Pardon me for my strolls down memory lane these days. Its a sign of getting old I know. One of the things many of you know but probably many don't know is that in 1995, I was detained in the former Soviet Union for an extended period of time. 43 days to be precise. We arrived at the airport in Moscow ready to head to Kazakstan to launch a satellite. When we arrived, we were greeted by government officials as we walked off the plane. They took our passports and walked us around passport control, which was a positive thing at that moment. We were taken to an apartment in Moscow. We weren't allowed to have our passports back and told to stay indoors except for essential travel outside the apartment - like to work or to exercise. We were given a 'minder' to go shopping or exercising with us. We were told that this was for our own safety as we were accused of espionage and authorities were working on sorting this out. We phoned home and tried to get our bosses to let us go to Kazakstan but we didn't have permission from the Russian government to leave the apartment. We were told to enjoy our time off. To take this time to think about what we needed to do when this 'small problem was regulated'. We had a very nice lady cooking us every meal - Nadezda - and we bonded with her. We were warned, however, that we were not to talk about this with colleagues or family from the US government yet they wouldn't help. Finally Al Gore called on our behalf and this prompted Prime Minister Chernomyrdin to write a letter giving us the freedom to move about Moscow. And we were allowed to leave and work on our satellite in Kazakstan. I called this House Arrest. They called it 'quarantine'.

It occurred to me at the time that the BIG difference between this country and the Soviet Union was the rule of law. The Soviet Union was a country run by permission and not law. Does this seem vaguely familiar to anyone ? Does this even worry you ? I lived it. I felt the terror of thinking that I may never see my children and my loved ones ever again. Think about this and let it sink in. And then look around you and see what you can see.