24 (TV Series)

Day 7: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. (2009)

Cherry Jones: President Allison Taylor

Quotes 

• President Allison Taylor : Where's Almeida now?

  Ethan Kanin : His in transit to FBI headquarters: he'll be formally interrogated there

  President Allison Taylor : I don't understand: Almeida was orchestrating these attacks. If he doesn't have the CIP device, who does?

  Ethan Kanin : The FBI has learned Almeida "handed off" the device to somebody else, they don't know who

  Joe Stevens : [after entering the room, to Taylor]  I may have the answer to that question

  President Allison Taylor : I'm listening

  Joe Stevens : Almeida's working for the Jima regime. Approximately five minutes ago, an audio message routed to the state department's subnet: it's from Colonel Iké Dubaku, his Juma's right hand man. His known as the "Butcher of Sangala", over three hundred thousand people were murdered

  President Allison Taylor : I know who he is: what did the message say?

  Joe Stevens : [Before playing the message for her]  I think you should hear it for yourself

  Colonel Iké Dubaku : "President Taylor, this is Colonel Iké Dubaku as you have no doubt confirmed, the near collusion at JFK at international airport was "no accident." We have the CIP device, we have the capability to kill tens of thousands of Americans and we are prepared to do so. We demand the complete and immediate withdrawal of the US naval strike by this time tomorrow. In order to meet this timeline, we require satellite confirmation within three hours, don't sacrifice your fellow countrymen and madam President, allow the people of Sangala to determine their own destiny, stand your forces down"

  Joe Stevens : Voice print is an eight nine percent match: it's Dubaku, there's no doubt

  Ethan Kanin : Looks like your "suspicions" were correct madam President, this is about Africa

  President Allison Taylor : My God, Dubaku should've been tried for war crimes years ago. Now his giving us ultimatums, we cannot let this monster hold this country hostage. Where do we stand on the planes?

  Ethan Kanin : There are still twenty five hundreds planes in the air

  President Allison Taylor : We have got to "shore up" the firewalls so the CIP device will be rendered useless

  Tim Woods : We now think we could engineer the code in six days

  President Allison Taylor : Six days? We don't have the "luxury" of six hours

  Tim Woods : I'm sorry madam President but there's no way we could rebuild the firewall in that timeframe

  President Allison Taylor : I want you to "instigate" a series of orders: keep it to first responders only. I want people to be ready in case we are attacked again but we don't want to start a panic. And gentlemen, Almeida is our only lead, make sure the FBI is aware of the demand, they need to "work" Almeida from the Africa side, and they need to know we don't have a lot of time

• Ethan Kanin : [Talking privately in the Oval Office]  you wanted to see me?

  President Allison Taylor : Admiral Smith laid out the timeline for withdrawing our forces: his saying meet to Dubaku's demands. We need to order the pullback by1pm

  Ethan Kanin : It's not much time

  President Allison Taylor : I know it isn't

  Ethan Kanin : Well, maybe this man Almeida will tell us where to find this CIP device?

  President Allison Taylor : No, Tim Woods just heard from the Bureau, so far Almeida's refusing to cooperate

  Ethan Kanin : Well, maybe he's "positioning" himself for a deal?

  President Allison Taylor : Tim doesn't think so: he says we shouldn't count on Almeida to talk

  Ethan Kanin : I see

  President Allison Taylor : So unless I order our forces to stand down, I'll be condemning innocent Americans to death and if we capitulate, thousands of Sangalians will be slaughtered

  President Allison Taylor : [after he doesn't respond]  how did this happen? How could we have been caught so off guard? And now I have to decide between two impossible choices

  Ethan Kanin : Well, at least one of the choices does have a "good chance" at preserving American lives

  President Allison Taylor : You mean withdrawal?

  Ethan Kanin : We are nearing the time where we may have to consider it

  President Allison Taylor : We're not there "yet", I can't discuss this: not until we have "explored" every possible option. Tell the FBI to keep working on Almeida