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Cablegate: Goa's Decision Not to Send Troops to Lebanon; Funding Of

VZCZCXYZ0008
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1869/01 2302028
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 182028Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5617
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001869

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC,
WHA/EPSC
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION
SUBJECT: GOA'S DECISION NOT TO SEND TROOPS TO LEBANON; FUNDING OF
HEZBOLLAH SOURCED IN ARGENTINA; THE THREAT OF TERRORISM; 08/18/06;
BUENOS AIRES


1. SUMMARY STATEMENT

Today's leading stories examine the Argentine government's rejection
of the UNSC request to send troops to Lebanon; confirmation by a
Hezbollah leader that some of its funding is sourced in Argentina;
and an editorial about the terrorist threat highlighted by the plot
uncovered in London.

2. OPINION PIECES AND KEY STORIES

- "A decision which isolates the country"

Joaquin Morales Sola, political columnist of daily-of-record "La
Nacion," writes (08/18) that the decision of the government,
immediate and categorical, to reject the request of the UN Security
Council for Argentine troops to participate in the peacekeeping
force in Lebanon, marks a certain intellectual sloppiness in the
administration of foreign policy.

"The rejection contradicts the official discourse in the area of
foreign policy, which always asserted - with good reason - the need
for the Security Council to assume responsibility for peace or war
in the world.

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"The first version among argentine officials was that the United
States had pressed Kirchner to participate...Sources in Washington
underlined that this pressure never existed and that Bush's
diplomats never asked for anything, although they did ask what
Argentina would be doing.

"Brazil, it must be said, was more elegant in its negative reply: it
said that its troops were too occupied maintaining peace in Haiti.

"Obsessed with internal conquests (and fearful of being criticized
by the ideological circles the president frequents) Kirchner
preferred the fastest solution: say no to Kofi Annan and leave the
world on its own to resolve its problems."

- "Hezbollah says it receives money from Argentina"

Silvia Pisani, on special assignment in the Middle East for "La
Nacion," starts her front page article (08/18) "'Money comes to
Hezbollah from Argentina.'"

"The confirmation, which did not include any specific figures, came
from Muafak Jammal, one of the political heads of Hezbollah and a
person who has the high confidence of the group's leader, Hassan
Nasrallah. In fact, he is one of those responsible within the
terrorist islamic group who on July 12, captured two Israeli
soldiers, which sparked the war which lasted 33 days and left more
than 1200 dead.

"Money comes not only from the Muslim community in Argentina but
also from Christian Lebanese committed to the effort for post-war
reconstruction, affirmed Jammal to 'La Nacion'.

"Jammal regretted the decision by Nestor Kirchner's government not
to send peacekeeping troops to the border with Israel. 'I would
like to know why he took that path.'


3. EDITORIALS

- "The Threat of Terrorism"

Leading "Clarin" editorializes (08/18) "The plot uncovered in London
to bring down ten planes with explosive liquids while in flight to
the U.S. puts on maximum alert, once again, the security systems of
the world's large cities and airports.

"...the distribution of information indicates the existence of
destructive capabilities in the hands of groups or persons with the
intention of doing enormous harm.

"On the other hand, the memory of September 11 and the attacks on
Madrid and London several years later lays out the characteristics
of a threat for which modern societies do not yet have effective
responses.

"In the first place, because it instills collective fear and
insecurity as a factor which always exists in large gatherings of
people. The plan...repeats the operating methods of fundamentalist
groups which act as a network, count on support in different parts
of the world and move with knowledge of the territory.

"In this framework, the sense of insecurity and vulnerability can


only diminish and be reversed with good intelligence and without
falling into the trap of adopting the same fear that terrorist
methods attempt to establish."


To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our
classified website at:
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires

MATERA

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