It’s the sixth anniversary of 9/11 today and all American flags here are at half-mast. Other than that, few things around here seem to indicate the occasion, and people don’t probably want to bring it up when we are talking. Yesterday and today were filled with meeting starting at 8 and finishing around 17. Tomorrow should be the same too.

Yesterday’s meetings included a talk about federalism and the US system of government, and a meeting with the Commission of Civil Rights. Today we met with the program officer and had lunch with her at a good Lebanese restaurant. We also got a chance to meet a representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Later on we went to the US Department of Justice where we learned about the Americans with Disabilities Act, something that every country should have an equivalent for.

Over all the meetings were interesting and educational, and the people we met were friendly and nice. All meetings are off the record so I can’t tell you much about what we discussed but I will probably write more later about my personal impressions. Tomorrow, we will meet some people at the Department of State and the Center of Immigration Studies as well as CAIR people. That would conclude our stay in D.C. and we will fly the next morning to Bozeman, Montana.

I went out to have dinner with two American friends tonight and it was really great. I really wanted to have more free time to do stuff like that: go sightseeing and meeting people away from the official settings, but unfortunately our time here is very limited and our schedule is overloaded. Later folks.