MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ, MAY 11, 2004

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001079 SIPDIS FOR WHA/PDA, IIP/G/WHA, AND IIP/T/ES FOR PM, NEA/NGA, WHA/PPC, AND WHA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP PREL KPAO PGOV MOPS IZ HO SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ, MAY 11, 2004 ¶1. Editorial in Tegucigalpa-based moderate daily "El Heraldo" on 5/11 entitled "Beyond 9/11" "If the `war on terrorism' carried out by Bush and his oil-thirsty `falcons' has been really caused by the devastating attacks on September 11, 2001, there's no doubt that the damage caused to the U.S. by Osama bin Laden has exceeded what Bush's right-wing extremism had ever expected." "More than the loss of civil liberties and even the xenophobia of the antiterrorist policy within the U.S., now the dramatic images of the Iraqi prisoners have been much more effective than all Al Qaeda bombs, which have demolished the faade of the U.S. as the prototype of democracy, the respect of human rights, and liberty." "Osama bin Laden must be laughing in his hiding place, just like all anti-U.S. extremists. No terrorist attack could cause greater harm than those terrible images that are being seen around the world." "Iraq is proving itself to be George W. Bush's political epitaph, and he's also breeding his own Vietnam." Pierce