Cablegate: Media Reaction Iraq; Harare

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

151041Z Jul 03

UNCLAS HARARE 001439

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS
IRAQ PD FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER
LONDON FOR GURNEY
PARIS FOR NEARY
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KPAO KMDR ZI
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE

1. Under headline "White House in crisis over Iraq
invasion lies" the government-controlled daily "The
Herald"(07/15) carried the following op-ed by
Patrick Martin on page 6, in which he argues that
the on-going muddle surrounding the contents of
President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech
regarding Iraq is "a major political crisis for the
Bush administration" that could "create the
conditions for a far more explosive movement of mass
opposition." Excerpts:

2. "The admission by the White House on July 7, 2003 that
Bush's State of the Union speech contained false
allegations about Iraqi nuclear weapons programs has
touched off a major political crisis for the Bush
administration. . .Even if one were to accept the
convoluted White House account of how flagrant
misinformation was incorporated into the State of the Union
speech, it amounts to a devastating self-indictment of the
U. S.
Government. . .No amount of lying can conceal two
facts: no weapons of mass destruction have been
found in Iraq, although Saddam Hussein's alleged
possession of weapons was the principal pretext of
the invasion; and the U. S. occupiers, far from
being welcomed as liberators by the Iraqi people,
face a combination of guerilla attacks and
widespread popular hostility. The latest exposure
of Bush's Iraq invasion lies is a crisis, not only
for the administration, but for the entire U. S.
political establishment. . .Equally culpable is the
American media, which has uncritically accepted one
lie after another from the White House, Pentagon and
CIA, and served as a propaganda arm of the
government in attempting to mobilize political
support for the war on Iraq. . .Today, the gap
between the Bush administration's rationale for an
unprovoked war on the one hand, and the grim reality
in Iraq combined with the unraveling of the
administration's lies on the other, are creating the
conditions for a far more explosive movement of mass
opposition."

SULLIVAN

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