Cablegate: Media Reaction: Iraq, Terrorism, London Bombings;

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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002908

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INR/R/MR, NEA/PPD, NEA/PPA, NEA/AGS, INR/IZ,
INR/P
E.0. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO IZ
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ, TERRORISM, LONDON BOMBINGS;
BAGHDAD

1. SUMMARY: The major themes in the daily newspapers on
July. 11 were calls for the Arab Ministers of Interior to
hold a security conference, the constitutional committee's
preparations for drafting the constitution, and the latest
developments of the security situation. END SUMMARY.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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A. "Is there any excuse now?" (Al-Bayyan, 7/11)
B. "What are the causes and solutions of the attacks in
Iraq and Britain?" (Al-Ittihad, 7/11)

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SELECTED COMMENTARIES
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A. "Is there any excuse now?" (Al-Bayyan, 7/11)

Al-Bayyan (affiliated with Islamic Ad-Dawa party led by
Ibrahim Al-Jafari) published a third-page column by Salim
Rasool about terrorism in Iraq:

"With the assassination of the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq,
the terrorists cannot justify their operations as being
part of the "honest resistance" and they can no longer
conceal the disgrace of terrorism. Egypt and other Arab
countries have now realized that the armed groups in Iraq
regard each of these countries as apostates that must be
punished according to Islamic law. It is for this reason
that the poor Egyptian ambassador was killed. We must ask,
however, why did this tragedy occur?

I think that the source of this tragedy originates from the
insistence of some groups to forge facts and provoke terror
and violence through the media outlets. In addition, Arab
governments allowed such coverage to be aired by referring
to the presence of freedom of expression. However, these
untruthful media outlets began endangering these
government's visions, their political futures, and the
relationships between one another. Indeed, these media
outlets have dealt with the Egyptian ambassador's
assassination in a very strange and unrealistic manner. Not
only did these outlets justify the killing of the
ambassador, they went further by claiming that the Egyptian
government is responsible for his killing. These media
networks stated that Iraq is under heroic resistance and
that Egypt should have never sent an ambassador to Baghdad
because the Iraqi government is illegitimate.

The entire world now realizes that what is occurring in
Iraq cannot be viewed as resistance. These operations are
simply aimed at provoking sectarian sedition in Iraq.
However, the Arab street does not want to admit this fact
because it is being controlled by media outlets that
specialize in hypocrisy and the art of distorting the
truth. It is time for the Arab governments to eradicate the
terrorist groups and to stop these media outlets from
deceiving public opinion. We have stated previously that
Al-Zarqawi and his followers do not care about the
wellbeing of Arabs. Unfortunately, nobody listened to us.
Instead, they chose to believe those who were lying to
them. The Arabs went on applauding the beheading of Iraqis
under the pretext that all Iraqis were traitors and spies.
Therefore, these beheadings were legally justified. We have
always felt hurt and betrayed by such Arab attitudes. We
would like to know whether the Arabs have an excuse today
now that terrorism has begun to target them?"

B. "What are the causes and solutions of the attacks in
Iraq and Britain?" (Al-Ittihad, 7/11)

Al-Ittihad (affiliated with the PUK, led by Jalal Talabani)
published a third-page editorial by Abdul Hadi Mahdi about
the terrorist attacks in Iraq and Britain:

"The entire world has condemned the recent bombings in
London. This blanket condemnation derives from a
humanitarian perspective because the majority of victims
were innocent civilians. At the same time, most countries
implemented intensive security precautions around their
embassies and other facilities. These precautions are aimed
at preventing further attacks from occurring and protecting
innocent lives. However, it is interesting to note that
these precautions refer to two possibilities. The first is
that the security forces lack sufficient intelligence
information to stop such operations from occurring. The
second possibility is that authorities have received
intelligence that indicates there will be similar
operations executed in other countries.
We do not oppose any country's decision to implement these
security precautions because these measures are aimed at
protecting lives. The perpetrators of such attacks do not
have a specific identity and are not restricted to any
particular geographic location. Being diligent is important
because if these attacks can be carried out in a country
like Britain with a strong intelligence apparatus, then
they can certainly be duplicated in other countries with
less effective intelligence capabilities. The attacks in
London were no easy feat because they coincided with the
security precautions implemented for the G-8 summit.
Needless to say, the daily attacks in Iraq are more violent
than the London bombings and the number of daily victims is
much higher.

We must ask why did Iraq's neighboring countries not
implement security precautions around their own facilities
in Iraq? This answer has several interpretations that
require multiple assumptions. Do these countries believe
that the terrorist operations occurring in Iraq will never
be exported into their lands? Do they prefer to leave the
Iraqis alone to face their own destiny? We do not want to
search for the answers to these questions. Countries around
the world have allocated billions of dollars to counter
terrorist operations. However, this amount has proven
incapable of putting an end to such operations. Perhaps the
billions of dollars that have been spent have only resulted
in transferring the execution of these operations from one
country to another. Therefore, we must implement an
accurate study to discuss the motives behind this
dissemination of death culture. We must enact solutions to
save the world from this evil. We have grown tired of
debates on the pan-Arab satellite channels and newspapers
where accusations are exchanged without offering any real
or accurate facts."

SATTERFIELD

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