Date: 22rd November 2023
Venue: Phoenix, a gated mansion owned by General Sebastian Makepeace
Agenda: Contingency planning for the US, post-November 2024 Presidential elections
Participants:
- General Guy Warren, Chairman, Joint Chief of Staff
- General Sebastion Tippett, Commander, National Guard
- Mr David Rubicon, Director Federal Bureau of Investigations
- Ms Lucy Oswald, National Reconnaissance Office
- Ms Susan Connally, Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Status: PEO Lv 1 (participant’s eyes only).
General Warren: “Ladies and Gentlemen: friends. I believe there is a problem of national significance brewing, so I thank you for coming at such short notice This meeting has no official status, and I hasten to assure you all that there will be no minutes of our discussions.”
“I won’t worry too much about preliminaries, but I have been considering calling this group together for the past several weeks. Today marks the sixty-second anniversary since the sensitive work of our collective agencies was last on public display. I believe we are approaching another momentous moment of equal stature. I believe that we are facing similarly dark times.”
“Our Nation is on the brink of the abyss. The upcoming election might well determine our future. I believe that apart from the Civil War, there has only been one other occasion – that pesky upstart populist taking the White House in 1960 – when our great nation has been exposed to such a potential unravelling of both our civil society and our international standing. We cannot sit idly by and allow this to happen. It is beholden on us to intervene.”
“I want to take a moment now to put several scenarios before you. I think we need to think urgently upon them.”
Scenario One has our incumbent, an aging President dying in office, with the Vice assuming the Presidency for the interregnum period through until the scheduled November elections. A temporary solution! The residual scenarios are still in play.
“Scenario Two sees our incumbent leader re-elected into the Whitehouse. I not only have a privately sourced, medical assessment of his advancing incapacities, but I think we all share the horror of the insurrection that followed his elevation two years ago. A repeat of that result will most likely see another mob uprising, but probably with a much sharper zealotry. Our failure to bring legal redress to those January events will embolden participants.”
“Scenario Three will have the Republican candidate taking the House. God help us, given the utter contempt he shows for our international allies, and our institutions. His dalliance with our enemies, his empty, populist rhetoric across the Nation underscores his total lack of expertise for this high office. I believe our mighty country will not survive another round of his idiocy!”
Scenario Four will follow a close result, giving life to the growing divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘malcontents.’ We assess that there are somewhere close to thirty-five million military-grade weapons held in private hands. On top of that, the NRA estimates the number of personal guns in the hundreds of millions! Social media amply demonstrates its capacity to galvanise a general ‘call to arms’, local vigilante groups, warring against each other, fighting in the streets, a national uprising.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, desperate times call for desperate measures.”
There is a sombre mood across the room. David Rubicon clears his throat, about to speak, but settles back into his seat, reflectively. There is a knock on the door and coffee arrives, providing the necessary opportunity for members to move from the table, to stretch their legs.
Susan walks across to the large bay window and surveys the manicured gardens, the distant hills, the cloudless blue skies. Sébastion takes the opportunity to use the bathroom. The delegates quietly sip their coffee, separately, introspectively and privately mulling over the presentation.
General Warren returns to the table. The rest follow. “As I said, these are dark times” reaffirms Adams. “The question that remains in my mind is whether or not the country is ready to accept an alternative, interim President?”
David squirms slightly, coughs and addresses the ‘elephant in the room’. “Are we suggesting a ‘strategic removal’ of both contenders?”
“Yes, it’s on the table” says Warren. There is a collective, audible intake of breath.
“Like Kennedy and Oswald?” queries Susan, her voice breaking, as she spoke. Warren nods. “Oh, my God.” She remembers the sometimes mooted rumours heard when she was first recruited into the Agency, the involvement in preliminary planning and support for Dallas, all those years ago. Her mind swam, in partial disbelieve that were approaching the same platform, again!
“Precisely, yes. As I said before, these are perilous times and I believe America is close to an irreversible slide into oblivion!”
“But how can we do it? Surely a civil breakdown would erupt, slaughter, towns against towns, States against States. It will put the Civil War antics into the shadows” proffers Sebastion.
The enormity of the discussions swirl around the table for the next sixty minutes. The illegality, the logistics, the blowback, the outrage that will inevitably follow. General Warren gently massages the discussions, letting the discussions move around the room, the logic of the proposal, and eventually arriving at the pointy end of how to possibly achieve such an outcome.
“Our man in Moscow uses Novichok. In North Korea the same. “My God, I am amazed that we are sitting around this room discussing this”, opines Susan.
Warren straightens himself. “We have nine or ten months to work on the logistics. The assignment, the assassinations,” that word, its first use in the meeting, fell like an axe across the heads of the assembled members, “… ah, will need to be simultaneous, to avoid the obvious suggestion that the party apparatchiks are responsible. No, we will need to have a foreign patsy again.” He was warming to his subject! Both Israel and Ukrainian owe us, big time.”
“I admit to liking the Novichok method, but the simultaneous delivery will be tricky. A marksman won’t gain necessary access, given security logistics. Their staff try to ensure that their schedules don’t overlap. No, I think it will involve those mini drones., somehow”
“I anticipate there will be some televised debate between the two contenders. Probably in September. We need to have our planning well and truly concluded by that date.
I suggest we meet again in a month. Meanwhile, can you individually ensure that any travel documents created in getting to this venue are redacted from your official records.”
STOP PRESS:
Authorities are calling for calm as they investigate yesterday evening’s simultaneous shootings of General Guy Warren, Chairman, Joint Chief of Staff; General Sebastion Tippett, Commander, of the National Guard and Mr David Rubicon, Director Federal Bureau of Investigations. Each has been gunned down at their respective Washington offices. The CIA’s Director, Susan Connally was also an apparent target, but was away from her office as assailants stormed the building. Breaking news; more details as they come to hand.