I have been a bit crazed today assembling a dinner discussion that will take place tonight with John Bellinger, Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State.
Bellinger will be discussing with a fairly formidable group of DC public policy intellectuals, journalists, and other political hands the importance and “packaging” of getting America back into international law discourse — even when it comes to tough subjects like rendition policy, detainee issues, and international criminal court protocols. I will be moderating the meeting.
I will have more later, and if you are a “national intelligence” junkie like me, this article profiling John Negroponte and his views which one of my dinner attendees — Timothy Burger of Time Magazine — just published may interest you.
Negroponte has apparently said that as long as the global war on terror continues, combat detainees will be indefinitely held in secret CIA prisons.
Part of the dinner discussion with John Bellinger will be on the record and part will be off. I will be back with much more on the meeting and the subject of tonight’s meeting, which I feel is very important.
More later.
— Steve Clemons
