Mr. Anderson speaks with some students after the class.

The class listens attentively to Mr. Albirght.

Mr. David Albirght on the left. Mr. John Anderson on the right.

Thursday, June 29th
Washington, DC

The students spent the bulk of their day in class. They finished up the study of the Executive branch of government this morning. They then studied the case of Ahmed Ressam or the “The Millennium Bomber”. He was convicted and given a prison sentence of 22 years for his attempt to blow up Los Angelus International Airport on New Year’s Eve 1999. The Seattle Times did a great extended piece write up of this situation. Here is the LINK. The students had to read the case study the previous night. They were then briefed this morning by Mr. Waikart the senior advisor on terrorism financing for the FBI. He talked the students through the details and then asked them to go over their recommendations for what to do. It was great exercise and everyone learned a great deal, me included.

After lunch the students had two different speakers. The first was David Albright.
Mr. Albright is a physicist who is an expert on nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons programs. He spoke with the students about Iran, their nuclear program, threats they pose and do not pose, etc. This was an excellent resource for the task forces that the students are working on.

The next speaker was John Anderson, longtime Republican congressman from Illinois and former third party candidate for president in 1980. He spoke to them about the history of the Electoral College. Mr. Anderson called for reform of the present system. Even at the age of 84 he is quite sharp. He helps run a non profit called Fair Vote that promotes electoral reform, voting, and democracy in general.

After Mr. Anderson was finished I took off for the my softball game with the “Ugly Mugs”, see earlier entry. We took one on the chin when we lost 16 to 15. It was a tough loss. So my record as pitcher falls to 1 and 1. A good time was had by all and we met after the game for some libations to console ourselves with.