Stop the Mastico — Intercept, Don't Fire
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet decides to order the Sixth Fleet to intercept and stop the Mastico but instructs them not to shoot unless explicitly ordered.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not present — implied tension: potential defensiveness or culpability as framed by staff.
Mentioned by Leo as a possible invitee for a 'mixer' — referenced as a diplomatic interlocutor whose cooperation or culpability is in question but not present in the room.
- • (Inferred) Maintain regime survival and diplomatic options.
- • (Inferred) Avoid public culpability while preserving strategic benefits from U.S. programs.
- • (Inferred) Deny or minimize complicity with Bahji to keep diplomatic/defense advantages.
- • (Inferred) U.S. inducements (like HAAD access) are valuable leverage to exploit.
Sober and authoritative — conveying seriousness without theatricalism; relieved to have clear intelligence.
Fitzwallace delivers the military intelligence: identifies the Mastico, its 72 tons of weapons, the MLRS and its GPS as proof, and reports available naval/marine assets — then accepts and echoes the operational constraint to not fire without presidential order.
- • Present clear, actionable intelligence and viable military options to civilian leadership.
- • Ensure military action follows lawful civilian command and minimizes escalation risk.
- • The GPS is incontrovertible evidence tying the arms to Mastico and to Qumar's transfer.
- • Military forces must be ready to act but must strictly follow civilian rules of engagement.
Professional detachment with underlying alertness — focused on protocol and chain of command.
Opens the meeting with formal cadence ('Ten-hut!'), framing the gathering as an official, high‑stakes military briefing and signaling procedural seriousness as the Situation Room convenes.
- • Ensure the briefing begins with proper military protocol and attention to orders.
- • Provide a disciplined context for civilian and military leaders to receive sensitive information.
- • Formal procedure matters for clarity and authority in crises.
- • Clear chain-of-command statements reduce confusion and mistaken action.
Urgent, controlled — impatience at delay but disciplined restraint to avoid uncontrolled escalation.
Presiding over the late-night briefing, Bartlet listens to Fitzwallace's proof, rejects rhetorical delay, and issues a crisp operational order to stop and turn the Mastico while forbidding any use of force without his direct authorization.
- • Prevent immediate escalation into broader conflict while stopping the arms transfer.
- • Assert civilian authority over military action to maintain political control and legal oversight.
- • Interdiction can stop the threat without firing; measured force preserves strategic options.
- • The administration will be politically and diplomatically judged for either action or inaction, so he must control the narrative.
Angry and frustrated — righteous indignation at what he sees as soft handling of a duplicitous regime.
Leo bursts in, voices anger and impatience at perceived diplomatic passivity, urges stronger condemnation and less delay, and offers a caustic suggestion about the Sultan to underline his frustration.
- • Expose and punish Qumar's duplicity and cut off support to the Bahji.
- • Force a firm U.S. stance rather than conciliatory diplomacy to protect allies and national credibility.
- • Qumar is complicit with Bahji and therefore undeserving of lenient treatment.
- • Strong public response is necessary to maintain deterrence and moral clarity.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The MLRS aboard the Mastico is singled out as the particularly dangerous weapons system on board; its presence raises the stakes and justifies immediate action to prevent delivery to the Bahji.
The M-77 munitions are cited to convey lethality and immediacy — as warheads carried by the MLRS, amplifying the moral and tactical urgency behind the decision to intercept the Mastico.
The GPS unit on the MLRS functions narratively as the smoking-gun evidence — 'a message in a bottle' — that allows U.S. forces to locate the Mastico and tie the weapon system to a Qumari transfer.
The package of 72 tons of weapons and explosives is the contraband whose discovery changes the political calculus: it turns a diplomatic dispute into an actionable military interdiction and a political liability the administration must manage.
The MLRS warheads are invoked to underline the immediacy of the threat—twelve warheads capable of massed rocket fire—thus motivating the stop order and justifying naval action to prevent their use.
The Mastico is the focal object: Fitzwallace identifies it as the 200-foot Qumari freighter carrying 72 tons of weapons. Bartlet's order transforms it from an intelligence item into an operational target for immediate interception by the Sixth Fleet.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Lebanon is named as the intended destination for the Mastico's cargo and the geopolitical locus of the Bahji training camps; its mention raises regional escalation risks and justifies U.S. concern.
The Mediterranean Sea is the operational theater where the Mastico sails and where the Sixth Fleet will execute the intercept; it is the physical space that turns diplomatic words into naval maneuvers.
The Saybrook Institute location (serving here as the temporary Situation Room) is the cramped, official space where civilian leadership and senior military advisors convene to convert intelligence into policy and operational orders.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Israel is invoked as the actor that recently struck Bahji training camps, establishing context for urgency and demonstrating proximate consequences of the Mastico's cargo — their action raises stakes for U.S. response.
The Sultanate of Qumar is the accused source of the Mastico's cargo; its conduct and possible access to the U.S. HAAD program are central to the moral and diplomatic argument occurring in the Situation Room.
The Bahji (as represented by the Bahji Cell) are the intended recipients of the Mastico's arms; their existence turns the shipment into a moral and security emergency driving the interdiction decision.
The High Altitude Area Defense Program appears as the diplomatic bargaining chip allegedly exchanged for the Mastico's turnaround — implicitly implicated in the arms transfer and central to the administration's leverage calculus.
The Sixth Fleet is the military instrument ordered to stop and turn the Mastico; it becomes the immediate executor of the president's interdiction order and the practical means to translate intelligence into action without firing.
The 26th Marine Expeditionary unit is the specifically identified forward asset available east of the Mastico — a tactical resource mentioned to emphasize immediacy and the realistic ability to carry out an intercept.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Leo's anger at Qumar negotiations escalates to Bartlet ordering the fleet to intercept the Mastico."
"Leo's anger at Qumar negotiations escalates to Bartlet ordering the fleet to intercept the Mastico."
Key Dialogue
"FITZWALLACE: The Mastico, a 200-foot Qumari cargo ship is heading east in the Mediterranean, toward Lebanon."
"FITZWALLACE: No, it's carrying 72 tons of weapons and explosives, including a Multiple Launch Rocket System."
"BARTLET: Stop the boat. Don't shoot it unless I tell you to."