VZCZCXYZ0020
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRL #0083/01 0211518
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211518Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6326
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 1941
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0661
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1180
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 2683
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1702
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0865
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//J5 DIRECTORATE (MC)//
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE
RUZEADH/UDITDUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE

UNCLAS BERLIN 000083 
 
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 SENV KGHG HA US AF
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: HAITI, OBAMA PRESIDENCY, KUNDUZ AIRSTRIKE, 
IPCC;BERLIN 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
¶2.   Haiti Earthquake 
¶3.   Massachusetts Senate Race 
¶4.   Afghanistan--Kunduz Airstrike 
¶5.   Climate Protection--IPCC 
 
¶1.    Lead Stories Summary 
 
ZDF-TV's heute opened with a story on the security alert at Munich 
airport.  ARD-TV's primetime Tagesschau opened with a story on the 
aftershock in Haiti.  Newspapers led with stories on many different 
topics, including the beginning of the Bundestag defense committee's 
investigation of the Kunduz airstrikes.  Sueddeutsche headlined: 
"Guttenberg increasingly under pressure."  Die Welt highlighted that 
Guttenberg said Germans are not cowards in Afghanistan.  Berliner 
Zeitung and FT Deutschland led with stories on weapons lobbyist 
Schneider's trial, noting that he claimed to have given donations to 
the CSU.  Frankfurter Allgemeine emphasized that the federal court 
strengthened the rights of the Bundestag.  Editorials focused on 
yesterday's Bundestag debate, the election result in Massachusetts, 
and the German debate on Afghanistan. 
 
¶2.    Haiti Earthquake 
 
All media continued to report that the situation in Haiti is 
difficult.  However, the story was no longer a lead story in most 
media.  Coverage of the role the U.S. is playing is positive. 
 
Weekly Die Zeit began its front page article on Haiti with the 
subheadline: "The earthquake destroyed Haiti.  Now humanity, under 
the leadership of America, is proving that it is capable of 
generosity and can provide assistance that transcends all political 
borders."  The weekly added: "Barack Obama has not just committed 
himself to a gigantic rescue operation, but also to an enormous 
effort to rebuild a country.  Of course, this is in America's own 
interests.  However, Obama has done the right thing and takes great 
political risks.  If the mission succeeds, it will have many fathers 
and mothers: the UN, the U.S., Latin American neighbors and the EU. 
If it fails, only Obama will be blamed." 
 
Die Welt noted in a front-page teaser that "the security situation 
is stabilizing thanks to the efforts of thousands of U.S. soldiers. 
Aid supplies are also slowly reaching the people."  In a front-page 
editorial, Die Welt added: "Haiti, this small, strategically 
insignificant country in the Caribbean, this faraway and unhappy 
place that never succeeded to rise from the dust, arouses global 
sympathy.  Those who thought that the interest will decline after a 
few days and that the public would turn to other topics are wrong. 
In natural disasters, all men are equal." 
 
In a lengthy report on Haiti, Stern magazine underlined that even 
the U.S. base in Guantanamo is playing a positive role in the rescue 
efforts.  It highlighted that "Guantanamo turned into the base for 
assistance flights" and added: "In Washington, Barack Obama lined up 
with former Presidents George W. Bush and William Clinton to include 
the whole nation in the aid program worth 100 million, which 
includes the deployment of 10,000 soldiers and hundreds of civilian 
aid workers.  The U.S. sent a whole fleet of aircraft carriers and 
swimming hospitals and took over the control of the airport in 
Port-au-Prince.  Even the U.S. military base in Guantanamo-which is 
infamous for the detention center-turned into a base for the 
humanitarian mission.   The U.S. enclave is only 350 km away from 
the epicenter of the earthquake.  Only last Saturday, 29 flights of 
the Operation Unified Response, as the earthquake assistance is 
called in military lingo, started from and landed in Guantanamo." 
 
 
ARD-TV's Tagesschau reported: "This most serious of all aftershocks 
 
dashed the little hope people had gotten in recent days.  The good 
news is that a hospital ship of the U.S. navy arrived today and the 
first patient was a Haitian boy with severe burns." 
 
¶3.    Massachusetts Senate Race 
 
Frankfurter Allgemeine opined in a front-page editorial: "The 
President's priority of reforming the healthcare system might be the 
first to fall victim to the new situation.  Although local 
circumstances played a role in the special Massachusetts Senate race 
and the Democratic candidate was anything but exciting, the loss of 
the seat is a tough hit against the President and his party.  The 
declining popularity of Obama's policies has now been made official: 
the pendulum is swinging back; many independent voters are turning 
their backs on the 2008 election winner.  The writing for the 
Congressional elections this autumn is on the wall: if the 
Republicans can win in Massachusetts, they can compete anywhere." 
 
Under the headlined "Humiliation for Obama," Sueddeutsche remarked: 
"Brown sensed the discontent of the people and presented himself as 
a man who could give a voice to this frustration.  Like Obama, he 
won as a candidate against the political establishment.  His triumph 
is a humiliation for the President, who wanted to challenge the 
system himself....  In his first year, Obama rescued banks, 
prevented the automobile industry from collapsing and launched a 
huge economic stimulus program.  He hoped that this Herculean task 
would give him the leeway for the rest of his agenda: the healthcare 
reform, climate protection, investments into schools.  However, 
these are obviously not the priorities of the people at this moment. 
 Scott Brown ran in Massachusetts with two promises that touched the 
nerves of the people.  He wants to stop the healthcare reform and 
reduce the enormous national deficit.    These are the roots for the 
discontent with Obama.  They are suspicious about his reform agenda. 
 And they are under the impression that the Democrats gamble away 
the future of the country if they continue to increase the debt." 
 
 
FT Deutschland editorialized: "Losing one of the most liberal 
constituencies in the U.S. to the Republicans is difficult to do... 
The defeat in Massachusetts damages Barack Obama's shining nimbus 
throughout the world.   He is no longer the guy that can win 
anything and who can persuade people easily.  This will damage his 
policy at home and abroad.  Obama and his party must blame 
themselves.  They cannot simply blame their candidate, as weak as 
she might have been.  It was careless to trust that voters would be 
faithful to the Democrats." 
 
Handelsblatt noted: "The landslide of the Republicans in the special 
Massachusetts elections also had local reasons.  However, it brought 
Obama and the Democrats down to earth with a bump.  It is even 
worse: it will soon turn out as a turning point.  So far, the 
President ruled from the height of the power.  The loss of this 
Senate seat deprives him of his creative majority in Congress. 
There will be Congressional elections in autumn and because Obama 
coolly calculates, he will give up his role of a statesman and enter 
the election campaign.  He will make his domestic and foreign 
policies more American." 
 
¶4.    Afghanistan-Kunduz Airstrike 
 
Sueddeutsche commented on Defense Minister zu Guttenberg's statement 
on the September 4 airstrike in Kunduz: "The minister faced a 
difficult situation.  He had to deal with a colonel who had 
obviously made serious mistakes.  However, the troops stood behind 
the colonel and expected their new defense minister to express his 
solidarity.  Guttenberg wanted to express solidarity-not just for 
opportunistic reasons, but because the Bundeswehr is close to his 
heart.  As a result, he accepted the wording of his military 
 
advisors and topped that by saying that the attack was unavoidable. 
Already at the time, experts shook their heads about this 
brazenness.  We now know that the military assessment of the events 
do not justify Guttenberg's assessment." 
 
Die Welt editorialized: "ISAF Commander in Afghanistan McChrystal 
has called on the Bundeswehr to take more risks in the north of the 
country.  That sounds as if he is asking for much.  The truth is 
that this is only the consequence of McChrystal's new strategy that 
gives the highest priority to the protection of the people. Military 
experts agree that this is the best strategy to fight the 
insurgency.  The basic idea behind it is that we will win against 
the Taliban only if the majority of the people are behind us.  To 
achieve this, the allies most especially guarantee security, which 
is the condition for the reconstruction." 
 
¶5.    Climate Protection--IPCC 
 
Several papers carried reports on the confession of UN 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that it made 
mistakes concerning the forecast for the Himalaya glaciers. 
Frankfurter Allgemeine headlined: "Setback for climate change," as 
"the IPCC admitted that it warned against the melting of the 
Himalaya glaciers in a widely publicized report in 2007 without 
having any scientific evidence for it."  FT Deutschland headlined: 
"IPCC admits mistake of forecast," and added: "The IPCC vice 
president has admitted of massive mistakes concerning the forecast 
of the melting of the Himalaya glaciers.  The forecast that the 
glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong and will be revised, 
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele said." 
 
MURPHY