Here in Sharm for the Friends of Iraq Conference, and amazed at the energy expended for just a 24 hour visit by the Secretary of State. Four days prior an advance team arrives from Washington, an embassy team before that, and when you remember that this is only one segment of the Secretary’s week-long trip…
The buzz word here is control, and a control officer is assigned to everything: one for each very important person (numbering about eight), motor pool, press, security, logistics, and administration. The embassy sets up a control room with a half a dozen computers, five wall clocks, two televisions, a photocopier, and a full-time travel agent. The makeshift embassy bank is outside.
Embassy press officers arrive four days before the journalists to arrange phone lines, internet access, transcription devices, tape recorders, printers, copiers, televisions, briefing rooms, vans, and credentials. All this while negotiating access and protocol with the Egyptian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Information. Three buses escort the traveling press to and from different locations.
Most of the political work is accomplished before the meeting begins. For weeks, high ranking political officers from The Quartet and other neighbors of Iraq have hammered away at a joint statement, which the newspapers reported today, hours before the foreign ministers even met to discuss its contents.
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