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Prism

Obama Accepts Nobel Peace Prize, But Rest Of The World Debates If He Deserves It Or Not

Aired December 10, 2009 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

STAN GRANT, CNN INT'L. ANCHOR, PRISM (voice over): U.S. President Barack Obama in Norway defending his duties as a war-time president, he accepts the Nobel peace prize. In tonight's "Prism Segment" he won, but does the U.S. president deserve.

Five young men, thought to be Americans, under arrest in Pakistan. Pakistan thinks they may have been looking to link up with militants.

And the fall out from the Dubai debt crisis continues as a mega- merger sinks into the sand.

From CNN Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates, this is PRISM, where we take a story and look at it from multiple perspectives. I'm Stan Grant.

We begin with the president of a nation at war, honored with the highest award for peace. Barack Obama has collected his Nobel prize in Oslo, Norway. His acceptance speech focused on the pains of war and was met with a standing ovation. But it is not over. A parade and royal banquet are still ahead. Our Dan Lothian is following it all, right there in Oslo.

And, Dan, a humbling experience? The president has talked about people being more worthy. I really goes to the big question, how deserving is he?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that is a question that has been asked long before the president came here to Norway. And he did not shy away from the criticism. Right off the top, his speech addressing the issue as to whether or not the president really was deserving of this award; the president saying that he really saw this criticism because there are a lot of great people who have done great things. He pointed out Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela. He said his experience or what he has done so far is slight compared to what they have done. He pointed out that there are others who have given their lives in order to seek justice.

But what the president said is that what this award points to is aspirations. And you know, the committee also pointed out that this was a president who is aspiring to change the global feeling about nuclear proliferation. And the president has taken that step already, early in his administration, but they believe that he is already on the right road.

As for the criticism that, how can the president be accepting an award for peace while at the same time involved in two conflicts, one in Iraq, and one in Afghanistan. The president had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the commander in chief of a military, of a nation, in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek. One in which we are joined by 42 other countries, including Norway, in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: The president when on to say that sometimes force is necessary and morally justified. And in particular, he said that this the reason you need to go to war is because there is this threat of terrorism against the United States. So the president, really the bulk of his speech, really focusing on this.

Now, it is a very short visit on the ground here, for just about 26 hours. In fact, there is a bit of controversy in that. Some of the locals saying he did not spend enough time here, carry out some of the traditional things that recipients of this award typically do.

But the president did have a full schedule. He had a bilateral meeting with the prime minister, also met with the king and queen. And as you pointed out earlier he will be watching the parade tonight and attending the official dinner, Stan.

GRANT: Dan, thank you very much for that. Dan Lothian, joining us there from Oslo.

Well, then our "Prism Segment" this evening, does Barack Obama deserve the Nobel peace prize. Now former Cuban President Fidel Castro doesn't think so. The 83-year-old issued his comments in a column this week, in which he called Mr. Obama's acceptance of the prize, a cynical act. Quoting now, "Why did Obama accept the Nobel peace prize when had already decided to take the war in Afghanistan to its ultimate limit?"

Castro said the Obama announcement to send more troops to Afghanistan gave him the impression of listening to George W. Bush.

Well, if you ask Americans they think that Barack Obama's Nobel peace prize is premature. On the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, most of those surveyed don't believe he has accomplished enough to deserve the award. But they say it is likely that he will eventually accomplish enough to merit it. When asked, has Obama accomplished enough to deserve the Nobel peace prize, 19 percent responded, yes; 35 percent responded, no, but he eventually will. And 43 percent responded, he will never deserve the prize.

When asked should Obama go to the award ceremony? 70 percent responded, yes; 27 percent responded, no.

The negative comments did not go unnoticed in Oslo. The chairman of the Nobel committee addressed whether President Obama deserved the prize, as did former U.S. vice president and former Nobel prize winner, Al Gore, earlier on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THORBJORN JAGLAND, CHAIRMAN, NORWEGIAN NOBEL CMTE. Many have argued that the prize comes too early. But history can tell us a great deal about lost opportunities. It is now, today, we have the opportunity to support President Obama's ideals. This year's prize is indeed a call to action for all of us.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: There are some critics who say, show us what he has done to deserve it. What is your take on that?

AL GORE, FMR. VICW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think he is eminently deserving of the prize. I think in a short period of time he has brought about a dramatic transformation in the ability of the United States to once again provide moral leadership in the world. He has addressed the long-standing conflicts between the United States and some parts of the world that kind of closed their minds to us.

He has been very pro-active in trying to bring about the stop of -the spreading of nuclear weapons. He has addressed these areas of conflict around the world. So, I thought it was a well-deserved recognition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT: Al Gore, a former Nobel prize winner, himself.

Now there is quite a buzz about Mr. Obama's Nobel prize on the Internet. We want to take you now with Errol Barnett who is live from CNN Center in Atlanta.

What is the discussion all about, Errol?

ERROL BARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stan, most people are acknowledging the wars as a reason that U.S. President Barack Obama should not have received this peace prize. Other individuals saying that perhaps race played a role in why this award was given to him. A lot of that is being said on line. Let me show you what we have been seeing. I've been interacting with a Twitters, Obama, Nobel peace prize, they are all top trending topics.

I've been asking people, what are the reasons? Why if you think he does deserve it, or if it is too soon. Take a look at these comments.

Dan is in Brazil and he says "It is absolutely ridiculous. (AUDIO GAP) That's wrong.

MuranMark (ph), here in China, he says, "It is too soon. It spits in the face of past winners, like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu."

Below him you see at Tweet from Dennis in Germany, saying, "Take the troops our of Iraq and Afghanistan. Close Guantanamo, and then perhaps he can get the Nobel peace prize."

On the flipside, you see a Tweet there from KenRock (ph) saying, "Look, if the committee thinks he deserves it, who are we to question this. We should be proud." This individual, perhaps, from the United States. "And they picked our president."

And another American, here, Mr.Charles1 (ph), says, "Look, with all the attacks on the man, I think he deserves it now more than ever."

On Facebook I interacted with some of our viewers there. David Gillespie (ph) from the United States. He actually says, "Look, he hasn't necessarily done anything to deserve it, but the fact that he is the first African-American president, gives enough reason to get it." And I've seen this on other sites as well. The symbolism of what it means to the world.

Simone Romberon (ph) disagrees, saying, "Just because you are of a specific race and the first to set a bar doesn't entail a Nobel peace prize."

Comments here form Lyla (ph) in Kenya, telling us, "The fact that the president is able to inspire so many all over the world is an accomplishment in of itself."

And an American, MaxGarcia (ph) saying, "I don't understand why President Obama wouldn't deserve it. He only has good intentions."

So, a lot of strong reaction; it is not all consistent or on the same lines, Stan.

GRANT: I understand there is a bit of i-Report reaction from students at the international school?

BARNETT: Yes, this is an international school, in Costa Rica, one i- Reporter, who is actually from Norway, decided to take the camera, turn it on his fellow students. I have his picture here. His name is Martin Fowler (ph) and he turned the camera on his fellow students to get a bit of reaction. Let's take a listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's clever, in that it has pressured the head of state from one of the most powerful countries in the world into actually being a force for peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is not good because, like he is just being the president and it is all this expectations and talking is all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope that the prize will help him realize that he has to do a pretty big effort into building peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe the Nobel peace prize should be meant for people who have done substantial change, or substantial efforts toward something. Which Barack has not yet done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: So, you can see it there, in an ironic way, this award this puts public, very real, pressure on the president to earn a peace prize. But it is a debate that is sure to continue as people around the world disagree as to the true merit of this award, Stan.

GRANT: Errol, thank you very much for that. Errol Barnett giving us a snapshot of what people are thinking about this award. Some different views on the Nobel committee's choice for this year's peace prize.

That is our "Prism Segment". Be sure to join Jonathan Mann, for a CNN special "Prize for Peace" at the top of the hour. He'll be live from Oslo with interviews, insight and analysis of this year's peace prize award.

Now U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says American troops are likely to remain in Afghanistan long after the planned transfer of security to the Afghanistan government. Gates arrived in Iraq after a two-day visit to Kabul. U.S. troops are scheduled to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in July 2011. But Gates says a large number of U.S. forces will remain in the country after that date. He is meeting today with Iraqi officials in Baghdad, where he is expected to offer condolences after Tuesday's terrorist bombings that left nearly 130 people dead.

Well, U.S. President Barack Obama says he expects a series of investigations into the arrests of at least five American citizens in Pakistan. The men were arrested in Sargota (ph), about 200 south of Islamabad. Pakistani authorities say they are the five men who reported missing in the U.S. state of Virginia. Arwa Damon joins us live from Islamabad with the story.

And how much are we learning about identities of the men and what they may have been suspected of doing in Pakistan?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stan, we actually just got back from the city of Sargota (ph), where the raid took place, where the men are currently being held. And none of whom, have been officially charged. They are being interrogated by Pakistani officials. And according to the Pakistanis by the FBI as well.

They say that they have six men in custody. Five of them young men. Two Pakistanis, one Egyptian, on Ethiopian, one Aritrain (ph) and then they also have detained the father of one of these Pakistani men. All of these men are dual nationals, believe to have come to Pakistan to carry out some sort of a terrorists attack.

The police are saying that they have managed to trace back these men's steps to August, when they first made contact a Pakistani militant group, over e-mail, online. And then they made the trip to Pakistan, communicating with this group through an e-mail address where, the police are saying, they managed to read a draft of one of the e-mails that was literally giving these five men these marching orders. Police saying that if they had been 15-20 minutes late the men could have already been gone.

They also say that they found maps that contained locations that had been highlighted of certain terror hideouts. The police are saying that they believe they thwarted a major terrorist attack. One that is especially concerning, because these men carry U.S. passports and therefore have access to a number of locations that ordinary Pakistanis don't have access to, Stan.

GRANT: Yes, Arwa, how much more can you tell us about what is going to happened to the men from here? And you mentioned this group they may have been in touch with. Any mention of the name of that particular militant group?

DAMON: Stan, I asked that very same question to the head of police and he was basically explaining that you can't really point the finger at one militant group here in Pakistan, because they have all morphed and merged together. He was basically saying that it could be any one group, or any number of groups that these young men were in touch with.

It is very difficult to try to figure out exactly how this all came together. The men are from middle-class families. They were receiving Western educations, they were university students. We actually spoke with the mother of one of these young men, who is in Pakistan, herself.

And this is where the story gets even more convoluted. Is that she came to Pakistan to find a wife for her son. When she said she realized her son had gone missing in the United States, along with his friends, that is when all the families actually alerted the authorities, believing that the young men had been kidnapped. And then they all showed up in Pakistan.

She is very much asserting that they are innocent. Quite simply young men who came over here because one of their friends was planning on getting married. She says that he was surprising her by not informing her of his visit to Pakistan.

The police at this stage are being very careful about not disclosing too much information, because they do say that they have a number of leads that they want to follow up on, Stan.

GRANT: Arwa, thank you very much for that. Arwa Damon joining us live there from Islamabad, Pakistan.

A mega merger is called off in the UAE, "MARKETPLACE MIDDLE EAST" John Defterios has more on this latest wrinkle in Dubai's economic downturn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRANT: Welcome back.

One of the largest property holding companies in the Middle East has backed out of a planned merger. Emaar Properties was considering linking up with the deep-in-debt property arm of government-owned Dubai Holdings. So, what went wrong? I posed that question to John Defterios.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN INT'L. ANCHOR, "MARKETPLACE MIDDLE EAST": Stan, this is something that has been in the works now for the better part of five months. And the concept was that Emaar, a publicly traded company, and the largest developer within the region, would be able to apply some management expertise to consolidate the holdings of Sama, Dubai Properties and Tatwere (ph), which has very large projects, combined under that one umbrella of Dubai Holding's Properties.

So the idea was that you have the Dubai groups come together, consolidate, make a true evaluation of what has happened over the last year, with a near 50 drop in the property market. And then move forward from there. I did speak to some people involved with Emaar and they said that they were lacking the information in which to move forward. And this made it very challenging. And I think they have the idea of getting it done before the end of the calendar year, because they are going to launch the Burj Dubai, as you know, on January 4; the tallest skyscraper in the world. And they wanted to have this behind them.

So, you kind of got the sense this was going to happen because every time you did ask about it, in fact, they had an interview with Mohammed Alabar (ph) the better part of about two months ago. He did not want to talk about it right then, because they were in negotiations and they were waiting for additional information. So, primarily a clogging of information between the Dubai property groups, which is quite surprising considering that the government of Dubai has a 32 percent stake in Emaar.

GRANT: John, let's just clarify this. Is it just a lack of information, or was there a feeling that this wasn't viable?

DEFTERIOS: Well, I think it is more the latter, Stan, to be candid. If you are a publicly traded company and you are going to take on that sort of obligation it would have created a group of $52 billions worth of assets probably priced at last year's property market prices, but along with that, nearly $4 billion in debt. So, I think, Emaar and probably the other companies were saying, do we really want to lump that debt together and try to contend with it, as a publicly traded company? And the answer was no.

And I think it rounds off - it is fair to say it is like a Triple Crown week of bad information. You finish off with this, you had the downgrades by Moody's and others on the six Dubai companies, and then it was started by Dubai World who said we don't need just six months to restructure, but we need much more time going forward in order to clean up the assets, for 2010.

GRANT: OK, John, well all this really comes under the heading of clarity. People are looking for greater transparency, more information. You are in Kuwait. What are people saying there, about what's happening in Dubai?

DEFTERIOS: In fact, I was at this Airflot (ph) Foundation meeting, were it brought together business leaders, and government leaders, and leaders of non-governmental organizations. And they were basically trying to support Dubai, trying to say let's get through the restructuring. But, they too, and it was very senior business leaders here, by the way.

I sat down with one of them today for some tea, to talk through this. And they thought that the information that was coming out was lacking complete clarity. They did not feel comfortable where we were going next. They didn't know whether this was going to be limited to a $26 billion restructuring for Dubai World, or more. They were unclear if this property merger was going to go through. And then they got that information. And they were hoping that the cap on the Dubai debt is $80 billion.

But I think it is also important to say, Stan, that the wider Gulf, and the wider Middle East, are still projected to grow in 2010.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRANT: John Defterios there, and you can see CNN MARKETPLACE MIDDLE EAST" with John. It airs every weekend, including Friday night, at 23:45 in Abu Dhabi, right here on CNN.

Up next we'll take a look at your global weather picture, plus massive snow storms sweep the American Midwest. We show you how some U.S. students are coping.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRANT: This wasn't a snowball fight, it was more a snowball war. Thousands of students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, made the most of a snow day. Classes had been cancelled and students took part in a very large snowball fight. As you can see. 5,200 people signed up on Facebook. Don't know if they all took part. There is quite a few of them there, though.

We'll take a look now at the global weather picture. Mari Ramos at the CNN World Weather Center.

What else do you do on your day off, Mari, with snow?

MARI RAMOS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right.

You have to remember that was in Wisconsin, in the northern portion of the U.S. They are used to the snow, Stan. But they did close down the school and it is the first time they closed the down that university in 19 years, because of snow. So that is a big deal and they did get record snowfall, about 47 centimeters of snow, to be precise, with this latest storm.

And you know what, it is really cold, too. And that was one of the concerns that they had because it is still a concern across some of these areas. When you are talking about these sub-freezing temperatures, minus 15, minus 20, below zero, that is the actual air temperature, when you put the wind, minus 16 in Chicago, it feels like minus 26. That is a big concern.

Denver, downright balmy now, compared to yesterday, 20 degrees warmer right now. Still colder in Dallas than it is in New York, 4 degrees in New York, 5 in Atlanta. We are starting to get a little bit of that chilly weather.

But we had record highs in Florida yesterday. That is where we should be. Anyway.

The dangerously cold weather continues to move across this area here. And still some lingering snowfall, moving across the Great Lakes Region, the so-called lake effect snow. Also some scattered snow showers still across the Northeast. The main concern, still, the wind, and that will still give you some travel delays across those areas.

If you traveling States-side in the next day or so, for the weekend, you know what? It is going to be very wintery across much of the country, except maybe Florida or California. So, pack accordingly.

As we take a look over here, across Europe, we are getting a little bit of a break here, from the northern parts of the U.K. down through France. Maybe some scattered rain showers, still, and a little bit dark as we head across Germany with an area of low pressure just here to the north.

But it is this one down here, Stan, the one that is going to be causing the problems. Even across portions of the Eastern Med, and eventually into the weekend, in the Middle East, maybe some rain showers. Back to you.

GRANT: Mari, thank you very much for that.

And that's it for me in Abu Dhabi. "GOING GREEN" is up next, just after we update the headlines.

END