MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ: SADDAM'S DEATH; AFRICA: SOMALIA; SAO

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000007 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ: SADDAM'S DEATH; AFRICA: SOMALIA; SAO PAULO ¶1. "Saddam And The Hanging" Columnist Carlos Heitor Cony wrote in liberal, largest national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo (1/4): "Except for the US and the UK, the supporters of the Western civilization, apparently all other nations have condemned Saddam Hussein's execution.... I oppose the death penalty, but we should respect the laws of a nation that is currently more or less sovereign as is the case of Iraq. There is the death penalty for murderers there, and Saddam was a murderer.... Regardless of how much worse he has been - and Saddam was the worst in many aspects - he deserved the respect that every culprit is entitled to. His enemies both inside and outside Iraq had already lynched him morally, in addition to having submitted him to a controversial trial. He could not be acquitted.... But [the hanging] was a barbarism, a medieval rite and a violent aggression against the sensitivities of a civilized world." ¶2. "A 6th US Army For Africa" Center-right national circulation daily O Estado de S. Paulo's Paris correspondent Giles Lapouge commented (1/4): "The Pentagon is considering the creation of a new military command to operate only in Africa, a 6th US Army.... Why? For two reasons. The first is that Somalia continues to be a weak nation. The 'Muslims' have fled, but they continue around, in a lawless area in the Somalia-Kenya border. In addition, the Ethiopian soldiers who expelled the Muslims are hated by the Somali population.... The second reason is more profound. The Americans fear that the Islamic insanity will contaminate that continent, especially the Horn of Africa region. They fear that lawless states such as Somalia become a sanctuary for Al Qaeda. That would represent an enormous risk for the West, mainly because the Horn of Africa is a necessary passage for international oil traffic. If Washington is so concerned with the possibility of Islamism installing itself in that area it is because it has already received significant warnings.... Such reasons have led Washington to create this 6th Army. The Pentagon's spokesperson, Joe Carpenter, announced the goal: 'To prevent the creation of another Afghanistan'.... Everything indicates that the recent intervention by Ethiopian troops in Somalia had the support of US reconnaissance aircraft." Wolfe