The Devil's Handshake

8

Washington, D.C.

In the rather dull colored situation room of the White House, very unlike how one of the most secure locations in the world is portrayed in films, waiting for the President and the Chief of Staff to arrive for the regular debriefing on the latest national security threat that their country was facing were the Secretary of State, Director of the CIA, the National Security Adviser and finally Joseph McGiven.

In the week leading up to this briefing, each servant of the President’s administration relevant institutions had been tasked to prepare a situation analysis and formulate recommendations for POTUS’s consideration and action.

As this was the “pre-briefing,” the Secretary, as the most senior member of the Administration, was chairing the meeting until the President’s arrival.

A distinguished former member of the Senate and Presidential Candidate, John Kerry had possessed a unique understanding of U.S. Foreign Policy due in part from his education in Europe, at the sharp end with his decorated service in Vietnam, then once he was elected, by his stints on the committees for International Trade and Foreign Relations.

To kick-start the meeting he asked the Director of the CIA to begin his overview.

After a rather long-winded introduction during which the Director paused to drink a glass of water and irritating the Secretary in the process, the man finally reached a crucial point of the briefing.

“It’s the Agency’s opinion that this ‘action’ by the placing of this proposed base virtually next door to ours in Djibouti is purely about sending a message to African States and the rest of the world that Russia is ready to do business and as such represents a continuation of their confrontation policy with the United States, as recently demonstrated in Georgia Syria, Crimea and Ukraine.”

He continued, turning a page of his notes. “As the African Continent is going to provide a quarter of the world’s oil in the next ten years, coupled with the fact that Russia is now facing competition from the U.S, EU, Chinese, and Indian companies as well as with corporations from the Arabian Peninsula in the region, it is the Agency’s belief that ARCTIC TIGER intends to rebuild what they perceive as their natural position in the world. It is also our belief Russia intends to achieve this ambition through its use of their competitive advantages in quality-price ratios they currently enjoy in the knowledge of prospecting, production, and transportation of natural resources in tandem with their military ‘wrapper’!”

The Director paused again, ignoring the Secretary’s gesture of throwing his pencil down to show his displeasure at him. He took another sip of water before continuing.

“With no traditional colonial influence in Africa; our analysts believe that Russia, by concluding this deal with the continent’s newest state, are sending a message that they intend to compete against our U.S. trading links that we have under the AGOA (American Growth and Opportunities Act) within the region. This is furthermore supported by HUMINT intelligence sources that advise that ARCTIC TIGER privately sees the ‘Arab Spring’ policy of this Administration as re-branded product of the privatization policy U.S. Administrations have used in Russia in the nineties as a tool to degrade competition to U.S. interests.”

The Secretary of State sighed inwardly. He wasn’t a fan of Director Young seeing him as the epitome of elegant evil with his affectations, even if he was a fellow “Bonesman” from Yale.

He decided to push on, as the Director wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know having dealt with ARCTIC TIGER in frosty meetings in the past, none more so at the G8 summit last year where he had clearly stated his desire that it was Russia’s right to be equal partners with the United States of America in the world and demonstrated it by out-foxing the administration with regard to the Ukraine’s mineral rich Eastern Provinces return to the Russian fold, despite the sanctions.

“So, what you are saying is, this is the beginning of the second Cold War that the various ‘Hawks’ in our departments have been touting since Putin came to power and not just a sample of more of his grandstanding in manner of the Ukraine to score points of the President?” He ignored the use of Putin’s ARCTIC TIGER “call sign,” as he had enough of that when he had left the Navy in the sixties.

A former analyst, then the Station Chief of Moscow who had overseen operations to disable Russia in the early nineties, the Director had a total distrust of everything ‘Putin’ and saw him as many in the American Civil Service did as a modern day Stalin, just without the death camps.

So although he had only been in the top job for two months the man immediately seized this opportunity to promote his crusade to “not to drop the guard” against the “old enemy.”

“Yes, Mr. Secretary. We now believe that is the case,” David Patrick Young answered without a flicker of emotion on his face just as the President of United States of America walked into the room.