By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 18 2025 – When the high-level meeting of the General Assembly takes place, September 22-30—with over 150 world political leaders in town–the UN will be in a locked down mode with extra tight security.
With a rash of threats and political killings in the US—including an attempted assassination of Donald Trump when he was campaigning for the US presidency in July 2024– the list continues.
Against the backdrop of the killing of a conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week, plus the fire-bombing in early 2025, of the residence of Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, and the killings of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband– the UN is predictably taking extra precautionary measures.
Asked at a press conference September 15 about security in the wake of recent events in the United States, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters: “The security within the UN complex during the General Assembly sessions is as tight, as it can be”.
“We are obviously in close contact with the host country authorities, the US Secret Service, the State Department, and, of course, the NYPD (New York Police Department). They will take the measures they need to take outside”.
Traditionally, diplomats and delegates, do not undergo security checks or walk through metal detectors inside the UN building.
Asked whether there will be new restrictions this year, Dujarric said: “I don’t know”.
The limits on the movements of accredited journalists during the high-level meetings were spelled out September 17 by the UN’s Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit (MALU). The link follows:
https://www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/unga.shtml
Accredited media representatives, including official photographers and videographers, must be escorted by Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit staff at all times in the restricted areas, including the Conference Building and General Assembly Building.
Media pass holders are NOT permitted on the second floor of the Conference Building or General Assembly Building.
But going down memory lane, there were several lapses in security in a bygone era, resulting in a bazooka terrorist attack against the Secretariat building back in 1964—and the only such attack in the history of the UN.
But last year, the UN security, conscious on the high-tech weapons now deployed in military conflicts, had a sign outside the building declaring the UN a “NO DRONE ZONE.”
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Minister of Industries of Cuba, addresses the General Assembly on Dec. 11, 1964. Credit: UN Photo/TC
The streets next week – as in previous years — will be littered with scores of police officers, US Secret Service personnel, UN security officers, the New York Police Department (NYPD), bomb-sniffing dogs, road closures — and a stand-by ambulance in the UN campus ready to cope with any medical emergencies.
In previous years, the Secret Service also had an official chaplain ready to perform last rites in case of any political assassinations in the UN premises.
Meanwhile, hundreds of UN staffers and journalists are double and triple-checked for their photo IDs, reminiscent of security at the Pentagon and the CIA headquarters (where a visitor ID is geared to automatically change colour, if you overstay your visit).
Still, back in 1964, perhaps with relatively less security, the UN building came under a terrorist attack — perhaps for the first time in the history of the world body — from a mis-guided rocket launcher.
When the politically-charismatic Ernesto Che Guevara, once second-in-command to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was at the United Nations to address the General Assembly sessions in 1964, the U.N. headquarters came under fire – literally.
The speech by the Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary was momentarily drowned by the sound of an explosion.
The anti-Castro forces in the United States, backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had mounted an insidious campaign to stop Che Guevara from speaking.
A 3.5-inch bazooka was fired at the 39-storeyed Secretariat building by the East River while a boisterous anti-Castro, anti-Che Guevara demonstration was taking place outside the UN building.
According to Wikipedia, the bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher, widely deployed by the US army, especially during World War II.
But the rocket launcher – which was apparently not as sophisticated as today’s shoulder-fired missiles and rocket-propelled grenades – missed its target, rattled windows, and fell into the river about 200 yards from the building.
One newspaper report described the attack as “one of the wildest episodes since the United Nations moved into its East River headquarters in 1952.”
As longtime U.N. staffers would recall, the failed bombing of the U.N. building took place when Che Guevara launched a blistering attack on U.S. foreign policy and denounced a proposed de-nuclearization pact for the Western hemisphere.
After his Assembly speech, Che Guevara was asked about the attack aimed at him. “The explosion has given the whole thing more flavor,” he joked, as he chomped on his Cuban cigar, during a press conference.
When he was told by a reporter that the New York City police had nabbed a woman, described as an anti-Castro Cuban exile, who had pulled out a hunting knife and jumped over the UN wall, intending to kill him, Che Guevara said: “It is better to be killed by a woman with a knife than by a man with a gun.”
A security officer once recalled an incident where the prime minister from an African country, addressing the General Assembly, was heckled by a group of African students.
As is usual with hecklers, the boisterous group was taken off the visitor’s gallery, grilled, photographer and banned from entering the UN premises.
But about five years later, one of the hecklers returned to the UN —this time, as foreign minister of his country, and addressed the world body.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister ACS Hameed had one of his memorable moments when Krishna Vaikunthavasan, a London-based lawyer, campaigning for a separate Tamil state, surreptitiously gate-crashed into the UN and tried to upstage Hameed by walking onto the podium of the General Assembly hall and momentarily took the speaker’s slot—at a time when security was lax.
The incident, perhaps a rarity in the history of the UN, saw the intruder unleashing a diatribe against a member state accusing it of genocide and lambasting the government for committing war crimes against the Tamils fighting for a separate state in northern Sri Lanka.
When the president of the Assembly realized he had an interloper on his hands, he cut off the mike and summoned security guards who bodily ejected him from the hall and banned him from the UN premises. And as Hameed walked up to the podium, there was pin drop silence in the Assembly Hall.
As a member of the Sri Lanka delegation at that time, I was seated behind Hameed. But the unflappable Hameed, unprompted by any of his delegates, produced a riveting punchline: “Mr President”, he said “I want to thank the previous speaker for keeping his speech short,” he said, as the Assembly, known to suffer longwinded speeches, broke into peals of laughter.
The intruder was in effect upstaged by the Foreign Minister.
This article includes excerpts from a book on the United Nations titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote Me on That” authored by Thalif Deen and available on Amazon. The link to Amazon via the author’s website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/
IPS UN Bureau Report
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