Dick Couch - Out of the Ashes

The most essential quality a planning director brought to any organization was to look beyond the immediate horizon, often way beyond. Someone had to anticipate what the organization would have to deal with in a distant future no one else was looking at. Richard Middleton was the right guy for the job. It was moments like this that reminded Williams why he hired this unusual and uniquely capable man.

Middleton was an Amherst graduate and a blue blood and had marched against the Vietnam War when he was in junior high. He went to CIA after a tour at State and was fluent in five languages. Middleton was far more cunning than anyone Williams had ever met. In the process of considering him for Op-Center Williams had learned Middleton was not well liked or terribly successful at the CIA until a supervisor at Langley saw in him the makings of a covert operator. There, and perhaps only there, he more than excelled, and became one of the best.

Manipulative and even Machiavellian, Middleton understood his role at Op-Center and loved planning. He was a classic big picture guy. Williams marveled at how his planning director could take a plan of operations and see around and ahead of the execution. Middleton had been the first to understand the shift to the terrorists-for-hire threat they were now dealing with and had helped the rest of the staff create the vectors that enabled the Geek Tank to ultimately finger Perkasa and Kashif.

He did come with baggage. Married and divorced twice, his longest monogamous relationship was with an expensive call girl who was now a little long in the tooth. Twice a month they met for dinner, the theater, and a sleep-over. He always paid her well.

“So what do you think we might need to anticipate?” Williams asked.

“I figured we’d want to look at the recent past and extrapolate ahead a bit, especially as it relates to domestic security.”

“Good idea. What you got?”

“The way I figure it, a surge like this, with a focus on Iran’s saber-rattling, isn’t going to stir up any enraged masses. The intelligence community is standing by what we learned in the wake of the NFL attacks. You’ve also advised the president by memo about the terror-for-hire threat.”

“And I appreciate you drafting those memos, Rich. I can tell you they resonated with the president.”

“Thanks, boss. Roger’s intelligence folks, and especially our Geek Tank, are all pretty much in line with what the intelligence community is saying — for the most part. The threat has changed dramatically. We can’t ignore jihadists in explosive vests or some other low-end weapons, but that’s not the way it’s happening today. At least not here.”

“We sure as hell saw that with Kashif and Perkasa, didn’t we?”

“Sure did. Roger and his folks have a great flow of information from the intelligence community. Adam Putnam’s people have delivered everything you’ve asked for and Aaron and his team digest it in real time. Looking ahead, while there are still groups like AQAP, Hamas, and the rest who just stay pissed off at us permanently, there doesn’t seem to be any one leader of a stature approaching bin Laden who’s got a master plan to do us harm.”

“So it’s going to be more random events? Is that what you’re suggesting?”

“I wouldn’t call it random, maybe more like episodic. You get one pissed-off Arab like Kashif with enough money who wants to poke us in the eye ‘just because’ and he hires a guy like Perkasa who’s nothing more than a professional hit man, and he sticks it to us. As far as the IC is concerned, and Roger and I agree with them, that’s the model we should anticipate in the future.”

“That’s a tougher one to deal with than just a dozen guys who want to get to paradise in a big hurry,” Williams replied.

“You’re right there, boss. So now that we know what our Geek Tank can do, Roger and the rest of his intel team think we should provide Aaron and his gang more guidance on where to focus most of their efforts looking ahead. They’re good — but they can’t cover everything all of the time. I have some thoughts on where they should be looking, but I wanted to run them by you.”

“I’m glad you’re doing that, Rich. So where do you think we ought to be looking, internationally or domestically?”

“Well, the easy answer is, both. However, the way my group looks at it, there’s probably not going to be another successful attack like the one on the Marine Barracks in Lebanon, or the U.S. embassies in Africa or the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, or the Cole in Aden Harbor.”

“You don’t think so?” Williams asked. He didn’t want to second-guess his planning director, but Middleton was raising important issues.

“No, I don’t, and for a number of reasons. Number one, we’ve gotten a lot smarter. We’ve hardened targets like embassies and consulates, stopped putting our troops in barracks where they can get blown up, and stopped making dumb-ass decisions like refueling ships in Aden Harbor, no offense to the Navy, boss.”

“No offense taken. My predecessor as CENTCOM commander when Cole was hit in October 2000 would tell you the same thing; it was a dumb move, one of our dumbest.”

“Roger that, but the other big thing is this. With targets that hard, any professional hitter is going to walk away from that kind of assignment. Oh, he’ll take the initial cash and scope out the target, but chances are he won’t try to complete the mission. The risk-reward curve wouldn’t be in his favor.”

“OK, fair enough,” Williams replied, “but what about domestically?”

“ Completely different story. Something like those NFL attacks could happen tomorrow. As you know, we’ve turned up the gain in the intelligence community to focus on the kinds of things that have to happen to set those types of attacks up. In addition, now that we’ve got our Geek Tank cranked up and running on all cylinders, we should get intelligence and warning before the intelligence community does. Nothing’s foolproof, but we’re not defenseless, either.”

“So what should we do next?”

“Next time you speak with the attorney general or the FBI director, you might want to ask them if they think the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group is staffed and ready to use the intel our folks provide. We can only push the intel to them; we can’t make them use it. To be honest with you, boss, talking with the staff and especially our folks who’ve gone onsite at the CIRG command center, we’re not sure they’re able — or even willing — to use the intel we push to them. However, we’re convinced Aaron’s team can provide the best actionable intelligence on a domestic threat before anyone else does. Armed with that, the FBI’s CIRG can intervene before we take a hit.”

“That’s a great idea, Rich. To be honest with you, I’ve had the same thoughts but haven’t reached out to the AG or the FBI director on this issue yet — but I will.”

Several days later, Prince Ali al-Wandi was again at his desert site. He was pleased. His men had done their job and done it well. The false ballistic missile site was in place, ready for the prying eyes of the Global Hawk. Now he walked the short distance from the mock-ups of missile launchers and canisters to the blockhouse to see what his engineers and technicians were doing.

“Come in, Your Excellency,” Jawad Makhdoom began. “I think you’ll be pleased with what you see.”

“I know I will. You have done a great deal in an incredibly short time,” al-Wandi replied. He had no particular love for these engineers, but they were loyal to him and were doing precisely what he wanted them to do. Right now that was all that was important.