October 9, 2009 3:55 PM

Is Obama Snubbing a Fellow Nobel Laureate?

By
Walt Cronkite
Topics
Washington Unplugged


President Obama said Friday that he does not feel he deserves "to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored" with the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet when one of the peace prizes' most recognizable laureates, the Dalai Lama, came to Washington, DC this week, the president decided not to meet with him.

In the Rose Garden this morning, the president spoke of his fellow laureates as "men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace." One such figure is the Dalai Lama, who won the prize in 1989, shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre. But the president passed on the chance to sit down with him this week, in a move skeptics say was made to save face with the Chinese.

In fact, the president didn't just become a Nobel laureate this week. He also became the first U.S. leader since 1991 not to meet in person with the Dalai Lama when he visited Washington DC.

On "Washington Unplugged" Friday, actor Richard Gere, who has long backed freedom for Tibet, said he thinks the White House decision may have set back his cause. He told CBS News' Michelle Levi that "I think it threw us a bit because he is the first president in 20 years who has not met his holiness soon in office although I can see the strategy of that of creating a relationship with the Chinese with Huijin Tao specifically."

U.S. Representative Peter King also criticized the president for the decision. He told Levi that by snubbing the Dalai Lama, Mr. Obama "is sending a signal of appeasement and weakness."

Add a Comment
by AngelJustice October 12, 2009 12:19 AM EDT
Kudos to President Obama for turning the chance to meet with this crackpot who does business as the Dalai Lama. Instead, some in Congress foolishly gave an award to the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama says: this award will cause him "to dedicate the rest of his life to the "promotion of human affection and compassion, and equality and basic human rights in Tibet, or in mainland China, or everywhere."

Wow! That would sound good coming from anyone, especially the Dalai Lama. Considering the Dalai Lama has done the complete opposite for so many years. Yeah, we know he likes to talk the good game, but his past shows that he has promoted the worst in people. For example, how does placing as a top advisor in his (Dalai Lama's) government in exile, a former Nazi SS officer (Dr. Bruno Beger) convicted of committing hideous medical experiments and mass murder at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland qualify as promoting compassion? Or how about placing another Nazi thug (from Hitler's Storm Troopers and Body Guard (Heinrich Harrer) and personal friend of Adolph Hitler) as a top in his (Dalai Lama) government?

The Dalai Lama seems to only show compassion for terrorists (such as Shoko Asahara (the Tokyo Subway killer) who pay him large sums of money, Nazi killers and Gestapo informants, and mass murdering dictators like Augusto Pinochet. How is this promoting human rights? other than the right to die? Also, who is this Dalai Lama anyway and why would anyone care what he has to say? This bozo was appointed by sadistic slave holders (The Lama class of Tibet) as a head of state. No votes, no democracy, only theocracy at its worst. Who is this guy to anything about human rights when he has so flagrantly promoted the worst abusers of human rights? Oh yeah, he is the Dalai Lama...more like the Dalai Liar than anything else.

If some of the accusations here are difficult to believe then just google: Dalai Lama, Hitler, Nazi. Instead you can go to the website:
http://www.angelofjustice.org
Reply to this comment
by gramto8 October 9, 2009 4:53 PM EDT
Of course the Republicans will find fault with our President not meeting with the Dalai Lama. But then if he HAD met with him, they would have found fault with that. There is nothing President Obama can do that will keep the Repubs from complaining.
Reply to this comment
by ToolMangler1 October 9, 2009 5:57 PM EDT
Amen to that...
.

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