Operation Damocles Read online

  “Since these ‘psychotic whackos’ aren’t just randomly killing people for the fun of it, and actually seem to be pleading with people to change the country in their own best interests, I can’t see them as disgruntled government employees that kill a bunch of innocent people just because they got fired, or because their wives left them. They appear to exhibit the same kind of nationalism and ideological purpose that all these other wars of mass destruction have been fought over. What if they’re just madder than hell, and aren’t going to take it anymore, to borrow a phrase?”

  There was a pregnant pause, during which Watkins and Taylor simply eyed one another balefully.

  “When people get mad, Dr. Taylor, occasionally it’s for a reason. Like the first American colonists, they revolt when they feel mistreated by an insensitive government that not only pays them no attention, but taxes them, dictates to them and harasses them at will. They rebel. They threaten and demand. They strike back at their tormentors, and the violence of their outcry is a measure of how strongly they feel and how frustrated they are in trying to do something about it.”

  Taylor stood up, his face angry and flushed, and glared down on an unperturbed woman who appeared even at her lower angle, to be looking down her nose at him. “No sane person believes he can change the world by force, Mrs. Watkins. These people are psychotics who invent causes to kill and die for. They can hire people with brains to build a weapon, and to put it into orbit.”

  “It’s certainly news to me, Dr. Taylor, that sane people don’t believe in the use of force. It happens every day and is advocated by parents, employers, the police, the courts and the government. Even lovers use some form of coercion on a regular basis. In fact, force—and the threat of force—is behind everything organized society does. Everybody seems intent on bending someone else to their will by threat of some penalty or punishment. Throughout history, a lot of people, mainly revolutionaries and established governments, have effectively changed the world for better or worse through use of force. Every turning point in history is marked by a war. In fact, force seems to be the most common instrument of social change.”

  “That doesn’t mean that a few dissatisfied individuals have the right to take the law into their own hands,” stuttered Taylor. “That is anarchy, and in the end, it’s idiotic martyrdom. They cannot win.”

  Watkins sighed and shook her head, unbelievingly. “Dr. Taylor, you’ve called these people stupid, vain-glorious martyrs, loners, antisocial misfits, and applied every other label you can think of, but the military and scientific communities believe that these are some very daring, intelligent, organized people, with a technology far superior to that of anyone else in the world. How can you of all people, a trained psychologist, make from that a portrait of twisted, withdrawn, obsessive zealots, hiding in dark corners, casting furtive glances at each other and jumping at every little noise? For a supposedly educated man, you don’t even seem to have a grasp of elementary history or basic human psychology. I think that if anyone is idiotic, it’s you. I bid you goodnight, Dr. Taylor.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen,”—a spotlight isolated Watkins, and on her cue the camera zoomed in on her, excluding Professor Taylor who strode, red-faced and muttering, into the darkened background of the set—“we have just heard from another self-proclaimed expert on the motivations and psychotic characteristics of terrorists in general, and he lumps the current event in with terrorist bombings, post office shootings, street muggings and all the rest.

  “Contrary to Dr. Taylor’s opinion, I find something uniquely different about this. First, the voice on the tape does not claim credit for any militant organization. Second, it does not ask for the release of political prisoners, espouse any radical political causes or demand any kind of ransom. Once again, the ten demands it makes are as follows:

  “One: All tax-supported colleges and universities will immediately begin teaching evening classes for adults, at cost, in all disciplines, including the sciences and engineering, and these will be fully accredited, compressed schedule, degree-earning curriculums to provide the people of America with the opportunity to obtain a higher education even after they are married and hold full-time jobs. It is time that the people who pay the bills get some of the benefits.

  “Two: The American Constitution and Bill of Rights shall be enforced to the letter, and enforcement of all victimless crimes shall cease. People shall not be treated like a common herd. They shall have the individual freedom to do as they please so long as they do not inflict their beliefs on others, harm others or destroy property. Law enforcement does not have the right to anticipate crime at the expense of liberty, and government does not have the right to dictate individual morals.

  “No civil servant or group thereof may controvert the United States Constitution or Bill of Rights in any way, or make, or waive, the law of the land. Only the citizenry for which the civil servant works may introduce petition for change.

  “No law may be passed without a majority vote by the affected population. Civil servants shall only enforce the laws, they shall not introduce them. No government employees, no matter what their agency or rank, shall use tax dollars to fund political propaganda or support special-interest groups, or cast any public opinions in such matters. That is a clear conflict of interest. This includes all civilian authorities and military forces.

  “There shall be no impromptu use of martial law except in the case of civil emergency, and even then it shall be limited in scope to invasion by foreign nationals or armies, or to prevent looting in the wake of disaster.

  “The justice system shall be streamlined to limit appeals to two, and to exact swift, just punishment of those who bring harm to others. Sentences shall be literal and shall be carried out exactly as handed down. All crimes against people or property shall carry standard, mandatory sentences without dispensation. No one shall have privilege in this respect.

  “Three: The total parasitic load on society shall be reduced to no more than twenty percent of the gross domestic product. That includes all government—local, state and national. It includes the criminal justice industry, the largest industry in the nation. It includes the combined military forces. In short, the public burden for all expenses for services supported directly or indirectly by taxes shall be reduced to less than twenty percent of GDP.

  “To prevent hidden taxes, there shall be no income tax, inheritance tax, property tax, capital gains tax or corporate tax. The Internal Revenue Service shall be dismantled. The only tax permitted shall be a uniform sales tax, levied on everything except food, clothing, shelter, fuel and medical care, evenly applied to every individual without deductibles. The tax shall be collected by each state, and twenty percent passed on to the federal government for the national defense, and for the national regulation of health standards, interstate highways, public safety, quality of food, pharmaceuticals, air and water. There shall be no federally supported endowments. Artistic expression and other such endeavors are not the purview of the government.

  “Four: Parents shall have ultimate authority over their minor children unless it can be proved that they are unfit or cruel. They shall have the fundamental right to discipline and teach their offspring as they see fit, including the limited exercise of corporal punishment, so long as such discipline is not cruel or unjust beyond reason, and such teachings do not engender disrespect for the life, liberty and property of others.”

  Watkins paused, “There are six more commandments or dictates, ten in all,” she said, “and the content is lengthy. Just to summarize the main points, number five does not permit foreign ownership of United States real property or natural resources, or the exercise of political influence in the United States by foreign business or foreign nationals; number six restricts the terms of senior federal executives and makes conduct not in keeping with the interests of the American people treasonous; number seven establishes a mandatory life sentence without parole for the act of treason by a public official; number eight
addresses conflict of interest by government employees; number nine restricts government involvement in the affairs of foreign nations; and number ten limits government interference in private enterprise to consumer safety, and to public protections against monopolistic advantage and profligate behavior.”

  Watkins continued, “The preamble of the taped message states: ‘If the government fails in any respect to enact and enforce these laws, factories and businesses, military installations, even major population centers shall be destroyed. Such destruction shall continue until the people rally together, take responsibility and force their governing officials to comply. These commandments are not negotiable.’

  “I don’t know about you folks,” Watkins addressed her listeners, “but these demands do not seem insane to me, and are in fact the very things most of us claim to want. I don’t understand why, with so much at stake, these things can’t simply be done. If the people are willing to meet these demands, even desire the changes, then who are these civil servants to say no? For most of the demands, it would only take the stroke of a pen to change the law. Our elected officials are posturing and breast-beating and protecting their own perks, but there are millions of our lives at stake.

  “Congress and the President claim that if they give in to these demands, no matter how innocuous they seem, that further, more impossible demands will be made in the future. In my personal opinion, I think that we should meet the demands until something impossible is actually demanded. What if these people are exactly what they say they are? Almost two weeks have passed since the tape was sent, and nothing has been done.

  “I have interviewed five people, including Dr. Taylor, and I’m appalled at the moronic way this is being exploited. As with any big news item, the self-promoters like Dr. Taylor are coming out of the woodwork to get on television. The incumbent politicians are posing and acting defiant, while the ones who want to take their places are ridiculing the incumbents and offering asinine solutions, or no solutions at all.

  “The military is speculating on whether or not this weapon is capable of the threatened destruction. No one seems to be considering the potential loss of life if it is, and if these people do exactly what they say they will do.

  “There have been no attempts at negotiation, primarily because the terrorists have said there will be none. No one even knows how to communicate with them. They have been absolutely silent since the destruction at the Marine base in California. One assumes that they are listening to television broadcasts, and if they are, I hope that they will reconsider, and not destroy all those innocent lives. There must be another way to bring about change. We all know that our government is out of our control and we don’t know how to fix it, but the massacre of innocent people can’t be the solution.

  “If you are listening, I appeal to you, sincerely, with all my heart, whoever you are, please don’t do what you have threatened. There has to be a better way.

  “Once again, according to the warning, on August 11, residents of the East Coast need to be west of a line that runs roughly north-south along the Eastern Seaboard between Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Concord, Massachusetts. If what is threatened comes to pass, anyone who is east of that line on that day, is risking death. My instincts tell me to err on the side of safety. Take your most precious belongings and your pets, and move to safety. The man on the tape pleads with you to heed the warning. The only alternative is complete compliance with his demands, and as of this moment, that doesn’t seem likely.

  “I want to thank you ladies and gentlemen in the audience, and our viewers for tuning in. We are out of time. I’m Beverly Watkins for Perspective. Good night.”

  IX

  On July 25, the White House held a press conference. The reporters present clapped sporadically as President Vanderbilt took the podium. Lack of the usual enthusiasm was a gauge of their concern, and Vanderbilt noted it.

  “Ladies and gentlemen of the press,” he said, surveying the quiet, serious faces that regarded him, “and my fellow Americans, I’m glad of this opportunity to lay your fears to rest, and to cast some light on this situation. I will make a statement, then take a limited number of questions from the press.”

  Vanderbilt glanced at his notes for a brief instant, his jaw working in a way that had become a noted characteristic, an unconscious manifestation of his thought processes when he was weighing which approach to take. He decided on his “comforting father” demeanor, rather than the “shaking his fist in the face of his antagonists” routine. Both were becoming the trademarks of his persona, and both were still fresh enough to garner a satisfactory response from the public when appropriately applied. Throughout his election campaign and his subsequent months in office, he had almost always used the comforting approach when he addressed concerns of policy that would affect jobs and similar domestic issues, such as economic matters of general interest to the nation. His damn the torpedoes approach was generally reserved for those small, sovereign nations, who for one reason or another, resisted U.S.-enforced United Nations edicts that dictated policy to them. Conflicts of those sort were generally only an immediate threat to the small nation and its neighbors, posed no real problem to the safety of American citizens, and so were not of great concern to the voting public, but his courageous image would be imprinted on the public psyche.

  In the present situation, Vanderbilt had still debated, up until this moment, which tack to take. He decided that should his advice prove wrong, it would be safer not to be remembered as having dared the terrorists to “shoot and be damned.” He could further shift potential public ire toward the military, by laying his advice before the people as the collective wisdom of his military advisors.

  He looked up and addressed the unseen audience of millions, focusing past the camera lens into the imagined living rooms of the nation. “I realize that many of you are concerned about the televised warnings, and the hysterics-inducing rhetoric that certain irresponsible media people have used to improve their audience share.” His disdainful eye drifted briefly over the assembled press contingent.

  “Experts in the United States military, and the best scientific minds in our nation, do not believe that these terrorist threats have any real merit. This kind of communications-age goad is the greatest weapon in the arsenal of a modern terrorist, and he could not use it without the use of an information media that has instant access to millions of people. His actual power over people is magnified a million-fold by his ability to amplify the public’s perception of it.

  “His principal method is to engender fear into the minds of the timid so that they become disorganized and at odds with the authorities, and behave in a way that disrupts organized efforts to combat him. That is where the term terrorism comes from. He seeks to create panic and distrust of the government. I ask you all to understand this, and to regain your sense of perspective.

  “Ask yourselves, how could a nation, let alone a single man, destroy such a vast area as the Eastern Seaboard? Such a feat would require dozens of nuclear missiles, and the greatest nuclear powers on earth could not hope to do it with impunity. Let’s defeat this barbarous act of terrorism in the only way that it can be defeated . . . by ignoring it.

  “If you will do this, these impotent threats will subside. The damage reported at Eidermann Air Force Base was greatly exaggerated by the sensation seekers. This was an old, almost abandoned, World War II airfield, in the middle of nowhere, which for the past thirty or forty years has been used only for the storage of obsolete equipment and war materiel. It was easily possible for some sensation-seeking whackos to plant explosives all over the place, and set them off with an ordinary timing device. Senator Bill Harford, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has conducted an in-depth investigation of the Eidermann incident, and he believes that it was accomplished in just that way.

  “The United States Air Force Space Command and the United States Army Strategic Defense Command cannot confirm the initial idea that this was some kind of th
reat from space—an orbital weapon system of some sort. I don’t know who proposed such a thing, but experts assure me that such a weapon would be of considerable size, if it were possible at all, and that they can find no such weapon anywhere in the vicinity of Earth.

  “Let me assure you that the Space Command keeps very close tabs on all objects in orbit about the Earth, and knows the position of every last fragment that might interfere with planned satellite launches. They can find no unlisted objects there.

  “The authorities conclude that this is an empty threat by some demented faction that wants to have some sick fun at your expense. Let’s not give credence to these people, or even dignify such perversions by worrying about them. The authorities have things well in hand, and are seeking the perpetrators as we speak. I have no doubt that we will eventually find and arrest these people.”

  Vanderbilt turned to his live audience: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll take a few questions at this time. I’m due at a Commerce briefing in thirty minutes, but I can grant a moment or two if you will keep your questions brief and to the point. Yes, Martha . . .”

  X

  Richard Calvin Broderick occupied a secluded, corner office on the third floor of “G” Building, at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He and his small section consisted of twenty-two field operatives and a secretary. Broderick did not have a job description. If he had, under “Duties” it would probably have read, “Uses psychological terrorism and murder to manipulate public behavior . . .”

  He did things to make sure that public thinking followed the path that Washington marked out for it. His job included drawing public attention away from embarrassing issues by creating diversions, or steering public opinion in a preferred direction, or just by instilling the fear of God into a particular group of people. Sometimes it just required a bit of S&M—smoke and mirrors. He was an inventive man.