Chapter 149

After seeing my family off, the first thing I did was read the details of all the intel intercepts for the last ten days. While on vacation I was receiving just the summaries.

I read part of them then went to the national security briefing on the second floor. There is where I had an unusual awakening. Iran was in worse shape than previously thought.

Their military was now getting paid with script and not cash, not even every week but every other week. The script could be deposited and then drawn against to buy food and fuel when it was available. Cash was rare except for the ruling class.

All payments to the surrogate terrorist groups were stopped. The Iranians were now demanding hard currency for weapons shipped to the groups.

That explained the four scows that the Navy and JBG security ships had seized in the ten days we had been vacationing. The decks were false. Underneath the deck, the hold was filled with weapons that were to be sold to combatants in Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and the rest of Africa.

The Iranians were having a fire sale. That’s why more modern weapons were turning up in Africa and the Middle East.

The Iranian weapon delivery system was falling into hard times and the revenue the arm sales produced was coming to an end. Every shipment that was seized was less money they were to receive.

After thirty years of embargoes and sanctions, the Mullahs were nearing an end. Instead of saying enough and coming into compliance with UN decree, they were going to go full out war in the Middle East.

It would be so easy for them to negotiate out of this mess but no. Europe was anxious for a solution itself, desperate to trade oil for any commodities.

The intercepts - when all placed together - for the last six months was like a road map. A sentence here, a paragraph there - when connected they told the story. The only thing lacking was their war plan and a date when it was to happen.

Were the massive Iranian military exercises the lead-in for their battle plan? I was willing to bet it was. Why else would they expend so much money when things were so desperate nationwide?

When the drills were over, whatever they had in mind would not happen in sixty to ninety days. They would need that long to resupply and rearm from their warehouses and correct any problems with their army that the drills revealed.

After lunch there was a meeting with the joint chiefs for updates on all the things I had raised issues in with the last few weeks.

I ate lunch quietly by myself and was still reading. When I finished, Troy and I discussed several things he was working on for me.

One of them was information on creating an investigating branch with subpoena power for the Executive Branch.

Congress had subpoena powers and the ability for forwarding cases to the judiciary for prosecution. The Justice Department had their own subpoena and prosecution powers.

The four constitutional experts that briefed me during the first few days I was in office said that there were no words in the Constitution forbidding such an agency within the executive branch. They also said that there were no words allowing such an agency.

The result was their suggestion to try it and see how it went with the courts. That was what Troy and I were discussing - the right way to continue. First thing was a news release to announce it and wait for reactions.

The joint chiefs were in the conference room waiting. When I walked in the Secretary of Navy started the discussion.

‘‘The Bush and Eisenhower will leave for sea trials on Friday. Provisions and weapon are being loaded. They will leave for their duty station immediately after completion of the trials. The rest of the task force will be ready to go with them ‘‘

That would be four carrier task forces at sea and a good start. The big question was would the other two be ready in time. It was also time to get the Pacific task forces engaged in the process.

‘‘The engineers have figured out a way to refuel the Stennis quickly. The Stennis and Thomas may both be ready in three months or less,’’ he said.

I listened as the Air Force gave updates on plane readiness. It was a number calculated every day on how many planes could sortie if an order was given. The numbers were slowly moving up.