Chapter 272

Tuesday and Wednesday were full on-the-mat training. The Michigan group was split up so half of them could get the computer training and the other half started on the mats with the Rochester group.

With Ty, Kathryn and Herman from the agency working as trainers for us while the Rochester group was here, plus Ching Lee and Vicky, we worked them hard.

Ty and Herman tried their best not to show it, but they were getting their jollies working the Rochester officers over. The class for today was getting control of a suspect, how to keep control, how to do it without hurting them and then how it could be done very painfully. It was something that we taught every class.

Ching Lee and Vicky taught how to use the padded sticks from a defensive posture and as an offensive tool. By lunchtime the donut officers were physically worn to a frazzle. Afternoon on the mats was out of the question for them.

By luck I had anticipated that this would happen. I had asked Judge Slaughter to give overviews of privacy rights and an overview of aggressive tactics from the court's prospective.

The Judge was spending a lot of time with Jason even going on some JBG business flights. I suspected something was in the wind and knew it for sure when Jason suggested that the Judge speak to the group.

Judge Slaughter was preparing for the lecture circuit in the courts down season. He was beginning to slow down some. When he was younger he spent all his time off on the bay crabbing and fishing. With his dry sense of humor and his knack for storytelling, he would be great on the lecture tour.

The judge must have been preparing for awhile and with help. He had a laptop with a PowerPoint that Marcy helped him set up to run. He called it, "What If and Why Not". I would have loved to sit through it, but the Michigan 10 who were on the mats this morning rested through more computer training and the other 10 joined us trainers on the mats for four more hours.

I had taken two calls during the morning mat session. One was from Frank; that lasted 10 minutes in Arabic. He wanted to move up the C130 flights by a day and extend it by a day. The pilots had already agreed but he wanted me to OK it with Lorrie.

"Chicken," I kidded.

With the new pilots there was no problem on our end. Jack had signed approval on the instrument check rides yesterday and felt sure that he would on the remainder of them today.

I found Lorrie and brought her up to date on Frank's request and asked if it was a problem. "No, not at all," she replied. I could have sworn I saw dollar signs in her eyes. Marcy's quest for profits was beginning to rub off on her.

The second call was a surprise for it too was in Arabic. It was made from the Rochester College security front desk.

It was the leader of the poster group that I had confronted when we were there; I recognized the voice. He introduced himself as 'Aadam Abdul Mohammad'

"We met at the fence a few weeks ago. We had a private talk while my aids went to summon the artist. Do you remember any of the things we talked about?" he asked.

"Yes, we talked about how the weather was in Bagdad in the spring and compared it to the weather in Rochester, was one topic," I replied.

"Yes, good - I wanted to make sure I was talking to the right person," he replied. "I have a favor to ask, as you call it."

"OK, what can I help you with?" I replied.

"I am having a special celebration with friends and family from other cities Thursday, Friday and the weekend. I wish your approval to have the artist display their work those four days. We will keep the litter picked up and remove everything as agreed on Sunday evening," he said.

I thought, "A meeting of the terrorists," before I answered.

"Yes, it will be OK, I will inform my security people so they will not bother your artist," I replied.

He thanked me and we had another five minute general conversation before he ended the call.

I called Kelly Pepper and explained what was going to take place and that the artist were not to be bothered, along with the agreement that cleanup was as usual Sunday evening.

The next call I made was to Eric. I was sure DHS most likely knew what was going to happen in Rochester but I wanted Eric to hear what I knew directly from me.

Mable sent my call through without delay, even though Eric was in a classified meeting. As usual we spoke in German.

"There had been chatter from several sites that there was going to be a meeting of the clan, but we have not been able to pinpoint the exact location," he stated.

"Randy has already called in; he was startled when Aadam walked into the security office. It was the first time anyone had seen him without his security detail. Aadam made them wait outside the office while he talked with Kelly to get your phone number." Eric said. "Kelly suggested that he use the office phone for quicker response. It was quick thinking on Kelly's part to keep him from getting your personal phone."