Your Government at Work. No Peeking.

Tales of life here in the nation's capital.

Folks working in the National Grange Building at 1616 H St. NW, next door to Decatur House and a block from the White House, were taken aback by this "urgent notice," distributed Monday.

It's unclear why this unusual precaution was being taken. The 11-story building, whose upper five floors or so look out over Decatur House toward Lafayette Square, houses groups such as the Afterschool Alliance, the American Horse Council, the International Center for Journalists, the International Judicial Academy and Redbrick Partners real estate. That's in addition, of course, to the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, which says it's "the nation's oldest national agricultural organization."

We're told the Secret Service never explained its request to building management. The White House declined to comment.

I'll Get Those References to You Soon

Sometimes it pays to do a little background checking. Even a Google search would do. But officials at the American University of Iraq, a private nonprofit funded in part with seed money from Congress, apparently didn't bother to do that last year when they hired American educator Owen Cargol as the first chancellor, the online Inside Higher Ed recounted in a lengthy story last week.

Cargol had been president of the University of Maine at Augusta and most recently provost at Abu Dhabi University. But it turns out he'd generated a bit of publicity in 2001 when he was president of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

His 2001 resignation from the school came after an employee alleged that Cargol, while naked in a locker room, grabbed the employee's privates, the Arizona Republic reported. In a later e-mail to that employee, Cargol described himself as "a rub-your-belly . . . give-you-a-hug, slap-your-back . . . squeeze-your-hand . . . pat-your-thigh kind of guy," by way of explaining that he was "a sensual kind of guy."

The rest of his self-description can't be printed in a family newspaper.

Cargol resigned from Northern Arizona after only four months on the job. American University of Iraq trustee John Agresto, who worked on rehabbing Iraq's university system for Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003 and 2004, is now interim chancellor of the school, located in beautiful Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region.

The board of regents includes Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, vice president Adil Abdul-Mahdi, former president Ayad Allawi and U.N. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Agresto, in an e-mail, told Inside Higher Ed that "you should know that Dr. Cargol resigned last month," and that "we were unaware of any incidents or allegations when he was hired." A university spokesman said Cargol resigned for "personal reasons" and was not in good health.

So Much for the Paparazzi

What happens to your media coverage when you become the State Department's Middle East desk officer? You get this from the Bloomberg wire.