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DE RUEHAM #6162 2260953
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O 140953Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3153
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC IMMEDIATE
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0416
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS IMMEDIATE 1336
RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUMICEA/USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA// IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS AMMAN 006162 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR, I/GNEA, B/BXN, 
B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN 
USAID/ANE/MEA 
LONDON FOR TSOU 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO
 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON AIRLINE TERROR PLOT 
 
 
Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "London (Tora Bora)" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Odwan writes on the back-page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (08/14):  "President Bush 
tried to use 'the plot' to shift the world's attention away from 
Israel's 'real live' crimes in Lebanon.  So he released the slogan 
'the Islamic Fascists' to revive the slogans of his holy war in the 
Middle East, while the people of this region are receiving one proof 
after another that the real fascist is the Israeli leadership that 
has done mass killings against civilian Lebanese and civilian 
Palestinians in scene that even cut down the size of the Nazi crimes 
and the Holocaust.  Bush's utterances about the 'Islamic Fascism' 
have poured oil on the fire of conflicts, occupations, wars and 
hatred in the Middle East, as his administration supports Olmert's 
war on the Lebanese and Palestinian fronts and as the image of the 
American president in the minds of Arab and Islamic citizens is an 
image of one does not know other than the language of force which he 
excels in using against weak people and small countries....  We say, 
assuming it [the London plot] is true, that by discovering a cell 
whose 90% of its members are British Muslims, we are face to face 
with a 'strong proof' that undermines all the concepts on which the 
war campaign on terrorism was based and that reveals the tragic 
status of this war.  The fact British Muslims resorted to terrorist 
action confirms that addressing the issue of terrorism has nothing 
to do with the political regime in Pakistan and the Arab countries, 
nor does it have anything to do with religious schools.  These 
British Muslims were raised in a democratic regime and learned from 
its educational, cultural and social institutions.... The Bush-Blair 
wars are the real climate that provides for the rise of terrorism. 
The occupation of Iraq, the support for Israel's wars and 
occupations are the ones that constitute the encouraging climate for 
Al-Qaeda and others....  This case shows that the war on terrorism 
has failed.  Terrorism increased and in fact flourished in the midst 
of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and more than that, London has 
become another Tora Bora, all confirming that the problem is not 
'Islamic fascism' nor 'religious and Wahhabi schools' but the 
policies of America and Britain." 
 
-- "Polishing Al-Qaeda again" 
 
Columnist Rakan Majali writes on the back-page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Ad-Dustour (08/14):  "U.S. President George 
Bush picked up the news about the attempt to blow up planes heading 
from Britain to the United States like a gift from the heavens.... 
It is clear that President Bush wants to employ the news of this 
attempt to remobilize the American and western public opinion 
against Islam and Muslims.  Britain and America timed the vague 
announcement about the attempt in a way as to justify the 
Anglo-American bias against the Palestinian and Lebanese people and 
to cover up the massacres that Israel is committing in Palestine and 
Lebanon with the absolute support of America....  The story of the 
plane bombing attempt comes at this time in particular to influence 
the American and western public opinion that is rejecting the war of 
extermination and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon, by hinting 
that those Muslims you defend are coming to kill your innocent. 
Today there is an extensive fraudulent media campaign led by America 
to convince the western and world public opinion that all Islamic 
organizations and movements are an extension of Al-Qaeda and that 
Islamic societies is an environment that breeds only extremism.  And 
to prove that, Al-Qaeda is being polished again!  So we see again 
that America resorts to using Al-Qaeda in order to declare the 
Islamic fascism in an attempt to defame Islam, which America 
summarizes in the form of Al-Qaeda only." 
HALE