US embassy cable - 03HARARE1885

UNCLAS HARARE 001885 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
IRAQ FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REMEBERING 9/11; HARARE 
 
 
  1.   Two weekend newspapers - the government-controlled 
      weekly "The Sunday Mail" and independent weekly "The 
      Standard" - dedicated huge acres of space to opinion 
      articles reflecting on the second anniversary of 
      September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. 
      Last week, most of the mainstream newspapers also 
      carried wire articles, mostly by Reuters and Agence 
      France -Presse (AFP), that focused on activities, 
      events and issues centering on September 11. 
      Excerpts follow: 
 
  2.   Under headline "U. S. racism unmasked" the 
      government-controlled weekly "The Sunday Mail" 
      (09/14) carried the following opinion piece by 
      Tafataona Mahoso under his regular column, "African 
      Focus," on page 10 in which he accuses the U. S. and 
      Britain of "lying" in order "to justify their 
      illegal war against Iraq."   Excerpts: 
 
      "Most serious students of international relations by 
      now will have been thoroughly impressed by the 
      amount of lying it took the U. S. and British 
      governments to justify their illegal war against 
      Iraq.  But there is the case of five Cuban prisoners 
      of conscience coming up for appeal in Atlanta, 
      Georgia, in the U. S. on September 15, 2003, which 
      in many ways is more embarrassing than even the 
      illegal war against Iraq. . .The five Cubans are 
      victims of five of the worst white North American 
      prejudices against `other' peoples.  These five 
      historic prejudices have now been complicated by the 
      September 11 bombings of New York and Washington, 
      which happened long after the arrests of the Cubans, 
      and should have actually assisted the North 
      Americans to sympathize with their captives, but, in 
      fact, worsened the prejudices by worsening North 
      American xenophobia. . . ." 
 
  3.   Under headline "Americans remember 11 September" the 
      September 14 edition of the independent weekly "The 
      Standard" carried an opinion piece by Ken Mafuka, 
      under his regular column "American notes," in which 
      he hails Americans for displaying "their best 
      character, patriotism and generosity of spirit" 
      during September 11 "memorial day."  Excerpts: 
 
      "Americans must have invented patriotism.  The 
      events September 11. . .has become a memorial day. 
      The news media, the politicians and religious 
      leaders have voluntarily come together to worship 
      and make memorials of those heroes who died in the 
      attack.  In remembering the lost ones, Americans 
      display their best character, patriotism and 
      generosity of spirit. . .The events of September 11 
      may have laid the foundations of a better America. 
      Since that date, many Are Americans, who regarded 
      themselves as racists, have now realized that when 
      the country is faced by a persistent and an 
      unyielding enemy like Al Qaeda Muslim extremists, 
      all Americans regardless of race, are in the fight 
      together. . . ." 
 
SULLIVAN