Clandestine

Chapter 18 - Back in the Action

I had never flown first class before. Coach was more my style but on a 20-hour junket to Washington who could argue. I checked into the Watergate hotel and a wash of memories flooded over me, most of which I had dutifully repressed over the past 25 years.

Washington, D.C., is a dangerous city. In the late 1980s it was one of the most violent urban areas in the U.S. The contrast between the elected upper class ruling masters and the growing poor left behind by the greed and wealth created by Reaganomics was stark.

I had one day to act as a sight-seer before I was asked to attend a meeting at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., with Bill Clinton and the group of advisors he had assembled to guide him on his presidential journey. I acted like a tourist -- checking in on the Capital Building, the White House, the Lincoln memorial, and the Smithsonian. I was particularly keen to check out the exhibits from the Apollo space missions, a singular demonstration of American Cold War waste in the name of illogical competition.

The meeting with the Clinton team was scheduled for Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m. I entered the lobby of the Hyatt and was escorted to a large empty meeting room. I was only a few minutes early but obviously the first to arrive. I walked around the palatial hotel, looking at the finely appointed furniture and fittings. I returned to the room at 7:59 to find that people had begun to assemble and that the immense meeting room was set for the gathering. A folded, cardboard, name badge was placed in front of my chair, letting everyone know that the occupant of the seat was Callum and that my area of expertise (apparently) was the Middle East. I smiled at a few of the participants whose tags read: “Domestic Affairs”, “Health Care”, “Education”, “Foreign Affairs”, “Energy”, etc. There were approximately 30 seats at the table. I was surprised how quiet the room was. I expected it to be filled with Washington insiders, with myself the only outsider, but the truth was that we were all outsiders. Clinton must have had an inventory of people he had met on his travels that he felt could supply him with vital information on a variety of topics. It seemed that the further afield he secured these experts the more likely he would be to receive unbiased information and fresh ideas that would challenge his thinking.

Bill arrived at 8:20 am, sat at the head of the table, and then the room began to buzz. He outlined for us our duties if we chose to accept them. Each of us would be given an email address. We would work through a personal assistant who would provide us with confidential information which we would summarise and prepare as briefs for Clinton in order to get him up to speed on a variety of topics. Once every three months we would fly first class to Washington for a roundtable briefing, just like today. We were encouraged to produce briefs layered with up-to-date information. Any costs associated with travel to secure information would be paid for – if I needed to fly to Jerusalem to understand how Palestinians felt on a particular topic I could do so with no questions asked. Clinton wanted to know everything about everything and, although I was sceptical, I knew that he might have been one of the few men I had ever met with the ability to be so comprehensively briefed.

The meeting wrapped up at 11:15 a.m. and at that time I was introduced to the personal assistant who would co-ordinate my research. She asked if I had any questions, and I formulated the only specific query I could think of: “What is email?”

Bill met us again for lunch and spent time socialising with us. “Callum O’Donovan,” he bellowed. “I have my handicap down to 15. We need to take hold of that Oxford trophy,” he said. “I met a friend of yours, a guy named Greg Norman. Quite a player; maybe we’ll sneak him onto our squad next year,” he said.

There was no talk of the assignment. I had never met Greg Norman before, but I assumed he wasn’t lying about their paths crossing. I exchanged a few pleasantries as well and thanked him for the opportunity.