Chapter 45

I was late getting started. the girls and the kids were treated to a White House breakfast. Then I saw them off from the rear parking lot.

People were already waiting for me in the Oval Office and there were items on my desk. The first thing I read was the National Security Alert sheet. It was always the top sheet, then there was a more in-depth report in the attached folder, if I needed more detail. Today I did not and left it on the side of the desk.

Eric, Marty, AG Dunne, Phil Fitzpatrick and Allen Meadows were in my office next, I got the report on yesterday’s weapons collection. It was not encouraging.

“The EPA lost, had stolen or were simply missing more than two hundred and forty weapons: one hundred and fifteen M16 assault rifles, one hundred MP5 assault rifles and rest Smith & Wesson 9 mm semiautomatic pistols and riot shotguns,’’ Eric said.

‘‘That is an unusually high number of unaccounted for weapons, unless they are hoarding them - thinking we will just ignore them,’’ I said.

‘‘The IRS and ATF were worse,” Marty added.

‘‘Looks like they are trying to hold on to a few,’’ I said.

‘‘There is a process to account for missing weapons. When you get finished with today’s confiscation, revisit all the missing weapons. They were assigned to individuals, they are responsible for them. See if there is any documentation as to when they were lost. They didn’t lose all of them yesterday,’’ I said.

‘‘There should have been an investigation and a supervisor’s signature on a report with findings and recommendations for discipline or termination,’’ I said.

‘‘If they went missing and there is no chain of events paperwork, I want both parties under criminal investigation and then terminated. You know the drill. That is just too many missing weapons,’’ I said then added,’’ You would not stand for it in your agency and neither would JBG.’’

‘‘I wouldn’t doubt they are being hoarded,’’ Eric said.

‘‘Turning the screws will find out for sure,’’ I said.

They each left the paperwork from yesterday. I looked it over and was amazed. Why did the EPA need fifty pallets of ammo for M16s and twenty five pallets of 9mm at the central storage depot?

I knew the standard shipping pallet was 108000 rounds. Why did the EPA need five and a half million rounds of ammo for M16s? For that matter, why did they need two and a quarter million rounds of 9mm ammo?

Why did the EPA need a central storage depot to begin with? They pushed paper, why do you need a central storage depot for that? Paper gets scanned and stored in the cloud.

I wondered what else was there that needed looking at? I would send the FBI back in a couple days to do a complete inventory and audit.

The group left to follow today’s progress. I took all the papers they left to one of my many clerks and instructed them to put it in a format I could use for the news conference.

The next thing on my desk was the complete report from the Nevada. The damage was extensive, but not as bad as we were led to believe after looking at all the pictures and those with it high and dry in the dry dock. If it was not one of the newer subs, it would be scrapped for sure.

I sent a note to the Navy asking where would the repairs would be completed? How soon could the repairs could start, and I needed a timeline until it was back in service. I was anxious as to what kind of response I would get back.

The second group of pictures were of all the debris that the Nevada’s crew had picked out of the debris field while they were evaluating their own damage. I looked them over closely and then called General Ingram, Secretary of Defense Admiral Scott and the Sectary of the Navy Bramble to come back to my office. They were in the building for a meeting in the basement.

We discussed the pictures and then discussed getting the items back to North Korea. The items had no national security value to us. All the logs and other papers had been copied and sent to the different agencies to be studied. Everything that had any potential value had been photographed or copied.

I decided to use the Chinese diplomats to send them to North Korea. I ordered the Sectary of the Navy to have them boxed up and sent to the American embassy in Japan. Ambassador Bridgette Sloan was the US Ambassador there.

I had Connie make one more copy of everything. I called the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Guanyu Chin, to come to the White House for a meeting today before 1400. I wanted China to have it before the news conference - I wanted to make an honest statement about the incident.

Carl, Connie, Kitty and I began putting all the data together for today’s news conference. There was to be an update at 1300 from the agencies that were collecting the firearms. We would add that information then print it out and add a copy to the teleprompter for me to use.

I sent an agent to the news room to work with Harry to verify the MTAC screen was working. By going over all the data, I could see this was going to be one long news conference, but there was a lot to talk about and explain.

At 1100 Ambassador Chun was in the lobby. Kitty brought him to the Oval Office. After a cautious greeting I began the conversation.

‘‘Ambassador Chin, last Thursday one of our submarines, the USS Nevada, was returning to its duty station in Sasebo Japan for electrical repairs. Its mission had been plagued with electric failures and gremlins,’’ I said.

‘‘At a depth of 700 feet and a speed of fifteen knots it collided with an unknown object. It immediately surfaced to evaluate damage and make radio contact with the fleet headquarters,’’ I said.

‘‘While surfacing there was sounds of an implosion. The object they hit was obviously another submarine and was settling to the deep ocean bottom. While they were surfaced and doing the damage assessment, some debris was rising all around them,’’ I said. ‘‘They were able to collect some of the debris. Most of the debris was plastic and insulation, with a few pieces of clothing and some records that we believe are ship logs,’’ I said.

‘‘There were no human remains on the surface while they were in the area. They did do several sweeps of the area before they departed. The debris indicated that it was the North Korean Submarine 830.5 that you have been looking for since last Tuesday,’’ I said.

I slid the binder of the debris pictures and the copies of the pages from the logs to Ambassador Chin and waited for him to look at them.

‘‘The Nevada has reached the Navy yard and I ordered all the collected debris taken to the US embassy there. We have no embassy in North Korea and a very poor dialog with them - as you know,’’ I said.

‘‘I would appreciate it if your ambassador to Japan would pick up the materials and see that it gets delivered it to the North Korean ambassador stationed in your country,’’ I said.

Ambassador Chin agreed to contact Chinese Ambassador Yakui Su - stationed in Tokyo - to pick up the material and start the process to return it. The conversation lasted a few more minutes before he stood to leave. I handed him the binder that he had looked at, ‘‘Take this with you. It may help answer some questions. The GPS location of where the collision happened is in the front of the binder,’’ I said.