US embassy cable - 05PARIS7752

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 007752 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR INR/R/MR; IIP/RW; IIP/RNY; BBG/VOA; IIP/WEU; AF/PA; 
EUR/WE /P/SP; D/C (MCCOO); EUR/PA; INR/P; INR/EUC; PM; OSC ISA 
FOR ILN; NEA; WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE; DOC FOR ITA/EUR/FR 
AND PASS USTR/PA; USINCEUR FOR PAO; NATO/PA; MOSCOW/PA; 
ROME/PA; USVIENNA FOR USDEL OSCE. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, KMDR, FR 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - President Bush to Asia 
Secretary Rice to Middle East World Summit on the Information 
 
 
SIPDIS 
Society 
PARIS - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
President Bush to Asia 
Secretary Rice to Middle East 
 
SIPDIS 
World Summit on the Information Society 
 
B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
Front pages and most editorials are devoted to President 
Chirac's televised address last evening during which he 
acknowledged that France was indeed experiencing a `malaise' 
and offered measures and advice to deal with the unrest and 
promote equality. Liberation considers the President's 
measures to be a "Placebo:" "In the end, his speech, like the 
continuation of the state of emergency, which is no longer 
justified, can barely hide the President's disarray as he 
considers his disheartening results." But Le Figaro praises 
the President for his firmness: "The President's speech was 
eagerly awaited. And the PM can be pleased to see that his 
firm approach, supported by the President, is producing 
dividends. All in all, for the executive, which could have 
sunk in the tempest, the incident is ending much better than 
it started." 
 
Front pages also devote headlines to the World Summit on the 
Information Society, which opens in Tunis tomorrow. Le Figaro 
announces: "A Battle for Control of the Internet," while Les 
Echos headlines: "U.S. Control of Internet in Question." Le 
Monde's editorial praises Washington's courage in calling the 
regime to order. (See Part C) 
 
President Bush's Asian tour and Secretary Rice's "difficult" 
visit to the Middle East are reported in Le Figaro. (See Part 
C) 
 
Left-of-center Liberation interviews Latif al-Oumyem, a Sunni 
insurgent who says Iraq "is already experiencing civil war" 
and that "those who are killing Sunnis are doing so under the 
protection of American troops." 
 
International terrorism and detainee treatment in Guantanamo 
are also in today's news. In Le Figaro, Jean Chichizola titles 
his report: "Two Frenchmen Denounce Mistreatments Suffered at 
Guantanamo." The report describes the "humiliation, blows and 
threats" suffered by two French detainees who were heard by a 
Paris judge last October in connection with their formal 
complaint of "illegal arrest and arbitrary detention." The 
report concludes: "The French lawyers of the two men will ask 
the judges to hear from a number of American officials. 
Contacted by Le Figaro, the U.S. Embassy in Paris did not wish 
to comment." 
 
Guantanamo and the treatment of its detainees are also 
mentioned in an article in Le Monde by Corine Lesnes devoted 
to `Vice' President Dick Cheney, "George W. Bush's Bad Genie." 
"Cheney became Vice President by default. Those who have been 
around for a long time don't understand him any more. He 
appears to have switched camps from the realists of the Bush 
senior school of thought to the neo-conservative camp. Despite 
the Abu Ghraib scandal, despite Guantanamo, the Vice President 
is campaigning to prevent members of Congress from declaring 
that so-called `soft' torture is illegal for use in 
questioning terror suspects.[For Cheney] the prisoners at 
Guantanamo are treated very well and no other country on earth 
would care so well for people who are out to kill its people." 
 
Popular France Soir devotes a full-page report to the thwarted 
terrorist attack in Australia and wonders about the 
possibility that "terrorists may have used Google Earth." 
 
The press conference held yesterday by the government's 
spokesman Jean-Francois Cope and representatives of the 
foreign press to "reassure the world, tourists and investors 
that France is safe" is reported in Le Monde and Liberation. 
Veronique Soule comments in Liberation: "One has to wonder 
about the impact of such posturing and self-justification from 
`lesson givers.'" 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
President Bush to Asia 
 
"Bush in Asia to Maintain U.S. Influence" 
Philippe Gelie in right-of-center Le Figaro (11/15): 
"Considering the type of welcome President Bush gets in most 
places he visits, his Asian tour may well look like a walk in 
the park. But behind the oriental expressions of politeness, 
the visit will mostly stand as witness to the competition that 
has emerged between Washington and Beijing to dominate the 
strategic chessboard of that particular region. While economic 
issues will certainly be raised, the higher stakes of power 
and security will dominate. Short of being able to stop or 
slow down China's emergence as a regional power, the U.S. 
hopes it will be able to contain it. There are more reasons 
for concern than for optimism, especially when it comes to 
China's expenditures in armament. This is why Washington needs 
regional allies: but the U.S. positioning in the region 
carries its own difficulties. Japan's emerging nationalism and 
South Korea's gesture towards North Korea count among them. 
Mongolia remains: a country whose `courageous soldiers' are 
fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Next Monday, when President 
Bush visits there, the `weather will be frigid but the welcome 
will be warm.'" 
 
Secretary Rice to Middle East 
 
SIPDIS 
 
"Rice Struggles to Re-Launch Dialogue" 
Patrick Saint-Paul in right-of-center Le Figaro (11/15): "Just 
as Israel was commemorating the tenth anniversary of Yitzak 
Rabin's assassination it seemed that reviving the peace 
process was a difficult endeavor. Until the end Secretary Rice 
waited for an agreement so that she might not leave empty- 
handed. The Quartet representative James Wolfenson previously 
warned that the Gaza strip could become a gigantic prison 
undermined by poverty. The U.S. Secretary of State violently 
opposed Ariel Sharon on the issue of Hamas participation in 
the legislative elections. She expressed the feeling that `it 
would be easier to disarm Hamas after the elections' and 
called on Israel once again to stop the settlements in the 
West Bank. There is very little chance that she will be 
heard." 
 
World Summit on the Information Society 
 
"A World Battle to Control the Internet" 
Valerie Collet in right-of-center Le Figaro Economie (11/15): 
"Secretary Rice is strictly opposed to `a cumbersome and 
bureaucratic supervision' of the Internet. The fact that the 
U.S. Secretary of State has taken the time to comment on the 
debate proves the strategic importance of what is at stake. In 
fact, the U.S. holds the key to the Web and does not want to 
share it. A U.S. entity, Icann, is the only one in charge of 
attributing domains. And so the question looming is, with the 
Web churning out billions of dollars in revenue, can the 
Internet be left in the sole hands of the great American 
architect?" 
 
"Modernism and Brutality" 
Jean-Christophe Ploquin in Catholic La Croix (11/15): "Tunisia 
is controlled by a police state that uses intimidation to 
ensure its longevity. the Information Summit in Tunisia serves 
as a sort of echo chamber for the country's internal 
problems., namely a politically archaic system that is 
incompatible with democracy." 
 
"Sanctioning Ben-Ali" 
Left-of-center Le Monde in its editorial (11/15): "By hosting 
the World Summit on the Information Society Tunisia hoped to 
show the world that a small nation could compete with the 
larger ones. In fact it is another face of Tunisia which is 
coming to light: that of a police state. In the face of the 
sad image given by Tunis, Washington did not hesitate to 
admonish the regime calling it to `do in terms of political 
reforms and human rights' what it has done in the social and 
economic sectors. France has not shown the same courage." 
HOFMANN