US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD2908

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002908 
 
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, TERRORISM, LONDON BOMBINGS; 
BAGHDAD 
 
1. SUMMARY: The major themes in the daily newspapers on 
July. 11 were calls for the Arab Ministers of Interior to 
hold a security conference, the constitutional committee's 
preparations for drafting the constitution, and the latest 
developments of the security situation. END SUMMARY. 
 
----------------- 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
----------------- 
 
A. "Is there any excuse now?" (Al-Bayyan, 7/11) 
B. "What are the causes and solutions of the attacks in 
Iraq and Britain?" (Al-Ittihad, 7/11) 
 
---------------------- 
SELECTED COMMENTARIES 
---------------------- 
 
A. "Is there any excuse now?" (Al-Bayyan, 7/11) 
 
Al-Bayyan (affiliated with Islamic Ad-Dawa party led by 
Ibrahim Al-Jafari) published a third-page column by Salim 
Rasool about terrorism in Iraq: 
 
"With the assassination of the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq, 
the terrorists cannot justify their operations as being 
part of the "honest resistance" and they can no longer 
conceal the disgrace of terrorism. Egypt and other Arab 
countries have now realized that the armed groups in Iraq 
regard each of these countries as apostates that must be 
punished according to Islamic law. It is for this reason 
that the poor Egyptian ambassador was killed. We must ask, 
however, why did this tragedy occur? 
 
I think that the source of this tragedy originates from the 
insistence of some groups to forge facts and provoke terror 
and violence through the media outlets. In addition, Arab 
governments allowed such coverage to be aired by referring 
to the presence of freedom of expression. However, these 
untruthful media outlets began endangering these 
government's visions, their political futures, and the 
relationships between one another. Indeed, these media 
outlets have dealt with the Egyptian ambassador's 
assassination in a very strange and unrealistic manner. Not 
only did these outlets justify the killing of the 
ambassador, they went further by claiming that the Egyptian 
government is responsible for his killing. These media 
networks stated that Iraq is under heroic resistance and 
that Egypt should have never sent an ambassador to Baghdad 
because the Iraqi government is illegitimate. 
 
The entire world now realizes that what is occurring in 
Iraq cannot be viewed as resistance. These operations are 
simply aimed at provoking sectarian sedition in Iraq. 
However, the Arab street does not want to admit this fact 
because it is being controlled by media outlets that 
specialize in hypocrisy and the art of distorting the 
truth. It is time for the Arab governments to eradicate the 
terrorist groups and to stop these media outlets from 
deceiving public opinion. We have stated previously that 
Al-Zarqawi and his followers do not care about the 
wellbeing of Arabs. Unfortunately, nobody listened to us. 
Instead, they chose to believe those who were lying to 
them. The Arabs went on applauding the beheading of Iraqis 
under the pretext that all Iraqis were traitors and spies. 
Therefore, these beheadings were legally justified. We have 
always felt hurt and betrayed by such Arab attitudes. We 
would like to know whether the Arabs have an excuse today 
now that terrorism has begun to target them?" 
 
B. "What are the causes and solutions of the attacks in 
Iraq and Britain?" (Al-Ittihad, 7/11) 
 
Al-Ittihad (affiliated with the PUK, led by Jalal Talabani) 
published a third-page editorial by Abdul Hadi Mahdi about 
the terrorist attacks in Iraq and Britain: 
 
"The entire world has condemned the recent bombings in 
London. This blanket condemnation derives from a 
humanitarian perspective because the majority of victims 
were innocent civilians. At the same time, most countries 
implemented intensive security precautions around their 
embassies and other facilities. These precautions are aimed 
at preventing further attacks from occurring and protecting 
innocent lives. However, it is interesting to note that 
these precautions refer to two possibilities. The first is 
that the security forces lack sufficient intelligence 
information to stop such operations from occurring. The 
second possibility is that authorities have received 
intelligence that indicates there will be similar 
operations executed in other countries. 
We do not oppose any country's decision to implement these 
security precautions because these measures are aimed at 
protecting lives. The perpetrators of such attacks do not 
have a specific identity and are not restricted to any 
particular geographic location. Being diligent is important 
because if these attacks can be carried out in a country 
like Britain with a strong intelligence apparatus, then 
they can certainly be duplicated in other countries with 
less effective intelligence capabilities. The attacks in 
London were no easy feat because they coincided with the 
security precautions implemented for the G-8 summit. 
Needless to say, the daily attacks in Iraq are more violent 
than the London bombings and the number of daily victims is 
much higher. 
 
We must ask why did Iraq's neighboring countries not 
implement security precautions around their own facilities 
in Iraq? This answer has several interpretations that 
require multiple assumptions. Do these countries believe 
that the terrorist operations occurring in Iraq will never 
be exported into their lands? Do they prefer to leave the 
Iraqis alone to face their own destiny? We do not want to 
search for the answers to these questions. Countries around 
the world have allocated billions of dollars to counter 
terrorist operations. However, this amount has proven 
incapable of putting an end to such operations. Perhaps the 
billions of dollars that have been spent have only resulted 
in transferring the execution of these operations from one 
country to another. Therefore, we must implement an 
accurate study to discuss the motives behind this 
dissemination of death culture. We must enact solutions to 
save the world from this evil. We have grown tired of 
debates on the pan-Arab satellite channels and newspapers 
where accusations are exchanged without offering any real 
or accurate facts." 
 
SATTERFIELD