HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT CD-ROM RECALL CREATES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 001669

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA, NEA/P FOR ACASPAR, NEA/ARP, NEA/RA,
DRL/CRA AND DRL/PHD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/06/08
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV ELAB KEM KSEP TC
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT CD-ROM RECALL CREATES
MINOR CONTRETEMPS IN THE UAE


1. (U) Classified by Ambassador Marcelle M. Wahba for
reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).


2. (C) SUMMARY: The recall of CD-ROMs containing a
draft Human Rights Report on the Occupied Territories
caused a flurry of activity in the UAE. After reading
an Arabic-language newspaper article that implied
misleadingly that all negative language had been
withdrawn from the Occupied Territories' Report,
MinInfo Shaykh Abdullah Bin Zayid called the
Ambassador on 3 April to complain about the USG's
actions, commenting "if this press report is true, we
might as well all throw our human rights reports in
the garbage." After Emboffs coordinated with
Consulate Jerusalem and the Department, the Ambassador
contacted Abdullah to advise him that the "Al Khaleej"
press report was inaccurate. She explained that a
draft version of the Human Rights Report on the
Occupied Territories had been released on CD-ROM in
error and subsequently had to be recalled. She also
noted that the correct Occupied Territories' Report
had been published on the Department's website. END
SUMMARY.


3. (C) On Thursday 3 April, Minister of Information
Shaykh Abdullah Bin Zayid called the Ambassador to
register concern regarding press reports of the
Department's recall of CD-ROMs containing the 2002
Country Reports on Human Rights. Abdullah had read a
front-page article in the local Arabic-language daily
"Al Khaleej" headlined "Washington Withdraws Documents
In Which It Criticizes Israel's Violations," which
implied that the Department had withdrawn all negative
language from the Human Rights Report on the Occupied
Territories. Abdullah told the Ambassador: "If this
press report is true, we might as well all throw our
human rights reports in the garbage." The Ambassador
undertook to respond back with full information.


4. (C) After Emboffs coordinated with Consulate
Jerusalem and the Department, the Ambassador contacted
Abdullah to advise him that the "Al Khaleej" press
report was misleading and inaccurate. She explained
that a draft version of the Occupied Territories'
Report had been released on CD-ROM in error and
subsequently had to be recalled. She also noted that
the correct Human Rights Report on the Occupied
Territories had been published on the Department's
website.


5. (C) Armed with the full AFP story -- the source of
the "Al Khaleej" article -- and the Department's press
guidance, PAO followed up on the matter by contacting
the "Al Khaleej" editor to protest the misleading
article. As expected, the editor did not concede that
the published article reported less than the full
story, claiming that he had "just reported the AFP
wire story." However, he offered to publish a
clarification to rectify the paper's misreporting, and
said that he would publish whatever post requested.
Post drafted a short statement and submitted it to
NEA/P, but was unable to obtain clearance in time for
publication the next day.


6. (U) The "Al Khaleej" article, which editorialized
on selected information from the AFP article, read:

Headline: "Washington Withdraws Documents In Which It
Criticizes Israel's Violations"

Text: "The U.S. gave a new indication of its total
bias to the entity [Israel] after it withdrew all the
CD-ROMs which contained annual US Human Rights Reports
because of what it described as a printing error which
led to 'accusing' 'Israel' of committing human rights
violations....The State Department announced that it
had withdrawn the CD-ROMs containing the Report after
it noticed that some Arab newspapers had published
summaries of its human rights report containing
excerpts from the rough draft of the chapter on Israel
'not in its final form'. An American official said
'this error was unintentional and there was no bad
intention in it.' In the version of the report on the
CD-ROMs it says that Israel's 'respect' for human
rights in the Occupied Territories is still poor and
the situation worsened in many areas as 'Israel'
continued to commit numerous serious human rights
abuses. The final version of the report for 2002 is
found on the website of the State Department on the
Internet."

7. (U) Interestingly, the local English-language
daily "Gulf Today," sister paper to "Al Khaleej," ran
the full AFP report in its entirety and more or less
verbatim, although under the headline "US Revises
Rights Report to Appease Israel." The "Gulf Today"
article noted that despite changes in the language
between the draft "Israel" report on the CD-ROM and
the final and correct "Israel" report posted on the
Department's website, both versions of the report
catalogued a number of Israeli human rights abuses.
The article also noted that the final official report
stated that "Israel's overall human rights record in
the Occupied Territories remained poor, and worsened
in several areas as it continued to commit serious
human rights abuses."


8. (C) COMMENT: The quick media and official
reaction to the Department's recall of the CD-ROMs
demonstrates the political sensitivity here to USG
actions regarding Israel, which is particularly
heightened at this time because of the Iraq war and
continued violence in the territories. Fortunately,
Abdullah had read the UAE Report and commended it to
the Ambassador, noting that he agreed with 99 % of its
contents. The "Al Khaleej" editor's willingness to
engage in the current hostile media climate is
noteworthy, and Post will follow up on this matter in
a telephone interview between Deputy Secretary
Armitage and "Al-Khaleej" later this week. Scheduled
to discuss a wide range of issues, this forum will
provide us with an excellent opportunity to reaffirm
the objectivity of the human rights reports, including
the Human Rights Report on the Occupied Territories.
END COMMENT.

WAHBA