June 25

"Somali Court Postpones Amputations, Citing Weather"

--Headline, Associated Press, June 23; cited in Wall Street Journal

“Great, now we're outsourcing mistresses."

--Talk show Craig Ferguson, regarding South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's affair with a lady in Argentina; cited in Political News Bulletin, U.S. News & World Report

Above and below images from Images from WWIII Propaganda Posters by Brian Moore; via

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

'They're Not Getting Any Warmer': Merkel Faces Difficult Talks in Washington – Spiegel: "In pursuing its foreign policy, the new administration in Washington no longer relies solely on high-level meetings and state receptions. In fact, the populations of other countries are now being mobilized to support the goals of the United States to an unprecedented extent. Officials at the White House and the State Department have developed a completely new form of the old concept of 'public diplomacy.' In a recent speech, Judith A. McHale, under secretary for public diplomacy in the U.S. State Department, argued that traditional government-to-government relations are no longer sufficient in the 21st century, as a government's room for maneuver greatly depends on the popular mood within the country: 'Governments inclined to support U.S. policies will back away if their populations do not trust us.' The new strategy has two components, says McHale. According to one component, the 'ground game,' it is important to reach the representatives of the respective civil societies and media. That was why Obama spoke privately with Merkel in Dresden for 35 minutes -- before speaking to journalists for 42 minutes. … The purpose of the other component, the so-called 'air game' -- influencing the masses via television, radio and the Internet -- is to disseminate the message. This explains why Obama is so fond of live public appearances, like the one in Buchenwald. His speeches have recently begun appearing on Facebook, Twitter and various government Web sites. The speech in Cairo, in which Obama issued a message of friendship to the Islamic world, was disseminated around the world in 13 languages. In this strategy, other nations become the setting for Obama's messages."

Obama, State Ramp Up Tech Efforts – Tech Daily Dose, National Journal: "High-tech efforts to publicize President Obama's June 4 speech in Egypt aimed at forging a new relationship with the Muslim world exceeded organizers' expectations so the administration is planning a similar outreach attempt next month, a State Department official said … . Riche told a Homeland Security Department privacy and technology workshop that the State Department has been a leader in embracing the Internet to broadcast the country's diplomatic message and engage in an international dialogue. Following on an array of webcasts, digital video presentations, social networking and forays into the virtual world Second Life, the agency is planning even more tech-savvy projects under the leadership of Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale. Some staffers were plucked from Riche's office last week and placed in a new unit where they will focus on social media, he said. 'The department is moving forward in a big way in this area,' he said, noting that technology is 'the perfect complement to public diplomacy.'"

Has the U.S. Played a Role in Fomenting Unrest During Iran’s Election? - Jeremy R. Hammond, Foreign Policy Journal: "In February, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested emergency funding from Congress to the amount of $75 million, on top of a previously allocated $10 million, 'to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government', in the words of The Guardian. The money 'would be used to broadcast US radio and television programmes into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and support pro-democracy groups inside the country.' The propaganda effort would include 'extending the government-run Voice of America’s Farsi service from a few hours a day to round-the-clock coverage.' In announcing the request, Rice said the U.S. 'will work to support the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom and democracy in their country.'”

News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflic tJune 15-23, 2009 - Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center: "Responses to the speech given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continued [:] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak responded to the speech in the Wall Street Journal.

He appealed to Israelis, Palestinians, the Arab countries and the international community to exploit the historic opportunity to reach an agreement. … The Egyptian establishment press praised Mubarak's article, representing it as a firm response to Netanyahu, claiming he had returned the ball to Israel 's court. The press also referred to the article as the initiation of a new Egyptian public diplomacy which appealed directly to the decision-makers in the United States which, it claimed, was usually attentive only to the positions presented by Israel ( Al-Gumhuriya , June 21, 2009)."

Prague Conference May Be Last Chance To Settle Holocaust Property Claims - Nathan Guttman, Forward: "The run-up to the Prague conference, which has been in the making for the past year and a half, revealed ongoing friction between Holocaust survivors in the United States and Israel and their respective governments.

Israeli survivor groups … took issue with the decision to appoint Reuven Merhav to head the Israeli delegation, arguing that it could pose a conflict of interest. Merhav, they noted, also chairs the executive committee of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which has been at odds with Israel over the use of German restitution funds. … Israel eventually decided to keep Merhav on as part of the 14-member Israeli delegation but appointed Yuli Edelstein, minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora, as its head."

Conflict analysis - Resolution - Public diplomacy - "This site has been constructed as an on line resource for the book: The People's Peace Process in Northern Ireland. It is available to provide up to date information on the latest peace polls and copies of questionnaires and statistical reports as downloads."

RELATED ITEMS

The Sounds of Silence on Iran - Mona Eltahawy, Washington Post: These days, most of the noise in the Arab world is online.

Iran 2.0: The world of wired dissidents will grow - Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Obama should task his smarter people -- for instance at the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment -- to find a path out of the State Department's standard model of our diplomats talking to the fake diplomats of Egypt, Syria and Iran. That model made him look foolish this week. Nuance needs an upgrade. He should seek a new model that incorporates the wired dissidents not only because it is the right thing to do. But because it is unavoidable. Intelligent meddling.

Web 2.0: A successful tool for propaganda - Aleksandra Denisova - Minneapolis Tech Innovations Examiner: In today’s information age, governments are seen more and more often using web 2.0 tools to influence the popular opinion. While the United States hopes to use the resources available to spread democracy around the globe, governments everywhere are busy boasting their current regimes.

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere report identifies potential allies – Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.us

Who the hell are you? - Haider Mehdi, The Nation, Pakistan: One of the most potent, powerful, effective, forceful, destructive and lethal instrument of organised violence in the contemporary technological and media prone political culture has been the use of propaganda warfare by the West against its adversaries. It is precisely this technique that is being applied now by the US and its Western European allies to destabilise Iran in the wake of Ahmadinejad's landslide victory in the presidential election.

Iran Turmoil And Media Propaganda - Partha Banerjee, Countercurrents.org: In the current context of Iran, it’s important to know the similarities of the various media spins and propaganda we’ve seen over the history. It’s important to find similarities between extremely rich, corrupt and abhorred-by-people puppet personalities such Chalabi of Iraq, Karzai of Afghanistan and Rafsanjani of Iran. It’s important to know what they've done before, and what connections they have had with groups both in the U.S. and elsewhere.

A Dissident Deflected: Why doesn't President Obama have time for Cuba's pro-democracy opposition? – Editorial, Washington Post