US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1874

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001874 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT. FOR WHA/PD; IIP/G/WHA DIPASQUALE; AND IIP/T/ES 
DEPT. FOR S/CT, PM, NEA,AND WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KPAO, PTER, PREL, PGOV, IZ, HO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON SEPTEMBER 11, SEPTEMBER 12, 2005 
 
 
1.   On 09/12, the San Pedro Sula-based liberal daily 
  "Tiempo" 
carried an op-ed by Billy Pena entitled "One more year." 
"Yesterday we commemorated one more year of the terrorist 
attack committed by the Islamic fundamentalists against the 
majestic twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York 
and the gigantic Pentagon building in Washington. The 
airplanes piloted by the terrorists hit the target and since 
that horrible day -9/11/2001- nothing would be the same. The 
world would divide in two... the Cold War would be child's 
play compared it to the situation today." 
 
"After what happened four years ago the world has changed 
radically. Those who think that only the lives of Americans 
have changed are mistaken. No, we are all suffering the 
consequences of irrational religious fanaticism. The twin 
towers attack had serious consequences. Afghanistan and Iraq 
were invaded. The saddest thing of all is that Iraq still 
suffers the slaughter of an undeclared war, a war very 
similar to the conflict of Vietnam that lasted approximately 
seven years. Those are the conflicts that do not have any 
explanation but they have arisen throughout history." 
 
"There have been great tragedies in the world, as many 
natural as those caused by man. The aerial attack on Pearl 
Harbor, when the Japanese went against American bases and 
ships during World War II, was dreadful." 
 
"But we should forget the victims of hurricane Katrina that 
devastated part of the southern States of Louisiana, 
Mississippi and Alabama. There has also been pain, suffering 
and death. Perhaps it will take many months and years before 
everything returns to normal. The world was divided... no 
longer are there Communists and capitalists. Now the 
situation is worse, now the world only has "good" and "bad" 
and is living in apocalyptic days." 
 
2.   On 09/11, the Tegucigalpa-based moderate daily "El 
Heraldo" published an editorial entitled "Four years from 
9/11."  "The fourth anniversary of the first attack suffered 
by the U.S. and the country hasn't been able to capture 
Osama bin Laden.  The country has been besieged not only by 
the failures in the illegal and immoral war in Iraq, but by 
the humiliation that it has represented for the great 
superpower in the poor management of the prevention, rescues 
and aid to the victims of hurricane Katrina." 
 
"The Bush administration, whose excuses to invade and to 
occupy Iraq were widely rejected, also used the traumas left 
by 9/11 to obtain its re-election, but it has failed. 
Despite all the technological power and the $25 million 
reward for the maximum leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, 
considered the intellectual author of the hardest blow 
received by the United States from an external enemy after 
the military defeat in Vietnam, the U.S. hasn't been able to 
capture him. 
 
"If the Iraqi war also helped to refute the propaganda that 
potrays the United States as a defender of human rights and 
democracy, as the torture and murder of prisoners in the 
jails of Iraq and Guantnamo demonstrates, hurricane Katrina 
has unveiled the most intimate fissures of the superpower: 
lack of disaster prevention, abandonment of most vulnerable, 
social inequalities, politics, etc." 
 
"9/11 was a great tragedy for the United States; the 
disaster caused by Katrina is still worse. Hopefully this 
second blow will provoke a reawakening of the northern 
nation." 
 
3. On 9/12, "El Heraldo" carried an editorial entitled "Two 
U.S. tragedies."  "In the middle of a new tragedy, the one 
caused by the hurricane Katrina, North Americans 
commemorated yesterday the fourth anniversary of the 
terrorist attack in 2001 with a ceremony in the place the 
Twin Towers occupied, and also with a controversial "March 
of Freedom" in Washington, promoted by the Pentagon." 
 
"9/11 and the disasters caused by Katrina shocked the United 
States and the world, with the difference being that the 
first caused a feeling of national unity and total support 
of the global community, while the present tragedy revealed 
the racial and class differences and a shower of criticism 
by the delayed governmental reaction." 
 
"There is no doubt that the Al-Qaeda attacks marked a 
`before and after,' not only for the United States but for 
all the rest of the world: the so-called `war against 
terrorism;' the restrictions of the civil liberties; the 
violations of international law have extended and, in many 
cases, have worsened the damages caused by 9/11 to the 
coexistence between individuals and the nations." 
 
"Knowing the greatness of the American people, nobody should 
doubt that these two great tragedies, one caused by man and 
the other, nature's painful call for attention, will change 
into points of reflection and new actions that will lead 
towards the construction of a bigger superpower, less 
arrogant and also more conscious of its own weaknesses. 
After all, that would be the best tribute for the 9/11 
victims, and victims of the war started by Bush and the 
disasters caused by Katrina." 
Williard