President Barack Obama, his staff and the US State Department will no longer be staying at the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel during the annual UN General Assembly, it was confirmed today.
The reason? Blame the insurance company that now owns the historic New York institute.
According to an Associated Press report, the US government has taken issue with Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group, which bought the Waldorf-Astoria from Hilton Worldwide last year in a $1.95 billion sale. Terms of the agreement allow Hilton to run the hotel for the next 100 years, but also stipulate a “major renovation” that federal officials believe could be linked to Chinese espionage.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner was demure about the changes, which will now see the US group working and staying at the New York Palace Hotel, saying the decision was to “take into account changing circumstances” that include “possible security concerns.”
Another source told the AP in July, however, that government security personnel are highly concerned about eavesdropping – particularly in the wake of a June data breach of the Office of Personnel Management that is believed to be tied to China.
“[The Chinese hack] makes it very hard for any of those people [who were hacked] to function as an intelligence officer,” Joel Brenner, a former US counterintelligence official told the news service. “The database also tells the Chinese an enormous amount of information about almost everyone with a security clearance. That’s a gold mine. It helps you approach and recruit spies.”
The news that the government and the Obama administration could be snubbing the Waldorf-Astoria was first reported in June, though official announcements came late Friday with the signing of the final contract with the Palace.
Previously, the State Department had spent decades working and staying at the Waldorf-Astoria during the UN General Assembly. The hotel occupies a full city block in midtown Manhattan and has been operating for more than a century.
