"Yes, well, I apologize for my fat bin Laden. You know how it is: orders came down, not in the original plan, best we could do on short notice. Our model spent three hours in makeup, and even that and a grainy lens couldn't do much. But at least the proper impression was made at the right time, and that's the name of the game. The Truthers arrived far too late. Now then: let's think of another video, which will be released, say, forty-eight hours after the raid -- first video from the stash that the Seals pick up. It should prove bin Laden was recently alive, and we would do well to imply that he still had some type of organization supporting him."
"How about bin Laden giving a speech to his people in the middle of the compound?" said a prim woman with a heavy pearl necklace across her chest and the mysterious initials "ARR and J" before her blotter.
"Yes, not bad," said The Rainmaker. "And that would give us the extra plus of extended jihad after bin Laden dies." He tipped his head to either side. "But that would also involve an extended frontal view of him, and then we run into identification issues again. We really must avoid that this time. And then there's the background inside the compound. We have no idea what it looks like. We don't want anyone sneaking in there after the raid comparing our video with the cracks in the walls. No, we'll do best to keep it to an enclosed room with an absolutely plain background. And anything in it would have to be moveable."
The prim woman wasn't going to give up. "He could harangue people in a closed space in the house, and you could keep the camera behind him, trained mainly on the followers." She grinned suddenly at the others. "Hey, this is kinda fun."
"Uh-huh -- better."
"He could be have a Pakistani newspaper from last week in his hand," the man from DoD Intel tossed out. "We could have one flown over tomorrow."
"Yes, but you would run into the problem of specifying exactly what day it was. Not good. Ambiguity is our ally, dear ones."
For ten minutes, everyone contributed ideas and The Rainmaker fielded them, rejecting, honing, approving, modifying. You're like a lot of happy college freshmen in a bull session. 'This is government at its finest!' you're thinking. My god, you belong in a Doonesbury comic strip.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
