Tom Clancy - Locked On

The CBS Washington correspondent was next, and she asked Ryan how he could possibly punish the entire nation of Pakistan for the actions of a few rogue agents in the ISI.

Ryan nodded slowly before replying. “The ISI does not have rogue agents. It is a rogue agency. My opponent says individual men or individual units are the problem. I disagree. The rogue elements of the ISI, frankly, are the ones who are on our side. The ISI and the Army are our enemy, save for a limited number of men, a limited number of units, who are our friends. We need to find these rogues and do what we can to support them in ways other than just sending billions of dollars unchecked into the coffers of the Pakistani government. That is a welfare check for the supporters of terror, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is a decade-long strategy that has not produced the desired results.”

Kealty’s rebuttal was short. “President Ryan supported Pakistan to the tune of several billion dollars when he was President.”

To which Jack, speaking out of turn but speaking nonetheless, said, “And I was wrong about that. We all were, and I hate to admit it, but I will not stick with a failed policy just to hide the fact I made a mistake.”

The journalists on the panel sat and stared at Ryan. A presidential candidate admitting a mistake was alien to them.

The next questioner was from CNN, and she asked both candidates about the trial of the Emir. Kealty repeated his support for the process, and he challenged Ryan to tell him why, exactly, he felt the Department of Justice would not be able to aggressively prosecute Mr. Yasin.

Ryan looked into the camera with raised eyebrows. “President Kealty, I accept your challenge. We have brought several terrorists to trial in the federal system over the past twenty years. Some of those prosecutions were more successful than others. Many of the cases in which the attorney general failed to get a conviction involved defendants who were represented by a powerful legal team who, in the opinion of many nion of legal scholars, bent the rules in the defense of their clients. Now, the American system of justice could not survive without a vigorous defense, but many of these defense attorneys crossed the line.

“This happened on my watch, so I was very close to the work of my AG, and I saw what these defense attorneys did, and I was sickened by it.

“The Emir will not have many of these defense attorneys, and you may think that is a good thing, ladies and gentlemen, but it is not, because nine of these attorneys who advocated for the terrorists who killed thousands of Americans at home and on the battlefields are now working for the Justice Department. If these people, all unabashed advocates of the terrorists, are part of the government’s prosecution, and the terrorists’ own lawyers are unabashed advocates of the terrorists, who is there to be an advocate of the American people?”

Kealty’s nostrils flared on rebuttal. “Well, Mr. Ryan. You keep calling these defendants ‘terrorists.’ They are alleged terrorists until they are convicted. I don’t know if any of these men are guilty, and neither do you.”

Ryan replied, again turning the moderated debate into an unmoderated conversation, “One of the men who was defended by people who are now representing the United States in the Justice Department’s case against the Emir said from the witness box, he screamed it, actually, and this was the quote from the trial transcript. ‘I hope the jihad will continue and strike the heart of America and all kinds of weapons of mass destruction will be used.’ Can we not take this man at his word that he is an enemy of our nation? A terrorist?”

Kealty waved it away and replied. The moderator had lost all control. “You aren’t a lawyer, Jack. Sometimes people say things that are intemperate; that does not make them guilty of the crime for which they are being tried.”

“‘Intemperate’? Screaming that you hope America is destroyed is ‘intemperate,’ Mr. President? That’s right, you are a lawyer.”

The crowd laughed.

Jack put his hand up quickly. “Nothing against attorneys. Some of my best friends are lawyers. But even they tell the most biting lawyer jokes.”

More laughs.

Ryan continued, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, you will be forgiven for not knowing about this terrorist, his outburst, and the fact that nine of his defense attorneys now work in the Kealty administration. You will be forgiven because there was very little mention of this in the media at the time.

“But it troubles me, Mr. President, that nine members of your administration worked on the defense of terrorists. Now they are in positions of influence in our government, where they bring the same warped sensibilities to their jobs which, ultimately, is the national security of the United States. And then, when the military commissions are suggested, you and your people say these defendants can only get a fair trial in federal court. I think most Americans would be bothered by this”—he looked to the panel of journalists sitting before him—“if they only knew about it.”

Jack also wanted to wink at Arnie van Damm, who, right now, would be reaching for the Maalox. Arnie had told Jack over and over not to antagonize the press, because it didn’t look presidential.

Screw how it looks, Jack decided. They have it coming.

“President Kealty’s attorney general made the comment recently — again, it wasnurit it wasnt reported by the mainstream press, for some reason — that the FBI put Capone in prison for tax evasion, and maybe we should look into similar means to prosecute the terrorists we captured on the battlefield, because their capture was clearly not in the rule of law. Do you agree with this, President Kealty? Do you or your Justice Department know how many captured terrorists filed U.S. income tax forms last year?”

Kealty did his best to control his rage, but his face reddened under his makeup. He replied, “My opponent believes there is one type of justice for ‘us,’ and another type of justice for ‘them.’”

“If by ‘them,’ you are saying Al-Qaeda, or the Umayyad Revolutionary Council, or any one of a number of groups that mean to destroy us… then yes, that is what I believe. They deserve their day in court, a chance to defend themselves, but they do not deserve each and every right afforded the citizens of the United States.”

Mohammed al Darkur, Sam Driscoll, three ISI captains, and a dozen Zarrar commandos flew out of PAF Base Peshawar at four a.m. in a Pakistani Air Force Y-12 turboprop transport aircraft. The pilot took them to the southeast, over the mountains of Khyber and Kurram Agencies, and finally into North Waziristan.

They landed on Miran Shah’s one useful runway and were immediately shuffled by local forces into an armored personnel carrier for the ride through the dark town to the military fort.

Within seconds of entering the main gate of the base, al Darkur, Driscoll, the three captains, and two sections of soldiers piled into four heavy-duty delivery trucks with canvas-covered beds, and they rolled straight out of the rear gate of the compound. If any Haqqani network spies were watching the comings and goings of the PDF forces in town, this would throw them off the scent. There would be spies near the fort, and the ISI had developed certain countermeasures to lose any surveillance they picked up before heading out to one of their safe houses.

The four delivery trucks rolled back through town at dawn, passed the airport to the west, and separated onto different roads. Each truck pulled into a different small walled compound in a different part of the city, and the men inside the vehicles climbed out and then climbed aboard new trucks. Spotters on the roofs of the compounds watched to see if their visitors had picked up any tails and, when they deemed the streets clear of Haqqani watchers, radioed down an all clear to the new trucks. The gates were reopened by men stationed in advance at the safe house, and the new, cleansed trucks departed.