Chapter 3: Building Momentum

June 27, 2008
Remote Location, 100 miles from Bakersfield, CA

Dave Daniels sat in his office, reading the latest from the bloggers, while he waited for the meeting to reconvene. The missions in the past two weeks had been successful beyond his expectations. America's enemies were in disarray and it was time to decide what the next steps would be. The successes had not come without some costs. Clearly, the main beneficiary of the group's actions had been the United States and her allies, so suspicion ran heavy, at least in the Islamic world. So too, did fear. The groups annihilation of Al Qaeda in the United States had struck fear into the heart of the terrorists, and the active cell members that Daniels had under surveillance in Europe had gone to ground. The ones in the Middle East were less careful, but Daniels felt that there would be diminishing returns in that arena. While he was certain he could reach high value targets in the Middle East, it wouldn't be public, and the point was to show the world that actions, including words, had consequences. Scanning the world map that covered a wall of his office, his attention turned to the south.

June 28, 2008
United Nations

The disaster in Lebanon was the subject of the day, and with the United Nations having security responsibilities already in the area, they were the natural party to undertake the humanitarian mission. Millions of dollars had already been pledged from aid organizations world wide, and both Israel and the United States had pledged nearly a hundred million dollars to help rebuild Beirut, which was accepted with great suspicion by the Lebanese. Rafik Hariri was of two minds about the whole situation. The annihilation of Hezbollah left him completely secure politically, and he could now consolidate his power, rebuild the country, and move Lebanon away from Syrian influence and build a democracy. However, he found it awfully convenient that a Hezbollah missile just happened to shoot down the plane that annihilated the party's leadership and membership. Sentiment on the streets were similar, but the humanitarian aid and money for reconstruction was welcomed. At the behest of the Arab League, an international commission made up of representatives from both Arab and Western countries would investigate the disaster and determine what happened. In the international press, though, the case seemed fairly open and shut. A Lebanese aircraft was shot down by a Hezbollah missile, and the results were catastrophic.

June 29, 2008
Havana, Cuba
2:00 PM

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was in Cuba to meet with council members from the Non-Aligned Movement. While the next official meeting of the NAM was not scheduled to take place until the following year, Chavez and Castro, who was the president of the NAM, found the events of the past year troubling enough to meet regarding the issue. Also present were Juan Morales, president of Bolivia, and Daniel Ortega, from Nicaragua. "It's obvious that the Americans are behind this," boomed Chavez, his meaty fist pounding an exclamation point into the table.

Ortega wasn't so convinced. He felt that the events of the past few days were both too subtle for the current American administration and also too extreme. "The American government wouldn't have done something like the Lebanon incident, and if they'd known those Al Qaeda people were in their country they would have sent them here, not killed them in the street," said Ortega. Castro emerged from his reverie and nodded after being prompted by his brother. He was deep into his eighties and fading fast. Although he had regained sufficient health to resume the title of Supreme Leader, his mental faculties were clearly degraded. Morales regarded Ortega with a vacant stare. Ortega snorted. Clearly the Bolivian president wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.