MEDIA REACTION: US AGGRESSION IN IRAQ; ISRAELI AGGRESSION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 002810 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 TC SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: US AGGRESSION IN IRAQ; ISRAELI AGGRESSION IN PALESTINE ¶1. Summary: A columnist in "Al-Bayan" criticized the United States' continued role in atrocities against Iraqi civilians under the guise of counter-terrorism, and urged resistance to US occupation. "Al-Khaleej" carried an editorial that questioned the motivations behind Israel's recent actions in the Palestinian territories. Finally, a columnist in "Al-Khaleej" strongly criticized US practices in Iraq and expressed skepticism regarding Al Maliki's ability to foster peace in Iraq. End Summary. ¶2. Under the headline "Further than Gilad", the Sharjah-based pan-Arab daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000) wrote the following in an 07/09 editorial: "Israel's recent refusal to even consider the exchange of Gilad Shalit for Palestinian prisoners exposes the reality of Israeli intentions. What they desire is to break the willpower of the Palestinians. This is not just an Israeli goal, but an American one, based upon a strategy shared by the rabbis of both the White House and Tel Aviv. To counter this strategy, Palestinians must unite and resolve their internal differences to form a unified front. This is the only way to save themselves from continued Israeli aggression." ¶3. Under the headline "Americanized Iraq: dates, figures and catastrophes", the Sharjah-based pan-Arab daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000) published the following in an 07/09 front-page editorial signed by Dr. Abdullah Omran, the publication's Editor in Chief: "... It is increasingly apparent that the new Iraqi Prime Minister has guts, but perhaps not enough. Insisting upon the removal of immunity for American soldiers will remove the veil that has concealed countless scandals and catastrophes since the US invasion. Here are some examples: the killing of 36,576 Iraqi civilians by US troops documented in a new international report between March 2003 and March 19, 2005 alone; more than 3.1 million Iraqi children (according to UNICEF statistics) orphaned and left on the streets to live from trash cans and be controlled by criminal gangs even as a quarter of them suffer from malnutrition, famine and adult psychological problems such as phobia, severe depression and hysteria; between 30,000 and 100,000 Iraqis imprisoned in either huge prisons or in small detainment facilities that remain clouded in secrecy, unsupervised by any legal or international authority; and finally, an unknown number of female detainees, noted by Amnesty International to likely be in the thousands, exposed to psychological intimidation, sexual humiliation, employment as hostages and brutal torture, the harshest form of which is threatened rape in front of their husbands and children. Amnesty describes one incident wherein a 70-year old woman was mounted like a donkey, and another where a 12-year old girl had her clothes ripped off and was badly beaten in front of her family members. These are only a few of the dozens of incidents that Amnesty International and other human rights and UN organizations have reported. These reports constitute the real history caused by the US invasion of Iraq, one which cannot be erased by shallow American slogans of freedom and democracy. There is a drastic need to review the complete record of US policies towards Iraq, not only their actions since the invasion in 2003 but starting in 1991 when they began imposing sanctions that starved a whole generation of Iraqis. Who could possibly succeed at this task? Not Nuri Al Maliki for certain, despite his sudden burst of courage." ¶4. Under the headline "US crimes", columnist Musa Abu Eid wrote the following in an 07/09 editorial in the Dubai-based Arabic-language daily "Al-Bayan" (circulation 85,000): "Every day more crimes and scandals committed by US troops in Iraq are revealed. Following the sadistic torture revealed by the Abu Ghraib scandal, the Haditha massacre of last November that left 24 Iraqi civilians, most of them women and children, dead, and the massacre in the town of Ishaqi north of Baghdad where US troops murdered 11 Iraqi civilians on March 15, a new crime has come to light in which an Iraqi girl was raped and then killed alongside her family members. All this only serves to highlight the ugly face of the US military... As soon as this crime was revealed, US and Iraqi authorities tried to somehow tie it to terrorists. As usual, any crime committed by US troops is somehow tied to the fight against terrorism. The results of US investigations into this crime are already known: it will be denounced as only an individual act, one that does not represent the US military. The issue will not go beyond a stern reprimand, or perhaps imprisonment for several years at most after which the soldier will be let free before his term is over. This scandal will not be the last so long as US forces remain in Iraq, granting Iraqis the right to resist even those occupation forms that lie and claim to spread values of freedom and democracy." SISON