CORRECTION: A high level meeting of US leaders is taking place... regarding an extra-terrestrial being (an alien). Who attends? Here are the givens: They do not have this alien in custody or control (she orbits Earth in her vessel). They are in communication. She hasn't proved hostile. In fact, she returned NASA astronauts to Earth safely after healing any of their injuries. I currently have: The POTUS VEEP Secretary of State Secretary of Defense The Joint Chief of a Staff CEO of the top defense contractor. Who else should I include? I'm unsure if the secretary of each branch of military would attend or the top officers (General of the Army, Fleet Admiral, etc). Should I include the Director of the CIA? NSA?
Leave the VEEP out, until they were convinced there was no threat they would not have the President and VEEP together. A certain level of paranoia would be evident for a while. Defense contractor would come in later once they have established what, if any threat was. Joint Chief of Staff is a must have as is Secretary of Defense and head of Homeland Security.
Ok, the VEEP is the main antagonist and real power and has his hands in everything. The POTUS is Prez because the VEEP got all the funding for his campaign. I think I can arrange it, perhaps have the VEEP chair the conference, but since he's the main power, he'd likely put the prez out there instead of himself, but then I'm introducing the antagonist late. A dilemma. I can leave the contractor out, but he is there because he's in bed with the VEEP.
Bugs. Have everyone there who is supposed to be there, but have the players who are working for someone else, like POTUS working under VEEP, wear bugs that allow the players who can't logically be there to listen in and maybe even direct things from a distance. It still introduces your antagonist on time, but allows for accuracy and even some suspense, especially if you don't name names (or titles).
For what it's worth I work in Washington and know the lingo and players so I can take an educated guess. Honestly you can probably look up who technically gets in on these things. I'm just feeling lazy and not in the mood to do that. Here's your list: The POTUS VEEP Secretary of State Secretary of Defense The Joint Chief of a Staff CEO of the top defense contractor. The defense contractor isn't in the room unless he's part of some dastardly plot - this does not happen in real life - like ever. If he IS there for plot reasons, he's not in the building, he's on the phone. They wouldn't want anyone knowing that sort of corruption is going one. As to your question about the secretaries of the Navy, Army, etc. - that's probably a no, those people report to SecDef. As for Generals - that's who the Joint Chiefs of Staff are - each force's top officer is the "Chief of Staff" put all the Chiefs of Staff togther and VOILA! you have the JOINT Chiefs of Staff (Actually I believe there are six Joint Chiefs - Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs). Of those, I'd really only expect the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to be in this particular meeting, speaking on behalf of the whole uniformed military. Yes, the CIA Director might be there - that often is a cabinet level office. The NSA Director is NOT there - that's a military office and the military is represented by the Chair of the Joint Chiefs and the SecDef. Other people likely in the Room: The National Security Advisor (this one is REALLY important) Director of National Intelligence (although this post is still being defined and kind of has a weird overlap with the CIA Director - technically the DNI is over ALL intelligence including CIA, DIA, NSA, etc. but CIA retains prestige) Secretary of Homeland Security (that's any and all security functions within the U.S. mainland, including the FBI, FEMA, etc.) I'd consider throwing in some hapless agency director who is flabbergasted and starstruck to be there because his agency is involved - mybe the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - they handle weather forecasting - or the head of NASA. Maybe some lower level generals from relevant commands (Space Command comes to mind, obviously)
If an alien is orbiting the Earth, why would only Americans be involved in this meeting? Surely other nations would have detected her vessel and probably intercepted her communications. Would there not be representatives of the United Nations Security Council involved? It seems like a global issue.
Doesn't work like that...well it kinda does but all the individual countries would have meetings like this one, then their leaders and cabinet officials would talk, THEN you'd have an emergency session of the UN Security Council. The Ambassadors aren't empowered to make policy themselves. They represent their governments
National Security Council would be meeting. As I recall, its President, VP, Sec of State, Sec Def, Dir of CIA, National Security Advisor, Chairman of the JCS (although in this situation it might be all the JCS), Dir Homeland Security, and I believe Sec of the Treasury. White House Chief of Staff will be there as with other #2's like deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Sec of State and/or other informal advisors to the President. Expect they loop in the Chinese, Russians, Brits, French during the meeting or immediately after. Whose included on the National Security Council can vary and there is updated on the internet if you do a search. I think nowadays its often called a meeting of the principles.
Thanks, that helps. I'll put the CEO on phone or have the VEEP be in contact with him. The world is under higher stress and they are looking for any technological edge to wield if the world goes to war, that is why he's included. The VEEP is the main antagonist and has his hands in a lot: defense, media, tech, private equity, etc. He's a major power broker and all the others report to him, including the president. Handled. The alien made a request that the mission commander for the NASA craft attend, as well as a state rep and the main character who is not even part of the government. So, there is going to be outsiders involved because she made it clear that if they wanted to negotiate, these people must be included and the main character is the one she is most interested in and will deal mainly with him, but she wants to get him outside of their influence first, so she's playing it cool and being diplomatic. I'll consider the others. I'm trying to make seating for a conference room mockup the artist can use. A few reasons: 1. The main character, who is her main interest, is a US citizen, so she's being diplomatic in dealing with the government and not cutting them out of the picture. 2. An opposing country did try to kidnap the main character, then kill him when they were losing the fight. The US would have killed him too if they lost the fight. 3. The US reclaimed a main, almost singular role as world leader when oil became harder to find. They hold patents to alternatives which they will release when oil production hits a critical low that they have actually set far too low, by oil company lobby, to prevent some nations from going hostile toward them.
You wouldn't necessarily have a whole lot of people at the meeting. If it's really top secret and hush hush, well, the more people who attend, the more people can leak info to the press or others. So they might very well limit it to a short list of people. That said, if the Prez is there, his/her Chief of Staff will likely be there too.
Whoever you include, they should meet in the last place anyone would suspect. Dave's bar on the corner of 3rd and Main on trivia night. Veep gets hammered on 2 for 1 drafts and the secretary of defense takes on the Inferno Wings Suicide Challenge but fails to eat all 10 in under an hour.
