MEDIA REACTION ON ANNIVERSARY OF SEPTEMBER 11

UNCLAS AMMAN 006896 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 TSOU SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR JO SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON ANNIVERSARY OF SEPTEMBER 11 Editorial Commentary -- "Five years" Columnist Basem Sakijha writes on the op-ed page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Ad-Dustour (09/07): "Five years since the 9/11 attacks and the sight of the collapsing two World Trade Center towers in New York continues to stir feelings. Although the event does not justify all that came after it in terms of wars, killing, destruction, collapse of regimes and attempts to alter the map, it is nevertheless a horrific historical event of the type that divides time to 'before' and 'after'. It could have been a historical lesson for all. If the phenomenon of Al-Qaeda was studied correctly, the result would conclude that all parties are responsible for its existence, from Washington that supported in in Afghanistan in the face of the Soviet Union, through the anti-Arab American political, the long standing Israeli occupations in Arab countries, and the absence of democracy in the Muslim world, to the western culture that despises other cultures, and so on and so forth.... Five years since that horrific scene and the parties continue to act as if they want it to happen again, not just in New York and Washington, but also in the rest of the world. And this is stupidity at its best." HALE