42

 

The Capitol Building

Washington, DC

Jennifer Moran dreaded these meetings with the Gang of Eight at the Capitol building.

First, there was the necessity of meeting in the sound-proofed, bomb-resistant, windowless room in the basement of the Capitol building. Then there was the smallness of the room itself.

While the eight congressional leaders were not allowed to bring aides to these briefings, the room barely accommodated nine or ten people. It was very close quarters.

But today’s briefing to the Gang of Eight at the Capitol would be especially difficult. There were so many conflicts breaking out at various parts of the globe that she didn’t even know where to begin.

The event that had triggered the requirement to meet at the Capitol was the most recent attack in southern Iran. The highly classified intelligence briefs, which she would share with the leaders at the Capitol today, placed the blame for the attacks on the radical Sunni Jundallah terrorist group that opposed Iran’s leadership.

But Moran wasn’t convinced. And there were doubts expressed in both the CIA and NSA briefs as well. It was too easy. She and others felt that Jundallah was an easy patsy.

The problem was compounded by the fact that a few rogue members of Jundallah had swiftly, almost gleefully, taken credit for the nuclear terrorist attack through posts on the mVillage network. This always happened with attacks of this sort. Everyone was always quick to take credit—whether they were responsible or not.

But that was only the beginning of her problems. She also felt compelled to bring the congressional leaders up to speed on the fastmoving developments elsewhere. At least two of the congressional leaders had already asked her about the follow-up actions to the Saudi Aramco attack.

They’d also demanded to know the American response to the attack against West Qurna in southern Iraq. Between the near-simultaneous attacks on oil fields or complexes in Aramco, Iraq, and Iran, the congressional leaders had told her in confidence that they felt like the desperate threat to oil on a global basis had triggered the most severe threat to US interests in the Middle East in a generation.

“What will the president do?” one of them had asked her in a confidential communiqué as a precursor to today’s briefing. “Is he prepared to send troops back into Iraq to protect our oil interests there?”

But the big question that half of the congressional leaders had posed to her and the White House was the obvious, growing challenge to the peace process. Saudi Arabia had laid the blame for Aramco at Iran’s doorstep. It was hard to tell who would ultimately take credit, or blame, for the attack in Iraq, but both Iran and Saudi Arabia were engaged in furious, back-channel finger-pointing.

And now, with the Jundallah incident, Iran was blaming Saudi Arabia—even if the Saudis could plausibly deny they were behind it.

Moran walked into the room. The Gang of Eight, all but one of them men, was already seated.

“So was it Jundallah?” one of them asked even as Moran was removing her coat and taking a seat at the head of the briefing table.

“We don’t know yet,” she answered. “The NSA and CIA briefs are in your—”

“We’ve seen them,” one of the congressional leaders interrupted. “But we want to hear it from you. What’s going on here, Madame Secretary?”

“Yes, are we seeing the beginning of an armed conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia?” demanded another, pounding his fist on the table angrily to emphasize his point. “Is this the Shi’a-Sunni war we’ve all been afraid of for years?”

“And is the president prepared to stand tough with Iran in the peace talks?” asked another. “He’s been lukewarm in his support of Israel in the past, as we all know. Will he shield Israel when the Arab world inevitably blames it for one or more of these attacks?”

Moran took a deep breath. At times like this she longed for the day she could retire from public life and just play board games with her grandchildren. Very soon, she thought. Soon I will be free of these egotistical maniacs.

“We are looking at each and every possibility and course of action closely,” she said calmly. “We have recently redeployed our naval assets to the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the northern waters of the Persian Gulf in the event that any of these conflicts escalate.”

“Fine,” said one of the leaders, “but what will the president do if one of these conflicts gets out of hand?”

“And what will he do now to deal with the collapse of the global oil economy?” asked another. “The price of crude is going through the roof. Every business in America—not to mention homeowners and drivers— is going to scream bloody murder at us to do something about it.”

“We can’t control crude oil pricing or the price of a gallon of gas, as you all know,” Moran said soothingly. “Let us be realistic, at least in this room. What you all say to your constituents is another matter. But in here, we need to see the picture clearly, without bias.”

“Well, that picture is awfully bleak,” offered a fifth leader, who’d been quiet. “So do you have any sort of plan in mind?”

“Actually,” Moran said, “I do have some good news. And for at least half of you in this room from the other party, you will likely welcome it. The former vice president from a previous administration who sits on the board of Aladdin Oil has informed us that the new refinery in the Negev is going live even as we speak. They will be refining oil from the Shfela Basin near Jerusalem any moment. The technology is proven, the refinery is built, the Ashkelon-Eilat pipeline is now a two-way pipeline, and the Ceyhan terminal in southern Turkey is ready to start taking shipments from the Caspian Sea oil companies as well. We’re at a point where we don’t need to rely on the Arab states.”

“Thank goodness for that!” one of the leaders said loudly. “At least someone is doing something. Raney always said this thing would work, both here and out west with our own deep oil shale reserves. So we have a shot at dealing with this, even if the Arab states blow sky-high.”

“See?” Moran said with a broad smile. “I told you that at least half of you would find this welcome news. Now, some of us still see massive environmental unknowns in this oil shale technology. It’s proven, but we’re somewhat uncertain on the risks.”

“Oh, come on!” one of the leaders said, his face red. “Let me guess. The EPA is going to slap a newfangled regulation on the refining process out west, just because they don’t understand the heating process. And right when we need the ability to pull this oil out ourselves. We need this technology, and this oil.”

“You know,” Moran said evenly, “if you all had just committed to clean energy technology sources like solar, wind, and geothermal a few years ago while we still had time, we wouldn’t be in this position right now where we have to allow unproven oil-extracting technology out the door.”

Thankfully, before the conversation degenerated into the ageold war between the two parties over energy security in the United States—a fight that had been stalemated for more than a decade over whether Congress would invest in clean energy sources or continue to protect the carbon-intensive, fossil-fuel energy sources like oil, coal, and gas—another leader raised her hand.

“So what is this we’re hearing about the Twelfth Imam?” she asked. “Is it true, these reports? Did Ali bin Rahman really meet with Reverend Shahidi in Tehran, and is that possibility real?”

“As real as we can imagine,” Moran responded, glad for the diversion. “We have no way of knowing the truth behind the news that bin Rahman delivered. But we know that Iran’s president certainly believes in the imminent return of the Twelfth Imam. So if such a person shows up, who’s to say how he is received? If someone calling himself the Caliph of God appears at the Jamkaran Mosque on the outskirts of Tehran, or in Mecca, who’s to say how he will be received?”

“So it’s a serious possibility?” the leader pressed.

“As serious as anything else we’re dealing with right now,” Moran answered. “Time will tell if bin Rahman has a person in his back pocket, and whether the world will buy that this person is the Mahdi, or the Twelfth Imam. We’ll deal with that if, or when, it presents itself.”

“Don’t you think the president should be preparing for that sort of event right now?” the leader asked. “I can’t imagine a more destabilizing event in the Arab world than the claim that some pan-Islamic religious authority has shown up in Mecca to lead a new series of revolts. The events of the Arab Spring might be considered child’s play if the Arab world gets stirred up by this sort of a figure.”

“As I said, we’ll deal with it,” Moran said firmly. “But I would argue that we need to take these things one at a time. At the present, we’re focused on stabilizing our national energy security. Then we’ll turn to the regional conflicts erupting in Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. After that, we’ll see if we have to deal with this Twelfth Imam character.”

“Fine,” the leader of the party that opposed the president said rather loudly. “But I will tell you this. We here in this room, all eight of us, talked among ourselves before you arrived. We plan to call an emergency joint session of Congress to deal with all of this mess if the president does not address it to our satisfaction.”

“We have this in hand,” Moran said firmly. “The president is the commander in chief, not Congress. We will act, in all of the various regional conflicts.”

“Yes, but we declare war—not the president,” the leader said. “And we also control the purse strings.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” Moran said. “I’m well aware of the War Powers Act and the fact that Congress approves our budget.”

“Good,” the leader said. “So please, convey our concerns to President Camara. We’re serious about this joint session of Congress. We need to see firm action on his part.”