MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Transatlantic Relations -

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001068

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR INR/R/MR; IIP/RW; IIP/RNY; BBG/VOA; IIP/WEU; AF/PA;
EUR/WE /P/SP; D/C (MCCOO); EUR/PA; INR/P; INR/EUC; PM; OSC ISA
FOR ILN; NEA; WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE; DOC FOR ITA/EUR/FR
AND PASS USTR/PA; USINCEUR FOR PAO; NATO/PA; MOSCOW/PA;
ROME/PA; USVIENNA FOR USDEL OSCE.

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR FR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Transatlantic Relations -
France and U.S. Islam - Cartoons and Politics Iraq GWOT:
Guantanamo
PARIS - Tuesday, February 21, 2006


(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT:

Transatlantic Relations - France and U.S.
Islam - Cartoons and Politics
Iraq
GWOT: Guantanamo

B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE:

President Chirac's visit to India, Mittal Steel's hostile
takeover bid on Arcelor and the government's legislative
debate to protect French companies from takeovers are some of
today's front pages stories. La Tribune in its editorial
laments France's old guard attitude: "Since the fiasco of the
Maginot line, strategists know that there is no defense that
can oppose a determined and intelligent aggressor. In the
battle for globalization played out before our eyes, France is
sadly perpetuating its old strategy. Just when everyone else
is opening up its borders, France is trying to build up
walls!" The President's visit to India also serves as an
introduction for Le Monde's editorial on a "Franco-American
rapprochement." (See Part C)

The U.S. position in the Middle East and more globally how the
West has reacted to the Muhammad cartoons continue to elicit
commentaries. (See Part C)

Avian flu in Europe and the torture and consequent murder of a
French man, with suggestions that the motivation was a hate
crime because he was Jewish, make up the rest of today's news.

Left-of-center Liberation over the weekend reported
extensively on a French citizen's ordeal at Guantanamo. Mourad
Benchellali, released from Guantanamo to French custody and
then later released into the public, recounts his odyssey.
According to him, he started off on an adventure to learn more
about Islam, ended up in Afghanistan, unintentionally in a
Taliban training camp, and was captured, tortured in Kandahar
and then remanded to Guantanamo. The article ends with him
saying "maybe I made a mistake in going to Afghanistan, but I
didn't deserve Guantanamo." An accompanying article is
entitled "In the U.S. a blind eye remains the rule." "Your
are welcome to visit Guantanamo, but you cannot see anything.
That, in substance, was the invitation of the American
government to the independent team of investigators, mandated
by the UN's Commission of Human Rights. An invitation which
they politely declined." The article highlights a quote from
Secretary Rumsfeld: "There's no torture. There's no abuse (at

SIPDIS
Guantanamo.)" (See Part C)

(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES:

Transatlantic Relations - France and U.S.

"Transatlantic Duo"
Left-of-center Le Monde in its unsigned editorial (02/21):
"Not so long ago, a visit by President Chirac to India, just
prior to a similar one by President Bush, would have been
interpreted as a sign of rivalry between Paris and Washington.
While economic competition between the two nations remains,
there is no longer strategic competition. In fact, President
Chirac refrained from talking about a multipolar world,
something that tends to annoy Washington no end. This omission
is not fortuitous. It is in fact part of Chirac's new
diplomacy. Indisputably, France has gotten closer to the U.S.
And President Bush, who, since the beginning of his second
term, has drawn the lessons from the Iraqi imbroglio, has
everything to gain from not alienating his major allies in
Europe. The rapprochement appears all the more stable because
it relies on well-understood common interests. Faced with
Iran's nuclear ambitions, France reacted with the same
determination as the U.S, even if it continues to travel the
diplomatic road. Paris and Washington have adopted the same
determined approach towards Syria. More generally, the
terrorist threat and how to deal with it, has given birth to a
sharing of views. Chirac's revisited nuclear doctrine is an
echo of the American nuclear strategy. The rapprochement is
discreet, probably out of a desire not to trigger a French
domestic controversy and is the result of a close cooperation
between advisers on both sides. What remains to be seen is
whether the new Franco-American cooperation is durable, or
just the result of an improvised about-face dictated by an
uncomfortable position born from previous excesses."

Islam - Cartoons and Politics

"Questions Raised by the Muhammad Cartoons"
Pierre Rousselin in right-of-center Le Figaro (02/21): "The
controversy is not over. Musharraf's regime is being
threatened by demonstrations while Churches were burned in
Nigeria. The affair has underscored that in the West,
questioning the precepts of Islam remains a sensitive issue.
Anger was manipulated by those who want to ignite a shock
between civilizations. and continues to serve those who want
to settle domestic issues, as in Nigeria and Pakistan. If the
manipulators can operate so easily, it is because they are
functioning inside a frightening vacuum: who in the West
really tried to calm the fires? Europe carries a heavy
responsibility for not coming to the aid of Denmark. As for
the U.S., it did not feel directly concerned by the crisis.
The cartoons were not reproduced in the U.S., possibly because
of the more important role of religion there. Still the U.S.,
like Europe, has been targeted by the demonstrators. It is not
enough to say one does not want a shock between civilizations.
Maybe one should try to deal with the disastrous image caused
by the accusations of detainee treatments in Guantanamo; or
try to give the impression we know where we are going in Iraq,
or with Tehran. If all these questions were dealt with, it
would be easier to explain the importance of freedom of the
press. Meanwhile, Europe's moderate Islam seems to have
understood its importance."

"Musharraf Under Fire"
Marie-France Calle in right-of-center Le Figaro (02/21):
"Islamabad has no choice: two weeks before President Bush's
trip, the government must squash the violent protests erupting
against the Muhammad cartoons. Those using the controversy to
mobilize the streets are using simple arithmetic: Bush, the
Danish cartoonists and Musharraf all fall into the same
anathema. The equation, at first glance, can appear odd,
especially since the Pakistani government officially condemned
the drawings. Still, the pressure in Pakistan is mounting with
Musharraf increasingly in the line of fire. One of the most
influential religious parties has declared the `demonstrations
will continue until Musharraf falls.' Danish and American
flags are being burned together, and the Pakistani leader is,
in a nutshell, being compared to a `traitor.' Added to the
domestic posturing in Pakistan which is taking a turn for the
worse, there is the diplomatic crisis between Islamabad and
Copenhagen."

"Washington and Instability in the Middle East"
Pierre Prier in Le Figaro (02/21): "In her speech in Cairo in
June 2005, Secretary Rice said that what forced regimes to
tighten the grip was not the Islamic threat, but rather the
opposite: by restraining the field of the political, this
triggered Islamic violence. There is a trend to beat one's
`mea culpa' in Western circles, repeating how certain regimes
have been kept aloft in the name of oil and stability.
Secretary Rice and the Department of State are looking for a

SIPDIS
real policy (for the Middle East). It will include a dialogue
with non-violent Islamists. as in Egypt. The Quartet has
announced it would talk to Hamas. For the U.S., time is
pressing. Islamic strategists are not waiting for Washington
to reassess its policy. They are going ahead with original
policies, joining hands with Christians where it meets their
needs. Stability is a thing of the past. With Iraq, Washington
wanted things to begin to move in the Middle East. Now the
difficulty lies in controlling how things progress in an
explosive region."
Iraq
"The U.S. Other Failure in Iraq is the Economy"
Eric Le Boucher in left-of-center Le Monde (025/20): "Last
Thursday Condoleezza Rice was flustered in front of the Senate
financing committee's question concerning the state of affairs
in Iraq. And the state of affairs is terrible. The
insurrection has ruined the reconstruction effort. The cost of
security absorbs 20 to 50% of the credits because of the
bombs, the attacks and sabotage, not to mention a permanent
atmosphere of intimidation. The patent failure of the Iraqi
economy is the price to pay for the American failure to be
able to control the country."

GWOT: Guantanamo

"Accusations"
Left-of-center Liberation in its editorial (02/20): "Nothing
obliges us to believe all the accusations made by the former
French detainee about what goes on in Guantanamo, but at the
end of the day, it is necessary to believe him when he shows
how the U.S. has demeaned, with its arbitrary incarceration
policy, its own principles. The accusations contained in this
testimony feed others recently heard -- notably in Iraq where
the British have been singled out." STAPLETON