Satan's Spy (The Steve Church saga Book 2), André Gallo [ebook reader color screen .txt] 📗

the report to our U.S. Interest Section in Tehran to get their analysis before proffering an opinion.”

“George, we can’t wait,” the president said. “You can inform them, and their opinion will go in the hopper only if it’s timely.”

“Secondly, sir, this event should remind us of the importance of establishing a new international agreement on limiting and punishing cyber attacks.”

Tremaine had immense respect for his Secretary of State, a woman with a proven track record and always highly focused on the task at hand. Unfortunately, she was out of the country. With all of the intelligent and able professional foreign-service officers serving in the Department of State, why George Orling, an academic with no field experience? George was no Kissinger. He would have to talk to her about George Orling.

“I’d like the Deputy Director for Intelligence Dr. Deborah Jamiston to give her analysis, Mr. President,” Walter Deuel said.

With a nod from Tremaine, the CIA’s chief analyst stood. A woman in her fifties with sensible short brown hair, good walking shoes, and a Junoesque figure, she held a pencil in one hand.

“The backdrop is Iran’s effort to expand through and beyond the American embargo of thirty plus years. It sees the United States as the primary supporter of several countries that it believes it could include in its own zone of influence, if it weren’t for American interference.”

Not bothering to look down at her notes on the table in front of her, she continued, hanging on to her pencil.

“In other words, Iran’s ambition is to establish hegemony over the Middle East. Iran’s leaders believe that, if it were not for the United States, Egypt’s military could be won over. They hold that Jordan is not a real state, just a colonial fabrication, which should be replaced by a Palestinian State that would include Israel, Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank; that Lebanon is sure to fall to its client the Hizballah; and that Bahrain is already a part of Iran. It just needs to be made official.”

George Orling interrupted, “That’s absurd. It would be a mass violation of the sovereignty of states, a total renunciation of the Peace of Westphalia!”

Deborah Jamiston went on, “Maybe so. The Peace of Westphalia is not so high on Tehran’s list of priorities these days. The Iranian leadership believes that if the United States, occupied by problems elsewhere—at home for example—would only retrench from the Middle East, Iran would have an easier time reaching its expansionary goals in the region, of fulfilling its vision of the future. A cyberattack could create that diversion, that internal focus. As I understand it, it could take us months, if not years, to recover from a major cyberattack. Looking at the possibilities through Iranian glasses, the cyber option looks good.” Jamiston sat back in her chair and looked for a reaction from the president.

“So the attack would be a feint,” Tremaine asked, “just to keep us busy at home?”

“Not a feint exactly, although it would certainly divert our focus from the Middle East,” Jamiston said. “The resources to bring our economy back on line after what could be a cyber Pearl Harbor would probably force us to cut our military programs and expenditures several fold. It would mean decimating our presence in the Middle East, a vacuum that Iran would fill.”

The Director of National Intelligence General Sid “Lefty” Killcut looked knowingly toward General Doredo, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who had one more star than “Lefty.”

“What do you think, Admiral?” President Tremaine asked of his NSA chief. He took a sip of coffee from his Sèvres cup, a gift to a past American president from a past French president.

Admiral Wynn, tall and thin with a boyish face and undisciplined hair falling over his forehead, stood.

“I find the reference in the report that the probing has been concealed behind Chinese computers most significant. There is some history to this subject that we should all consider. In 1997, an unconvinced Department of Defense ran a test, Eligible Receiver, against its own computers. The attack, luckily it was only an exercise, was totally successful. In 2001, there was Code Red in which over three hundred thousand computers were remotely captured, to attack White House computer systems.”

“What do you mean ‘captured’?” the president asked.

“Sir, I mean these computers became zombies. They stayed in place in universities, labs, etc., but they were controlled remotely. We still don’t know who the attacker was. Right after 9/11, there was the Ninja virus that cost Wall Street several billion dollars. No one paid attention because we were too close to the al Qaeda strike. Then there was Moonlight Maze, the theft of naval codes and classified missile data. We traced the hacking to a Russian computer, but that may not be where the action actually originated.”

He leaned forward to look at his notes on the table and continued, “On the Fourth of July 2009, computers at Treasury, the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, and Wall Street were knocked out. The suspect was North Korea, but we don’t know. The truth is we don’t know who was behind any of these. The usual suspects are the Chinese, al Qaeda, the Russians, and maybe the North Koreans. There’s no reason why the Iranians couldn’t have developed their own capability, especially with Russian help, as the report claims. Based on fragmented information, it’s clear that the skills and technology used against us is growing in leaps and bounds. It’s what we don’t know that is frightening. “

“Well ladies and gentlemen?” Tremaine asked. “Is the report credible, and if it is, what do we do?”

“This is too important not to confirm or deny before we take action,” Orling, said. “I believe that we should talk to the Russians. After all, there is a specific name in the report, what is it again ‘Kazak,’ Kozak?’”

“Isn’t that like asking the