VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1433/01 1771717
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 261717Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5029
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001433 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, 
WHA/EPSC 
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION
SUBJECT: IRAQ; ALLEGED US ESPIONAGE; HUMAN RIGHTS; EVO MORALES; 
VENEZUELA; DOHA ROUND; MUSLIM-WESTERN DISPUTES; ARGENTINE JUDICIAL 
SECURITY; KIRCHNER TO SPAIN US-SPANISH TIES 06/26/06 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT 
 
Today's key international stories include the alleged preparation 
for US troop withdrawal from Iraq; former Iraqi dictator Saddam 
Hussein's statement that US President Bush will ask for his help in 
fighting the insurgency in Iraq; a new espionage scandal in the US; 
the relationship between respect for human rights and US national 
security strategies; ties between the US and Bolivia; Venezuela's 
candidacy for a UN chair; expectations for the upcoming Doha Round; 
the reason for Muslim-Western disputes; and Argentina's judicial 
security status. 
 
¶2. OPINION PIECES AND KEY STORIES 
 
- "Iraq - the US prepares its withdrawal in 2008" 
 
Daily-of-record "La Nacion" reports (06/26) "According to the US 
media, after more than three years of military occupation, the 
Pentagon has drafted a calendar for a drastic reduction of US troops 
in Iraq by the end of next year, and it has also planned a 
withdrawal of most of its troops by 2008. 
 
"According to The New York Times, which had access to classified 
documents, the plan proposed by the US commander in charge of the US 
coalition forces, General George Casey, which was submitted during a 
secret Pentagon meeting last week, the number of US fighting 
 
SIPDIS 
brigades in Iraq will be lowered from 14 to five or six in December 
2007 if security conditions in Iraq allow it. Some 7,000 soldiers 
will be withdrawn in September this year." 
 
- "Saddam says 'Bush will ask for my help against insurgents'" 
 
Conservative "La Prensa" reports (06/26) "On the same day Iraqi PM 
al Maliki launched a national reconciliation plan with several 
religious and tribal groups, former president Saddam Hussein said he 
is convinced that the US will ask for his 'help' to suffocate the 
insurgency and execute an orderly withdrawal of troops. 
 
"Through his main legal attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, the overthrown 
leader said 'those Iraqi puppets the US put in government cannot 
protect themselves, they can barely protect the people. This is why 
they will ask for my help and that of the Baath Party so that we can 
rescue them from their huge dilemma.'" 
 
- "New espionage scandal in the US" 
 
Hugo Alconada Mon, Washington-based correspondent for 
daily-of-record "La Nacion," writes (06/24) "According to The New 
York Times and The Los Angeles Times, during the last four years, 
the Bush administration has monitored and reviewed tens of thousands 
of banking operations and financial records of people with alleged 
terrorist ties, but without previous judicial authorization. 
 
"The secret program, which was authorized by Bush weeks a few weeks 
after the September 11 attacks, is aimed at detecting terrorists and 
cutting their finance networks. However, just like the wiretapping 
scandal, this has unleashed serious doubts about its legality, even 
among banking executives involved, and a controversy due to the 
USG's advances into private life." 
 
- "End for human rights enforcement?" 
 
Oscar Raul Cardoso, international analyst of leading "Clarin," 
opines (06/24) "... If the most powerful country in the world 
arrests people depriving them of any right to legal process and 
defense, if it tortures or hires others to torture in third 
countries, if it suspiciously kills in the name of freedom, why 
wouldn't other democracies do it with the same 'legitimacy'? Is 
this, as suggested some time ago by academician Harvard Michael 
Ignatieff, the end of the 'human rights era'? "Curiously enough, 
George W. Bush's main reason for these adventures is the defense of 
Americans' security. 
 
"... The key question is not who is hiding in the Afghan heights or 
the Iraqi sand but what the West is doing to generate this intense 
hatred. And, above all, what price the West is willing to pay in 
decency and human rights for its own security, which as we can see 
is weakly guaranteed today by the atrocities of occupying powers in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a question that not only calls for the 
response of Americans but for that of the global community." 
 
- "Our patience with Evo is running out" 
 
Conservative "La Prensa" (06/26) reports "The US warned 'its 
patience is running out' in regards to Bolivian President Evo 
Morales because it fears that the call on a Constituting Assembly 
 
 
can be used to impose 'potentially anti-democratic reforms.' "The 
spokesperson of the USG's malaise was Adolfo Franco, head of the 
Latin American Department at the US Agency for International 
Development. 
 
"... The USG official suggested that, as a response to Morales' 
advance, Washington should support the opposition in an attempt to 
make up 'some counterweight to the control of only one political 
party in both judicial affairs and in the independence of the mass 
media, in addition to the training of leaders of a strong and 
educated civil society.'" 
 
- "Venezuela is heading for the UN" 
 
Conservative "La Prensa" carries an opinion piece by Emilio 
Cardenas, former Argentine Ambassador to the UN, who writes (06/25) 
"Our country has just announced that it will support Venezuela's 
candidacy as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council 
during the 2007/08 period. In this way, Argentina preferred 
Venezuela over another candidate from the region, Guatemala, a 
founding country of the UN. 
 
"... Hugo Chavez's lack of respect for the principle of 
non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries is open 
and noteworthy... The cases of Venezuelan intervention in Bolivia, 
Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru are well-known. But there are 
some other cases, which are still 'subterranean' although real. 
 
"I am one of those who believe that, based on caution and a basic 
respect for ourselves..., we should not support Venezuela's 
candidacy for a UN chair based on the concerning features of 
Chavez's personality and also on Venezuela's closeness to (Iran), a 
country which is the main exporter of terrorism to the world." 
 
- "Update on family quarrel" 
 
Gwynne Dyer, contributor to liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires 
Herald," writes (06/26) "The past year has been one of the worst in 
recent history for relations between Muslims and 'the West'... 
According to the Pew Global Attitude Project for 2006, an opinion 
survey conducted in thirteen mainly Christian or Muslim countries by 
the Pew Research Center in Washington, the majorities who saw 
relations between the West and Islam as 'generally bad' ranged from 
53 percent in Russia and Indonesia to highs of 70 percent in Germany 
and 84 percent in Turkey. 
 
"There were purely local causes for some of the extreme reactions, 
like resentment among Turks at being seen as problem candidates for 
EU membership simply because they are Muslims. 
 
"... Muslim-Western disputes are so emotional precisely because they 
are between family members; neither of the estranged twin cultures 
brings the same amount of reproach and resentment to its occasional 
disputes with peoples who belong to entirely different traditions. 
But the fact that they do share so much history and so many values 
means that the possibility of reconciliation is also ever present." 
 
- "(Kirchner's) criterion about investment and judicial security" 
 
Fernando Laborda, political columnist of daily-of-record "La 
Nacion," writes (06/25) "... The Argentine Government's thesis is 
that 'the country's judicial security is that of a country whose 
growth has not stopped during the last 44 months.'  However, 
according to business sources, this view, which is based on the fact 
that capital flows to where there are business opportunities 
regardless of the risk that rules can change overnight, has 
notorious limitations. 
 
"In recent months, not a few businessmen have complained about the 
president's particular view of state intervention, which is not 
related to old-fashioned statism but to the government's direct or 
indirect pressure to remove heads of strategic economic divisions 
that can't easily satisfy governmental requests. This same pressure 
has led foreign economic groups to abandon control of privatized 
companies and who were compelled to sell their shares to groups that 
are more compatible with the Government. 
 
"Behind this interventionist view there is a veiled purpose to 
politically control any potential factor of power, whether it be 
economic, social, military, religious or press-related." 
 
- "Kirchner returned from Spain with a new reputation of 'moderate' 
and ready for the 2007 project" 
 
Centrist newspaper "Perfil" carries an opinion piece by Rosendo 
Fraga, prestigious political analyst, who writes (06/25) "President 
 
 
Kirchner's key in regional policy during the first three years of 
his government has been to maintain an intermediate point between 
Lula and Chavez... Kirchner combines populism and pragmatism in an 
alternating way. 
 
"In this framework, his visit to Spain is one more demonstration of 
this kind of policy. It is true that in his address to Spanish 
businessmen, he showed more moderation that in previous 
opportunities, but it is also true that in political terms he ended 
his visit with harsh criticism of the US and a defense of Chavez and 
Morales. 
 
"Perhaps, he did not bear in mind that US Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice visited Madrid two days before him, and that she 
reached some agreement with her Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel 
Moratinos, regarding the possibility of coordinating more actions of 
the two countries in Latin America. Washington is obviously the 
regional hegemonic power in the region, and Spain is the EU country 
having the largest influence there. The visit meant one more step 
toward a better relationship between the two countries." 
 
To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our classified website 
at: 
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires 
 
GUTIERREZ