Games of State - Tom Clancy [102]
"But the infrastructure recovers."
"That's been true so far," McCaskey pointed out. "But what if several systems were to be weakened at once? Or the same system is hit repeatedly? Look at Italy. The Red Brigade kidnapped Prime Minister Aldo Moro and shook them up for months in 1978. Cut to 1991, when Albanian refugees began flooding Italy because of political turmoil at home. Terrorists hit Italy again. Thirteen years had passed, almost to the week, yet the international business community started having flashbacks. To them, Italy was out of control again. There was no confidence in the government. Foreign investments began to drop almost at once. What would have happened if the terrorism had kept up or spread? The financial damage would have been immeasurable. Look at Hollywood."
"What about it?"
McCaskey said, "You think the studios began opening soundstages in Florida because it was sunnier there, or real estate was cheaper? No. They were afraid that earthquakes and racial unrest could destroy the film industry."
Rodgers was trying to digest everything McCaskey had thrown at him. From McCaskey's own expression, so, obviously, was he.
"Darrell," Rodgers said thoughtfully, "how many white supremacist groups would you estimate there are in the United States?"
"I don't have to estimate," he said. He flipped through several pages in the second file in his lap, the file marked Hate Groups. "According to the FBI's latest white paper, there are seventy-seven different white supremacist-neo-Nazi-skinhead groups, with a total membership of some thirty-seven thousand people. Of those, nearly six thousand people belong to armed militias."
"What's the disbursement?"
"Nationally?" McCaskey asked. "Basically, they're in every state of the union and in every major city of each state, including Hawaii. Some target blacks, some Asians, some Jews, some Mexicans, some all of the above. But they're everywhere."
"That doesn't surprise me," Rodgers said. He was angry, but he refused to be daunted. He recalled, from his extensive readings in history, how the Founding Fathers themselves were bitterly disappointed that independence didn't mean an end to inequality and hate. Rodgers remembered one quote from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams. To attain that goal, Jefferson had written, "Rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation. " Rodgers would not permit himself or anyone serving beside him to buckle under the load.
"What are you thinking?" McCaskey asked.
"How I want to kick a bunch of damn-fool ass for Thomas Jefferson." Rodgers ignored McCaskey's confused stare. He cleared his throat. "Did anything else turn up on the Pure Nation computer?"
McCaskey went to the third and final folder. "No," he said, "and we're all kind of surprised how little new information there is."
"Bad luck or did they manage to erase it?"
'I'm not sure," McCaskey said. "Everyone at the Bureau is afraid to look this gift horse in the mouth. It looks like it's going to be great PR, especially among blacks. No one was hurt and we've got some bad guys behind bars."
"But it was a little too easy," Rodgers said for him.
"Yeah," McCaskey replied, "I think so. And I think the Bureau thinks so too. The biggest question is why an outside group was sent in to attack the Chaka Zulu people. One of the most virulent hate groups in the nation, the Koalition, is based in Queens. That's right over the East River, closer than Pure Nation was even in New York. Yet there appears to have been no contact between the two."
Rodgers said, "I wonder if this is similar to what the Axis used to do."
"What, disinformation?"
Rodgers nodded. "Bob and I have a file on it. If you have time look it up-- Das Bait. The essence of it is,