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 001863 
 
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 - Iraq - Bush Strategy 
Nuclear Issues  - India Transatlantic Ties 
PARIS - Thursday, March 23, 2006 
 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
Iraq - Bush Strategy 
Nuclear Issues  - India 
Transatlantic Ties 
 
B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
As the confrontation lingers between PM Villepin, the unions 
and students, yesterday's rumors that Sarkozy might be 
thinking about leaving the government are quelled in the wake 
of his interview in weekly Paris Match entitled "Different But 
He Stands United." Says Match: "As President of the UMP he 
favors a single employment contract, but as Minister of the 
Interior he stands alongside Villepin." Says Sarkozy: "In a 
country that professes equality, specificity becomes a 
problem. While I stand in solidarity (behind the government) I 
am also aware of how deep the misunderstandings are. I suggest 
a six-month trial period for the CPE. France is ready for 
change, it just needs to have these changes explained. And no, 
I will not leave the government even if things get worse. One 
does not leave the government through opportunism. But one can 
leave the government if there is a profound disagreement." 
Popular right-of-center France Soir leads with the headline: 
"To Die for Villepin? Never," next to a photograph of a 
determined Sarkozy. Le Figaro emphasizes the fact that "The 
CPE Is Dividing the Majority." The editorial is entitled: 
"Fitting a Square Peg in a Round Hole." Alexis Bezet 
compliments Villepin "for extending a hand" and wanting to 
establish a dialogue, but wonders: "Considering where things 
stand, can the dialogue be re-established?" 
 
While most editorials are devoted to domestic issues, Le Monde 
devotes its editorial to President Bush "who is caught in a 
net. and is paying for his and his administration's errors. 
Bush's fortune, the fact he cannot run for another term, is 
also his handicap. Continued bad news from Iraq could well 
lose the elections for his Republican friends." (See Part C) 
 
In Le Figaro, weekly columnist Alexandre Adler titles his op- 
ed "A New Transatlantic Quarrel?" Adler contends there is a 
new quarrel between the U.S. and Great Britain over the Joint 
Strike Fighter, which has spilled over to the Washington- 
London relationship. (See Part C) 
 
Liberation carries an op-ed by senior editor Jacques Amalric 
on "Bush and his nuclear swerve towards India" and La Croix 
carries an op-ed entitled "China and India, Partners but 
Rivals." (See Part C) 
 
The Council of Europe Summit taking place today and tomorrow 
in Brussels, leads Le Figaro to say that even though 
industrial protectionism is not officially on the agenda, 
President Chirac intends to deny accusation of protectionism 
but will defend France's right to economic patriotism. The 
British Minister for European Affairs, Douglas Alexander, pens 
an op-ed in today's Le Figaro in which he says that "economic 
protectionism is harmful for Europe." 
 
All media outlets tell the story of how Washington had 
France's nuclear programs under surveillance between 1945 and 
¶1987. Says France Soir: "While this spying hardly constitutes 
a surprise, its extent is nonetheless astonishing." 
 
La Croix reports on the trial in Afghanistan of an Afghan who 
converted to Catholicism (forbidden by Islamic law) and which 
elicits concerns from Washington, Berlin and Rome. "Such a 
trial, the first since the end of the Taliban regime, has 
western nations up in arms because they consider that an 
execution for such motives would be a regression with regard 
to the democratic process they are trying to develop in 
Afghanistan." 
 
Julia Ficatier of La Croix reports on a documentary to be 
shown this evening on France 2 television on the Muhammad 
caricatures and how "Denmark's imams used ambassadors from the 
Arab world posted in Denmark to relay the story to their home 
countries. The most diligent, a woman ambassador from Egypt 
is, according to report, in disgrace and now serving in South 
Africa." 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
Iraq - Bush Strategy 
 
"Bush Caught in a Net" 
Left-of-center Le Monde in its unsigned editorial (03/23): "It 
takes a big dose of hypocrisy or blindness not to see the 
impasse of American politics. Iraq is on the verge of civil 
war without the American army being able to bring back a 
semblance of order. If the army stays, it will fuel anti- 
American sentiment, which is in turn used by the rebels to 
support their actions. If the army leaves, it will abandon 
Iraq to a dangerous fate. Whatever he says, Mr. Bush is paying 
the price for the errors of his administration before the 
Iraqi conflict. Ignorance of the region, a messianic vision, 
or even democratic dogmatism all contributed to make an 
explosive cocktail. Today the neo-conservatives' dreams are 
crumbling and they are trying to blame the fiasco on the 
President's entourage by saying that it is not the policy that 
was bad, it's the implementation that was all wrong. This is 
an interim step before they actually turn against the 
President, and choose another champion for their cause. Mr. 
Bush's advantage is that he cannot run for a third term, but 
this is also his handicap. In the November mid-term elections 
his Republican friends may lose, thereby turning him into a 
mere puppet president for his last two years in office." 
 
Nuclear Issues  - India 
 
"Bush's Nuclear Swerve Towards India" 
Jacques Amalric in left-of-center Liberation (03/23): 
"America's move which in fact rehabilitates a nation 
considered to be a pariah by the NTP signatories, comes at the 
worst possible time. Considering the situation with Iran and 
North Korea, the U.S. can easily be accused of using double 
standards. President Bush's answer is that India is a 
democracy. He will also use another argument before a yet-to- 
be-convinced Congress: because the U.S. cannot develop a 
commercial nuclear program in the U.S., because of the 
ecologists, then the next best thing is to do it in India 
through Westinghouse and GE. While this is true, President 
Bush's wager does not take into account that this could 
trigger a new nuclear race in Asia, starting with Pakistan. 
President Bush has probably not read John Kennedy's call to 
`abolish nuclear arms before they abolish us.'" 
 
"China and India, Partners But Rivals" 
Henri Madelin in Catholic La Croix (03/23): "China and India 
are the two Asian giants benefiting the most from 
globalization. In the competition pitting these two rivals one 
against the other, India has just scored thanks to Bush's 
visit. The nuclear agreement means that the U.S. is going to 
use India to try and contain China's irresistible progression. 
New Delhi is indeed living an `Indian summer,' as Washington 
uses India as a counterweight for both China and Islamism." 
 
Transatlantic Ties 
 
"A New Transatlantic Quarrel?" 
Alexandre Adler in right-of-center Le Figaro (03/23)): "There 
is a new quarrel between the U.S. and Great Britain over the 
Joint Strike Fighter. and a competition between Boeing and Mac 
Donnell Douglas on the one hand, and British Aerospace, a main 
stockholder of Airbus on the other. The U.S. aerospace lobby 
does not want American money to finance Airbus through British 
Aerospace. Till now, allied concerns have saved the day. But 
now President Bush is sacrificing the `special relationship' 
it has with London. With the Iranian crisis in the background, 
it would appear that London's optimism (in favor of a 
diplomatic solution that includes Russia) is coming up against 
Israel's understandable intransigence. supported by 
Washington. It may also be that there is an on going battle 
between Rice and Cheney over this. London's position has 
fueled the fires. The quarrel over the JSF will not last. but 
it does represent an opportunity for the Europeans to take the 
measure of the crisis and bet on Europe's strategic 
independence based on a London-Berlin-Paris triangle that may 
at last be more than just a dream." STAPLETON