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Diana T Fritz  08/26/2006 04:48:39 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Search Results

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UNCLAS        ABU DHABI 03165

SIPDIS
CXABU:
    ACTION: PAO
    INFO:   AMB DCM ECON POL

DISSEMINATION: PAO
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: PAO:WROBERTSON
DRAFTED: PAO:SANDERSON
CLEARED: PAO:THAMDI

VZCZCADI620
OO RUEHC RUENAAA RUEKJCS RUEHZM RUEHLO RHRMDAB
RHWSMRC
DE RUEHAD #3165/01 2171050
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 051050Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6455
RUENAAA/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1082
RHRMDAB/COMUSNAVCENT
RHWSMRC/MCF01 SACCS USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 003165 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B; 
RRU-NEA 
IIP/G/NEA-SA 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC 
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA 
USCINCCENT FOR POLAD 
LONDON FOR MCKUNE 
PITRANSGRESS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR TC
SUBJECT:  SPECIAL MEDIA REACTION: CRISIS IN LEBANON 
 
¶1.  Summary:  The bombing in Al Qaa dominated UAE media coverage. 
Headlines emphasized the human cost and moral implications of the 
tragedy, while several papers featured graphic multi-page photo 
spreads of the aftermath of the attack.  One editorial in "Akhbar 
Al-Arab" applauded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's support for 
the Lebanese, while two editorials in "Al-Bayan" continued to 
question American and Israeli intentions in this conflict and accuse 
both parties of moral turpitude.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  The front pages of both Arabic and English-language periodicals 
focused on the most recent incident in Al Qaa.  The headline of the 
Arabic-language daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000) read "Day of 
destruction and massacre: Al Qaa joins Qana and her sisters," while 
the headline for the Arabic-language "Al-Bayan" (circulation 85,000) 
read "The insanity of Israeli failure: roving massacres kill one 
hundred Syrian and Lebanese civilians."  The prominent 
English-language "Gulf News" (circulation 95,000) had a headline 
that read "Israel commits another terrorist massacre."  Both 
Arabic-language papers dedicated several interior pages to photos of 
the aftermath of the Al Qaa attack, heavily featuring photos of 
wounded survivors and fatalities. 
 
¶3. Under the headline "Chavez is more Arab than the Arabs 
themselves!", columnist Dr. Omar Abdel-Aziz wrote the following in 
an 08/05 editorial in the Abu Dhabi-based Arabic-language daily 
"Akhbar Al-Arab" (circulation 20,000): 
 
"Venezuelan President Chavez has dared to do something that Arab 
countries, who continue to maintain their diplomatic and commercial 
relations with the Zionist entity, have not.  Chavez has decided to 
withdraw his country's Ambassador from Tel Aviv, in protest of the 
criminal military operation that the Zionist entity is conducting on 
behalf of American imperialism... It is truly saddening to watch 
Arabs strive to satisfy the Yankees in Washington.  It is moral and 
ethical suicide... Bush's brutal right-wing administration would 
have thought twice before supporting its stepdaughter Israel if it 
had felt even the slightest Arab public reaction in the form of a 
voluntary boycott of American goods... Chavez has acted on behalf of 
the Arabs and the Lebanese people while we remain silent.  Just how 
many pretexts are now left?" 
 
¶4. Under the headline "When killers fail to kill", columnist Mamdouh 
Taha wrote the following in a 08/05 editorial in the Dubai-based 
Arabic-language daily "Al-Bayan" (circulation 85,000): 
 
"In contrast to dirty wars, clean wars involve only military targets 
as laid out in international treaties and law.  Dirty armies perform 
criminal acts and abandon their honor and morals... Israel has not 
learned from the stupidity of its military planners and from the 
short-sighted policies of those in Washington that protect her... 
Israel is once again waging a dirty war on the Palestinian and 
Lebanese people.  This war is more outrageous than the crimes of the 
Nazis and the fascists... In this war, Israel has lost its honor and 
gone morally bankrupt, and confirms its own tendencies towards 
terrorism... Israel's stupidity and the short-sightedness of 
American policy have helped turn this terrorist madness towards 
unexpected results.  Today, the resistance is celebrated, while the 
aggressors are in disgrace." 
 
¶5. Under the headline "Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon...the death 
triangle", Kuwaiti columnist Dr. Abdulmalik Al-Tamimi wrote the 
following in his weekly editorial on 08/05 in the Dubai-based 
Arabic-language daily "Al-Bayan" (circulation 85,000): 
 
"Palestine has been occupied and its people killed for sixty years 
under Zionist occupation, with support from the United States and 
the West in general.  History demonstrates that those Palestinians 
seeking a so-called peace with the enemy are actually running after 
a mirage.  Iraq, which was run by a dictatorship for three decades, 
has had its military forces, national heritage and potential for the 
future destroyed.  The hands of Americans and others have played 
with Iraq's unity and now there is a new kind of dictatorship there, 
ruled by armed militias that focus more on power than 
reconstruction, unity, stability and the return of the displaced. 
Iraq continues to live in an undeclared civil war...  Lebanon, which 
went through several civil wars and external aggressions, had been 
the face of freedom and democracy in the region in spite of its 
diversity... [but] it was not left alone to grow.  Instead its 
internal wars were followed by external aggression, particularly the 
most recent war by Israel which has decimated its infrastructure, 
killed innocent people and destroyed the economy.  What we are 
seeing is an American-Israeli plot for what they call the new Middle 
East.  A new map is being drawn for the region, and the sectarian 
division of several major countries is being prepared.  The 
American-Israeli plan is to have very small countries in the Middle 
East, to destroy the fronts of resistance under of a war on 
terrorism, to kill the Palestinian cause, to destroy the anti-Israel 
and anti-American states, to impose complete obedience to the U.S., 
and ultimately to control the region's oil.  After all this, Israel 
will be the greatest power in the Middle East and will dominate its 
land, sea and petroleum." 
 
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