September 11

"There is, therefore, but one response possible for us: Force, Force to the utmost, Force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant Force which shall make Right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust."

--Woodrow Wilson, denouncing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk for showing the German government's true face; cited in John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009), p. 431; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Secretary Clinton’s Remarks at the 2010 Democracy Video Challenge Award Presentation Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State Judith A. McHale Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Treaty Room Washington, DC September 10, 2010 - posted at still4hill.wordpress.com: "UNDER SECRETARY MCHALE: As Secretary Clinton has mentioned, these winners come from around the world, from each of the six different regions of the world, and they were voted on by people who were tuned into and watching constantly YouTube."

Nine Years After 9/11: The Struggle Against al Qaeda - Daniel L. Byman, brookings.edu:

"While al Qaeda has suffered ideological blows when former salafi-jihadist fellow travelers denounced the organization, U.S. efforts to gain the goodwill of Muslims, or at least further demonize al Qaeda, have often met with little success. Ugly domestic political issues, like the contretemps over the so-called 'Ground Zero Mosque,' have worsened the U.S. image far beyond what skilled public diplomacy can counter. So nine years later it is right for many hard-working officials to pause and give themselves credit for keeping our country safer. But it is also time to focus on how to make sure the years to come see no return of mass-casualty terrorism to our shores." Via; image from

Torching US power‎ - Andrew Hammond, Reuters Blogs: "Pastor Jones ['s] ... backpedaling on the Koran burning only came after he announced an alleged agreement with the community project’s leaders whereby the building would be located further from the World Trade Center site. Although the pastor’s claims of a deal reportedly have been denied by some of those involved in the project the risk remains that he could resume prior plans to hold his 'International Burn a Koran Day.' The re-invigoration of anti-Americanism caused by this episode presents a major political headache for the Obama administration whose public diplomacy has — over the last two years — helped restore US standing across much of the world. But there is still much work that remains. The 2010 Pew Global Attitudes Survey released in June shows that in nine of 15 countries public favorability toward America lags behind that recorded at the end of the Clinton administration a decade ago. The Pastor Jones episode is so serious because it further erodes America’s 'soft power' — the ability to influence preferences of others derived from the attractiveness of a state’s values, ideals and government policies, especially foreign ones. ... With the exceptions of Lebanon and Indonesia (where Obama spent part of his childhood), the Pew study in June showed that the populaces of other largely Muslim countries that were surveyed have very negative views of the US.

In Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, just 17% of people have favorable perceptions of America. In the space of just twelve months, US favorability in Egypt has dropped to 17% from 27%. It is in this context that the significance of the Pastor Jones debacle — a battle for 'hearts and minds' — lies with Obama rightly describing it as a potential 'recruitment bonanza' for al Qaeda. Leaders in the Muslim world, including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, have gone even further, asserting that the act of burning Korans in Florida could cause 'irreparable damage to inter-faith harmony and also to world peace.' For now, following the apparent suspension of the planned Koran burning, worst-case scenarios have been averted. However, this should not disguise the fact that the episode could still prove to be a key setback for the Obama administration’s global public diplomacy and the wider US-led campaign against terrorism." Image from

RFE/RL reports on Ukrainian television station under pressure from government - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Well, actually, Ryan Seacrest is the Daoud Sediqi of the United States - VOA press release, 9 Sept 2010 - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "'A groundbreaking new Voice of America television program, Karwan (Caravan), premiers in Afghanistan Friday, with an exciting and youthful approach to critical issues facing the country. The 30-minute dual-language weekly program, broadcast in both Dari and Pashto, will tackle social and political issues, culture, health, education and other topics, highlighting what young people are doing in Afghanistan and the United States. The program is hosted by the easygoing Daoud Sediqi,

who has been called the 'Ryan Seacrest of Afghanistan.' Before coming to the United States Daoud was the moderator of Afghan Star, the wildly popular Afghan talent show modeled on American Idol. ... The program, which is funded by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, plans to develop ways for viewers to send in web-based videos to expand the dialogue.' -- [Elliott comement:] On what conditions, concerning content, does VOA accept the State funding? None, I assume." Sediqi image from

Quran-Burning and News Judgment - Alex Belida, VOA News Blog: "VOA Director Danforth Austin has said it is 'hard to imagine a circumstance under which running video or a photo of a Quran burning would be justified.' He said VOA would make a final decision only after viewing any video or photo that does become available." See also

VOA acquisition of celebrity news creates a Splash - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "VOA coverage of US celebrities is nothing new. VOA has 24-hour satellite channels, mostly in English. They are seen on or in a small number of cable systems and hotel rooms, but mainly they are feeds to affiliate stations. The English content consists largely of acquired programs, either inexpensive or free. As 'full service' channels about the United States, it is not unreasonable that some (39 minutes a week) of the content would be about celebrities.


For better or worse, such content attracts audiences and affiliate stations. It's also possible that this content will be versioned by VOA's various non-English language services that have television or video output." Image from

State Department and Social Media - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.us: "Have you been wondering how many 'fans' there are for the State Department’s Facebook pages? Interested in knowing whether the numbers are going up or down for a particular online 'property'? Look no further than this site put together by the Office of Innovation within 'R', the Office of the Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Go there and you’ll find that as of today, there are 1,011,712 fans for the 191 pages the department maintains. There’s data by site as well. U.S. Embassy Kabul has 3,682 fans, six times as many as U.S. Embassy Brussels (623). A quick look raises questions about the validity of the data, however. I was curious about the information resource center in Brazil (IRC Brasil) because the report showed zero friends, but the Facebook page shows 140. Probably just a minor glitch… Either way, it’s an interesting bit of transparency into public diplomacy."

Two Great Ways to Advertise Your Organization at the Summit - uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org: "Join CEOs and corporate leaders, members of Congress, and members of not-for-profit citizen diplomacy organizations in Washington DC from November 16-19 at the U.S. Summit & Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy, co-sponsored by the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy and the Department of State, Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. "

Post #243 9/11, revisited, Pt. IV - the-decline-and-fall.blogspot.com: "On January 25, 2001, five days after Bush took office, Clarke [Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar] sent Condi Rice a memo, attaching to it a document entitled 'Strategy for Eliminating the Threat of al Qaeda.' It was, Clarke wrote, 'developed by the last administration to give to you, incorporating diplomatic, economic, military, public diplomacy, and intelligence tools.'"

Inside/out: My 9/11 - Nikki Stern, LivingstonTalk: "Nikki Stern worked as a public relations executive before the death of her husband in the World Trade Center on 9/11. She then became the first executive director for Families of September 11 (FOS11), a national organization for families affected by the terrorist attacks. In 2005, she and the organization were co-recipients of an award from Search for Common Ground. Nikki retains an interest in global diplomacy and public policy. She is on the advisory boards of Project Rebirth,

Americans for Informed Democracy, and the Public Diplomacy Collaborative at Harvard University’s Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation." Stern image from

The New Girl in Town - Heather, Adventures Around the World: A foreign service officer's perspective on life abroad: "It's been just over a week since I arrived in Kathmandu. Moving to a new home in a new country while starting a new job is hectic no matter how prepared you are. But I'm off to a great start. ... The first few days at the embassy were dedicated to getting checked in and making the rounds.

I'm fortunate to have a great local staff, which made those first few days less painful than they could have been. Now that the administrative stuff is mostly done, I've been able to focus on actual public diplomacy work. Which leads me to the best part - I love this job! I've already released a press statement about the Ambassador's meetings with the Prime Minister and the Maoist Chairman, prepared remarks for the DCM for a Combating Trafficking in Persons program, and have been invited to participate in the Ambassador's off-site retreat to review the Mission Strategic Plan. Not bad for my first week. When I joined the Foreign Service, this is exactly the kind of work I envisioned myself doing. It's taken 5 years to get to this point. I plan on enjoying every minute of it." Heather image from article

RELATED ITEMS

A post-9/11 betrayal endures: President Obama and his administration have embraced the secrecy and usurpations of power that made possible the Bush-Cheney betrayal of American values - Tim Rutten, latimes.com: The story of how the Bush-Cheney administration rushed to make torture an instrument of national policy in its "war on terror," and of how it created an international gulag in which to abuse prisoners, is well known. Less remarked on — for reasons that do nobody credit — is the fact that President Obama and his administration have embraced the secrecy and usurpations of power that made possible the Bush-Cheney betrayal of American values.

Beware loaded language in Islamic center debate‎ - Roy Peter Clark, CNN: "To understand the language of the debate, readers need a propaganda filter, the ability to distinguish between a word's denotation -- or explicit meaning -- from its connotation -- it's [sic] secondary,

and often emotional meaning." Roy Peter Clark is vice president and senior scholar of the Poynter Institute and founding director of the National Writers Workshops. He has taught writing for more than 30 years and has spoken about the writer's craft widely. He is the author of the recently released, "The Glamour of Grammar." Image from

Top Ways 9/11 Broke Islamic Law – Juan Cole, Informed Comment: Bin Laden is not a proper Muslim, and his actions contravened Islamic law. He is a Jim Jones-type cultist with a fringe, violent People’s Temple. Americans need to stop blaming Islam, and to recognize that most Muslims in the world are their friends, and that American Muslims are patriots and contributors to our well-being.

What to do on 9/11: Instead of burning the Koran, tell the world about Muslim persecution of Christians - James Corum, Telegraph.co.uk: Burning the Koran will only fuel the propaganda that Islam is a victimised, endangered religion – a faith that struck out at America on September 11 in self-defence. If you want to create fertile ground for more radical Islamists, more suicide bombers and more terrorism, this is a good way to do it.

Yet the events of September 11 2001 deserve to be commemorated in a way that will serve a positive end. Congregations of American Christians would serve humanity if, instead of burning Korans to win the attention of the media and public, they staged memorials and placed advertisements illustrating the routine abuse and suffering of millions of Christians who live in Muslim majority nations. Image from

Contrived controversy - Islamic Center in New York‎ - Mirza A. Beg, TwoCircles.net: The present anti Muslim propaganda is not surprising. What should be celebrated is that in the wake of 9/11 the administration arrested about 1,200 innocent Muslims; justice prevailed and none of them were found guilty.

'Ashtiani case West's propaganda' - presstv.ir: Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Western countries' support for an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and complicity in murder shows their double standards.

Mottaki dismissed as propaganda the Western countries' efforts to defend Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, saying the move was politically motivated. Mottaki image from article

Exposing China's propaganda and lies‎ - Tsering Wangchuk, Tibetan Culture & News Online

The wrong solution in Mexico: The Obama administration is right to consider boosting funding, but increased militarization to combat drug cartels is misguided. The U.S. would be wiser to address rampant corruption - John M. Ackerman, latimes.com: The deployment of U.S. combat troops on Mexican soil could also have the look and feel of a foreign invasion. This would not be the first time the U.S. literally crossed the line. Between 1846 and 1848, the U.S. conquered a third of Mexico's territory.

In 1914, the U.S. occupied the strategic port city of Veracruz. In 1917, as the modern Mexican Constitution was being drafted, U.S. troops crossed the border in a failed pursuit of Pancho Villa. The Mexican people are therefore much more wary than the Colombians of any sort of military relationship with the United States. This is particularly the case this year, as Mexico celebrates the bicentennial of its independence from Spain and the issue of sovereignty is in the forefront of public discussion. Image from

AMERICANA

"Mr. Boehner [Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio] won some of his first national headlines back in 1996 after he was caught handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to fellow Republicans on the House floor.

Then the fourth-ranking House Republican, Mr. Boehner said he had broken no rules and was simply assisting his lobbyist friends, who were contributing to other Republicans’ campaigns."

--Eric Lapton,"G.O.P. Leader Is Tightly Bound to Lobbyists," New York Times; image from

IMAGE


"The American River Ganges," Thomas Nast's 1875 cartoon showing Catholic priests as crocodiles attacking the United States to devour the nation's school children; image from