US: mistake not sending senior official to Paris
January 13, 2015
Facing a torrent of criticism, the Obama administration admitted Monday it was a mistake not to send the president or a senior official to participate in Sunday's anti-terror march in Paris.
"It's fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who added that security considerations and short preparation time prevented US President Barack Obama from making the trip.
"The security requirements around a presidential level visitor or even a vice president level visitor are onerous and significant," Earnest said.
About 1.5 million people and a host of world leaders rallied in the French capital Sunday to memorialize the 17 people killed in Islamist attacks at the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and at a kosher grocery.
Only the US ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, represented the United States at the event. Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris to attend security meetings at the time, but did not attend the march.
The US absence was particularly glaring given its leading role in the global war against terrorism and as victim of the worst terror attack in history on September 11, 2001.
"Where was the president? Where was the vice president? Where was the secretary of state? Where was the attorney general, who had been there moments before, but chose to get on a plane and fly back home?" said Republican senator and frequent Obama critic Ted Cruz.
Criticism of the administration came from media circles as well.
"As an American: I was ashamed," wrote CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
"You let the world down," echoed the New York Daily News in a front page headline.
"Where was Obama," asked German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Earnest said that while the White House took the blame, President Obama was not personally involved in the decision not to travel to the march.
Meanwhile, French ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud met with Obama's top counterterrorism advisor on Monday and thanked the US "for unwavering US support to France in the aftermath of the attacks."
"As far as the reactions of the U.S. authorities are concerned, we have been overwhelmed and very moved by them since the beginning of the crisis," the French Embassy in Washington said.
bw/kms (AP, Reuters, AFP)