Washington, DC
Tuesday, June 26th

The morning started off another case study. The case would fit into a general theme for the day of safety and security issues. The day was packed for the students because they would be engaged one way or another from 9am till 9pm. They started the morning off with a case called “Threat of Terrorism: Weighing Public Safety in Seattle”. The link is to an abstract of the case from the Kennedy School of Government. It is an interesting case because it centers on the Seattle’s decision making process as it tried to balance civic safety and the major city event of millennium celebration. The students debated the pros and cons of canceling the festivities in the name of safety and causing a major disruption and probable scare if those events were cancelled. The students did an admirable job. There was some lively debate. Because this happened when they were around 9 or 10 years old they were not familiar with the details surrounding the case. We withheld the final decisions till the second session so they would not have the benefit of hindsight. They seemed to really get into the case.

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

After lunch we took the Metro down to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB). This building houses various agencies that compose the President's Executive Office, such as the Office of the Vice President, the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Security Council and is right next to the White House. We were heading down to meet with Ms. Frances Fragos Townsend, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. She has an interesting bio and her role in the President’s sub-cabinet really did not exist until 9/11. It was odd because when she first arrived she joked, “So I hear you met with my boss (Josh Bolton) yesterday.” Spoke at length of the fuzzy lines that have developed of the last few years between homeland security, foreign policy, and counterterrorism. Ms. Townsend was an impressive speaker. She really captivated the group. I think that the girls in the group particularly found her interesting because here is this very impressive high ranking public servant who is married, the mother of two, and in my opinion quite fetching. She spoke for about twenty minutes then handled questions for the remaining forty minutes.

Frances Fragos Townsend,

Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism

After we returned to the Close the students heard from Frank Waikart, Special Advisor to the FBI’s Financial Review Group. Waikart specializes in the tracking the financial aspect that finds terrorism around the country. Long story short, if you stop the flow of money to terrorist groups, you greatly reduce their effectiveness and subsequently their global threat.

After dinner the students heard from Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor of Newsweek Magazine. He spoke of the role of the media in public service and politics. The essence of his talk and the following Q and A was the role that the media played in the start up of the current war in the gulf, The statement that seemed to resonate with the students was this, “If you are a politician, the media is NOT your friend.”

After his talk I headed just down Wisconsin to a dinner part that Meg was having. Meg is one of sister’s roommates from the University of Dayton. She is a long time DC resident and works with State Department planning visits for foreign groups to DC and the US at large. It was a very nice affair with fantastic food and interesting conversation. I was joined by teaching colleague at the H and friend McGizzle. After hanging out for few hours we visited a few of Georgetown’s infamous watering holes. We ended up at the legendary Georgetown University hangout, The Tombs.

The Tombs, of Georgetown and St. Elmo's Fire Fame

A very busy, informative, and fun day. What’s the phrase, “They’ll be time to sleep when I’m dead!”