US embassy cable - 05AMMAN8176

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 008176 
 
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 TSOU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON PRESIDENT BUSH'S REMARKS 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- President Bush's speech to the National Endowment 
of Democracy on October 6 in which he warned about the 
establishment of a radical Islamic empire extending 
from Indonesia to Spain received extensive attention 
in the Jordanian press.  There was also prominent 
coverage given to reports quoting Palestinian 
officials about a private conversation in which the 
President allegedly spoke of "God's inspiration" for 
the U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Exaggerated fears" 
 
Columnist Yaqoub Jaber writes (10/11) on the op-ed 
page of the center-left, influential Arab daily Al- 
Dustour (cir. 80,000):  "The speech delivered by 
President George Bush last Thursday clearly reflects 
the state of hopelessness of achieving a military 
victory in Iraq.  The speech also carries a message of 
intimidation to the Americans whose support for the 
war is decreasing.  It is a message that tells them 
that they are still targets for Al-Qaeda organization. 
The speech also includes a repetition of the official 
statement that it is better to fight the `terrorists' 
in Iraq than inside the United States.  Finally, it is 
a message to the entire world warning all that these 
`terrorists' are planning to set up a `fascist, 
extremist Islamic state' that extends from Spain all 
the way to Indonesia.  In his speech, Bush seems to be 
calling on everyone for help to support his military 
campaign in Iraq.  And yet the speech is unconvincing, 
illogical and related to the war on Iraq.  Who could 
believe that a some hundred or even thousand 
extremists would be able to establish an empire of 
that size after beating the western armies and 
security and intelligence forces, including the 
massive American power?  There is no doubt that the 
terrorists do pose a genuine threat to the security 
and stability of all countries, but they are incapable 
of actually achieving the ruling status in the 
smallest of countries.  They are people who excel in 
haphazard killings with no conceivable objective. 
Their best ability is manifested in planting 
explosives here and there, then hiding and 
disappearing, while achieving marginal results that do 
not even rise to the standard of posing serious threat 
to change governments and oust regimes." 
 
-- "Bush: the ruler by God's command" 
 
Columnist Ibrahim Gharaibeh writes (10/11) on the op- 
ed page of the independent, centrist Arabic daily Al- 
Ghad (cir. 80,000):  "God's words to Bush explain the 
U.S. policy and determines the fate of countries and 
the direction in which the world is going.  All human 
beings - heads of secular, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist 
and Confucius states, and the United Nations, the 
International Monetary Fund, banks, stock markets, and 
weather forecasters - are required to wait for the 
divine inspirations and for God's words to Bush.. 
These hallucinations and witchcraft is not happening 
in an isolated country, nor is it happening in 
primitive tribes in the Amazon's deep, but in the 
superpower country that is leading the world and that 
has most prominent military, political, economic, 
cultural and media strength.  So where is this world 
going?" 
 
 
-- "Bush's Islamic empire!" 
 
Columnist Mohammad Abu Rumman writes (10/8) on the op- 
ed page of the independent, centrist Arabic daily Al- 
Ghad (cir. 80,000):  "Al-Qaeda organization, of which 
Bush speaks of as being similar to the Communist 
enemy, is an unspecific jelly-like organization that 
lacks a specific political program and does not 
control any state or part of a state in the world, but 
rather takes up the thorn in the side of the United 
States and its interests..  In addition, the 
`moderate' Arab countries, as Bush sees them, have the 
sufficient security and oppressive power to abort even 
the smallest of conspiracies, let alone the 
establishment of world Islamic state!  Bush, more than 
anyone, knows very well that the `Islamic empire' is 
impossible to establish these days.  So, the question 
revolves now about the objective of such historic 
`closing remarks' on the part of Bush.  The answer 
lies in the need to create a state of fear and shock 
in the American community and allied countries so that 
the foreign and domestic policies of the neo- 
conservatives become justifiable..  President Bush is 
determined to ignore the mistakes made in Iraq, while 
there is an almost consensus within the United States 
about these mistakes..  Of course we agree that the 
implementation [of the US policy] was disastrous, but 
we do not agree that it a noble cause.  This is 
because the results that we see suggest that there is 
one main beneficiary from what is happening in Iraq, 
namely Israel, and an unintended secondary 
beneficiary, namely Iran, while the Arabs, peoples and 
governments, are the real losers from what is 
happening in Iraq." 
 
-- "The signal for the attack" 
 
Daily columnist Nahed Hattar writes (10/8) on the back- 
page of the independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al- 
Arab Al-Yawm (cir. 40,000):  "The speech of Bush Jr. 
is, at the end of the day, is the hallucinations of an 
imperialism that has lost its ideological hegemony and 
qualitative superiority, and has begun to rot.  This 
hallucination however is armed with weapons and stolen 
monies and has allies all around the world, including 
Arab and Muslim allies who suffer from masochism and 
self-contempt.  After the series of failures and 
defeats in Iraq, Bush Jr. still does not want 
acknowledge the crisis, but rather insists on 
developing his aggressive, bloody and crazy war from a 
tactical war . to a strategic war." 
RUBINSTEIN