“In these packets, you’ll see copies of newspaper articles that discuss Japanese mining activities in Mindanao. The next page shows Japanese mining imports remaining the same over the period of alleged activity. The next page shows Japanese oil-tanker activity in the Davao City port. And the last page is a newspaper article concerning an oil find on Palawan Island, Republic of the Philippines.”
She tossed another stack at McNulty. “These papers show Japanese economic statistics. Declining population plus declining trade plus declining resources equals declining economy.”
With dramatic effect, she said, “When your entire security environment revolves around your economy and your ability simply to buy protection from others, our shift toward the Middle East and a reduction in economic growth combine to form a severe threat to Japan’s national security.” She paused for a breath and let the men thumb through the packets. When the president finished reading, she continued.
“So what the Japanese have done is to exploit the Abu Sayyaf revolution. They produced weapons for them, giving them more of a chance to overthrow the government—”
“Missy, why didn’t they just attack the Philippines if that’s what they want?” McNulty whined.
“General, if you’d ever read Sun Tzu, you would know that the ultimate form of strategy is to win without fighting,” she said. Meredith had taken a military theory course as part of her political science curriculum at Virginia Tech and had read Sun Tzu along with Clausewitz’s On War, which now made a superb doorstop in her closet. “So why not arm the rebels, stage a show of force in the East China Sea, ask the U.S. to watch the pending conflict between China and Taiwan, let the coup happen, then step in with tanks and helicopters to subdue the country?”
Stone thought to himself, Holy shit. Has she been talking to the Rolling Stones? How much else does she know?
“Sounds a bit far-fetched to me,” Lantini said, looking at Stone. Meredith knew that as CIA director, Lantini, who during his heyday was an impressive college linebacker at Boston College, would feel upstaged by her conclusions based upon simple open source research.
“I don’t know,” Rolfing, the Marine comman-dant, replied, “let’s hear her out.”
“Well, everything I said is true up to the point of what happens after the coup.”
“Why would they let Americans be killed. Wouldn’t that jeopardize this plan of yours?” McNulty commented dismissively.
“It’s not my plan, sir. The Abu Sayyaf, like Al Qaeda, are very decentralized. They probably didn’t get the word or just didn’t care about hurting Americans. I mean, how many of you knew we had an infantry company in Subic guarding ammo, or a Special Forces team in Mindanao?” Meredith asked.
Stone wanted to scream: Know! Hell I sent them there. You’re carrying my water and doing great. Keep going! He glanced at Ronnie Wood, who had a pensive look on his face, and winked.
“You’ve got a lot to learn about talking to superiors, young lady,” the Air Force general said.
“And you’ve got a lot to learn about listening when you’re wrong, sir,” Meredith responded, fully expecting to be asked to leave the room. Davis saved her.
“She might be right, you know,” the president said, taking control. “We need a way to verify this.”
Stone picked up on the cue quickly. “Sir, we’ve located the ships that Meredith identified as going into the Davao City port and supposedly leaving with oil or minerals. They all are suspiciously anchored just off the Luzon Strait. Talking with Bill here, I thought we’d send some SEALs in to board one of the ships and see what’s on them.”
“Good idea,” Davis responded. “What if Japan really is trying to pull a fast one on us? What do we do? What’s our new strategy? How does this compare to the threat of Islamic terrorism and its potential nexus with weapons of mass destruction?”
Meredith leaned forward, thinking President Davis asked a good question. Had the 9-11 attacks opened other seams for Machiavellian statecraft, seams for which they may not be prepared? Meredith believed it all came back to the perennial issues of economics, resources, and culture, exacerbated previ-ously by communism and currently by the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. In the Global War on Terror, allied relationships were shifting, like the earth’s tectonic plates, bound to create a rumble, or God forbid, a full-blown quake.
Only things were not so clear, Meredith knew. Officers and statesmen trained in the Cold War era were unsure of how to proceed. She wondered if they could set aside preconceived notions to deal with the obvious, though sudden, threat? It was sounding to her as if Davis was asking the right questions and guiding his foreign policy staff in the proper direction.
And what about Afghanistan, where it all began? That was Matt’s issue all along, she remembered.
Chapter 64
Secretary Stone had been watching. He looked directly at the president, who was seated next to Vice President Hellerman and Frank Lantini, with Saul Fox and Dick Diamond behind him. Chairman Sewell was next to Lantini and in Stone’s line of sight. As Stone looked, he noticed Ronnie Wood return his gaze.
What’s he thinking? Stone wondered.
The entire premise had been that the actions in the Philippines had to occur in order to create enough military movement to make rushing into Iraq logistically impossible.
Indeed, the Rolling Stones had released the glider, and it was flying strong, creating the effect. Many were beginning to question the drive to Iraq and whether they needed to forestall the massive military buildup against Saddam Hussein and focus more on the global transnational threat of Al Qaeda.
If the China-Taiwan tension gained more traction, and if the Philippine situation was not resolved in the next couple of days, then the Rolling Stones would have a chance at presenting a fait accompli to the neoconservatives without losing their power base, while appearing entirely logical and practical to the American people.
Win-win for everyone. That was always the Rolling Stones’ goal.
Restore a patriotic fervor, crush Islamic funda-mentalism, and keep the focus on the endgame: a stable, secure, and prosperous America.
Takishi, Charlie Watts, had been a Harvard Business School classmate of Bart Rathburn’s. So Takishi was the logical choice as he began negotiating billion-dollar deals with countries such as China. He had the power, as did they all, to start an insurgency in the Philippines, like a brushfire. They wanted just enough to get the attention of the world so they could say, “Look, over there, a fire.”
So the question was, how to keep the Philippine insurgency to a manageable level given all that had occurred — a containable insurgency. It appeared that with the deal Takishi had cut, the urgency would subside in a couple of days. That wouldn’t be enough to divert attention away from Iraq.
He looked at Dick Diamond and Saul Fox, sitting next to each other, whispering to one another, trading notes. Like puppeteers, they always sat closest to the key decision makers in the room, so their presence could be felt.
He flipped his notebook annoyingly on the table, wishing for a cigarette and gaining a bothered look from President Davis, his friend. So he stopped and looked down. As he stared at his black notebook, he saw a yellow sticker protruding from one of the pages. He opened the book slowly, half-listening to the conversation and saw his pencil scratching from the ambassador’s visit yesterday.