September 24

"OMG. I got a 100% on my public diplomacy midterm without even pulling an all-nighter. I hope I can say the same for accounting."

--Twitterer bsoler; image from

VIDEO

Psywar – ‘The real battlefield is your mind’ – full documentary: Documentary about how propaganda is being used to manipulate your mind.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Under Secretary of State Judith A. McHale to Travel to Turkey, Belgium, and Germany - Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State: "Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith A. McHale will travel to Turkey, Belgium and Germany September 24 – October 1. During her visit to Turkey, Under Secretary McHale will meet with government officials, media and business leaders, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and young people involved in U.S. Government-supported programs in Turkey. In Ankara, she will hold a roundtable discussion with Turkish students participating in the Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, which uses the Junior Achievement model to build self-reliance and job skills. In Istanbul she will meet with Turkish academics and business leaders to discuss the vital US-Turkey relationship.

During her time in Turkey she will also speak with participants in the extensive English language teaching program that the United States is co-sponsoring with the Turkish Council of Higher Education. In Belgium, Under Secretary McHale will meet with NATO and EU officials to discuss public communications on transatlantic issues. She will also speak to U.S. chiefs of mission and public affairs officials about public diplomacy and other issues related to U.S.-European people-to-people links, including the mission in Afghanistan. In Germany, Under Secretary McHale will meet with entrepreneurs active in the field of new media and with leaders of established print and electronic outlets. She will also meet with Minister of State Cornelia Pieper to discuss opportunities for cooperation on civilian initiatives including education, science and technology in Afghanistan." McHale image from

President Obama will be interviewed today by BBC Persian -- not by VOA Persian News Network - Kim Andrew Eilliott Reporting on International Broadcasting: "There will no doubt be grumbling in Washington about this interview being granted to BBC Persian rather than to VOA Persian News Network. (Recall that, to address the Arab people in January 2009, the President granted an interview to Al Arabiya rather than to Alhurra.) In fact, VOA PNN has a larger audience in Iran than BBC Persian, so the President would have reached more eyes and ears if interviewed by the former. In terms of public diplomacy, however, the White House might have concluded that it can have more impact if the President is interviewed by what is perceived as respected, independent, hard-hitting broadcast news organization than by what is typically (and unfortunately) described as an instrument of US public diplomacy. One of the BBG's 'implementation strategies' is to 'broaden cooperation within U.S. public diplomacy.' How much weight can a VOA 'news' interview have if its supervisory board has achieved its goal of broadly cooperating with US public diplomacy?

Just yesterday, the Miami Herald reported that President Obama had 'proposed' Cuban-American lawyer Carlos García-Pérez as the new director of Radio-TV Martí, and within hours the BBG issued a press release announcing that Mr. García-Pérez was so appointed. If the report is true and the BBG is acquiescing to White House selection of the entities' senior executives, how seriously can interviews on those entities be taken? It would be like the CEO of a corporation being interviewed by the corporation's house organ. And to demonstrate that VOA is capable of asking questions that one would expect from a journalist rather than a public diplomacy functionary, see [this]." See also. Image from

Ethiopian PM cites Smith-Mundt in justifying jamming of VOA Amharic, Oromo, Tigrigna - Kim Andrew Elliott Reporting on International Broadcasting

Iranian journalist sentenced for BBC interview; RFE/RL and BBC cited in Iranian blogger case - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

The Cable: Obama team lays out incentives for Khartoum but not pressures - Josh Rogin, Foreign Policy: The administration's Sudan team, which has battled internally over how to approach the Bashir government over the past year, has come up with a more detailed package of incentives and pressures to bring to bear on the Sudanese government in advance of Obama's meeting. The Cable reported that this approach, however, was also a source of contention inside the administration, with U.N. representative Susan Rice taking the stance that the pressures were not strong enough. She was overruled by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sided with Special Envoy Scott Gration. ... Sudan advocacy leaders, who have had a tumultuous relationship with the Obama administration and have generally not been fans of Gration's style of diplomacy,

said that identifying only one half of the policy, the incentives, undermines the policy as a whole. "It's a violation of diplomatic tenets to expose only one half of your package," said John Prendergast, CEO of the Enough Project. ... 'The administration took some very important positive steps in the last few weeks, but they continue to be undermined by the conduct of public diplomacy by the special envoy [Gration],' said Prendergast." Gration image from

Psyop: Cordoba Initiative - Mainstream Media Review: "The Cordoba Initiative is the non-profit group leading the project to build the cultural center since it was founded in 2004 by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Several media outlets have tried to make the weakest of links between Rauf and any number of extremist organizations, and even Iran. What you don't see being played on a loop over your television set is that Imam Rauf has worked for the FBI as a counter-terrorism consultant. And what you don't see blazoned across the headlines of your newspaper is the fact that he also worked as a spokesperson for Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Karen Hughes, during the Bush administration, as she headed up propaganda efforts in the Muslim world. Bush's favorite Imam traveled side-by-side with Hughes, attended the 2006 U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, and went to Morocco in 2007. So while some have tried to paint it that he has been traveling to the middle-east to collect funding from terrorists for the building project, it appears that he has actually been on diplomatic missions for the United States."

VOL. VI NO. 19, September 10- September 23, 2010 - The Layalina Review on Public Diplomacy and Arab Media:
"Nine Years After 9/11: Moving On or Moving Backwards?
In the weeks leading up to the ninth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the controversial reactions to the Cordoba Initiative’s planned Islamic Center have drawn attention to what many describe as a growing anti-Muslim sentiment in America.
Al-Arabiya Director Resigns...and Takes it Back
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, the director general of Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel and columnist for Saudi newspaper Asharq-Alawsat, announced his intention to resign over controversial statements made in a television program, 'Islam and the West.'
"Burning the Quran: An Occupational Hazard
Despite the cancellation of International Burn a Qur’an Day, many still fear that the controversy will have negative ramifications on US foreign policy in the Middle East.
Friends and Foes in Afghanistan
Despite the growing number of reports on Afghanistan, recent setbacks are indicative of a necessary change in strategy.


Incendiary Reactions to Incendiary Plans
The proposed Islamic community center, misleadingly known as the 'Ground Zero' mosque, has created rifts among Muslim communities worldwide.
Is America Safer Today?
As America marked the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, many in the country are now asking if the world is safer from terrorism today. While some point out that the US is overall more vigilant and has been able to curtail some of Al-Qaeda’s freedom of operation, others argues that many mistakes have been made endangering national security.
‘Blogospheric’ Pressure in Bahrain
Human rights groups across the Arab world are protesting against Bahrain's arrest of blogger and activist Ali Abdulemam.
Park51 Imam’s Media Campaign
Upon his return from a State Department-sponsored trip to the Middle East, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf publicly voiced his support for the controversial Park51 Islamic community center project." Image from

My Dirty Hands Problem - 3:17 a.m.: Ras, Useful bits on telling stories, posted by Rasoir: "I recall a time when I found myself playing the role of censor, one that doesn’t suit me at all. Still, I learned to eat my spinach and liver as a boy, and sometimes you just do what you have to do. Here’s the background: I was once head of a State Department public-diplomacy office that published books about the USA for foreign audiences. Let’s not use the word 'propaganda,' but just say that all our content was designed to create a positive perception of this country. One of the ways we’d done that for many years was to repurpose content from the private sector; we selected the best of what was being thought and said in America and published it overseas – or so I liked to think. My troubles arose just after we’d produced an acclaimed book called Writers on America. For this project we’d commissioned 15 big names (the likes of Richard Ford, Julia Alvarez, Billy Collins, Michael Chabon) to write an essay on what it means to be an American author. ... There was one big problem.

About half the pieces we were considering contained more profanity or graphic sex than I was comfortable with. Let me distinguish here between me as myself (virtually unshockable, tolerant of free speech to a fault) and me as a publisher working for the U.S. government in the Bush administration. ... Karen Hughes, an Under Secretary of State at the time and my boss if you went three levels up, had just declined to continue funding Hi magazine, a State Department magazine aimed at young Arabs. I was not privy to her reasoning on why this project had to end, but I know that it did not help Hi's chances that the first month Hughes arrived on the job, there had been a fusillade of conservative-columnist outrage at an article about 'metrosexuals' that the magazine’s hip young New York-based editor had run. So I did what all good bureaucrats do: I put the project on hold. Which so far as I know – I’ve moved on to other things since then – is where it sits today. ... Analyzing this decision afterward, a decision I still do not feel good about, I realized that while the Bush appointees set a framework for decision-making that influenced me, it wasn’t really an ideological approach to culture that governed here. When the Obamaites arrived years later with a new set of mantras, I did not rush to the filing cabinet to revive our pet project. No, by then I knew that no administration could be expected to attempt to explain the value of book like this once Rush Limbaugh started ranting about it on the air. In retrospect, I can see that Sophocles might say the whole idea for this project is permeated with hubris." Image from article

Clinton advises Obama‎ - Ben Smith, Politico: Posted By: Citizen Soldier regarding Bill Clinton: "Ben and journolisters, you forget way too quick the past. Who did not respond appropriately to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed 6? Who did not respond appropriately to the 1996 Khobar Tower Bombing that killed 19 U.S. service men and women and wounded many more? Who did not respond to Bin Laden's 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that left 258 dead? Who did not respond to the 2000 U.S. Cole attack that killed 17 sailors? Who dismantled Public Diplomacy? ... Even more... how about Troopergate? What about the sexual assaults claims of Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and Gennifer Flowers against Clinton? Small wonder that Obama doesn't get it with advice from such a scandal and weak President from the past."

Greening Forum at the Canadian Embassy: September 21, 2010 - earthday.net: "Yesterday’s second Embassy Greening Forum, held at the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C., brought together representatives from dozens of the D.C. area’s foreign missions to share best practices and support each others’ facility greening initiatives.

In partnership with the United States Department of State, Earth Day Network established this quarterly conference for the over 70 foreign missions in Washington D.C. to promote and enable sustainable embassy facilities. The Embassy Greening Forum conference series not only provides technical training skills for embassy staff, but also provides a forum for cooperation and ‘green’ public diplomacy." Canadian Embassy image from

JapanInfo e-Newsletter September 2010 - jetwit.com: "Of note is a feature titled 'Alumni Unite to Stress the Value of the JET Program' which describes the efforts at the recent JETAA USA National Conference hosted by JETAA New York. Here’s a quote: 'At this year’s meeting in New York the main focus was the recent Japanese government review of the JET and JETAA budgets.

While JET is the most successful public diplomacy program ever launched in Japan, and JETs are recognized as assets to both Japan and the US, there has been criticism of the high costs local governments must bear to accept JETs. Additionally, Japanese tax payers may not be aware of the contributions JETs make to the Japan-US relationship.'” Image from

Israeli Consul Gil Lainer makes his country's case at JCRC meeting‎ - Charles Zusman, New Jersey Jewish Standard: "Optimism, underlined by caution, was the message Monday night as Gil Lainer, consul for public diplomacy at the Israeli Consulate in New York, spoke of the prospects for peace in the Mideast and the challenges facing the Israelis and Palestinians in the quest for an accord. Lainer concluded his talk, which stretched for more than an hour, with a plea for help on the public relations front. 'We rely on you to get the word out' on the positive role Israel plays in the world, he said. That message was seconded by Rabbi Neal Borovitz, JCRC chairman. 'Our job is to get the message out,' he said. 'Fighting for the hearts and minds of the public is our responsibility.' ... Optimism, underlined by caution, was the message Monday night as Gil Lainer, consul for public diplomacy at the Israeli Consulate in New York, spoke of the prospects for peace in the Mideast and the challenges facing the Israelis and Palestinians in the quest for an accord."

Thawing Relations In The Arctic Circle - Monocolumn: "Visitors to Russia are used to toasts to eternal peace and international co-operation. In the Arctic, Russia might just mean it. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was the star turn at yesterday’s international conference in Moscow dominated by the mantra of Arctic dialogue and working together.

'If you stand alone, you cannot survive', as Putin put it. ... As an exercise in public diplomacy “Arctic: Territory of Dialogue” was valuable, even necessary. ('Potemkin village-like, but useful' as one foreign participant put it privately). It showcased Russia’s often-underappreciated Arctic history and science. It reiterated the Kremlin’s commitment to law in deciding who owns what in the Arctic." Image from article

A Tour of Europe [at the Shanghai Expo] - Hope for the Best: "Hands down my favorite pavilion tonight and in my opinion probably the most interesting one in the entire Expo, just because it completely fits in with the theme of sustainability and better environmental practices. ... There was nothing introducing the UK as a country. Sustainability and public diplomacy aren’t mutually exclusive."

Pakistan nowhere in Obama visit to region - Salim Bokhari, defence.pk: "[Comment:] The influential pro-Pakistan lobby has launched a concerted campaign urging US President Barack Obama [ Images ] to visit Pakistan during his trip to India [ Images ] November 6-9. The pro-Pakistan lobby comprises Pakistani American physicians and business leaders, the Pakistan Political Action Committee -- PakPAC -- Islamabad's [ Images ] million dollar a year lobbyists under the umbrella of the Pakistan American Leadership Centre. The Pakistan American Leadership Centre said, 'President Obama's visit to Pakistan would send a strong signal of partnership and respect and reaffirm a mutual commitment to broadening our strategic alliance into the kind of multidimensional relationship initiated by the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue earlier this year. As an organisation representing Pakistani Americans and dedicated to fostering positive relations between the US and Pakistan, we strongly feel that such a visit would strengthen US public diplomacy efforts and engagement in Pakistan at a time when public polls in both countries show an increasingly negative perception of the other,' it said."

Ahmadinejad, 9/11, and "Distrust of Others" - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos:

"Using the Leaders' Personality Trait Analysis framework, I had found that 'distrust of others' is a very salient personality trait for Ahmadinejad, strongly affecting his worldview and approach to policy-making and, as such, being reflected in his public statements. I guess I could expand that argument today, to bring in the element of public diplomacy, too, especially considering the forum: UNGA. ... The issue is, however, that when it comes to public diplomacy, Ahmadinejad forgets that he is not Khatami, and every time he speaks, he manages (successfully!) to kill whatever little credibility he has, especially in front of the increasingly 'hostile' Western public..." Image from

Why do you think about us and our country this way? - accessories.yamnul.com: "The first thing they accuse our government of, is that they don’t let you be free. Actually, Iranians would be some of the most free people in the world, since thousands of millions of strict rules in other countries, don’t even exist in Iran. .... DavidGC Said, ... There are also several human rights issues that cause problems with people’s perceptions of Iran. For example, under current Iranian law established in 1979, the penalty for two gay men kssing is 60 lashes and the maximum penalty for being gay is death — all of this despite Persian literature on the subject stretching back to at least the 13th century. As a gay man, this does not personally give me a favorable opinion of present-day Iran. Sorry, but not every house in Iran has a sattellite [sic] dish ... assertions like those weaken your case and make you look like you are working for Iranian intelligence for a public diplomacy campaign. If that’s true, you should let your commanding officers know that truth works best and that they should be issuing more convincing arguments in their public diplomacy campaign."

Colonial Games Failure - shanmugan.com: "Indians ... have an inflated view of themselves and their country. They think others view them very highly and when they or their country is criticised they accuse others of anti-Indian bias. After 65 years as an independent nation, it is about time they grew up. When some Indian nationals in Australia, who were anything but genuine students, (they were only here to get permanent residency) were attacked (at times by other Indians),

Indians took to the streets in India. There is not a single Australian-based correspondent for any Indian media outlet. If India wants to be a global superpower it needs to send its journalists far and wide and invest in public diplomacy." Image from

Obama casts aspersions on Sri Lanka in UN address referring to Abolition of ‘term limits’ and ‘crackdowns on civil society’ - Daya Gamage, Asian Tribune: "Despite its own human rights abuses in many parts of the world especially in the war theater in Afghanistan and Iraq the United States president devoted most of his speech to UNGA about the importance of upholding human rights and expanding democratic freedoms. Though Mr. Obama did not mention Sri Lanka by name it was quite obvious to those who are knowledgeable about recent political developments in Sri Lanka amending the country’s Constitution to abolish the two-term limit of the Executive President what the United States president was talking linking the term-limit abolition to human rights abuses and cracking down on civil society. This single expression of the U.S. president to the UNGA itself was a clear manifestation the deteriorating relations between Sri Lanka and the United States in recent times, and the understanding of that country’s recent developments in the Obama White House and the Clinton’s State Department. Or is it that Sri Lanka has miserably failed in her overseas public diplomacy in the Capital of the Western World, Washington, D.C., to convince the Obama White House and Clinton-State Department to the contrary?"

Press Release - Insurance News Net: "POSITION TITLE: Senior Development Outreach and Communication Specialist - USAID/Kosovo 5. MARKET VALUE: $ 84,697 - $ 110,104 per annum (GS 14 - equivalent) ... With the US having unparallel influence in Kosovo and our programs being of significant importance,

the DOC is expected to be able to manage relationships with the media, the Embassy Public Diplomacy Section, implementing partners, and COTRs." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

America Is Suffering a Power Outage…and the Rest of the World Knows It - Dilip Hiro, TomDispatch: In whole regions of the world, U.S. power is in flux, but on the whole in retreat. The United States remains a powerful nation with a military to match. It still has undeniable heft on the global stage, but its power slippage is no less real for that -- and, by any measure, irreversible. Whatever the twenty-first century may prove to be, it will not be the American century.

Afghan president calls for release of journalists - Deb Riechmann, AP: President Hamid Karzai called Thursday for the quick release of three Afghan journalists — arrests that analysts said were reminiscent of a strategy the U.S. military used in Iraq to detain local journalists as a way to disrupt insurgents' propaganda networks.

All three media workers were picked up over the past week — two by a joint NATO and Afghan force and one by Afghan intelligence officials. In recent weeks, NATO has held briefings on the propaganda war and stepped up its own public relations campaign with news releases highlighting the captures of top Taliban leaders and emphasizing civilian casualties caused by insurgent attacks. U.S. military officials insist, however, that they do not target journalists. Image from

Voice of Panjwaii: Canadians hope to win Afghan hearts over the airwaves - Dene Moore, The Canadian Press: In a room barely bigger than a closet in a remote Canadian military base in the Panjwaii district, a young disc jockey holds a cellphone up to the microphone in front of him. The caller is reciting poetry, and Panjwaii is listening. This is the Voice of Panjwaii, one of five very small, local radio stations broadcasting from Canadian military bases throughout Kandahar province as part of NATO's psychological war against the Taliban insurgency. Voice of Panjwaii has been on air since June, broadcasting news, government announcements, weather and other programs throughout the district southwest of Kandahar city where Canadians have been concentrating their efforts in Afghanistan. About 80 per cent of Panjwaii residents have radios, said Lesarge. Canadian soldiers have handed out an estimated 30,000 units over the past two year in the province. It's all part of the quiet, psychological war going on to win the hearts and minds of Afghans.

Colonialism, ethnic cleansing and the web - weekly.ahram.org.eg: In February of this year, the Reut Institute, an Israeli group-think tank, published a remarkably delusional, ahistorical piece of propaganda masquerading as a scholarly report and warning of an internationally concerted effort that seeks to "erode" Israel's diplomatic status and which "may develop into a comprehensive existential threat within a few years".

In essence, any organisation or individual that dares criticise Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories in particular is a de facto member of this dreaded network of delegitimisation. As with all Israeli hasbara (collective propaganda), the Reut Institute blames primarily Palestinian victims and secondarily those who report or publicise their plight. Image from

Russia's blogging revolution: Dissenters are taking advantage of the lack of censorship on the internet in Russia to hold politicians and officials to account - Alexey Kovalev, guardian.co.uk: Google Transparency Report doesn't list a single data or removal request from Russia – unlike, for example, a staggering 4,287 from the USA. Instead, Edinaya Rossiya (United Russia), the ruling party, employs a different strategy. Recently, it proudly announced the start of Project Blogosphere aimed at "political domination through direct communication with voters in social networks and online debates", or, in normal-speak, pro-active propaganda rather than suppression. That, however, is proving to be a risky strategy: older politicians, encouraged to start their own blog, rely on their assistants to generate Soviet-style triumphalist reports with little to no actual feedback, while younger, more active members of Edinaya Rossiya have caused some major PR blunders for the party, much to the amusement of the online population.

The movie is the message, the politics is the flicks - smh.com.au: Movies carry messages, and two this year have been particularly powerful. Back in January, The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, warned that Avatar was turning us into vegetables – or at least, vegetarians.

He wrote: "Worship of the powerful forces of nature is half right, a primitive stage in the movement towards acknowledging the one: the single transcendent God, above and beyond nature. It is a symptom of our age that Hollywood is pumping out this old-fashioned pagan propaganda".A few weeks later, this column offered a prediction: “It has become trendy among conservative commentators to condemn Avatar as hippy commie propaganda that will turn our children into suicide bombers." Image from

Communist propaganda comes back to the screen at Kino Aero - Christian Falvey, Radio Prague: The days of communist propaganda are back - at least at Prague’s Aero cinema, where ten films will be showcased over the coming days as part of a programme called Propaganda and Ideology in Czech Film. It’s not the laughably obvious kind of propaganda, though, that the city’s best-known art house cinema wants to look at, but the serious filmmaking that went into many of the films, and the mentality behind the censorship.

Psywar: The real battleground is your mind - eats shoots 'n leaves: Written and directed by Scott Noble and produced by Metanoia-Films.org, Psywar is a powerful documentary about the machinery of thought manipulation, the science of spin known to its military practitioners as “psyops” [psychological operations] and to its political adepts as “perception management.” The art of psywar began with the Ludlow Massacre, the bloody attack of troops on peaceful strikers at a Colorado mine owned by the Rockefeller family, a story explained in part by Howard Zinn. Ivy Lee, one of the first professional spinners and the inventor of the press release, helped Rockefeller attempt to whitewash the Colorado massacre, spinning a web of lies designed to smear the slain and their supporters. Lee’s other clients included I.G. Farben, the Nazi government, and the U.S. government. One of his most enduring innovations was the use of corporate-derived foundation funds to sell the public on the beneficence of the plutocracy, with the Rockefellers leading the way. The use of propaganda — a term initially applied to activities of the Catholic church — as a sophisticated political weapon to wage war by other means followed on the heels of the Ludlow Massacre, when the Woodrow Wilson administration enlisted George Creel and a crew of spinmeisters to sell the public on the First World War in the face of significant public opposition. Employment all the tools of modern PR — film, print, press releases, direct mail, billboard, posters, and public appearances — creels media wranglers spun the Germans into “bloodthirsty Huns.”

Sauerkraut, they decreed, should be renamed “Liberty Cabbage,” just as a “Freedom Fries” briefly replaced French fries after that country baulked at endorsing Bush’s Freedom Crusade. But the real lasting impact of the psywar efforts of World War I was the destruction of the militant unionists of the Industrial Workers of the World, carried out through a combination of propaganda efforts and a legal war which would set the precedents for the later PATRIOT Act and other legislation of the Bush/Obama era. Edward Bernays’ contributions to the art of media mastery are noted in the film. He’s the guy who coined the term “engineering consent” and who convinced women to smoke by rebranding cigarettes as “Torches of Freedom.” Also featured is Walter Lippmann, a World War I propagandist who would become the nation’s most influential public intellectual and, later, the nation’s most influential newspaper columnist and a must-read for anyone who wanted to understand what was happening in Washington.

Year in Review: 1944 - Dave's Movie Site: 1944 was not the greatest year for movie of the 1940s – for some reason I think there was many more propaganda films released this year than any of the other wartime years. Many of the films on this list also fall into that category, although there are at least two (by one director no less) that flew in the face of that propaganda, and some that didn’t even bother being about the war at all. While I wouldn’t say 1944 is a great year for movies, it is good one.

Among the movies mentioned: Alfred Hitchcock's Life Boat. Image from article