Chapter 25

With Roberts’s latest reports, I was meeting with Ben, Eric, Frank, Anne and Andrew. It was to be the last meeting until I returned from Portugal. The ISIS contact had emailed Tiam - therefore General Kadar - the pictures of the twenty girls and their chaperons; not only pictures but their travel plans - flight numbers and all. They were making the flight to the US the third week of July.

An enormous debate ensued. A couple of members - especially from the FBI - wanted to pick them up at the airport. I quickly shut that down; such a move would kill the intelligence source.

“How do you know that this is not them checking their communications for breaches? They could be waiting at these airports to see if we show up in force,” I said.

“We know when they are coming. What better information can we have than the information on their passports? Not only that, when they come through customs we could get weight, height, multipoint facial scans, full finger and hand prints and possibly DNA. Plus anything with them would be scanned for data; the customs search could be very thorough. We needed to make sure an agency specialist is working in customs the days they are to arrive,” I said.

I cornered Eric to have a new rule implemented that all persons arriving on either a student visa or a work visa had to submit to a mouth swab DNA sample to be added to the visa file at the point and time of entry.

Eric was not happy but when he saw how serious I was and the arguments for it, he agreed. The logistics were going to be a nightmare at customs entry points. Eric was going to issue an emergency rule effective in ten days.

Ten days was barely enough time to get the kits and training but it had to be done. I was sure I would hear more from the White House - oh well, I had big shoulders...

Back at the White House it was soon time to leave. I made one phone call to Hanna. Then I sent a Secret Service agent out to find Melinda Schaffer and her camera man Nick Cote to bring them to the side media room.

The side media room was where a reporter who was granted special access to administration VIP’s could do a one on one interview.

“Melinda, Nick are your passports valid?” I asked.

“Yes, but why do you ask?” Melinda replied.

“Be at Morton Field at 1400 so you can go through customs, the plane leaves at 1500 with or without you. Pack for four days - the temperatures are in the low 60s and daytime highs will be low to mid 80s,” I replied.

“Nick, bring enough equipment to do remote broadcasts” I added.

“Where are we going?” Melinda asked.

“I cannot tell you and you cannot tell anyone - not even your bosses – that you are leaving or for how long. To do so may mean the difference of walking down the plane steps or getting carried out of the cargo bay in a body bag when the plane comes back home. You will be able to do a live broadcast tomorrow. They will know where you are then,” I replied.

I felt sure Andy had all the possibilities covered but there was always the chance. One of those ‘never say never’ things.

Back in Section 12 I informed Anne, Andrew and Ben I was leaving and would not be back until Monday. On the way out I let Troy and the President know I was going to go to Portugal.

“Good luck, keep your head down and stay out of the headline news,” Troy said.

He already knew that was not going to happen.

I arrived home at 1230 and had lunch with the girls and boys, then went through the list of things that had been packed. Then there was the list of things that needed to be packed and it was down to a few items.

At two we were at Morton looking over the plane. All the seats were back in the plane; in fact, it had made several paying flights since it had brought us back from Israel. I checked to make sure the fancy dresses had been properly stored as well as all the other items for the State dinner Vicky and I were going to attend.

Gordon Decker was going to be my escort to the dinner and Sid Ortel was going to be Vicky’s. I double checked to make sure the tux, shoes and the like were packed. The jewelry was packed and locked.

When I went back into terminal, Hanna and Jed Hoover were waiting. While we were making small talk Melinda and Nick arrived with their baggage and gear.

To leave the United States on commercial flights one needs to go through customs here for departure inspection to prove you are not a fugitive, mass murder or wanted for other various crimes. When you arrive at your destination you will have a much faster trip through customs or you will have a very long wait with the customs process.