Cyber Attack by Bobby Akart

Author:Bobby Akart [Akart, Bobby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brahmin Merchandising Inc.
Published: 2015-09-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

June 8, 2016

White House Situation Room

Washington, D.C.

The White House Situation Room is a five-thousand-square-foot complex of rooms located on the ground floor of the West Wing. It is commonly referred to as The Woodshed.

The Situation Room was born out of frustration on the part of President John Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs debacle in Cuba. President Kennedy felt betrayed by the conflicting advice and information coming in to him from the various agencies that comprised the nation’s defense departments. Kennedy ordered the bowling alley built during the Truman presidency removed and replaced with the Situation Room.

Initially, before the age of electronics, President Kennedy required at least one Central Intelligence analyst remain in the Situation Room at all times. The analyst would work a twenty-hour shift and sleep on a cot during the night.

Other Presidents, like Nixon and Ford, never used the Situation Room. In most cases, a visit from the President was a formal undertaking, happening only on rare occasions. President George H.W. Bush, a former CIA head, would frequently call and ask if he could stop by and say hello.

When there had been a foreign policy failure, such as when the shoe bomber boarded a flight on Christmas Day in 2009, the Situation Room became a forum for a tongue-lashing of top-level intelligence and national security personnel.

Katie had not experienced a tongue-lashing, nor had she seen the President in the Situation Room. But the President’s top two advisors, Susan Giles and Valerie Jarrett, were regulars and had the full authority of the President to berate and castigate at will. The tension in the room indicated this briefing would be one of those mornings.

“The President has had enough!” barked Giles, looking over her reading glasses, piercing eyes blowing holes through the attendees skulls. “Not only are the cyber attacks of the Pentagon email system a serious matter of national security, they are goddamn embarrassing!”

Katie glanced around the room and noticed she was the sole female in attendance besides Jarrett and Giles. The men were squirming. Katie was not. She had been sounding alarm bells about cyber terror for many weeks.

“General Dempsey, how are you and the Joint Chiefs going to deal with this?” asked Giles.

“The DoD, through the United States Strategic command, is working closely with USSTRATCOM in defending the global information grid,” replied General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “In conjunction with the United States Cyber Command, the DoD turns away hundreds of thousands of attacks on our governmental facilities a day. The cyber attacks are continuous and relentless.”

“O’Shea!” snapped Jarrett. “You are the liaison between the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center and the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Well, advise us.”

Katie glanced at Giles, trying to remember her prior admonishment about the political aspects of her analysis. She wondered how Giles would react to this. I’m on the hot seat.

Looking at General Dempsey, then back to Jarrett, Katie started, “We’re at war, and we are losing.” She allowed the words to permeate the

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