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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:undisclosed-recipients:">undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, August 15, 2010 3:16 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> The European press and the WikiLeaks
revelations</DIV></DIV>
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<H2>The European press and the WikiLeaks revelations</H2>
<H5>13 August 2010</H5>
<DIV>Two and a half weeks after the publication of 92,000 documents by the
WikiLeaks web site, a cloak of silence has been thrown by the European press
over the details the documents reveal about the brutal NATO occupation of
Afghanistan.<BR>The German magazine <EM>Der Spiegel</EM> (given privileged
access to the WikiLeaks documents along with the British <EM>Guardian</EM> and
the <EM>New York Times</EM>) prominently featured the classified files, exposing
in particular the collaboration of German elite forces with US military death
squads targeting alleged insurgents for murder.<BR>In its latest edition,
however, <EM>Der Spiegel</EM> has largely dropped the issue, referring to
WikiLeaks only once in a two-paragraph article dealing with US efforts to
improve its relations with Pakistan.<BR><EM>Der Spiegel</EM>’s virtual silence
is undoubtedly bound up with an offensive launched by the German government to
challenge the WikiLeaks material. Last week, German Foreign Minister Guido
Westerwelle went on record to condone German army collaboration in targeted
killings, claiming that such assassinations are legally sanctioned.<BR>The
downplaying of the WikiLeaks documents is reflected in other major news outlets
in Germany and across Europe. The dropping of coverage follows a series of
articles in both right-wing and liberal newspapers which, echoing the American
press, played down the significance of the documents, claiming they provided
little in the way of new information. At the same time, the articles attacked
the credentials of WikiLeaks editor and founder Julian Assange.<BR>Now European
politicians from across the political spectrum are citing media criticisms of
WikiLeaks and taking advantage of the general suppression of its exposures of
US-NATO atrocities to reinforce their commitment to the war in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, albeit with the proviso that European governments have more say in the
conduct of military operations.<BR>A document previously leaked by WikiLeaks,
which has received virtually no coverage in the European press, is a CIA report
entitled “Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough.” The report was drafted
with the specific aim of “shoring up Afghan war support in Western
Europe.”<BR>The document, dated March 11 of this year, acknowledges that large
majorities in France and Germany (80 percent) oppose any escalation of the war.
It warns that “if some forecasts of a bloody summer in Afghanistan come to pass,
passive French and German dislike of their troop presence could turn into active
and politically potent hostility.”<BR>Noting that a major factor in the toppling
of the Dutch government earlier this year was its repudiation of a promise to
withdraw Dutch troops from Afghanistan, the CIA report intimates that other
European governments, in particular the French and German, could face a similar
threat and be “unwilling to pay a political price for increasing troop levels or
extending deployments.”<BR>As an antidote, the report recommends a
“communication offensive.” In the case of France, the CIA advises that stress be
placed on “the Taliban rolling back hard-won progress on girls’ education.” To
counteract “German pessimism” about the NATO mission, the report suggests that
“messages that illustrate how a defeat in Afghanistan could heighten Germany’s
exposure to terrorism, opium and refugees might make the war more salient to
skeptics.”<BR>In the aftermath of the WikiLeaks revelations, sections of the
European press have initiated precisely with such a “communication offensive.”
Writing in <EM>Die Welt</EM> on July 29, chief political correspondent Ansgar
Graw acknowledged the “pessimistic tenor” of the WikiLeaks documents. But, he
argued, any withdrawal of military forces would serve only “to increase the
determination of extremists and terrorists to fight.”<BR>A troop withdrawal
would “be a blow not only to the president and the US, but to the West as a
whole,” Graw wrote. Instead, what is needed, he continued, is “one final show of
force by all NATO and ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] states”
based on “expanding their military and financial involvement up to 2015 and
beyond.”<BR>Graw further argued for a new strategy aimed at establishing new
centres of power in the provinces based on concessions to local Taliban leaders.
This strategy, increasingly favoured by the governments in Paris and Berlin,
would diminish the authority of the US military command over European
forces.<BR>After nearly nine years of bloodshed and the deaths of tens of
thousands of Afghanis, it is clear that the “final show of force” advocated by
Graw, together with the “targeted killings” defended by the German foreign
minister, means an enormous intensification of the death and destruction in
Afghanistan.<BR>In France, the “newspaper of record" <EM>Le Monde</EM> led
Tuesday with an article highlighting criticisms of the WikiLeaks documents by a
number of human rights groups, including Amnesty International. Echoing the line
of the Pentagon, these groups argue that the WikiLeaks material puts at risk
Afghan informants and collaborators with the occupation forces.<BR>The only
significant voice opposing the French deployment is former defence minister Paul
Quilès, who declared in <EM>Le Monde</EM> that the public could now tell that
the NATO operation in Afghanistan was not a “war on terror.” Citing former
president Charles de Gaulle, Quilès stressed the need for an independent French
foreign policy.<BR>In its own editorials, <EM>Le Monde</EM> argues there is no
alternative to the NATO operation in Afghanistan, while urging parliamentary
deputies to make a better case for the war.<BR>Those behind the WikiLeaks web
site no doubt hoped that the exposure of US-NATO war crimes in Afghanistan would
spark an honest and open public debate and strengthen those forces arguing for
an end to the war and the US-NATO occupation.<BR>In the event, the lack of any
genuine democratic opposition to imperialist war crimes in the establishment
press on both sides of the Atlantic has created conditions where the most
ferocious advocates of the Afpak war can mount their own offensive for a further
escalation, while conducting a campaign to close down the WikiLeaks web
site.<BR>The refusal of any section of the establishment press to defend
WikiLeaks is mirrored by a myriad of ex-radical organizations, which have played
down the exposure of US-NATO atrocities and refuse to mount a principled
opposition to the war in Afghanistan.<BR>In the past two weeks, both the web
sites of the French New Anti-Capitalist Party and the German Left Party have
failed to run any articles on the WikiLeaks revelations or statements defending
the web site against state repression.<BR>There is broad and growing popular
anti-war sentiment in the US and Europe, but it can find expression only on the
basis of the independent mobilization of the working class against militarism
and war.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Stefan Steinberg<BR>= </DIV><!-- end of AOLMsgPart_2_310cc90d-7543-444e-9c67-43803a958b7b -->
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