Global News Journal

Tardy Obama plays second fiddle to Swiss at UN

It happens every year. When the U.S. president arrives at the United Nations for the General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders, the east side of midtown Manhattan goes into lockdown mode. You can’t cross the streets before he arrives and until well after the most powerful man in the world has safely arrived inside the headquarters of world diplomacy.

President Barack Obama was a little late this year and unable to keep his prestigious spot as the second speaker in the annual marathon of speeches. When Obama failed to show, the Swiss president of the General Assembly Joseph Deiss announced that the president of his homeland, Doris Leuthard, would take Obama’s place and give Switzerland’s address.

Deiss assured the delegations from the United Nations’ 192 members that this was not because the Swiss had ambitions of becoming a world power, but in order to keep things moving. Of course, Leuthard enjoyed a standing-room only audience at the assembly hall, a rare opportunity for the small but wealthy Alpine nation.

After Leuthard finished, Obama stepped up to the iconic dark green podium. Wearing a dark suit and a U.N.-blue tie, he paid homage to the 65-year world organization.

“We meet within an institution built from the rubble of war to unite the world in pursuit of peace. And we meet within a city that for centuries has welcomed people from across the globe, demonstrating that individuals of every color, faith and station can come together to pursue opportunity; build a community; and live with the blessing of human liberty.”

The Middle East figured prominently in Obama’s address, his second before the General Assembly. He touched on Iran’s nuclear program, stressing that the door was still open for diplomacy, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He urged Israel to extend its moratorium on settlements and called on the Palestinians and Israelis to press ahead with their peace negotiations.

“Israel’s settlement moratorium has made a difference on the ground, and improved the atmosphere for talks,” Obama said. “Our position on this issue is well known. We believe that the moratorium should be extended. We also believe that talks should press on until completed.”

from FaithWorld:

Did Bloomberg inspire Obama’s speech about NYC Muslim cultural centre?

There was an interesting echo at the White House when President Barack Obama came out in favour of the proposed Cordoba House Muslim cultural centre near the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York (see our news report here).  Controversy about the project, which opponents call the "Ground Zero mosque," has been swirling in New York for weeks and went national recently when Republicans Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich joined the critics' campaign. But until the annual Iftar dinner he hosted on Friday evening, the president had kept out of what his spokesman called "a matter for New York City and the local community to decide.”

Reading his comments, it looks like Obama not only let NYC authorities decide the issue -- favourably for the project, as it turned out, as both the local community board and the landmarks commission voted overwhelmingly to let it go ahead. He may also have taken pointers for his speech from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has stood solidly behind the project despite all the emotion it has stirred up.

After the Landmarks Preservation Commission cleared the last administrative hurdle to the plan -- rejecting the opponents' bid to protect the 1857 building standing on the proposed Cordoba House site from being torn down -- Bloomberg delivered a forceful speech on August 3 defending two long-standing American traditions.

The first and most obvious one was freedom of religion: “Of all our precious freedoms, the most important may be the freedom to worship as we wish... I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetime – as important a test – and it is critically important that we get it right."

Less highlighted but equally important was respect for private property: "The simple fact is this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship. The government has no right whatsoever to deny that right... lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question – should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here."

Obama hit all these themes in the key passage of his speech: "As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable."

This is not to say that Obama would not have backed this project if Bloomberg had not spoken out so eloquently. His support is consistent with his views on constitutional rights, religious freedom, diversity and outreach to Muslims. It also made sense to save this speech for the Iftar dinner, when his stand could play more prominently than it might if it were simply proclaimed in a statement on the White House website.

from Pakistan: Now or Never?:

Times Square bombing; was the inspiration from the U.S. or Pakistan?

The failed car bomb attack on New York's Times Square this weekend is almost certain to rekindle questions about a "jihadi highway" where citizens of western countries, often radicalised at home, seek either inspiration or training from one of many militant groups based in Pakistan.

According to a U.S. law enforcement source, Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American arrested on suspicion of driving the car into Times Square this weekend, told authorities he was acting alone. But investigators are also looking into a recent trip he made to Pakistan to see if he had links to Islamist militants based there, which include al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and a host of Punjab-based groups and splinter organisations, some originally linked to the fight against India in Kashmir.

In Pakistan, security sources said police had made some arrests, including of family members, in connection with the attack.  An intelligence official said Shahzad had received militant training in northwest Pakistan near the garrison town of Kohat. The area around Kohat is a stronghold of Tariq Afridi, the main Pakistani Taliban commander in the region.

Any training Shahzad did receive in Pakistan (and let's remember that he has only been arrested so far rather than found guilty) was unlikely to have been particularly extensive given the rather amateurish nature of the car bomb he is accused of assembling.

"My first take is whoever did this didn’t have a whole lot of training, if any. And could have solely gone off manuals they’ve found on the net," counter-terrorism expert Leah  Farrall wrote on her blog before some of the latest details were reported.  "There are ample training materials out there from all manner of terrorist groups and crazies. And plenty of things that outline how to build a device just like this."

She adds that it is far more difficult for an untrained person to engineer a bomb explosion than most people think. "This is why, for example, training for construction of explosives and explosives devices in terrorist training camps has historically taken up to two years,  as opposed to the usual basic training where people are trained how to 'use' explosives instead of how to build devices. It is an ongoing problem for militant groups. This is why some of them (and here I’m thinking AQ) often sent the detonator or a key part of it back with those it was deploying to carry out attacks. Especially for the more sophisticated attacks.  Or they gave intensive one on one or small group training."

Alec Barker made a similar point in an article for Foreign Policy.

Hudson River plane crash: Breaking news from the office window

The Reuters bureau in Times Square has a striking view of the Hudson River and New Jersey, but on Thursday the scenery became an afterthought, as a US Airways jet splashed down in the frigid waters right before our eyes.

“I was on the phone when I saw a big splash in the middle of the river and realized it was a plane,” said Reuters correspondent Scott DiSavino. “I put the phone down and yelled, ‘Hey, a plane just crashed into the Hudson River!’”

The bureau sprang into action. Photographers sprinted out of the office toward the river, a few long blocks away. Those of us who had the earliest and clearest view gathered around a reporter sending headlines out to Reuters news clients, dictating details about what was happening.

The Passur AirportMonitor site shows the plane took of from Laguardia airport and headed north over the Bronx while climbing to about 2400 feet. Above Yonkers, the plane took a sharp left turn, bringing it over the Hudson River, and it quickly lost altitude. Radar showed the last known altitude at about 500 feet. (Video capture from Passur.com)

As we could see from our windows, the plane splashed down somewhere near the Intrepid aircraft carrier, docked on the west coast of midtown Manhattan. Ferries immediately sped out to rescue passengers who were standing on the plane’s wings, some of them in knee-deep frigid water.

Earlier indications were that the the plane had flown through a flock of geese, resulting in an explosion in one of the engines. All passengers were rescued.