Cablegate: Outreach Efforts On Guantanamo

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

UNCLAS PARIS 005388

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR S/WCI, EUR, EUR/PPD

E. O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KISL KPAO PGOV PREL
SUBJECT: Outreach Efforts on Guantanamo

REF: (A) SECSTATE 139288, (B) SECSTATE 142348

1. (U) Embassy Paris has concentrated recent public outreach
on Guantanamo issues in two areas. The Guantanamo detainee
issue is a part of regular conversations Mission officers
have with private and public interlocutors, and we use the
talking points at each of these occasions. We also respond
to each letter or petition received from the French public.
The Mission receives on average some twenty letters a month
on detainee and Guantanamo issues. The Public Affairs
Section, which oversees the responses, has incorporated
several of the reftel talking points into the text of its
new letter. We are using the new text to respond to the
French chapter of Amnesty International's recent letter to
the Ambassador, for example. That letter asks the Mission
to forward a petition, signed by 12,000 people, against
torture and degrading treatment of detainees to the
President.

2. (SBU) GOF interest in Guantanamo has been largely
confined to the presence of French citizens. With the
already completed transfer in 2005 of all French citizens
from Guantanamo, we anticipate little official reaction from
the GOF on this issue.
Stapleton

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