Perhaps in anticipation of another rousing speech before the U.N., the city is taking increased security precautions for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the Iranian president’s visit to New York this week. “I’ve seen guys with machine guns outside [before], but not machine guns with grenade launchers on the ends of them,” says a worker at the Hilton Manhattan East. Ahmadinejad’s windowpanes were swapped for bulletproof glass, he was placed on a lower floor so that the FDNY could rescue him by ladder, and he’ll be guarded by about 30 NYPD cops (on twelve-hour shifts) as well as a Secret Service detail. As the Post points out, his hotel on East 42nd Street is less than a block from the Israeli consulate. But Holocaust-denialism and anti-Semitic slurs were so 2009. We bet he’ll be picking a new target during his speech to the General Assembly. After all, he has diversified his ire before.
