VZCZCXYZ0001
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0022/01 0091052
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 091052Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6913
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000022 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, 
WHA/EPSC 
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION
SUBJECT: IRAQ; US TRADE AGENDA; DEATH PENALTY; DEMOCRATS TAKING 
CONTROL OF CAPITOL HILL; LULA'S SECOND TERM IN OFFICE; LULA-CHAVEZ; 
ETA; 01/08/07 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT 
 
Weekend stories include US President Bush's announced plan to send 
additional troops to Iraq; US House of Representatives leader Nancy 
Pelosi's statements that Democrats could deny US President George W. 
Bush the money should he call for additional troops; the 
implications of Democrats taking control of Capitol Hill; the death 
penalty around the world; expectations about Lula's second term in 
office and his ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; and the 
latest ETA attack on the Barajas Airport. 
 
¶2. OPINION PIECES 
 
- "Vicious cycle" 
 
Telma Luzzani, international columnist of leading "Clarin," writes 
(01/07) "Let's just put aside for a moment oil interests and the big 
fortunes made by companies such as US Halliburton in Iraq. Let's 
recall what the White House official purpose was... in order to 
justify the military invasion before US legislators and citizens. 
 
"There were talks of WMD (which did not exist after all) and of 
bringing democracy to Iraq. After months in which the only two 
things that increased were inter-religious violence and lawlessness, 
a solution typical of dictatorships has now been reached. It is a 
repressive plan that will be led by the Iraqi military and in which 
political forces have clearly  been ruled out." 
 
- "In spite of pressures, Bush will send additional troops to the 
(Persian) Gulf" 
 
Leonardo Mindez, on special assignment in Washington for leading 
"Clarin," comments (01/07) "US President George W. Bush will 
announce that he is planning to send 20 thousand additional US 
troops to Iraq and that there will be employment plans for Iraqi 
insurgents. His plan has long been promoted as a 'new step  forward 
in Iraq,' but it seems just like another item of the same 
prescription with which he continues to 'plunge' into a war that he 
believed he was going to win more than three years ago. 
 
"The opposition has already raised an outcry. Harry Reid, the new US 
Senate Majority Leader, said that 'based on the counsel of military 
leaders, we believe this tactic to be a serious mistake.' Together 
with  the Leader of the Lower House, Nancy Pelosi, Reid has already 
sent a letter to Bush making it clear  that they are not only 
against sending more troops but also that 'the time has come to put 
an end to the war.' They suggest a four-to-six-month period to start 
a gradual withdrawal. 
 
"In his Saturday radio message, US President Bush talked about the 
different domestic policies in which he is willing to seek consensus 
with Democrats..., but he made no mention of a possible agreement on 
Iraq." 
 
- "A return without glory?" 
 
Ricardo Kirschbaum, general editor of leading "Clarin," writes 
(01/07) "Having hanged Saddam Hussein (who also took to his grave 
some special deals he had reached with the US and the West at key 
moments like the war with Iran) has not stopped the US debate on the 
future of its troops in Iraq. The Bush administration faces 
increasing difficulties as its power decreases in the aftermath of 
the Republican defeat in legislative elections... 
 
"If the main lines of discussion are reviewed, what is under debate 
is no longer victory, which Bush had taken for granted in early 
2005, but the best way to get out of the hellish trap in which US 
troops are bogged down." 
 
- "Middle East, nervous" 
 
Centrist newspaper "Perfil" (12/07) carries an opinion piece by 
Fernando A. Iglesias, author of Globalizing Democracy, who states 
"Among its many unsuccessful misfortunes, the disaster in Iraq will 
be the Bush administration's mark in history. Almost 100 billion 
dollars were spent in 2006 only to bring about a number of 
casualties that is higher than that of the September 11 attacks. 
Lastly, the disasters of an increasingly unpopular war ended up 
plunging Republicans into disrepute, leading to  their greatest 
election disaster in decades. 
 
"Far from having US troops hailed in an Iraq restored by democracy, 
the invasion has demonstrated the 'zombie' consequences of every 
model of nationalist intervention  in a global world. Carried out 
with the outright purpose of improving US national security, the 
invasion will end up failing to  dismantle terrorist networks or to 
 
 
find WMD amid increasing likelihood that Iranians develop a nuclear 
device and mounting anti-US feeling that fuels, in turn, global 
terrorism." 
 
- "Iraq - the tightening belt choking the big superpower" 
 
Marcelo Cantelmi, international editor of leading "Clarin," states 
(01/06) "... It is important to say that the Iraq issue is not  an 
unjustified  and  clumsily led war, sparking  a major disaster..., 
but  essentially a belt that is gradually choking the only  world 
superpower, a hegemonic country whose evolution and disturbances 
affect the all humanity, even those countries located in the 
'suburbs.' 
 
"... The new direction in Capitol Hill will determine up to what 
point 'the knife will be pushed,' in a scenario in which a future 
impeachment trial not only against Bush but his most conspicuous 
ally, VP Dick Cheney, is far from being dismissed. 
"... The new US Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, said that the 
first mission of Democrats in Capitol Hill will be reinvigorating 
Congress to investigate Iraq - he said 'We will look into how 
intelligence was manipulated to lead us to war,' as if everything 
had gone too far. 
 
"... It is the new Congress, now in the hands of the opposition, the 
one that can collect  evidence. Will they do it? Given the 
prevailing vanity fair and political confrontation in Washington, it 
is hard to guess there will be clemency." 
 
- "A petition from other rebels" 
 
Gustavo Sierra, international columnist of leading "Clarin," writes 
(01/07) "US President George W. Bush is ready to send another 20 or 
30,000 US troops to Iraq now that there is increasing protest among 
US military against this war. Some 1,000 US military will submit a 
petition to Congress to put an end to the constant re-sending of US 
troops and furthermore to proceed to the withdrawal of US troops. 
 
"... US President Bush's decision to appoint 'hawk' John Negroponte 
as Assistant Secretary of State can only be interpreted as a sign of 
displacement or removal of the so far administration's 'iron lady' 
Whereas,  the military petition appears to be a clear-cut example of 
resistance." 
 
- "Bush4s trade agenda at risk as Democrats take over" 
 
Liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires Herald's" "World Trade" 
supplement (01/08) reports "The Democratic takeover of Congress on 
Thursday is likely to mean President George W. Bush will lose 'fast 
track' trade negotiating authority and could scuttle efforts to 
secure free trade deals with Peru, Colombia and other countries, 
analysts said. 
 
"Unless there is an unexpected breakthrough in the troubled Doha 
Round of world trade talks, trade promotion authority will probably 
expire in June, analysts said." 
 
- "Hangman blues" 
 
Santiago O'Donnell, international columnist of left-of-center 
"Pagina 12," states (01/07) "This is not a good time for supporters 
of the death penalty. The grotesque images of Saddam being hanged 
while taunted by his executioners were seen all around the world 
through You Tube and made George W. Bush blush and say that he had 
wished 'a more dignified execution.' However, this is not all. In 
Italy a 73-year-old Euro-legislator, Marco Panella, ended up in 
hospital after nine days on  hunger strike to protest against  death 
penalty. Italy has just submitted a request to the UN for a 
universal moratorium on executions. The UN Human Rights High 
Commissioner claimed  that executions be stopped in Iraq while 
rumblings are on the mount. The number of countries with no death 
penalty increased from 16 in 1977 to 87 nowadays. Many more 
countries have declared moratorium or maintain the death penalty 
only to impose it in very rare cases such as treason in times of 
war; reason  why they have not administered it for many decades. 
 
"And the US is precisely the country in which the pro-abolishment 
movement has gained most of its ground; something which speaks of 
the force of the phenomenon - it happens in spite of the 
consequences of the September 11 (attacks), in spite of Bush and in 
spite of being the only country of the world in which the grotesque 
lynching of the 'butcher of Baghdad' was more celebrated than 
criticized, with the possible exception of Iraq." 
 
"In fact, the US is the only Western country that kills convicts for 
having committed regular crimes. 
 
 
 
- "Lula's second term in office" 
 
Luis Esnal, Brazil-based correspondent for daily-of-record "La 
Nacion," writes (01/08) "... The relationship of power between Lula 
and Chavez during the next four years will be the cornerstone of 
regional geopolitics, in which Argentina might be called to slant 
the scale 
 
"It's not a matter of judging  whether Chavez's requests on the need 
for a greater integration are realistic or not... 
 
"This is not under debate. The point is that Chavez is attempting to 
promote some kind of integration based on  ideological coincidence 
aimed at confronting Latin America, or more specifically South 
America, with the US. 
 
"... What Chavez did not get right is that Lula is not willing to 
commit to an integration based on a circumstantial coincidence of 
leftist or center-to-left governments in the hemisphere. First of 
all, let's take the example of the Bachelet and Morales 
administrations - similarities between Michele Bachelet's 
center-to-left government and the Morales administration are but a 
few. Secondly, simply because the Brazilian citizen avoids 
ideology-driven debates just like the devil escapes the cross." 
 
¶3. EDITORIALS 
 
- "The execution of Saddam Hussein" 
 
An editorial in leading "Clarin" reads (01/08) "the end of former 
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will hardly go down in history as an 
act of justice or as an international example of fostering democracy 
and punishment  on those who were guilty for serious human rights 
violations. 
 
"... Saddam's case can hardly be compared with the Nuremberg trial 
for several reasons, but the main one is the negative evolution of 
the war in Iraq, whose main responsibility lies on those who started 
it - i.e., the US. 
 
"Therefore, far from being a sovereign expression of Iraqi leaders, 
the decision to execute Hussein appears as another outcome of the 
foreign occupation of Iraq. 
 
"Finally, the lawfulness of the entire lawsuit against Saddam 
Hussein, as well as his execution, has been questioned by 
representatives of international institutions and criticized all 
over the world." 
 
- "A Democratic Capitol Hill" 
 
Conservative "La Prensa" editorializes (01/08) "A new 'iron lady' is 
looming on the horizon. For the first time in history, a woman has 
taken over as leader of the US House of Representatives ... Nancy 
Pelosi voices the irritation of the US people for two national 
shameful issues - the situation in Iraq and the private and 
corruption scandals that have tarnished prominent personalities of 
the G.O.P... 
 
"... Does this mean that the days of the US occupation in Iraq are 
counted? As long as George W. Bush is the acting US President, it 
seems to be unlikely - furthermore, on Wednesday, he is expected to 
announce that the US will send 30,000 additional soldiers to the 
most disturbed  Arab country. However, if the situation is not put 
on a safe track in the next two years, pressures on the next head of 
the White House to order a withdrawal (which will be as hasty and 
unworthy as that of Vietnam) will be unbearable. 
 
"On the economic front, the 110th US legislature is expected to 
restore the most downright protectionism. Everything seems to 
indicate that the US Congress will not renew the fast track 
authority to the Executive Branch, which implies that any trade deal 
reached by the US in the future will have to go through the 
exhausting point-by-point review of Capitol Hill. The Kirchners and 
Lulas may stay calm - the FTAA is far than  ever." 
 
- "ETA against a peace dialogue" 
 
Leading "Clarin" editorializes (01/06) "With the latest criminal 
attack on Barajas airport on the eve of the New Year, ETA has buried 
expectations about the peace process fostered by the Rodriguez 
Zapatero administration. 
 
"In this way, it has demonstrated its lack of interest in serious 
negotiations over matters of  national sovereignties and autonomies 
 
 
in Spain and its inability to leave aside  its criminal and violent 
nature. 
 
"... In this way, ETA's persistent violence is a hard- 
to-eradicate-and-overcome anachronism. Rather than recalling 
unsolved national claims, it directly attacks a democratic society, 
which (including most of Basque people) rejects terrorism and 
violence as political instruments." 
 
To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our 
classified website at: 
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires 
 
WAYNE