MEDIA REACTION: ZARQAWI'S DEATH

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 002423

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA;
INR/B; RRU-NEA
IIP/G/NEA-SA
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA
USCINCCENT FOR POLAD
LONDON FOR MCKUNE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KMDR AE KPAO TC
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: ZARQAWI'S DEATH



1. Summary: An unsigned editorial in Abu Dhabi-based Arabic
daily "Al-Ittihad" strongly criticizes Arab Muslims for not
condemning the Muslim Brotherhood for presenting their
condolences on Zarqawi's death. A columnist in "Al-Bayan"
wonders how the official reaction to Zarqawi's death is happiness
and relief and lays the blame for violence in Iraq on Bush's
policies. "Al-Bayan" was skeptical of President Bush's talks on
democracy while keeping silent on the massacres caused by Israeli
forces. An unsigned editorial in English daily "Gulf News"
renews the call to close Guantanamo with the death of three
prisoners. End Summary.


2. A front-page unsigned 6/11 editorial in Abu Dhabi-based semi-
official Arabic daily "Al-Ittihad" (circulation 65,000)
headlines: "Brotherhood of Opportunists" and opines:

"As soon as the world got rid of the terrorist slaughter al
Zarqawi, after he got from God what he deserved by facing a just
end (an end to anyone who fights God and his messenger and seeks
to corrupt the world),representatives from the Muslim
Brotherhood in Jordan, gave more evidence that their group's
suspicious relation with Al Zarqawi and other terrorists and
criminals is a parent-child relationship. Those brothers went to
present their condolences to the killer, as if the thousand
widows, orphans and innocent souls... whose lives were taken away
by Zarqawi, do not mean anything... This is not surprising.
What is surprising, is the Arab Islamic silence against this
brotherhood that proved that they were partners in causing the
bloodbath in Iraq... When will killers be called killers and
terrorists as terrorists so as to deal with them on this basis?"


3. Under headline "Resistance and occupation", a columnist,
Ahmed Omarabi, wrote in a 6/12 op-ed in Dubai-based Arabic daily
"Al-Bayan," (circulation 90,000):

"... Amid the hysterical happiness spreading throughout
Washington, Tel Aviv and other Western countries on the news of
Al Zarqawi's assassination, an American citizen was shocked...
Michael Burg had a son whose head was chopped off by Al Zarqawi's
group. Nevertheless, the father was able to overcome his self
sorrow by saying that he did not feel relieved on Zarqawi's death
and laid the fault of his son's death on George Bush... In
short, the United States and Israel can continue to assassinate
symbols of national resistance in Iraq and Palestine, but the
resistance will never stop as long as these people are under
occupation... The "Mae Lai" massacre and the likes of it in
Vietnam did not diminish the resistance of the Vietnamese people
which ultimately led to the defeat of the United States forces in
the mid-seventies of the last century."


4. Under headline "Bush, democracy and the Israeli massacres",
Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation 90,000) wrote
in a 6/12 editorial:

"In his weekly talk, President Bush lauded the achievement of his
forces in Iraq, emphasizing their success in settling Abu Musab
Al Zarqawi and said that democracy has made great victory in the
heart of the Middle East. His democratic indication coincided
with the massacre caused by the Israeli forces taking away the
souls of more than ten Palestinian civilians, including a baby...
How can Bush expect even a minimal positive reaction to his
democracy and determination to help spread it in the region while
not releasing a single word of condemnation, even an empty one,
against Israel? ...Instead of rewarding the Palestinians for
practicing democracy... the Americans rushed to place them under
siege through unfair sanctions... This happened at a time when
Bush was using every occasion to focus on the policies of his
administration and its obligation to spread democracy!"


5. A UAE columnist, Abdulla Rasheed, wrote in a 6/12 op-ed in
Abu Dhabi-based semi-official Arabic daily "Al-Ittihad"
(circulation 65,000) which opined:

"We wish those who call themselves the "Muslim Brotherhood" and
the Jordanian "Labor Islamic Group", who presented their
condolences to Al Zarqawi, would visit Iraq and present their
condolences to the hundreds of innocent children, women, youth
and elderly people who were killed over the years in Iraq by the
corrupter Al Zarqawi."


6. An unsigned editorial in Dubai based English daily "Gulf News"
on 6/12 under the headline "A stain America must remove"
(circulation 95,000):

"We do not know how three inmates of Guantanamo were able to
prepare the bed sheets and commit suicide without drawing the
attention of guards. But we do know that more than four years
after the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay opened, the
calls for it to close will grow louder and rightly so. The
International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Secretary
General and former US President Jimmy Carter have already called
for the detention facility to be shut down. Guantanamo does
nothing but harm America's international image and saps its moral
authority. The Statue of Liberty stands as a beacon to the
world, Guantanamo acts as an insult to all that is best in
America; constitutional rule, its innate sense of human rights,
the dignity of man. It stands as a glaring contradiction to
values that are cherished by Americans. By its own calculations
the Pentagon believes about 10 per cent of the inmates are
hardened terrorists and about 50 per cent did not commit any
hostile act against the US or its allies. The majority of
detainees were not captured by US forces but by Afghan or
Pakistani groups when America was offering bounties of $5,000 for
any prisoner accused of terrorism. The so-called war on terror
will never be won by employing Guantanamo methods. The American
legal system is strong enough to defeat terror, to suggest
otherwise is a slight to those bereaved by Timothy McVeigh's
Oklahoma bomb. The damage done to America's image by events at
Guantanamo has simply not been worth the international
opprobrium. In a conflict against terrorism where goodwill is
vital, Guantanamo is a self-inflicted festering wound that does
nothing but give comfort to America's enemies. It must be shut
down and shut down now."




SISON