(Newswire.net — January 12, 2015) — Paris, France – Amongst the highest officials from many of the world’s countries, the heads of Great Britain, Germany and Israel joined French president François Hollande and 3.7 million people, hand in hand, in the most grandiose rally Paris has ever seen. Even Turkey and Russia sent their highest officials, but President Barack Obama didn’t attend a unity march in Paris on Sunday, nor did his secretary of state, John Kerry. Instead, the United States was represented by the US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley, CNN reported.
While some media speculates that the highest US officials didn’t show up because of the security reasons, a White House official who also asked not to be named, told CNN, “It is worth noting that the security requirements for both the President and (Vice President) can be distracting from events like this – for once this event is not about us!” The official did not address how other prominent world leaders were able to work around the security requirements, reported CNN.
A French police source, however, told CNN terror analyst Samuel Laurent who attended a briefing Saturday that they were ordered to erase their Social network accounts and to carry a weapon at all times, as their families could become targets of the just activated terrorists sleeping cells in France.
The walk was characterized as high risk for participants because it was virtually impossible to cover all possible dangerous aspects of such a large-scale rally. Paris, however, proved Sunday that it is still a safe place to be, despite the warnings of US intelligence.
Speaking on air with CNN’s Jake Tapper, who was at the rally, “Global Public Square” host Fareed Zakaria called the absence of top officials a mistake.
“France is the United States deepest ideological ally,” said ‘Global Public Square ‘ host Fareed Zakaria to CNN, calling the absence of top officials a mistake.
Speaking on air with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Zakaria said that the US missed a chance to send a strong message with the US President standing shoulder to shoulder with other NATO Allys.
“Many people have thought that Islamic terrorism wouldn’t exist without America,” Zakaria said. “This is really a struggle between the civilized world and a band of extremists. Even if you take the US out of it … the civilized world is up in arms,” Zacaria concluded.