GOA'S DECISION NOT TO SEND TROOPS TO LEBANON; FUNDING OF

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001869 SIPDIS STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, WHA/EPSC CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION SUBJECT: GOA'S DECISION NOT TO SEND TROOPS TO LEBANON; FUNDING OF HEZBOLLAH SOURCED IN ARGENTINA; THE THREAT OF TERRORISM; 08/18/06; BUENOS AIRES ¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT Today's leading stories examine the Argentine government's rejection of the UNSC request to send troops to Lebanon; confirmation by a Hezbollah leader that some of its funding is sourced in Argentina; and an editorial about the terrorist threat highlighted by the plot uncovered in London. ¶2. OPINION PIECES AND KEY STORIES - "A decision which isolates the country" Joaquin Morales Sola, political columnist of daily-of-record "La Nacion," writes (08/18) that the decision of the government, immediate and categorical, to reject the request of the UN Security Council for Argentine troops to participate in the peacekeeping force in Lebanon, marks a certain intellectual sloppiness in the administration of foreign policy. "The rejection contradicts the official discourse in the area of foreign policy, which always asserted - with good reason - the need for the Security Council to assume responsibility for peace or war in the world. "The first version among argentine officials was that the United States had pressed Kirchner to participate...Sources in Washington underlined that this pressure never existed and that Bush's diplomats never asked for anything, although they did ask what Argentina would be doing. "Brazil, it must be said, was more elegant in its negative reply: it said that its troops were too occupied maintaining peace in Haiti. "Obsessed with internal conquests (and fearful of being criticized by the ideological circles the president frequents) Kirchner preferred the fastest solution: say no to Kofi Annan and leave the world on its own to resolve its problems." - "Hezbollah says it receives money from Argentina" Silvia Pisani, on special assignment in the Middle East for "La Nacion," starts her front page article (08/18) "'Money comes to Hezbollah from Argentina.'" "The confirmation, which did not include any specific figures, came from Muafak Jammal, one of the political heads of Hezbollah and a person who has the high confidence of the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. In fact, he is one of those responsible within the terrorist islamic group who on July 12, captured two Israeli soldiers, which sparked the war which lasted 33 days and left more than 1200 dead. "Money comes not only from the Muslim community in Argentina but also from Christian Lebanese committed to the effort for post-war reconstruction, affirmed Jammal to 'La Nacion'. "Jammal regretted the decision by Nestor Kirchner's government not to send peacekeeping troops to the border with Israel. 'I would like to know why he took that path.' ¶3. EDITORIALS - "The Threat of Terrorism" Leading "Clarin" editorializes (08/18) "The plot uncovered in London to bring down ten planes with explosive liquids while in flight to the U.S. puts on maximum alert, once again, the security systems of the world's large cities and airports. "...the distribution of information indicates the existence of destructive capabilities in the hands of groups or persons with the intention of doing enormous harm. "On the other hand, the memory of September 11 and the attacks on Madrid and London several years later lays out the characteristics of a threat for which modern societies do not yet have effective responses. "In the first place, because it instills collective fear and insecurity as a factor which always exists in large gatherings of people. The plan...repeats the operating methods of fundamentalist groups which act as a network, count on support in different parts of the world and move with knowledge of the territory. "In this framework, the sense of insecurity and vulnerability can only diminish and be reversed with good intelligence and without falling into the trap of adopting the same fear that terrorist methods attempt to establish." To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our classified website at: http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires MATERA