Besides all of our nation's problems, the Agency was being plagued by large budget cuts. The cold war was over with Russia, all of our world skirmishes were too small to support a Grande CIA so the President decided to downsize us - all we kept hearing was work with less people - you can do it - work smarter not harder. This type of thinking infuriated Leroux - he didn't care what the President said, he just wanted to do it his way. Our Agency alone launders $140 billion in drug money through the US economy every year, from states like California, Texas, and Florida. This money actually supplies 58 percent of all political campaign funding in this country. What in the world were they thinking - By downsizing the CIA they were essentially cutting off their right arms. Here's a little known fact that you may find interesting - did you know that Wall Street bankers and lawyers created the CIA. They would often meet with drug lords in places like Columbia and ask them to invest their money in the market? Oh - and to toss a little salt to your wounds if it wasn't for this type of money most 401K plans would all take a dive.
Anyway thats when Leroux and his team decided that in order to solve all of our country's problems and his, something big like this would have to go down right here on American soil.
The whole package from this point on got pretty rough - we were all asked to present white papers on how major disasters would affect the security of our
country, and present them within five days. Some of us had major businesses, like the oil industry, or financial institutions, while others dealt with military superiority etc. - my assignment dealt with the security of nuclear power plants. While I was investigating this data I found some scary loose ends out there - just to state one example do you know there's a chemical bunker containing nerve gas in a town in Oregon, and if a terrorist were to crash a plane into it, over 10,000 people would die.
Once all of the reports were handed in, Leroux and his team knew that if some of this data would be fed to the right people in the Middle East, and they could make use of it - it would definitely help to incite a war between America and the terrorists. He also knew the President wouldn't attack a country like Afghanistan alone, so it would be necessary to enlist the help of our allies. The terrorist plan would take care of this, because many countries had their people working in the WTC. His team thought this would work out great for us because by bringing in more countries it would increase the need for more CIA personnel. This was going to be a piece of cake. The plan was about to come together.
The date was September 11, 2001 - a date that was to be burned into everyone's mind forever. It was another day of infamy just like the previous attack on the US at Pearl Harbor. Their original plan was to knock out the top 10 or so floors of each building, but Leroux and the
terrorists were both stunned when it reduced the Twin Towers to rubble and destroyed almost 3000 lives.
In his warped mind though he thought this was even better - this would definitely unite our country against the Afghan terrorists with hatred never before seen in history. Things began to happen and fast - President Bush declared war on all of the terrorists in the world and anyone who gave them aid. People immediately became more supportive of his leadership, and his popularity rose by leaps and bounds. The airline industry for one, was in jeopardy of failing, and this would create a ripple effect that would affect aerospace companies, the travel industry, hotels, rental car companies, restaurants etc. so the Senate immediately approved a $15 billion bailout package to keep it afloat. The stock market took a dive, but that wasn't really a big problem, because in every case of a disaster in the past, it bounced back stronger than ever. This turned out to be a good deal for us anyway, - the Agency made millions selling short, because we knew in advance that the market was going to spiral downward, and fast. For those of you who don't understand this concept - it's simple. You borrow the shares from your broker (for example 100 shares of ABC) sell them in the market and receive the money from the sale. Then you wait - your hope is that the price of the stock will drop, because you will have to replace the stock you borrowed - in other words repay the loan. Later on you buy the stock for less than you originally sold it - and you profit - all perfectly legal. Congress authorized more money for a larger CIA, - firemen, and police finally started to receive the respect, and monetary compensation they rightly deserved, but one thing still plagued Leroux - he knew how the American people had a propensity for forgetting major disasters within days. There could be massive flooding on the Mississippi bank or a tornado hits a town with an unsympathetic wrath, yet two or three days later it's forgotten when a Hollywood star is involved in some type of scandal. Something big had to keep this hatred going - something else that could be blamed on the terrorists. Leroux immediately set his team working on biological weapons - they were split into two groups - bacteriological and viral. - Botulism, one of the deadliest toxins caused by bacteria can be inhaled or ingested. Plague, which is highly contagious, causes fatal pneumonia, and Anthrax which is highly infectious and lethal when inhaled, were the bacterial choices
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