NY Hotel Asked Not To Host Ahmadinejad

nypost.com:

An influential security group with White House connections is campaigning to stop a posh New York hotel from hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is scheduled to address the United Nations later this month, The Post has learned.

Read the whole story: nypost.com

Comments

[yankees]

A smart move would be to do what Castro did when he visited this country many years ago, stay in Harlem or somewhere similar. Think of the positives of that story for Ahmadinejad.

[cliffhammond]

So I guess Cheney won't be staying there either.

[Ergon]

Here's a funny commentary on Mousawi, who some seem to think 'won' the Iranian election:
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/iran260709.html
According to "Mousavi supporter Dr. Hamid Dabashi's observations on Mr. "Mousavi's poorly run presidential campaign": "ill-advised, ill-prepared, sentimental, full of necessary colour symbolism but lacking substance, a clearly articulated platform, economic detail, political programming or an attempt to reach out to a wider spectrum of his constituency. His campaign was too elitist, tied in its visual paraphernalia to a northern Tehran sensibility and lacking appeal across an oil-based economy. . . . [During the presidential debates, he] rambled along, read from written statements in a barely audible voice, ran out of things to say before his time was over."

[wereeverywhere]

"Mousawi, who some seem to think 'won' the Iranian election..­."

Imagine someone thinking that about a system as nontransparent and vicious as IRI?

Like the millions of Iranians who are unprecedentedly restive that their votes were stolen. Like the IRI itself who kept the vote counting process secret and spend so much attention making sure assembly and press are repressed. Like such progressive thinkers and authors as Noam Chomsky, Juan Cole, and Reese Erlich. Nice try to take one comment and present it to shill for IRI, but your side is reduced to using half truths at best. Your ideology makes you blind to the point of embarrassment.

[cliffhammond]

I think we should build settlements along the east river and a wall skirting Brooklyn and then expand from there moving the wall with us as we go. Then we should bring in nuclear missiles and declare Manhattan Island the holy land and make sure that no one from Iran can visit, vote or possess their own land or water. If anyone criticizes us we can accuse them of being bigoted against Queens.

[Ergon]

Mousawi won in North Tehran, I'll grant you that. But in Iran you have the rich and the poor, and the majority voted for Ahmadinejad. So while the theocracy might be repugnant, the people still voted for them.
Whether you like it or not.

[Taxi]

Who appointed A.ipac as the 'thought and speech police' on mideast issues and people?

Inquiring minds very really want to know.

[cliffhammond]

I think we should take half of Israel's nuclear warheads and give them to Iran -- about a hundred, give or take a few dozen. Then we'd have a stand-off in the Middle East and we could stop throwing our money away in foreign aide.

[Taxi]

They've been saying it's about 200 nukes that the izzies have since the 1980's!

Methinks it's a bit more than that by now.

[zukervati]

Petty.

[cliffhammond]

NASCAR!

[joeinvt]

Let him stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Jersey City.

[cliffhammond]

That way we could get the FBI to investigate them for smuggling body parts.

[MARNIE2]

when theU.S. along with the other nations decided to charter the U. N. - H.Q. here these [world govt leaders] who have opposing interest -policys from the west ! Conflict will always be there !
but we can call attention to the hypocrisy ,repressive govt. ,corruption self-elected govt. power hungry
leaders . ! by-speaking out when they come to N. Y. @ U.N. !

[hulagirrrl]

Not renting to them should not be the American way.

[cliffhammond]

After all, even Super Man was an illegal alien.

[wereeverywhere]

Agreed, Marn_2. Since the UN is in New York he has the right to speak. Pity there's no functioning court for international justice or he's be speaking in jail, but the US is partly responsible for that. But transforming his speech to draw attention to the Iranians struggling against him sounds like a great idea.

[cliffhammond]

Yea! And once he's out of town in Tehran, we could send in special black-ops teams to load his cigars with nitro like we did Castro, but we'd have to be careful that it's not the kind used to prevent heart attacks.

[Konnie]

um, don't they have an embassy? i thought that's where diplomats and leaders were spose to stay when they were here? or is that just sooo 60's. maybe a side trip to the Holocost Museum might be
a nice diversion.­..........

[cliffhammond]

That wouldn't work unless his mother came along to guilt trip him for not eating right as a back-up if he missed the hidden agenda at the museum.

[Liberterna]

No, iran doesn't have an embassy in the United states

Nor does the United States in Iran.

I guess we could at least TALK to the Soviets who had thousands of Nuclear warheads pointed directly at us, but can't do the same with Iran.

We are a silly bunch sometimes. recently, more often than not.

[rudolph]

Silly idea. If the US is going to host the UN, it must accept that many unlovely people will turn up in local hotels.

[cliffhammond]

Wouldn't it be fun if he and Netanyahu bumped into each other at the continental breakfast buffet and there was nothing left but bacon and one box of cereal?

[TinfoilLatte]

Do you think Ahmadinejad would have a supportive audience in the Republic of Texas? AZ?

I wouldn't think so, but from some of the stories I've been hearing (secession, oil, militant Pastors, banning Obama) I have to wonder.

[larry278]

I noted that the NY Post is starting to use turgid prose which resembles the NYT's style in the blog HP posted. Has the NY Post hired any NYT writers lately? Perhaps Mr Murcoch should have an editor from his UK tabloid, the Sun, monitor his NY Post & suggest to the NY Post's editors & writers how to use the Sun's clear, crisp, tidy prose.

[rigveda]

The hotel was "asked not" - as in they "weren't asked"? Wouldn't it have been better to phrase the headline "NY Hotel Asked To Not Host Ahmadinejad"?

[S1m0n]

I suspect the 'don't split infinitives' canard.

[cliffhammond]

"Ask not what your hotel can do for you....."

[MarcusT]

I guess it's time for the UN to think about moving to a more sophisticated country.

[eileenflemingWAWA]

Excerpted from "Move the UN to Jerusalem"
by Llewellyn D. Howell, USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), May, 2005:

"The UN requires revolutionary change. Besides a political restructuring, three major alterations are vital. First, it should be started over in a new place for a new era. The Cold War has ended. East-West issues and the mentality that they generated reside in New York.

"The UN has to focus on global needs...As an ideal location, why not Jerusalem?

"If UN headquarters were in Jerusalem, it would be forced to give its full attention to all of the issues in the region.

"The UN created Israel and Palestine. It now needs to finish the most critical project it ever started."

[TinfoilLatte]

I think that would fuel conspiracy theories that the UN is some sort of "Zionist Entity" and that all members of the UN are "Zionist Puppets."

[piul05]

Unfortunately, that's true.

Obviously, the rules of international diplomacy and protocol are alien to many politicians, organizers and lobbyists alike.

It's embarrassing, and only reinforces the world's view of the US as being uncouth.

[cliffhammond]

Yea, like that one that Obama was born in -- Hawaii.

[baba2nde]

Appalling, but not particularly groundbreaking, actually. Children shouldn't listen to their president, so, tell me, what other fundamentals remain?

[arvay]

From the article, the "influential group"

"United Against Nuclear Iran -- a bipartisan group whose founders include Obama special Afghanistan envoy Richard Holbrooke and Middle East aide Dennis Ross . . ."

Both of these infiltrators are hereby disqualified from any role in US relations with any Middle Eastern country, except for Israel, which is obviously their only object of affection. Many of us already knew they were unfit for their roles, but this clinches it.

If Van Jones has to resign because of some intemperate statements and unwisely signing a petition -- how much more are these guys disqualified for taking a blatant public position in a diplomatic dispute!

The Department of State needs to intervene, reassure the hotel, and publicly rebuke this organization for inserting itself into our foreign policy. If foreign leaders can't get hotel rooms in New York City, then the UN should move to a more neutral site for its headquarters.

[Macready]

great blog arvay . . . you are so right

[arvay]

:-)

[alexa07]

How do Holbrooke & Ross get away with this? I agree with every word of your commentary. This makes Americans look so provincial & petty. It also sets up an extremely dangerous situation. How can the Obama people include these individuals in their circle, esp. with such important responsibilities when they are so clearly partisan? Does this mean we're going to be forced into yet one more war with a Muslim country because of the partisan views of those in power?

[arvay]

Check out their Wikipedia entries and everything becomes clear.

[Mollabaji]

The one and only intelligent entry here. I second the motion.

[arvay]

:-)

[zukervati]

Money! Fanned .....

[Liberterna]

thank you for bringing this up.