Separation of Power

Rudin's disagreement was apparent on his twisted face. "You should have never let her walk out like that. I don't get it." He threw his arms up in the air. "I did my part yesterday, and you just sat there."

"Easy, Albert." Clark pointed to a chair and said, "Take a seat. You're way too worked up. Ke

"Oh, there's no question about that. The President better start looking for a new nominee." Rudin sat. "You know, before all this started I would have been satisfied to just end her career, but not now. "The bags of loose skin under his jaw jiggled as he shook his head. "I want her in jail."

"I don't blame you," Clark lied. "If she'd advised the President to raid my house and office I'd be furious."

"Does that mean you're going to let me hold hearings?"

Clark smiled slyly. "I think there'll be more than enough for both our committees to handle."

The two men took a moment to gloat over the destruction of Ke

"Senator, President Hayes is holding on line one."

Clark's eyes opened wide in an exaggerated show of surprise. "Thank you, Debbie. I'll grab it in a second." Looking at Rudin he asked, "What do you think this is about?"

Rudin clapped his hands together and gleefully a

Clark thought he was right. With Ke

Finally he reached out and grabbed the handset. "Mr. President."

"Hank, I don't have much time so I'm going to make this real quick. In about ten minutes we're going to start bombing Iraq. I've already informed the leaders of both houses. I've also signed a Presidential Finding authorizing lethal force for U. S. Special Forces perso

"Absolutely, Mr. President."

"Thanks, Hank. I'll be in touch."

The line went dead and Clark slowly hung up the phone. Rudin was still gloating. "What did he say? Did he pull her nomination?"

It took Clark a moment to answer. "No. He called to inform me that we're ten minutes away from bombing Baghdad."

"What?" screamed Rudin. He jumped out of his chair. "There's no way. He can't ... I can't believe he's--" "He can and he is," said Clark firmly as his mind raced to figure out what was going on.

"It's Wag the Dog. It's all a diversion to get the media to ignore Ke

The congressman's words gave Clark pause. He thought about it for a moment as Rudin paced back and forth in front of his desk spewing obscenities, Clark knew Robert Hayes pretty well, and he didn't take him for the type to put soldiers and airmen into harm's way just to divert attention from a political crisis, but the presidency did fu

"You're damn right he would! He'd sell my fucking party down the river to save his own ass!" Rudin stopped and jabbed his thumb into his chest. "And I'll be damned if I'm going to let him do it. I'm going to go tell every reporter who'll listen that this is a farce!"

"You do what you need to do, Albert, but you're going to wait until the bombs start falling before you say a word."

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR.

Baghdad, Monday night

Rapp had given the members of the Delta team one piece of serious advice. They were true professionals, men who did not take well to outsiders telling them what to do, so he was careful how he said it, but he was firm. He told them, "Be bold, be arrogant, and if anybody gets in the way, threaten to kill them." This was the way of Uday Hussein. He had learned it from his father, and young Uday had bested him. Saddam had no heart, but it seemed at least that there was some logic to his use of force. It was used to rule, to keep his subjects cowering. If the people cowered they couldn't look up long enough to strike back. Uday, on the other hand, seemed to take perverse pleasure in maiming and killing i

Saddam tolerated Uday's brutal behavior for three reasons. The first was that Saddam himself was no saint, the second was that Uday was his son, and the third was that Uday's sadistic behavior served a purpose. It helped to spread fear among even Saddam's most senior people. The message was clear, don't screw up or you'll end up as Uday's evening entertainment.

The stories were well known throughout Iraq and in the western intelligence agencies. In 1995 Saddam's two sons-in-law, Hussein Kamel, and Saddam Kamel defected to Jordan with Saddam's daughters. After a short period Saddam convinced them to come back to Baghdad. He promised them that he had forgiven them, and that the important thing was that they were family. Upon their return to Baghdad, Uday convinced his father that they needed to made an example of them. Saddam was swayed by his son. Uday then proceeded to torture them for hours on end, kill them, and then as a final message to all the people of Iraq, he burned their houses to the ground. He did it all in front of his sisters, who were allowed to live.

Then there was the story of a friend who had dared to criticize the son of Saddam. Uday had a string tied around the man's penis and then forced three bottles of gin down his throat. The man died an excruciating death. Just a year earlier his father had sent one of his top advisors to talk to Uday about certain affairs of state. Uday felt the man was too condescending, so he had his testicles cut off and fed to his dogs. The man was allowed to live as a reminder to all that Uday was to be treated with absolute respect. Rapp had told all these stories and more to the Delta boys so they could understand the real fear that Uday Hussein strikes into the hearts of all Iraqis. It was this fear that they were depending on to get them into the facility.

The cars had proceeded without difficulty up Route 144. The six lane highway was very modern and relatively quiet as the clock approached 11:00 P. M. The few cars and trucks that they encountered moved quickly out of the way as the caravan of three white Mercedes sedans rolled past at 75 mph. When they reached the city limits they turned onto the Abu Ghurayb Expressway, another six lane thoroughfare that would carry them into the heart of Baghdad and right through the very teeth of the enemy. On the left was the sprawling Abu Ghurayb munitions factory and on the right was the main barracks for the Republican Guard, over ten thousand shock troops ready to put down any revolt launched against Saddam.

Suddenly Rapp noticed the lead car begin to slow a bit. Looking ahead he saw a police cruiser in the middle lane. He spoke decisively over the team's com net "Don't slow down. There isn't a cop in this country who'd pull over one of these caravans. Speed right past him."

The Mercedes all had deeply tinted windows so it was impossible to see in. As they passed the police cruiser Rapp looked over at the officer. Just as he thought, the man didn't dare to even glance at the speeding luxury sedans.

The computer mapping in the car was very nice. The system was uplinked to the Global Positioning System and showed them their exact location on a map of the city. Their course to the hospital was also clearly marked in green. As an extra precaution each member had also memorized the location of the hospital and the streets leading to and from it.