VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHVI #1881/01 1971303
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161303Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7982
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/WHITEHOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS VIENNA 001881 
 
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: OPRC KPAO AU
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: July 16, 2007 
 
 
Bank Bawag Trial Starts Today 
 
¶1. All Austrian media give prominent coverage to the major civil 
trial, which is set to begin in a Vienna court today. Nine people 
are facing charges of breach of trust, fraud and false accounting in 
connection with speculation losses incurred by the formerly 
union-owned bank Bawag. Those on trial include the bank's former CEO 
Helmut Elsner, investment banker Helmut Floettl, as well as other 
bank officials. Verdicts are expected to be handed down at the end 
of October. 
All Austrian media give extensive coverage to the trial of former 
bank Bawag officials, underway in Vienna as of today. According to 
centrist daily Die Presse, the "most flamboyant" of the nine 
defendants is former investment banker Wolfgang Floettl. The daily 
describes the "son of a former Bawag Director General" as a "man who 
first captured the American financial world, and then ran aground" 
the bank's so-called "Caribbean deals." Helmut Elsner, one of 
Floettl's co-defendants, who has "exchanged the golf course for the 
court room," led the Bawag to "near-bankruptcy" as its CEO, 
according to the Presse.  Mass-circulation provincial daily Kleine 
Zeitung says the case is the "trial of the year," and 
mass-circulation daily Kurier expects a "record-breaking trial." 
 
 
Coalition Dispute over Child Benefit Payments 
 
¶2. Speaking on Austrian television, Minister for Women's Issues 
Doris Bures from the Social Democratic Party said she has no 
understanding for what she describes as OeVP Family Minister Andrea 
Kdolsky's "botched job" on childcare benefit payments. Bures 
underscored that the former OeVP-FPOe government had been made aware 
at the introduction of the child benefit regulations in 2000 that 
there were concerns over the constitutionality of the law. 
Speaking on ORF TV's Sunday morning program Meet the Press, Minister 
for Women's Issues Doris Bures urged her OeVP colleague, Family and 
Health Minister Andrea Kdolsky, not to insist that child benefit 
payments be returned by families exceeding the income limit. She had 
"no understanding for Kdolsky's comments along the lines of 'no 
child is going to starve,'" Bures underscored. The SPOe Minister 
also suggested Kdosky should "show greater sensitivity" on the 
issue. The Family Minister had recently referred to a "dramatization 
of starving children," Austrian media explain. Bures emphasized that 
she rejected what she describes as Kdolsky's "botched job," and said 
she is currently having the constitutionality of the child benefit 
payment laws checked. Families have been "deceived," she complained, 
and argued that the "problem must not be taken out on the mothers 
and women." 
 
 
Interview with Ambassador McCaw 
 
¶3. In a PAS-facilitated interview with a mass-circulation daily, US 
Ambassador to Austria Susan McCaw explained the reasons for why she 
has chosen to end her ambassadorial assignment by the end of this 
year. The US Ambassador, who has "acquired an excellent reputation 
during her time in Vienna," the daily says, is going to return early 
to the United States for personal reasons: "Professionally, my 
experience in Vienna has been fantastic. But on the personal front, 
it's my family that counts," Ambassador McCaw told the daily's 
foreign editor. 
In a PAS-facilitated interview published on July 15 with 
mass-circulation daily Kurier, US Ambassador to Austria Susan McCaw 
explained her decision to end her assignment early and in favor of 
her family. The Ambassador underscored how "fantastic" her 
experience in Austria has been, but added that she feels her 
decision was "the right one." A marriage, she explained, is a 
"series of compromises," and "a partnership that needs balance." Her 
husband, Craig McCaw, has "supported me a lot during my time here." 
However, it has "not been easy, particularly because of the time 
difference, which makes communication more difficult." Personally, 
the Ambassador said, she would "love to stay" in Austria. She will 
"always remember the experience, it was very rewarding -- for my 
family as well." Ambassador McCaw pointed out that many women, who 
are managing families and jobs, are faced with a similar challenge: 
"Many women are like swans: Their heads are above the water, but 
under water their feet are paddling vigorously," she said. 
Discussing her ambassadorship, Mrs. McCaw suggested the system of 
political appointees has a lot of advantages, because "we have 
access to the White House." President Bush "listens, just as 
Secretary of State Rice does. Americans do not always listen to 
 
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others. Here in Austria, I'm not only the mouth and the eyes of the 
President, I'm also his ears, and I report back to Washington what I 
hear."  Austrians, Ambassador McCaw concluded, "tend to 
underestimate themselves, I think. They could play a much greater 
role." 
 
 
North Korea Shuts Down Reactor 
 
¶4. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA have 
verified the shutdown of North Korea's key reactor, the head of the 
UN agency, Mohamed El-Baradei, has confirmed. The process was going 
well and North Korea was cooperating, El-Baradei told journalists, 
stressing that it was "a good step in the right direction." North 
Korea announced on Saturday that it had shut down the Yongbyon 
reactor - the first stage in disabling its nuclear program. The IAEA 
chief said that the next step was to verify the shutdown of other 
nuclear facilities and then disable them, something he warned would 
be "a complicated process." 
Like all Austrian media reporting on the issue, independent 
provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten says North Korea's move to 
shut down its nuclear reactor at Pyongyang is a "first step." The 
"years of that tug-of-war over North Korea's atomic weapons program 
may finally be over," the daily suggests, and adds that Pyongyang's 
latest decision in the dispute over its nuclear ambitions is "a 
diplomatic success for US President George Bush." 
 
 
Russia Suspends Arms Control Pact 
 
¶5. Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the application of 
the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), a key Cold War arms 
control agreement. The 1990 CFE limits the number of heavy weapons 
deployed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Urals mountains. 
President Putin signed a decree citing "exceptional circumstances" 
affecting security as the reason for his move, but a more likely 
reason is that Russia has been angered by US plans to base parts of 
a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, Austrian 
media explain. The Russian suspension will become effective 150 days 
after other parties to the treaty have been notified. 
Reporting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he 
has suspended the application of the Conventional Forces in Europe 
Treaty (CFE), liberal daily Der Standard headlines "NATO: Russia has 
made a 'step in the wrong direction.'" The Atlantic Alliance, the 
European Union and the United States have reacted with concern and 
disappointment to Moscow's decision to withdraw from the CFE treaty. 
The spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, 
Gordon Johndroe, emphasized that despite Putin's move the United 
States would "continue to have discussions with Russia in the coming 
months" on how to proceed. Likewise, centrist daily Die Presse says 
that Washington "expressed its regret, but remains tough" on its 
plans to base parts of a missile defense system in a number of 
eastern European countries. Mass-circulation tabloid Kronen Zeitung 
in a headline meanwhile suggests that the Russian President, 
"alternating between behaving like a cuddly and a very grumpy bear," 
is "playing a game of cat and mouse with Bush." 
Kilner