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DE RUEHSO #1174 3111142
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O 071142Z NOV 06
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6028
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 7088
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 7569
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 2610

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 001174 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD 
 
DEPT PASS USTR 
 
USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ: SADDAM'S CONDEMNATION, US MIDTERM 
ELECTIONS; SAO PAULO 
 
 
Subject: Media reaction: Iraq: Saddam's condemnation, US midterm 
elections; Sao Paulo 
 
¶1. "Bush, A Lame Duck" 
 
Liberal, largest national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo 
editorialized (11/7): "Americans will vote today in the midterm 
elections, which represent a kind of referendum on the current 
administration. Polls have suggested that the Republicans will be 
defeated.... The causes for President Bush's popular disapproval can 
be condensed in three words: Iraq, Katrina and Guantanamo.... The 
good economic situation and the fact that the authorities have 
prevented terrorist attacks in the US since September 11, 2001, were 
not sufficient to avoid an erosion of the Republican Party's 
image.... Even if Bush's party does not succeed in reverting the 
Democratic Party's advantage, the axis of the US domestic and 
foreign policies will tend to be maintained. Like the Republicans, 
the Democrats do not have an alternative to get out of the Iraqi 
quagmire.... The most remarkable effect of today's elections is 
expected to be Bush's transformation into a lame duck." 
 
¶2. "Saddam's Condemnation" 
 
An editorial in center-right Estado de S. Paulo (11/7) opined: 
"There can't be any doubt about the moral pertinence of the verdict 
of Baghdad's High Court condemning to death former dictator Saddam 
Hussein.... There is no sense in questioning the court's decision 
based on humanitarian reasoning, the same way that it would be 
aberrant to deplore the execution of Nazi leaders determined by the 
Nuremberg Court. Everything else in the episode of the invasion of 
Iraq is a political disaster.... The fact is that there is not a 
good way out for this other crisis, which is exclusively caused by 
the US. In the very unlikely hypothesis that the death sentence is 
commuted, at least the most fanatic followers of the former dictator 
will be seduced by the fantasy that sooner or later Saddam will 
return to reestablish a Sunni hegemony in an Iraq free from 
occupation.... Shiites and Kurds want Saddam executed for the same 
reason the Sunnis want him alive: to foster their political 
intents." 
 
¶3. "Bush Used Saddam's Condemnation In Political Rallies" 
 
Foreign policy writer Raul Juste Lores commented in liberal, largest 
national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo (11/7): "President 
George W. Bush has used former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's 
condemnation in the final stage of the electoral campaign.... The 
verdict was announced 48 hours before the elections, a fact that 
raised suspicions over the Iraqi court. Critics have suggested that 
the judges collaborated with the sponsors of the new order in Iraq 
by providing good news for the Republicans on the eve of the 
elections." 
McMullen