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Cablegate: Media Reaction Report - Terrorist Attacks in Bombay - Iraq

Published: Wed 12 Jul 2006 11:19 AM
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Lucia A Keegan 07/12/2006 02:38:37 PM From DB/Inbox: Lucia A Keegan
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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Terrorist Attacks in Bombay - Iraq
- Sectarian Violence - Guantanamo - Geneva Convention - North Korea
- Missile Tests
PARIS - Wednesday July 12, 2006
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT:
Terrorist Attacks in Bombay
Iraq - Sectarian Violence
Guantanamo - Geneva Convention
North Korea - Missile Tests
(B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE:
The centrist economic daily La Tribune features an interview with
President Bush on energy policy, highlighting his statement that
"nuclear energy represents a key element of the world's energy
supply." The President also noted that peaceful nuclear energy
programs could be especially beneficial for large, developing
countries such as China and India. He also stressed that the U.S.
"cooperates with Japan, Russia, France, and the UK to invest more
money in the technological development of reactors" which will allow
for the safe treatment of nuclear waste. The President commented on
the U.S.'s working relationship with Russia as well as its possible
accession to the WTO during the G8 summit, saying that this "would
be in the interest of the United States," but that diverging and
multiple interests would make negotiations more difficult.
Right-of-center Le Figaro's economic section announces that energy
policy will dominate the G8 summit this weekend in Saint Petersburg,
noting that: "even during the worst moments of the Cold War, Europe
has never been so worried about its Russian supply of gas." In
centrist economic La Tribune U.S. correspondent Lysiane Baudu offers
an analysis on U.S./Russian relations, noting that "a possible
agreement on civil nuclear energy" could be worked about between
Presidents Bush and Putin during the G8 summit. She notes that the
notes of ambiguity in the U.S./Russian relationship reveal divisions
within the Bush administration.
Thomas Gomart of the French Institute for International Relations
pens an op-ed in right-of-center economic daily Les Echos on
Russia's outlook and strategies for this weekend's G8 Summit. He
notes that President Putin, "eager for recognition and international
credibility," is attempting to use the G8 and its energy-driven
agenda as an occasion to advance Russia's position among the world's
political forces and to establish its position as an energy
"superpower."
Right-of-center Le Figaro leads with the terrorist attack in Bombay
which was widely reported by the electronic media as well and
commented in the regional press. (See Part C)
The unsigned editorial in Le Monde is entitled "Iraq and Oblivion."
"For the Iraqis, whether they were in favor or not of an American
military intervention at the beginning, the presence of foreign
troops was justified for one main reason: to avoid civil war. Three
years after the invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein the
Americans are still not gone and civil war has set in." (See Part
C)
Right-of-center Le Figaro reports that China's mediation on the
North Korean nuclear issue is a "smokescreen." (See Part C)
The Washington correspondent for right-of-center Le Figaro, Philippe
Gelie writes that: "the Pentagon is making a 180 degree turn by
granting the Guantanamo detainees the 'protection' of the Geneva
Convention." (See Part C)
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES:
Terrorist Attacks in Bombay
"Bombay Attacks"
Jean Guisnel in regional La Republique des Pyrenees (07/12): "This
time terror strikes India... in a scenario that resembles the
attacks in London a year ago... It seems obvious today that five
years after the 9/11 attacks, the ways that George W. Bush and his
allies have chosen to deal with the threat of terrorism have only
exacerbated it."
"Mass Terror"
Francis Brochet in regional Le Progres (07/12): "The attacks in
Bombay... represent the kind of mass terrorism of which Iraq has
become a symbol with the Shiite and the Sunni communities working to
kill each other off.... We must face facts, September 11 opened up a
whole new kind of generalized warfare. What happened yesterday in
Bombay could take place anywhere in the world."
Iraq - Sectarian Violence
"Iraq and Oblivion"
The unsigned editorial in left-of-center Le Monde (07/12): "For the
Iraqis, whether they were in favor or not of an American military
intervention at the beginning, the presence of foreign troops was
justified for one main reason: to avoid civil war. Three years after
the invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein the Americans
are still not gone and civil war has set in. July 9, the Iraqi
'Bloody Sunday' marks a turning point in the conflict. For the first
time, the residents of Baghdad... were systematically executed
because of their ethnic background... From the Iraqi point of view
this is a turning point that destroys the justification for the
American military presence in Iraq. No one in Iraq holds on to the
dream of the other reasons that Washington put forward to justify
the continued U.S. presence in Iraq: democracy and reconstruction.
The former cannot exist amid chaos, in spite of successful
elections, and the latter is a joke when Iraqis only have three
hours of electricity per day... The reality is that on the political
front it is Zarkawi, the Iraqi leader of al Qaeda killed last June,
who is victorious... The reality is that the Americans are
retrenched in the green zone... isolated... The Iraqi insurgency and
Sunni terrorism are capable of spreading chaos, but civil war will
destroy the country."
"The U.S. Weakened"
Jean-Claude Kiefer writes in regional Les Dernieres Nouvelles
d'Alsace (07/12): "Iraq is in chaos and this situation has seriously
weakened the U.S., and this is far from reassuring. When the
self-proclaimed world police takes a hit, the planet's trouble
makers take advantage. The examples being the North Korean dictator
Kim Jong Il playing with his missiles and the Iranians pursuing
their nuclear program."
Guantanamo - Geneva Convention
"Guantanamo Under International Law"
Washington correspondent for right-of-center Le Figaro (07/12):
"After four years of stubbornness, Washington is letting its guard
down. The Deputy Secretary of Defense has ordered... that detainees
held in American prisons around the world be able to come under the
Geneva Convention. This stance radically alters the status of the
'enemy combatants' locked up in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The status of the secret CIA prisons, however remains in limbo...
Yesterday's decision marks the return of the U.S. to international
legality."
"Bombay Attacks"
Jean Guisnel in regional La Republique des Pyrenees(07/12): "The
White House was forced yesterday to announce that... the Guantanamo
detainees will come under the protection of the Geneva Convention.
Although coerced into doing so, George W. Bush has realized that
there is no other path possible than the one that leads towards
legality and that this is the only way terrorism will be
vanquished."
North Korea Missile Tests
"Beijing's Smokescreen Mediation"
Right-of-center Le Figaro's Jean-Jacques Mevel writes (07/12):
"China is torn and confronted by the impossible task of choosing
between Pyongyang and Washington... President Hu Jintao, yesterday,
expressed for the first time his country's concerns about the
missile crisis without taking a firm stand or lifting the ambiguity
of China's position... China is clearly on the fence and Hu's
statements appear to both warn Kim Jong Il against a second round of
tests and caution the U.S., and especially Japan, of reacting
'excessively' to last week's North Korean missile tests... But China
remains the only country with the political, economic and military
means to put pressure on North Korea."
"Provocation"
Didier Louis in regional daily Le Courrier Picard (07/12): "North
Korea, that along with Iran embodies the axis of evil, is waging an
ideological battle against American imperialism... The North Korean
tyrant... is second to none in being able to divide democracies and
use to his advantage the UN's inertia. The ultimate paradox in this
story is that the destabilization of Kim Jong Il's heinous and
detestable regime is above all else to be avoided." STAPLETON
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