Free End of Enemies by Grant Blackwood

the PDB personally and in an informal setting. Shirtsleeves, coffee, and bagels were usually the order of the day.
    Dick Mason watched the president put down his bagel. He knew which section his boss was reading: a transcript of the Iranian prime minister’s most recent speech to a group of senior Pasdaran officers. The Pasdaran, also known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, was one of Iran’s deadliest terrorist exports.
    The CIA had long believed the prime minister was being influenced by the current ayatollah, which in itself was unremarkable, but the content of this particular speech contradicted the call for reconciliation he’d been spouting for the past eight months. In Mason’s eyes, this meant that while Iran’s goals remained unchanged, their methods were leaning more toward the covert.
    â€œThis is an accurate translation, Dick?” the president asked, running his finger along the text. “ ‘At every turn we lure the Great Satan into our traps, and then crush him under our heel like a squirming beetle. We have countless allies, more than there are stars in the heavens, and when the sky rains fire, our enemies will be pushed into the sea.’” The president looked up.
    â€œIt’s accurate, sir. But to be fair, we couldn’t expect him to talk nice about us in front of a group of fanatical Pasdaran officers.”
    â€œHow much is just talk and how much is real?”
    â€œNot an easy question, Mr. President Islam is more than religion for them; it influences every aspect of their lives, including government. The U.S., along with the rest of the nonbelievers, are evil incarnate. Failing to set us straight jeopardizes their own souls. For them, that’s serious business. The only change we can likely expect is a heavier reliance on covert action. Same goes for Syria and Sudan.”
    â€œDefine covert, ” said James Talbot.
    â€œIncreased use of surrogates, front groups, political interference. In short, deniable operations.”
    The president was silent for a few moments. “Okay. Next topic.”
    â€œStill Iran,” said Mason. “Latest estimates have their oil exports down four percent in the last six months, but production itself hasn’t changed. Same with the peripheral industries.”
    â€œWhere’s it going?”
    â€œInto diesel production, then storage. This could mean a lot of things, but the clearest analogy we have is the Iran-Iraq war, we saw this same trend in the years prior to it Iran was stockpiling for tanks and trucks and the like.”
    â€œAre you telling me something, Dick?”
    â€œNot necessarily, sir. As I said, there could be any number of reasons. We know next month they’re conducting an army exercise outside Hamadan. They’ve done it at this time every year, four years running.”
    â€œDid they stockpile for previous exercises?” asked Talbot
    â€œNo. The point is, though, we’ve got nothing to suggest they’re on the warpath. It does bear watching, and we’re doing that”
    â€œJim,” the president said to his national security adviser, “OPEC’s meeting in Bahrain next week. Talk to State, see if the Saudis will do a little probing.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œOkay, Dick, what’s next?”
    â€œSyria.”
    â€œGood news or bad news?”
    â€œGood news and undecided news, sir. Routine ELINT shows the Golan is still stable, no changes. But yesterday the NPIC caught a side-lobe image of what looks like a group of Syrian APCs, tanks, and even a few companies of airborne troops making a drop a couple hundred miles south and east of the Bekka.”
    â€œAn exercise?”
    â€œIt appears so. It’s an odd mix of forces: elements from the First Armored Division and the Seventh and Ninth Mechanized, which will probably be replacing their counterparts in the Bekka in a couple months. It’s a routine rotation, but