The lawmakers are apparently going to be talking to government officials down there about drugs, trade and other issues. No word from Boehner’s folks about the specifics of the itinerary. (We’ll check in later to see whether the Brazil leg included stops in Salvador or Rio.)
Worried about leaving your spouse back in the cold? Bring him or her along. It’s no problem — the other spouses are coming. And there’ll be three or four staff members to help out. Remember, this is pretty much the ultimate in luxury travel, business class on a government jet, with pampering by military aides.
This jaunt, as far as we can tell, breaks only two of the six rules in the official, updated In the Loop Guide to Codels. (You can refresh your memory at wapo.st/
codel-rules.)
Just Joe
Speaking of codels, we’re hearing that Sen.
Joseph I. Lieberman
(I-Conn.) is taking a very, very small delegation to the Holy Land, arriving Dec. 26 with his wife, Hadassah, via commercial jet. She’ll stay behind as the lame-duck senator and two staffers continue on, perhaps by military jet, to four other countries in the Middle East. It’s a codel of one, since no other senators signed on.
Something for the counter
Desperate for a gift for that special someone who has everything? Bet he or she doesn’t have the 2012 Counterterrorism Calendar, produced by the National Counterterrorism Center.
The calendars are given out as a resource guide for law enforcement and intelligence officials and folks in the anti-terror biz, especially for those working in the field. That’s why there are pages on ways to spot and deal with biological and chemical attacks, “suspicious financial activity indicators,” or people using false passports.
A downloadable, interactive version is on the NCTC Web site, www.nctc.gov, but you can’t buy the 5-by-9-inch spiral version anywhere. Got to know someone. That’s what makes it special. In addition, the NCTC, trying to reduce costs, printed 25 percent fewer calendars this year, so they’re even harder to get.
And don’t throw out the 2011 calendar. It’s the last one featuring the cool $25 million reward for Osama bin Laden, who’s no longer on the wanted list. (No tipster was deemed worthy of the award.)
And it’s the only calendar ever to feature Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. citizen who allegedly orchestrated the failed Christmas 2009 underwear bombing of a Detroit-bound jet. That was his last appearance — he was killed by a missile strike in Yemen in September.
Sins of the son?
You never call, you never write, you never come around to see us any more. An old pal, Equatorial Guinea “President”
Teodoro Obiang Nguema
, now (with Gaddafi gone) Africa’s longest-serving dictator, was in town last week to receive the Beacon for Africa award at the 2011 Sullivan Honors dinner and didn’t even drop us a note.
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