VZCZCXYZ1191
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRL #1251/01 2791154
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061154Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5402
INFO RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 1600
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0303
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0824
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 2341
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1350
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0533
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//J5 DIRECTORATE (MC)//
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE
RUKAAKC/UDITDUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE

UNCLAS BERLIN 001251 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/PAPD, EUR/PPA, EUR/CE, INR/EUC, INR/P, 
SECDEF FOR USDP/ISA/DSAA, DIA FOR DC-4A 
 
VIENNA FOR CSBM, CSCE, PAA 
 
"PERISHABLE INFORMATION -- DO NOT SERVICE" 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.0. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO IR PK AF EU US
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAN, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, EU, ECONOMIC, 
 
U.S., OBAMA-DALAILAMA;BERLIN 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
¶2.   (Iran)   Nuclear Conflict 
¶3.   (Pakistan)   Islamabad Bomb Attack 
¶4.   (Afghanistan)   Future Strategy 
¶5.   (EU)   Future of Lisbon Treaty 
¶6.   (Economic)   IMF/World Bank Meeting 
¶7.   (U.S.)   Economic Policy 
¶8.   (U.S.)   No Obama-Dalai Lama Meeting 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
 
Primetime newscasts and most newspapers opened with stories on the 
beginning of the coalition talks.  Tagesspiegel and Berliner Zeitung 
 
led with President KQhler's speech to mark the 60th anniversary of 
the 
Federal Trade Union DGB.  Editorials focused on the coalition talks 
 
and the 60th anniversary of the DGB. 
 
¶2.   (Iran)   Nuclear Conflict 
 
Only two papers (10/06) dealt with the nuclear conflict with Iran. 
In 
a report under the headline "Double Success," Sueddeutsche Zeitung 
wrote: "The visit of IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei and the nuclear 
talks 
in Geneva with the UN Security Council members plus Germany are 
considered a double success in Tehran.  The Iranians feel confirmed 
in 
their negotiating position through both contacts.  At a joint news 
conference with the head of the Iranian nuclear energy commission, 
Ali 
Akbar Salehi, ElBaradei said in Tehran: 'We are now changing gear 
from 
confrontation to cooperation.'  ElBaradei called reports on an 
internal paper of the IAEA according to which Tehran would be able 
to 
build the bomb 'totally unfounded.'  [By allowing IAEA inspections 
at 
the new plant near Ghom] Tehran is accepting an important step of 
international nuclear cooperation.  It can remain symbolic or turn 
into a model for the settlement of the conflict.  With this gesture 
of 
conciliation, the Iranians want to make it easier for Russia and 
China 
in the UN Security Council to avert further sanctions." 
 
Tagesspiegel (10/06) carried an editorial saying: "For western 
diplomacy, it was a good week.  A new movement has taken place in 
the 
nuclear conflict with Iran...and it almost seems to have been 
forgotten 
that Iran only recently gave up its largest nuclear feint and 
reported 
the second enrichment plant to the IAEA in Vienna.  The 
demonstrative 
missile tests only happened a week ago, while the oppression of the 
 
opposition, the show trials, and torture of political prisoners in 
Iranian prisons continue unabated.  For the first time, Iran's 
President Ahmadinejad has signaled his willingness for compromise - 
 
perhaps only in general terms or perhaps only for a certain period 
of 
time....  If we believe in the statements of the always careful 
IAEA, 
Tehran now has the technical knowledge to build a primitive bomb 
with 
enriched uranium.  At this point, President Ahmadinejad is 
presenting 
himself as that strongest advocate of Iranian nuclear rights and as 
 
the only effective supplier of political concessions. The message is 
 
as follows: Those who want Iran to make concessions must recognize 
him.  For the international community a new dilemma must be added to 
 
an old one: when it begins talks with Ahmadinejad, it declares him 
the 
winner in the inner-Iranian power struggle at the same time." 
 
¶3.   (Pakistan)   Islamabad Bomb Attack 
 
Several papers (10/06) carried reports on the attack on the UN World 
 
Food Program in Islamabad.  "Several People Killed in Attack On UN 
Helpers in Islamabad," headlined Sueddeutsche Zeitung and wrote that 
 
"the UN's World Food Program supplies food to ten million people in 
 
Pakistan.  Die Welt headlined: "Five People Killed in Suicide Attack 
 
On UN Office in Pakistan," while Tagesspiegel spoke of an "Attack on 
 
the UN in Pakistan," and reported that "the authors of the attack 
are 
likely to be Taliban or al-Qaida fighters who have committed such 
attacks on international institutions again and again."  The 
headline 
in Handelsblatt is: "Pakistan Fears New Wave of Attacks," and added: 
 
"The most bloody suicide attack since April in Islamabad is 
rekindling 
fears of a new wave of Islamic attacks in Pakistan.  The Taliban 
announced that they would take revenge for the killing of their 
leader 
Baitullah Mehsud who was killed in an attack of a remotely 
controlled 
missile in August." 
 
In an editorial, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (10/06) judged: "After the 
bomb 
attack on the offices of the UN Food Program in Islamabad, the UN 
has 
announced the closure of its offices.  No one can blame the UN for 
this, for every employer is first of all thinking of the security of 
 
its own people.  At the same time, the decision is a disaster for 
the 
population, and the attackers have thus achieved what they always 
wanted.  The UN has always been the engine behind the assistance for 
 
the people in the Swat Valley.  In addition, it is a disaster that 
the 
Taliban fighting the United States in Pakistan are now punishing the 
 
United Nations, as if it were to blame for the situation, too.   The 
 
offices of foreigners in Islamabad are secured like bulwarks and 
those 
who kill them gain a propaganda victory.  While the Pakistani 
government can register a few successes in the fight against the 
extremists, they are concentrating their attacks on the soft parts 
of 
the opponents: not the military but their helpers.  This is 
effective 
but hurts even more." 
 
¶4.   (Afghanistan)   Future Strategy 
 
Under the headline "Nothing fits together," Frankfurter Allgemeine 
editorialized: "Afghanistan is a priority of President Obama's 
foreign 
policy.  It is therefore all the more remarkable that nothing fits 
together in the U.S. policy on Afghanistan.  As soon as commander 
McChrystal sounds the alarm bell and calls for more soldiers, VP 
Biden 
spreads to the public the idea of withdrawing soldiers and 
intensifying drone attacks on al Qaida pockets in Pakistan.  The 
deputy head of the UN mission, an American, has a dispute with his 
boss over the irregularities during the elections.  Security Advisor 
 
Jones, an Afghanistan expert, now opposes McChrystal's view, noting 
 
that everything is less dramatic.  Nothing much has happened in 
Washington apart from redefining the connected trouble spots of 
Afghanistan and Pakistan into Af/Pak.  Of course, there is the envoy 
 
for Af/Pak, Richard Holbrooke.  What is he actually doing?" 
 
¶5.   (EU)   Future of Lisbon Treaty 
 
Frankfurter Allgemeine editorialized: "Polish President Kaczynski 
will 
take his time to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.  After that, the Prague 
Castle will be the last pocket of resistance, where Czech President 
 
Klaus is refusing to sign the reform treaty.  One against a few 
millions-that is to his liking.  But will he like the results of his 
 
resistance?" 
 
Sddeutsche saw the EU "In the dungeons of the Prague Castle" as 
"President Klaus causes serious damage to the Czech Republic with 
his 
blockade of the EU."  The paper speculated that "Klaus might indeed 
 
hope for the British conservatives to bring down the treaty in a 
referendum in 2010.  A bold plan that will not work because, after 
the 
clear vote of the Irish, Klaus is isolated.  The pressure is growing 
 
in Europe and particularly in Czech politics.  It is inconceivable 
that Klaus can continue his delaying tactics for more than half a 
year....  It would be more important to send a warning to the 
potential 
future British Prime Minister Cameron.  His immoral offer of 
scrapping 
the treaty if Klaus only holds out has discredited the British and 
shows his loss of reality." 
 
While Berliner Zeitung headlined a report that the "dispute over a 
EU 
referendum divides the Tories," Handelsblatt opined that "the 
European 
integration faces increasing trouble from London in the future," 
adding: "The Tories have never agreed more on their euro-skepticism. 
 
They are supported by the people and even pro-Europeans like Kenneth 
 
Clarke understand that there is no way around this strategy.  As 
anachronistic as it might seem from the Continental point of view, 
the 
EU will soon have to consider how much it appreciates a constructive 
 
role of the British.  Even a British referendum on leaving the EU is 
 
no longer crazy idea." 
 
¶6.   (Economic)   IMF/World Bank Meeting 
 
Deutschlandfunk (10/05) commented: "It is true that the G-7 does not 
 
want to dissolve itself, but in the future it will not dance 
prominently on the international political global stage.  That is 
what 
the G-7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs announced at their 
 
meeting in Istanbul.  This decision is overdue following the global 
 
financial crisis.  The G-7 can no longer resolve the problems and 
challenges of the global economic crisis on its own.  New strong 
actors such as China, Brazil, and India have appeared on the 
international stage...and the G-20 has turned into the gravitation 
center of international politics.  The awful question is: What will 
 
come after the crisis?  Will the G-20 then be willing and able to 
make 
decisions?  Doubts or at least skepticism is still appropriate. 
There 
is a reason why the G-7 has not yet been fully be written off. 
Those 
who think that international politics would become easier in the 
future are wrong." 
 
¶7.   (U.S.)   Economic Policy 
 
According to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, "Despite all the fuss about the 
setback for [Chicago's] application, there was even worse news for 
President Obama on Friday.  When he tried in vain to convince the 
IOC 
of the qualities of his home town Chicago, the statistical experts 
reported of a record unemployment.  Despite the economic stimulus 
program amounting to 800 billion dollars the labor market continues 
to 
drop.  And here Obama's real domestic problems begin.  The 
opposition 
will consider rising unemployment to be evidence that his economic 
policy has no effect ...even though the opposite is right.  This 
economic stimulus program has prevented the worst.  But the 
prevention 
of a depression cannot be sold as a political success, as long as 
the 
voters are suffering from the worst recession in two generations. 
Obama must now concentrate again on his role.  With his short trip 
to 
Europe he should not create the impression that the upswing is 
safeguarded.  The great recession is by no means over.  It requires 
 
the president's full concentration, and probably even a second 
economic stimulus package." 
 
¶8.   (U.S.)   No Obama-Dalai Lama Meeting 
 
Under the headline: "Obama Avoids Meeting with Dalai Lama," 
Handelsblatt (10/06) reported that "the U.S. President does not want 
 
to meet the Dalai Lama."  The paper refers to a report in the 
Washington Post according to the U.S. President decided not to meet 
 
the Dalai Lama before his visit to China in mid-November in order to 
 
avoid burdening relations with China." 
 
die tageszeitung (10/06) carried a report under the headline: 
"Obama's 
Policy Towards Tibet: Pussyfooting with Beijing," and wrote: "The 
Dalai Lama must let Hu Jintao go first....  Political analysts 
assume 
that this move hides the fear within the U.S. government that such a 
 
meeting could jeopardize the rapprochement towards China.  China not 
 
only owns the greatest share of U.S. bonds...but for the United 
States, 
Beijing is also an important partner in the nuclear conflict with 
Iran 
and North Korea.  It is the first time since 1991, that the Dalai 
Lama 
has been refused entry to the White House." 
 
  MURPHY