This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001068 
 
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 - Transatlantic Relations - 
France and U.S. Islam - Cartoons and Politics Iraq GWOT: 
Guantanamo 
PARIS - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 
 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
Transatlantic Relations - France and U.S. 
Islam - Cartoons and Politics 
Iraq 
GWOT: Guantanamo 
 
B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
President Chirac's visit to India, Mittal Steel's hostile 
takeover bid on Arcelor and the government's legislative 
debate to protect French companies from takeovers are some of 
today's front pages stories. La Tribune in its editorial 
laments France's old guard attitude: "Since the fiasco of the 
Maginot line, strategists know that there is no defense that 
can oppose a determined and intelligent aggressor. In the 
battle for globalization played out before our eyes, France is 
sadly perpetuating its old strategy. Just when everyone else 
is opening up its borders, France is trying to build up 
walls!" The President's visit to India also serves as an 
introduction for Le Monde's editorial on a "Franco-American 
rapprochement." (See Part C) 
 
The U.S. position in the Middle East and more globally how the 
West has reacted to the Muhammad cartoons continue to elicit 
commentaries. (See Part C) 
 
Avian flu in Europe and the torture and consequent murder of a 
French man, with suggestions that the motivation was a hate 
crime because he was Jewish, make up the rest of today's news. 
 
Left-of-center Liberation over the weekend reported 
extensively on a French citizen's ordeal at Guantanamo. Mourad 
Benchellali, released from Guantanamo to French custody and 
then later released into the public, recounts his odyssey. 
According to him, he started off on an adventure to learn more 
about Islam, ended up in Afghanistan, unintentionally in a 
Taliban training camp, and was captured, tortured in Kandahar 
and then remanded to Guantanamo. The article ends with him 
saying "maybe I made a mistake in going to Afghanistan, but I 
didn't deserve Guantanamo." An accompanying article is 
entitled "In the U.S. a blind eye remains the rule."  "Your 
are welcome to visit Guantanamo, but you cannot see anything. 
That, in substance, was the invitation of the American 
government to the independent team of investigators, mandated 
by the UN's Commission of Human Rights. An invitation which 
they politely declined."  The article highlights a quote from 
Secretary Rumsfeld: "There's no torture. There's no abuse (at 
 
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Guantanamo.)" (See Part C) 
 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
Transatlantic Relations - France and U.S. 
 
"Transatlantic Duo" 
Left-of-center Le Monde in its unsigned editorial (02/21): 
"Not so long ago, a visit by President Chirac to India, just 
prior to a similar one by President Bush, would have been 
interpreted as a sign of rivalry between Paris and Washington. 
While economic competition between the two nations remains, 
there is no longer strategic competition. In fact, President 
Chirac refrained from talking about a multipolar world, 
something that tends to annoy Washington no end. This omission 
is not fortuitous. It is in fact part of Chirac's new 
diplomacy. Indisputably, France has gotten closer to the U.S. 
And President Bush, who, since the beginning of his second 
term, has drawn the lessons from the Iraqi imbroglio, has 
everything to gain from not alienating his major allies in 
Europe. The rapprochement appears all the more stable because 
it relies on well-understood common interests. Faced with 
Iran's nuclear ambitions, France reacted with the same 
determination as the U.S, even if it continues to travel the 
diplomatic road. Paris and Washington have adopted the same 
determined approach towards Syria. More generally, the 
terrorist threat and how to deal with it, has given birth to a 
sharing of views. Chirac's revisited nuclear doctrine is an 
echo of the American nuclear strategy. The rapprochement is 
discreet, probably out of a desire not to trigger a French 
domestic controversy and is the result of a close cooperation 
between advisers on both sides. What remains to be seen is 
whether the new Franco-American cooperation is durable, or 
just the result of an improvised about-face dictated by an 
uncomfortable position born from previous excesses." 
 
Islam - Cartoons and Politics 
 
"Questions Raised by the Muhammad Cartoons" 
Pierre Rousselin in right-of-center Le Figaro (02/21): "The 
controversy is not over. Musharraf's regime is being 
threatened by demonstrations while Churches were burned in 
Nigeria. The affair has underscored that in the West, 
questioning the precepts of Islam remains a sensitive issue. 
Anger was manipulated by those who want to ignite a shock 
between civilizations. and continues to serve those who want 
to settle domestic issues, as in Nigeria and Pakistan. If the 
manipulators can operate so easily, it is because they are 
functioning inside a frightening vacuum: who in the West 
really tried to calm the fires? Europe carries a heavy 
responsibility for not coming to the aid of Denmark. As for 
the U.S., it did not feel directly concerned by the crisis. 
The cartoons were not reproduced in the U.S., possibly because 
of the more important role of religion there. Still the U.S., 
like Europe, has been targeted by the demonstrators. It is not 
enough to say one does not want a shock between civilizations. 
Maybe one should try to deal with the disastrous image caused 
by the accusations of detainee treatments in Guantanamo; or 
try to give the impression we know where we are going in Iraq, 
or with Tehran. If all these questions were dealt with, it 
would be easier to explain the importance of freedom of the 
press. Meanwhile, Europe's moderate Islam seems to have 
understood its importance." 
 
"Musharraf Under Fire" 
Marie-France Calle in right-of-center Le Figaro (02/21): 
"Islamabad has no choice: two weeks before President Bush's 
trip, the government must squash the violent protests erupting 
against the Muhammad cartoons. Those using the controversy to 
mobilize the streets are using simple arithmetic: Bush, the 
Danish cartoonists and Musharraf all fall into the same 
anathema. The equation, at first glance, can appear odd, 
especially since the Pakistani government officially condemned 
the drawings. Still, the pressure in Pakistan is mounting with 
Musharraf increasingly in the line of fire. One of the most 
influential religious parties has declared the `demonstrations 
will continue until Musharraf falls.' Danish and American 
flags are being burned together, and the Pakistani leader is, 
in a nutshell, being compared to a `traitor.' Added to the 
domestic posturing in Pakistan which is taking a turn for the 
worse, there is the diplomatic crisis between Islamabad and 
Copenhagen." 
 
"Washington and Instability in the Middle East" 
Pierre Prier in Le Figaro (02/21): "In her speech in Cairo in 
June 2005, Secretary Rice said that what forced regimes to 
tighten the grip was not the Islamic threat, but rather the 
opposite: by restraining the field of the political, this 
triggered Islamic violence. There is a trend to beat one's 
`mea culpa' in Western circles, repeating how certain regimes 
have been kept aloft in the name of oil and stability. 
Secretary Rice and the Department of State are looking for a 
 
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real policy (for the Middle East). It will include a dialogue 
with non-violent Islamists. as in Egypt. The Quartet has 
announced it would talk to Hamas. For the U.S., time is 
pressing. Islamic strategists are not waiting for Washington 
to reassess its policy. They are going ahead with original 
policies, joining hands with Christians where it meets their 
needs. Stability is a thing of the past. With Iraq, Washington 
wanted things to begin to move in the Middle East. Now the 
difficulty lies in controlling how things progress in an 
explosive region." 
Iraq 
"The U.S. Other Failure in Iraq is the Economy" 
Eric Le Boucher in left-of-center Le Monde (025/20): "Last 
Thursday Condoleezza Rice was flustered in front of the Senate 
financing committee's question concerning the state of affairs 
in Iraq. And the state of affairs is terrible. The 
insurrection has ruined the reconstruction effort. The cost of 
security absorbs 20 to 50% of the credits because of the 
bombs, the attacks and sabotage, not to mention a permanent 
atmosphere of intimidation. The patent failure of the Iraqi 
economy is the price to pay for the American failure to be 
able to control the country." 
 
GWOT: Guantanamo 
 
"Accusations" 
Left-of-center Liberation in its editorial (02/20): "Nothing 
obliges us to believe all the accusations made by the former 
French detainee about what goes on in Guantanamo, but at the 
end of the day, it is necessary to believe him when he shows 
how the U.S. has demeaned, with its arbitrary incarceration 
policy, its own principles. The accusations contained in this 
testimony feed others recently heard -- notably in Iraq where 
the British have been singled out." STAPLETON