Chapter Thirty-Four

“We even got a mosquito drone for snatching DNA samples,” Brennan continued.

“Enough with the drones John,” said the President. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m impressed, and I’m grateful we’re not killing as many of our soldiers as we have in conventional warfare, but I’d like to tackle another subject…for my sake.”

“What subject?” asked Brennan.

“Christopher Dorner.”

Brennan looked perplexed. “Is the president no longer interested in ‘plausible deniability’?”

“Quite sure,” responded the president. “You see, I’ve been black for a very long time, and this whole story looked pretty contrived, like it was straight out of a James Elroy novel.”

Brennan eyeballed the president, paused, took a deep breath and began. “Dorner was not just LAPD. He was planted there by the Office of Naval Intelligence after another policeman blew the whistle on them back in 1999. His mission was to investigate who was fucking up, and it turned out they all were.”

“Go on,” ordered the president.

“Since Poppy Bush let the LAPD work with CIA running drugs back in the 80’s, it seems as if they’ve never been able to shake their taste for ‘diplomatic immunity’. They got used to being above the law, and they’ve been maintaining that status. Dorner was picked to infiltrate them and keep tabs on anything major going down. The only problem happened last time he was deployed overseas a year ago.”

“What was that?” asked the president.

“He was KIA in a Navy seal operation in the Mediterranean.”

The president kept his eyes on Brennan. “So this entire Dorner story revolved around a dead man who hasn’t even been on US soil for a year? What about the video surveillance? What about his manifesto?”

Brennan’s nostril’s flared. “Psy-ops sir. All members of OSI, CIA, FBI, etc. have a contract clause that states they and/or their names may used at any time for any reason if it’s a benefit to the welfare of this country. In Dorner’s case, we had multiple reasons to use his profile.”

“Such as?”

Brennan continued. “Such as protecting other agents assigned to shake down the LAPD. Such as scaring certain members of the LAPD into submission. Such as using a ‘rogue cop’ theme to divide Americans into two groups: those who see him as a threat (and in turn will see guns as a threat) and those who would choose to support a ‘terrorist’ (and in turn will be flagged).”

The president closed his eyes. “So you’re saying, it’s acceptable to tarnish a good soldier’s name who passed away protecting his country all for the sake of fooling Americans into giving up their freedom of speech and gun rights?”

Brennan looked cold. “If that’s how you choose to oversimplify it, yes sir.”

“And the public is buying it?”

“On the whole, yes,” continued Brennan. “Of course you’ve got the occasional conspiracy theory nut who actually noticed that Dorner’s ‘wallet’ was found on three separate occasions in three different locations, but you know, those people are ‘crazy’ and can be defamed if necessary.”

“Was it complete military theater, or were those cops and that couple actually killed?”

“Oh, they were killed sir,” replied Brennan, “but not by Dorner. Without telling you more than you need to know, just consider it ‘house cleaning’. It has to happen every once in awhile, and the LAPD was begging for it. Likewise,” he paused for dramatic effect, “if you’re planning on passing any further gun regulations, you’re definitely going to need more precedents to pull the public along to your side. Would you rather have innocents killed randomly or would it be worth all of our time to induce some form of…quantitative easing?”

The president hid his thoughts. “Thanks for your explanation John. That helps me understand what needs to be done.”