A State of Treason

by David Thomas Roberts

  Even the downtown post office was not immune; however, the downtown crowds were more physical, throwing bottles, cans and trash at the building. Many people hurling rocks and other items were still in their church clothes.

  Chapter 22

  “Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency…. Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens.”

  ~ U.S. Senate Report on Presidential Executive Orders

  93rd Congress (1973-1975)

  The mood in the White House situation room suddenly changed.

  “The president is on his way down,” announced a staff member as he stuck his head in the room. The president had just played a round of golf earlier that morning and was not to be bothered until the 12:30 lunch debriefing.

  Johnson strolled into the room, looking unusually relaxed and at ease. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, where’s my prisoner?”

  The president sat down at the large mahogany table and scanned the other attendees. The others in the room, who waited for Johnson to sit, uncomfortably sat down and pulled close to the table.

  Atty. Gen. Tibbs began. “Mr. President, the raid was successful; however, the Texans did put up resistance and there are fatalities on both sides.”

  “Where’s the governor? Just please tell me we got him,” Johnson demanded.

  “Well, we got him all right. The governor engaged our agents, Mr. President, and he was killed. He also killed one of our agents.”

  Had anyone else told the president this news, the rest of the cabinet assembled in the situation room would likely have seen some hesitation or remorse for how the operation went down. Not Tibbs.

  “Are you telling me the governor of Texas is dead?” said the president as his body language became upright and stiff.

  “Yes, sir, Mr. President, but we have captured the Texas attorney general.”

  “Mr. President, during the operation, the Texans engaged our agents and there was a firefight,” stated Joint Chiefs Gen. Herrera.

  “Okay, I’m listening…”

  “We lost three agents on the ground, sir. But we also have fatalities from downed choppers. Fatalities in the operation also included Maj. Gen. Rex Conroy of the Texas Guard. We have the lieutenant governor, who has been wounded and is in critical condition, aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. His wife was also captured and is unhurt. We also have captured Weaver, the Texas attorney general.”

  “These deaths were justifiable? How many men did we lose?” asked the president.

  Tibbs interrupted. “Yes, sir. They engaged our agents.”

  “Sir, unfortunately, the wife of the governor was also killed. It was unavoidable and apparently occurred in the governor’s firefight with our agents,” said Gen. Herrera remorsefully.

  “Damn. We killed his wife?” asked the president incredulously.

  “It was the governor’s fault, sir. This is what our operational command has informed us,” replied Tibbs.

  The president sat in his chair rubbing his chin. He looked like he had aged twenty-five years since his initial inauguration, although it had only been five years. The president who came into office in his mid-forties fit, hip and cool, now was almost fully gray with deepening wrinkles that indicated the stress of his office.

  “Who knows?” asked the president.

  “Nobody outside this room and the officers on the Truman,” said Defense Secy. Brooks.

  “We have been monitoring the news coming out of Texas. They know he was taken, but they don’t know about his death or his wife’s,” said Tibbs.

  The president turned to Avery Smith. “Avery, what impact will these deaths have?” Johnson asked.

  Smith sat there, deep in thought for a few seconds as he took in what had just been revealed to President Johnson.

  “Well, we definitely have to structure our response that the deaths were unavoidable and caused by the actions of the governor. We were there serving legal federal warrants. We need to focus on the deaths of the agents caused by the Texans and the Texans need to be portrayed as outlaws and, sometimes, when lawful personnel are chasing criminals, there can be unfortunate collateral casualties,” Smith responded. “We will focus on the administration taking decisive action, noting that no one is above federal law, not even a sitting governor.”

  “Okay, I like that approach. I sure would have liked to have news coverage of him in shackles, just like our esteemed attorney general here,” chuckled the president, along with others at the table.

  “We will make sure we use the Texas attorney general for that purpose,” said Tibbs.

  “The damned Mexicans added complications,” said Brooks.

  “Sir, two Texas jet fighters were scrambled despite our efforts to contain any threat by air. We hit radar installations, including air traffic control towers, but they got two birds off and they wreaked havoc on the operation once it was in the recovery phase,” said the general. “One of their fighters took down two Blackhawks and then pursued the third into Mexico, shooting it down. The fourth Blackhawk, also chased into Mexico air space, was destroyed on a Mexican airport tarmac.”

  “They knew we had prisoners on the last chopper that landed on the Truman; that’s the only reason they weren’t all shot down,” added Brooks.

  “How many dead?” asked Smith.

  “We don’t know. We assume, because of how they went down, that nobody survived. There were no casualties at the Mexican airport, but Mexico scrambled fighters that chased one of the Texas fighters back to Texas. Those Mexican fighters were also taken out but, unfortunately, they were shot down in Texas,” said the general.

  “How many Mexican fighters were shot down?” asked the president.

  “There were four, sir,” replied General Herrera.

  “Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” said an increasingly agitated president. “Two Texas fighters shot down four American Blackhawks and four Mexican fighter jets? Is my math correct?”

  “Well, technically, three choppers. One was already on the ground. Yes, sir.”

  “Did we shoot down the Texas fighters?” asked the president.

  “Yes, sir, we got one of them. Well, actually, the Mexicans got one of them.”

  “Well, thank God for that!” said the president sarcastically. He looked around the table for a brief period, then asked, “Where the hell is Bartlett?”

  “She’s not back yet, sir.”

  The president feigned no knowledge of Bartlett being in Texas. Tibbs had called the president shortly after he found out Bartlett was trying to broker a settlement to the crisis. The attorney general could never give the green light to this operation without presidential approval, but Smith had taught the president well, always providing an escape hatch to any scandal by properly insulating the president through plausible deniability.

  “Well, she can deal with El Presidente when she returns. Has anyone told him to shut his damned mouth yet? We won’t live up to our end of the deal if he complicates things,” Johnson said.

  “We have reached out to him this morning unsuccessfully so far,” said another cabinet member.

  “We’ll let Bartlett handle this, but Avery, we need to coordinate our response with Mexico.”

  “Yes, sir, that’s the plan. It appears he has some serious political pressure being exerted on him due to the incursion by Texas into Mexican airspace. If you recall, the Mexicans were very hesitant to provide rights to their airports, and apparently El Presidente acted without the full knowledge of his military. He has a tough situation to deal with at home, but don’t think he won’t hang us out to dry if it helps him politically.”

  “Well, you f
olks know where his vulnerabilities are. I expect that you will use all tools available to bring him under control so we avoid any political backlash,” the president said firmly, looking directly at CIA Director Zachary Hamlin.

  “We will persuade him to shut the hell up,” said Hamlin.

  “I want him locked down before tonight’s statement. Is that understood?” asked the president.

  “Fully,” responded Hamlin.

  The president appeared bored in the discussion of the Mexicans. “How did the governor die?” He was genuinely interested in the details of how Gov. Cooper was killed.

  “The operation was a surprise raid and, when the agents got to Cooper’s bedroom, he opened fire on them, killing one. Unfortunately, our agents returned fire, and Cooper’s wife was either hit by the agents’ return fire or some rounds penetrated the governor fully and struck her. We’re not sure of the forensics, but they are trying to determine this on the Truman as we speak,” said Herrera.

  “How is it that this news is not generally known?” Johnson questioned.

  “Operation command on the ground kept it contained to that bedroom while others were moved to other parts of the ranch. The bodies were loaded into choppers out of sight of the others at the compound.”

  “That’s a good job of keeping things contained, General. I assume we all agree this action was unavoidable and justifiable?” The president surveyed the entire cabinet assembled in the situation room.

  “Of course. Yes, sir. Without a doubt,” came responses from the officials in the room.

  “Avery, I assume we have to be very careful how this is announced and, more important, how it is portrayed to the press.”

  “Absolutely, Mr. President. Critical. The response has to be crafted carefully, with a lot of thought, but done quickly,” answered Smith.

  “I want any and all responses to be coordinated with Avery, ladies and gentlemen, is that understood?”

  “Sir, since this was effectively a DHS operation, I suggest any announcement takes place from that perspective,” said McDermott.

  “I’m sorry, Sarah, but I respectfully disagree. This is a major announcement and needs to be made from the White House,” commented Smith.

  “Press conference?” asked the president.

  “No, sir. This should be a nationally televised statement from the Oval Office. No questions. We want to control the message here.”

  “Makes sense,” said the president.

  “When do we do this? How long before the world knows he’s dead?” asked Tibbs.

  “I think we need to pull in some of the Democrats on the Hill and brief them. A prime time statement tonight makes sense unless you folks tell me the world has a way to find out about this before the president delivers the message,” said Smith.

  “It has to be our guys only,” said the president, not particularly referring to his party but only to the most trusted in his party. “Do we have a sense of how the country will react to this?”

  “We will craft the message carefully,” said Smith. “Most of the polling in the areas that mean anything to us (meaning outside of traditional Red States and the South) has been favorable on how the Texas crisis has been handled. I wouldn’t expect that would change. I suggest we prepare a preliminary statement and leak some pics of the Texas attorney general in shackles, and we can prepare a preliminary statement.”

  The president and his administration had complete confidence in Smith. He was an expert at containing political damage, single-handedly exerting extreme political pressure on congressional members to keep the president out of any potential impeachment hearings as a result of the Sally investigation.

  Smith had an aura of invincibility and had managed to surround the president with the same invisible force field. He had unfettered access to the NSA and CIA, and access to all the personal files of Congress, their phone records, emails and website activities, including those of their families and staff.

  Only a handful of congressional leaders were “untouchable,” meaning Smith couldn’t find any dirt on them or anyone close to them. But he didn’t need them all, just enough of them and he had them, and they knew it.

  Chapter 23

  “People who object to weapons aren’t abolishing violence, they’re begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically ‘right.’ Guns ended that, and social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work.”

  ~ L. Neil Smith

  Author, Political Activist & Libertarian

  The White House issued the following press release to all news wires: “Early this morning, the Department of Homeland Security, along with the FBI and ATF, under the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Justice Department, attempted to serve federal arrest warrants for various state officials in Texas, including Gov. Brent Cooper, in a remote area southwest of Austin, Texas.

  “During the attempt to arrest these state officials, three federal agents were killed. There were also casualties reported at the site of the arrests. We know that a number of Blackhawk helicopters involved in this operation were shot down. We do not know at this time the number of casualties involved with those aircraft at this time. Also, our good friend and neighbor Mexico lost several jet aircraft while attempting to assist Homeland Security helicopters that were under attack by Texas jet fighters. Mexico has reported that Texas fighters bombed a border town airport.

  “Several Texas officials were successfully apprehended in the raid. The president will make a statement to the nation live at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight from the Oval Office.”

  The statement from the White House only stoked the media firestorm, as they had been on a feeding frenzy of sorts since the news broke that something big had happened in Texas and the state’s governor was missing.

  California, Illinois and New York news outlets offered live coverage of protestors burning the Lone Star Flag and other iconic symbols of Texas, protesting more deaths of federal agents, supposedly at the hands of Texans. The mainstream media continued to portray Texas as the problem, affixing blame to state leaders for the continuing crisis. Opinion polls that popped up online during the day showed an unfavorable opinion of Texas and its leaders of almost three to one.

  Congressional members from both parties wasted no time in condemning the bloodshed, but few condemned the administration. World leaders in general criticized the raid, with the exception of countries like China and Russia, who had experienced uprisings from states like Chechnya that tried to break away from Russia as an independent state. Leaders in France and other countries wanted to convene an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The fact that Mexico somehow became involved posed an imminent threat to regional stability, according to some of the permanent members of the Council.

  While news reports during the day began to put a face to the names of the officers killed at the Swingin’ T and the civilians killed in the airport bombings, the mindset of average Texans, already simmering over the escalation of events that began with the Tea Party raids, began to boil.

  Station network affiliates in Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Lubbock and Amarillo were streaming live feeds of growing crowds of protestors at federal buildings from post offices to federal courthouses. Crowds were especially large at various IRS offices across the state.

  Protestors waved the Gonzales Battle Flag, the infamous “Come and Take It” flag where the Mexican government demanded that the small town of Gonzales give up the cannon they used to ward off Comanche Indian attacks. The town dared one hundred dragoons from the despot Santa Anna to try to take it. The town’s militia turned back the dragoons and the Texas Revolution was on.

  There were also plenty of Lone Star flags, along with handmade posters that displayed Texans’ sentiments such as “Feds, Get Out!” “Impeach Johnson!” “Arrest Tibbs,” as well as many with simply “Secede!”

  Texas
politicians from across the state, even many Democrats, demanded access to the governor. CNN was first to flash images of Texas Atty. Gen. Weaver in full shackles being led from a helicopter to a waiting black van, then again when he was taken into the Justice Department building in Washington, D.C.

  The fact that the administration didn’t comment on the status of the governor only fed the anticipation of the presidential news conference. CNN reported several top congressional leaders were summoned to the White House, but not a single senator or representative from the GOP.

  CNN attempted to interview several as they left a two-hour meeting at the White House. CNN couldn’t hide the angst on the faces of the leaders coming out of the meeting. Whatever news or debriefing they received was obviously weighing heavily on them as they departed in their darkened-window vehicles, most not willing to make any statement.

  The CNN news crew cornered a senator from California in the capitol hallway when he arrived back at his office. He made a very brief statement from his office door. As with most politicians, he couldn’t help himself.

  “These are trying times for America. I won’t get into any details about the somber events that occurred early this morning in Texas. It’s a shame that federal agents lost their lives simply carrying out their duty serving arrest warrants in Operation Santa Anna. I ask we all support our president and remember those families in your prayers. Thank you.”

  “Operation Santa Anna? Did he really say that?” asked a Houston television news station reporter.

  News that the operation to arrest Texas officials inside their own state was dubbed Operation Santa Anna spread like a west Texas wildfire. Even state Democratic Party leaders began to publicly question the wisdom of naming a federal quasi-military operation into Texas after the hated tyrannical Mexican president responsible for the deaths at their beloved Alamo.