Cablegate: Media Reaction Report - President Bush to Asia

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 007752

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR INR/R/MR; IIP/RW; IIP/RNY; BBG/VOA; IIP/WEU; AF/PA;
EUR/WE /P/SP; D/C (MCCOO); EUR/PA; INR/P; INR/EUC; PM; OSC ISA
FOR ILN; NEA; WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE; DOC FOR ITA/EUR/FR
AND PASS USTR/PA; USINCEUR FOR PAO; NATO/PA; MOSCOW/PA;
ROME/PA; USVIENNA FOR USDEL OSCE.

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR FR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - President Bush to Asia
Secretary Rice to Middle East World Summit on the Information

SIPDIS
Society
PARIS - Tuesday, November 15, 2005

(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT:

President Bush to Asia
Secretary Rice to Middle East

SIPDIS
World Summit on the Information Society

B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE:

Front pages and most editorials are devoted to President
Chirac's televised address last evening during which he
acknowledged that France was indeed experiencing a `malaise'
and offered measures and advice to deal with the unrest and
promote equality. Liberation considers the President's
measures to be a "Placebo:" "In the end, his speech, like the
continuation of the state of emergency, which is no longer
justified, can barely hide the President's disarray as he
considers his disheartening results." But Le Figaro praises
the President for his firmness: "The President's speech was
eagerly awaited. And the PM can be pleased to see that his
firm approach, supported by the President, is producing
dividends. All in all, for the executive, which could have
sunk in the tempest, the incident is ending much better than
it started."

Front pages also devote headlines to the World Summit on the
Information Society, which opens in Tunis tomorrow. Le Figaro
announces: "A Battle for Control of the Internet," while Les
Echos headlines: "U.S. Control of Internet in Question." Le
Monde's editorial praises Washington's courage in calling the
regime to order. (See Part C)

President Bush's Asian tour and Secretary Rice's "difficult"
visit to the Middle East are reported in Le Figaro. (See Part
C)

Left-of-center Liberation interviews Latif al-Oumyem, a Sunni
insurgent who says Iraq "is already experiencing civil war"
and that "those who are killing Sunnis are doing so under the
protection of American troops."

International terrorism and detainee treatment in Guantanamo
are also in today's news. In Le Figaro, Jean Chichizola titles
his report: "Two Frenchmen Denounce Mistreatments Suffered at
Guantanamo." The report describes the "humiliation, blows and
threats" suffered by two French detainees who were heard by a
Paris judge last October in connection with their formal
complaint of "illegal arrest and arbitrary detention." The
report concludes: "The French lawyers of the two men will ask
the judges to hear from a number of American officials.
Contacted by Le Figaro, the U.S. Embassy in Paris did not wish
to comment."

Guantanamo and the treatment of its detainees are also
mentioned in an article in Le Monde by Corine Lesnes devoted
to `Vice' President Dick Cheney, "George W. Bush's Bad Genie."
"Cheney became Vice President by default. Those who have been
around for a long time don't understand him any more. He
appears to have switched camps from the realists of the Bush
senior school of thought to the neo-conservative camp. Despite
the Abu Ghraib scandal, despite Guantanamo, the Vice President
is campaigning to prevent members of Congress from declaring
that so-called `soft' torture is illegal for use in
questioning terror suspects.[For Cheney] the prisoners at
Guantanamo are treated very well and no other country on earth
would care so well for people who are out to kill its people."

Popular France Soir devotes a full-page report to the thwarted
terrorist attack in Australia and wonders about the
possibility that "terrorists may have used Google Earth."

The press conference held yesterday by the government's
spokesman Jean-Francois Cope and representatives of the
foreign press to "reassure the world, tourists and investors
that France is safe" is reported in Le Monde and Liberation.
Veronique Soule comments in Liberation: "One has to wonder
about the impact of such posturing and self-justification from
`lesson givers.'"
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES:
President Bush to Asia

"Bush in Asia to Maintain U.S. Influence"
Philippe Gelie in right-of-center Le Figaro (11/15):
"Considering the type of welcome President Bush gets in most
places he visits, his Asian tour may well look like a walk in
the park. But behind the oriental expressions of politeness,
the visit will mostly stand as witness to the competition that
has emerged between Washington and Beijing to dominate the
strategic chessboard of that particular region. While economic
issues will certainly be raised, the higher stakes of power
and security will dominate. Short of being able to stop or
slow down China's emergence as a regional power, the U.S.
hopes it will be able to contain it. There are more reasons
for concern than for optimism, especially when it comes to
China's expenditures in armament. This is why Washington needs
regional allies: but the U.S. positioning in the region
carries its own difficulties. Japan's emerging nationalism and
South Korea's gesture towards North Korea count among them.
Mongolia remains: a country whose `courageous soldiers' are
fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Next Monday, when President
Bush visits there, the `weather will be frigid but the welcome
will be warm.'"

Secretary Rice to Middle East

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"Rice Struggles to Re-Launch Dialogue"
Patrick Saint-Paul in right-of-center Le Figaro (11/15): "Just
as Israel was commemorating the tenth anniversary of Yitzak
Rabin's assassination it seemed that reviving the peace
process was a difficult endeavor. Until the end Secretary Rice
waited for an agreement so that she might not leave empty-
handed. The Quartet representative James Wolfenson previously
warned that the Gaza strip could become a gigantic prison
undermined by poverty. The U.S. Secretary of State violently
opposed Ariel Sharon on the issue of Hamas participation in
the legislative elections. She expressed the feeling that `it
would be easier to disarm Hamas after the elections' and
called on Israel once again to stop the settlements in the
West Bank. There is very little chance that she will be
heard."

World Summit on the Information Society

"A World Battle to Control the Internet"
Valerie Collet in right-of-center Le Figaro Economie (11/15):
"Secretary Rice is strictly opposed to `a cumbersome and
bureaucratic supervision' of the Internet. The fact that the
U.S. Secretary of State has taken the time to comment on the
debate proves the strategic importance of what is at stake. In
fact, the U.S. holds the key to the Web and does not want to
share it. A U.S. entity, Icann, is the only one in charge of
attributing domains. And so the question looming is, with the
Web churning out billions of dollars in revenue, can the
Internet be left in the sole hands of the great American
architect?"

"Modernism and Brutality"
Jean-Christophe Ploquin in Catholic La Croix (11/15): "Tunisia
is controlled by a police state that uses intimidation to
ensure its longevity. the Information Summit in Tunisia serves
as a sort of echo chamber for the country's internal
problems., namely a politically archaic system that is
incompatible with democracy."

"Sanctioning Ben-Ali"
Left-of-center Le Monde in its editorial (11/15): "By hosting
the World Summit on the Information Society Tunisia hoped to
show the world that a small nation could compete with the
larger ones. In fact it is another face of Tunisia which is
coming to light: that of a police state. In the face of the
sad image given by Tunis, Washington did not hesitate to
admonish the regime calling it to `do in terms of political
reforms and human rights' what it has done in the social and
economic sectors. France has not shown the same courage."
HOFMANN

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