US embassy cable - 04AMMAN5480

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 005480 
 
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 SADDAM'S TRIAL 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- The aftermath of Saddam Hussein's appearance in 
court last week continues to reverberate in a large 
number of commentaries.  Lead stories in all papers 
today, July 6, focus on Iraq-related developments, as 
well as issues related to the Palestinian Territories 
and Israel. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Saddam between two images" 
 
Daily columnist Jawad Bashiti writes on the op-ed page 
of independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al- 
Yawm (07/06):  "Saddam Hussein will be tried on the 
basis of evidence presented, but the punishment has 
already been determined.  The court is not convened 
for the sake of a trial but rather to execute that 
punishment.  Those who did not heed international 
legitimacy in launching the war on Iraq are certainly 
not going to value any such legitimacy in putting 
Saddam Hussein on trial..  Saddam Hussein is now being 
portrayed as a tyrant and a criminal who committed 
many war crimes and crimes against humanity.  Yet this 
image is not one that will take away support for him 
among the Arab people, who still regard him as the 
Arab ruler who remained truest to the ideals of 
resistance and enmity towards Israel and the United 
States.  Had Saddam Hussein not lived by this enmity, 
the Arab people might now regard him as a tyrant who 
deserves the worst of fates...  Arab citizens are 
likely to be lenient towards a tyrant ruler if they 
find in him the spirit of national defiance, because 
national degradation is the strongest feeling Arab 
citizens feel..  Until Saddam Hussein's replacement 
comes along, first manufactured by the United States, 
and later another as someone who rises in inevitable 
counter-reaction to the Americans' choice, the Arab 
people will continue to regard Saddam Hussein as a 
national hero worthy of love and admiration." 
 
-- "Saddam's trial" 
 
Columnist Hassan Barari writes on the op-ed page of 
centrist, influential among the elite English daily 
Jordan Times (07/06):  "Saddam's is a lost case and 
even the best lawyers on earth cannot defend him. 
Puzzling, though, is the decision of some Jordanian 
lawyers to defend him, referring to him as the leader 
of the `national movement of Iraq against occupation". 
The Iraqis do not see him as such.  Why should the 
Jordanian lawyers volunteer to do such a job when an 
overwhelming majority of Iraqi people suffered badly 
under his rule?  Ironically, those who defend him are 
the same people who are asking for democracy, human 
rights and pluralism.  One cannot reconcile these 
values with defending Saddam..  One cannot help but 
cast doubt on the timing of the trial.  First of all, 
the current interim government is totally 
illegitimate, as it was installed by a colonial power. 
The Iraqis did not choose this government.  Until an 
elected government assumes power, such a trial will be 
irrelevant." 
 
-- "Between two trials" 
 
Daily columnist Urayb Rintawi writes on the op-ed page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(07/06):  "Many of us drew comparisons [Saddam's 
trial] with . the trial of [Palestinian] Marwan 
Barghouti before the occupation authority's court. 
Marwan laughed at his judges.  He neither acknowledged 
nor cared about what he was charged with.  He did not 
try to avoid the mark of resistance and the Intifada.. 
This image was completely absent from the first court 
session of Saddam Hussein and his colleagues.  The 
President was defensive and justifying.  He spoke much 
more than he needed to.  His sense of public and 
personal defeat was very clear in his responses and 
his gestures..  What is worse than the President's 
performance was that of his colleagues . who appeared 
weak and defeated as they looked for a way out at any 
cost..  All Saddam and his colleagues had to do was 
say one sentence and the trial would have taken a 
different course:  we do not recognize you, court and 
government, and the resistance will continue until the 
country is cleansed of occupation, its symbols and its 
agents.  This would have been logical and in keeping 
with the heritage, the image and the rhetoric." 
-- "Saddam's appearance" 
Columnist Kamal Rashid writes on the op-ed page of 
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(07/06):  "Saddam and his colleagues would not have 
found mercy or compassion from anyone had the American 
era in Iraq been better than the Saddam era.  The 
Iraqis felt the mistreatment of Americans and the 
allies, their demands, their grudges and their shame. 
The Iraqis saw them kill and steal and their actions 
in Abu Ghraib prison.  The mistreatments of the 
Americans and the British worked in favor of Saddam. 
The Iraqi resistance worked in favor of Saddam.  The 
Arab frustration about the U.S. stand vis--vis the 
Arab and Muslim causes worked in favor of Saddam. 
Yet, America does not really care about Saddam's fate, 
now that it has taken what it wanted." 
GNEHM