US embassy cable - 05MUSCAT1002

UNCLAS MUSCAT 001002 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/ARPI, NEA/PPD, NEA/P, INR/R/MR 
 
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH 
PARIS FOR ZEYA 
USCENTCOM FOR PLUSH 
FOREIGN PRESS CENTER FOR ASILAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, KMDR, OIIP, MU, Public Affairs 
SUBJECT: SPECIAL MEDIA REACTION: RICE'S VISIT TO THE REGION 
 
 
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Occupying Our Thoughts 
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1. The privately owned Arabic-language daily "al-Watan" published 
an editorial on June 21 under the headline "Rice's Tour And 
Lessons Of Democracy": 
 
"Secretary Rice said that her country made a mistake when it 
sought to achieve stability in the Middle East at the expense of 
democratization, and that U.S. support for dictatorships has not 
resulted in peace.  These are nice statements, but they do not 
address the Arabs' true priority: the Israeli occupation.  It is 
not appropriate to ask occupied nations to practice democracy 
while the occupier's weapons are still stuck in their ribs. 
Washington should stop preaching its fake lessons of democracy, 
since the source of violence and hatred is occupation itself. 
Arabs have different values and different priorities, and every 
time Washington trots out its distorted political messages, it 
proves that it does not understand us." 
 
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Rank Ordering 
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2. "Al-Watan" featured another editorial on June 22 entitled 
"Condi's Democracy": 
 
"The basic message that Rice carried to the region was the 
rhetorical message of democracy.  Some analysts believe the 
itinerary itself was Washington's way of signaling how it ranks 
the countries of the region in terms of democratization: the 
visit began with Israel, and then moved on to Egypt, Jordan, and 
finally Saudi Arabia.  Certainly the Israelis will not miss the 
opportunity to gloat about their status as `the only democratic 
body' in the Middle East....  But what did Rice's visit really 
accomplish?  It was important only because of the media 
attention, not because of the substantive discussions with the 
host countries." 
 
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Other Media 
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3. Secretary Rice's speech in Cairo has not yet been a topic on 
the Internet message boards "al-Sablah" and "al-Majarra," but the 
Embassy will continue to monitor these boards and report any 
developments. 
 
SNOWDEN