VZCZCXRO3935
RR RUEHIK RUEHYG
DE RUEHFR #1146/01 0821412
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 231412Z MAR 07 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5903
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUEHMRE/AMCONSUL MARSEILLE 1607
RUEHSR/AMCONSUL STRASBOURG 0369

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 001146 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/PPD, EUR/WE, INR, R 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC PREL KPAO FR
SUBJECT: WEEKLY MEDIA WRAP-UP:  MISSILE DEFENSE; IRAQ--FOUR YEAR 
ANNIVERSARY; PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN; LE MONDE COVERAGE OF SARKOZY. 
MARCH 23, 2007. 
 
 
PARIS 00001146  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Most media outlets portrayed the issue of U.S. missile 
defense installations in the Czech Republic and Poland as splitting 
Europe on its 50th anniversary.  The four year anniversary of the 
beginning of the war in Iraq was also cause for reflection on the 
status of the conflict and the U.S. troop surge strategy.  The 
presidential campaign and President Chirac's official announcement 
of support for UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy dominated domestic 
election news.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------------------- 
MISSILE DEFENSE AND "NEW EUROPE" 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) In the weekend edition of right-of-center Le Figaro (March 
17-18) Isabelle Lasserre wrote that "Washington defends its 
anti-missile shield." Lasserre's report, based on DOD U/S Edelman 
and LTG Obering's March 16 Paris press briefing, highlighted Obering 
and Edelman's assurances that the American plan for a missile shield 
"will not spark a new arms race."  An Agence France Presse wire 
story on March 16 emphasized "Mr. Edelman's praise for the quality 
of his meetings with the French Ministers for Foreign Affairs and 
Defense."  Left-of-center Le Monde's weekend front-page story, based 
on its interview with Edelman, further highlighted the missile 
shield issue, but focused on the transparency of the U.S. 
consultations. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Right-of-center Le Figaro (March 21) featured a series of 
articles on missile defense, underscoring that the issue is dividing 
"Merkel's Coalition."  "The American project reenergizes divisions 
between old and new Europeans...  France is less concerned than 
Germany about Russia's mood swings, but nonetheless refers to the 
missile defense plans as a "unilateral American initiative."  Le 
Figaro went on to argue that former communist countries had 
supported the U.S. in 2003, in the face of Franco-German-Russian 
resistance to the 2003 Iraq invasion.  According to right-of-center 
Le Figaro, a recent poll in Polish Rzeczpospolita shows that 51 
percent of Poles are opposed to the installation of the interceptors 
in Poland. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The editorial in weekly news magazine l'Express (March 22) 
by Christian Makarian insists that it is "time to stop commemorating 
treaties and... move forward...  The problem of unity of the 
twenty-seven is... visible today with the issue of the American 
missile defense shield...  With a budget of 154 billion euros for 
defense spending, that is to say the second largest budget on the 
planet, the EU cannot reach operational unity.  Yet the state of the 
world is such that a demand for an involved Europe is greater than 
ever." 
 
----------------------------- 
IRAQ - FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The editorial by Dominique Jamet in popular France Soir 
(March 19) comments that "The cost of this war in terms of morale is 
high...  There is the original sin of lies to justify going into 
war... and there is the evidence, stronger everyday that the Iraqi 
people are, as they were once already, victims.  First of 
dictatorship, now of a war...  A war without an end...  But today 
what is the most disturbing to Americans is that their president 
intends to send even more troops... to a place where their presence 
is unjustified." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Right-of-center Le Figaro carried a prominently featured 
article (March 20) entitled "Four Years Later, the 'Liberators' are 
Trapped in Iraq."  The daily suggested that Iraq is in the grips of 
civil war and cited civilian and coalition casualty figures to make 
the case that the current "surge" is sparking a "battle that is not 
a classical military campaign, but a struggle to stop the murders 
and the division of the city."  Right-of-center Le Figaro's 
editorial, "Iraq, One War too Many," made a bleak assessment of the 
situation noting that "America's friends, among whom we count 
ourselves, do not have an easy task [these days]." 
 
¶7. (SBU) Left-of-center Le Monde carried a series of articles on the 
occasion of the fourth anniversary of the invasion, citing 
Republican "regrouping" around the President's strategy... with 
"figures believed to be gone from the political scene, such as 
Richard Perle, one of the principal architects of the war, or the 
former Texas Representative indicted for corruption, Tom Delay." 
 
PARIS 00001146  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Business daily Les Echos mentioned "the patina of reconstruction 
four years after the American invasion," noting that the immediate 
relief of the Iraqis following the downfall of Hussein's 
particularly bloody regime has been replaced by a "profound 
pessimism." 
 
¶8. (SBU) Right-of-center Le Figaro (March 21) included an article on 
continuing violence in the capital following the hanging of former 
Iraqi vice president Ramadan.  Le Figaro also carried an analysis by 
journalist Adrien Jaulmes on "The United States' Mission Impossible: 
 To Win the Four Wars of Iraq."  According to Jaulmes, "the U.S. is 
starting to realize that the crisis in Iraq is no longer a simple 
confrontation between U.S. forces and Sunni insurgents, too 
simplistically labeled as terrorists...  U.S. efforts to curb the 
Sunni insurrection against the new Shiite institutions feed the 
religious war, as well as the Al Qaida war, without achieving more 
than tactical and temporary success.  Washington's attempts to 
include neighbor countries such as Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia in a 
negotiated settlement, risk having no influence at all on the Sunni 
insurrection and the religious war...  A U.S. disengagement from 
Iraq, as recommended now by a majority of the U.S. Congress, would 
do nothing to calm down the Sunni insurgents, but this withdrawal 
would be welcomed by Al Qaida as a resounding victory." 
 
------------------------- 
CHIRAC "ANOINTS" SARKOZY 
------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Right-of-center Le Figaro (March 22) devoted a full page to 
President Chirac's "natural support" for and "anointment" of UMP 
candidate Sarkozy.  "The Elysee opted for a formal and traditional 
method for the president to make his support public...  The 
intervention was taped as opposed to live and as it was not in the 
form of an interview was able to sidestep embarrassing questions 
such as Sarkozy's desire to create an immigration ministry."  The 
editorial in right-of-center Le Figaro (March 22) by Alexis Brezet 
suggested that "of course Chirac's resentment towards Sarkozy did 
not magically disappear...  The fact is that Sarkozy, who for a long 
time was a symbol of contradiction, has succeeded in rallying his 
camp behind him.  Meanwhile the Socialist candidate continues her 
shilly-shallying with the Party's 'elephants.'" 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
LEFT-OF-CENTER LE MONDE/RIGHT-OF-CENTER CANDIDATE 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Left-of-center Le Monde's marked lack of criticism of 
right-of-center presidential candidate continues as the election 
draws nearer.  Le Monde's major shareholder, businessman Arnaud 
Largardere, is a close friend of Sarkozy.  Largardere made headlines 
last year when he removed Alain Genestar from his position as editor 
of glossy weekly magazine Paris Match following Lagardere's decision 
to run photos of Sarkozy's (now reconciled) wife with her 
then-boyfriend in New York.  Right-of-center Le Figaro's clearly 
pro-Sarkozy editorial line contrasts sharply with left-wing 
Liberation's pro-Royal bent, with left-of-center Le Monde leaning 
more toward Sarkozy than might otherwise be expected, and leaving 
readers of the major dailies unlikely to encounter stories or 
editorials that might differ from their already established 
political inclinations. 
STAPLETON