On September 2, 2009, a bright, sunny Washington afternoon, I sat exactly in Obama’s place in the White House situation room, as we were going to be briefed by senior officials of the National Security Council.
By now, most have seen White House situation room pictures of US vice-president Joe Biden, president Barack Obama, Brig-Gen Marshall Webb of joint ops command, secretary of state Hillary Clinton and defence secretary Robert Gates being briefed by Pentagon on the ground situation as the elite Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden.
The picture took me back to September 2, 2009, when I sat exactly in Obama’s place. On a bright, sunny Washington afternoon, all the 14 academics, foreign policy and counter-terror experts and journos on the Counterterrorism International Visitor Leadership Programme turned up in suits and ties. We were going to be briefed by senior officials of the National Security Council (NSC). After a rather elaborate security drill, we were shown in. A sprightly, thin-framed, short man was introduced to us. “I’ll be escorting you,” he said in a boyish voice as I read his name tag: Anish Goel.
Mumbai varsity academic Liaquat Sheikh smiled and asked me in an aside, “Don’t they have laws against child labour?” I agreed, “They’ve arranged an Indian escort only to impress us.”
We were taken down the lobby to a spot (from where Obama made his now famous speech announcing Laden’s death) with a lectern with the symbol of the US president’s seal emblazoned across and told to wait, while Goel went to find out when the room for our briefing was being vacated. We began taking pictures when a security officer stopped us. Goel came back to say the room was unavailable and we were going to meet in the Situation Room instead.
Ignoramuses like me had to be told by the counter-terror experts in our group that this was from where both Bush Sr and Jr had monitored Iraq and Afghanistan operations. After another security check, we deposited phones and cameras outside before being led into The Room.
Being a TV journo then, for me the large-bus sized space seemed just like the programming control room in TV studios with multiple screens and gadgetry for satellite feeds from various locations. Soon Goel came in, apologised for delays, and sat in the main chair. I tugged at Liaquat’s sleeve and scribbled in Marathi on his notepad: “Indians are such upstart show-offs! Why can’t he sit elsewhere till his boss comes?” He, too, nodded as we were joined by three other NSC staff. Goel told them: “Guys, you’ll have to stand since there’s hardly any space here.”
I made eyes at Liaquat and the others wondering why he was behaving like this when he cleared his throat and formally introduced himself to all of us: He was the special assistant to the president and senior director for South Asia!
I gulped and went red-faced at my naivete. The man, whom I was being so iffy about, was a PhD from the MIT and a missile scientist who worked on a critical joint project of the US Air Force and Nasa with military implications!
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