Chapter Twelve

“Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests him like they did John Kennedy. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
–Joe Biden, October 20, 2008

“Well, even though he made it look like a piece of cake, we got our money.” Rockefeller locked his hands behind his head and laid back in a leather recliner. “I gotta admit, I didn’t know if he would play ball or try to get ‘The People’ to rise up against us.”

Cheney grimaced. “He knew what was best for him. At least he’s not impulsive. We would’ve pulled out the big guns if he went rogue. Even he’s got dirt the public would find…distasteful.”

“For all the ‘hopey-changey’ liberals out there, the old racket still works.” Rockefeller smiled. “Thank God we were able to get all the laws changed in time to drop the bottom out of the market within his first month of office. Biden had the gall to compare him to Kennedy. He’s no Kennedy, this president knows his place.”

“Are we sure of that?” Cheney looked up beneath a frowning brow. “I get these premonitions of danger that almost lead to panic attacks. I’m still concerned that it isn’t yet safe.”

Rockefeller leaned forward and slapped him on the back. “Cheer up Dick! The duty you did for your country will be remembered, respected and protected by the right people for the rest of your life. I know you didn’t even think it was possible in the beginning, but this is peanuts compared to what you pulled off. He’s a lawyer, he knows better than to challenge us now.”

“How can we be sure?”

“In your entire lifetime, you’ve seen us win it all…everything…even when we didn’t know what we were doing half the time. We figured it out, whatever it took. That same logic applies now. No matter what anyone thinks they can do about it, we will win.”

Cheney let loose a long labored breath. “I don’t trust him. He has the feel of a martyr waiting for the right time to make penance.”

“Then we will use his martyrdom at the right time…or we’ll induce it.” Rockefeller winked. “Come on man, you’re the glue who held the ship together during ‘the greatest hoax ever pulled on the American people.’ Don’t tell me you’re getting spooked now.”

“There are new precedents in motion that are unsettling. Bradley Manning is being compared to Nelson Mandela. Julian Assange is getting a tv show.”

“On Russia Today right?” Rockefeller laughed. “Who’s going to believe RT propaganda? Putin’s compromised. Don’t give up on American pride, it’s kept us afloat since the beginning of our lives. Mom, apple pie, guns and butter…the GOP may be toxic, but the American flag isn’t.”

“Anonymous is gathering more and more members everyday.”

“I thought the FBI was running their ‘honey pot’ strategy with them like Al-Qaeda,” said Rockefeller. “It’s not working?”

“The problem is…hackers are not poor, broke and brown. They are often white, male and upper class. They also don’t have the sense of urgency that potential terrorists bring with them.”

“Hackers aren’t terrorists?” asked Rockefeller. “Isn’t that just a matter of changing some more laws?”

“Oh, they’ve been introduced,” said Cheney, “but they don’t carry the same fear that hash-eating, tower-toppling assassins bring to the minds of regular Americans.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of a way to change that.”

Chapter Eleven

“It’s not catching on quick enough,” Anonymous #3 said. “I thought we’d have regular whistle blowers uploading volumes by now. This trickle of info is just a tease. We need wolves to blow the house down.”

“Patience pet.” Assange was intense but gentle. “All in good time. Rome might’ve been destroyed in a day…”

“But it wasn’t,” said Anon #5, “three hundred years ago, historians decided it would be easier for students if world history were divided into three periods: Ancient, Medival, and Modern. They figured that 476—the year of Rome's last emperor—was a good date to use in marking the end of an epoch, but the selection of 476 was arbitrary.”

“Thanks for ruining my metaphor #5.”

“Well, accountability right?" #5 smiled, “like Obama?”

“My point is, we need real media figures to help pull public opinion. Most of them have gotten lazy on their steady paychecks and press conferences, but I trust that some still have a conscience. We also need members of the military, government and big business to legitimize our efforts, and that takes time…and bollocks. You can’t expect everyone to risk losing their careers no matter how much they would love to call their bosses out.”

“But you are actually risking your life,” swooned Anon #2. “and they’ve been monitoring you for years. You don’t think that gives us cause to speed things up a bit?”

Assange smiled, “Regardless of whatever scare tactics they use, stick to the plan. They will defame me, slander me, discredit me, call me a drama queen, a pissy bitch, a bloody bastard, a control freak, a rapist, a racist, a sexist, an egomaniac, a megalomaniac, a nymphomaniac…”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Anon #6 chuckled. “The pussy welcome wagon will beat down your door if they hear any of that stuff. Bring it on I say!”

“You’re such a boy Tina,” said Anon #3, “oops, I mean #6. You might get lucky on some sloppy seconds.”

Assange rolled his eyes. “Focus chaps. This is not an opportunity to get laid, this is world change.”

“I’m just saying, you know…perkies,” Anon #6 replied.

“How come we don’t just take out their mainframes?” Asked #4. “You’re not letting us use some of our true genius here. That would scare the monkey shite right out of ‘em. It might even get them angry enough to start a real war.”

“#4, I accept your anarchist beliefs, but if you’re going to ally yourself with me and mine, please accept my pacifism. Like Einstein said, ‘I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.’ I don’t want a war, I want evolution.”

“They won’t go down without a fight,” continued #4. “How about a little leeway for mischief?”

“Listen to the man.” Anon #1 was firm. “We’re all here because we believe in what he’s doing, and likewise because he inspired us to be what we are. I know it goes against many of your nature, but let’s try some trust. Strategy is about learning from history and not repeating it. We’re up against a power that understands that. We’ve got to match them and go beyond it to stand a chance. Let’s stick to the plan.”

“I’m always open to good ideas,” winked Assange, “but so far, albeit slowly, the sleeper is awakening.”

Chapter Ten

“Holy fuck, this guy’s got balls.” Cheney was aiming for pigeons now. He used his fingers as cross hairs and flicked popcorn at their heads. He was unsuccessful so far. The pigeons didn’t care.

“He’s got an ‘emergency’ list of leaks, just in case he or any of his staff is harmed,” Karl sneered. “He’s quite paranoid.” Cheney watched him. It felt weird. Karl was normally plain-faced and he was the one with a snarl. His Mom had been right. Keep making up your face that way and it’ll stay. A stroke he had a few years ago insured that, even though the doctors had done their best. He blamed W.

“He’s gotta be bluffing. He wouldn’t send out the encryption device to 100,000 people. That would be more for us to intercept.” Cheney waited.

“Stratfor wants to water board him for it.” Karl grinned. “Oh, the irony…that would make our circle complete.”

“Careful, if you strike him down now, you will make him more powerful than you can ever imagine Darth.” Cheney tried to smile and sneered. “It felt good to cow the president on ‘his’ torture policy, but I don’t know if we can use the same strategy here. Assange is a ‘clear and present danger’ according to Tom Clancy, but he’s civilized and accessible. His fan base is expanding too. The Brits are playing with us more than I’d like. Have we spent all our pressure over there yet?”

“Assange has more friends than we’d hoped. The Vaughan Smith safety haven was completely unexpected. He’s that guy who bluffed his way into an active-duty unit while disguised as a British Army officer to get the only uncontrolled footage from the Gulf War.”

“What an asshole.” Cheney twitched.

“Another folk hero, but it can’t last forever. We’ve got his family blacklisted, so it’s only a matter of time before his wife threatens divorce. Carl Bildt is working on the extradition from Sweden to the US as soon as his last appeal fails. He won’t even make it to trial. He’ll be met at customs by our people. Media won’t be allowed anywhere near the transaction.”

“The sooner the better. His calm is unnerving to me.” Cheney lined up another pigeon with a kernel. POW. He nailed it right between the eyes. The pigeon flew away. Another took it’s place.

“We’ve got another problem.” Karl waited.

“Go on.”

“FOX NEWS was doing great when the story broke. They had more anti-Assange statements than any other network. We even got a couple kill orders in…however…Murdoch is pissed at the President.”

Cheney rolled his eyes. “And?”

“Between some obvious editing mistakes FOX made and some bad press from the Daily Show and Colbert, his ratings have fallen off the map, so he figured he’d get some digs in on the current administration. Instead of crapping on Manning and Assange, he’s letting Judge Napolitano try their cases on his segment, and he’s calling them ‘heroes’ and ‘patriots’ based on the way the government is treating them for being ‘whistle blowers.’

Cheney shook his head. “Murdoch, you panicky bitch. Talk about ass-backwards. Is it that simple, or are there deeper developments?”

Karl took a breath. “When Judge Sam Kent ruled against Halliburton, we were able to expose his affairs pretty easily, but Napolitano is different. He’s got staying power, and the People are digging on him. If he decides to go on a crusade, it’s going to get obvious if we have to take him down.”

“He’s a ranter and a raver,” said Cheney, “I think he’s fit to ride the crazy train if necessary. Besides, ‘obvious’ doesn’t mean much anymore. The public is still too lethargic. They like to think they know what’s up, but never in my lifetime have they had the luxury. Why should I worry now?” He blasted another pigeon. “Right between the eyes.”

The pigeon flew away. Another took it’s place.

Chapter Eight

“We are engaged in an information war, and the United States is losing.” Hillary Clinton was pissed. “During the cold war, we did a great job of getting America’s message out. After the Berlin wall fell, we said fine, enough of that, we’ve done it…we’re done. Unfortunately, we’re not. Al-Jazeera is winning, Iran’s PressTV is winning, Russia Today is winning. The President just said, ‘we can’t allow ourselves to be out-communicated by our enemies.’ ”

“Do these alternative media really pose a threat to US interests?” asked a correspondent for DemocracyNOW!

“We’re the most technologically advanced nation in the world, and slowly but surely, we’ve been trying to take back the airwaves in Afghanistan from the Taliban with the most primitive kind of communication equipment. We weren’t very competitive, but we’ve worked our butts off to make any kind of progress. Meanwhile, these global networks have been literally changing people’s minds and attitudes, and like it or hate it, it is really effective. Al-Jazeera’s viewership has gone up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re really getting relevant information around the clock instead of a million commercials and arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff we do on our news that is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners.”

“Would you include WikiLeaks in that assessment of alternative media’s power over people?” asked a man from the Young Turks Network.

“Anything WikiLeaks publishes is now subject to federal investigation after they violated our statutes. I would likewise suggest you not believe everything you read,” said Clinton, “especially coming from them.”

“Is that a reference to the government cable where you instructed your ambassadors to effectively spy on foreign diplomats?” asked the same reporter.

“This is the information war,” said Clinton. “The United States may have lost that battle, but it’s not over yet.”

Chapter Nine

“You’re going to embrace the conservatives?” Assange was shocked. “That isn’t going to be difficult for you Mr. President?”

“Oh, they aren’t such bad guys. They’re just…compromised right now. They’re figuring out hardball capitalism, but part of the learning curve is remembering who’s pitching.”

“Who is pitching?” asked Assange.

“Right now, those with the most money who want to make even more,” said the President. “You ever see Wall Street?”

“Sure. ‘Greed is good,’ right? Are you telling me Gordon Gekko influenced an entire generation of the corporate elite?”

“Not entirely, but inversely about as many of you who were inspired by Ferris Bueller.”

“Touché, ‘oh captain, my captain…’ Please, continue.”

“Let’s just say,” the president paused, “the last administration really did a number on the laws of the United States. Amidst all of the speculation on what they should accomplish, 9-11 ‘struck’ and suddenly, they had their belief system come fully into focus. National emergency equals unlimited impunity in regards to legal maneuverability.”

“They could substitute ‘war time rules’ for ‘diplomatic immunity’ like in Lethal Weapon II?”

"Good one, but furthermore, they realized it didn’t have to end with just navigating thru US law, it could include changing that law to fit their current agendas. Instead of just being allowed free range, it made more sense to rewrite the rules, so they couldn’t ever be prosecuted for breaking any of them.”

Assange’s eyes got big. “Cracking strategy. Immunity becomes unnecessary. Is this why you haven’t gone after the banking industry yet?”

“Yes, and no,” replied the President. “Yes, they de-regulated guidelines put there since the Great Depression and used their influence on whatever politicians they could to make more money off of those who weren’t aware of how it would end.”

“Because Gordon Gekko said so.”

“In a nutshell,” quipped the President, “how can I go after people who were simply abiding by newly written law?”

“Change the laws back?”

“Possibly, but what if other laws have been changed since to make sure that doesn’t happen?” asked the President.

“Like?”

“Do you remember Jack Abramoff?”

“That lobbyist who went to jail for buying off politicians? Sure.”

“His job was to meet with every member of the House and Senate and find out how much it would cost to bring them into the fold of his employers. He claimed that during his tenure, he personally corrupted 50% of them. Early on in the last administration, that was illegal. Now, it’s not. They re-wrote the law to allow for money to be paid for influence, and Jack says his former employers currently own over 90% of them.

“Christ, that’s audacity,” sighed Assange. “What’s the ‘no’?”

“No, I haven’t gone after the banking industry…yet. Some things need to happen first. Within our political culture, money controls power, and the wealthy are winning. The People have the true power, but money buys a lot dissemination and propaganda, and herds tend to feed on fear. What money can’t buy however is passion for truth. If I, the President ‘tattle’ on the government, big business or the military, I become partisan in a way that is devastating to my ability to make change. The status quo will stereotype me and put me in a box to be voted of office out as soon as possible. However, if a ‘citizen’ blows the whistle on what’s really going down, and a ‘journalist’ gets the word out to the People, they pick up on it on their own, and then the rush begins.”

“Wow,” mused Assange. “I always hoped you would just run up into Washington like JFK.”

“That’s why he was killed,” said the President. “He knew what the People wanted, but he had the braggadocio to believe that he alone could sweep aside an entire sub-culture of power. That sub-culture thought otherwise and proved him wrong. I want to be alive when all this goes down, so I must defend the old school, befriend them and even pass much of their agenda so the public sees for themselves what their government is really up to. Then I need you to be the People’s champion who exposes this behavior, that I can fight, and eventually unite with.”

“Once the People know, the government must adjust...”

“Or go the way of the Whigs and the Federalists.”

Chapter Seven

“The National Defense Authorization Act is just as necessary as the Patriot Act Mr. President,” said the speaker of the House. “The Patriot Act could only go so far. We need an upgrade.” The President continued reading.

“This sounds like George Orwell, John. ‘(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force?’ I’m gonna get slammed by the ACLU.”

“I believe that too is negotiable Mr. President,” said the speaker. “I appreciate how you are ‘working with’ the GOP even if many of my associates think otherwise. I just want America safe for my children, and nowadays the opposition is getting quicker at maneuvering itself than ever before. This anonymous character is going from rumor to folk hero overnight. Are we sure the Kremlin isn’t behind this guy?”

“Anonymous isn’t a he or she, it’s a they,” chimed the President, “and they’ve learned from history that you can’t deify any person if you want things changed. ‘Someone’ will just assassinate them.”

“Right,” the speaker rolled his eyes. “ ‘Hackers for good,’ ‘hackers for peace,’ ‘hackers for Haight-Ashbury’…it’s too easy to point the finger from behind a computer screen. They think they’re activists, online protesters hemming and hawing over propaganda they read on their monitors. They’re not in the shit and they never have been. Virtual reality doesn’t hold a candle to the truth. They aren’t inter-changeable.”

“Maybe not, but the Occupy Movement is surprising. They aren’t losing any steam. You guys’ theory on ‘once the high wears off and they come down’ hasn’t panned out. It appears controversy is their rush. Reminds me of the sixties.”

“Come on Mr. President,” said the speaker. “You know and I know the sixties were justified. The old school wasn’t keeping in touch with the public and the kids learned ‘em the hard way. Today? They got it good…too good. These kids are just spoiled, and frankly, they’re letting terrorists influence their thinking. That’s why we need this new NDAA. There’s a fine line between activism and terrorism, and this will keep them on the right side of that line.”

“Maybe, but don’t forget,” the President raised his left eyebrow, “we’re the old school now.”

Chapter Six

“You obviously have a mistrust of authority, where does that come from?” 60 Minutes was known for getting right to the point, and Steve Kroft pulled no punches.

“I think it comes from experience with various types of authorities,” answered Assange.

“So you’ve always been a little bit of an outsider…”

“Certainly, when I was a child going from one school to another, you are the outsider to begin with, and you have to find your way in.”

“You’ve been called a lot of names,” said Kroft. “You’ve been characterized as a hero, and ahhh…as a villain, a martyr, terrorist…”

“I’m not yet a martyr,” smiled Assange, “let’s keep it that way.”

“I don’t think many people in the United States took seriously the idea that you were a terrorist.”

“I’d like to believe that, on the other hand, incitements to murder are a serious issue, and unfortunately there is a portion of the population that will believe them and may carry them out.”

“Are you a subversive?” asked Kroft.

“I am sure there are certain views that we are subverting their authority, but, you’re right. We are subverting illegitimate authority. The question is whether the authority is legitimate or whether it is illegitimate.”

“Do you consider the US State Department a legitimate authority?”

“It’s legitimate insofar as its actions are legitimate. It has actions that are not legitimate. In fact, our founding values are those of the US revolution. They are those of people like Jefferson and Madison…we have a number of Americans in our organization. If you are a whistle blower and you have material that is important, we will accept it, we will defend you and we will publish it. You can’t turn away material simply because it comes from the United States. That’s completely outrageous.”

“Are you surprised?”

“I am surprised,” sighed Assange, “actually.”

“You have made some of the most powerful people in the world your enemies. You had to expect that they might retaliate. They see that as a threat.”

“They see it as highly embarrassing. I think what it’s really about is keeping the illusion of control. I am surprised about that. I am surprised at the sort of flagrant disregard for US traditions.”

“Look, if you play outside the rules you can’t expect to be protected by the rules, and you played outside the rules.”

“No, we’ve actually played inside the rules. We didn’t go out and get the material, we’ve operated just like any US publisher operates, and there’s not a special set of rules for publishers who disclose classified information. There is the first amendment, it covers the case. If we’re talking about creating threats to small publishers to stop them from publishing, the US has lost it’s way, it has abrogated its founding traditions, it has thrown the first amendment in the bin, because publishers must be free to publish. We are ‘free press activists’. We want transparent government, not transparent people.”