Diary Prequel Package — page 194

d to Jan. 24, 2009 - Attended with Chris the Lido Civic Club Gala at the Capitol Hilton on 16th and K Streets, N.W. Have been going to these black tie Award Galas for a few years. It is where I met Gen. Peter Pace and Judge Sam Alito. Lido is an Italian American Civic Club with a long history in DC. It started giving awards almost 100 years ago to people like Fiorello LaGuardia, etc. This year the awardees were Gen. Pace (former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Deputy Mayor of DC Dan Tangherlini. It was good to meet Dan since I will soon be dealing with him and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty to launch a "Test and Treat program for AID in DC (more later). Also at the party were Major Fenty's mother and father. She is an Italian-American and he is an AfricanAmerican. Gen Pace is a truly nice man and accepted his award with a moving speech about his parents and grandparents and the men he served with in the marines from the time he was a rifle platoon leader in Viet Nam through Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Also seated at our table was an Army Sergeant (Joe Hauser) who had his right leg blown off in Balard, Iraq (where I had visited in 2003). Paul Wolfowitz and his girlfriend Shaha Riza (World Bank) were also at our table. Recall that there was a "social scandal" when Paul was head of the World Bank and had to leave because it was felt that he was showing favoritism to Shaha who was an employee and was also living with him. Paul and I reminisced about when we worked together on biodefense when he was Deputy Secretary at the Dept. of Defense. Jan. 30, 2009 - Comment on the firing of Mark Dybul as head of OGAC (Office of Global AIDS Coordinator) . It is a shame the way Mark was handled. I am attaching a NY Times article covering this. Mark is back in my office until his retirement. NY Times article:: The abrupt departure of the State Department's global AIDS coordinator has led to debate over who should run what may be President Bush's greatest legacy: his commitment of billions of dollars to fighting AIDS overseas. The position -- U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and director of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is known as Pepfar -- is a State Department post with ambassador's rank that had been held by Dr. Mark R. Dybul, a Bush administration appointee. On Jan. 9, Dr. Dybul circulated a memo saying he had been asked by President Obama's transition team to stay on the job temporarily. But on Jan. 22, one day after Hillary Clinton was confirmed as secretary of state, her staff announced that Dr. Dybul had resigned. No reason was given, but he was reported to have packed up his office and said an emotional goodbye to his staff that afternoon. Dr. Dybul did not return phone messages, but he has told friends that he does not even know on whose orders he was dismissed. "He deserved better," said a friend who asked not to be identified for fear of jeopardizing his government job. "He didn't want to stay, but he was asked to."