“Objection, Your Honor,” the prosecutor said. “What surprises him or doesn’t surprise him really doesn’t matter. What he thinks the President should, or would, or could have done doesn’t matter. What matters is what happened. Can we keep this narrative to the facts?”
“Your point is well taken, Trial Counsel, but not well enough to sustain your objection. Overruled.”
Dillon continued. “So you were aware of the Letter of Reprisal?”
“I was aware of it. I knew that it had been used in the past in American history. I guess I didn’t really think of it as a power in the Constitution, but simply something that the government could do. I didn’t know who Congress was going to issue it to. Such letters used to be issued to armed merchant ships. We don’t have armed merchant ships anymore. So, I didn’t know what they had in mind. Then I heard that they were going to issue it to my battle group.”
“Did that surprise you?”
“Yes, it did.”
“Why?”
“Well, like I said, I didn’t think it would go to anybody except a merchant ship. I’d never thought of whether you could issue a commission to a U.S. Navy ship as a Letter of Reprisal. It had never occurred to me.”
“Did it strike you as wrong?”
“No, it struck me as”—Billings paused as he sought the right word—“ingenious.”
“Did it strike you automatically as something that was improper or illegal?”
“No. I didn’t think it had ever been done, but it didn’t strike the as automatically illegal.”
“After you heard that the Letter of Reprisal was intended for your battle group, what happened next?”
“We got an order from the Joint Chiefs and the President telling us not to comply with the Letter of Reprisal.”
“And what did you do about it, Admiral Billings?” Dillon asked.
“I gave it a lot of thought. The idea of letting these men murder Americans and get away with it was troubling, but it wasn’t up to me to do something about it if our government didn’t want to. And here, through the Letter of Reprisal, it was very clear that our government did want to do something about it. They were specifically telling us to go after them with the force that was available to us in the battle group. But then we had this indication from another branch of government that they didn’t want us to go after the murderers. So, one branch of government was telling us to go, another branch of government was telling us not to go.”
“So what did you do?”
Billings sat back as he tried to speak clearly but with the energy the discussion deserved. “I had to decide on the spot which I thought took priority.”
“What did you decide?”
“We discussed it quite a bit. I asked my staff, my JAG officer, everyone. But finally it came down to the oath of office I took when I became a Naval officer. It’s the same oath everyone in the United States government takes—except the President. To support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
“Is that the actual oath that you took?”
“Yes.”
“Did you support and defend the Constitution?”
“Yes.”
“Was the order of the President contrary to the instructions of the letter from Congress?”
“Yes, it was.”
“So, what did you do?”
The crowd was completely silent. The members of the court, all of whom had been listening carefully, leaned forward to hear even better. Dillon waited patiently for the answer.
“I saw it as the will of the government, and my first allegiance is to the Constitution. The order from the President showed he disagreed with Congress. But that’s their fight, not mine, and it’s unfair to put me into the middle—”
“Objection!” Pettit cried. “His opinion on the balance of power between the President and Congress is completely irrelevant—”
“State of mind, Your Honor,” Dillon replied.
“Overruled.”
“Were you finished?” Dillon asked.
“Pretty much,” Billings answered.
“Did you disobey the order from the President?”
“I already had the order from the President in hand before I received the Letter of Reprisal. When I received the Letter of Reprisal, I considered all my options and determined that based on my oath, the constitution took priority.”
“So what did you do?”
“We conducted a raid against the murderers and returned to Pearl Harbor at the request of the President.”
“Was the raid successful?”
“Yes. We had casualties, but the raid was successful. We accomplished our objective.”
“And what was that objective?”
“To capture or subdue the people responsible for the raid on the Pacific Flyer.”
“Did you capture them?”
“Yes, we did, although there was resistance and they took many casualties.”
“Admiral Billings, did you see the conducting of the raid as a violation of the direct order of the President of the United States?”
“No. I saw it as weighing two directions from the government, and trying to determine which took priority. When I sent a message to the President telling him I was going to follow the Letter of Reprisal, he didn’t even respond. If I was wrong, he sure didn’t show me how. He just cut me off.” Billings regarded Pettit with a look Dillon hadn’t seen before, full of electricity.
“Have you ever disobeyed a direct order of a superior officer?”
“No.”
Dillon scanned the faces of the admirals on the court. “No further questions,” he said, returning to his table.
Pettit moved to the podium. “Admiral Billings,” he began slowly, “you say you’ve never disobeyed an order before, is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve certainly taken liberties in interpreting what the instructions of your superiors were before, haven’t you?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Billings said.
“You have hidden things from your superiors, have you not?”
“I’m not sure I’m following you.”
“I may not be phrasing this just right,” the prosecutor said, “but when others have violated Navy regulations, you have covered for them, haven’t you?”
“No,” Billings said.
“Do you recall, sir, that in your earlier testimony you started off by saying that you had been the commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 84?”
“Yes.”
“You, I think, said you had two Mediterranean cruises while CO of that squadron, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“One of those cruises was in the winter of 1989, correct?”
“Yes,” Billings said, wondering where the prosecutor was going.
“There was an … incident during that cruise, wasn’t there?”
“What do you mean?”
“One of your squadron’s airplanes was flying a low-level bombing run on a ship near an island. Right?”
“That was common,” Billings answered.
“The one I have in mind was near Avgo Nisi. You know that island?”
“Yes, it’s a target island near Greece.”
“One of your airplanes was to attack a ship, right?”
“Yes, there’s a target ship anchored near that island.”
“But one of your aircraft strafed a pleasure craft by mistake, true?”
“No.”
“It was so alleged, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but the crew denied it, and no bullets hit the boat—”
“You covered for them, didn’t you?”
“No, I did not. It was clear exactly what happened—”
“They admitted it to you? Didn’t they?”
“No—”
Dillon interrupted, his voice revealing his anger. “This is cross-examination on a totally collateral matter, Your Honor. It has nothing to do with—
”
“You brought it up, Mr. Dillon. You wanted Admiral Billings to go into his background, so now he can answer the questions. Continue, Commander,” Diamond said, his face showing annoyance with Dillon.
“The pilots admitted to you that they had strafed the pleasure boat, correct?”
“No.”
“Admiral, I will represent to you that I have two witnesses prepared to testify and they happen to be the two men involved in that incident. And if called, they will both, albeit reluctantly, testify that they told you they strafed the pleasure boat. I’m sure you remember former lieutenants Rick Townsend and Gary Norton.”
The gallery held its breath. Dillon didn’t know what to do. They had never anticipated this kind of attack.
“I believe what they told me was they may have. They weren’t sure.”
“So do you want to change your testimony about what They said?”
“It has been a long time. I don’t remember.”
“Ah,” Pettit said, stepping around the podium to get a bit closer to Billings. “It was not uncommon during that time for Navy flyers to fly under bridges, under cables, and over buildings all in violation of Navy regulations and Italian and Greek law. Correct?”
“There were a few incidents.”
“A few? According to my information, there were thirty-five incidents in 1989 and 1990 alone. Isn’t that correct?”
“I’m not sure. My squadron had nothing to do with most of those.”
“If your pilots had done what they were alleged to have done, you would have been relieved of your command, right?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t ask whether they had done it, did you?”
“I don’t remember,” Billings said, shifting in his seat.
“Admiral Billings, you received an order from the President of the United States not to follow the Letter of Reprisal, correct?”
“Correct.”
“You disobeyed that order, isn’t that true?”
“I did not think the order was effective, because it contravened a constitutional commission from Congress.”
“So you disobeyed it.”
“I don’t think it’s possible to disobey an illegal order.”
“You’re aware, Admiral, that this court has already concluded that that was in fact a legal order, are you not?”
“I was here when the court stated that.”
“And that is your only excuse for not having followed the President’s order, correct?”
Billings and Dillon exchanged looks. Billings felt suddenly exposed and childlike. He waited too long before responding. “Essentially.”
“So you would have to agree that if in fact the court’s ruling is that the order from the President was a legal order, you have no excuse for not obeying it, isn’t that right?”
“It’s awfully easy for you sitting here to make that kind of analysis. It’s a little different when you’re going after a group of murderers on an island who have shot down one of your aircraft, and attempted to go out and take out two of your pilots. These people are vicious murderers. You don’t seem to realize—”
“Admiral Billings, forgive me for interrupting you, but the question before this court is not the degree of viciousness or even the culpability of the men who hijacked the Pacific Flyer and whether those were the ones you attacked. The issue before this court is whether or not you disobeyed a direct order from the President of the United States. Based on what you’ve just said, you have no excuse other than your belief at the time that the President’s order was trumped, if you will, by the Letter of Reprisal from Congress, isn’t that right?”
“I think that’s fair.”
“And if this court determines that in fact the Letter of Reprisal did not ‘take precedence,’ then you failed to obey a direct order.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way.”
“Admiral, you take liberties when you think it’s to accomplish something you believe in, isn’t that right? Isn’t that what your career has shown us?”
“No, I don’t agree with that at all.”
“You disobeyed the President’s order because you thought that these hijackers needed to be dealt with, isn’t that right?”
“I believed they needed to be dealt with. I did what I did because Congress issued a commission directly out of the Constitution telling the to do so.”
“A commission unlike any other ever issued in the history of the world, correct?”
“No, there is some precedence for issuing Letters of Reprisal to government vessels, and Letters of Marque and Reprisal used to be very common.”
“But rather than let somebody else decide that, you decided it for yourself.”
“I had to.”
“Admiral, for whatever reason, you did not comply with the President’s order, did you?”
Billings waited uncomfortably. No way out. “No,” the admiral said.
“After you did not comply with that order, nineteen Marines, one sailor, and one civilian were killed, correct?”
“Well—”
“During the attack you were in SUPPLOT, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And you were actually able to watch the entire attack live, by benefit of the video feed from the Predator, right?”
“Yes.”
Pettit nodded to Lieutenant Commander Annison, who was standing by a VCR. She pressed a button and a video image came up on the projector screen that sat across from the members of the court and on television screens in the courtroom and the world. It was the video from the Predator, the drone that had flown over Bunaya and relayed the image back to the carrier battle group in real time. “This is that video, correct?”
Billings stared at it, not having expected to see it. “Yes, I believe…”
Dillon spoke in an attempt to prevent the video from having the impact he knew it would. “Your Honor, we will stipulate that Marines and a sailor and a civilian were killed. Those facts are not in dispute.”
“Overruled. The court is entitled to understand how it happened. I can’t imagine a better way for them to see it.”
The entire courtroom was transfixed on the image. A live but edited color image of the entire battle, without sound. They watched the boats hit the shore, the attacking Marines, the Harrier strikes and their bombs blasting the jungle, and the CH-53 crashing onto a grassy knoll and Marines running out of the helicopter on fire. Then the compound blowing up, Dillon being blown to the ground, and the Marines searching for and finding the other terrorists. Then the leapfrog to cut the terrorists off and the final battle in the woods, with the leader being shot from hundreds of yards away by a Navy sniper. The images were gripping. No one spoke. The video ended.
Pettit stared at Billings. “That’s what happened, right?”
Billings was surprised by the impact of the video. Everyone in the cavernous room could feel it. “Essentially, yes. It was edited, but pretty much showed the attack.”
“And the people we saw killed in that video were really killed. Killed dead, forever. Not like in a movie. Truly dead. Right?”
“Yes.”
“No further questions,” Pettit said smugly.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lieutenant Dan Hughes studied the imagery with Lieutenant Michaels and Lieutenant Commander Sawyer in the operations center on san Clemente Island. Hughes turned to Sawyer. “These are the two islands?”
“Those are them.”
“I see some structures on one and nothing on the other.”
“Exactly.”
“It’s gotta be the island with structures. Right? Am I missing something?”
Sawyer agreed. “I don’t think you’re missing anything. Pretty simple.”
“Did you see the message that came in?”
“About two SEAL platoons?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Yeah, they want you guys to handle the CQB.” Close Quarter Battle.
“The
y’re betting it’s this one,” Hughes said, tapping one of The photos. “The one with the compound on it.”
“Makes sense. You’re supposed to take out the compound with Jody Armstrong’s platoon backing you up.”
Hughes studied the photographs again. “We should be on our way,” he said. “We’re ready. Why the hell are we sitting here?”
“Because There’s no authorization to go. National command authority has not authorized any action. They’re still holding a hostage.”
“We should be going to get her out! What are they waiting for?”
“Maybe the President is giving them a chance to release her.”
“Manchester? That pussy? That’s total bullshit! These guys never release anybody!”
“Well, we don’t know. They might have released that missionary last time, but we went in there before they had the chance.”
“Has Admiral Blazer told the JCS they think they’ve located them?”
“You read the messages.”
“Well, if we’re waiting, I’m not going to sit still,” Hughes said. “I want to do two things. I want to run us through the kill house all day, every day. If there is a real hostage still there, we have to be sharper than we’ve ever been. And starting right now, I want the Seabees out here building an exact duplicate of this compound. You got your ISs doing mensuration to get the size of these buildings?”
“Yeah, they’re almost done.”
“Tell them to get the dimensions to the Seabees. I want this thing up now.”
“Good idea.”
“And I want to set up a video tele-conference with Jody Armstrong, and the admiral down there. What’s his name?”
“Blazer.”
“Right, Admiral Blazer. Can you set it up?”
“Sure. Tonight—1800, that will be 0900 their time.”
“Fine,” Hughes said. His mind was spinning as he considered how best to attack the compound and what risks there were that he hadn’t yet thought about.
From the podium Dillon addressed the admiral.
“Admiral Billings, do you have any information that the men involved in the incident in Greece were violating any rule, regulation, or law?”
The Price Of Power Page 32