Subject: can't sleep; might as well write

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 05:52:49 -0400

Dear Friend,

Obviously, I'm OK.

=the attack=
There was considerable confusion as I walked along the 1300 block of New
York Avenue to my office on Tuesday morning. Lots of people standing in the
sidewalk looking west, lots of emergency vehicles around. Talk about
explosions at the Penatagon and the Old Executive Office Building.

As some of you know, my office is in a building owned by the InterAmerican
Development Bank, so we have embassy-grade security. There were extra people
in the lobby wearing bright red vests and looking worried, saying "this is
bad." In the elevator, a gentleman told me he had just heard that the
federal government was closing.

Lots of people clustered in the reception area at the firm, including the
head administators and some management committee members. It was immediately
made clear that people were free to leave, and most did quickly. Shortly
thereafter the office was officially closed, but people were allowed to
stay. I figured that, given the building security, I was happiest staying
put unless and until the police or other authorities told us to evacuate. (I
did tell a partner I was working with that I was uncomfortable being in his
corner office which enjoys a clear view of the White House lawn.)

There was a good deal of mis-information and confusion. As I said, there
were reports of an explosion at the OEOB, probably based on the evacuation.
Likewise, local TV reported a car-bomb explosion at the State Department
that proved unfounded.

**** called to tell me that **** was picking up our kids from
school along with her own, and that I should get word to her that *** was
heading to the **** home after stopping at our home to get her cell phone
charger. I left a message to that effect on **** cell phone voicemail.
(She eventually got **** on the cell phone to get the verbal authorization
the school needed to release our kids to her. Hooray for cell phones. My #
is ****)

After taking care of some business, I wandered to the library, where a
number of attorneys and clients were watching CNBC (the only station that
that TV gets). Amazing.****, a partner who lives near the house,
offered to drive me home when he left. After a while I headed to my office
and started scanning the e-mail, and got a call from **** to come to the
lobby. I shut down the laptop, shoved it in my bag, and came down, only to
find that **** wasn't going home; he, **** and the two clients were
heading out for lunch! **** decided that the restaurant most likely to be
open as usual was Cafe Mozart, a very Germanic place. She was right; we had
an oddly tranquil lunch.

On returning to the office, I first went to WMATA.COM to get info for the
clients on what Metro lines and stations were running, and then to jpost.com
to see how things looked in/from Israel. The most notable news was the
report of celebrations in East Jerusalem and Nablus; of course there were
also the usual "domestic" terror reports. But no attacks there on the scale
of what was happening here.

We then went to **** car to drop the clients off at their next destination
and to head home. It was about 2:30, and the streets that had been clogged
hours earlier were almost vacant. Many of the roads were half-blocked so
that outbound traffic was unimpeded but people were not being allowed to
enter the downtown area. **** dropped me at the house.

It looks like the federal government is opening
today, but the local Jewish day schools are not. Surfing the web for
commentary, the things I read that make sense to me are the ones that
contend that we're paying the price for failing to wage war against terror
and leaving Bin Laden in peace. Think back to the bombing of the
pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, with Clinton insisting that this was not a
"Wag the Dog" distraction from the Lewinsky scandal or a one-shot deal but
part of what would be a sustained war on terrorism. Of course, it soon
became obvious that it must have been a "Wag the Dog" diversion because
there was no comparable follow-up; the dominant foreign policy theme of the
remainder of his term was appeasement of Palestinian terrorism. Colin Powell
has continued the theme in the new administration by criticizing all Israeli
counter-terror measures.

I hope this letter finds you all well.

--*****