Subject: Podesta: Rwanda and Congo
From: Alec Ross <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Cc: Faiz Shakir <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:23:30 -0400

Dear John

I hope this email finds you well.  I wanted to thank you for the
shout-out from the podium at the Gov2.0 conference.  I’m sorry I
wasn’t able to join you on the podium, but was in the Congo and
Rwanda.

I had a good, long sit-down with President Kagame about innovation and
about regional security issues, but most of my time was spent doing
some interesting primary source research which included my spending my
morning with the biggest gangster in eastern Congo who is point for
the illicit minerals trade at the militia-backed mines, embedding
myself with the police unit in Goma and spending time with
ex-combatants in demobilization camps in Rwanda and the Congo.  All
this in the interest of figuring out what sorts of tools and
incentives we can use to make the region safer, particularly for the
women who are vulnerable to violence.  I’m reaching into my bag of
tricks for technology for some of them, but in other cases it’s a
simple matter of figuring out how to get cops and soldiers paid.

Anyway, I hope you are well.  I’m sorry I wasn’t able to join you and
James Fallows on the podium, but know that I was out there working
hard.  A little piece about my Kagame sit-down here:
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14018&article=19911

Thanks again and talk soon,
Alec