Terror attack in Yemen

It's a small, sad world. Reports just coming in of an attack on the US Embassy in Sana'a feature Ryan Gliha, Embassy spokesperson. A decade ago, I was doing that job for the Brits in Egypt, answering questions from the media and the public about the attack on tourists at the temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor. In those first few hours after the attack, we couldn't know when picking up the phone in the Embassy's impromptu incident room whether the person on the other end would be a tabloid journalist or a parent worried about her or his backpacking child who might or might not have been in Luxor at the time. A few days later I represented the Ambassador at a memorial ceremony held by the Governor of Luxor. It all remains very vivid for me.

I know Ryan a little from when we graduate students together with a common interest in Islam and Central Asia. I can only wish him well now as he does what I know to be an exhausting job, emotionally and otherwise.