Cablegate: Media Reaction Report - Guantanamo - Trial in Paris

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

051032Z Jul 06

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 004596

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.

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR FR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Guantanamo - Trial in Paris
PARIS - Wednesday, July 05, 2006

(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT:

Guantanamo - Trial in Paris

(B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE:

French radio and TV news are reporting Pyongyang's missile test
launches yesterday as one of today's top international stories, with
a focus on U.S. and Japanese concerns about North Korea's
intentions. French print coverage is sparse, so far limited to
reprinted Agence France Presse dispatches that quote Pentagon, State
Department and Japanese government sources, and note confusion as to
whether the missile was a Taepodong-2. All stories also note the
emergency session of the UN Security Council called for this
afternoon. As of 9:30 a.m. local time nothing yet about official
French government reactions. "Warning or provocation?" wondered the
privately owned RTL radio journalist this morning. One of them could
have reached American soil the report said adding that President
Bush has declared the launch as an act of "defiance to the
International community" and that Russia had condemned this launch.
Europe 1 radio noted President Bush's "firm" reaction to the news
but also said that as a sovereign country North Korea is justified
in testing its missiles. Europe 1's 9 am newscast noted that Tokyo
has called for a Security Council meeting this afternoon. The
radio's U.S. correspondent, Francois Clemenceau said that Washington
did not appreciate the fact that the launch coincided with July 4
celebrations.

Wednesday's deadlines are dominated by the World Cup soccer
semi-finals with France playing against Portugal this evening in
Munich.

All papers on Tuesday reported on the possible merger of
Nissan-Renault with General Motors on Tuesday. Left-of-center
Liberation's editorial wonders if "gigantisms" is the way to go.
France 3 television aired a report about the possibility of an
alliance between General Motors, Nissan-Renault. The report weighed
the pros and cons: with General Motors' 10 billion dollars in losses
last year, and Nissan-Renault's 7 billion euros in profit. The
journalist said the alliance would create a group owning 25% of the
market share. "Attractive, but risky", he concluded.
Right-of-center Le Figaro today notes on its front page that the
French government has hesitations concerning a GM-Renault alliance.
The editorial in the Tuesday edition of Les Echos asks: "Can a
French automobile manufacturer that has been trying to break onto
the North American auto market for years afford to rebuff the
advances of the sector's world leader?... That the Americans cannot
find, at home, a group capable of buying out GM is a testament to
the state of the Detroit company that has become an idol with feet
of clay."

Left-of-center Liberation's headline story is devoted to the trial
in Paris of the six former Guantanamo detainees and the facsimile of
a diplomatic telex published by the daily that proves that the
French DST and DGSE intelligence agencies "illegally" interrogated
the prisoners at Guantanamo in 2002. Liberation's story also notes
that two of the defendants' lawyers are claiming that this
interrogation "illicitly contributed to providing information in the
case against the detainees." (See Part C)

Right-of-center Le Figaro of Tuesday reports on how "camouflage is a
method of survival" in Baghdad. The report interviews several
Iraqis, including a female interpreter for the U.S. Embassy, about
their attempts to blend into crowds in the city. A Christian woman
now wears the Islamic veil so as not to stand out. Another man has
bought doctored identify papers that no longer show his Shiite
tribal affiliation. "We are surrounded by ghosts," says one. No
one knows who the enemy is anymore. Under Saddam, "you got killed
if you mixed in politics; today, whether your are Sunni or Shiite,
if you are secular or religious, you are dead. The enemy is
everywhere," says one man.

Right-of-center Le Figaro reports that "despite the fact that the
man [Ben Laden] is still worth 25 million dollars, the unit that has
been in charge of his capture, dead or alive, has been closed... and
the members of this unit have been reassigned to new, more general
jobs within the anti-terrorist section of the American intelligence
agency. The Ben Laden cell had been in operation for ten years, well
before the head of al Qaeda launched himself onto the front of the
terrorist stage... The closing of the unit, called Alec Station,
reflects the fact that Ben Laden no longer represents the same type
of threat as he once did... For the first head of this unit, Michael
Scheuer, closing Alec Station is a mistake... to the New York Times
he said that the decision' undermines our actions against al
Qaeda...'" But another CIA source told Le Figaro that the CIA is
realizing that al Qaeda is not a hierarchical and centralized
organization but one that inspires a certain ideology. The article
goes on to mention the START program initiated by the Department for
Homeland Security.

Right-of-center Le Figaro reports that "Discovery Lights Up the
American Sky" with the successful launch yesterday of the space
shuttle. "America could not dream of a more beautiful display of
fireworks to celebrate the 230th anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence."

(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES:

Guantanamo - Trial in Paris

"Breach"
The editorial by Jean-Michel Thenard in Liberation (07/05): "France,
which defends international justice, has always been opposed to the
detention center of Guantanamo that exists outside of the law. A
sort of Bermuda Triangle of Human Rights where the American
Administration has renounced its own values and laws as well as
those of the international community. All in the name of the fight
against terrorism. But France's protestations did not prevent Paris
from entering right into the system and sending intelligence
officers to Guantanamo to question the French prisoners there. To
accept to send representatives to the government to a place that is
outside of any legal framework is tantamount to colluding with what
one is condemning." STAPLETON

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