later, or six in the morning… but that’s just a guess.”
“Okay, that’s kind of what I suspected; no reason to wait now.”
As soon as the team’s plane landed, Dani and Ben escorted Jackson in to see General Pardo. “So, Stonewall, what did you think of your little trip?” Pardo asked him.
“I have to thank you for the opportunity to join the party; it was quite the trip. I must say, it was not quite what I expected when you offered it to me.”
“Well, I couldn’t exactly fill you in on all of the details but I’m glad you were able to go. I realize you don’t know the disposition of your fleet, but could you relay a message for us? You see, now that we have Bagheri, all of our assets are safe; we can attack at will. We’ve already positioned several of our tankers and EW aircraft along the route; in fact, you may have seen some of them in Baku. We aren’t looking for any assistance from you with the strike; we believe we can handle that on our own. In retrospect, our strike on the Syrian nuclear site of Dayr az-Zawr actually served as a nice practice run. However, we would really like to know if we could at least count on US support in some manner. We know you have one carrier, the Roosevelt, I believe, in the Mediterranean and another in the Persian Gulf, the George Washington, with a third, the John C Stennis on the way to relieve the Washington. We are not sure what other ships might be accompanying these carriers but we are not asking for help with your navy fighters. Rather, we’d like to know if we could count on your navy’s support should any of our pilots have to ditch either in the gulf or the Mediterranean. Also, if in the unfortunate circumstance, any of our pilots were to be shot down, would your navy be available to go in and rescue them? I know that is asking a great deal but it would be a nice gesture if the United States government could do this.”
Left unsaid was the simple fact that, in all likelihood, the Iranians would lash out at the American fleet in the gulf and try to hit one of their vaunted carriers with the new Sunburn missiles Russia had provided them. The Sunburn is a radar-guided anti-ship missile, capable of being fired from the air, land or sea, making it an extremely versatile – and dangerous – weapon. The Russian version of the Sunburn had a range of one hundred miles – no one knew if the Iranians had modified this – carried a powerful 750 pound warhead, and flew very fast at Mach 3—at that speed, it could travel the hundred miles in less than three minutes! Any anti-missile defenses the navy had would have a very limited time in which to respond. The French made Exocet missile, by comparison, which the Argentinians used in the Falklands War back in the 80’s, only carried a 350 pound warhead, and flew at less than half the speed of the Sunburn. However, the Argentines still managed to sink two British destroyers with the Exocet. Clearly, the Sunburn posed a very clear threat to any vessels in the gulf – and an American carrier posed a very tempting target.
“Well, sir, it would seem that you know more about our fleet’s disposition than I do, but I will most definitely pass this on. Actually, if you’d have a secure phone, I’d like to call my boss right away and fill him in on everything.”
Pardo handed Jackson the phone; he was not too surprised to hear that the phone was already ringing.
“Tamir, is that you?” asked Jim Carmichael, having General Pardo’s number in his speed dial.
“No, sir, it’s me, Stonewall. Jim, how soon can we get the Roosevelt through the Suez Canal and into the Arabian Sea and the Stennis to the gulf? Tamir has shared their operational plans with me and it seems that all assets are in place – and like I mentioned earlier, their EW aircraft are already forward deployed. I can’t get into a lot of detail for obvious reasons but Tamir told me to tell you to remember Dayr az-Zawr in Syria. Jim, the Israelis are ready to rock; they’ll be airborne before first light. Tamir isn’t asking for any assistance in the attack – he believes they can handle that themselves – but, ostensibly, he would like to know if he could count on any CSAR” – Combat Search and Rescue – “support from the carriers both in the gulf and the Med if any pilots are shot down during the raid. Plus, the Washington needs to be ready for any retaliation from Iran – and they will retaliate.”
“This is for real, right? I mean, this isn’t a hypothetical thing, is it?”
“No, sir; this is the real thing. They’ll be launching in about twelve hours or so. They’re ready to rock.”
“Okay, this is what I need. I’ll be briefing the president and the rest of the national security team in half an hour. The vice president, though, is out of town at the moment. Tell Tamir ‘thanks for the heads up’ on this one. Oh,… and Stonewall, the next time you decide to join a raiding party in a hostile country, at least let me know what you’re up to; you don’t need to necessarily ask permission, but it would be nice to tell your next of kin that you at least died in the line of duty.”
“Okay, will do sir.”
“Well, Tamir, I guess we wait and see,” said Jackson, turning to General Pardo.
VII
Washington, D. C.
This was not Jim Carmichael’s first visit to the White House; over the past few years, he had made several visits here and had given several briefings as well. However, this one was different. The current administration had based their entire Iranian policy on their preconceived notion that economic sanctions would completely solve the nuclear issue. As the chairman of the CIA’s Intelligence Directorate, Carmichael knew otherwise – and had repeatedly said as much; it was the politicians who didn’t want to listen, or really believe, what was really happening. He had given his boss, Felix Jones, the director of national intelligence, a heads up on this morning’s meeting – essentially a condensed Reader’s Digest version – though he had not fully briefed him as yet on all of the details. He knew he was going to get some push-back – especially from State and the White House – on their, read “his”, failure to really determine just how far along the Iranians were on their nuclear ambitions but all that was a mute-point at this stage of the game.
Jim rode in the DNI’s limo on the way to the White House and briefly updated Jones on the latest developments from Stonewall.
“Here’s the latest: I just heard from Stonewall; the Israelis will be attacking tomorrow. I guess for that matter, their planes will be taking off in about ten hours. I already let ‘Axe’ know” – referring to Eric Axelsson, the secretary of defense – “that the Fifth Fleet should be expecting some company very soon. I didn’t give him any specifics – didn’t really have any at the time as this was before Jackson’s latest call – but the Pentagon’s been put on notice. Axe and the chairman will be at the White House so they’ll receive the latest information at the same time everyone else will.”
“Jackson’s sure this is the real thing, right? I mean, State’s going to come unglued that their ambassador hasn’t been clued in on any of this.”
“Well, we’ve warned them about the deteriorating conditions with our relationship with the Israelis. This is exactly why I sent Stonewall over there – he’s essentially my personal representative to Tamir. I had a feeling something was coming down and they weren’t comfortable enough with State to let them know. I didn’t think it would amount to their attacking Iran, but I had a feeling something was in the works.”
“Well, let’s go,” Jones said as their limo arrived at the White House. “Don’t be surprised if both State and the chief of staff hit you up on failing to pick up on Iran’s nuke program.”
“I’m expecting that. The real issue here is the Israeli’s pending attack; I won’t let them diverge from that.”
“You do that, and I’ll be there as well to help you out should one of them try and get you off track. After all, we weren’t the only ones who underestimated the Iranians: MI6, the KGB… hell every intelligence network not named Mossad missed this.”
“Yeah,