Chapter 462

By the time I closed up and reached the Capitol steps, the two secret service agents were taking steps two and three at a time to meet me.

One had me by the arm and the other took my portable office as we hurried to the limo, with the news people who were trying to stop us for an interview left standing and up to the White House we went.

Back in Section 12, I put the feed on the big screens even though everyone on the task force could see the action. The explosions were almost continuous from the mortar fire and RPGs.

A mortar is primarily an anti-personnel weapon. They simply hit the ground and throw shrapnel to disable and kill - and they do a good job of it. It will also disable light or unarmored vehicles with a direct hit.

Once a target area was determined and a placement round is fired to determine the adjustment for accuracy, an experienced fire team could grid an area with mortar bombs, as the rounds were frequently called.

A RPG (rocket propelled grenade) developed by the Russians was effective against armored vehicles, even known to disable tanks if the round was placed in a soft spot and the right explosive head was used.

It could be used to penetrate concrete walls if successive rounds were placed in the same spot. I could see on the camera that is what they were trying to do.

An RPG was credited with striking and crashing several helicopters in Afghanistan, including the one carrying Seal team 6 who had killed Ben Laden, killing most of them.

I was looking for Andy or any of the men and ladies. I found many of the staff in the tunnel, armed and waiting. A slower and closer look around the courtyard and I saw Andy has constructed shelters in the corners of the court yard.

There were angled sand bags in each corner, at least 10 feet from each corner. I wondered where the dirt had come from and for that matter, the lumber to support the bags. There was no way it could have been trucked in.

The way defenses were set up, Andy had made a complete covering field of fire around the interior of the yard.

I wondered where the Windhoek police and Namibia military were. There were none seen in any of the sweeps I did with the cameras outside the walls. The streets were crowded with fighters and protesters.

There was no need to keep looking. I could not do anything about the events; now it was in Andy’s hands and I was not going to second guess his decisions.

I played General and now I had to wait to see how many of my men died versus the bad guys, a wait that I was not enjoying.

I stopped by the Oval Office on my way out to give the President an update on Namibia. The Secretary of State and Ambassador Eaton were there. We watched the ZNN broadcast of the events going on there. It was an interesting talk and ran over in time. I was going to be late at the House hearing.

This time four secret service agents walked up the steps to the house with me. It was a good thing - the media was out in force, all of them surrounded the agents trying to get them to stop so they could ask questions.

At the top of the steps the House Sergeant at Arms was waiting, “You’re late; I will escort you to the room.”

There were more Representatives in this hearing than there had been in the Senate hearing this morning. They were all jockeying for TV time.

“Ambassador Jones. Nate Slick, Sweet Home Alabama. What progress is being made in apprehending the terrorist Saif?”

“The task force has only been in business 4 days. It is just getting its feet wet and in those four days we already have had to increase its size; there is so much data coming in to deal with,” I said.

“However, slow progress is being made in answer to your question. I just cannot go into details today,” I added.

“Ambassador Jones, Bridget Harper, Helena Montana. In your acceptance speech the other day you lightly touched on security improvements at all major events; has any work been done on that program yet?”

“Ms. Harper and fellow Representatives; I appreciate very much that you are identifying yourself and home state before your questions. Being new at this part of the Washington process, it really helps me familiarize myself with you and your state,” I said.

“To answer your question, there is only a brief outline of possible changes and suggestions at this time. As the task force moves forward in that area I will ask to address this body for guidance and suggestions before the policy is written in stone,” I said.

Make them feel important and they will think they have your ear, even if they don’t. My political skills were improving.

“The current focus of the task force is to stop Saif and all of our energies are in that direction,” I said.

“Ambassador Jones, Martin Sacks Nevada. On the international front, one of your embassy security teams is in a fire fight as we speak. Can you give us an update on that?”

“At my last update the fight was still going on, the embassy was taking heavy mortar fire from the terrorists with substantial damage being done to the embassy buildings and grounds. At this time that is all that I can say on the matter,” I said.

I answered more questions, reaching for another hour and a half covering domestic terrorism and my opinions on how to deal with the issues and uncertainties associated with it.

My session was ending when my phone rang. It was the President’s chief of staff, “You have done very well. Use this call as an excuse to end your testimony. Simply say you have been called to the White House. The limo is on its way to pick you up.”