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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 001306 
 
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 India 
Pakistan Afghanistan Iraq CIA Secret Prisons 
PARIS - Thursday, March 02, 2006 
 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
President Bush to India Pakistan Afghanistan 
Iraq 
CIA Secret Prisons 
 
B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
Domestic social issues dominate today's front pages, including 
PM Villepin's difficulties with unemployment and the health 
related crises of dealing with avian flu and the chikungunia 
epidemic in Reunion. A day of protest has been announced for 
next Tuesday, with possible strikes in the SNCF rail system 
and the bus and metro system. International stories of 
interest look at President Bush's trip to India. President 
Bush's "surprise" stopover in Kabul, "Ben Laden's Turf," is Le 
Figaro's lead story, which goes on to quote extensively from 
the President's "tribute to Afghanistan as a source of 
inspiration."  Left-of-center Le Monde devotes its editorial 
to Iraq "caught in a trap." (See Part C) 
 
Liberation devotes two pages to "Said," a follower of al- 
Zarqaoui, who left his home in Lebanon to fight and die in 
Iraq for Jihad. He says he left because "Jihad, it's the 
highest principle of Muslims.  It's what is written in the 
Koran.  When any power tries to do harm to Muslims, it is 
necessary to fight."   It recounts his experiences and quotes 
him: "We are only trying to find the same level of terror that 
is exercised by the Americans.  To slit someone's throat is 
easier than pushing a button.  And that doesn't kill hundreds 
of innocents like American missiles do.  In Arab culture, it 
is better to slit the throat of a prisoner than to lead him 
with a chain like the Americans did in Abou Ghraib."  Said 
only stayed three weeks in Iraq but claims "it was a good 
experience."  He has now returned to Lebanon where he teaches 
civic education. 
 
US-related news is dominated by a renewed focus on alleged CIA 
rendition flights. Regional Les Dernieres Nouvelles D'Alsace 
titles its report: "Prisons, Airplanes and the Three Monkeys." 
(See Part C) The free daily 20 Minutes carries an article 
announced on the front page entitled: "The Free Circulation of 
Secret Agents." The daily underscores the Council of Europe's 
 
SIPDIS 
assessment that Europe is an ideal "hunting ground" for 
foreign secret services. The report presented yesterday by 
Secretary General Terry Davis denounces the failures related 
 
SIPDIS 
to controlling the activities of foreign agents in Europe. The 
document also deplores a European sky that is "too open." 20 
Minutes adds that because the Council of Europe is a 
consultative body it has no means of implementing its 
decisions relative to these finding and its only recourse is 
"media pressure." 
 
Le Figaro calls Iran's stance with Moscow and the 
international community "The Nuclear Waiting Game" and signals 
that the advances made last week are still on hold, Tehran 
having reiterated "progress still needs to be made" to which 
the State Department responded "with skepticism." Le Figaro 
interviews Jack Straw on the Iranian nuclear issue and says 
that international sanctions can still be avoided, but that 
the consensus against Tehran is everyday a little bit 
stronger. Asked about which influence was strongest in Iraq, 
of the U.S. or Iran, Straw said "The Iraqis." 
 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
President Bush to India Pakistan Afghanistan 
 
"Bush In India to Mark History" 
Yves Threard in right-of-center Le Figaro (03/02): "The 
President's visits to India Pakistan and Afghanistan are more 
than just diplomatic visits. They are meant to dispel the 
feeling in the U.S. that these are lands of terrorism. Bush is 
traveling abroad because this is where his ambitions lie: he 
wants to establish a new international world order. Imposing 
democracy in Afghanistan and Pakistan are Herculean tasks, but 
bringing Pakistan into Washington's fold is not an unreachable 
goal. President Bush knows that his desire to change the world 
necessarily includes India and its billion inhabitants." 
 
Iraq 
 
"Iraq Caught in a Trap" 
Left-of-center Le Monde (03/02): "The Iraqis have yet to 
figure out that, as President Bush has said, `the time for 
making a choice has come.' They do not know whether the recent 
violence is going to plunge their country in a civil war, a 
civil war that is already in gestation. They also do not know 
whether this civil war could trigger, as John Negroponte seems 
to feel, a general destabilization of the Middle East. This is 
not the problem, not yet. The problem is that every day that 
passes plunges Iraq into more violence, political, military, 
religious. The causes are well known: they are named 
`occupation' by the U.S. and international Jihadism led by Al- 
Qaeda and its leader, Al-Zarkaoui. While it is impossible to 
make a parallel between these two roots of violence. the truth 
is that they feed one on the other. The U.S. is set on a logic 
of long-lasting occupation while a majority of Iraqis, happy 
with the toppling of the Saddam regime, were ready for Iraqi 
sovereignty to be restored. Meanwhile the Iraqi guerrilla, 
enrolled by the Jihadists, is killing more Iraqis than 
Americans. The Iraqis are caught in a trap and see no out to 
this battle between the Americans and the Jihadists on their 
soil. Al-Qaeda, three years after the invasion of Iraq, has 
scored more points than Washington. Washington must break with 
its logic of occupation and return Iraq to the Iraqis. Yet, 
the worst solution would be, after a brutal occupation, a 
total pullout. It is impossible to abandon Iraq to Al-Qaeda 
and its allies. Washington must find an equilibrium between 
the end of the occupation and accompanying the country towards 
a better future. There must be an end to the occupation 
without giving the impression that the terrorists have won the 
war, so that Iraq will cease being the center of a war no one 
wants." 
 
CIA Secret Prisons 
 
"France Investigates on CIA Aircraft" 
Eric Decoutry in right-of-center Le Figaro (03/02): "The 
investigation will have to determine whether this mysterious 
jet was used by the CIA to transport detainees suspected of 
terrorist acts to the U.S. detention camp of Guantanamo, and 
whether the French authorities knew about this stopover in 
France." 
 
"The Prisons, the Airplanes and the Three Little Monkeys" 
Anne-Camille Beckelynck in regional Les Dernieres Nouvelles 
d'Alsace (03/02): "The Council of Europe's conclusion is that 
`Europe is the perfect hunting ground for foreign secret 
service agents.' The story is far from over, and while we all 
knew the individual states would not obediently answer the 
questions asked, they now will have to fill out a new 
questionnaire. And Secretary General Terry Davis hopes they 
will prove to be more clairvoyant and show more independence 
in their answers. Because although cooperation with the U.S. 
in fighting terrorism is necessary, `European governments 
should have enough self confidence to act as equals and not as 
the proverbial three little monkeys who see nothing, hear 
nothing and say nothing.' The European Council has determined 
that the European skies are not sufficiently monitored, while 
the Secretary General is asking its members not to be blinded 
by diplomatic immunity issues. because forced kidnappings 
could be characterized as crimes against humanity. Let's hope 
that after the first two monkeys have started seeing and 
hearing, the third will speak up." STAPLETON