Chief of Staff Quotes in The Siege (1998)

[a big discussion is underway about the fight against terrorism in New York City]

Chief of Staff: General?

General William Devereaux: The Army is a broadsword, not a scalpel. Trust me, senator, you do not want the Army in an American city.

Chief of Staff: But hypothetically... how long would it take you to deploy?

General William Devereaux: You know we can't go in until the President invokes the War Powers Act.

Chief of Staff: I understand that, General. Let's assume, for a moment, that the order has been given.

General William Devereaux: Twelve hours after the President gives the order we can be on the ground. One light infantry division of 10,700 men, elements of the Rapid Deployment Force, Special Forces, Delta, APCs, helicopters, tanks, and of course the ubiquitous M16A1 assault rifle. A humble enough weapon until you see it in the hands of a man outside your local bowling alley or 7-11. It will be noisy. It will be scary, and it will not be mistaken for a VFW parade.

Army General: I wanna remind you, General Devereaux does not speak for official Army policy. A police function has become accepted as our role in Haiti and Somalia.

General William Devereaux: Make no mistake. We will hunt down the enemy. We will find the enemy. And we will kill the enemy. No card-carrying member of the ACLU is more deadset against it than I am. Which is why I urge you - I *implore* you - do not consider this as an option.

Chief of Staff: I know just what the President's going to say: that's exactly why your the only man for the job.

[cut to a clip of unseen hands cleansing themselves]

FBI Director: I'd like to introduce Anthony Hubbard. He's my ASAC on the ground up in Brooklyn. His team was able to take out the first cell within 36 hours of the attack on the #87 Bus. He's also the man who took out the terrorist in that schoolhouse.

[This last sentence overlays a clip of the hands assembling an explosive charge]

FBI Director: Hub?

[Hubbard stands up]

Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: The job of the FBI is to - to respond.

[the mystery hands turn the key in the ignition of a van]

Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: The job of the Army is to defend. With the presence of the Army, our ability to investigate will be seriously inhibited.

[the van pulls out of a garage]

Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: It will push these criminals further underground. Most importantly, you can't fight a war against an enemy you can't see.

[the van makes its way through the streets]

Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: I think if we exercise patience and restraint - allow our men and women up in New York to do their job, I think it'll be effective.

[long pause; the van is seen coming off the Queensboro Bridge as it enters Manhattan]

Chief of Staff: Thank you, Agent Hubbard. I, too, think that we should proceed with caution. Some of you may not know Sharon Bridger. Sharon was posted in Iraq as part of our covert operations during the Gulf War. Sharon?

[Elise Kraft/Sharon Bridger comes in with several folders]

Sharon Bridger: Sir, if I may?

[She starts passing the folders around, intercut with clips of busy Manhattan streets, and the explosives packed into the back of the van]

Sharon Bridger: I'm sure everyone here knows the traditional model of the terrorist network: one cell controls all others. Cut off one head, the body will wither.

[Cut to clips of One Federal Plaza; Sharon continues in voice-over]

Sharon Bridger: Unfortunately the old wisdom no longer applies.

[We see the van make a right turn]

Sharon Bridger: The new paradigm is each cell operates independent of the other. Cut off one head, another rises up in its place.

[the van cruises slowly down the street]

Sharon Bridger: Bus 87 was the work of the first cell, whose remaining elements, we believe, the FBI took down.

[the camera pans down the side of One Federal Plaza]

Sharon Bridger: This then activated cell #2:

[the camera closes in on the van]

Sharon Bridger: the theater gala.

[Agents Frank Haddad and Danny Sussman leave the building and exchange some words with two agents in the plaza]

Sharon Bridger: At the most we believe there are three, possibly four cells.

Chief of Staff: Well then how much longer until we can take out the last cell?

[Long pause; the van speeds up, and jumps the concrete barriers in front of the plaza, on a collision course with the lobby]

Sharon Bridger: We don't know.

[the van crashes through the windows of the lobby. Flash cut to an aerial view over Manhattan. The camera pans down on numerous emergency vehicles in front of the ruins of One Federal Plaza]

Chief of Staff: Alright, alright, please. Please. The president's ETA from the East Asian Economic Summit is about 20 hours from now. He wants a recommendation by then from this group. Now, as I understand it, you want to firebomb the town of Cedar Creek, California, population 2,600, with something called a fuel air bomb, the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in our arsenal. The way it works: it explodes, sucks in all available oxygen to the core, vaporizes everything within a mile of ground zero, men, women, children, and one airborne virus. Destruction complete, case closed, crisis over.

[Takes a copy of the Constitution from his pocket]

Chief of Staff: This is the Constitution of the United States. I've read it cover to cover. I don't find anything in it about vaporizing 2,600 American citizens. But it does say, several times, that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process. So, a couple of things before Clean Sweep is even considered. One: unanimous, unwavering support for the president on this. And I mean, public. You're going to stand there shoulder to shoulder with him. He goes down, you go down. And the second thing is, I want an army of experts citing hundreds and thousands of lab experiments telling any idiot with a camera that there was no other way! Got that? Hmm? No member of this government is going to go sneaking off to the Washington Post, telling them how they were the "sole voice of opposition". If there is a voice of opposition out there, I want him in here, now!

[Throws photos of virus victims on the table]

Chief of Staff: Those are the citizens of Cedar Creek. Go on, look at them. These are not statistics, ladies and gentlemen. They're flesh and blood! And I want you to burn those into your memories. Because those images should haunt us until the day we die.

President Staton: Did you know there are two kinds of Iraqistanis?

[the First Lady holds up three fingers]

President Staton: I mean, actually, three?

Chief of Staff: You mean Sunnis and Shi'ites and Kurds?

President Staton: You knew about this?

Chief of Staff: The president and Mr. Putin had a nice talk. The president considers him a close friend, while of course deeply mistrusting his undemocratic tendencies.

Reporter: What about the rumours that the president had a nervous breakdown?

Chief of Staff: Nervous breakdown? Look fellows, I'd like to remind everyone that we're still at war here. The terrorists are going to exploit any sign of weakness and it's not a question of if, but when they're going to launch a major attack ending life on earth as we know it, so let's just try to keep a positive attitude.

Chief of Staff: [to Robert Wakefield] There are a lot of interests in this town. FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF, IRS. Right now they're scared of you.

Chief of Staff: Anything else?

Robert Wakefield: No, Sir.