MEDIA REACTION: IRAN, AFGHANISTAN, EU SUMMIT, FED, FRANCE,

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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAN, AFGHANISTAN, EU SUMMIT, FED, FRANCE,
POPE, IRAQ


1. Lead Stories Summary

2. President Obama's Video Message to Iran

3. New U.S. Strategy on Afghanistan

4. EU Summit, Financial Crisis, G-20

5. Fed Policy

6. General Strike in France

7. Papal Visit to Africa

8. Iraqi Refugees in Germany


1. Lead Stories Summary

ZDF-TV's early evening newscast Heute opened with a story on
Chancellor Merkel's governmental address in the Bundestag, while
ARD-TV's early evening newscast Tagesschau opened with a story on
the EU summit in Brussels. The papers opened with various stories
ranging from the 1.2 trillion dollar additional intervention by the
Fed to fight the recession, to Chancellor Merkel's governmental
address and to the difference in pay between men and women.
Editorials focused on the Chancellor Merkel's governmental address
and the trial of Josef Fritzl in Austria.


2. President Obama's Video Message to Iran

ARD-TV's Tagesschau showed part of the video and said: "In a video
message to Iran, President Obama talked about a new beginning.
Obama said the U.S. is striving for the Islamic Republic of Iran to
take its rightful place in the community of nations. He said this
cannot be achieved through terror and weapons. In a first response,
the Iranian leadership welcomed Obama's announcement. A spokesman
for President Ahmadinejad said the statement must now be followed by
actions."

Spiegel Online headlined "Obama offers Iran new beginning," and
noted: "While his predecessor believed Iran belonged to the axis of
evil, President Obama is venturing on a radical course change. In a
TV address, he offered the Iranian people a new beginning in
relations. The message indicates the end of a decades-long ice
age."

Zeit Online remarked: "President Obama has once again emphatically
signalled to Iran the opportunity of a new start in relations
between the leaderships in Tehran and Washington. He added that it
is up to the Iranians to decide whether they want to take their
rightful place in the international community."


3. New U.S. Strategy on Afghanistan

In an editorial, the Sueddeutsche stated: "U.S. proposals to puff up
the Afghan security forces to 400,000 troops are a desperate attempt
to meet the security needs of the people with an organizational
plan.... The idea is understandable, but it is also very American.
The number of 400,000 sounds gigantic, but given the size of the
country it is nothing. This is the wrong message of the new
Afghanistan strategy. The world, which has doubts about the success
of the mission, wants 400,000 judges, prosecutors and civil
servants. The worn out Afghan people do not have them on offer."


4. EU Summit, Financial Crisis, G-20

ARD-TV's late evening newscast Tagesthemen aired the following
commentary: "Now in this crisis, Europe must demonstrate why it
exists and what it is able to achieve. This first of all means,
vigorous but common action, for all sides involved are aware that
the end of the horror has not yet come. We need common rules and
coordinated action not only in the automobile industry. Unbridled
market capitalism prevails and politicians did not set limits. This
must change now! No market without oversight! No actor without
control! Europe is able to achieve this if it only wants to badly
enough. This is, by the way, also the answer in the controversy
with the U.S. about more billion dollar economic stimulus programs.

This summit in Brussels and the G-20 summit in London must show that
the leaders have the power to take control over the ominous free
play of the liberal market forces. This would be a courageous
policy. This would be Europe's task."

In the view of Handelsblatt, "20 years have passed since the fall of
the Wall and the Iron Curtain, but while Europe is preparing for
celebrating this anniversary, a new invisible wall is threatening to
be built between East and West. In this crisis, no one wants to
help the [eastern European] neighbors whose will for freedom and
willingness for reforms was praised so often. This hesitance is
having potentially fatal effects. People in Prague, Warsaw, and
Budapest again consider themselves to be second-class people. They
rightfully expect greater solidarity from the wealthy West. Those
who in good times made a good profit from the new member states
should not forget in bad times that they are not only customers but
also partners."

Sueddeutsche opined: "The world of central bankers is now turned
upside down. The taciturn self-confident administrators of money,
who were installed by governments...look as if they are helpless in
view of the crisis. That is why the governments must now play a
more important role. They must spend even more money to stimulate
the economy because the lowering of interest rates has had almost no
effect. The governments are the only ones who could counter this
development. After this crisis, the world, including the world of
central banks, will be a different one. Greenspan's heirs will have
less influence and will have to give away part of their power to
politicians."

According to Tagesspiegel, "the gap between the U.S. and Europe with
respect to stimulating the economy must be narrowed. Either
President Obama's giganto-experiment will succeed - then Europe must
refute the argument to have restructured itself at the expense of
the Untied States - or it will fail, and then Europe's
faintheartedness will be made responsible for it. To put it
bluntly: In this crisis, Europe all of a sudden finds itself in a
lose-lose situation. For the people, who are suspicious of
excessive state interventionism, this may not matter, but for the
political dynamism of the West the impact could be threatening."

In a second editorial, Handelsblatt observed: "The G-20 leaders will
meet in London to discuss a new global financial order, and what is
the contribution of banks? Not much compared to the list of
recommendations that the International Banking Organization (IIF)
has formulated for the meeting. In it the banks emphasize their
responsibility but do not announce their own confidence-building
measures to overcome the crisis. To put it briefly: measured
against their own proposals, the banks have apparently not learned
their lesson. With their tone and with respect to the substance of
the recommendations, the big shots of the banking sector continue as
before, as if the worst case scenario in the history of finance with
horrendous damage in the real economy had not existed. In the past
the IIF had a considerable influence in politics and the public.
But this is over now."


5. Fed Policy

Frankfurter Allgemeine argued: "A Federal Reserve that would allow
itself to serve government and Congress would be fatal for the
stability of the economy and the monetary value. The time in which
Fed officials and economists thought that they were able to pursue a
reasonable monetary policy without using money as a variable in
their equations should be over now. The current course of the Fed
is the best example that there is a connection between the stability
of prices and the amount of money that is available.
That is why Ben Bernanke should not miss the timing for a necessary
change of directions if he wants to prevent the seeds that he has
now sown for the development of the next bubble from bearing fruit.
Then the Fed must act as resolutely and creatively as today, because
this crisis does not change the iron principle that only scarce
money is good money."

Die Welt judged in a front-page editorial: "How great must be the
misery that the Fed is willing to take such a step? The price that
Fed chief Ben Bernanke is paying will be high. The limits between
government and central bank have become fluid in the U.S. The Fed
has turned into a division of the Treasury Department. But exactly
this lack of independence was the reason for the big waste of money
in Europe in the past century. All those who are now calling upon
the European Central Bank to follow suit should keep this in mind.
As bad as the current economic crisis is, it is absolutely necessary
to keep the long-term implications in mind when choosing the means
to fight the crisis. It would be disastrous if the savings claim
for pensions and life insurance were no longer worth anything
because the central bank had lost sight of its most important
goal."

Financial Times Deutschland had this to say: "In view of the
dramatic crisis of the financial system and in the real economy, the
Fed has practically no other choice but to accept such very risks
with this step. But it is also clear that this operation is by no
means as harmless as a helicopter flight. 'Shock and awe' can
result in massive collateral damage."

Regional daily Nordbayerischer Kurier of Bayreuth argued; "The Fed's
dramatic action shows in what bad shape the U.S. economy really is.
With all his might Fed chief Ben Bernanke wants to stop the decline
and give the economic recovery a new impetus. Because he is at his
wits' end - U.S. interest rates have almost reached zero percent -
he is now opening the monetary floodgates. But this inflated amount
of money in circulation will confront unchanged demand for goods and
services. This is the nurturing ground that can turn into a
mega-inflation."

Augsburger Allgemeine noted: "The chancellor and the European
central bankers do not use the Americans moves as a standard because
they are now flooding the markets with money. The Fed is now
starting the money printing machines, thus creating the next bubble.
These risky moves reveal sheer despair. Chancellor Merkel, Finance
Minister Steinbrueck and Economics Minister zu Guttenberg are acting
with greater circumspection. If the crisis escalated, they would
still have some trump cards in their pack of cards, while the
responsible U.S. officials are now forced to show their hand."

In an editorial regional daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of Halle had
this to say: "During his election campaign President Obama called
for a state intervention of 50 billion dollars. But the amount of
money which the U.S. state has pumped into the economy since then -
please hold your breath - is hundred times as much. How should this
work out? The arguments have been the same since the beginning of
the crisis: The U.S. and the global economy need a massive infusion
of money to survive. Nevertheless, there is mounting skepticism,
even suspicion, for the U.S. crisis management is becoming more
frenetic, more populist, and - more expensive."


6. General Strike in France

Sueddeutsche comments: "Due to the relatively small number of
members, French trade unions act like big shots to increase
pressure. On Thursday, they also benefited from the French tendency
to blame Paris for all problems. Playing a little revolution on the
journe d'action? The French as individualists like it."


7. Papal Visit to Africa

Sueddeutsche commented that "the Pope forgot to seriously take sides
with the poor during his visit to Africa" and adds: "It would be
helpful for Catholics in Africa if the Pope were to engage as a bold
and intrepid fighter for the poor and name the problems the people
really have. This includes corrupt rulers, who currently court him,
and a doctrine that is closer to the life of the people."

Frankfurter Allgemeine defended the Pope: "Condoms are a proven
means of contraception, but its usage is not the way out of Africa's
misery. Abstinence and faithfulness are the Pope's yardstick to
avoid HIV infections.... The idea to have intercourse with an
unlimited number of people if one only uses a condom... might be
closer to life, human, politically liberal and very convenient. But
religions and morality exist to put a stop to some human behaviors."



8. Iraqi Refugees in Germany

Frankfurter Allgemeine commented: "A total number of 2,500 refugees
will come. Most of them are persecuted members of religious
minorities. The American and British war is partly to blame for
this. However, it must be said that before the war Iraq was already
a country where human rights were not worth much. Saddam Hussein
and the Baath Party's policy on minorities was unpredictable....
Experience shows that Arab Christians integrate easier into European
societies than their Muslim fellow citizens. There is a good chance
that the Iraqis who are now coming will find a new home in
Germany."

Die Welt editorializes: "It would be better if the Chaldean
Christians, who have a history of 2000 years in the region, could
find a future in Iraq. It would be a defeat if the last third of
the 800,000 Iraqi Christians would also be expelled from the
country. However, given that it is a question of life and death, it
should be natural for a Christian country like Germany and a
Christian continent like Europe to help."

Tagesspiegel remarked: "This is a signal. Germany accepts 2,500
Iraqi refugees. Despite the economic crisis, the country is
open-minded and acknowledges the by far greater misery of others.
This is both noble and human - characteristics that are becoming
more popular in the current crisis. Given that most Germans
rejected the war in Iraq, there is a good chance that they will
welcome the victims of this campaign, the terror, violence and
chaos."

KOENIG