US embassy cable - 04AMMAN3140

UNCLAS AMMAN 003140 
 
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: MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Lead stories in all papers today, April 22, focus 
on the two explosions in Riyadh and Basra, 
highlighting the death toll and the number of injured 
civilians.  One columnist strongly criticizes the U.S. 
"campaign" against some Arab satellite stations for 
their media coverage of the situation in Iraq. 
Another columnist views Spain's decision to withdraw 
its troops as the work of the Iraqi resistance. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Polishing the image of the occupation" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back-page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(04/22):  "I mean the American occupation that has 
begun to express publicly its dismay with the media 
coverage of the Arab media, particularly the satellite 
stations, for events on the Iraqi scene.  For the 
first time, we see a coordinated campaign against Al- 
Jazeerah and Al-Arabiyyah at the highest levels of the 
Pentagon.  Vocabulary used in this campaign is 
designed to charge these satellite stations' news 
reports as being lies and provocation, which is 
definitely a preparation for further oppressive 
measures that would put in darkness what is going on 
in Iraq and portray the occupation as succeeding in 
rebuilding the new Iraq, when in reality Iraq today is 
an Iraq of victims, massacres, booby-trapped cars, 
sieges of cities and prisons.  It is ironic that the 
American occupation would accuse the Arab media 
outlets of lying, when it knows that the biggest lie 
was that of the weapons of mass destruction..  Iraq 
today is not a source of pride from America and 
Britain, because Iraq now has been transferred from a 
state of suffocating siege and regional wars into a 
state of self-destruction, a shooting range and a 
refuge for violence movements from Afghanistan all the 
way to North Africa.  What each of Bush and Blair 
managed to do is create a different model in Iraq that 
simulates the barbaric model established by Sharon in 
Palestine.  This truth does not require reports from 
Al-Jazeerah and Al-Arabiyyah, for these two are just 
witnesses." 
 
-- The Spanish forces' withdrawal and the American 
failure in Iraq" 
 
Daily columnist Yaser Za'atreh writes on the op-ed 
page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al- 
Dustour (04/22):  "There is no point in viewing the 
withdrawal of the Spanish forces from Iraq as the 
outcome of fears of armed operations against Spanish 
interests inside and outside Iraq.  How would we 
explain the Honduras' decision to do the same and the 
expected decision b Thailand?  What is actually going 
on is an expression of the international forces' 
feeling that the American occupation project of Iraq 
has become a reason for financial and human exhaustion 
and title for defeat.  It has become clear that the 
cake that was promised to the collaborators has become 
some sort of lethal poison..  No one can sacrifice 
troops for a failing project, let alone for the sake 
of neo-conservatives in the United States?  This is of 
course the fruit of the work of the Iraqi resistance, 
not the accomplishments of members of the governing 
council or peaceful resistance..  The Spanish move is 
to be praised and appreciated because it simply 
declared the defeat of the occupation project in 
Iraq." 
HALE