June 6

“less of freedom than of onions and whiskey.”

--The complaint of Fanny Trollope, the mother of the novelist Anthony Trollope, in her book Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), regarding the accents of the American language; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Lawsuit invokes Smith-Mundt Act against Broadcasting Board of Governors (updated) - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "Periódico AHORA (Havana), 31 May 2010: 'A civic group will shortly disclose evidence on how the U.S. Government covertly paid tens of thousands of dollars to Miami journalists working for major media outlets to incendiary stories against Cuba and five Cuban antiterrorists. The evidence has been uncovered by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, which next June 2 will make it public at a press conference. ... The press conference will reveal names of journalists, payment amounts, and will have available notebooks highlighting articles and propaganda by supposedly-independent journalists who were covertly on the payroll of the U.S. Government.

Speaking at the press conference will be attorneys with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) that have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the National Committee. The litigation filed by the PCJF asserts that the Broadcasting Board of Governors and its Office of Cuba Broadcasting are withholding information that will show that they have engaged in activities in violation of federal law, specifically the Smith-Mundt Act, which prohibits the BBG from seeking to propagandize the U.S. public, and may be continuing to do so. See also PCJF complaint (pdf). Update: CounterPunch, 4 June 2010, Linn Washington Jr: 'Others, however, claim it’s just coincidence that the same journalists who were paid $1,125 to $58,600 to appear on anti-Castro programs produced by the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting before and during the trial for the Cuban Five also published scandalous articles about the Five in an influential Spanish language newspaper owned by the Miami Herald and in other local media. ... 'This is a most blatant and outrageous example of government influence destroying the right to a fair trial and the right to appeal,' said Gloria La Riva, Coordinator of the National Committee. ... La Riva, in her remarks at the National Press Club in Washington, said the payments to journalists, funneled through Radio and TV Marti, violated federal law banning domestic government propaganda.' See also Russia Today, 4 June 2010. Radio Havana Cuba, 3 June 2010: 'The activist said that these manipulations were funded by the government's Office of Broadcasting and Propaganda against Cuba and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), under the supervision of the Department of State of the United States.' – [Elliott comment] The 'Office of Broadcasting and Propaganda against Cuba' is probably the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, with the addition of some poetic license. It's not 'under the supervision of the Department of State.' See also National Committee to Free the Cuban Five reply in support of its cross motion for summary judgment (pdf). Additional materials at freethefive.org." Image from

Japan - The 24th Joint Meeting of the United States-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange - ISRIA: "1. The 24th Joint Meeting of the United States-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) will be held on June 10 (Thu) and June 11 (Fri) in Washington, D.C., United States.2. This biennial meeting, which goes back to 1962, will be attended by 12 panelists each from Japan and the United States representing the government, business, academia, media, and other sectors. Among the panelists members were Minoru Makihara as Chair of the Japanese delegation, (Senior Corporate Advisor, Mitsubishi Corporation); Thierry Porté as Chair of the US delegation (Operating Partner, J.C. Flowers and Company); Kenjiro Monji (Director-General for Public Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs); Anthony Miller (Deputy Secretary, US Department of Education); and Kurt Campbell (Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Department of State).3. Over two days, the experts from Japan and the United States will debate on the future visions and policies of cultural, educational, and intellectual exchanges. The outcome of the discussion will be presented as a joint statement to the governments and public of both countries."

U.S. media trainings featured in Afghan news - Mahtab Farid, Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan - "The media trainings for women in Bamiyan and the workshops for professional journalists on how to moderate round tables were featured on a number of Afghan blogs and a local radio station in Bamiyan. The bloggers spoke highly of the trainings and the importance of polishing media skills. During the past week I had the opportunity to train a group of professional journalists in province of Bamiyan at our U.S. Lincoln Center so they can learn about the media round tables and the social media. The class had a number of mock round tables with the special guests such as the governor’s spokes person and directors of media organizations. During the second session of the class, reporters learned about how to use their blog to post their stories and worked on enhancing the overall design of the weblogs."

Public relations battle is a marathon, not a sprint: here is not one credible member of the international media that still parrots the stated motives of the flotilla’s organizers - Dany Ayalon, Jerusalem Post:

"This has been a difficult week for Israel. Faced with an armada of hate and violence, our soldiers, whose sole task was to control the boats and bring them peacefully to Ashdod, were faced with machete-wielding jihadists. This Hamas-backed flotilla was a premeditated provocation that sought to either open up a corridor for weapons smuggling and terror that would have resulted in the loss of countless innocent lives, or to embarrass Israel and gain sympathy for their cause. … Israel’s public diplomacy has become the new battlefield and if one gauges the results, it is clear that there are many positives. There is not one credible member of the international media that still parrots the stated motives of the organizers of the flotilla. Every major international network reported the flotilla story using IDF Spokesman’s videos within hours of the events. More and more correspondents, many who were previously very critical of Israeli policy, have placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the flotilla organizers. These are very real successes. Of course, there are criticisms and we listen to them intently while recognizing that there were still flaws in our strategy, and we will need to ensure we work harder in the future to learn those lessons. It should be kept in mind that this is not about the first five minutes, but about the next five months and beyond. The public relations battle is a marathon and not a sprint. However, this government is using all the means at its disposal to ensure that our enemies do not win on any battlefield, regardless of the restrictions or the limitations. The writer is the deputy foreign minister [of Israel]." Image from

Murder on the high seas - Paul Rosenberg, Open Left: "[Comment by:] Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Jun 05, 2010 at 16:19:26 PM CDT It's been all downhill since the Cairo speech, which was supposed to be the Grand Reset of US public diplomacy. What a friggin' waste of a great opportunity! Follow through was apparently too much to expect. Big mistake. Of course, what we have here is doubly dangerous. There aren't that many times when a massive moral issue becomes entwined with strategic issues, but this is certainly one of them. With each new iteration of the Zionist HateFest, the Israelis and the US just keep digging their respective holes that much deeper."

Israeli PR - Yohanon's ramblings: "Israel has done several successful pre-emptive strikes and several that - while their tactical objectives may have been met - their strategic benefits were lost due to 'public opinion.' The Flotilla Incident was one of the latter (unless you look at Fox.Com where the pro-Israel lobby sounds off). Israel's 'Ministry of Public Diplomacy & Diaspora' sent out a blurb the other day that fell woefully short and, to my mind at least, embarrassed Israel. For much of the two-page effort the flack was talking about the so called West Bank, forgetting that the issue was Aza. No mention was made of Egypt's blockade of Aza. Back to 'best defense.' Israel knew and the flotilla organizers knew that there would be a confrontation. Israel knows - or should know - that the world's press generally is anti-Israel. What could Israel have done to turn defense into offense - and we're talking 'PR offense' in this case? Load a helicopter with 'news' photographers from the major Israel bashers: BBC and CNN. Add a Fox film crew for 'the other side.' Have 'reporters' aboard the IDF intercept vessel so they can't deny that Israel ordered the flotilla to halt or head to an Israeli port. Move the press chopper near, but not over, the ship before the IDF team arrives over the boat and starts its exercise. Make sure there's a good camera angle for the media."

The quick flotilla round-up (aka Israel has lost it) - Antony Loewenstein blog: "Israel claims that a hardcore group of Turkish jihadists were willing to sacrifice their lives in the pursuit of harming Israel and helping Gaza. The American Zionist lobby is furious

that Israel hadn’t given them more information and warning about their actions on the high seas. They need to know when innocent civilians will be murdered and how to spin it: 'There’s a lot of anger about the hasbara [public diplomacy], how it was handled,' said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. 'Why did it take so long to get the films [of the ship-board violence] out? It appears [the soldiers] weren’t prepared for what they found, even though they knew what they were going to find.' The Jewish community supports Israel, Hoenlein said. 'People see the overkill against Israel, the biased reporting. Of course, every time the UN gets involved, Jews automatically [turn] against it.' But, he lamented on Tuesday, 'We’re only now coming to terms with the facts.' And that’s a shame, because 'the facts make the case for Israel.'” Image from

Jewish World Review - Britannia radio: "In two articles earlier this week, I focused on both the operational and the public diplomacy failures of the flotilla intercept. ... There had been broadcast talk of 'battle' and 'martyrdom.' Why, then, would the IDF not have expected heavy violence? ... When it comes to the issue of public diplomacy, some of the officials within the various competing hierarchies are now privately acknowledging how detrimental it was to have withheld for hours on Monday the IDF Spokesman’s footage of the commandos being battered to within inches of their lives. ... Israel has for years neglected international public diplomacy because domestic political pressures are so relentless, because it refuses to internalize that others don’t automatically accept that its actions are moral, because it struggles to acknowledge the very importance of such outreach."

“Online Public Diplomacy Platform of Israel” Still Pushing Flotilla Satire Video - Eli Clifton, lobelog.com: "While the Israeli government has apologized for having 'inadvertently issued a video link that had been sent for our perusal,' an Israeli government endorsed social networking tool, Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS), is still promoting Caroline Glick’s tasteless Flotilla satire video. The GIYUS 'alert' (which is sent to over 25,000 subscribers) reads: We con the world Flotilla members tell their story – must see parody. Great song and a great video. Act Now! GIYUS is 'the online public diplomacy platform of Israel' according to a document (Word Document) found on a number of Israeli embassy websites and was first put into action during the 2006 Lebanon War. An article on Ynetnews stated that: GIYUS (Give Israel Your United Support) is a new project that has recently been released by the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) in order to balance anti-Israel sentiment expressed on the web and influence public opinion. Megaphone, the program which GIYUS asks users to download, sends out links which appear as popups on users’ computers."

Knockoff Power; We Con the World - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "There is a fascinating piece in the NYTimes on Knockoff Power, ie the underside of softpower when no one remembers the provenance of your ideas, goods etc because they have been copied like fake designer handbags and sold on the global street corner.

On a semi-similar note, an npr story on how English became 'globish'. (Ty Abba). Finally, a humorous take on the Flotilla incident [video 'We Con the World' in entry]. If only all the Israeli responses could be so witty and clever, they wouldn't constantly be wading in the pd muck." Image from: Hot Comic Con Costumes

Caroline Glick’s “We Con the World” and the Tea Partying of the US-Israel relationship - Didi Remez, Coteret: "On Friday (June 4 2010,) uber-blogger Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic published a post entitled Israel Derangement Syndrome III. It linked to We Con the World, a remarkable video clip produced by Latma, the right-wing satire project lead by Caroline Glick, who doubles as The Jerusalem Post’s Deputy Managing Editor. The video is a repulsive attempt to use satire to make Israel’s case on Flotilla Debacle. I recommend suffering through its entirety to grasp just how much. … The kind of US audience Glick appeals to is illustrated by the fact that Latma is fully funded by Center for Security Policy’s Middle East Media program, headed by Frank Gaffney, and that Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI) was quick to post the video on its website. … On Friday, I began to see intelligent, mainstream, Israeli opinion-leaders posting the clip on their Facebook pages. I assumed they were doing so for the same reason I was: To illustrate just how misguided some Israeli public diplomacy efforts had become. A closer look revealed just how wrong I was. These posts were intended for non-Israelis. One caption, posted by a successful left-of-center Israeli PR operative on the Economist Facebook page, read 'make sure you see this before making up your mind.' … MJ Rosenberg warned that American popular support for Israel is becoming increasingly resricted to the far-right. The way in which mainstream Israel perceived the public diplomacy value of Glick’s clip is a good illustration of this point. Indeed, with the Israeli media increasingly providing front and center venues for arch-conservatives such as Newt Gingrich (Israel Hayom) and Elliott Abrams (Maariv), one should not be surprised that the perceptual gulf between Israelis and most Americans is widening."

Social media for diplomats - practical guide 2.0 - Yaron Gamburg, small talk 2.0 "So why Facebook?1. More than 400 million users 2. The most significant users traffic, after Google 3. More than 60 languages 4. Popular in non-English speaking countries 5. Enormous potential for Public Diplomacy (at least today, because who knows what we’ll have in the future!)"

The Foreign Service: Choosing the Right Cone - Persia, thatladythere.blogspot.com: "Did I mention that when I signed up this time, it was for the consular cone? The last time (first time) I registered, it was for public diplomacy. (Hence, all the PD links at the top of this blog.)


Why the change? Well, the thing is, I didn't sign up for PD because it was my one-and-only. Oh, I really wanted to work with cultural and educational exchanges -- and still do -- but I was torn because I was already burned out with the journalism part. Confronted with the requirement to choose something, I chose PD simply because it was familiar ... and I thought it made the most sense considering my professional training and background. In other words, I chose it because of my past. Months later, as I traveled further and further along the path to actually becoming an FSO -- and a public diplomacy officer -- I became aware of a heaviness of heart, even a sadness. Finally admmitted that I had made my choice based on calculation, not on intuition -- most importantly, not on what I wanted, or feel called, to do. While sitting in one of my study groups last summer, listening to people talk about their chosen cone and their life experiences, I realized that I wasn't being true to myself. What I wanted, what I had wanted all along, was to do consular work -- to help American families living overseas. Now, by this time, I was well aware of a, shall we say, attitude among some, who look down on consular work. The real foreign policy work, some feel, is done by managers, economics officers, and public diplomacy officers. Who would want a career stamping passports, listening to sob stories, getting Americans out of trouble that they 'no business getting themselves into?' I would." Image from

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY

Helping US reach out to young Muslims worldwide - Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times: "Soon after Farah Pandith was named last year as the State Department's first special representative to Muslim communities, she sat down with the editor of an independent Muslim website for her first official interview.Altmuslim.com, a forum for opinion and analysis about current issues facing Muslims, was a fitting choice.

Pandith has said a strong focus of her work is to reach out to younger Muslims around the world, often those most likely to use the Internet for news and networking. In that first interview at a Washington, D.C., cafe and in a recent interview with The Times while in Los Angeles for a panel discussion on cultural diplomacy, Pandith said that her job involves engaging Muslims abroad but that those at home can play a supportive role. A Kashmiri-born Muslim who grew up in Massachusetts, Pandith was appointed to her position last June, shortly after President Obama, speaking from Cairo, sought to dissipate some of the mistrust between Muslims and the West. Pandith's charge is to help bridge the cultural and religious divides by reaching out to individuals and organizations to build cooperation and partnerships". Image from

Cuba's 'Dylan' Plays Carnegie Hall as US Boost Cultural Trade - Leon Lazaroff, Bloomberg: "Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez last played New York City in February 1979, when Jimmy Carter was president and the Cold War defined international politics. On June 4, Rodriguez, 63, an artist closely identified with the Cuban revolution, will begin his first U.S. tour in 31 years at Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall. The decision to give Rodriguez a visa comes as Washington is authorizing more cultural exchanges with Cuba even while continuing to block U.S. tourist travel and business ties to the island, said Christopher Sabatini, policy director at the Council of the Americas in New York. 'The fact that we’re willing to grant a visa to Silvio Rodriguez, an icon of the revolution, the bard of the revolution, demonstrates that the Cold War dynamic, the fear, the isolation, the retribution, we’re past that,' Sabatini said. 'Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean this administration is in any hurry to push for a real opening.' ... 'The Obama administration has come through with its pledge to use cultural diplomacy as an olive branch with Cuba,' Bill Martinez, a San Francisco immigration lawyer who handled Rodriguez’s visa application, said in a telephone interview. 'It’s a huge contrast with (former President George W.) Bush.'”

2010/2011 Budget Debate Contribution of DPM Brent Symonette - Thebahamasweekly.com: "Contribution by the Hon. T. Brent Symonette M.P.Deputy Prime Minister During Parliamentary Debate ofThe 2010 – 2011 Budget Estimates 2 Nd June, 2010 ... . The High Commission also continues to demonstrate a keen interest in cultural diplomacy, and facilitating the exposure of the culture and music of The Bahamas to a wider audience in Canada. These sorts of activities, which have included partnerships with cultural and other groups from The Bahamas, go a long way toward promoting The Bahamas as a tourism and cultural destination, often with minimal financial commitment from the Overseas Missions. The same is true of the High Commission’s participation in the annual International Food Fair organized by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, which raises funds for local charities and provides an opportunity to further raise the profile of The Bahamas."

Shape our platform, together - Liberal.ca: "The summary conference report from Canada at 150:

Rising to the challenge is hot off the presses and I’m glad to be able to share it with you today. For three days in March, we came together. We listened, we challenged ourselves, and we brought to life a national discussion about Canada’s future. We did it by engaging tens of thousands of Canadians from coast to coast to coast in a substantive and at times eye-opening dialogue about what kind of country we want to be in 2017 and what we have to do today and tomorrow to get there. ... And on Canada’s place in the world, we heard from Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto Sujit Choudhry that Canada has lost stature on the international stage on key issues such as climate change, international development and cultural diplomacy." Image from

Taking Muslims out of their box: An interview with Hazami Barmada - Sally Steenland, Pakistan Christian Post: "Hazami Barmada, President and CEO of Al-Mubadarah Arab Empowerment Initiative, Programme Advisor for the Aspen Institute Global Initiative on Culture and Society, Founder and Executive Director of the Iraqi Orphan Initiative, and Founder and President of the American Muslim Interactive Network, recently spoke with Sally Steenland, Senior Policy Advisor to the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at American Progress about international collaboration and community development with global Arab and Muslim communities. ... Hazami Barmada: For the past few years I have been working on public and cultural diplomacy. My interest has stemmed from a curiosity about how you can engage in discussions about international affairs that preach beyond the choir and involve non-traditional stakeholders in non-traditional diplomacy. This used to be seen as 'froofy'. The real thing was considered government-to-government interaction, and everything else was just fluff – like cultural diplomacy, diplomacy of the arts and business diplomacy. But increasingly there has been a shift to figure out how to engage people who ordinarily wouldn’t come to the table. How do you bridge those gaps and create a dialogue that engages people? Al-Mubadarah is an Arabic word that means 'the act of taking initiative.' It is shocking to see the state the Arab world is in – the lack of hope, the growing socio-economic gaps, the growing generational gap and lack of connectivity."

BrooklynJana in Art Loft in PLDT my DSL launches its search for 5 teens of the Watchpad crew - Maurice Arcach - Inquirer.net [scroll down link for item]: "We have been featuring Jana de Asis-Benitez since she was 14, a wunderkind of art, largely untrained, but a brilliant young master in her coloration, pen or ink drawings and pastels. Our palangga Jana has just turned 24 years young and is still pursuing her love of art, which has established her her own huge studio loft in Brooklyn, New York.Jana has such an international roster of clients that the Philippine Embassy in Berlin, through HE Ambassador Delia Albert, has invited this art master to show her works at the prestigious Institute of Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, at KLu’damn Karee, Kurfurstendamm, in conjunction with the celebration of the 112th anniversary of Philippine Independence in the city."

RELATED ITEMS

Flotilla crisis media update -

Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting; image from

Robert Fisk: The truth behind the Israeli propaganda – Independent: "I have, of course, been outraged at armed men boarding ships in international waters, killing passengers on board who attempt to resist and then forcing their ship to the hijackers' home port. I am, of course, talking about the Somali pirates who are preying on Western ships in the Indian Ocean. How dare those terrorists dare to touch our unarmed vessels on the high seas? And how right we are to have our warships there to prevent such terrorist acts. But whoops! At least the Israelis have not demanded ransom. They just want to get journalists to win the propaganda war for them. Scarcely had the week begun when Israel's warrior 'commandos' stormed a Turkish boat bringing aid to Gaza and shot nine of the passengers dead. Yet by week's end, the protesters had become 'armed peace activists', vicious anti-Semites 'professing pacifism, seething with hate, pounding away at another human being with a metal pole'. I liked the last bit. The fact that the person being beaten was apparently shooting another human being with a rifle didn't quite get into this weird version of reality."

Zionist Leadership Is Astoundingly Stupid - shoah.org.uk:

The best propaganda against Israel is the truth of Israel and its actions. That propaganda came dearly on the Mavi Marmara, and cheaper on the Rachel Corrie. Image from

IMAGE (E-MAIL COURTESY OF COLLEAGUE PAUL ROCKOWER)


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