a good grip,
probably aren‟t going to spend their waking hours worrying about the agenda for the next
meeting. But they can have high expectations that some organizations will be on top of
things, and then be ready to jump in when needed at some point, if only briefly. People
can contribute in all sorts of ways… Yeah, I think that‟s right. That would be an
important part of my new course objectives – describing the class and political substance
inherent in various aspects of culture, like in our music and, of course film, the media, or
even religion, sometimes.. What I‟d really like to do is explore further this idea of the
institutional basis for working class political power; maybe I could do it in a graduate
seminar. This would mean taking another look at communist parties again, you know,
what they did right and what they got wrong… Yep.
You know, getting back to class retribution, we really should do that hit in Honduras that
the Plan discussed a while ago, before we take our vacation from it all. Ever since they
re-engineered the election for that thug they put up to replace the guy they arrested and
threw out of the country, the business gang down there has been gunning down or
disappearing people who were active in defending the previous President. It‟s classic
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Latin American oligarchy and the people need to see it smacked down up close and
impersonal.
5. Life Wish (8 months later)
1***
After an extensive and detailed review, hearing from myriad sources and advocates, an
Inq working committee came up with a consensus proposal for the Pashtun and Kashmiri
regions. The policy was termed “benign respect” and encompassed a series of goals for
regional economic cooperation and sustainable development protected from marauding
global corporations and their occupying imperial armies, and with incentives for
embracing labor and human rights. The territorial claims of India and Pakistan would be
severely diminished along with requiring them to define some rights goals of their own.
All empire mongers would be excluded. A central facet of the plan was the rediscovery of
sustainable agriculture –for re-establishing healthy, diverse ecosystems capable of
sustained high yields of good food in diverse environments. The rapidly fading memories
of past traditional practices were going to be married with recent innovations that would
transform the lives of most people in the underdeveloped world without the “help” of
modern agribusiness.
For many areas with ongoing conflicts or internal repression, the new global consensus
would be: fix your local conflicts, and do it right, or forget trade, travel and financing for
your privileged elites. On illicit trade, the Inq recommended legalization and regulation
of the drugs currently trafficked. Cut the cartels off at the knees. A number of countries
were debating this solution. As for those traditions that were faring badly in history‟s
judgment, having been rejected most places, the consensus strategy was: let‟s set good
examples, and, “your kids are going to fix it anyway, so just get it over with.” For women
still suffocating, a big tool box of multicultural and multi-media subversion was being
assembled along with escape routes.
2***
The new AFL-CIO under Richard Trumpca knew that things are bad. Rich was trying
hard to break out of the cage that had confined union thinking in America for two
generations. He set up a war room. They had always known the banks were at the top of
the corporate food chain but now it was so graphic and in the open, the consequences so
direct. Now that they had re-aligned the Bama, and dumped the Democreep incorrigibles,
they were examining basic strategic options. The erosion of workers‟ rights, loss of union
“density” and disappearing jobs were problems that needed everybody‟s ideas. Trumpca
got the executive board to issue a call to all labor councils to take up this challenge: What
can we do?
Someone in Dallas said, if big government won‟t defend us why don‟t we do it; let‟s
write our own principles on workers rights.. and then enforce them… How?... Well, we
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could support any workers standing up to their employers, you know, all the ways people
used to do that… Ya, we could add some cybertricks using all our new gadgets to help it
happen. We can research lots of connections, critical supply chains,.. vulnerabilities..
Just-in-time deliveries could become lost-in-time shipments. We could announce defense
brigades, organize community actions, mass picket lines, coordinated traffic jams,
boycotts, personal confrontations.. civil disobedience. The guys in Boston jumped right
in,.. yeah, but we have to make it much bigger than just defending unionized workers,
you know? we have to help everybody, otherwise they‟ll just isolate us and chop us
down. (Someone from LA:) Yes, that‟s right, and we better include the illegals, too, or
we are wasting our time, guys; it‟s time we did this thing right so we can get almost
everyone on board, that‟s what it‟s going to take. Hopefully if we get things moving, or
not moving, Obama will have another of his awakenings and do something helpful…
Yeah, there‟s never been a honest discussion of the whole immigration thing, you know,
at the national level, why all these people are so desperate to get out of their own
countries.
Someone from Atlanta: This is interesting. Our people are so beaten down by now I don‟t
see any way short of dramatic street-action to get them motivated and restore hope. We‟ll
need to pick some good targets, really bad actors, especially in the South, and then go in
and clean their clock, show white workers the only way to win is altogether… Ideas were
coming fast. Organizing meetings were jumping off in most cities. Hit lists, phone lists
and simple lists of principles and goals were compiling.
People from the POC in Congress were interested in these discussions on workers‟ rights.
Wanted to bring in fair trade and, of course ending empire and beginning universal
healthcare. Especially wanted to craft some fundamental principles that they could share
with progressives all around the world; rules of mutually beneficial trade for workers in
all countries. Chinese workers, still not subdued by new or old Capital, were a major
target. Maybe America will get back on the Inq radar screen after all.
3***
In Israel, Ari and Sasha sat watching the continuing convulsions in the US but had bigger
fish to fry. Sasha had been assigned to Beirut as an IDF observer, a product of the on-
going negotiations, but after four months, she and Ari had returned to Israel to work on
the Transition itself. Ari had been pardoned but severely rebuked and was still considered
an unrepentant, despicable infidel by 20% of Israelis, and the settlers had a fatwa out on
him. Sasha was demonized, too, an accomplice shamefully victimizing her own father. So
Sasha and Ari had to be careful in their new life.
Earlier in Beirut, after the launch of the Inq, they had spent most of their waking hours
together, tending to that remarkable enterprise: planning, making calls, answering e-mail
and writing summaries, giving interviews. Soon they were spending their sleeping hours
together too. Initially exhaustion from the demands of the Inq pretty much ruled out any
other innovation in their lives and they would retire to their separate dormitory rooms
barely conscious. But one night, after a really long but powerful day of testimony, this
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time on big-oil politics, Shell Oil, and murder in Nigeria, they had come back from a late
supper and sat on Sasha‟s bed in her sparse quarters to review the next day‟s agenda.
After 10 minutes, Sasha lay back and Ari volunteered a back rub. Those hands felt
incredibly good to both of them and Ari couldn‟t imagine any place he‟d rather be. After
four minutes Sasha pushed herself back up and proceeded to do that amazing-to-men
maneuver of removing a bra without taking off a shirt, and then settled in for a better
back message, with soft melodious sounds. When she rolled to her side against him
several minutes later, Ari gently explored the rest of her. Her neck and lips and.. were so..
Sasha unbuttoned and unzipped Ari with efficient determination, and soon they rolled
together under her covers, freeing messages with clear intent. This was a totally different
kind of breathlessness. It seemed perfectly appropriate that their other passions were
finally catching up with their political odyssey. Now they would have fewer but better
hours of sleep.
4***
Sasha proposed to the OSS team working in Beirut that her commanding officer in the
IDF be involved in the security planning of the OSS Transition. She reviewed for them
her history with the now Commander Barschauer and it was agreed that this be explored.
Sasha made the appointment and reappeared at her former base as a Transition liaison
officer, amid curious suspicious looks. They were glad to see each other and spent an
hour reviewing the astonishing developments of the past year. As part of the negotiations,
several of the IDF hostages held in Beirut had been freed to return to Israel to work on
the Transition, including Sasha‟s dad. She mentioned visiting him twice since then but
they were not yet able to talk calmly about recent events. Then she asked about the
internal IDF situation and what new security arrangements they were thinking were
needed. Barschauer explained the interesting diversities of opinion that had appeared
once the OSS started looking inevitable and quickly summarized what the more forward
looking leadership saw to be the primary challenges. They shared insights into the
parallel anxieties on the Palestinian side they had heard about including significant
resistance from some Hamas and other factions fearing various consequences of this
unexpected and unequal union, the pending shotgun wedding. Then, feeling confident
that Barschauer was a valued asset, she asked if he would want to participate in
negotiating an agreement of security matters under the OSS. He digressed into the
worries over what the settler movement and other Jewish extremists were plotting but
returned to the big picture with a tentative nod. He would want to discuss this with Miri,
of course, and needed to think through implications within the IDF structure. It wasn‟t at
all clear that the IDF or civilian leadership would welcome him in that role. Sasha added
that there is a Mossad guy who is involved with the OSS and maybe, at some point,
Barschauer would benefit from meeting him. More revelation from this remarkable
woman but he remained non-committal on that one.
Ben and Rachel were negotiating with progressive forces in Lebanon, Syria, Emirates.. It
was a hazardous dance around nervous governments baffled by world events that seemed
to be getting closer and closer. Naomi, booted out of IDF and blacklisted by industry, had
emigrated to the US and was active in the AIPAC eradication movement there. Got in
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with some of the J-Street crowd and became a valued but scary reality-tester and IT
consultant there. She also stumbled into very busy public speaking because thousands of
American Jews and non-Jews wanted to hear the inside story; it was better than James
Bond. Sadly she was injured, but not too seriously, by a U.S. zealot who assaulted her at
a public meeting in Philadelphia. The attacker was attacked more thoroughly by the
appalled on-lookers. Her battered person invited a lot of new curiosity and approval in
the media. [J-Street – a progressive Jewish organization promoting policies at odds with
AIPAC]
5***
The Plan had agreed with Julie and Norm that the tin-horn Honduran oligarchs who were
behind the coup that removed a popular, elected, progressive leader definitely needed a
thrashing. It was consistent with their current MO regarding the Inq: Honduras was a big
outlier on the civil behavior scale. Also, U.S. diplomatic accommodation with the
Honduran bosses needed to be rewarded with a teaching moment. So a research team had
been assembled and dispatched to evaluate ecotourism options in Honduras and, as an
aside, make contact with the democracy underground. They got some good leads from
several NGOs in the U.S. that had been fund-raising and fighting for justice in
neighboring El Salvador and Guatemala for years. The target eventually settled on was a
villa that belonged to one of the leading alpha-males and was a frequent venue for
brotherly bonding with regaling families in tow. SUV convoys would periodically ascend
through lush corridors past multiple check points and gates with stiff soldiers. The plan:
get the guys after dinner at cigar time.
The villa‟s location was well-known to locals – not that they could ever get that close –
and a few of the current and former house service staff were ready to share intel.
Destroying the hand that feeds (and not that well) wasn‟t an easy choice but it seemed
finally like the right thing to do. The plot developed over several months and two
additional visits of American and European tourists. The advance team talked publicly
about making investments that would pay handsomely in the future. Getting an accessible
launch site that would work wasn‟t an easy construction but hard work paid-off.
They got Sr. Presidente Porforio Mobo and half of the inner circle, well, the men that is,
just after sun-down on a day that started out in torrents of rain. The steaming arboreal
beauty was distracting not to mention the jungle noises, and the tropical birds weren‟t
helping at all but the deed was finally done after a brief call relayed from the kitchen. The
ecotourists were back in their cabin on stilts within 45 min., their equipment carefully
secured in some friendly sheds shared with family cows. Confusion within the wheel-
house of the Honduran ship-of-state was sufficient that the missile theory didn‟t even
surface for a full 24 hours. They were so sure that it was the people they had been killing
that they didn‟t even consider aliens from other civilizations. By then, the camera had
passed through Belize and was a third of the way across Mexico.
The justice was so compelling that almost nobody jumped up to complain, initially. The
PR firm from DC (suggested by Hillary) that had been hired to clean up the oligarchs‟
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image after their remake of electoral politics was spinning digital multimedia scenarios
but the local media people just kept frowning and correcting their Spanish; they couldn‟t
see a clear way forward. The really bad actors had been dealt a really bad smack – what
can you say? The local ruling class was chagrinned: What are we going to do if we can‟t
act freely in pursuit of us?... At a meeting hastily arranged in the U.S. Embassy, the
second string was hoping to find guidance and comfort, and lots of anti-terror funds.
Rocket anti-scientists were being flown-in from DC and Dallas to commiserate and
advise.. and sell.
6***
Joe Lieberman called Sasha. He was sounding a lot better, actually cheerful for the first
time since the IDF home invasion. He asked how she was doing and if her new living
arrangements in Tel Aviv were adequate. Of course he already knew because Bev had
visited several times and was fully in touch with her daughter‟s ascent into history-
making. Bev and Ari had hit it off immediately, talking about and analyzing all the
bizarre changes happening daily, the three of them sharing shameless raucous laughter
when they weren‟t remembering the bad parts. But it reminded him of the big gulf with
his own mom, and dad. When he was first able to return to Israel Ari had spent an
afternoon with them, each one tip-toeing around the others‟ perceived sensitivities and
only occasionally finding common threads. His parents still couldn‟t confidently choose
between unbounded pride and personal devastation. It was painful that he couldn‟t lift
them to the heights of anticipation as well as share some anxious worries that were so
clear. Maybe it would come in time; it must, if things work.
Joe asked Sasha if she and her companion would like to come to dinner; just the four of
them. Sasha replied after a very short pause: Yes, we‟d love to,.. then had to quickly
confirm in her mind Ari would want that too. She gingerly asked whether things were
alright at the company and was he still involved with IDF projects… Things aren‟t too
bad; we had a big scare of course with the boycott but things rebounded nicely. We‟re
actually kind of excited about some new ventures with operations in various Arab
countries and Africa that are under-capitalized, so, we‟ll see; unfortunately, we can only
have minority positions in most of these outfits but it will be quite rewarding anyway,..
we can talk more.. the IDF stuff has ratcheted down somewhat and of course, no one
knows where things are headed, but people aren‟t particularly frantic about it anymore,
somewhat relieved actually with the end of hostilities… Great, well,.. it‟ll be really nice
to.. ah.. get together and talk, Dad… I‟m looking forward to it, Sash, and Bev‟s looking
at some dates. We‟ll talk again soon… OK, good night.
Ari was up for it… Of course we can assume anything we say will go right to the top, but
it‟ll be interesting; we need to get a better feel for how these folks are reacting. I‟m sure
some of them have conceded no ground at all.. Sounds, though, like your dad has made
some serious progress… Yes, it does; it will be really interesting to hear what he says
about his buddies, his partners in crime. It‟ll actually be kind of fascinating because I‟ve
never seen him and my mom interact on these issues since all the changes. She‟s a bit of
a celebrity now, you know. I wonder how assertive or independent she‟ll be and whether
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he listens… Yeah, I wish my parents could make the break the way yours have / they
will, Ari, just give them time. People who aren‟t part of the elite, who have no power,
have trouble imagining good outcomes from dramatic changes, you know?
7***
NSA had been mining the electronic surveillance data coming in and finally identified a
network of encrypted cell-phones operating on an Israeli network that seemed to be
active in the Beirut area. Their first guess was a Mossad system but they checked just to
confirm. Sure enough Mossad was there keeping tabs on things including their own guys.
In a routine update NSA reported this to the intel coordinating agency and passed along
the numbers for Defense and the CIA to look at. It was plausible enough but an
underemployed analyst in the Company requested an extensive data dump – wanted to
see what locations these calls were originating from. The connection of the Inq to the
missileers was so compelling that it was really worth looking at the Beirut traffic very
carefully. It‟s not at all a simple investigation, involves correlations on digital packet
transmissions picked up from disparate sensing nodes requiring high time-resolutions.
But the guy and the CIA computers were up to it. Found that calls and simultaneous
hook-ups seemed to involve mainly Tel Aviv, occasionally Baghdad, New York, St.
Louis, and Washington DC!! Of course, it could still be Mossad but it looked suspicious.
The leadership committee was ready to go back to Mossad once more for more detail and
a possible investigation of the sat phone provider operations, but then someone pointed
out, maybe there‟s a bad apple in Mossad? After all, look what happened inside IDF!
Maybe we should do some more digging first.
This new development travelled pretty fast inside the Company. Just because Israel‟s
hands are tied doesn‟t mean we can‟t go after and disable the missileer network. Jim
heard it first by phone from a co-worker in McLean hqtrs, and had to quickly sort out
what to do. At first he thought making a call to the Plan would tip them off but that would
actually take some time; could be weeks or months of coordinating with NSA. Then,
because he uses the phone for his regular business, Jim thought, why don‟t I just point out
my phone account which I use routinely to talk with assets? Set it up when I was busting
the rogue missile in Baghdad. Needed to fit-in locally. I use it when contacting some of
our players at the Inq who, of course, are in Beirut, Tel Aviv, whatever. That could be a
pretty convincing story, but what if someone up there wanted details – who has phones?
where are they located? Are these contacts in our system? (Iraj: yes; some others: no).
Jim called Ben and explained. There was some significant risk that the whole operation
could be penetrated. They decided that the phones should continue in use but a little less
often with fewer and shorter conferencing calls. All the Plan participants needed to be
contacted and so they divided up the list: about 11 in all. One full Plan conference call
would follow in a week to debate the options. Ever since their public announcement of a
stand-down on missile attacks against countries not actively interfering with the Inq, Plan
operatives had gone into sleep mode with their hardware safely stowed but retrievable if
needed. Assets installed in India and Mexico had never been used but possibilities
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remained. Myanmar was still a high-value target and the Mexican ruling class was
continuing to stomp blatantly on workers rights.
8***
David and Iraj finally met. Jim had been trying to make it happen for weeks. It turned out
that Beirut was a pretty good venue and it was an other-worldly experience: a Mossad
fixer and an Arab revolutionary. Each had attended the Inq session that afternoon on
European intelligence operations in the Middle East in the „50s and „60s and learned a lot
more than either expected to, and then they walked out to a coffee bar suggested by Ari
and saw each other‟s signals. Several hours were required just to cover the intriguing
basics of their respective lives so a late dinner followed where they got into the
fundamentals of the Plan‟s activities and the dynamics of world change. Dave discovered
that he wasn‟t the only one positively floored by the audacity and successes of the HFLF
team. There obviously were deeper things going on here than just rogue missilry. Major
historical currents had been leveraged. The Israeli transition naturally came into focus,
around 10 pm. They decided to walk over along the waterfront, both exercising practiced
glances on their environs. (Iraj:) So, what will you do under the new regime? Is there
going to be any integration of Palestinian security and intelligence activities? That‟s gotta
be pretty weird… Yeah, there‟s been some circuitous talk but not much specific yet. I
need to figure out what I should be doing. I can still play along as a good-old-boy in the
new arrangements, maintaining the connections and trust of the anointed agents of
Zionism, or I can come out of the closet and play a visible role in the merging of
Palestinian and Israeli institutional functions. I don‟t know which is the better choice..
There are advantages and downsides, you know?.. What about you? Where do you see
yourself fitting in? Gonna keep hocking Israeli sat phones, smiling?... Well, actually, I‟m
kind of getting into this intel thing. Jim‟s been tutoring me and we think maybe there‟s a
place for me in Iraq government, a sleeper for the working class, grinning. He thinks he
can get me in there if I want it, if it‟s a good idea. We figure things are far from over
there and it might be quite useful being inside. We already have a few there in various
places as you might have concluded… Well, that‟s interesting. We really need to stay in-
touch. This is the only way to keep the world from being totally spooked by the Tenants
and Megropontes and their colleagues. Ya, let‟s keep this together, maybe meet with Jim
sometime when he‟s on a “mission to the Middle East.”
They trudged back to the Inq visitor residences gathering more fact and insight. What a
surprising and pleasing discovery they were having. Tomorrow they were meeting Sasha,
Ari and Beth for breakfast with incredible filo-pastry and mud-coffee.
6. Negotiating to the Future
1***
310
Jim heard that three sat phone users were close to being identified (in St. Louis, New
York, and Beirut) and passed along the intel immediately. He feared he was close to
being outed (could he argue that maybe some of his assets might turn out to be double
agents??). U.S. intel was about to seek Mossad cooperation for a move on Iraj‟s employer
to examine their accounts and bug their transmissions. State and Intel in D.C. were
debating: pick them up? neutralize them? But what about the others? How many could
there be? Hillary was taking a hard line: let‟s swat them down hard and set traps for the
others using the sat phone surveillance. I don‟t know about these things.. wouldn‟t that
work?... Jim, a recognized authority on the missileers, had been brought into the
discussions. He advised that besides the risks, another reason to hold off on going after
the missileers is that maybe having the HFLF still viable could be useful – look at.. well,
Myanmar, Sudan, even N. Korea.. it‟s not like we‟re getting anywhere with those guys. If
there is an ongoing credible threat against them that we can‟t control, maybe.. they‟ll
behave a little better? We‟ve already seen some evidence of that, along with their
considerable efforts to thwart the missile attackers directly.. What‟s our end-game here?
To disarm the HFLF? To stifle the inquisition (they already got what they want on
Israel)? Some of the disclosures there might be useful, especially relating to the Middle
East… Hillary wasn‟t persuaded, looking at her watch, but did back off the swat plan.
Jim and the Plan discussed the situation and decided on their strategy: tell them leave us
alone and we‟ll stand by our agreement; come after us and it‟s all off; we‟ll go public
with that, re-start our targeting of leading U.S. ruling class thugs, and mobilize global
support to defend the Inq. And by the way, in case you haven‟t noticed, President Obama
has recently altered his approach with the assent of quite a large number of Americans.
Our objectives are now not so radically different from theirs‟. We‟re not convinced he
can survive and prevail in the currently impaired U.S. political climate, but we are one of
his stronger protagonists these days.. How to communicate; maybe Jim gets the message
from a contact close to HFLF and passes it up the line.
2***
Francine Armitage was Hillary‟s second in the discussions; frequently led the State team
when Hillary was unavailable. She was career foreign service with stints in Singapore
and Mumbai, an earlier position with Bank of America and before that a tour with US
AID in Colombia. This was pretty heavy stuff and she valued discussing the problems
with Jim. Trying to develop a thorough understanding of this phantom enemy of
missileers and the panel of inquisitors they spawned, she was continuing to pester Jim
with good questions. But his answers were increasingly wobbly on key fundamentals…
What are you saying.. you agree with them, chuckling and rolling her eyes?... I‟m saying
they have some credible and defensible positions from the perspective of most citizens of
the world; we destroy them at our own considerable risk… You know, this is totally
opposed to what Hillary‟s trying to do. How do you think you can act on that?... Well, I
can‟t. What I can do is help other people do it. And it‟s not so far from Obama‟s
metamorphosis on foreign policy, you know… That‟s true; I haven‟t quite negotiated that
transition; it‟s more than a little confusing. He used to say rather seemingly unambiguous
things but then the details always emerged differently; now, he evidently really means
311
it… Well, I think we know where Clinton stands on things. What is she saying about
Obama these days? and what side are you on at this point, if I might enquire?... Well, Mr.
Bond, I‟ve always assumed I‟m on their side, they‟re the ones I work for as you know.. I
didn‟t know there is another option.. any choice. How strange, this somehow never came
up in my Foreign Service training. As for Hillary, she‟s been rather reserved about all the
turn-arounds, uncharacteristically quiet, actually. She‟s been talking with all sorts of
people here and in New York, and a few trusted individuals in Europe. She‟s gone for
really long lunches, lately; she‟s on the phone a lot, and looks more exhausted than usual.
She‟s careful what she says to staff. If I didn‟t know her better, I‟d think she wasn‟t that
interested in what‟s happening. She did say she was worried that we will lose our focus
and momentum on the Beirut project.
3***
Little ruling-class focus groups were debating the Obama betrayal. For some reason they
were attracted to a legal solution: impeachment. Lynching was so passé. The intricate
arguments were subtle and based in arcane history, intuitive only to people of their class.
When consensus appeared they moved on to implementation: widening the circle of
conspirators and preparing the way for quickly dispatching this unfortunate turn.
Hillary was brought in as a trustworthy and skillful second-string co-conspirator. At a

small staff meeting when she was clearly slouching off on the Obama agenda for the
Persian Gulf countries, Francine gently wondered how this was advisable. Hillary
dismissed her concern saying: Well, things may be about to change; this madness can‟t
go on forever. We‟ll have to wait and see… Later, Francine probed a little deeper and
Hillary divulged that some people were discussing legal proceedings… You mean,.. like
impeachment? Are there sufficient legal grounds? How would they argue that? Are
people from Justice involved? Who‟s doing this, some Senators, Democrats?... Hillary
had to go and didn‟t want to get into this new adventure any further with her young
apprentice; probably already said too much.
Francine called up Jim and moved their next rendez-vous up to tomorrow. “I have some
incredible gossip, Jim. I‟ll tell you tomorrow.” They met for Indian food just off the Mall
up from State. After a hug and emergency procurement of vegetable somosas with
assorted hot relishes, Jim popped the question: So, what‟s the big excitement?... With a
low but excited voice: Hillary told me that an impeachment proceeding is being
constructed against Obama!,.. with wide-open eyes and incredulous expectancy… Jim
got lost in overflow, lost his connection briefly. Then: Are you sure? Do you know who‟s
doing it?... Isn‟t it amazing?.. Do you think it‟s a bad thing?... Yes, I think it‟s a bad
thing. I thought you sort of liked what he was doing, since the Metamorphosis, the
Afghan and Pakistani things… Well, I do pretty much, it seems a little unpredictable but,
yes,.. this would be a set-back, for sure.. and, no, I don‟t know who is doing it; she
wouldn‟t say.
Jim was deep in thought for a minute and then: Look, Fran, I have to go out and make a
call, from my car. I‟ll be right back.. I‟ll explain what‟s going on, OK?... Sure,
312
whatever… Jim called Norm and Julie and relayed the news. They agreed to call the
Plan and make a plan: probably we should tell the world immediately, to cut this thing off
before it gets any further along… Jim returned and they advanced to vegetable biryani
and chicken khorma… Francine, we should talk about things later, a lot of things, but
what I just did was pass along some information that will probably go public very soon…
What I told you? Why did you do that? You might have consulted me. What if Hillary
figures out it was me?... I know; it‟s very important that.. ah.. I did that. I wouldn‟t worry,
there‟s a lot of places where a leak could occur on this kind of thing. I‟ll explain
everything later.. I‟m not actually quite ready to share some of these things but.. ah,.. I‟ll..
screw up my courage.. It‟s a tremendous.. ah.. break, that you found out about this.
Thanks, very much, for telling me, Fran.. Jim squeezed her hand and an under-the-table
knee.
4***
The news was dramatic with confusion. The right couldn‟t sort it out at all: The
Democrats were impeaching Obama?... Some Democrats. The Blue Dogs and other
running dogs were chorusing denials and ignorance but with enough sincerity to suggest
they all knew about it. In any case it wasn‟t going to happen. The Wall Street warriors
had gotten pretty excited about the rumors too, but now were drifting back into the
doldrums. The people, including the many with impaired democracy yearnings, were
impressed. Not only was this guy breaking with the pack, and running with a different
crowd, he had somehow outsmarted the top bosses and their attack dogs. This was very
encouraging. The Bama, for his part, was starting to feel some affection for those
terrorists that just saved his butt. He promised Michelle to quit smoking, again.
Hillary announced at a press conference, with Bill at her side, that she was resigning as
Secretary of State. The Clinton clique had batted around various explanations to run on
America. Spending more time with Bill, even if true, wasn‟t one of them. Said something
about an exciting new opportunity to help America get back to basics with the Peter G.
Petersen Foundation (rabid right wing money from a banking career), and she wished
President Obama the best of bad luck. Francine heard about it the morning of, in a final
staff meeting. After initial moments of cogitation, the staff had some questions for the
parting Secretary… Is this because of the impeachment fiasco? Did he ask you to
resign?... Now that she was on her way out, their questions could be less polite and
circumspect. When Francine asked whether she thought the ruling class had turned
irrevocably against Obama (she didn‟t use those terms), Clinton‟s response was like she
had been asked about her love life: she beat around the bush and then just moved on. She
had way better things to do.
7. All‟s Well That Ends Well – Well, For Most of Us
1***
313
Dinner at the Liebermans‟ was a little less fancy this time. More like the regular fare of
two busy people, but still very good and the wine was excellent. Sasha asked how Misha
Zeinfeld was doing… Well, of course you know she‟s had a very difficult time.. but she
seems to be able now to put it in a bigger context, which does help some. We‟ve spent a
lot of time with her. A lot of our friends have been through some sort of passage or..
revelation you might say, more so perhaps among the women.. I‟ve had good reactions to
our meeting with the Palestinians, more than I had ever dreamed. Including from
politicians from several parties! And some of my friends want to help,.. smiling and
nodding… (Joe:) Yes, I think the men aren‟t quite there yet. As you know we had rather
unrealistic expectations.. we built a grand scheme based on lots of assumptions that
haven‟t survived intact. But, life goes on; there are some indications of adjustments in
some of our neighbors that may be quite positive for us. (Ari:) It seems like tensions have
really diminished, just with the improved physical security and fewer confrontations and
denials. (Bev:) Did you hear that Juliana Bernstein is helping plan the merging of Israeli
and Palestinian primary-care organizations? She‟s really excited about it. (Sasha:) Yeah,
and we have a friend who‟s doing workforce integration planning which is pretty neat,
and interesting. (Joe:) Well, they better put some thought into public transportation
otherwise the jobs and the people aren‟t going to match-up well at all, at least not
initially.. Of course it will help when the walls come down.. By the way IDF is talking
about turning one of the bases into a “business incubator,” whatever that means,
supposedly to help get some of the Gaza enterprises up to speed on tax-accounting and
marketing.
During coffee: So Dad, when did you first.. imagine.. that this, the one-state solution,
might work, might be acceptable?... Well, .. deep breath.. I guess it started when I was
listening to Kissingher and Sam whats-his-name talking at the IDF about their world,..
where Israel was a useful but ultimately expendable asset. And about the control and
manipulation of populations, peoples‟ behavior, and the instrument of war – like some
guy said, “diplomacy by other means.”.. Before that I hadn‟t thought about our situation
as just another front in that same conflict although, looking back, I had plenty of
opportunity.. Then.. the boycott kind of forced me – and some other people – to examine
for the first time fundamental alternatives.. silence for 12 seconds.. The other big jolt was
the inquisition proceedings,.. it‟s been quite a.. ah.. quite an education,.. nodding.. opened
my eyes to a lot of things. I must admit I was pretty affected by what I heard toward the
end there. Prior to all this, as you well know, I was totally on board with everything, what
you people called the “central dogma” and all its ramifications. But things changed in
ways I didn‟t expect.. So.. I guess the bottom line is..and this isn‟t easy for me.. I do have
to thank the two of you and, well, you too, Ari. I really was on the wrong track.. It‟s
interesting to think how that happens.. where people‟s ideas and beliefs come from.. In
any case, I‟m afraid a lot of my colleagues are still back there, but they have little choice,
for the moment, but to go along. Most of them are hanging on to the old scheme, and
some will never change. I‟m a little worried what some of them may do, up to their old
tricks.. But every now and then there‟s a flash of entrepreneurial excitement with the
evolving arrangements… (Bev:) Yes, new opportunities not previously imagined seem to
work wonders, don‟t they, smiling at Joe… Some of these people I have known for years,
almost like brothers. We worked and socialized together, and our families, with very little
314
disagreement on anything.. now, we can barely make small-talk. It‟s very strange. Of
course that will change over time.. .. The thing that bothers me the most.. is.. whether..
we could‟ve.. ah.. somehow gotten here.. with less.. pain and tragedy, and cost. A lot of
Israelis have paid a terrible price over the years, some of our best friends… (Bev:) and a
lot of Palestinians, Joe… Yes, many Palestinians of course... Tears were coming: first
Joe‟s, then Bev, Sasha and Ari‟s, followed by silence.
A few minutes later, after Sasha retrieved another bottle of wine, handing it off to Ari: So
Dad, it sounds like things may get to be wonderful again, didn‟t I tell you?.. grinning
sympathetically, tearful not gloating... I don‟t know about wonderful Sasha but, yes,
eventually things will be fine. There are going to be some hurdles and speed-bumps along
the way. Just the political integration seems monumental… (Ari:) Yeah, it looks like
secular parties will really be critical, where the action is, but we‟ll need some modern and
credible voting innovations like proportional representation so that people will see that
they have significant participation. If we end up with election fraud like in Kenya ,
Zimbabwe or Afghanistan, or with election-for-hire like in the U.S., things could
disintegrate real fast. And the labor unions really have to step up to this new situation,
expand their membership among Arab workers. If they don‟t, they will lose their place at
the table… (Joe:) Certainly the new situation will bring improvements for business but I
am worried in the long term about our competitive positions if labor is too aggressive, if
Arab workers have unrealistic expectations... (Ari:) That‟s why this transformation needs
to spread among many nations. This class struggle isn‟t ending, it‟s actually just
beginning, under a new social contract. It‟s not going to be smooth-sailing.. a pause.
Another area of contention that will probably expand, Mr. Lieberman, is in IT. It really
needs to be re-examined and configured for transparent, public accountability, “re-
optimized” as your people would say… Yes, I can sort of see that now; it will be a
difficult discussion for a lot of us, but well worth getting started.. it‟s all about the
future… (Bev:) There‟s going to be a lot of adjusting to do. I can see our work is just
beginning, but it‟s doable, and welcome, for me. I can‟t wait to get started.
Mom and Dad, there was a time when I was very afraid we would all be swallowed up
and drown in this conflict, our family destroyed. Ari helped me get through it, but of
course he also helped cause it,.. giving Ari a hard kiss on the brow.. I‟m so incredibly
happy that we can go forward together on all this. (Ari:) Actually, for the record, if it
weren‟t for this family, things could have turned out differently. Initially we really only
considered the inquisition option during the IDF stand-off because of Sasha‟s family
situation and not everyone wanted to. I think we probably would have come to it anyway,
it was such a powerful stroke, but you all deserve some acknowledgement; can claim a
real contribution to making world progress, good history.. .. and especially for things you
did after the inquisition started and I believe you will continue to do. And,.. I would like
to thank you for being my surrogate family.. ..hopefully my real family will catch-up one
day, soon. (Bev:) It will Ari; that is one of my projects.
2***
315
Some others from the HFLF community also fared well while some others did not.
Although the mainstream institutions of stealth and liquidation were ultimately directed
to abort the hunt and to discourage other hunters, some renegade fighters with
unswerving loyalty to abandoned ruling-class aspirations exploited past relationships to
get a shot at the ultimate terrorists. Some of the targets hit by these Gordon Liddies of the
universe were actually mistakes. But they got Mahmoud in Syria and one of the D.C
partisans. In Israel, they got Genevieve, the avionics engineer. It didn‟t help their case.
Almost 600,000 Israelis and Palestinians turned out for a funeral procession led by Beth,
Eli, Jasmine, Ari, Jusef, Sasha, and Bev together with many national leaders, unions and
leading citizens of the new order. It was bigger than any Zionist celebrity had ever pulled
down. It was done in four languages. The grief and sorrow of the afternoon morphed into
celebration in that evening, a celebration of a new life, the first one-state celebration that
the one-people felt was right and wanted to be part of. Julie and Norm flew-in for it.
Then, after two days of explorations and scheming with Sasha and Ari, they traveled on
for their second Beirut visit.
The Beginning?
316

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Ruling Class Smackdown, the Novel, or, Hellfire Revenge

Ruling Class Smackdown, the Novel,

Robert M. Park © 2010

Copyright and Conditions

Translation to any language is welcome and encouraged, however, translation of more

“.. ..” means a really long pause

“.. and / but..” means somebody interrupted someone else

The Plan: Make the Killing Field More Level

1. The Central Dogma

He started remembering news reports about this-or-that leader of a Palestinian terrorist

Vietnam war? Or the Armenians.. or Madagascar?.. We could discuss history and

3. Migrating the Justice Factor

Washington D.C. who he had met at a UN developmental conference in North Africa.

1. The Hit from Nowhere

contractor-cowboys actually doing intelligence-gathering, interrogating and killing.

3. Getting Their Attention

2 Terror in the Homeland

Any questions, other ideas?

Options 1 and 3 seemed the easiest and safest.

5 Upping the Ante

Re-casting societal problems into interest-calculations instead of moral crusades opened

New Administration – New Escalation

multi-national UN supervised security with transparent administration excluding

Mugabee in Zimbabwe was giving anti-colonialism a bad name and, unfortunately,

The NY media subcommittee was close to apoplexy. Unbelievable things kept

3. Bellies of the Beast

So two of the Americans managed to excuse themselves. About 22 assorted heavies

4. Roman Games Bottom Up

Finally the Tel-Aviv gang of six was queued-up for dinner.

5. Class struggle evangelism: the Awakening

Awakenings 2 happened at Fenway Park in Boston. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO

places without adequate theoretical foundations, or contingency or exit plans. W never

Discussion of “global demands” at Washington University had attracted a lot of attention

Up the Down Escalator, Changing Course, or, New Day on Earth

dependence on high-energy (high-carbon) inputs, buying agrichemicals and going into

A Congressional hearing on executive compensation had been called by the Commerce

A Congressional Committee was examining long-term military strategy. Dennis helped

Safe Passage for State Techno-Thugs

1. Denial at the Top

2. IDF snooper-scooper down

3 Global Audience Appreciation

At LockheedMartin the IDF emergency was as intriguing as it was unexpected, but it

At a teach-in at the University of Illinois, Chicago, originally planned to discuss the

4 Protective Custody and Sequestering a Global Grand Jury

Have you talked with your dad?

With an international consortium of organizations and supportive countries

Guzman appeared on Israeli TV on cue, speaking as chair of a Presidential Advisory

The replacement directorate in Russia quickly agreed to the UN resolution on an

6. Setting the Stage

The Treasury web-site showed Ghetmor‟s public appearance schedule. A presentation

The Peoples’ Inquisition or World Truth Commission

1 Grilling the Executives of Empire

Al Jazeera expected the Inquisition to provide enticing variety in their ever-expanding

environment. Sustainable agriculture. A probing debate arose at CNN: should we cover

After reports on various campaigns and depressing developments on the employment

On the question of the control of communication channels, protecting internet pathways,

3 Wall Street Smackdown Again

Labor rights? Some of Barney‟s POC colleagues explained. In the employment

A Washington University special inter-disciplinary graduate seminar series on coercion

situations, even in universities. There are professors – present company excepted..

5 The Dredging Continues

Returning to Latin America, testimony was improved by the appearance of Elliot

Universal, publicly funded (single-payer) healthcare

other providers, including social workers, religious representatives, who in these