I knew when I got out of bed that today was going to be hectic, but I was going home at the end of it. I had breakfast brought to my desk in the Oval Office.
I had two patties of pork sausage, one egg and toast with orange juice. Lunch would be a salad. The security briefs were twice as thick today. It was going to take a while to read through them. I was glad there were no appointments for today.
Iran was at it again; one of their fast boats came within inches of colliding with one of the JBG ships assigned to the Boxer. It was the second time in two days that they harassed the JBG ships. They were assigned to the Navy, but were still operating under the Boxer’s orders. If they had been under Andy’s control they would have been fired upon and sunk.
Since Andy had sunk several of their boats, they had been giving the JBG boats more room. That was slowly changing. The General was getting either more courageous with his orders or reckless – whatever your point of view was.
Satellite and radio intelligence had shown the live fire training and war games had been finished earlier this week. The troops and equipment were not moving back to their home bases. They were being sent to bases in the south west area.
There was a lot of transportation from the military warehouses to where the troops were being stationed. They were being resupplied with weapons in the field.
There were orders being sent to previously unknown new groups in Gaza, Syria and Iraq from Tiam and the General. I had to wonder if it was a disinformation trick. The general broadcasts were getting more threatening every day.
While I had been meeting with the Russians, Andy’s men in Nigeria had eliminated another Boko-Haram group headed for Gusau. The Emir was very pleased. He was even more pleased with the progress on his infrastructure projects.
After replacing damaged equipment, exports of raw materials were slowly increasing to acceptable levels. The first road and bridges construction had started.
BM&M was doing that part of package and was training local workers to do the construction. The locals were ready for work and to learn. Wanting something was always a plus.
There was another issue brewing in Nigeria and several other countries in the region and that was about the oil pipelines that went to the coast. As wells were drilled or repaired and there was safety for drill rigs and operators, the pipelines became targets for rebel groups.
They weren’t interested in the oil for their own use, they wanted to hold it hostage. They wanted millions not to blow up the pipelines and production equipment.
It was going to require a different approach than was used in Mexico. With BM&M running the oil production operation, they were expecting JBG and or Nigeria to furnish security.
Providing security to a pipeline to stop pilferage was one thing. Trying to stop someone from placing a bag of explosives with a timer under the pipe and walking away was difficult.
Wide and clear right of ways would be needed – a problem in itself and then surveillance; eyeballs, drones, helicopters and more.
Saturday – when I was home – Vicky had scheduled meeting with Ching Lee, Andy, Paul and Drake. One of the topics was an expansion of Africa operations to counter the pipeline threats and that included another senior person or two reporting to Andy.
Andy and Vicky wanted me to sit in on that meeting – another ethics violation, if anyone was counting. The Emir understood the problem and was willing to expand the agreements with JBG.
Frank Love – Director of the CIA – knocked and came in with the latest pictures from the China and Russia border. Russia had started moving heavy artillery in that direction. President Orbatch had indicated that he was going to, just as a precaution. He needed to show some response to the buildup and I understood that.
News from Russia was more positive. Pravda had a full front page story on the aid package with pictures. They had pictures with freighters loading grain destined for Russia.
Another note from State Department said the arrangements had been made to get the first one hundred tons of frozen beef to Moscow. Another shipment of frozen chicken was being shipped, sent a couple days later. These first shipments were being shipped by air freight. The rest would be shipped by refrigerated freighter.
Frank – being nosey – tried every roundabout way he could think of to ask about the two hundred billion, but I didn’t bite. Before he could ask more I changed the topic to Mideast intelligence and CIA assessments of it.
If the money had been in any other bank than Thimble Shoals Pirates Bank, the CIA had a process to seize it if they could connect it to elicit activities. Pirates Bank didn’t play those games. I was sure Frank had visions of billions more than had been discussed.
The CIA could seize funds and use it to carry out clandestine operations without Congressional knowledge. Congress could not threaten to cut off funding for any operation if they had never supplied the money in the first place. Plus, it gave the CIA plausible deniability when asked during hearings.
After I became President I found out there was a secret agreement between the DEA and the CIA on captured drug money. It was to be split between the two agencies. The cover was the CIA supplied the intel for the DEA to capture vast amounts of drug shipments. That supply of information could dry up. The CIA had a very large undercover operation in Central and South America.
The afternoon was filled with last minute issues that I had to address. In the last four weeks twenty four federal judges had turned in their retirement papers. The federal appellate courts ran in a session that started in October and ended in June, same as with the Supreme Court.
If something was to arrive that needed an immediate decision, a judge would come to court, don his robe, listen to the arguments and render a decision. The only time this seemed to happen was with death penalty cases. The defendant’s lawyers planned it this way, hoping they would get a liberal judge who would stay the execution.
The worst thing that could happen would be that the judge refused to intervene. They then would do an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. In most cases the Supreme would reject the appeal, unless there was something drastically wrong pointed out in the emergency brief.
My large staff had a group that did nothing but review federal cases that made their way into the lower federal court system. They rated the judges by how they ruled on different cases and how their legal opinions applied.
As with everything, there were lower court federal judges who should have never left the state courts. They were simply over their head and it showed in their rulings and court statements
I wanted to only nominate the best to move up. I wanted sensible rulings based on the Constitution and not a judge who thought he or she could legislate from the bench.
There would be twenty four folders to go with me over the weekend if I was bored and felt like reading. I was sure I would not be bored as I had plenty of things planned. The family was condensing several birthdays into one party. Then on Saturday night my mates and I had a plans to carry out in the bedroom.
Then Sunday morning we were going on another fishing trip in the bay. Also, I was spending time with the boys and girls.
The afternoon was gone before I knew it and I was walking to Marine One to make the trip home. At Morton I transferred to the Beast for the ride to the house in a convoy.
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof Read by Bob W.