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Lucia A Keegan  07/12/2006 02:38:37 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Terrorist Attacks in Bombay - Iraq 
- Sectarian Violence - Guantanamo - Geneva Convention - North Korea 
- Missile Tests 
 
 
PARIS - Wednesday July 12, 2006 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
Terrorist Attacks in Bombay 
Iraq - Sectarian Violence 
Guantanamo - Geneva Convention 
North Korea - Missile Tests 
 
(B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
The centrist economic daily La Tribune features an interview with 
President Bush on energy policy, highlighting his statement that 
"nuclear energy represents a key element of the world's energy 
supply." The President also noted that peaceful nuclear energy 
programs could be especially beneficial for large, developing 
countries such as China and India. He also stressed that the U.S. 
"cooperates with Japan, Russia, France, and the UK to invest more 
money in the technological development of reactors" which will allow 
for the safe treatment of nuclear waste. The President commented on 
the U.S.'s working relationship with Russia as well as its possible 
accession to the WTO during the G8 summit, saying that this "would 
be in the interest of the United States," but that diverging and 
multiple interests would make negotiations more difficult. 
 
Right-of-center Le Figaro's economic section announces that energy 
policy will dominate the G8 summit this weekend in Saint Petersburg, 
noting that: "even during the worst moments of the Cold War, Europe 
has never been so worried about its Russian supply of gas." In 
centrist economic La Tribune U.S. correspondent Lysiane Baudu offers 
an analysis on U.S./Russian relations, noting that "a possible 
agreement on civil nuclear energy" could be worked about between 
Presidents Bush and Putin during the G8 summit. She notes that the 
notes of ambiguity in the U.S./Russian relationship reveal divisions 
within the Bush administration. 
 
Thomas Gomart of the French Institute for International Relations 
pens an op-ed in right-of-center economic daily Les Echos on 
Russia's outlook and strategies for this weekend's G8 Summit. He 
notes that President Putin, "eager for recognition and international 
credibility," is attempting to use the G8 and its energy-driven 
agenda as an occasion to advance Russia's position among the world's 
political forces and to establish its position as an energy 
"superpower." 
 
Right-of-center Le Figaro leads with the terrorist attack in Bombay 
which was widely reported by the electronic media as well and 
commented in the regional press. (See Part C) 
 
The unsigned editorial in Le Monde is entitled "Iraq and Oblivion." 
"For the Iraqis, whether they were in favor or not of an American 
military intervention at the beginning, the presence of foreign 
troops was justified for one main reason: to avoid civil war. Three 
years after the invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein the 
Americans are still not gone and civil war has set in." (See Part 
C) 
 
Right-of-center Le Figaro reports that China's mediation on the 
North Korean nuclear issue is a "smokescreen." (See Part C) 
 
The Washington correspondent for right-of-center Le Figaro, Philippe 
Gelie writes that: "the Pentagon is making a 180 degree turn by 
granting the Guantanamo detainees the 'protection' of the Geneva 
Convention."  (See Part C) 
 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
Terrorist Attacks in Bombay 
 
"Bombay Attacks" 
Jean Guisnel in regional La Republique des Pyrenees (07/12): "This 
time terror strikes India... in a scenario that resembles the 
attacks in London a year ago... It seems obvious today that five 
years after the 9/11 attacks, the ways that George W. Bush and his 
allies have chosen to deal with the threat of terrorism have only 
exacerbated it." 
"Mass Terror" 
Francis Brochet in regional Le Progres (07/12): "The attacks in 
Bombay... represent the kind of mass terrorism of which Iraq has 
become a symbol with the Shiite and the Sunni communities working to 
kill each other off.... We must face facts, September 11 opened up a 
whole new kind of generalized warfare. What happened yesterday in 
Bombay could take place anywhere in the world." 
 
Iraq - Sectarian Violence 
 
"Iraq and Oblivion" 
The unsigned editorial in left-of-center Le Monde (07/12): "For the 
Iraqis, whether they were in favor or not of an American military 
intervention at the beginning, the presence of foreign troops was 
justified for one main reason: to avoid civil war. Three years after 
the invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein the Americans 
are still not gone and civil war has set in. July 9, the Iraqi 
'Bloody Sunday' marks a turning point in the conflict. For the first 
time, the residents of Baghdad... were systematically executed 
because of their ethnic background... From the Iraqi point of view 
this is a turning point that destroys the justification for the 
American military presence in Iraq. No one in Iraq holds on to the 
dream of the other reasons that Washington put forward to justify 
the continued U.S. presence in Iraq: democracy and reconstruction. 
The former cannot exist amid chaos, in spite of successful 
elections, and the latter is a joke when Iraqis only have three 
hours of electricity per day... The reality is that on the political 
front it is Zarkawi, the Iraqi leader of al Qaeda killed last June, 
who is victorious... The reality is that the Americans are 
retrenched in the green zone... isolated... The Iraqi insurgency and 
Sunni terrorism are capable of spreading chaos, but civil war will 
destroy the country." 
 
"The U.S. Weakened" 
Jean-Claude Kiefer writes in regional Les Dernieres Nouvelles 
d'Alsace (07/12): "Iraq is in chaos and this situation has seriously 
weakened the U.S., and this is far from reassuring. When the 
self-proclaimed world police takes a hit, the planet's trouble 
makers take advantage. The examples being the North Korean dictator 
Kim Jong Il playing with his missiles and the Iranians pursuing 
their nuclear program." 
 
Guantanamo - Geneva Convention 
 
"Guantanamo Under International Law" 
Washington correspondent for right-of-center Le Figaro (07/12): 
"After four years of stubbornness, Washington is letting its guard 
down. The Deputy Secretary of Defense has ordered... that detainees 
held in American prisons around the world be able to come under the 
Geneva Convention. This stance radically alters the status of the 
'enemy combatants' locked up in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq. 
The status of the secret CIA prisons, however remains in limbo... 
Yesterday's decision marks the return of the U.S. to international 
legality." 
 
"Bombay Attacks" 
Jean Guisnel in regional La Republique des Pyrenees(07/12): "The 
White House was forced yesterday to announce that... the  Guantanamo 
detainees will come under the protection of the Geneva Convention. 
Although coerced into doing so, George W. Bush has realized that 
there is no other path possible than the one that leads towards 
legality and that this is the only way terrorism will be 
vanquished." 
 
North Korea Missile Tests 
 
"Beijing's Smokescreen Mediation" 
Right-of-center Le Figaro's Jean-Jacques Mevel writes (07/12): 
"China is torn and confronted by the impossible task of choosing 
between Pyongyang and Washington... President Hu Jintao, yesterday, 
expressed for the first time his country's concerns about the 
missile crisis without taking a firm stand or lifting the ambiguity 
of China's position... China is clearly on the fence and Hu's 
statements appear to both warn Kim Jong Il against a second round of 
tests and caution the U.S., and especially Japan, of reacting 
'excessively' to last week's North Korean missile tests... But China 
remains the only country with the political, economic and military 
means to put pressure on North Korea." 
 
"Provocation" 
Didier Louis in regional daily Le Courrier Picard (07/12): "North 
Korea, that along with Iran embodies the axis of evil, is waging an 
ideological battle against American imperialism... The North Korean 
tyrant... is second to none in being able to divide democracies and 
use to his advantage the UN's inertia. The ultimate paradox in this 
story is that the destabilization of Kim Jong Il's heinous and 
detestable regime is above all else to be avoided." STAPLETON