Setting up shop for diplomatic speed dating at the United Nations
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Version 0 of 1. NEW YORK — The city streets are showing the first, crisp hints of autumn. But nothing of New York is visible from the 37th floor of the Palace Hotel, where blackout curtains have been stretched across windows to block prying eyes peering in from nearby skyscrapers. This is the week when Foggy Bottom meets Manhattan. More than 1,000 State Department employees will have come to town by week’s end for the United Nations General Assembly, leaving headquarters in the Harry S. Truman Building feeling like it does in a depopulated August. At the Lotte New York Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue, where President Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry are staying, three full floors have been turned into central command for the State Department. [At the U.N., Syria will top the agenda.] Flags of the more than 170 countries the United States has diplomatic relations with are stored alphabetically in plastic filing boxes piled high in a hotel conference room, just in case Kerry holds an impromptu meeting with some foreign official. A minor emergency of protocol was narrowly averted when shorter flagpole toppers were located so the poles didn’t have to be sawed down to accommodate the hotel’s nine-foot ceilings. Equipment from U.S. missions around the world has been flown in, ready to be deployed, including fans from Havana and simultaneous translation equipment from Burma. The corridors are lined with shredders for confidential documents, and signs are pasted to the walls warning that the hallways are not cleared for classified discussions. UNGA, as the General Assembly is called by people who love acronyms, is always a big deal for the State Department. This year, Kerry has 55 meetings scheduled with his foreign counterparts over seven days and six appearances with Obama, necessitating a pace that Kerry has likened to diplomatic speed dating. But the logistical challenge this year is even more daunting than usual. For more than four decades, the State Department contingent stayed one block over from the Palace, at the Waldorf Astoria. Then last year, the hotel was purchased by a Chinese insurance group. The Chinese delegation is ensconced at the Waldorf Astoria this year, and the Chinese flag is flying outside its Park Avenue entrance. The sidewalks outside are blocked by several hundred Falun Gong demonstrators protesting the persecution of the group’s followers in China. [Waldorf Astoria sold to Chinese investors.] The hotel sale posed a delicate but urgent problem for the State Department. Although the department has assiduously avoided using the word espionage to describe the reason it abandoned decades of tradition and switched lodging, officials have acknowledged that cybersecurity was one of several determining factors. “I’m not in the position to detail security information, other than to say the State Department takes seriously the security of its personnel, their work spaces and official residences worldwide,” said State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner. “We are constantly evaluating our security protocols and standard operating procedures to ensure the safety and security of our information and personnel.” The move was a cultural shift from a hotel that hosted many presidents to one that was once owned by the Sultan of Brunei and counted Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston among its guests. Planning for operating out of the Palace, which was recently sold to a South Korean conglomerate, began five months ago. The Palace is much smaller than the Waldorf Astoria, so the staff has to be lodged in several hotels around New York rather than in just one. The Palace elevators are smaller, too, holding only eight people, so they had to reserve floors where people could navigate the stairwells. Requests for face time with Kerry were too voluminous to accommodate. Even in an era of diminished U.S. power, many officials find that meeting with the secretary of state carries a certain cachet, like getting seated at a top restaurant. “This is the mother of all UNGAs,” said MaryKay Carlson, who oversees scheduling and works in Kerry’s office, citing the United Nations’ 70th anniversary, the meeting between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin and the move to a new hotel. Bureaus representing every region of the world and every issue the State Department deals with have sent staffers to assist undersecretaries and assistant secretaries who will come to town as needed. They work out of hotel rooms turned into suites. Headboards attached permanently to the walls are the only sign that beds are usually positioned where rows of tables now hold computers with double screens. The 37th floor is the confidential one. Security guards stand at every elevator bank and stairwell door where tiny security cameras are lashed with duct tape to the pipes so they can see who’s approaching. With the blackout curtains always drawn, Carlson compares it to a casino where you can’t tell if it’s morning or night. Some people rarely leave. A large bulletin board holds dozens of take-out menus. Not everyone at the State Department is eager to take part in General Assembly week, though some apparently live for it. “It’s safe to say, if you’re into diplomacy and policies, you want to be in every meeting,” Carlson said. It’s also safe to say the Waldorf Astoria probably isn’t missing the U.S. government business. Among the dignitaries staying there this week in the rooms vacated by the Americans are Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin. |