MEDIA REACTION ON THE SHI'A "INTIFADA" IN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 002655

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR,
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN
USAID/ANE/MEA
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON THE SHI'A "INTIFADA" IN
IRAQ

Summary

-- Lead story in all papers today, April 6, highlights
developments on the Iraqi front and the escalating
tensions in Shiite areas of Iraq. Majority of
commentaries talk about these events, anticipating a
"hot summer" for the "occupation" forces in Iraq.

Editorial Commentary

-- "The soldiers of God and the soldiers of the devil"

Columnist Khaled Mahadin writes on the op-ed page of
semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai
(04/06): "When the Americans and the British started
their unjust war on war a year ago, their planes,
their tanks and their missiles did not differentiate
between Sunnis and Shiites, between Arabs and Kurds,
or between Christians, Muslims, Turks and Assyrians.
It was a war of racist extermination that targeted all
Iraqis.. And when the grudging colonialists invaded
Baghdad, they started another war against Iraq's
Arabism, Islam and history, during which they deluded
themselves into thinking that the one with the power
of death can impose the results and the reality that
one wants. All that until the Iraqi national
resistance started its counter war against the
invasion and the occupation, determined to liberate
Iraqis and Iraq from humiliation and degradation. Two
days ago, a new chapter of the Iraqi popular
liberation war started, where it is no longer possible
to talk about a Sunni triangle or rectangle, for the
scope of the resistance has widened to include all of
the Iraqi territory from the east to the west and from
the north to the south.. The call for self-restraint
that some people are addressing to the Iraqis is false
and malignant and is in conspiracy against Iraq and
its people. Instead of calling on the forces of
invasion and occupation to respect the Iraqi people's
religion, mosques, dignity, life and rights, these
people address such calls to the Iraqis, calls that
feed right into the lap of the occupiers' interests
and works against the Iraqis' right to resistance and
their duty to fight back those who fight them. And
here meets the will to fight in Lebanon, Palestine and
Iraq against the invasion and the occupation and
against the extermination being exercised by the
Americans, the British and the Israelis, as well as
against the same racist measures that do not
differentiate between Iraqis, Palestinians and
Lebanese except in as much as these people reject
hegemony, occupation and surrender."

-- "The Shiites' Intifada"

Daily columnist Basem Sakijha writes on the op-ed page
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(04/06): "There lies many a meaning in Muqtada Al-
Sadr's response to the American escalation and talk of
`terrorizing the enemy'. The political group of the
Shi'a rejected the occupation right from the
beginning, but continued to talk of a peaceful
expulsion of that occupation. But now, this group
developed its scope of action and turned it into
violent responses, which means that anticipating a hot
summer for the American occupation would be
justifiable, particularly with the escalation of the
traditional Iraqi resistance that seems to have set
the failure of Bush's presidential campaign as its
main objective.. What happened the past two days,
something that is likely to develop over the next few
months, reflects the failure of the Americans in
managing Iraq's multi-complex issues and indicates
that a hot summer awaits the occupation forces."

-- "A blazing hot summer awaits Iraq"

Daily columnist Urayb Rintawi writes on the op-ed page
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(04/06): "America's defeat in Iraq is internationally
forbidden and America's victory in Iraq is undesired
by most countries of the world and the region. On the
regional level, half the countries surrounding Iraq
find no interest of theirs to see the success of the
American project in Iraq, not for any reason other
than that it would mean that they would be become the
next targets of the campaign of the Christian right-
wing and the neo-conservatives in the White House and
the Pentagon. On the international level, many
European and Asian countries brace themselves for that
day when Washington unilaterally holds the reins of
power and world markets, as it holds the reins of
military superiority today. Yet, the alternative to
the American project in Iraq seems so scary, in fact
terrifying. For many of the countries surrounding
Iraq and for many European and Arab countries, the
resistance in Iraq remains without identity, program
or vision and is stamped, at the least from the point
of view of the media, with an extremist fundamentalist-
Salafi-Wahabi aspect.. Between these two projects on
the extremes lies a potential third project that is
based on rejecting the occupation and the legitimate
resistance to it - some of the resistance in Iraq is
illegitimate, incomprehensible, and even criminal - on
the one hand, and on presenting a vision for the
future of Iraq founded on democratic rules, respect
for human rights, modernization and peaceful approach,
on the other. That is why we find that some
countries, like Iran, Saudi and Syria, are reassured
by Washington's dilemma in Iraq. In fact, some of
them are settling scores with the United States
through Iraq. This escalating tension among the
Iraqis, Sunnis and Shiites, on the one hand and the
American occupation on the other is but an expression
of this tense relationship between the Iraqi neighbors
and Iraq's occupiers. It is very likely that a hot
summer awaits Iraq and the Iraqis."






GNEHM