Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel — an advocate of closer ties with Washington — had veiled criticism of the United States...In the fight against international terror ... respect for human rights, tolerance and respect for other cultures must be the maxim of our actions, along with decisiveness and international cooperation," she said." It's only AP via Yahoo that packages this as a "veiled criticism of the United States." What Merkl actually said--- "Respect for human rights" and so forth --- could have been said by George Bush himself.
IMHO, the MSM frames Merkel's statement as "criticism of the USA" because they have an anti-USA agenda...