VZCZCXRO9638
RR RUEHAG RUEHLZ
DE RUEHRL #0203/01 0531312
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221312Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6593
INFO RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHIGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 2040
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0769
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1288
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 2786
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1811
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0963
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//J5 DIRECTORATE (MC)//
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE
RUZEADH/UDITDUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BERLIN 000203 
 
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 NL IR EMS US UK
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: AFGHANISTAN-NETHERLANDS, IRAN, EU-GREECE, 
U.S., UK;BERLIN 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
¶2.   (Afghanistan-Netherlands)   Dutch Government's Fall 
¶3.   (Iran)   Nuclear Program 
¶4.   (EU-Greece)   Economic Crisis 
¶5.   (U.S.)   Justice Department Report 
¶6.   (UK)   Brown in a Bad Temper 
 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
 
Print media led with the strike of Lufthansa pilots, while 
Frankfurter Rundschau and Frankfurter Allgemeine focused on the most 
recent statements of FDP leader Westerwelle on social security 
recipients.  Editorials focused on the collapse of the Dutch 
government following the vote of the future role of Dutch forces in 
Afghanistan.  ZDF-TV's early evening newscast heute dealt with the 
thunderstorms on the holiday island of Madeira, while ARD-TV's early 
evening newscast Tagesschau led with a story on the upcoming 
Lufthansa strike. 
 
¶2.   (Afghanistan-Netherlands)   Dutch Government's Fall 
 
All papers (2/22) carried lengthy reports on the collapse of the 
Dutch government over the controversy about the future Dutch mission 
in Afghanistan.  Frankfurter Allgemeine headlined: "NATO: We Will 
Stay Even Without The Dutch."  Sueddeutsche Zeitung carried a 
report, headlined: "Dutch Government Collapses Because of 
Afghanistan - Right Wing Populists Could be Winners in New 
Elections," while Die Welt headlined: "Dutch Heading for New 
Elections, [Experts] Expect Massive Support for Islam Critic 
Wilders."  "Dutch Withdrawal' headlined Berliner Zeitung and 
reported: "As a matter of fact, NATO is trying to report positive 
news from Afghanistan and in the past week, it seemed to be 
successful with the large-scale military offensive...but over the 
weekend, NATO had to accept a serious setback when the Dutch 
governing coalition under Premier Jan Pieter Balkenende collapsed 
over the controversy about the right policy towards Afghanistan." 
 
 
According to Sueddeutsche Zeitung (2/22), "it is only a question of 
time until pressure in other capitals will be so great that 
politicians will be forced to decide between their political 
survival and solidarity for the Alliance.   Democracies are able to 
wage war only when there is a sufficient politically and socially 
stable consensus on the mission.  If this consensus collapses, a 
Dutch situation could develop in many capitals.  NATO cannot afford 
this, since an alliance that dissolves on the battlefield would also 
be at its political end, too.  That is why it would be careless to 
take in stride the events in The Hague or to ignore it as 
provincialism.  If NATO does not soon announce a perspective for its 
withdrawal, an increasing number of governments will organize the 
withdrawal on their own - under pressure from their own 
population." 
 
Handelsblatt (2/22) opined: "The implications for the NATO mission 
in Afghanistan are fatal.  The Dutch coalition...broke apart at the 
time when the United States and NATO are planning a massive 
extension of their military engagement in Kabul.  The Dutch will now 
withdraw their 1,800 forces from the Urusgan Province, thus creating 
a gap that will be difficult to fill.  Canada approved its 
withdrawal for 2011 and other countries will follow.  In Germany, 
too, a few days before the Bundestag vote on an extension of the 
Bundeswehr mandate in Afghanistan, the mood is depressing....  It is 
now coming back to haunt [the government] that it has hidden the 
mission behind empty words and the corrupt regime in Kabul." 
 
In the view of Berliner Zeitung (2/22), "the Netherlands has always 
been considered a reliable partner in NATO and the EU.  But with the 
 
BERLIN 00000203  002 OF 004 
 
 
collapse of the coalition, the country is now witnessing a foreign 
policy rupture.  In the Afghanistan question, the issue is less the 
chance to succeed in the fight against the Taliban but rather the 
costs of the mission.  When the international community advocated 
the fight against terror, we often heard the term 'global domestic 
policy,' but the Netherlands is now implementing a change and is 
demonstrating that domestic calculations still dominate future 
foreign policy cooperation among nations that are loyal to the 
Alliance." 
 
Regional daily Neue Osnabrcker Zeitung (2/22) had this to say: "If 
the Dutch leave Afghanistan according to plan at the end of this 
year, they will leave with an elevated spirit.  But they will leave 
a gap for NATO that can hardly be closed again.  What the Germans 
sell as their strategic invention and what the Americans sell as the 
higher insight of their generals is what the Dutch demonstrated in 
Urusgan: to fight courageously and to build up the region in an even 
more courageous way.  But it is by no means clear that the allies 
will succeed in doing so." 
 
Stuttgarter Zeitung (2/22) is very pessimistic and argued: "The 
withdrawal of the Dutch forces means the beginning of the end of 
NATO.  The solidarity that dominated under the impression of the 
Cold War for more than 40 years is disintegrating.  NATO's motto is 
to act together.  This was the idea, but reality shows that support 
for the Afghan war is crumbling in almost all western countries. 
Neither the national governments nor NATO itself have understood how 
to maintain the support of their own voters for this war.  A 
disaster is now looming.  If the Americans are the only ones who 
must shoulder the war in Afghanistan, the unity of the transatlantic 
region will fall apart." 
 
¶3.   (Iran)   Nuclear Program 
 
Under the headline: "End of Excuses, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (2/20) 
judged: "Since Thursday, we have the first Iran report of new IAEA 
Director Yukiya Amano, and we must congratulate him for it.  He did 
not reveal anything sensational but he has used more clear language 
and given the report a different emphasis than his predecessor, El 
Baradei, without snubbing or exposing him.  Amano has drawn a 
comprehensive picture of the state of Iran's nuclear program and he 
made clear that it is the government in Tehran - not the West - that 
is not abiding by its commitments.  Amano did not succumb to the 
temptation to encode Iran's efforts to build the bomb with the 
support of difficult technical questions.  In addition, the new IAEA 
head is also directing clear words to Tehran and to all conspiracy 
theorists, who ignore all incriminating evidence as 'falsified'.... 
With all this, Amano sent a sign to his agency, too, because he 
demonstrated that he has confidence in his inspectors after his 
predecessor El Baradei entertained doubts about them.  But it is 
more important that the world now has a sound basis for its 
deliberations about future moves against Tehran.  Following this 
report, no one can seriously believe any longer in the empty words 
from Tehran that Iran is not seeking to build nuclear weapons." 
 
Frankfurter Allgemeine (2/20) opined: "Following the IAEA report, 
the question is: What now?  The most appropriate answer would be to 
stop taking part in the Iranian game.  When if not now should those 
sanctions be imposed that could at least influence the calculations 
of the Iranian powers-that-be?  The Western powers should make a 
last-ditch attempt in the UNSC to integrate Russia and China.  In 
the case of Moscow, this attempt could succeed.  But one thing is 
striking -- there are obviously forces in Tehran who wish nothing 
more but an escalation of the conflict; they almost work for it. 
The IAEA report states that enriched uranium is stored above the 
ground.  Is that an invitation?" 
 
Under the headline; "Two Ugly Options In the Nuclear Conflict With 
 
BERLIN 00000203  003 OF 004 
 
 
Iran," Berliner Zeitung (2/20) editorialized: "Again only the 
military seems to be able to resolve a problem where politicians 
have failed.  As a matter of fact, the U.S. and its partners had 
planned to resolve the problem with tougher sanctions.  With such 
moves, those forces in the U.S. and Israel who are advocating a 
military strike should feel reassured.  But if the Iranians are 
building a bomb, as the IAEA report allows us to assume, sanctions 
will not stop them.  That is why the world must either accept 
Iranian having a nuclear bomb or the military must strike. These are 
two ugly options, and they are the only ones.  The only alternative 
would be that the United States gives Iran security guarantees, 
begins a dialogue and lifts the embargo in exchange for the bomb. 
But with each new warning, each new intelligence report and now the 
IAEA report, pressure on President Obama will increase not to show 
consideration for such steps." 
 
Under the headline: "Now the Time of Clubs Will Begin," Die Welt 
(2/20) opined: "We must really be worried if the IAEA uses such 
clear words in its latest report on Iran, stated that Iran is 
unwilling to cooperate and even considers it possible that Iranian 
scientists are currently working on a nuclear warhead.  It is time 
to finally take action.  However, we have heard this for years. The 
question is how Iran's President Ahmadinejad can be caught by 
surprise.  Theodore Roosevelt said: 'Speak softly and carry a big 
club.'  He is right and since Tehran refuses to talk, the time of 
the clubs is now beginning: The biggest club before a military 
strike would be a sea blockade.  A blockade would really hurt the 
regime which keeps itself alive with presents to its supporters. 
And to make the pain hit the right people all international assets 
of the Iranian elite should be frozen.  Further cudgel blows could 
follow.  But this must really start right now." 
 
¶4.   (EU-Greece)   Economic Crisis 
 
According to Sueddeutsche (2/22), "state bankruptcies such as the 
one in Greece will be looming if the EU member states do not have 
binding budget criteria.  The consequence is that countries that 
have abided by rules on budgetary discipline must now help 
bankruptcy candidates survive.  The burden for the younger 
generation, however, continues to rise.  That is why it is decisive 
that the EU creates a kind of debt ceiling for all member states 
that will punish any mismanagement.  The Stability Pact proved that 
there is no other way out.  No one has really stuck to this treaty. 
In the case of Greece, the EU must set clear conditions on how the 
country must restructure its budget.  In order to prevent future 
state bankruptcies, a European institution according to the IMF 
model would help.  That is why the euro countries must develop a 
procedure for a regular state insolvency." 
 
¶5.   (U.S.)   Justice Department Report 
 
Under the headline "Bottom of the Barrel," Sueddeutsche Zeitung 
(2/22) dealt with the Justice Department's report on the authors of 
expert opinion on torture, John C Yoo and Jay S. Bybee, and judged: 
"People like John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee can be abused as faceless 
bureaucrats who pulled the strings...but since this weekend, it has 
been clear that the two shysters will never be called to account for 
their memos that justified torture--not in America and not even 
before other Lawyers'.  Torture in the CIA camps continues to go 
unpunished.  Even last year, President Obama decided that not a 
single torturer should be punished if they relied on Yoo and Bybee's 
legal expert opinions.  Obama confirmed that he does not want to 
'settle old accounts' and that he wants 'to look ahead.'  But 
without re-examining these issues, the U.S. president will not be 
able to lead the nation out of the shadow of torture.  On the 
contrary, John Yoo enjoys a cult status among conservative lawyers, 
and Dick Cheney, who ordered the torture memos, continues to speak 
week after week as if the disrespect of the Constitution and decency 
 
BERLIN 00000203  004 OF 004 
 
 
can last forever." 
 
¶6.   (UK)   Brown in a Bad Temper 
 
Sueddeutsche Zeitung (2/22) carried a front-page report under the 
headline: "Brown Allegedly Misbehaves in Downing Street." And 
reported: "As a matter of fact it should not have been a surprise. 
The public has known for a long time that once in a while, 
telephones, ring binders, or other stationary flies around in 
Downing Street, where Gordon Brown resides.  Great Britain's Prime 
Minister is a choleric, and his tantrums are legendary.  But Brown's 
latest appearance on TV nevertheless astonished the British.  And 
for the first time in history, an acting PM had to dismiss 
accusations that he would sometimes beat up his staff....  But it is 
paradoxical that his prospects for the upcoming elections have 
improved.  According to opinion polls, the Labor Party has halved 
the lead of the Conservative Party from 13 to six percent; and 
Brown's personal popularity has increased, too - from minus 50 to 
minus 21." 
 
Under the headline: "Nightmare Plant in Downing Street," Financial 
Times Deutschland (2/22) wrote: "Britain's former PM Tony Blair 
served as a model for a political thriller.  His successor Gordon 
Brown could now follow in his footsteps.  A week ago, Brown moved 
his compatriots when he spoke in public about the death of his 
daughter Jennifer...but the 59-year-old government leader also has 
another, less glorious side.  We learn this from a book of Andrew 
Rawnsley, who is well-connected.  He described Brown as a 
thin-skinned, paranoid politician who frightens close aides and 
pelts them with curses. These revelations confirm the picture which 
journalists and supporters drew when Brown was the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer and Tony Blair's rival...." 
 
MURPHY