VZCZCXYZ0023
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHVI #3410/01 3311556
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 271556Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5633
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/WHITEHOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS VIENNA 003410 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/AGS, INR/EU, AND EUR/PPD FOR YVETTE SAINT-ANDRE 
 
OSD FOR COMMANDER CHAFFEE 
 
WHITEHOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO AU OPRC
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: November 27, 2006 
 
Bank Investigative Committee: New Squabble 
 
¶1. The investigative committee looking into recent banking scandals 
in Austria continues to strain domestic politics. Following 
publication of an expert opinion last week, which found the banking 
committee is not authorized to investigate the Austrian Financial 
Markets supervisory Agency, information has emerged that Finance 
Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser allegedly issued a directive obliging 
Finance Ministry employees to secrecy. The Ministry dismissed the 
allegations, saying Grasser merely pointed out that ministry 
employees' statements would be treated confidentially by the 
committee. 
Like all major Austrian media, ORF online news reports that 
committee chairperson Marin Graf from the FPOe claims Parliament has 
been sent a letter by the Finance Minister committing his employees 
to secrecy before the investigative committee. Should Grasser not 
rescind this directive, Graf warned, he would ask  Parliament to 
consider the issue, and push for a motion of distrust against the 
Minister. Graf is also contemplating taking the matter up with 
President Heinz Fischer, ORF online news says. 
Grasser, however, has dismissed the allegations as "definitely not 
true," stressing the letter in question merely contained the 
information that ministry employees were relieved of their duty of 
discretion, as their statements before the committee would be 
treated confidentially anyway. Minister Grasser and his predecessor 
Rudolf Edlinger will be interviewed by the committee today. 
 
 
Austria Cards for Immigrants? 
 
¶2. Interior Minister Liese Prokop has suggested introducing a 
document aiming at guaranteeing controlled and temporary immigration 
to Austria. This is to be achieved by issuing a so-called "Austria 
Card," which would give migrants permission to reside and work in 
Austria legally for up to one year. While the Austrian Unions 
Association (OeGB) welcomed the Minister's proposal, the opposition 
Greens have harshly criticized the move. 
Mass-circulation daily Kurier writes that OeGB boss Rudolf 
Hundstorfer, speaking on ORF TV on Sunday,  said the Interior 
Minister's suggestion to introduce an "Austria Card" for legal 
immigrants was something that "could be discussed." The country 
definitely needs "measures to control immigration," he added. 
Greens' human rights spokesperson Terezija Stoisits harshly 
criticized the Minister's proposal as "further radicalization of the 
OeVP," which smacked of an FPOe idea. Prokop's plan would only 
result in a "massive expansion of the seasonal workers' model," and 
would bring migrants into the country for a limited period of time, 
without offering them any social insurance benefits. It is an 
"excessive model of social dumping and two-class migration," 
Stoisits complained. 
 
 
Mass-Exodus from Iraq 
 
¶3. In the face of escalating sectarian violence in Iraq, up to 3,000 
Iraqis leave their country every day for Jordan or Syria, among them 
many medical doctors, university professors and teachers. Their 
actions are a clear declaration of their assessment regarding the 
situation in the country and its potentially bleak future - at a 
time when Washington is still debating whether conditions in Iraq 
should be labeled a civil war or not, a UNHCR spokesperson warned in 
Vienna. 
Centrist daily Die Presse in a front-page report writes about the 
"daily exodus from Iraq," which has been triggered by the ongoing 
violence in the country. Roland Schoenbauer, spokesperson for the UN 
High Commissioner for Refugees in Vienna, said that 1.8 of the 27 
million Iraqis have already left the country, with the majority 
moving to Jordan and Syria, but some also applying for asylum in 
industrialized nations. It is Iraq's intellectuals in particular, 
doctors, university professors and graduates, as well as 
businesspeople, who have turned their backs on their country in 
exchange for a safer place to live -- the people who were meant to 
help in building the invasion advocates' new Iraq, the Presse says, 
adding that this massive "brain drain" is likely to crush all hopes 
of a quick improvement of the situation in Iraq. In addition, Syria 
and Jordan have been forced to deal with the massive influx of 
refugees, and the two countries are also concerned the conflict 
could spread to their territories. 
Meanwhile, in independent provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten, 
German Middle East expert Michael Lueders argues that the United 
States' Iraq policy has failed, and that Washington's' anti-terror 
war has boosted radical Islamists. The war on terror has contributed 
to the fact that "all liberal and secular factions and movements in 
the Arab-Islamic world have been put on the defensive," while 
"Islamic fundamentalists have expanded their influence on an 
unprecedented and previously inconceivable scale" in the region." 
Lueders, long-term commentator for Hamburg weekly Die Zeit, does not 
believe in Washington's recently announced change of strategy for 
Iraq, the daily adds. For the duration of President Bush's term of 
office, a fundamental reorientation of US foreign policy cannot be 
expected, he says. 
 
 
Israeli, Palestinian Leaders Committed to Truce 
 
¶4. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have said they are committed to a 
ceasefire for the Gaza Strip, despite Palestinian rockets having 
been fired on Israel. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert said Israel would 
show patience and restraint, although the rockets were fired from 
Gaza after the truce began. The move is seen as a new hope for peace 
in the Middle East by some Austrian media. 
According to liberal daily Der Standard and other Austrian media, 
the Israeli government's decision to uphold the cease-fire gives 
rise to new hope that the Mideast peace process might be revived. An 
Israeli government spokesperson stressed that the violations of the 
truce by the Palestinians were "hopefully no more than initial 
problems." Premier Olmert was committed to giving the accord a 
chance. His country could afford to not only show strength in 
combat, but also when it comes to moderation, the spokesperson 
added. Olmert also said he was hopeful the cease-fire might extend 
to the West Bank, and that "responsibility and good will can lead to 
the launch of serious negotiations, which, I hope, will begin soon." 
 
 
 
Jordanian King Concerned over Mideast Development 
 
¶5. King Abdullah of Jordan has warned conflict could be spreading 
across the Middle East next year. Speaking on American television 
days before US President Bush is set to visit the region, he urged 
world leaders to act to avert a crisis. 
ORF radio early morning news Morgenjournal quotes Jordan's King 
Abdullah as warning in an interview on American television that the 
Middle East situation could deteriorate further: "We are juggling 
with the potential of three civil wars in the region, whether it is 
the Palestinians, or that of Lebanon or in Iraq. I hope my 
discussions with the President will lead us to provide whatever we 
can do for the Iraqi people. But at the same time, we do want to 
concentrate on the core issues, which we believe are the 
Palestinians and the Palestinian peace process,  as well as the 
tremendous concern we've had over the past several days over what is 
happening in Lebanon," ORF radio quotes King Abdullah. 
 
 
The Putin Regime 
 
¶6. In an interview with an Austrian daily, ORF Washington 
correspondent Susanne Scholl describes her difficult and dangerous 
work in Russia and surrounding countries and analyzes the Russian 
President's regime, and corruption and power struggles among the 
Russian political elites. 
In an interview with mass-circulation provincial daily Kleine 
Zeitung on November 26, ORF Moscow correspondent Susanne Scholl says 
the alleged poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has 
cast further suspicion on President Putin. "Contract murders and 
restrictions of democratic freedoms have occurred for years, but 
these days the situation seems to be escalating," Scholl says, and 
points to two upcoming important political decisions in Russia: the 
2007 parliamentary and the 2008 presidential elections. With these 
two major events approaching, "the government cannot afford any 
critical reporting. This is also the case in connection with 
Chechnya: Officially the word from Moscow is that the 
'anti-terrorist operations' there have been concluded. There's peace 
in Chechnya, and the country is being rebuilt. Although there are 
some visible reconstruction efforts going on, human rights are being 
trampled on, there is no rule of law, and the unemployment rate is 
about 90 percent," Scholl explains. Litvineko's death, definitely 
connected with the murder of journalists Anna Politovskaya, fits the 
picture of a deteriorating political situation in Russia: "There are 
huge power struggles going on among the political elites. Corruption 
has risen alarmingly, and so has bureaucracy. Democratic rules, 
insofar as they exist at all, are no more than decoration, and are 
not adhered to at all," according to the correspondent. 
McCaw