Mr. President, Magic has returned to our world

Question

3/19/2022 CIA official briefing, EXTREMELY URGENT

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Mr. President,

Over the past several weeks, it has come to the attention of the CIA and several other global intelligence agencies that certain individuals have been displaying inexplicable paranormal abilities. Observing these individuals has yielded interesting results.

Many of them appear to be as confused as we are, having only just discovered their abilities. A few say they have had these abilities for as long as a half a year, and have honed them through trial and error. There is a third group. At least half a dozen of the observed claim to have had their abilities for longer. Substantially longer, in fact. The oldest among them maintains that he was worshiped as a god in Ancient Mesopotamia. While we have been unable to evaluate the truth of their claims, their abilities are indisputable, and are of such a nature that some at the Agency have taken to calling it 'magic'.

The Affected vary widely in ability type and strength. Observations and interviews reveal that there is some kind of semi-hard limit on the strength. Most Affected are relatively weak, even given a great deal of practice and knowledge. One common trait to the weaker Affected is that they tire quickly. One subject quickly knocked herself unconscious due to the strain of lifting a SWAT team van for several seconds. Another (in an attempt to evade a capture team) held the shape of a small dog for a full minute. A third nearly convinced one of our operatives to shoot himself before tiring. This reflects the power level of the middle 30% of Affected we observed.

The abilities of the Affected are channeled through either: a. verbal commands (the most popular option, do not resemble any known language and are rarely shared between Affected), b. hand gestures (occasionally used in addition to verbal commands, not necessarily hands), or c. written runes. Denied of these, the Affected find it difficult if not impossible to use their abilities.

While the most powerful Affected are not necessarily ancient, the ancient Affected all appear to be extremely powerful. All attempts to capture the ancient Affected were terminated with laughable (occasionally contemptuous) ease. We were only able to interview two of them, who volunteered. If they are to be believed, magic was intentionally eliminated from the world roughly three thousand years ago. The Affected who survived either went dormant or had previously altered themselves to become immortal. One of the ancient interviewees spoke very poor English and was having significant difficulty adapting to the modern world.

Since 'magic' has returned to this world very recently (at most a year ago), few organizations of Affected have been able to form. The most common form of organization is created when a small group of very confused Affected seek each other out over the internet and begin to trade discoveries. Other organizations we have observed include: a. 'the Keepers', a group of several dozen moderately accomplished Affected who seek out lost artifacts from the ancient age of magic, and b. an as yet nameless group of Affected environmentalists who use their abilities to replenish natural areas. We note with some distress that the Mafia and the Zetas drug cartel have begun to develop sub-organizations of the Affected.

Finally, a note on the abilities we have observed more than once:
Precognition, teleportation, shapeshifting, mind control, healing, gravity manipulation, telekinesis, transmutation, and memory erasure.

Mr. President, what the hell do we do about this? Do we alert the public? start a witch hunt (no pun intended)? The CIA awaits your instruction.

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When answering, please state your intention before your course of action. Bonus points if you can answer from the perspective of multiple world leaders. #Resurgence

Answer 1

Mr. Director,

First of all: Regardless of whatever strange abilities they may possess, those who are American citizens are to be given their full rights as American citizens. If they have committed crimes, they should be arrested (if possible) and given due process. If they have not committed crimes, they are not to be harassed. While I appreciate the enhanced security risk that rogue "magic" users pose, a blanket policy of detaining everybody with these abilities is both illegal and un-American. I expect your agents to follow this order effective immediately.

Furthermore, I am instructing all U.S. intelligence agencies and all branches of the military to begin an active recruitment campaign among these individuals. As with any pool of talent, the more of them we have on our side, the better. We need to recruit them before criminal organizations or foreign powers do. You will, of course, conduct especially thorough investigations into recruits' backgrounds and other ties before granting security clearances.

I want a full report on the numbers and relative strength of these individuals in other countries, how other governments are reacting, and the degree to which criminal organizations' recruitment efforts are succeeding.

Continue monitoring any online communities to the fullest legal extent, so that we can be aware of any hostile groups taking shape.

Finally, be especially careful dealing with the highly powerful individuals. I am disturbed that attempts have been made to capture some of them, no doubt provoking fear and animosity toward the U.S. government. Your agents are henceforth to take a conciliatory approach at all times, unless to do so would endanger the lives of civilians. We do not need such powerful people as enemies. If they wish to be left alone, and if they are not harming anyone, leave them alone. At the same time, continue your efforts to establish friendly communication and learn more about this phenomenon. You have my authorization to extend the aid of the U.S. government (including English lessons and job training) to any "ancient" individuals who need help assimilating into American society.

(There is no need to announce anything to the public; due to this morning's incident in San Antonio, all major news networks are running a lead story on the phenomenon as I write this. My aides tell me that #magicisreal has become a trending topic on Twitter. I will be taking a call from our NATO allies this evening to discuss the matter. Depending on public reaction, I may address the nation within the next few days. We must live up to America's reputation by reacting in a spirit of welcome, not of fear.)

President _________
The White House
March 19, 2022

Answer 2

Reallisticaly?

We must gather them all and study their superpowers! Specifically, we MUST do it before someone else can. Let's invest half of our budget for pensions, education and healthcare just to fund a new investigation section of DARPA to deal with these subjects - we'll deal with the protests later, invent a new enemy or start a war, I'll think about it after lunch.

The "Affected" must be located and caged a.s.a.p. and studies on their abilities should commence immediately. Our first priority would be weaponizable abilities, and mind control or memory erasure - this one would be of great use against the press and civil rights lawyers, since we officially don't support this nor do that kind of things to our people.

Strategies and plans to deal with the ancients must be prepared and deployed immediately. If they are too powerful to be confronted, we will be forced to kill them from beyond visual range while reducing collateral damage as much as possible. The acquisition of these new capabilities for our country should take precedence over any other considerations.

Answer 3

Tldr: I feel the question is a bit vague if it doesn't mention their exact superpowers. Understanding their powers and intentions is the first rational objective that comes to mind.

Firstly we have to determine what the Affected want. If they just have ordinary human desires and want to lead a life within current rules, then it makes sense to make allies with them as soon as possible.

If possible, they will have to be surveiled and studied, before contact is made. They will be granted asylum in our country if they are willing to go through a series of physical and psychological tests that will establish trust between us and assure us that the Affected will not break our law. If they want any modifications to the law, or any other requests, they may do so. Of we feel they are particularly threatening, we may have to carefully make requests in these contracts as well as establish working fail-safes.

If however, some of them do wish to actively​ break current rules or ally with organisations working against our country, or else participate in any activity that we deem harmful to us or to their minds, then we will have to take a cautious stand on the same. We could end up with anything from a new international cold war to an Affected issuing ultimatums to the globe, etc. etc. It will be best to make our intentions clear to them to avoid such a situation.

Actions will be taken largely on the basis of intel gathered, whether it is new contracts or a quarantine or even an elimination of an Affected. Action will depend on the nature of the threats they possess and the abilities we know they possess. It would be unwise to engage in combat without knowing their abilities. Some sacrifices might have to be made for the larger good, both on our part as on theirs.

Answer 4

CIA: take this course of action immediately, find and contain all of the Affected, we will build a large compound, maybe in Russia or Canada, those huge empty places and with the help of governments around the world we will restrain the Affected. The only hard part are the ancient Affected, but they're good at being quiet. The only thing we really don't want is a witch hunt, it'll ruin modern day society.

Sincerely Mr. President.