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RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHLZ
DE RUEHRL #1630/01 3651338
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 311338Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6157
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
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RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1112
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RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1639
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0802
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//J5 DIRECTORATE (MC)//
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE
RUKAAKC/UDITDUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BERLIN 001630 
 
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 CH GMUS
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: US, US, US;BERLIN 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
¶2.   (U.S.)   Impact of Failed Attack 
¶3.   (U.S.)   Yemen, Guant namo 
¶4.   (Anti-Terrorism)   Assessment of Passenger Screening 
¶5.    Look Back at 2009, Look Ahead to 2010 
 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
 
The main stories in the print media centered on chronologies of the 
 
years 2000-2009.  Die Welt carried an eight-page special. 
Frankfurter 
Allgemeine led with the headline: "America Prepares Strikes Against 
 
Al-Qaida in Yemen," while Sueddeutsche focused on the establishment 
of 
a data base that will register the data of all 40 million gainfully 
 
employed people in Germany.  Under the headline: "Pilots: Duty Free 
 
Shops Are a Risk," Tagesspiegel dealt with the debate about new 
security measures at airports.   Editorials focused on the economic 
 
and general events in 2009  ZDF-TV's early evening newscast heute 
opened with a report in which President Obama accused the U.S. 
intelligence services of having failed, while  ARD-TV's early 
evening 
newscast Tagesschau opened with a story on the debate over the 
introduction of a new generation of full-body scanners. 
 
The media this morning (12/31) again carried extensive coverage of 
the 
aftermath of the failed terrorist attack in the United States.  Some 
 
focused on the debate over the introduction of full body scanners to 
 
prevent future attacks; others focus on the impact of the failed 
attack on President Obama's reputation, while others are now 
wondering 
whether Yemen will be another front in the war on terror and whether 
 
the President will now be able to close the Guant namo prison camp. 
 
 
¶2.   (U.S.)   Impact of Failed Attack 
 
Suedwest Presse of Ulm (12/31) criticized that "since the 9/11 
attacks, the United States has constantly escalated entry 
requirements.  Nothing goes without biometric passports, without 
registration in the Internet, without fingerprints, because an 
alleged 
tourist could in reality be a terrorist.  Questions concerning his 
menu aboard, details of the booking of his ticket should filter him 
 
out of the list of the anonymous mass of harmless people.  Now a 
terrorist was aboard.  U.S. agencies knew him, and he was considered 
 
dangerous and even got a visa.  This shows that the craze to collect 
 
data, a move that has been lauded as a panacea,  does not lead to 
the 
hoped-for results if investigators are drowning in the information 
they have hoarded - or if they simply do a slovenly job." 
 
In the view of Badische Zeitung of Freiburg (12/31), "Time will tell 
 
whether it will turn out to be a scandal if the CIA does not ring 
the 
 
BERLIN 00001630  002 OF 005 
 
 
alarm bell when a concerned father somewhere in western Africa 
reports 
of his wayward son.  Nevertheless, Obama's fit of anger has its 
reasons.  The Republicans cleverly took advantage of the blunders. 
 
But it was Obama who remained silent for much too long about the 
attack, thus risking his credibility.  He now wants to iron out his 
 
mistake but he must beware of not shouting too loud.  This, too, was 
 
not very convincing either." 
 
General-Anzeiger of Bonn (12/31) argued: "As far as politics is 
concerned, much is at risk for Barack Obama.  He could now easily 
get 
the reputation of being out of touch with reality, similarly like 
his 
predecessor George W. Bush with his harmless remarks following 
hurricane Katrina.  Unreliability is unforgivable, including for a 
president." 
 
Regional daily MQrkische Allgemeine of Potsdam (12/31) had this to 
say: "It would be devastating for Barack Obama if the impression 
grew 
that he would be too lax at the anti-terror front.  That is another 
 
reason why his tirade against the sloppiness of his security 
agencies 
was so fierce.  But even if he had used a softer tone, he cannot be 
 
accused of having made great mistakes.  He reacted faster than his 
predecessor George W. Bush following the comparable terrorist attack 
 
of the 'shoe bomber' in 2001; Obama did not minimize the danger, 
called the mistake openly by name and announced the consequences. 
Bush primarily played down the affair." 
 
¶3.   (U.S.)   Yemen, Guant namo 
 
In a report under the headline: "Guant namo Closure on a Knife's 
Edge," Frankfurter Rundschau (12/31) wrote: "U.S. President Obama 
gave 
himself one year to eliminate the legacy from the Bush presidency's 
 
anti-terror war, but it is becoming increasingly questionable 
whether 
he will be able to keep to his promise.  This one-year deadline was 
 
already over before the most recent incident and now the closure 
could 
be totally in question.  The latest revelations that two of the 
masterminds of the attack are former Guant namo prisoners are now 
putting massive pressure on the President.  The attack is supposed 
to 
have been planned in Yemen and the problem is that 90 of the 198 
Guant namo prisoners are also Yemenites, and, according to Obama's 
most recent security concept, many of them should be allowed to 
return 
home.  Over the past few months, the Obama government had put aside 
 
security concerns to make at least progress concerning the closure 
of 
Guant namo." 
 
Die Welt (12/31) editorialized on its front-page under the headline: 
 
"Obama and Yemen," that it is "uncontroversial that systems that are 
 
supposed to protect airports are undermined by terrorists.  As 
 
BERLIN 00001630  003 OF 005 
 
 
unwise 
as President Obama's silence concerning the attack in Detroit was, 
just as important is his admonition not to become hysterical.... 
Obama 
will demonstrate his weakness or strength in his future treatment of 
 
Yemen, Somalia and other terror hot spots.  It should be obvious 
that 
conventional wars will not defeat, but recruit, fanatic religious 
warriors.  This should be obvious after Iraq and Afghanistan.  Obama 
 
is now likely to order missile and drone attacks more frequently in 
 
Yemen, too.  It would only be appropriate if his tone towards Iran 
and 
every other state that finances terrorist activities were sharper 
and 
sanctions more likely.  Obama is neither a pacifist nor a softie. 
He 
will do what will best protect America.  But while George W. Bush 
failed to win the war on terror by using 'bring-them-on' gestures, 
Barack Obama will succeed in using drones and diplomacy either.  As 
 
long as the Islamic world is not outraged, as long as imams, 
politicians and mothers do not confront the lust for murder, the 
longing for defeat, and the craze of young men wanting to feel that 
 
they are the Chosen ones, there will be no end." 
 
Frankfurter Allgemeine (12/31) opined:  "Now it is becoming clear 
that 
not only the father of the Nigerian attacker informed the CIA but 
that 
U.S. agencies also had some information on a planned attack of a 
Nigerian terrorist.  If all this information had been correctly 
connected, the young man would never have been able to board the 
plane.  Obama is right when he demands a radical investigation.  For 
 
what sense does it make to collect millions of pieces of data if 
they 
do not reach the agency they are supposed to reach?  The President 
will now also have to face new questions concerning the closure of 
Guant namo.  If it is right that the masterminds of this attack are 
 
former Guant namo prisoners...then one should not be surprised at 
the 
resistance to Obama's plans to close the prison camp." 
 
Mnchener Merkur (12/31) judged: "This late criticism of his 
intelligence services does not change the fact that Barack Obama, 
who 
has otherwise demonstrated such a sure instinct, is not cutting a 
good 
figure against the background of this failed terror attack....  The 
 
second problem has a foreign policy nature.  The U.S. government 
must 
take note of the fact that, with Yemen, another dangerous bridgehead 
 
of the al-Qaida network has developed, which is threatening the 
United 
States on its own territory and which should remind Obama in an 
uncomfortable way of the origin of the Afghanistan conflict." 
 
¶4.   (Anti-Terrorism)   Assessment of Passenger Screening 
 
In the opinion of Die Welt (12/31), "those who want to keep their 
freedom of movement as global citizens, should not be too whiny in 
times of terrorism as citizens who have privacy, human dignity, and 
 
BERLIN 00001630  004 OF 005 
 
 
a 
sense of shame.  Freedom above the clouds has its price.  It may be 
 
that this reasoning will gain the upper hand, in the end, but the 
least a civil society must keep in mind regarding the dilemma 
between 
freedom and security is the awareness of the price it will pay if, 
as 
it looks right now, it gives in to the brutal powers of persuasion 
when it comes to thinking in security terms.  The citizen who boards 
a 
plane must accept that he is considered a security risk.  As a state 
 
of emergency this can be tolerated, but as a permanent routine it 
will 
destroy a civil society." 
 
Regional daily MQrkische Oderzeitung of Frankfurt on the Oder 
(12/31) 
opined: "No one knows whether the scanning of the Nigerian attacker 
 
would have prevented the attempted terrorist attack right from the 
start.  With their maliciousness, terrorists are always in the lead. 
 
Nevertheless, this can be no argument against full-body scanners. 
Despite efforts to protect the privacy of passengers, the lives of 
many others are at stake, and this must, in case of doubt, have 
priority.  Next to Islamic attackers, laws or humanity do not mean 
anything." 
 
Regional daily Coburger Tageblatt (12/31) had this to say: "A gulf 
of 
failures seems to be behind the thwarted attack on a Delta Airlines 
 
aircraft.  What should we think of the fact that intelligence 
services 
had information, but that this information seeped away in the jungle 
 
of rivaling authorities?  The United States has indefinitely 
inflated 
its security apparatus with 16 different intelligence services and 
they have rather become the symbol of a bureaucracy based on a 
collective security neurosis.  But thus far, this bureaucracy has 
not 
proven that it is able to protect the country.  And the passengers 
are 
wondering why they should tolerate all the harassment including to 
be 
scanned to their skin." 
 
¶5.   Look Back at 2009, Look Ahead to 2010 
 
All papers (12/31) carried extensive coverage of the past year and 
the 
past decade and only a few looked ahead to 2010.  Several papers 
carried eight-page supplements on the past ten years.  Sueddeutsche 
 
Zeitung carried an editorial headlined: "The Failure of Politics," 
and 
judged: "The big industrialized nations and the threshold countries 
 
are treating their future in a stupid way.  There are a lot of 
negotiations, but there is no action.  Seventy percent of Germans 
said 
in a recent opinion poll that they lost confidence in politics and 
the 
economy.  The politicians' lust for power, empty promises, and the 
sticking to traditional policies have resulted in the fact that 
Germans are skeptical about 2010.  This pessimism finds its 
 
BERLIN 00001630  005 OF 005 
 
 
expression 
all over the world.  If [politicians] do not succeed in massively 
reducing the increase in greenhouse gases in the next decade, the UN 
 
Climate Council is predicting an irreversible disintegration of the 
 
global economic system and an end of civilization which we currently 
 
consider comfortable." 
 
Regional daily Westdeutsche Zeitung of Dsseldorf (12/31) observed: 
 
"The vacuum that the U.S. loss of power has created may not be 
filled 
quickly enough.  And the greatest problem is China's immaturity. 
Without this new economic power, nothing goes in the world.  But the 
 
vast empire is neither willing nor able to do justice to its new 
international responsibilities.  These are not very good prospects 
for 
the next decade." 
 
Regional daily Der Neue Tag of Weiden (12/31) opined: "Quite often 
we 
heard this year of a new start--a new start in the United States 
with 
Barack Obama at the helm, a new start in Berlin, or a new start in 
relatioQ between the West and Islam.  But on closer inspection, 
these 
many new starts were false starts, missed or blotched 
opportunities.... 
The developments on the globe are getting too much for us, since 
everything is taking place here and now.  That is one reason alone 
why 
we would like to push the reset button, but it does not offer a 
guarantee for success.  It only symbolizes the belief in the 
principle 
of hope." 
 
DELAWIE