US embassy cable - 03AMMAN7420

UNCLAS AMMAN 007420 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR, I/GNEA, 
B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN 
USAID/ANE/MEA 
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH 
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR JO 
SUBJECT: AMMAN, MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ 
 
 
                           Summary 
 
-- Lead story in all papers today, November 16, focuses on 
reports about the two blasts against two synagogues in 
Istanbul, including the international and regional reaction 
and condemnation of the attacks.  Another lead story focuses 
on Iraq-related developments, including the downing of two 
Blackhawk U.S. helicopters in Mosul, Iraq, and the Iraqi 
Governing Council's announcement of a timetable for handing 
over power to the Iraqis, inclusive of a Iraqi elections 
before the end of 2005.  On the domestic front, all papers 
focus on newly-appointed Prime Minister Faisal Fayez' visit 
to the Jordanian dailies, where he emphasized the need for a 
"free media" that "is capable of serving the state, its 
leadership and its institutions", and not just a "government 
media". 
 
                    Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "The Iraqi resistance is making events" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(11/16):  "Continuing to pretend not to know the source of 
the daily attacks against the occupying forces in Iraq has 
become funny.  Besides, no one can ignore the fact that 
Saddam Hussein and Al-Baa'th regime are the ones leading the 
resistance in Iraq, that this resistance has brought 
dramatic and conclusive changes to events in Iraq, and that 
the story about America's enthusiasm to hand over power to 
the Iraqis is nothing but the fruit of this resistance.  It 
is early to say that the United States will withdraw from 
Iraq, but it is not far from the truth to say that the Bush 
administration has actually linked the Iraq file to the next 
presidential elections in the fall of 2004.  Choosing next 
June as the time for forming the `Iraqi Karzai government, 
five months before these elections, indicates that the Bush 
administration is seriously looking for a political cover to 
allow it to withdraw from the Iraqi arena and still allow 
the President to win the next elections.  This is what the 
Bush administration wants . but its calculations are not 
guaranteed, and it all depends on the Iraqi resistance and 
what Saddam Hussein might do." 
 
-- "The bloody lesson in Nasiriyeh" 
 
Daily columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page of 
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (11/16): 
"Those Italian soldiers did not deserve to die strangers on 
Iraqi soil.  There was no need to spill Italian blood in an 
Arab country when millions of Italians have taken to the 
streets in support of Arab causes.  The problem is, however, 
is that the businessman who is ruling Italy has turned the 
Italian army from a professional army defending Italy to a 
mercenary army in the service of the United States and its 
expansionist objectives.  The one who must pay the price for 
the Italian presence in Iraq is the Italian Prime Minister 
himself, and he must pay that price politically and not 
through violence..  The United States and Britain alone must 
drown in the Iraqi quagmire.  Washington and London are the 
ones who defied international resolutions and the Security 
Council, and they are the ones who sent their armies into 
Iraq, not just to occupy it, but also to run an experiment 
for occupation projects and the ousting of regimes in the 
region, particularly in Iran and Syria.  Thus, the failure 
of the American model in Iraq means the cancellation of such 
future projects being contemplated by the Zionist right-wing 
party ruling in the White House..  Eighteen Italian soldiers 
paid the price of America's greed and the collaboration of 
the Italian Prime Minister, who sent them to their death in 
service to the American occupation.  Yet, maybe the death of 
these soldiers was a sacrifice for other soldiers, whose 
countries would now hesitate to send them to Iraq.  Maybe it 
is a consolation for those who reject the American 
occupation and for those who reject violence against targets 
other than American or British, in that such operations 
might encompass a political vision rather than just being 
haphazard killing strikes.  They might be the bloody lesson 
that must read by anyone who is willing to provide 
protection and coverage for the American occupation."