Archive for category NATO

Editorial: Pay Chicago cops overtime for NATO summit duty – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 29, 2012



Editorial: Pay Chicago cops overtime for NATO summit duty

Editorials May 25, 2012 8:12PM

Story Image 

Chicago Police officers line Michigan Avenue to protect the Art Institute from protesters on May 20 during the NATO Summit. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media

Updated: May 27, 2012 2:36AM

The mayor better fix this one, and fast.

Less than a week after Chicago police won high praise for their work protecting the city during the NATO Summit, the police union is accusing the city of trying to chisel officers out of summit overtime pay.

The Fraternal Order of Police says the city doesn’t want to give officers time-and-a-half overtime for working a sixth or seventh consecutive day in a week, as the police contract calls for. It has filed a class- action grievance.

In response to a inquiry Friday by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman, a police spokeswoman said, “The Chicago Police Department fully intends to work through these issues with the union to ensure that our officers are fully compensated for their work during the NATO Summit.”

We hope that means the city plans to pay up. The language in the police contract appears clear on overtime payments, but if the city has another reading of the contract, we’re all ears. Barring that, there is no excuse for denying Chicago police their due.

 Editorial: Pay Chicago cops overtime for NATO summit duty – Chicago Sun-Times.

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NATO has fight on its hands in Afghanistan: Panetta | Reuters

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs, NATO on May 27, 2012


NATO has fight on its hands in Afghanistan: Panetta

 

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (R) testifies next to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, (C) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey (L), at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington May 23, 2012. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (R) testifies next to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, (C) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey (L), at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington May 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Gary Cameron

 

WASHINGTON | Sun May 27, 2012 1:17pm EDT

 

(Reuters) – NATO forces still have a fight on their hands in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has displayed resilience although its fighters have not regained territory they lost during the decade-long war, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday.

Panetta said plans for foreign troops to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces starting in mid-2013 were on track and necessary to ensure that the Taliban, which governed Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion, is kept at bay.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who ordered a surge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2009, has outlined plans to withdraw foreign combat forces from there by the end of 2014 and to take on a supportive role for the Afghan army.

Afghanistan security forced have grown to around 330,000 but still lack capabilities in intelligence, air power and logistics. At the same time, a spate of attacks against foreign troops this year by Afghans in military uniforms have raised questions about their loyalty to the government and whether some are under the influence of the Taliban.

“The world needs to know that we still have a fight on our hands,” Panetta told ABC’s “This Week” program. “We’re still dealing with the Taliban. Although they’ve been weakened, they are resilient.”

The defense secretary said the Taliban has been unable to conduct any kind of organized attack to reclaim territory lost to NATO and Afghan forces, adding: “We’ve seen levels of violence going down. We’ve seen an Afghan army that is much more capable at providing security.”

The White House, looking toward the November presidential election, is keen to dispel notions that Obama is rushing for the exits in Afghanistan, at a time when public support for the war is plummeting.

The broad concern, however, is that the Taliban is staying out of harm’s way and will resurface quickly once the bulk of foreign troops have left.

“Have you ever heard the word ‘victory’ come through the lips of this president, because we’re always talking about withdrawal, withdrawal, withdrawal,” Senator John McCain, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Republican candidate for president in 2008 who lost to Obama, told Fox News Sunday.

“The Taliban believes we are leaving” after Obama’s announcements of a withdrawal schedule, McCain said.

“The president has overridden the recommendation of his military commanders who he has put in their positions, and the president has increased the risk every time.”

Panetta said there continues to be concerns about the Taliban operating from safe havens inPakistan. He said U.S. relations with Pakistan were “complicated”.

“This has been one of the most complicated relationships that we’ve had, working with Pakistan. You know, we have to continue to work at it. It is important. This is a country that has – that has nuclear weapons,” Panetta said.

“So our responsibility here is to keep pushing them to understand how important it is for them to work with us to try to deal with the common threats we both face,” Panetta added.

Panetta said it was “so disturbing” that the Pakistani government sentenced a doctor to 33 years in prison on treason charges for helping the CIA track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Dr. Shakil Afridi “was not working against Pakistan. He was working against al Qaeda. And I hope that ultimately Pakistan understands that,” he said. “Because what they have done here, I think, you know, does not help in the effort to try to re-establish a relationship between the United States and Pakistan.”

 NATO has fight on its hands in Afghanistan: Panetta | Reuters.

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President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romney’s Business Experience the ‘Bain’ of His Existence – ABC News

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Politics on May 22, 2012


May 21, 2012 5:41pm

President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romney’s Business Experience the ‘Bain’ of His Existence

 

ap obam bain thg 120521 wblog President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romneys Business Experience the Bain of His Existence

Kiichiro Sato/AP

At the close of the NATO Summit, taking questions from reporters, President Obama launched his most direct attack yet at challenger Mitt Romney, defending his campaign’s attacks on Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and full-throatedly saying “this is what this campaign is going to be about.”

“If your main argument for how to grow the economy is ‘I knew how to make a lot of money for investors’ than you’re missing what this job is about,” the president said.

In recent days, some of the president’s allies – Newark Mayor Corey Booker, former White House ‘auto czar’ Stephen Rattner – have criticized the Obama campaign’s attacks on Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney headed.

“I think it’s important to recognize that this issue is not a quote distraction,” the president said today. “This is part of the debate that we’re going to be having in this election campaign about how do we create an economy where everybody, from top to bottom, folks on Wall Street and folks on Main Street, have a shot at success. And if they’re working hard and they’re acting responsibly that they’re able to live out the American dream.”

The president said that his personal view of private equity firms is that “it is set up to maximize profits and that’s a healthy part of the free market, that’s part of the role of a lot of business people. That’s not unique to private equity. And as I think as my representatives have said repeatedly and I will say today, I think there are folks who do good work in that area and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries.”

 

But, the president said, “understand that their priority is to maximize profits. And that’s not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers. And the reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, Governor Romney, his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. You know, he’s not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts. He’s saying ‘I’m a business guy. I know how to fix it.’ And this is his business.”

When one is president, Mr. Obama said, “as opposed to the head of private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits, your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. Your job is to think about those workers who get laid off and how are we’re paying for their retraining…. My job is to take into account everybody not just some. My job is to make sure the county is growing, not just now, but 10 years from now and 20 years from now. And so, to repeat, this is not a distraction, this is what this campaign is going to be about.”

 

-Jake Tapper and Mary Bruce

 President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romney’s Business Experience the ‘Bain’ of His Existence – ABC News.

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Why wait to exit Afghanistan? – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Opinion, Perspective on May 21, 2012


Why wait to exit Afghanistan?

STEVE HUNTLEY shuntley.cst@gmail.com May 21, 2012 6:02PM

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President Barack Obama addresses troops May 2 at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. | Charles Dharapak~AP

Updated: May 21, 2012 8:20PM

The good news out of Afghanistan is that disease has blighted the opium poppy fields, depriving the Taliban of a vital source of revenue. The bad news out of Afghanistan is that disease has blighted the poppy fields, so devastating to poor farmers that it may drive hordes of them into the insurgency.

That paradoxical development crystallizes the seemingly endless futility of the Afghan war.

The military reports that Taliban attacks are down this year — but there’s been an alarming increase in NATO casualties coming from “green on blue” attacks, coalition troops being killed by Afghan security forces, our allies.

President Barack Obama traveled to Afghanistan to declare that “we broke the Taliban’s momentum” and that the “tide had turned.” Days later the heads of Congress’ intelligence committees — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) — returned from the war zone to report that “the Taliban is stronger.”

At the NATO Summit, Obama proclaimed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai that a “transformational decade” lies ahead for Afghanistan. Behind the scenes, according to the New York Times, the president has concluded that Karzai is corrupt and unreliable, and Obama has ordered that U.S. combat operations will end in the summer of 2013 whether the Afghan military can secure the country or not. Also, reports the Times, the administration has reduced its goals to the level of “good enough for Afghanistan.”

“Good enough for Afghanistan” — is that a cause worth another American life? Why wait until the summer of 2013 to end the U.S. combat mission? What’s wrong with this summer? Or tomorrow? I understand that would be seen as “rushing to the exits.” But what is telling the Taliban that we’re leaving next year anything other than a slow walk to the exits?

I understand that a quick pullout might jeopardize the gains made at great cost. But if Feinstein and Rogers are right, the Taliban are just waiting us out. That was always the flaw in Obama’s surge-with-a-withdrawal-timetable strategy. Now that flaw appears to be reality.

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney can complain about the strategy all he wants, but he hasn’t advanced a credible alternative. He would be better off planning for the reality he would face if he were elected in November.

Pakistan, increasingly radical Islamist and nuclear armed, is deemed by the White House a bigger threat in the region. Pakistan has proved to be an uncertain ally. But how will more Americans dying in remote areas of Afghanistan change that? Better to bolster our relationship with Pakistan’s rival, India, a natural U.S. ally as the world’s largest democracy.

Amnesty International called on Obama to stay the course to safeguard the gains made in women’s rights in Afghanistan. That’s a legitimate worry. But I don’t hear Amnesty banging the drums urging its members to flock to recruiting stations to volunteer for Afghanistan. Maybe this is a time for the United Nations to prove its worth by sending peace-keeper troops from all member nations to Afghanistan to secure the progress made for women and girls.

The bottom line is we shouldn’t ask brave U.S. troops to put their lives on the line when it appears the administration has already written off Afghanistan.

 Why wait to exit Afghanistan? – Chicago Sun-Times.

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Sigh of relief: City survives NATO Summit – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Opinion, Perspective on May 21, 2012


Sigh of relief: City survives NATO Summit

MARK BROWN markbrown@suntimes.com May 21, 2012 10:58PM

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Chicago Police officers keep on eye on the crowd protesting Monday, May 21. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media

 

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Updated: May 21, 2012 11:28PM

Wheels up. NATO is gone. Sighs of relief all around.

No party for the Secret Service, though Mayor Rahm Emanuel took the summit press corps bowling.

Emanuel probably wasn’t among those sighing. It’s not in his nature. But he probably should have been.

Emanuel took a big political risk by bringing the NATO Summit here — lots of potential downside along with very little obvious upside to the regular working stiff.

And he pulled it off.

There were no disasters.

President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen gushed over Chicago having provided a “great showcase,” presumably reflecting the views of other world leaders.

The video clips of Chicago Police clubbing heads of protesters may not help the next tourism campaign, but overall, it was hard to argue with the performance of Supt. Garry McCarthy’s department.

Some of the protesters weren’t real happy, but their injuries will mend, and their lawsuits will eventually be resolved, plus the First Amendment got some exercise.

Chicago will get back to work Tuesday without any appreciable hangover from the weekend’s activities.

By not failing, Emanuel and Chicago succeeded.

Emanuel naturally delivered a much rosier assessment Monday afternoon, arguing Chicago received the kind of international attention that will drive foreign investment and tourism dollars here in the future.

I hope that’s true, though I would caution it’s tricky to gauge benefits that could take years to materialize, while it was apparent to anybody downtown that Chicago was operating at anywhere from half to three-quarters speed for about four days.

The most obvious immediate beneficiary of the summit was the private security industry, which must have set a record for rent-a-cop employment.

You only had to round the corner of Harrison and Michigan during Sunday’s protest march to be reminded of how high the stakes were for Emanuel.

In the foreground were grim-faced members of the Illinois State Police in full riot gear making the first real display of police muscle on the protest route as they steered the demonstrators wide into the far lanes of traffic beyond the median.

In the background was the apparent object of their defensive positioning: the Chicago Hilton and Towers, better known as the Conrad Hilton during the 1968 Democratic National when it was the scene of some of the fiercest — and most well broadcast — tussles between antiwar protesters and Chicago Police.

The message was clear to anybody with a sense of history: We’re not going to do that again, not here, not today.

After the 1996 Democratic National Convention at the United Center, everyone declared the ghosts of 1968 — and the lingering image it gave the city — to be dead.

But the fact is the police were never tested in 1996 to the extent that they were expected to be during NATO, and doubts remained about whether they were ready.

The real test came at the end of the march, when the crowd was asked to disperse by the event’s organizers.

I was there and witnessed part of what happened, and I’ve watched the video and spoken to my colleagues who were even closer to the action. I think most of us on scene agree the police did a good job, with the possible exception that they didn’t always differentiate between the elements of the crowd who meant them harm and those who just hung around too long.

Some of the protesters who got clubbed weren’t trying to cause trouble, and the tactic of squeezing the crowd almost got some folks seriously trampled.

But this was no police riot either. Police executed a disciplined, tactical strategy that was fairly obvious in its unfolding to those on the street.

The problems were started by a relatively small portion of the protesters who wanted to push through the police lines to reach McCormick Place. Everybody knew the police weren’t going to allow that.

Did Emanuel’s police erase the memories of Dick Daley’s police in 1968? I wouldn’t say that. But there’s no new memory of a major embarrassment to follow around Emanuel or the city either.

Having survived our brush with world leaders, maybe in the future we could just have them back one at a time.

 Sigh of relief: City survives NATO Summit – Chicago Sun-Times.

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NATO Chicago is a tale of two cities – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Opinion, Perspective on May 21, 2012


NATO Chicago is a tale of two cities

RICHARD ROEPER rroeper@suntimes.com May 20, 2012 2:06PM

 Story Image

At times this weekend, Chicago looked like a scene from “The Walking Dead.”

Updated: May 21, 2012 3:18PM

I’m walking down Dearborn Street in River North on Sunday.

Not the sidewalk. The street.

Traffic closures have rendered Dearborn as eerily empty as a zombie-free street in “The Walking Dead.”

Meanwhile, other pockets of the city have jammed tight with humanity over the weekend — thousands of Occupiers, hundreds upon hundreds of police, nearly as many media.

Such was the dual personality of downtown Chicago in one of the strangest weekends I’ve ever seen. Escalating protests, major traffic shutdowns leading to ghost-town square blocks, some folks just going about their weekend business as if nothing unusual was happening, Sox and Cubs squaring off at Wrigley Field …

And even though there’s a lot of Summit left to be played, I can’t help but ask: Tell me again why this was going to be so great for Chicago?

Two sides to every story

Even with so many professional and amateur camera operators capturing so many angles of the protests, you’re still going to get “Rashomon” versions of confrontations.

Occupiers say a police van deliberately ran over a protester in the South Loop on Saturday; police say protesters tried to push the van and block it from moving through traffic. And Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Sunday that the driver of the police van suffered a concussion.

Occupiers will tell you some cops are intimidating, bullying, beating. Police will tell you some Occupiers are taunting them and instigating physical confrontations, and they’re just trying to control the situation. There’s footage to bear out both arguments.

Things got ugly Sunday afternoon when protesters and police clashed at Michigan and Cermak. News crews and amateur videographers captured footage and images of cops clubbing protesters, and protesters throwing metal barricades and other objects at police. Some protesters were bloodied. Arrests were made. There was a massive shoving match pitting uniformed cops vs. the most stubborn of the protesters.

If you’re a masked protester, and you’re screaming obscenities in the face of a police officer or throwing something at him, how does that advance whatever cause you’re advocating? How does that help you get your message to NATO? Did you come to Chicago to mix it up with the cops or try to change the world?

The biggest story: the “NATO 3” arrested on terrorism charges.

Friends and defenders of those charged said it was a joke — these guys weren’t making Molotov cocktails, they were making beer. An attorney representing the men said his clients are victims of “a Chicago police set-up, entrapment to the highest degree.” But police said the suspects warned “Chicago doesn’t know what it’s in for.” The police raid yielded written plans for making pipe bombs, a mortar gun, swords, a crossbow, ninja knives.

Interesting craft beer technique.

Rules of engagement

On Saturday, protesters congregated outside Rahm Emanuel’s house.

This isn’t the first time activists have marched past or gathered outside the mayor’s home. Regardless of the cause, I think protesting at someone’s house, especially if the resident has children, is a punk move.

On the silly side, there was the protest against Rush Limbaugh last week outside the WLS-AM studios. From 4-6 p.m., protesters waved signs with messages like, “Rush Must Go,” while a mike-checking activist told us he “hates” Limbaugh and called him a piece of “s—” who must be fired. Kind of a mixed message there if you’re going for, you know, tolerance and free speech for all.

Also, Limbaugh doesn’t broadcast his show from Chicago. He’s a thousand miles away. Not to mention he’s on the air from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. From 2-6 p.m., it’s Roe Conn and me. Different show.

Utterly pointless protest.

 NATO Chicago is a tale of two cities – Chicago Sun-Times.

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The world was watching, and what did they see? – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Opinion, Perspective on May 21, 2012


The world was watching, and what did they see?

RICHARD ROEPER rroeper@suntimes.com May 21, 2012 3:47PM

Story Image 

A man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask takes a picture as speakers voice their concerns during NATO protests on Monday. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media

Updated: May 21, 2012 9:19PM

As local news cameras panned the crowd during the clash between protesters and police Sunday afternoon, it was impossible to miss the block-letter message on one sign:

“F— THE POLICE”

Except there weren’t any dashes.

This is one of the risks when you go with live coverage. You might not be able to cut away in time from a moment of spontaneous violence, a protester shouting an obscenity — or a sign like the one we saw on TV.

Not that the TV stations were being irresponsible. It’s not as if the cameras lingered on the sign while a Ron Magers or a Bob Sirott said, “As you can see, at least one of the protesters has a special message for the police.” It was just a small piece of the fabric of a tumultuous scene, indicative of the mindset of some of the more confrontation-minded protesters.

As for that slogan, it’s been invoked by some in the (self-appointed) rebel culture at least since 1988, when N.W.A released “F— Tha Police” on the group’s seminal rap album “Straight Outta Compton.”

I’ve seen signs including the phrase at a number of NATO protests over the last couple of days. I also saw two “Save Ferris” signs and a man holding a placard proclaiming, “I WANTED A BIGGER SIGN.” In terms of changing the world, they’ve all got about the same punch.

Here’s my hypothetical for you. Let’s say the guy who was wielding that sign on Sunday is home one night, and someone breaks into his house. Does he welcome him with open arms and say, “Brother, I am a fellow traveler fighting against the Man. You don’t have to rob me. Let me make you a peanut butter sandwich, and we’ll share our stories of rebellion!”

Or does he hide under the bed and call the police and hope they don’t notice the “F— The Police” sign in the kitchen?

The whole world is filming

One of the many differences between the demonstrations of 1968 and 2012: Four and a half decades ago, only journalists and documentarians were recording the battles between police and protesters. This time, if you don’t have a camera or at least your mobile device rolling at all times, you’re in the distinct minority.

(Another difference: More costuming in 2012. I’m a clown! I’m the angel of death! I’m that guy from “V for Vendetta!” I’m a skeleton! I’m a bandana-wearing rebel! I’m a dollar sign! Sadly, haven’t seen any of the “Avengers” yet. Then again, I suppose Tony Stark’s the ultimate 1 percenter, and Captain America would be considered gauchely jingoistic.)

Even as some protesters jostle with police officers or get in their faces to wish them a lovely day, they’re pointing their phones or cameras at the action. There’s this sense of, “I’m going to capture this moment, and it’s going to go viral, and it’s going to change everything!”

Indeed, some of the raw footage shot by citizen journalists and activists makes for compelling viewing. The professional news crews can’t capture everything. Whether it’s a NATO rally in Chicago or an Occupy protest in New York or a Tea Party gathering in Washington, it’s a positive that we can see events from so many different perspectives.

But even as many protesters will tell you, the “mainstream media” are just tools of the government and won’t tell you the real story, they have their own agenda. Just because someone shoots an event with a cell phone instead of a network-issued camera doesn’t make it a pure truth. We still have to ask questions like what happened just before the cameras started rolling, what was the context, was the footage edited to advance a certain point of view, etc.

If the whole world is watching, it feels like half the world is recording.

As for the real violence in Chicago over the weekend: at least 22 shot, seven dead, including a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old. That’s the all-too-familiar reality in this city.

One last observation. A few months ago, “Anonymous” called for 50,000 protesters to descend on the city. Seems like that call to arms fell about 48,000 short.

 The world was watching, and what did they see? – Chicago Sun-Times.

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For Emanuel, risk hosting summit ‘will pay off’ – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


For Emanuel, risk hosting summit ‘will pay off’

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com 

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel, discuss this weekend NATO Summit as the event draws to close today. May 21, 2012 I Scott Stewart~Sun-Times

ARTICLE EXTRAS

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Updated: May 21, 2012 10:23PM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel had the most to lose from the NATO summit — having stuck his neck out to get it and squeezed business leaders to spend $36.5 million to fund it — and he appears to have emerged from Chicago’s dance on the world stage relatively unscathed.

“A lot of people were irritated by all the inconvenience. But in the perspective of time, he will come off looking rather well in comparison to the mayor of Seattle, who lost his re-election bid because of disturbances” tied to the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting, said former independent alderman Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“We were able to host world leaders. It came off well. It heightens Chicago’s image and shows that we have come out from the cloud of 1968. It looks like we’ve grown up past that period of confrontation in our history.”

Despite the ugly image of baton-wielding Chicago Police officers squaring off against the protesters who tried to provoke them, Emanuel’s administration is getting high marks for its preparation and performance during the NATO summit.

Snow plows were used as an imposing blue barrier to keep protesters at bay. Bicycles purchased for the summit and strategically used by police gave new meaning to Emanuel’s vow to make Chicago the nation’s most bike-friendly city.

Police officers well-equipped, well-trained and smartly instructed to turn the other cheek kept arrests and confrontations to a minimum.

And if it weren’t for the “Black Bloc” of anarchists hell-bent on destruction, the city’s painstaking negotiations with at least three major groups of protesters would likely have resulted in precisely what the U.S. Constitution guarantees: the peaceful exercise of First Amendment rights.

“I can’t tell you how pleased we are,” the mayor’s chief-of-staff Theresa Mintle said Monday.

“From the nurses on Friday to the protest [against mental health clinic closures] at the mayor’s house on Saturday to the Iraqi war veterans on Sunday, they were all very respectful. It was those other folks who ruined it for everybody else — literally a handful.”

Her boss went a step further.

Emanuel compared the NATO Summit to the 1893 Columbian Exposition and said it showed “While Chicago has the title of ‘Second City,’ because of the NATO summit, we have shown the world that we are a world-class, first-class city.

“If Seattle in 1999 was a lesson of what not to do, I think Chicago will be a lesson of what to do,” the mayor said. “Our police department did a tremendous job over four days, and they handled themselves with incredible discipline and professionalism.”

Nobody gained more personally from the summit than Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who emerged as somewhat of a rock star.

Dressed in his uniformed white shirt, tie, pants and hat with no helmet or body armor, McCarthy stood on the front lines calling the shots like a football coach calling plays from the sidelines.

If there was any lingering resentment about McCarthy’s New York pedigree, it was washed away by the cool demeanor he showed and apparently learned while doing the same at New York’s Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“It wasn’t just his presence alone at the NATO protests. It was his delegation of authority and his support of the troops standing ten feet in front of him,” said Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields, crediting McCarthy with stepping up NATO training and purchasing more face shields for officers in response to union concerns.

“He did an amazing job in leading a group of Chicago Police officers in serious riot circumstances. Our officers did not engage with protesters going overboard, taunting and ridiculing our officers. They remained professional. I hope the public remembers that professionalism during our contract negotiations and during pension reform talks.”

For many Chicagoans, the most enduring image of the summit will be the half-empty trains and buses they rode to work or the Friday and Monday they stayed home because the companies they work for closed their doors.

That makes it tough to imagine how Chicago can possibly cash in on the $128 million short-term boost to the local economy predicted by a NATO Host Committee consultant.

“If you try to argue the post-mortem strictly on dollars, you’ll probably come up short. When you consider the real cost of shutting down business and closing the city, the cost probably exceeds the immediate direct benefit,” said Donald Haider, the former Chicago budget director and mayoral candidate now serving as a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

But, he said, “I’m not one to jump in and say the whole thing was a disaster. … The benefits of this have to be the intangibles because that was one of the primary purposes: marketing Chicago and opening up Chicago to a prestigious international audience in a way that can lead to tangible long-term benefits: foreign visitation; foreign investment and eliminating a legacy we still have from 1968.”

Marc Gordon, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association, said the gathering of world leaders gave Chicago “exposure it desperately needs” to bolster international tourism.

“I went to the party and there were so many delegates who said, ‘Gee, I never realized how beautiful and wonderful and clean the city is,’” Gordon said.

“Hopefully, that will translate when they go back to their countries, talk about Chicago, and we get future visits. In that sense, it definitely was worth it.”

The city’s costs for overtime, equipment and operations have not yet been tabulated. But, City Hall is sticking to its long-standing claim that the $36.5 million raised from corporate donors and the $19.1 million in federal security grants identified for reimbursement will be enough to keep Chicago taxpayers off the hook — even if summit arrests trigger another round of lawsuits against the city.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said Chicago “stood head and shoulders above” Seattle and Pittsburgh after similar gatherings of world leaders.

“There was obviously a risk hosting this summit, but the risk will pay off in terms of increased stature for the city and increased stature for Rahm Emanuel,” Moore said.

“I was impressed by the fact that Supt. McCarthy was there on the ground watching his officers’ backs — literally. That certainly helped the morale of his troops and made them aware they were being watched and had to behave accordingly — and they did under trying circumstances.”

 For Emanuel, risk hosting summit ‘will pay off’ – Chicago Sun-Times.

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NATO Blog: Hundreds march into the Loop on final summit day – chicagotribune.com

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


NATO Blog: Hundreds march into the Loop on final summit day

 

9:34 p.m. CDT, May 21, 2012

A few hundred protesters rallied at Boeing headquarters today, labeling it a “war machine” as they made paper planes and wrote anti-war messages on them. Around nooon, they started marching into the Loop. It was the main demonstration scheduled for today as world leaders continued to meet. Once again, Chicago police and their out-of-town colleagues posted up on Chicago River bridges to prevent any attempts by protesters to get to River North or the Magnificent Mile.

Streets blocked off as protesters roam 9:34 p.m.

Various streets have been intermittently blocked off this evening downtown, including at times all northbound access to the Michigan Avenue bridge,as police try to contain protesters who remain in the Loop.

The protesters have been running and stopping for about two hours, winding up and down Loop streets, turned away from any attempts to go north of Wacker Drive.  At about 9:30 p.m., the dwindling group of protesters, about 100 remaining, sat in the middle of Michigan and Jackson streets, conducting a human mic general assembly about their next moves.

Police remain on alert this evening beyond the Loop, north of Chicago River.  At Ohio and Michigan streets, police officers asked pedestrians for identification, and told one pedestrian that they are limiting walking and vehicle traffic in the area because of the roaming protesters.

 

 

Becky Schlikerman, Andy Grimm, Dahleen Glanton

Some demonstrators wait for buses home, evaluate protests 8:48 p.m.

At the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, a convergence center for protesters from around the country, the end of NATO meant the need to organize bus rides home for demonstrators.

On Monday evening, protest organizers called out waiting lists for buses to go to Portland, Ore. and Los Angeles, with some scheduled to leave with protesters this evening. A few dozen protesters gathered at the site, some eating volunteer-provided meals.

Laura Copeland, 26, a native Chicagoan who spent the last 12 years as an activist on the west coast, waited for a bus to Los Angeles with a contingent from Occupy Los Angeles.

Copeland said she witnessed first-hand the “Moving Day” clash between protesters and police in Oakland in January.  She said the police reaction to protesters in Chicago was worse because she believed it to be disproportionate to the protesters’ actions.

“The so-called ‘black bloc’ here were children in pajamas” compared to violent protesters Copeland had seen at rallies in other cities, she said. “There were no people with bombs. There was no violence… and the violence and oppression by Chicago police was the worst I’ve ever seen.”

She said Chicago police tactics, from the use of massive numbers of riot officers to corral demonstrators as they tried to march through the city, to using undercover officers to infiltrate protest groups, were particularly effective.

“Chicago police were on the (expletive) ball,” she said. “They were the best chess players I’ve ever seen… I feel bad for the people here who are politically active.”

 

 

Andy Grimm

Few hundred protesters remain in the Loop 8:14 p.m.

As they have previous nights of the NATO summit weekend, some bands of protesters have remained in the Loop, hours after the protest rallies and parades have ended.

With many wearing rags and masks to cover their faces, about 200 protesters left the Congress Plaza rally spot this evening, sometimes sprinting, sometimes marching in between cars and pedestrians, stopping traffic.  They chant a now familiar refrain,  ”Whose streets? Our streets?”  

As they have all weekend, police continue to form bicycle and officer blockades at some street turns in an attempt to stay ahead of  the oft-changing flow of protesters.

 

Becky Schlikerman

With a party-like atmosphere, march ends at Congress Plaza 6:55 p.m.

NATO protesters end up at Grant Park in the early evening, Monday, May 21, 2012. (William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune)

Several hundred protesters have stopped at Congress Plaza, and the protest has once again taken on a party atmosphere.

This may be a curtain-call of sorts, as protest organizers thanked the crowds for supporting the cause and shouted congratulations and appreciation through bull horns and human mic checks. 

Some are suggesting the crowd go to Montrose Beach, where an end of NATO party is apparently being planned.  Organizers are suggesting protesters take the Brown Line to the party, which protesters announced would start in a few hours.

Those from out of town were told to be prepared for buses that would leave at 10 p.m. 

Protesters are still milling about Congress Plaza, dancing to a make-shift band.

Becky Schlikerman, Bill Ruthhart

President Obama leaves Chicago 6:36 p.m.

President Barack Obama steps onto the tarmac at O’Hare International Airport before leaving Chicago following the NATO Summit.  (Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune)

Protesters on the move again on last day 6:16 p.m.

Several hundred protesters are once again marching in the Loop.

Bill Ruthhart

Protests swell again in the Loop 6:13 p.m.

NATO protesters march in the Loop Monday. (William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune)

Hundreds more protesters have joined demonstrators who were already in the Loop, swelling the protest to about a block long. 

The march resembles much of what the city has seen this weekend, with protesters taking over streets, chanting, and police officers lining sidewalks and forming impromptu blockades to keep protesters moving. 

Marchers have headed up and down various Loop streets and by government buildings, including the Immigration Customs Enforcement headquarters building.  There, some shouted, “Escucha! Estamos en la lucha,” which approximately translates to, “Hey! Listen we are in battle!” They also shouted chants suggesting a plan for a detention center inCrete, Il. be shut down.

Police continue to give these marchers some room, and police and protester interaction provides occaional moments of levity.  Spotting a protester walking by with a donut on a string, hung from a stick, an officer shouted, “Give me that donut!” and grabbed half of it with a grin.  He pretended to eat it before throwing it on the sidewalk, to the laughs of protesters.

 

Becky Schlikerman, Bill Ruthhart

Mayor thanks Chicago for a successful summit 5:40 p.m.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, uncharacteristically quiet during the NATO summit, emerged this afternoon to thank Chicago.

“I want to say a special thank you to the people of this great city, to our public safety officers of this great city, and to the business community of this great city,” Emanuel said, also thanking Obama for giving the city the opportunity to play host to the summit.

The Chicago Police Department was singled out for particular praise.

“They did a tremendous job under very stressful situations over the last four days and they make everyone of us proud of the finest police department in this country,” Emanuel said. “They showed their resolve, their self discipline and professionalism. In fact, their discipline and resolve, I commented jokingly to them, I said I thought you’ve taken my recommendations and suggestions of yoga a little too seriously, given you found a new zen.”

Emanuel also reflected on the historic nature of hosting the summit.

“I think hosting the largest NATO summit in (its) 63-year history, we have reached another milestone in Chicago’s history. As the Columbian Exposition in 1893 showed the world that Chicago was a city on the move at the end of the 19th Century, the NATO summit showed Chicago is once again a city on the move at the start of the 21st Century. By hosting the NATO summit, we have reinforced, reaffirmed and revitalized Chicago’s role on the world stage.”

Emanuel said discussions with the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands as well as the German foreign minister could lead to more business opportunities for Chicago.

Conversations included making O’Hare International Airport the North American hub for the flower trade, which he said the Dutch have 75 percent control over, and having more German firms make Chicago home for North American operations.

Emanuel restated that he “never believed” any businesses should have closed or been shuttered over NATO. While he said he was “sorry for any inconvenience,” he believed Chicago would still benefit economically in the immediate and long-term.

Rick Pearson

Protesters on move again 5:15 p.m.

After a virtual sit-in outside President Obama’s campaign headquarters  for a few hours, several hundred NATO protesters are on the move again in the Loop.  

They are chanting and shouting, and police are holding up traffic for them as they march. 

 

Lolly Bowean, Matthew Walberg, Bill Ruthhart

Protest ending with speeches, games 3:26 p.m.

Protesters, mostly from the Occupy movement, took to the streets and sat down in the middle of the northbound lanes of South Michigan Avenue after spending the morning protesting in front of Boeing Corp on the final day of the NATO summit. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

Anti-NATO demonstrators who targeted the Boeing Co. earlier today are dwindling in number in the Loop, calling an end to their peaceful rally outside President Barack Obama’s re-election headquarters.

The crowd of a few hundred appeared outnumbered by a strong, uniformed police presence that monitored their every step from Union Park into downtown Chicago and finally onto their last stop at the Prudential Building on Randolph Street. Obama was not at his headquarters at the time, instead hosting world leaders who formally agreed to turn over the role of security to Afghanistan itself  next summer.

Protest organizer Micah Philbrook, of Occupy Chicago, called Monday’s five-hour rally and march a success. “We spoke out against corporate criminals,” he said. “The masses of people got to approach Chase Bank, formed a blockade at Boeing and shouted out MayorRahm Emanuel. We made our voices heard.”

The rally outside Obama’s headquarters took on an air of playfulness and was missing the tense air and police-protester confrontations in earlier marches Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

Protestors played hopscotch on Randolph Street—a game that had a political message where players start at “police state” and end at “Liberation.”

Organizers of the protest said it was officially over after speeches about 2:30 p.m., but about half the protesters remained, mingling, occasionally chanting, and relaxing.

Lolly Bowean, Bill Ruthhart, Matthew Walberg

 NATO Blog: Hundreds march into the Loop on final summit day – chicagotribune.com.

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White House sees Afghan-Pakistan talk as chief NATO Summit victory – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


White House sees Afghan-Pakistan talk as chief NATO Summit victory

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH  AND LYNN SWEET Staff Reporters May 21, 2012 7:00

 Story Image

President Barack Obama speaks with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, center, and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan at the McCormick Place Convention Center during the NATO Summit in Chicago, Illinois, May 21,2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Updated: May 21, 2012 9:15PM

 


Here is the image the White House sought to convey from the just-concluded NATO Summit in Chicago: President Barack Obama talking with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Ali Zardari.

Even though Afghan forces are only prepared now to start taking charge of 75 percent of the country. And even though Zardari is not fully ready to open the supply lines into Afghanistan as Obama and Karzai would like, the photo of the hastily-arranged chat released by the White House Monday shows they are talking.

Among the many declarations adopted by the 28 NATO member countries and their partners meeting in Chicago Monday was a commitment to remove combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014 but leave support staff there to aid development.

Obama started his final day at the summit Monday seated at a massive round table at Chicago’s McCormick Place with other world leaders, welcoming Karzai and the leaders of neighbor countries deemed vital to Afghanistan’s success.

“I want to welcome the presence of President Karzai, as well as officials from central Asia and Russia — nations that have an important perspective and that continue to provide critical transit for … supplies,” Obama said.

Obama met for an hour Sunday with Karzai. Karzai has fully signed on to NATO pulling its combat troops out by 2014 for better or worse. Ten years is long enough, Obama emphasized in a news conference Monday.

“We’ve been there 10 years,” Obama said. “No matter how much good we’re doing and how outstanding our troops and our civilians and diplomats are doing on the ground, 10 years, in a country that’s very different, that’s a strain, not only on our folks but also on that country, which at a point is going to be very sensitive about its own sovereignty.”

Pakistan could help that transition and Obama and other NATO leaders have been frustrated with the ostensible U.S. ally’s reluctance to confront Taliban and al-Qaida elements on its soil.

“My discussion with President Zardari was very brief as we were walking into the summit,” Obama said. “I emphasized to him what we’ve emphasized publicly as well as privately: We think Pakistan has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan. It is in our national interest to see a Pakistan that is Democratic, that is prosperous and that is stable; That we share a common enemy in the extremists that are found not only in Afghanistan but also within Pakistan.”

Obama, who toured Pakistan as a college student and pronounces it correctly as “PAHK’-i-stahn,” is the president who ordered a raid into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden without telling Pakistani leaders. He emphasized that progress is being made.

“We need to work through some of the tensions that have inevitably risen after 10 years of our military presence in that region,” Obama said. President Zardari shared with me his belief that these issues can get worked through We didn’t anticipate that the supply-line issue was going to be resolved by this summit. We knew that before we arrived in Chicago. But we’re actually making diligent progress on it.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta echoed that sentiment at the North Chicago VA Hospital Monday: “You know, we still have a ways to go, but I think the good news is that we are negotiating and that we are making some progress.”

Obama’s Republican rival for president Mitt Romney criticized him in a letter to the Chicago Tribune Sunday for inadequate leadership of NATO because Obama has not leaned hard enough on other NATO countries to pay their fair share — leaving the U.S. to fund 75 percent of NATO operations.

The Chicago Summit was not intended to lock in funds for post-2014 Afghanistan; still, NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen said progress was made in Chicago towards the goal of NATO partners chipping in towards the estimated $4 billion — with the U.S. to pay most of the tab.

 White House sees Afghan-Pakistan talk as chief NATO Summit victory – Chicago Sun-Times.

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