MEDIA REACTION - IRAQ AND POISONING OF FORMER

UNCLAS TOKYO 006823 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR I/RF, PA/PR/FPC/W, IIP/G/EA, EAP/PD, R/MR, EAP/J, EAP/P, PM; USTR FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; TREASURY FOR OASIA/IMI; SECDEF FOR OASD/PA; CP BUTLER OKINAWA FOR AREA FIELD OFFICE; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO JA SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - IRAQ AND POISONING OF FORMER RUSSIAN SPY - TOKYO LEAD STORIES: All Monday morning papers front-paged a press conference by Miyazaki Governor Ando, during which he revealed his intention to quit to take responsibility for his assistants' alleged involvement in bid-rigging for prefectural public work programs. ¶1. "No Exit from Iraq in Sight" The business-oriented Nikkei editorialized (12/4): "In their summit on November 30 in Amman, President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki agreed on the accelerated transfer of security responsibility to the Iraqi side. However, there appears to be no clear scenario for a US pullout. The Bush administration is essentially giving up on its goal of realizing a democratic Iraq. Instead, Washington has set territorial integrity and a self-sustaining government as minimum goals. Even these will be hard to achieve. Although Maliki insists that transferring security authority to Iraq by next June is possible, restoring order without US military assistance will be difficult. More US troops are needed in the short term to hold off a full-fledged civil war." ¶3. "Mysterious Death of Former Russian Spy: A Police State Run Amok" An editorial in the conservative Sankei states (12/4): "A democratic state guarantees free elections and the right to criticize the government. Even though it supposedly shares the democratic values of the G-8 to which it belongs, Putin's Russia cannot be called a democracy. The Kremlin is under the control of former KGB agents, and elections for local governors have been done away with. Now there has been a series of assassinations and mysterious deaths of prominent antigovernment critics.... The Putin administration has denied its role in these killings. But whoever is responsible, the essential nature of the problem is that this police state ignores the human rights of dissidents and has hence condoned terrorist attacks on them... This month marks the 15th anniversary of the demise of the Soviet Union. The political situation now is much worse than it was during the twilight years of perestroika." SCHIEFFER