February 25

"Even hermit crabs, their name notwithstanding, need company."

--Freelance writer Suki Casanave, reviewing “Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone” by Eric Klinenberg, a book about, in Klinenberg's word, "singletons"; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Why the State Department’s Twitter Diplomacy isn’t that Impressive - Matthew Wallin - americansecurityproject.org: "The important factor about U.S. engagement via web 2.0 is not that that the government is using it, but rather that it doesn’t address the core problems of engagement

overseas: fortress embassies, a lack of understanding, and failures to follow through on commitments. Writing something on the internet is easy. But getting on the ground and putting it into action is hard." Image from article

Virtually Policy #2: From Ghana to Second Life – public diplomacy in the digital age - virtualpolicy.net: "In the second episode of Virtually Policy, Bill May talks with Ren Reynolds about using social media and Second Life in public diplomacy. After 30 working in the US Government, NGO’s and the private sector, Bill is now working on international public diplomacy initiatives and a social-technology start up venture. He recently left his position at the US State Department as Director of the Office of Innovative Engagement (OIE) where he led public diplomacy initiatives using new media and social networks to engage the world in support of the President, the Secretary of State and key strategic policy objectives. Previously in the State Department, Bill worked with international exchange programs, within the State Department’s Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), where he received a Hammer Award from the Vice President’s office for developing an innovative information system, which improved the information flow between the USG and NGO’s. In the podcast, Bill talks about using appropriate technologies and themes to engage with people across the globe and across cultures. Including the use of SMS and traditional media for President Obama’s visit to Ghana to bringing American and Egyptian students together in Second Life to create architecture."

PAO [Public Affairs Officer]in training... #moveablespaces #publicdiplomacy @IIPState - Twitter.

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Arguments against the Smith-Mundt domestic dissemination ban disseminated domestically - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: [Elliott comment:] "The internet has not made the domestic dissemination ban obsolete. 

It has, instead, made it finally enforceable, because US public diplomacy and international broadcasting content could easily be blocked from US IP addresses. The interesting thing about Smith-Mundt is not that it is observed, but the extent to which is is not observed." Image from entry.

US Government Fight the Net and Avoiding Self-Censorship - Jesse Herman, deathrattlesports.com: "[H]ere is a BBC report about a document called the 'Information Operations Roadmap'. Officials in the Pentagon wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed it. The author closes with this: [']And, in a grand finale, the document recommends that the United States should seek the ability to 'provide maximum control of the entire electromagnetic spectrum'. US forces should be able to 'disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum'.['] Consider that for a moment. The US military seeks the capability to knock out every telephone, every networked computer, every radar system on the planet. Are these plans the pipe dreams of self-aggrandising bureaucrats? Or are they real? They discuss how to ‘fight the net’, public diplomacy, Psyops, equating the internet to terrorism and much more."

All Indian Embassies must join Facebook, says MEA official - Pranav Kulkarni, indianexpress.com: "At a seminar — The Arab Spring, meaning causes and implications — Navdeep Suri, joint secretary, Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of External Affairs encouraged Indian Embassies in various countries to join Facebook and other social networking sites. ... Suri does not believe that the uprising was media hype, but it was accelerated because of social media which primarily acted as a catalyst in the revolution. Talking about the Public Diplomacy initiatives, he said: 'We have been encouraging the Indian embassies abroad to be visible on Facebook.

Today, when the governments are battling the fact that they are speaking but are not being heard by their own people, which in turn is resulting in diminishing the government’s credibility, social network is godsend. We have 56 of our embassies on Facebook and are increasing further. Cairo, Palestine are some of the top locations that are following us on our Facebook page.' Suri also spoke about the effective use of social media as a tool that helped in evacuating Indians in Arab countries. Prior to Suri, Ambassador (retired) K P Fabian spoke on - Perspective on the Arab spring and India. 'As a soft power India needs to take serious interest in what is happening in the rest of the world and respond accordingly,' he said." Image from

Now is the time to fight for Jewish refugees: Contrary to recent misleading press reports, no Jew seeks a “right of return” to Arab states - Michelle Cohen, Jerusalem Post (February 2): "Israel’s failure to fight for the rights of Jewish refugees has been a catastrophe of public diplomacy – one that the government is at last trying to remedy after 60 years of neglect. Danny Ayalon’s [Foreign Affairs] ministry is expected to make recommendations for recognition and redress for Jewish refugees. He is launching an official PR campaign and will be instructing Israeli embassies around the world to bring up the issue with their counterparts."

Israel coordinates "freelance" hasbara - jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com: "It appears that Israel is to coordinate this year's hasbara efforts to counter Israel Apartheid Week.

Here's Ha'aretz: [']New York City native Avi Abelow is leaving his job, his wife and four children in Efrat to visit the state of California for 10 days. His plan - and that of nearly 100 other Israelis who are boarding flights this week to 20 cities in Europe, Africa and North America - is to talk. And to talk a lot. 'This is definitely a very unique situation,' says Abelow, a 37-year-old movie producer and independent advocate for Israel, whose 'Israel Straight Talk' Facebook page boasts nearly 14,000 'likes.' 'I don't know how many other countries can have this phenomenon of people basically leaving their lives, not getting reimbursed for the time lost, and taking the time to talk about their country.' Abelow and his colleagues have been designated the 'Faces of Israel' in a Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry initiative, which is deliberately timed to coincide with the eighth annual Israeli Apartheid Week in support of the Palestinian Civil Society's call for 'Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions.' A press release issued Wednesday by the ministry called it 'anti-Israel Hate Week.' 'Anti-Israel Hate Week'? I quite like anti-Israel week." Image from

Opinion: Where does Jordan stand in the Arab Spring? A student from Jordan reflects on the upheavals in the Arab World - Mohannad Aljawamis, skidmorenews.com: "Jordan is a poor country that is suffering from poverty, inflation, and other economic crises. But in comparison to other countries such as Libya, where abundant wealth was monopolized by a dictatorship, Jordan is theoretically hopeless in solving its predicaments.

Jordan is one of the water-poorest countries in the world and it lacks most of the natural resources that other Middle Eastern countries relish (i.e. oil.) Thus far, Jordan has been able to maintain its tranquil environment due to the prosperous public diplomacy of His Majesty, King Abdullah II. King Abdullah has built strong, trust-based relationships with many states in the region and the world. He has also emphasized the importance of education for Jordanian citizens as the best recourse they have to meet the nation's challenges (especially the economic situation.)" Image from article, with caption: King Abdullah of Jordan at the World Economic Forum.

Heteropolarity, Wicked Problems, and Collaboration in Public Diplomacy - R.S. Zaharna, battles2bridges.wordpress.com: "I still believe as I stated in an earlier post this summer that 'Collaboration in public diplomacy may well become the strategic equivalent of negotiation in traditional diplomacy.'”

RELATED ITEMS

U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb - James Risen and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times: Recent assessments by American spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program years earlier, according to current and former American officials. The officials said that assessment was largely reaffirmed in a 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, and that it remains the consensus view of America’s 16 intelligence agencies.

Retired general: U.S. can’t stop Iran from making nukes - Kristina Wong, The Washington Times: A former high-ranking military official says the U.S. does not have the ability to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. “If they [Iranians] have the intent, all the weapons in the world are not going to change that,” retired Marine CorpsGen.

James Cartwright, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said late Thursday. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Gen. Cartwright also said that Israel will not be able to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if the Jewish state attacks the Islamic republic’s atomic sites. Cartwright image from article

State Department Uses 'Nuclear Option' Propaganda to Justify More Preemptive War - Eric Blair, activistpost.com: Even the blind should notice the same trends leading to war:Claim the leaders are bad guys (which is not difficult because most leaders are). Incite, fund and arm rebels (terrorists) to lure those governments into fighting back. Claim the leaders are killing their own citizens (which almost all leaders do including the good ole U.S.). Slap economic sanctions on the government while simultaneously creating a shadow government, central bank, and economy for the puppet rebel leaders.

Scare domestic populations until they're okay with more war. Bypass any authority to commit tax money and troops for war. Drop billions of dollars in bombs by remote control destroying innocent life and infrastructure. Murder the former leader in cold blood if need be. Consolidate any and all resources into the hands of Western cartels. Fund these same cartels with more tax dollars to reconstruct the devastated war zone. Rinse and repeat.WMD is not just any propaganda, it's the "nuclear option" of propaganda. It's the only way to claim these countries are a threat of any kind, because they have very little or no history of actually attacking the West. And they will keep beating this WMD war drum because it works. Image from article

Insinuation As War Propaganda – Anthony Gregory, eurasiareview.com: The Obama administration (and the Bush administration, and the UN) have all had the same official position: Iran doesn’t have nukes, and the Iranians probably aren’t looking to get them. Yet seven out of ten Americans think Iran already has them. Indeed, Obama has thrived on the insinuation that Iran has nukes. When he acted tough back in 2009 because Iran had been caught red-handed with its fledgling nuclear facility at Qom—a civilian nuclear facility that Iran readily alerted the international community to, consistent with its continuing adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to which Iran is a signatory—he did so against a backdrop of insinuation that of course everyone knows Iran wants nuclear weapons. If a war begins with Iran, it will largely be on the basis of propaganda believed by the public, propaganda that the government has never officially articulated. The U.S. warfare state appears to thrive on insinuation in its war propaganda. The U.S. war machine’s top brass never outright declare the most provocative claims about U.S. enemies. That way, when the war goes south and people begin accusing the political class of misleading them, the empire’s defenders can easily say (accurately in word if not in spirit): “Bush never claimed Saddam was behind 9/11! Obama never claimed Iran had nuclear weapons!” Below image from

Psychological Warfare Must Precede Strike on Iran - William A. Levinson, americanthinker.com: Any attack on Iran's nuclear program will, in the absence of preparatory psychological warfare, unite the Iranian people against the attacker. The campaign must educate the Iranian people that the West has no quarrel with them, but only with their rulers, who plan to attack other countries with nuclear weapons. The first step of such a campaign is to identify the Propaganda Man, or hypothetical audience we seek to persuade. Most countries have more than one Propaganda Man. In Iran, for example, we have the soldiers who control the means of violence, as well as civilians who live in fear of the government and religious police. Both audiences are likely to dread the inevitable nuclear retaliation should their rulers put their threats into effect. The propaganda campaign should therefore state, "The West has no quarrel with Iran unless Iran starts it, in which case the target of Iran's aggression would have no choice but to retaliate in kind and with overwhelming force. Tens of millions of Iranians would die, and the great cities and proud heritage that date back to your Persian ancestors would lie in ruins. This [insert pictures of victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki] is not what you seek for your great nation, but it is where your self-serving rulers are leading you."

What Two Enemies Share - Roya Hakakian, New York Times: As early as the sixth century B.C., Jews, exiled in Babylonia, found a savior in Persia’s Cyrus the Great, who helped them return to Israel. In the early 1940s, Iran became a refuge to Jews, who were this time fleeing Hitler’s army. Thousands owed their lives to the valorous conduct of Abdol-Hossein Sardari, the head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in France, who defied Nazi orders by issuing thousands of passports and travel documents to Jews. Even when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in top Holocaust-denying form, the descendants of the Polish survivors who chose to settle in Iran were laying flowers upon the graves of their loved ones in what’s known as the Polish Cemetery in Tehran. Would the two nations allow their rulers to begin a war if they were aware of their depth of indebtedness to each other? By bombing Iran, Israel would be bombing a portion of Jewish history.

More Afghan cuts, more war: Leaving 120,000 demobilized Afghan troops and cops without a paycheck and with few legitimate job options in an anemic economy would be a recipe for disaster - Max Boot, latimes.com: Perhaps the administration thinks that it can simultaneously reduce both U.S. troops and Afghan security forces because peace talks with the Taliban will end the insurgency. In reality, the Taliban now has no incentive to negotiate seriously. Taliban fighters know that if they simply wait a few years, most of their enemies, both foreign and domestic, will disappear from the battlefield.

Image from article, with caption: Afghans throw stones toward a U.S. airbase during a protest against the alleged 'Koran burning' by U.S. troops, in Bagram, about 40 miles north of Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday. Thousands of Afghans took to the streets in Bagram to protest the 'burning of the Koran' by NATO-led troops, officials said.

Taliban Propaganda Watch: Yeah, We’ll Talk (But Keep Attacking U.S. Embassy, Foreign Troops) - milnewsca.wordpress.com

Syria’s Horrors - Editorial, New York Times: The worsening violence — and the mismatch between the 200,000-member Syrian Army and ragtag rebel forces — has accelerated calls, especially from the gulf states, to arm the opposition. Some countries are already quietly doing that. The United States this week opened the door to the possibility. At a minimum, Washington and its allies should consider providing communications equipment, intelligence and military training. This will amount to little if the opposition — divided along ethnic and sectarian lines — fails to unite and offer a credible vision of a post-Assad future in which the rights of all Syrians will be respected.

Opposition slams Friends of Syria meeting - presstv.com: The leader of Syria's opposition party, the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, Qadri Jamil, has criticized the so-called “Friends of Syria” Conference. "This meeting doesn’t aim to deal with the Syrian issue, but it plays as a media campaign and propaganda

to cover up the frequent setbacks Western countries headed by the United States have suffered in the intervention in the Syrian issue," he said. "It is trying to find a new way of intervention from the outside," Jamil added. The meeting is scheduled to be held in the Tunisian capital Tunis on Friday to discuss arming the opposition in Arab state. Jamil image from article

Syria: US and Client state propaganda exposed - ozyism.blogspot.com: US and its client states are playing propaganda warfare against Syria, an exact replica of the propaganda spread against Libya.

Syria: Saudi Wahabi Jihadist Propaganda Against Syrian Alawi Shia Muslims - babakdarvish.blogspot.com

BBC accused of sparking monarchy propaganda over leaked emails supporting Queen - asianage.com:The BBC has been accused of sparking "propaganda" for the British monarchy following the leak of emails from a documentary-maker, which said no-one who uttered a ‘bad word’ about the Queen would be interviewed.

Azerbaijanis spread propaganda under a veil of trade - panarmenian.net: The Armenian community in Prague, Czech Republic, gave a proper response to the event organized by Azerbaijanis on the 20th anniversary of the “Khojalu massacre”. Azerbaijan’s embassy, with support of Azerbaijani businessmen and Heydar Aliyev Foundation organized an event on February 24 on a Prague square dedicated to the so-called “Khojalu genocide”. Organizers of the event placed a tent in the square with Azerbaijan’s flag beside it. The event aimed at spreading Azerbaijan’s position on Khojalu events, says the report received by PanARMENIAN.Net.During the event free foodstuff was distributed in the tent and Azeri souvenirs and carpets were being sold. In addition to propaganda materials, the tent also hosted restaurant advertisements, as the event supporters demanded. Sponsors also insisted that the organizers get a permission qualifying it as an ad and trade event and not a propaganda action. The report says that 6-7 students in the tent were distributing propaganda materials to passers-by. The Armenian community in Czech Republic could not remain indifferent to such initiative of Azerbaijanis. From the very beginning of Azeri action, Armenian were spreading Czech-language leaflets to passers-by refuting Azerbaijan’s misinformation. Coming as a surprise for Azerbaijanis, Armenian activists entered the very tent and distributed their brochures inside as well. Armenian activists spread a total of 300 leaflets and 50 brochures. Below image from

France24 refutes misinformation of Azerbaijani propaganda about Khojaly - panorama.am: Azerbaijani mass media outlets reported that France24 broadcast a reporting, prepared by a correspondent who visited Azerbaijan a week ago, which covers the story of Khojaly events reflecting the version of Azerbaijani side. Panorama.am asked Philip de Nasser, deputy director of France 24, responsible for French-language content, to comment after he familiarized himself with the information in French, spread in particular by news agency APA. “I confirm we don’t have any kind of project,” Philip de Nasser stated having completely refuting misinformation of Azerbaijani propaganda.

Facade of French disdain falters in Oscar hoopla over ‘The Artist’ - Amar Toor, The Washington Times: With “The Artist” poised as the favorite to take home the best-picture award, the famously blase French public’s pose of studied aloofness from U.S. opinion is wobbling. News of the black-and-white silent film’s triumphant march through the American movie-awards season has swept across newspapers, magazines and blogs here, alongside generally

positive reviews and commensurate box-office returns. If the film, nominated for 10 Oscars, takes the top prize Sunday, it would become the first French film ever to do so. This prospect alone has caused quite a stir in France, where cinema, known here as the “seventh art,” is still treated with reverence. Image from article, with caption: Jean Dujardin, the lead actor in the best-picture-nominated “The Artist,” has himself garnered one of the film’s 10 Oscar nominations, as best actor.

Event: Prof. Lectures on Visual Propaganda and Nazi ‘Jud Süss’ Film - Erin Schultz, northfork.patch.com: To Michael Edelson Professor Emeritus of film studies, “Jud Süss” is the vilest anti-Semitic film ever made — and that thought is shared by thousands around the world. Produced by the Nazi party in 1940, the film was used to intensify the existing hatred of Jews in Germany and in occupied Europe during World War II.

Nearly 40 million people viewed the film, and, in many countries today, “Jud Süss” cannot be screened unless it is accompanied with an explanatory presentation. Prof. Edelson will use the Nazi film as a focal point of a free lecture he will give on the powerful effects of propaganda on our decision-making. Image from article

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