Right out of the gate, Tuesday morning started off with a bang. The Boxer and the JBG ships had seized four fishing scows in the Indian Ocean near the Yemen Oman border. They were flying Pakistan flags while dragging fishing nets.
They were acting suspiciously and maneuvering too erratically to be fishing and also had no dingy in the water tending the nets.
All four were stopped after requiring shots to be fired over the bow. An inspection revealed that the holds were filled with Iranian weapons destined for Kismaayo Somalia. They were loaded at the Pakistani port at Karachi.
The captain and crews had been stopped before for transporting contraband and turned over to the Pakistani authorities. Apparently as soon as the smoke cleared the boats and crews were released, accomplishing nothing but wasting time and effort.
Thousands of rounds of ammo were destined for the ocean floor. There were new AK47s by the thousands and various machine guns, rocket propelled grenades by the hundreds and cases of IEDs of the same manufacture as those used in Iraq and Afghanistan against American soldiers. There were shoulder fired antiaircraft missiles by the hundreds. This was a major weapons bust.
The Boxer had called the Chief of Naval Operations for guidance. The Chief of Naval Operations forwarded the call to the joint chiefs.
General Ingram was standing in front of my desk wanting guidance. This was no man’s land; damn if you do and a damn if you don’t. I couldn’t order the Navy to do what needed to be done. Sending them back to Pakistan was useless.
I waved the General to close the door and take a seat next to me. I opened my JBG computer and loaded the three thumb drives and then opened a VCATS with Andy.
”Somehow I knew I would be getting a call from you today. I guess you have been updated on the four Pakistan fishing boats,” he said.
”Yes, unfortunately this is the second time for the boats and more for the crews carrying contraband. Pakistan is apparently using a version of the New York catch and release program. We need to do it differently this time,” I said.
”I assume you have some men there that can follow orders no matter how distasteful they are?” I asked.
”Absolutely,” Andy replied.
”I don’t trust this open channel from here. I’m going to send you encrypted orders. Stay on the line, I want to verify that you have received and understand them,” I said.
”Send your men to the four fishing boats. When they arrive the Boxer and the JBG boats assigned to the Boxer are going to get orders to leave the area at flank speed. Tie the crews of the fishing party securely to the boats. I do not want any bodies floating. Use explosive charges to sink the boats. A speedy operation is a must.”
I looked at the General, ”Any objections?” I asked.
”None what so ever,” he replied.
I clicked the encrypt key and send key. We then watched him open the orders.
”Orders are understood. They will be carried out immediately. I will also order executive protocol number one including the helmet cams, along with the Shultz and Clinton directives,” Andy replied.
”Excellent idea,” I said and closed the screen.
”May I ask what executive protocol number one is and about those other two?” the General asked.
”Executive protocol number one; no cameras, no cell phone pictures, the go pro cameras are to be removed and placed in the ammo box.”
”The Shultz directive is a quote from Sergeant Shultz of the Hogan Hero’s fame, ‘I see nothing, I saw nothing, I know nothing’.”
”The Clinton directive – I don’t remember. I don’t recall that, I can’t remember. It’s from her testimony before Congress,” I said.
”Are there more?” General Ingram asked.
”It is a small book with only a few pages,” I said.
”How do I get one?” he asked.
”When you retire and go to work for JBG,” I said.
”I don’t think I could take the pay cut,” he said.
”I doubt you would be taking a pay cut,” I replied.
”Starting pay for your experience and world knowledge would be ten thousand a week,” I said. I knew his pay was fifteen thousand a month. Trouble was, as a lobbyist for one of the military industrial complex companies they would pay ten times that amount just to get his inside connections.
My cell pinged, ”Orders have been sent ships departing in minutes,” Andy’s text said.
”I will personally call to the Commander of the Boxer to issue the orders to make sure they are understood,” the General said.
I was leaving in a couple hours for another fund raiser – this one in South Dakota. Adam had sent the speech earlier and after a run through and changes, I was satisfied. There was still snow on the ground; the boys would have liked it. But oh well, it was going to be extremely late when I got back.
As my staff were packing up the things I needed to take with me tonight, General Ingram came in and handed me a note.
”Your ships have returned to base,” he said.
”I received confirmation that the orders were carried out a while ago. Some new souls are sleeping with the fishes tonight. The only contraband they will transport from now on will be at Davy Jones locker,” I said.
Air Force One left Andrews at 1600 for the flight to Sioux Falls. Even with horrible weather, the college arena was packed. They were a lively crowd filled with energy and enthusiasm. I pumped them up with statistics and called for eight more years of conservative control.
The chants continued even after I stepped behind the curtain. Finally I stepped back to the podium – thumping on the podium. I had no speech to give so it was off the cuff.
I talked about the state of the economy and how the opposition party was wanting to destroy our great prosperity and growth with substantially higher taxes on everything and everyone. Their mode of operation was if you made more money, government deserved twice as much. If you had anything, government deserved it.
Government needed it to fund enormous social programs for illegal immigrants and people who wanted to attend college forever for free. They were people who were lazy and thought the government should support them forever.
I had an answer for all the politicians wanting to give free college. For every year you served in the active military forces, you get one year of earned college education at an average cost college for free. There would be a limit of eight years – the time it took to complete a medical degree.
Forty minutes later I walked off the stage – again – after rousing chants and a thunderous ovation.
Wednesday morning started off a lot better. The Senate was voting on the nomination of Clyde Barrow to replace the Secretary of Agriculture whom I had fired. The position had been empty long enough without a permanent Secretary.
So far all my nominees had been approved, including Caroline Brady for the Supreme Court. In the last few weeks I had nominated sixty names to fill lower federal judgeships that were vacant. I would see how the successful I was in the next few weeks.
At the security meeting the CIA had an update from their embedded agents with the JBG teams in Nigeria. The group had grown by fifty members and had started moving north west. There were two medium size villages in that direction.
The analyst theorized that they going to raid the villages one at a time to draft new recruits to replace dead fighters and collect all the valuables. They would also capture women and girls to sell as slaves to Iranian, Afghanistan, Saudi and Pakistan buyers for cash to buy Iranian weapons.
They were sending repeated radio messages that were unanswered. Finally they dispatched messengers towards the Chad border. The drones followed them for the four days it took them to make the journey.
The CIA with several teams from the JBG security group were shadowing the messengers. At the Chad border the messengers met ten apparently Boko-Haram fighters.
The following day the group continued on towards the Chad Sudan border. At the border they were met with a heavily protected convoy. The meeting lasted four hours before the groups separated.
After the meeting the convoy left in the direction of Khartoum. Khartoum had the largest airport in North Sudan. The CIA ordered another drone to follow the convoy from its secret base in South Sudan while the other kept the messengers in view as they started back in the beat-up Toyota trucks in the direction of Gusau.
Thirty miles from Gusau the messenger group met up with the group to deliver them to hell – the JBG group. It was an ambush of the kind Boko-Haram normally delivered to its enemies.
The Toyotas were the first to die, that left the fifteen occupants on foot – if they decided to run into machine gun fire. The intent was to scare the life out of them so they would spill their guts before it physically happened. The Toyotas were riddled with machine gun fire to get proper effect before they were given the opportunity to surrender.
Some of these men had to be leaders or at best trusted confidants. A couple of experts from the CIA Africa headquarters were flown in to interrogate them.
What I knew that the CIA briefer did not was about the direct orders I had sent to Andy carried special instructions. Andy sent three of his men to assist or get results if the CIA could not and then they were to kill all of them without mercy. It would be a deserving end to the men that had killed hundreds of villagers – including children and infants – in the most gruesome ways.
Fear, intimidation, bribes and kidnappings would ensure there would be no innocent verdict from any trial. Plenty of 5.56 rounds would solve the problem and there would be no repeat offenders.
With no family here I spent several hours in the fitness center and then time in the hot tub – all alone.
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.