Honour Among Thieves

the plot, how did he react? Not with the usual bellicose shouting and screaming about the lies of the American imperialists, but with a reasoned, coherent statement from his Ambassador at the UN denying any personal involvement. Why? The press tells us it's because Saddam is hoping Clinton will be more reasonable in the long term than Bush. I don't believe it. I suspect Saddam realises that Clinton's position doesn't differ greatly from that of his predecessor. I don't think that's his reasoning at all. No, I suspect he believes that with the Declaration in his possession, he has a weapon so powerful that he can humiliate the United States, and in particular the new President, as and when he pleases.' 'When and how, Scott? If we knew that. . .' 'I have two theories on that, sir,' replied Scott. 'Let's hear them both.' 'Neither is going to make you feel any happier, Mr Secretary.' 'Nevertheless. . .' 'First he sets up a press conference, inviting the world's media to attend. He selects some public place in Baghdad where he is safely surrounded by his own people, and then he tears up, burns, destroys, does whatever he likes to the Declaration. I have a feeling it would make prime-time television.' 'But we'd bomb Baghdad to the ground if he tried that,' said Dexter Hutchins. 'I doubt it,' said Scott. 'How would our allies, the British, the French, not to mention the other friendly Arab nations, react to our bombing innocent civilians because Saddam had stolen the Declaration of Independence from right under our eyes?' 'You're right, Scott,' said Warren Christopher. 'The President would be vilified as a barbarian if he retaliated by bombing innocent Iraqis after what a lot of the world would consider nothing more than a public relations coup, though I must tell you, in the strictest confidence, that we do have plans to bomb Baghdad if Saddam continues to undermine the UN inspection teams' attempts to examine Iraqi nuclear installations.' 'Has a date been decided on?' asked Scott. Christopher hesitated. 'Sunday June 27th,' he said. 'The timing might well turn out to be unfortunate for us,' said Scott. 'Why? When do you think Saddam is likely to move?' asked Christopher. 'That's not so easy to answer, sir,' replied Scott, 'because you have to think the way he thinks. What makes that almost impossible is that he's capable of changing his mind from hour to hour. But if he thinks the problem through logically, my guess is he'll be considering two alternatives. Either on some symbolic date, maybe an anniversary associated with the Gulf War, or.. .' 'Or .. .?' said Christopher. 'Or he intends to hold on to it as a bargaining chip to allow him to retake the oilfields in Kuwait. After all, he's always claimed he had an agreement with us on that in the first place.' 'Either scenario is too horrific to contemplate,' said the Secretary of State. Turning to the Deputy Director, he asked, 'Have you begun to form any plan for getting the document back?' 'Not at the moment, sir,' replied Dexter Hutchins, 'as I suspect the parchment will be every bit as well protected as Saddam himself, and frankly we only learned of its likely destination last night.' 'Colonel Kratz,' said Christopher, turning his attention to the Mossad man, who had not uttered a word. 'Your Prime Minister informed us a few weeks ago that he was considering a plan to take out Saddam at some time in the near future.' 'Yes, sir, but he recognises your present dilemma, and all our activities have been shelved until the problem over the Declaration has been resolved, one way or the other.' 'I have already informed Mr Rabin how much I appreciate his support, especially as he can't even tell his own cabinet the true reason for his change of heart.' 'But we have our own problem, sir,' said the Israeli. 'Make my day, Colonel.' The burst of laughter that followed helped to ease the tension for a moment - but only for a moment. 'We have been training an agent who was going to be part of the team for the final operation to eliminate Saddam, a Hannah Kopec' 'The girl who. . .' said Christopher, half-glancing towards Scott. 'Yes, sir. She was totally blameless. But that is not the problem. After she returned to the Iraqi Embassy that evening, we were unable to get anywhere near Miss Kopec to let her know what had happened, because during the next few days she never once left the building, night or day. She and the Iraqi Ambassador have since returned to Baghdad under heavy guard.