January 20

"I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. "

--Henry James; image from

VIDEO

Did You Know? Courtesy LB

Below images featured in RT [Russia Today] advertising campaign in the UK (December 2009 — January 2010); see also

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Obama’s Public Diplomacy From Haiti Wears Combat Boots - blog.usni.org: “Countries like France are exactly right to call US actions in Haiti as 'occupation' even if it is not true, because in case you haven’t noticed, every US spokesman on TV and covered in press conferences involved in public diplomacy from the ground in Haiti wears combat boots. ...


Will the organization, coordination, and cooperation on the ground be in place by the time supply arrives by sea? Without better US political leadership to work with the UN and NGOs, the answer would appear to be no. We need to avoid such a political failure, because the fallout simply means the DoD will have to pick up the slack – again making our public diplomacy effort inside Haiti one with combat boots.”

VOA on multiple (but mostly unspecified) frequencies to Haiti, and other Haiti media news: Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

For Which It Stands: Obama one year later - C.M. Sennott, GlobalPost: “After eight years of President George W. Bush, it was a time when one poll after the next showed America’s image in the world had never been lower. And here was a new president reaching out to and engaging with the world. It seemed the beginning of a new era, a time of unbridled hope and optimism that this president would indeed bring about change.

We invite you to take a look back at last year’s stories as a metric for whether Obama has succeeded and where we are today. One year on, we asked many of those same correspondents and columnists to revisit how Obama and America are viewed today. Now 365 days later, the world seems largely impatient with the idea that the president’s soaring rhetoric has not been matched with deeds. His public diplomacy is strong, but our correspondents are hearing from every corner of the world that to carry out the hard work of affecting change he still has a long way to go.”

VOL. VI NO. 1, January 1-January 14, 2010 - The Layalina Review on Public Diplomacy and Arab Media:
“War on Al-Manar A recent bill adopted by the House of Representatives calls for punitive measures against TV networks seen as spreading anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East. The bill is generating widespread criticism in the region as many accuse the US government of infringing upon national sovereignty.
Public Diplomacy or Propaganda? Public diplomacy advocates are calling for a private-public partnership to win the war of ideas against radical Islamist ideology. These measures require an unprecedented use of market research and communications resources.
Al-Hurra Disappoints All As the US Congress appropriates over a million more dollars for Al-Hurra TV, commentators, such as James Zogby, renew their criticism of Al-Hurra’s mission and success.
Twittering Their Way to Hearts and Minds Social media is being used as a part of US public diplomacy efforts in an attempt to empower grassroots movements while encourage democratization and access to information in key countries such as Iran.
Reclaiming Islam Radicalizing preachers are becoming an increasing source of concern for national security agencies as a pattern of homegrown Islamic terrorism is detected in the US.
Obama's Choice of Words Reveals Flaws in Foreign Policy After the failed "Christmas Terrorist Attack," President Obama made several remarks censuring the intelligence community and pledged to work with Congress to increase resources for national security.
Muslims in the Media Arab media denounces the American media's misrepresentation of Muslims and Islam, which intrinsically links the religion with terrorism, is contributing to a growing Islamophobia.
The Current State of Arab Media and Censorship While 2009 has witnessed an erosion of the most fundamental press freedom and persecution of dozens of independent reporters and online bloggers, journalist advocacy organizations continue their battle towards more freedom of expression and democracy in the Arab world.
New Security Measures Spark Fears of Abuse New security measures, termed unfair by many, are generating fear among Saudis living in the US, who worry that they may experience the same security frenzy that followed 9/11.
Failure to Communicate Recent terrorist incidents have exposed shortcomings in communication among US intelligence agencies as well as other national intelligence services, highlighting that the war on terror is far from over.”

National Security Strategy: Security Threats Associated with Oil Dependence - fondela.com: “The National Security Strategy MiPAL has been updated with a Military Review article presenting guiding principles for stability and reconstruction, a Congressional hearing assessing the impact of U.S. export controls on national security, a Center for Strategic and International Studies report analyzing defense finance, remarks by the Acting Comptroller General of the United States at the National Defense University on the Department of Defense’s ability to face fiscal challenges,


a Heritage Foundation report featuring recommendations for the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, a Center for American Progress report analyzing the security threats associated with oil dependence, a RAND Corporation report providing an assessment methodology for public diplomacy, reports from the Strategic Studies Institute on transition and capacity building in security sector reform efforts and strategy recommendations to retain talent in the U.S. Army officer corps, and a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report examining defense planning needs for the future security environment. Please see the Recently Added Documents section for the latest on this topic – the newest updates are in bold.”

Martha “I’ve Already Won” Coakley watches campaign staff shove reporter to the ground, smiles, and thinks “that’s what you get when you challenge a Coakley!” - hillbuzz “robert c Says: January 13, 2010 at 12:43 pm He was shoved down by:

Michael Meehan of Blue Line Strategic Communications, who has worked for John Kerry, Maria Cantwell, and was sent to Massachusetts by the DSCC to handle 'messaging' for Coakley. Reply LuvvaU Says: January 13, 2010 at 2:13 pm ALERT: Meehan was recently nominated by Dr. Utopia 'to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors pending Senate confirmation. Created in 1994, the Broadcasting Board of Governors oversees all of the US government’s non-military international broadcasting outlets, including Voice of America, Alhurra television, Radio Sawa, TV Marti, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe. These services have always been central to America’s effort to inform and engage global audiences, commonly referred to today as public diplomacy.' Now -that’s- a quality vetting process! Can we act like adults? Let’s see if the nom is withdrawn.
http://www.bluelinesc.com/profile/michael-meehan"

Trijicon, The Bible, And Huge-A** Headache (Or, When Wrongs Collide) - Armed Liberal “#18 from Armed Liberal January 19, 2010 10:07 PM Reply ... [O]ur biggest screwup is public diplomacy - is the messaging we're sending out along with the good we do and bad guys we put underground. Hint: this is bad messaging, very damn bad messaging. We're supposed to convince them to come over to our side, aren't we? Marc”

Connecting LA's Israeli and American Jews - Orit Arfa, The Jewish Journal of greater L.A : “Mainstream American Jewish outlets for networking, like LimmudLA, JconnectLA or JDate, don’t always satisfy the desire for links to the Jewish homeland, so many look for comfort in an Israeli chevre (clique), through Israeli cultural events and by making frequent trips to hangouts like Aroma Bakery and Cafe in Hollywood or Encino.

Enter Dor Chadash, an organization started in New York in 2003 as an effort to marry contemporary Israeli culture with the American Jewish community. ... Like its New York prototype, Dor Chadash-LA organizes events that have social, educational, cultural and social action components. Its first event was an intimate breakfast in early December with Harvard law school professor and author Alan Dershowitz. Cultural events are designed to expose participants to Israeli artists, as was the case with the Jan. 7 screening of the acclaimed Israeli film, 'Ajami,' which was followed by a question-and-answer period with the directors, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, and the local Consul for Culture, Media and Public Diplomacy, Shahar Azani.”

Conservatives call for dialogue on relations with Russia - Messenger.ge: “On January 18 the Conservative Party of Georgia proposed holding public debates on the Georgia-Russia relationship and asked the opposition, the ruling party, the Church, civil society, business persons and the Georgian Diaspora to get involved in these.

Opposition parties have expressed varying opinions on this matter, but Government supporters have said that Russia's anti-Georgian activities lie behind the suggestion. ... The Conservatives’ initiative has been described as positive but not a real or effective step by the New Rights, whose Manana Nachkebia told The Messenger, that conflict regulation with Russia depends on the Government and not the opposition and other parts of the society. 'The Conservatives’ initiative can be considered part of public diplomacy, but it will not bring any serious results, as this work is the business of government. The Government should be able to regulate conflicts, but our present Government is unable to do so,' Nachkebia stated.”

PEPFAR Media Outreach Coordinator - Daily International Jobs in East Africa: “PEPFAR Media Outreach CoordinatorThe U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam is seeking an individual for the position of PEPFAR Media Outreach Coordinator in the Public Affairs Section. ... MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: ... Additionally, participate in Public Affairs/Public Diplomacy weekly staff meetings, mission planning meetings and serve as backstop for the USAID Communications Specialist.”

RELATED ITEMS

DoD “Clarifies” Doctrine on Psychological Operations - Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News: The Department of Defense has issued a new publication (pdf) to update and clarify its doctrine on “psychological operations.” Psychological operations, or PSYOP, are intended to “convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator’s objectives.” PSYOP is among the oldest of military disciplines, but the new DoD doctrine continues to wrestle with basic definitional issues. It endorses a new, negative definition of the term “propaganda,” which had formerly been used in a neutral sense to refer to “Any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.” From now on, propaganda will refer only to what the enemy does: “Any form of adversary communication, especially of a biased or misleading nature, designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.”

Clearing the Cache: History in the Tweeting - Nancy Scola - The actual moment (more or less) that Obama tweeted:

"Red Cross employee Eric Porterfield invites President Barack Obama to 'tweet' a message via the @redcross Twitter account announcing his visit. After hitting send, he remarked that this was the first 'tweet' he's sent personally." Image from article

Israel builds a field hospital in Haiti. Anti-Zionists not fooled! - Stephanie Gutmann, telegraph.co.uk: The US, with all its resources, hasn’t yet managed to set up a field hospital in Haiti (undoubtedly the State Department is still drafting the crucial legal papers needed) but the Israelis, operating with their usual disregard to the niceties of law, slapped one up and have already delivered a baby there. Thankfully, the BBC has kept its head and is not colluding with the Israeli government’s attempt to make the world forget its sins. However, that has not stopped Jewish…er…Zionist propagandists, who are already triumphantly calling the field hospital “Israel’s Disproportionate response”, a reference to the charge last year that Israel reacted to Hamas rocket fire with “disproportionate” military force.

'Avatar' pulled from 1,628 Chinese movie screens: At propaganda officials' urging, 2-D versions are replaced by a biography of Confucius, though 3-D showings continue - Ben Fritz and David Pierson, latimes.com: "Avatar" may be too popular for its own good in China.The communist nation's state-run movie distributor, China Film Group, unexpectedly began pulling the blockbuster science-fiction picture from 1,628 2-D screens this week in favor of a biography of the ancient philosopher Confucius. Paul Hanneman, co-president of international distribution for 20th Century Fox, the movie's distributor, confirmed the move, which the studio learned about Monday evening. According to the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, the switch was made at the urging of propaganda officials who are concerned that "Avatar" is taking too much market share from Chinese films and drawing unwanted attention to the sensitive issue of forced evictions.

IMAGE (from Boing Boing)