US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD2422

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002422 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, NEA/PPD, NEA/PPA, NEA/AGS, INR/IZ, 
INR/P 
E.0. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, KMDR, KPAO, IZ, Media Reaction 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ VIOLENCE CONSTITUTION; 
BAGHDAD 
 
 
1. SUMMARY: The major themes in the daily newspapers on 
June 7 were the developments of the political and security 
situations. END SUMMARY. 
 
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 
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A. "Shall we have an Iraqi conference to stop violence?" 
(Al-Ittihad, June 7) 
B. "Credibility of the constitutional process" (As-Sabah, 
June 7) 
 
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SELECTED COMMENTARIES 
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A. "Shall we have an Iraqi conference to stop violence?" 
(June 7) 
 
Al-Ittihad (affiliated with PUK led by Jalal Talabani) 
published a third-page editorial by Abdul Hadi Mahdi about 
violence in Iraq: 
 
"It seems that the Iraqi people are becoming more concerned 
about the security situation because of the number of 
people that the terrorists are killing.  Iraqi blood is 
being shed daily and there seems to be no hope of this 
stopping in the near future.  Every Iraqi killed is a loss 
to this country. 
 
We do not want to discuss who is behind these operations. 
We just want to put an end to them and stop the bloodshed. 
All Iraqi political parties must discard their 
disagreements and solve this security issue.  It paralyzes 
Iraqi society.  Those who accuse each other of being 
responsible for the violence in Iraq must unite in order to 
stop the daily Iraqi bloodshed. 
 
We notice that all the patriotic groups announce 
condemnations after each terrorist operation that targets 
Iraqi citizens. However, we don't need more condemnations; 
we need a surgery to heal the Iraqi wound. But who will 
perform this surgery?  In fact, it is wrong to be waiting 
for a solution from abroad because only Iraqi people can 
heal these wounds. 
 
Some neighboring countries announce that they will support 
Iraq. They don't want to stop the bloodshed in Iraq--they 
want the benefits. After the violence increased, we heard 
the neighboring countries and other countries announce that 
they will support the Iraqi government and help develop the 
Iraqi security forces. But we want tangible deeds and do 
not want statements and speeches.  Therefore, Iraqi people 
must be responsible for healing their own wounds. The Iraqi 
citizens want to know whether or not the Ministries of 
Interior and Defense are able to end this violence. We hear 
many calls for holding conferences under different names. 
But we did not hear any call to gather Iraqi political 
groups to discuss how to end violence." 
 
 
B. "Credibility of the constitutional process" (6/7) 
 
As-Sabah (independent) published a second-page editorial by 
Abdul Halim Al-Ghunaimi about the constitution: 
 
"Some groups try to cast doubt upon the constitutional 
process by saying that the constitution is already drafted. 
They also call for postponing the whole project. These 
groups allege that the final draft of the constitution was 
imported from abroad.  They claim that the constitutional 
committee is only responsible for translating it from 
English to Arabic. On the other hand, the constitutional 
committee members confirm that they are studying how to 
expand the representation in the committee.  This shows 
that the government, the National Assembly and the 
constitutional committee understand that drafting the 
constitution is an important process that must be 
accomplished by a unanimous national decision. At the 
present time, we must fully understand the concepts of law, 
democracy and faith so that we can be sure that the Iraqi 
citizens are free from all restraints of dictatorship and 
political illiteracy." 
 
SATTERFIELD