SPIES LIKE US: THE MEDIA'S TENDENCY TO SEE U.S.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NOUAKCHOTT 000759

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2018
TAGS: KPAO PROP MR
SUBJECT: SPIES LIKE US: THE MEDIA'S TENDENCY TO SEE U.S.
AGENTS EVERYWHERE

REF: A. A. NOUAKCHOTT 634

B. B. NOUAKCHOTT 686

C. C. NOUAKCHOTT 718

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Dennis Hankins for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).


1. (C) Summary: A December 14th allegation of spying on the
part of the US Embassy brought to light an increasing
tendency in the local media towards personal attacks,
sensationalism and an erosian in journalistic integrity.
Since the August 6th coup it has become commonplace to use
bold titles to attract reader's attention without fact
checking. Recent anonymous and overt threats to journalists
demand they toe the party line or risk sabotage of their
newspapers, credentials and ability to continuing practicing
journalism. Editors complain that sales, subsciptions and
advertisements have plummeted forcing them to use unethical
jounralistic tactics. Spy allegations against AmCits in the
Mauritanian context are nothing new, but the increased
personal treatment of USEmbassy personnel as well as
deliberate fabrication of figures and distortion or stories
is notable. End summary.


2. (SBU) Rumors of espionage: On December 14, the daily
newspaper "La Renovateur" published a brief article under the
headline "ESPIONAGE?" (Spying?) stating that the Charge was
accompanied by a U.S. military man in uniform during a visit
to President Abdallahi in his native village of Lemden. The
article claimed that the serviceman asked to see Gendarmerie
elements tasked with keeping Abdallahi under surveillance,
and ended with the sentence: "This is an unusual occurrence
that reminds one of the Noriega adventure." Similar stories
about a U.S. serviceman accompanying the Charge appeared in
several online news sites. However, on December 16 "La
Renovateur" published a correction (something rarely seen in
the Mauritanian press,and with only a two day lapse) to the
original article. The correction piece stated that the
supposed U.S. serviceman was actually only a bodyguard for
the Charge (which was true).


3. (C) How stories are selected: Curious about the original
article and subsequent correction, PAO, PolAsst, and LES PD
Specialist met informally December 17 with Cheikh Tidjane
Dia, editor of "La Renovateur." Dia said that the original
article alleging espionage was taken from CRIDEM, a
Mauritanian news web site (www.cridem.org). "We publish
things from all types of sources," he said, indicating that
once a story is out there, it's fair game for publishing.
Dia stated he would use CRIDEM as a source for stories in the
future, despite the complete falsehood of the U.S. military
presence in the Lemden story. Nevertheless, EmbOffs praised
Dia for printing the correction article, saying it was a good
example of journalistic professionalism, a trait often
lacking in the Mauritanian press. EmbOffs further encouraged
him in the future to contact the PD section directly if he
wanted confirmation on a particular story or rumor.


4. (C) A familiar theme: Espionage allegations against U.S.
citizens are not uncommon in the Mauritanian press. In 2007,
several papers alleged that the Marine House was a "secret
CIA prison" with front page photographs as evidence. They
cited as proof the fact that people were observed coming and
going at late hours of the night (ignoring the fact that the
Marine House often hosts parties for the U.S. community). In
a December 17 meeting with local Peace Corps director, he
confirmed three prior incidents with local and international
press where volunteers were accused of being spies, once
during an Al Jazeera interview with visiting Peace Corps
deputy director, in June 2007. Also, in early October 2008,
a web site ran a story alleging that a U.S. diplomat was
detained under suspicion of espionage
(www.anbaa.info/spip.php?article488). The story was
accompanied by an image of the CIA seal on a stark black
background. What actually happened was that a U.S. diplomat
who was taking pictures on a busy street caught the attention
of a passing "journalist" (rumored to be a member of the
security services) who escorted him to the police. RSO
responded immediately and cleared up the misunderstanding.

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5. (C) Eye on America: Personal attacks in the media against
US Embassy personnel began surfacing a month ago (Ref B).
Even good friend of the Embassy, former International
Visitor, and head of the Mauritanian Alumni Association
Mohammed Fall Oumere fell prey to this temptation. An article
he wrote in the December 15th edition of his weekly paper La
Tribune he splashed photos of the US Embassy cafeteria and
Charge taken during the remittance of an award on the UN Day
for Human Rights to Anti-Slavery Champion Boubacar Messaoud.
He criticized Charge D'Affairs Dennis Hankins for having
called the "coup" a coup instead of an "event" which
according to Oumere shows the personal efforts of high level
US diplomats on behalf of anti-coup US homologues. Fall
continued to criticizes the relegation of the Mauritanian
portfolio to "a small functionary of the Department of State."


6. (C) The junta's mouthpiece drones on: It is not only
private media fabricating stories but also state-sponsored
press is now purposely distorting facts to promote their
agenda. A failed October 26th junta trip to Tanzania was
labeled a success by the state press (Ref A). A December
15th Horizon (state-sponsored media) article claimed that the
6-14 Climate Change Conference in Poland led to the launch of
an 8 million dollar program in Mauritania. According to
local USAID rep "the newspaper made it sound like a much
larger program initiative and that the junta would control
it. This is not correct."


7. (C) Intimidation on the rise: On December 11th Mohamed
Memine, reporter for Al Alem and president of the Mauritanian
Association for the Defense of Journalists was stopped at a
checkpoint and "verbally abused" by a policeman. December
12th articles covering the incident in two online sources
(www.ani.mr) and (www.mauritanie-web.mr) claim Memine was
targeted as a journalist and expressed their solidairty with
"our brother". On December 10th post received an email from
a journalist of the Al Arabiya news channel claiming that
since the coup he had been convoked in front of the
junta-appointed Minster of Information and threatened three
times or have his accreditation revoked. Earlier cyber
attacks (Ref C) and other more subtle regressions in press
liberty had become common, but this kind of over attack and
firsthand account of intimidation are unusual and should be
monitored closely.

8 (C) Comment: Taken together, these incidents indicate a
willingness on the part of journalists to print stories
without any kind of fact verification. Many local papers
also seem inclined to print stories that will sell their
papers, rather than provide factual news. The result is that
many of the stories that appear in the media must be taken
with a healthy dose of skepticism. A story often appears in
one paper or web site, and then propagates, either verbatim
or with minor changes, to other papers and web sites. This
practice creates a sort of self-perpetuating echo chamber,
making it difficult to uncover the original source for a
story. Furthermore, it is easy for the local media to brand
any incident involving U.S. citizens as potential "spying."
Such stories sell papers, and mesh well with the conspiracy
stories heard on the street of the omnipresence of U.S.
intelligence agents and military personnel. Given the
current climate of anti-Americanism due to the harsh stance
of the US towards the coup the papers must write to their
audience's demands. With spontaneous protests erupting all
over the country, from the capital to the interior (Ayoun),
in support of Iraqi journalist Zaidy, one can never
underestimate the local appetite for stories critical of the
US, especially with respect to foreign policy.
HANKINS