May 5

"Well, he's not doing it on government time, is he?"

--President Franklin D. Roosevelt, trying to defuse, with humor, the scandal of Assistant Secretary of State Sumner Welles soliciting Pullman porters on a train carrying the president, the Cabinet, the Secret Service and railway officials; FDR image from

[Comment on the above quotation by the distinguished scholar/diplomat Richard Arndt, kindly approved for posting here by him after the above appeared in the PDPBR: "John: Surely your intent in running the FDR quote (May 5) was to illustrate the Roosevelt style (some would call it class). But repetition of your source's casual comment about Sumner Welles is just one more stone in the systematic lapidation of a great man's memory.

Your source legitimizes the gossip-laden 'history' of Welles' error and makes it uglier by omitting or mis-stating details. He seems to take delight in peddling the easy line that Welles was a 'fairy,' to use the phrase of the 1930s--as we know an era in the Anglo world when a homosexual was still considered less than a human being. The deep sadness behind the story of Welles' tragic slip is more complicated--see NY Times veteran Ben Welles' biography of his dad for a fuller picture. Among other things, he made overtures to one porter, not several; and he immediately stepped back when he met a blank wall. And of course the matter might have been forgotten (as FDR's quip implies) had Welles' and FDR's political enemies (including Cordell Hull) not exploited it to titillate uptight Americans in times when it was still permissible to 'beat up homos' and lynch gays (cf. two gory episodes in Annie Proulx's Breakback Mountain).

Your entry reminds me of some of our USIA [on USIA, see -- JB] colleagues who used to dismiss not only Welles but his friends Archibald MacLeish, grey eminence of cultural diplomacy, on grounds he was 'a poet' (spoken with a sneer), and Lawrence Duggan, chief architect of cultural diplomacy in State, whose heartbreaking 'suicide' is cited as proof of mental instability, espionage or both.

Welles was an unusually creative diplomat, at a time when the phrase was still an oxymoron; in the emerging US system, he was among the finest--he deserves better than to be trashed in fairy tales. I suggest we might better spend our time documenting what Welles brought to diplomacy in his era, at the same time renewing our relentless efforts to outgrow the lethal myths of our adolescence."] Image of one of Arndt's many publications from

VIDEO

The Second Freedom -- a "cultural propaganda" video commissioned during WWII to "refute the idea that ours [the U.K] was a country stuck in the past." (from BoingBoing)

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

U.S.-China Student Exchange Forum held in Beijing - 0086.com: "The U.S.-China Student Exchange Forum was held Thursday in Beijing, with over 200 attendees discussing the promotion of student exchange programs between the two countries. Students from both countries attended the forum and discussed a variety of topics, including expanding the influence of student exchange programs and deepening friendship between the people of both nations. Hao Ping, vice minister of education, described the event as an 'important activity to advance cultural cooperation and increase understanding and inclusiveness' while addressing the forum. Tara Sonenshine, U.S. under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, said in a speech at the forum

that the U.S. is willing to work with China to promote exchanges between students in both countries. During the second annual China-U.S. Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, China announced that it would send 10,000 Ph.D candidates to the U.S. on Chinese government scholarships, implement the 'Chinese Bridge' study program for 10,000 U.S. citizens in China and provide scholarships to 10,000 U.S. college students to study in China. As of 2011, 4,363 Chinese postgraduates had participated in Ph.D. programs in the United States, while 'Chinese Bridge' scholarships have allowed 7,110 U.S. nationals to study in China, according to the Ministry of Education." Image from, with caption: Tara Sonenshine, [then] Executive Vice President of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Twitter vs. secret diplomacy in the Chen Guangcheng saga - Emily Alpert, latimesblogs.latimes.com: "The celebrated deal that would have ensured that blind dissident Chen Guangcheng would stay in China began to dissolve publicly with a tweet: ‘GUANGCHENG TALKED TO ME. WHAT MEDIA REPORTED IS WRONG.’ The unsettling Twitter message from Beijing activist Zeng Jinyan began a firestorm of debate over whether Chen had been coerced into the deal with threats to his family, an alarming idea that gutted the most important promise behind the agreement -- that Chen would be kept safe. Zeng also said Chen really said he wanted to ‘see’ U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, not ‘kiss’ her, upending a widely reported remark that had seemed to show the dramatic story coming

to a happy ending. Other Chinese activists soon followed, sharing their own accounts of what Chen had said. Foreign reporters contacted Chen via telephone and found him frightened and wanting to leave China. Two days later, plans were in the works for Chen to come study at an American university, as U.S. officials scrambled to rework the initial deal, which was excoriated by human rights groups and Republican critics. The uproar put Clinton, who has been lauded by staffers as the ‘godmother of 21st century statecraft’ for embracing Twitter and other digital tools, on the flip side of social media. Thanks to Twitter, the ‘air of privileged secrecy’ around diplomacy is becoming harder than ever to maintain, New America Foundation senior fellow Emily Parker argued in the New Republic. ‘In the 'Arab Spring' there was this idea that Twitter was a revolutionary force primarily for toppling a dictator,’ Parker said in a phone interview. ‘But social media is challenging democracies too.’ The Chen deal might well have unraveled without Twitter, through phone calls and the news media. But the rapid-fire pace of social media helped to quickly undercut the official line on what had happened just hours after the agreement was announced, spurring journalists worldwide to follow up. Experts said it was the first time that the digital world has had such a strong sway. In the past, ‘it might have taken days or months. It wouldn't have taken minutes,’ said Nicholas Cull, a USC professor of public diplomacy.” Chen Guangcheng image from article

Winning Hearts and Minds at the National Level - Helio Fred Garcia, logosinstitute.net: "[M]uch of the United States’ engagement of the world over the last decade has had the unintended consequence of alienating the very people whose hearts and minds we claim to want on our side. ... The bigger the gulf between 'us' and 'them,' the less likely effective communication will take place. Also the bigger the gap between what we say and what we do, and between our stated values and our actual behavior. ... In 2002 the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy developed an advertising campaign called the Shared Values Initiative to reach communities in predominantly Muslim countries. It bought more than $5 million of advertising on television networks during the Muslim holiday period of Ramadan. The campaign, hoping to dispel myths about the treatment of Muslims in the United States, showed Muslims living happily in America. Individual Muslims spoke into the camera or while the camera showed them at their jobs—a firefighter, a teacher, the owner of a bakery. They gave first-hand testimony about their positive experiences of living in America—of being Americans and also of being Muslim. But the campaign misfired. It did not meet Muslim communities where they were. Rather it spoke past them."

Obama Assembling De Facto Propaganda Ministry: Administration reveals plans to buy media broadcasts - Steve Peacock, wnd.com: “The U.S. State Department is planning to ‘buy’ media broadcasts, as the Obama administration assembles a de facto propaganda machine, according to documents that reveal the president’s plans moving closer to the 2012 elections. According to information WND located via routine database research, State’s Bureau of Public Affairs is soliciting the help of ‘global news coverage service providers’ to create and disseminate department ‘news.’ The selected contractor will provide ‘full-time, 24/7 service,’ the Statement of Work for the plan said. ‘The department seeks a service provider for full, turn-key news-style global television coverage of ad hoc open press events featuring

the Secretary of State and other officials across the United States and throughout the world,’ according to the SOW, ‘and to send this content back to the department’s Washington headquarters…’ Upon receiving these privately packaged productions, the department, in turn, ‘will distribute this video content to media organizations through an array of traditional and new media platforms.’” Image from

“Infocrafting” or Propaganda Online?: Rogue “Info Ops”Agents Go After The Wrong Target - Doug Bernard, voanews.com: "Tom Vanden Brook [and] Ray Locker ... [are] both reporters at USA Today; Vanden Brook covering the Pentagon for the paper since 2006, and Locker the White House and other agencies. Recently they teamed up to explore what the Pentagon calls 'information operations' in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. A term of military art, 'Info Ops' is frankly just another phrase for propaganda: the transmission of information, factual or not, with the specific goal of changing beliefs. 'Winning the hearts and minds,' as President Lyndon Johnson was fond of saying during the Vietnam war. Vanden Brook and Locker began digging into the effectiveness of current Pentagon information operations in overseas war zones, and their overall assessment was not positive. 'U.S. info ops programs dubious, costly' read the headline in the February 29th story. ... In particular, the reporters ask hard questions about one of the Pentagon’s largest info ops contractors, Leonie Industries. The firm, they write, was founded in 2004 by a brother and sister team ‘with no apparent experience working with the military.’ Of the $130 million dollars in awarded contracts, the reporters conclude there is little to no oversight, and uncertainty about Leonie’s effectiveness. Worse still, the founders Camille Chidiac and Rema Dupont together owed more than $4 million in unpaid taxes. ... Around the same time, the two reporters began to notice something odd. Twitter accounts purporting to be them popped up, as did Facebook pages, and even websites like www.raylocker.com. These fake accounts began to post messages and stories that, to put it mildly, cast the reporters in a negative light. Needless to say, neither Locker nor Vanden Brook had any connection to these phony accounts. Then on April 19, in a little noticed story, USA Today reporter Gregory Kane wrote ‘A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites.’  ... At present, the two bogus websites are blocked, and the fake social media accounts have gone dark. But that doesn’t mean that they haven’t done damage, or that the story ends here.

Vanden Brook called the campaign ‘creepy’ and Ray Locker told the Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple it was ‘something I’ve never experienced in thirty years.’ Since last week, the story has gone quiet, but it’s a guarantee that more reporters now are paying attention to ‘info ops’ and online smears, at home or abroad. ...  In 2011, the Leonie Group won 12 Defense Department contracts for a total of $92,324, 165. They won their first DoD contract in 2008, and since then have been awarded a total of $145, 190,686 dollars. Of the 2011 contracts, funds were spent in three countries: Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia. For the first two, services provided were listed as ‘other professional services’ while for Colombia they were ‘training and curriculum development.’ Leonie describes itself as a ‘strategic communication and mission support’ firm with offices in Washington, Los Angeles, Tampa, Baghdad and Kabul. Among the services offered: ‘Consulting with our clients to understand your messaging goals and objectives, we research and analyze how we can best reach your target audience, maximizing effectiveness by intrinsically understanding the environment before coordinating, integrating and disseminating your communications campaign via TV, radio, print, digital media and other creative channels.’ In corporate terms, 'strategic communication.' In military terms, 'information operations.' In plain English, propaganda.

The Pentagon, like every other military organization, has long used various forms of propaganda, at home and overseas. However, early in the 20th Century, Congress and the White House sought to curb or eliminate any U.S. government propaganda that might be aimed at U.S. citizens. For example, 5 U.S.C., Section 3107, passed in late 1913, states: ‘Appropriated funds may not be used to pay a publicity expert unless specifically appropriated for that purpose.’ The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 further defined what types of communications the U.S. government could have with those overseas, and within the United States. [Full disclosure: the Voice of America and its parent organization, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, are also bound by this measure not to actively distribute any material to a U.S. audience.] And further various appropriations measures through the years, like 2004′s omnibus spending bill, prohibit funds to be used ‘…for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofor[e] authorized by Congress.’ This means that if any U.S. tax funds, equipment or personnel were used, knowingly or not, in constructing the smear against the two USA Today journalists, it would very likely constitute a violation of federal law. Both the Pentagon and Leonie say investigations are underway. In any event, the smear appears to have backfired badly. So here’s the ironic bow on the package: what began as a story about the questionable effectiveness of propaganda overseas is turning now into questions about its use at home. And what started as an effort to tarnish the public image of two journalists may end up dimming the reputation of those firms that try to control it.” Image from entry: USA Today reporter Tom Vanden Brook; graphic image of Leonie Industries webpage from article

A conspiracy theorist's explanation of US international broadcasting "propaganda" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

International broadcasters observe and report on World Press Freedom Day - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting.

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US international broadcasting to China: Keeping everything the same will keep everything the same - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

VOA employee's "Window of Anguish" is top winner of DW The Bobs blog award - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Report: VOA seeks change in Indonesian regulations to allow live rebroadcast of its newscasts - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

RFE/RL Georgian and USAID launch media school in Tbilisi - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Azerbaijan and Eurovision: Behind the Propaganda - Huffington Post: "The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) should speak out about Azerbaijan’s appalling record on freedom of expression in the lead-up to the Eurovision Song Contest, Human Rights Watch said in a video report released today. Eurovision will take place in Baku from May 22 to May 26, 2012. The EBU, an association of public broadcasters, is responsible for overseeing the Eurovision Song Contest each year. ... In March, there was a vicious blackmail campaign against a Radio Liberty journalist, Khadija Ismailova. A secretly-recorded video of a personal nature was posted on the Internet on March 14, a week after she refused to be blackmailed into stopping her critical journalism. The day before the video was posted, a pro-government newspaper ran a long article attacking the journalist and criticizing her personal life."

Most employees and contractors of Radio Canada International, planning 80% cut, receive notices - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting.

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The Challenge of Making NATO’s Voice Heard - Written by Dr. Stefanie Babst, NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy. NATO must continue to connect to the digital global village to make its voice heard. ... The sad fact ... remains that our connected and globalise world has even become more fragile after the end of the Cold War. Terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflicts and threats posed to our energy security, information infrastructure and commercial shipping is just some of the pressing security challenges that require urgent responses. More than ever, governments and other players in the international arena need to work together to address these challenges, to find support for solutions and change. The Alliance remains an important organisation to do exactly this: a place, where member states discuss with partner countries, other international organisations and NGOs how to effectively protect against global and regional threats to our security and how to make a meaningful political and, if need be, military contribution to enhancing international security. Now how does this narrative translate into NATO’s public diplomacy efforts? For sure, the Allies have come a long way in embracing a new and modern understanding of their common communication policies. Transparency, responsiveness, accuracy of information and direct engagement with people across Allied territory and beyond have become core pillars of NATO’s public diplomacy. More than ever, journalists, think tankers, decisions-makers and NGOs can be found in NATO’s Headquarters’ corridors or meeting with NATO civilian and military experts in public gatherings. The Alliance has also become more accessible for average citizens. Every year thousands of visitors come to the Headquarters to discuss the transatlantic security agenda with national and NATO officials and, if he is around, even with the NATO Secretary General. And NATO does not avoid critical questions. In recent years, we have especially reinforced our efforts to reach out to the young generation, by facilitating networks among students and young political leaders, offering summer schools and fellowships and organising seminars and workshops across NATO and partner nations. We have also overhauled our technological capabilities, bringing the NATO website and other audiovisual tools and products up to scratch. In order to give NATO’s digital programmes in proper framework, we have elaborated a dedicated Digital Strategy together with Social Media Guidelines that govern the official and personal use of social web activities for all NATO employees.

Online lectures, videos and discussions have made NATO’s interface to the outside world more transparent. There are no taboos: topics range from the new Strategic Concept, relations with Russia all the way to the challenging operation in Afghanistan. NATO Secretary General Rasmussen’s digital activities are closely aligned to those of NATO as an organization. The Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels are fed with press statements, news stories and interesting background videos on a daily basis. All important NATO official meetings and public events are now reported on social media networks. Nowadays nobody can claim that NATO hides behind diplomatic brick walls. What we are doing, what we are thinking and with whom we are doing business – it is all out there. Online. Accessible to whoever has the time and the interest to follow us. But we have started to do more. We continue supporting existing online communities such as www.atlantic-community.org, encouraging them to have discussions on NATO’s role in Afghanistan, relations with Russia or gender issues in military operations. We even went as far as inviting the internet community to discuss our new Strategic Concept online. During the first six months of 2010 we hosted online discussions and chats with people from across the NATO family to debate how our future Strategic Concept should be shaped and which burning issues it should address. NATO’s online discussions about the new Strategic Concept found a broad echo and demonstrated that transatlantic security issues must not and should not just be discussed by a the small community of so-called ‘movers and shakers’ in defense and security. As we move towards the NATO Summit in Chicago in May this year, digital outreach will play a prominent role in our communications campaign both during the run-up phase and on the margins of the event itself." Babst image from article

High Flying Apple Hits Turbulence In Brazil, Foxconn's Gou Calls Workers 'Animals' -
Eric Ehrmann, Huffington Post: "Beyond Apple, and the Google Android phone, [Terry] Gou's Foxconn empire assembles products for Acer, Cisco, Dell, HP, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Sony and Toshiba. ...Foxconn's broader agenda to expand its operations to assemble Apple gadgets and other tech ware in Brazil's low wage and undereducated Amazon region depend[s] on its ability to project itself as a quality employer. But beyond all the PR spin and public diplomacy mediagenics Foxconn seeking low wage targets of opportunity actually disrupts Brazil's quest to create high value jobs that promote income distribution and build a stronger, more inclusive society."

RocketHub/American Voices - "So dear blog readers, American Voices has launched our first crowdsourcing venture through RocketHub. We are raising money to bring additional Iraqi students to our YES Academy Iraq this summer. The point of crowdsourcing is to make up funding in volume, so please dig shallow and help out with some rupees, pesos and dinars. Of course, you are welcome to dig deep too. But please help be a patron of the arts in a place that really needs more artistic education."

Cultural Diplomacy and Turkish Coffee - jaxiecracks, The Cultural Diplomacy of Food: Links, musings, and pictures exploring the soft power of food: "This is what I call closing the last 3 feet of public diplomacy: handing out free Turkish coffee on the streets of DC, and inspiring lots of conversations about Turkey, Turkish culture, Turkish food, and Turkish coffee fortune telling in the process. And I get to be a part of it!

I would write more, but I'm headed to New York with the crew tomorrow as they spread the Turkish coffee love around the East Coast. So in the meantime, check out the Turkayfe website for more info on the project, and look out for lots of pictures and videos (courtesy of my newfangled DSLR) to come! Image from entry. See also.

To be cultural diplomacy or not to be cultural diplomacy? - Public Diplomacy and International Communications: Thoughts and comments about public diplomacy, soft power and international communications by Gary Rawnsley: Last Friday and Saturday I participated in the first meeting of a new network of scholars interested in cultural diplomacy, organised by colleagues at the Universities of Bath and Swansea. The most exciting, and in many ways the most challenging, aspect of this meeting was its interdisciplinarity. After spending a week at the International Studies Association talking almost exclusively with colleagues working in public diplomacy from an international relations or international communications perspective, I was now discussing the subject with colleagues from area studies, cultural studies, linguistics and sociology. Needless to say we had some extremely interesting conversations which have helped me to understand better the cultural processes and products involved in cultural diplomacy. Not least was the challenge from some to define cultural diplomacy, and some arrived at the conclusion that definitions are not that important, and in fact can be restrictive.

Also, where do cultural relations end, and cultural diplomacy begin? ... [A] question is about Shakespeare as a cultural diplomacy product. Why do we suppose that Shakespeare represents Britain (or, more specifically England), and who decides? ... Shakespeare is known throughout the world and is performed on a regular basis in foreign languages, with the drama localised for specific cultural settings. In other words, Shakespeare has been appropriated. What are the consequences of this for cultural diplomacy?" Image from

Ian Hurd on Law and Diplomacy - Peter Spiro, opiniojuris.org: "Ian Hurd has a very interesting essay on law and international relations, ‘Law and the Practice of Diplomacy,’ which I’d strongly recommend to anyone with an IR/IL bent. It’s maybe the only piece of IR theory that I’ve read that really seems to get the dynamic element of international law. ... My ... gripe is one I’m more used to throwing in IR’s direction: the bracketing of non-state actors. Non-state actors are obvious players on the international stage, so here’s how Hurd (in effect) dismisses them: ['] Only states are obligated under public international law. . . Nonstate actors contribute to diplomacy, despite not being subjects of the rules of international law: they can invoke international rules, provide interpretations of behaviour and of rules, and construct arguments using the resources of public international law. This can be consequential in constructing the field in which public diplomacy takes place and in contributing resources to it. But this is ultimately directed toward influencing states, either by forcing them to act in certain ways or by giving them resources to pursue the policies preferred by the nonstate actors.['] ... I’m not sure why ... theory couldn’t be put to work in a model including non-state actors as well, who after all also use international law as a resource at the same time that they are constrained by it."

Silence.com - John Brown, Huffington Post: " 'A thought, once uttered, is a lie.' -- Tiutchev [.] I hereby propose a new portal/site (call it whatever you want) dedicated to total silence. You would click on silence.com, no content/graphics/sound would appear on it. 'Target audiences' would love it -- the silence. ... 'Public diplomacy' diplomats on the site would send 'content-free' messages containing not less than 140, but absolutely 0 -- zero!-- characters. The rhetoricians/propagandists would simply remain silent, to the delight of their interlocutors.

Elected Silence, sing to me

And beat upon my whorlèd ear,

Pipe me to pastures still and be

The music that I care to hear." [from]

Diamond Jubilee lectures kick-start Bristol’s royal celebrations - Press release: Professor Jutta Weldes kicks off the celebrations at M Shed on 9 May with

‘Dressing up and Queening it’: Queen Elizabeth II, dress and British public diplomacy - a look at how the Queen’s dresses have represented the monarchy and the country."  Image from entry

Establishment of Public Diplomacy in Slovakia: an effective new approach - Apuntes Internacionales, Diplomacia Pública: "Tesis presentada por Olga Algayerova, en mayo del 2010, en la Universidad de Malta, para obtener el grado de Master en Diplomacia Contemporánea.

Este estudio analiza el presente de la Diplomacia Pública en Eslovaquia." Image from entry

Where Democracy Is America’s Second Choice:For Washington, democracy promotion in Yemen continues to take a back seat to the fight against Al-Qaeda - Francisco Martin-Rayo, Foreign Policy: "Francisco Martin-Rayo, who studied public diplomacy and counter-radicalization policies at the Harvard Kennedy School, is the author of the forthcoming book Winning the Minds: Travels Through Terrorist Recruiting Grounds in Yemen, Pakistan, and the Somali Border."

RELATED ITEMS

Truth, lies and Afghanistan: How military leaders have let us down - Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, armedforcesjournal.com: "I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground." Image from

Obama: End Afghanistan war, rebuild U.S. - David Jackson, USA Today: Pledging to have U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, President Obama said Saturday that money used to finance that long war can help rebuild the U.S. and pay down its debt. "After more than a decade of war, it is time to focus on nation building here at home," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

Officials: American drone strike kills 8 in Pakistan - AP, USA Today: An American drone fired a volley of missiles into a house close to the Afghan border on Saturday, killing eight suspected militants and indicating U.S. resolve to continue with the attacks despite renewed Pakistani opposition, officials said.

U.S. special forces commander seeks to expand operations: In a sign of shifting Pentagon tactics and priorities, draft plans indicate a push to expand clandestine units to fight terrorism and other 'emerging threats' around the globe - David S. Cloud, Los Angeles Times: Adm. William H. McRaven, a Navy SEAL and commander of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has developed plans that would provide far-reaching new powers to make special operations units "the force of choice" against "emerging threats" over the next decade, internal Defense Department documents show. America's secret military

forces have grown dramatically over the last decade as the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community have increasingly merged missions, including drone strikes and counter-terrorism operations. But some Pentagon officials and outside experts warn that giving secret soldiers too much additional authority outside the normal chain of command might lead to abuses. image from article, with caption: Afghan National Army commandos, backed by U.S. special forces, conduct a training session.

New Q and A section in Taliban website "not only attracting more traffic, but is also ... new tool for the insurgents' concerted PR drive" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Afghan insurgents post propaganda videos on latest attacks - Ali Safi and Jonathan S. Landay, kansascity.com

Dying for democracy in Syria: Syrians feel forgotten and betrayed by an international community whose support has been poor compared with that given Libyan rebels - Haitham Maleh, latimes.com: One of steps that the international community could take to end the suffering and speed the demise of the Assad regime would be arming the Free Syrian Army. As it stands, the FSA can only fight what will be a losing battle. We need all the help we can get to build a free, fair nation, one that represents all Syrians and respects human rights, the judiciary, international law and human life.

Syrian propaganda no longer hits home - Arabic News Digest, thenational.ae: The Syrian regime is carrying on a propaganda blitz in an effort to hamper the international observers' mission to Syria tasked with probing killings perpetrated by the regime across Syrian cities; in the meantime, blasts flared in Damascus and Idlib. "Perfect timing to chalk it up to the revolution and persuade the outside world that the regime is a victim of terrorist groups," wrote columnist Abdul Rahman Al Rashed in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat yesterday. In the past decades such stories did the trick but not any longer. For around 40 years, the regime banked on two methods in handling its battles: intimidation and manipulation.

How to Keep/Lose Your Security Clearance at the State Department – Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: As an aid to all current and future State Department employees, here are examples of how to keep/lose your security clearance. These example are important, because the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), which grants and withdraws clearances, operates as a type of black hole: information goes in and decisions come out, but nothing that happens inside is visible. One never knows why a decision was made, or on what basis. With DS, facts can be hidden from Freedom of Information Act requests and even court-ordered discovery in the name of “security,” and thus manipulated to document pre-determined outcomes. What is called an investigation can morph into an indictment, where the goal is to keep fishing until something, anything, comes up. Actions by Diplomatic Security at the State Department occur without any independent review, and are largely not appealable to the Courts. Diplomatic Security, unlike its counterparts at the Department of Defense and other agencies, even refuses to use the “substantial evidence standard” mandated by the Administrative Procedures Act. Here is how to keep your security clearance: Commit rape. Tracy Barker, who says a State Department employee sexually assaulted her in Iraq in 2005 has won $2.93 million in arbitration from KBR, the military contracting company that employed her. KBR denies a rape occurred while Ms. Barker remains clear that State Department employee Ali Mokhtare assaulted her in Basra, Iraq. Investigators asked that the State Department suspend Mokhtare’s security clearance, but that request was denied. Clearance remains. Here is how to lose your security clearance: Write a blog. You can read more here. Clearance suspended.

Sex and the Secret Service: Decades of protecting presidential dalliances should have taught the agency a little discretion - Gregory J. Wallance, latimes.com: The great irony of the Secret Service sex scandal is that for many decades its agents had protected presidents and senior officials from scandal over sexual trysts and romantic affairs — indeed, often discreetly facilitating them — only to embarrass itself in a hotel in Cartagena, Colombia. The 12 Secret Service employees being investigated for cavorting with at least 20 prostitutes last month were in Colombia to prepare for President Obama's arrival for the Summit of the Americas.

For the better part of a century, the Secret Service has understood the imperative need for tact and discretion in the handling of a seemingly endless variety of dalliances and improprieties by presidents and other high officials, lest embarrassment, or worse, result. Somehow, in Cartagena, to the embarrassment of everyone, including the president of the United States, some of its members threw all that experience right out the window. Image from

Five myths about America’s decline - Ian Bremmer, Washington post: 1. The United States is no longer a superpower. 2. America’s economic future is bleak. 3. America’s political system is broken. 4. The United States will give way to a rising China. 5. The world no longer needs U.S. leadership. If America can engage the world with a narrower, self-interested focus, it will reap rewards. It will have the luxury of applying cost-benefit analysis before intervening abroad. It’s a downsized role, but don’t mistake this for decline.

The Sinologist in Each of Us - Dan Whitman, punditwire.com: We (Americans) are provincial, and well meaning, it’s our charm and always will be. But if we mean to survive in a global world we largely created, we need a government economic stimulus now, and a little more awareness of what goes on outside our borders and coasts. This won’t be fixed any time soon, but squeal we must in the meantime, like stuck pigs, underserved by the lazy-bones who presume to inform us.

Unexceptionalism: A Primer - E. L. Doctorow, New York Times: To achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following: PHASE ONE [:]If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your choice as president. If you’re the newly anointed president, react to a terrorist attack by invading a nonterrorist country. Despite the loss or disablement of untold numbers of lives, manage your war so that its results will be indeterminate. Using the state of war as justification, order secret surveillance of American citizens, data mine their phone calls and e-mail, make business, medical and public library records available to government agencies, perform illegal warrantless searches of homes and offices. Take to torturing terrorism suspects, here or abroad, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. Unilaterally abrogate the Convention Against Torture as well as the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. Commit to indeterminate detention without trial those you decide are enemies. For good measure, trust that legislative supporters will eventually apply this policy as well to American citizens. Suspend progressive taxation so that the wealthiest pay less proportionately than the middle class. See to it that the wealth of the country accumulates to a small fraction of the population so that the gap between rich and poor widens exponentially. By cutting taxes and raising wartime expenditures, deplete the national treasury so that Congress and state and municipal legislatures cut back on domestic services, ensuring that there will be less money for the education of the young, for government health programs, for the care of veterans, for the maintenance of roads and bridges, for free public libraries, and so forth. Deregulate the banking industry so as to create a severe recession in which enormous numbers of people lose their homes and jobs. Before you leave office add to the Supreme Court justices like the ones who awarded you the presidency. PHASE TWO [:]If you’re one of the conservative majority of a refurbished Supreme Court, rule that corporations, no less than human beings, have the right under the First Amendment to express their political point of view. To come to this judgment, do not acknowledge that corporations lack the range of feelings or values that define what it is to be human. That humans can act against their own interest, whereas corporations cannot act otherwise than in their own interest. That the corporation’s only purpose is to produce wealth, regardless of social consequences. This decision of the court will ensure tremendous infusions of corporate money into the political process and lead to the election in national and state legislatures of majorities of de facto corporate lobbyists. PHASE THREE [:] Given corporate control of legislative bodies, enact laws to the benefit of corporate interests. For example, those laws sponsored by weapons manufacturers wherein people may carry concealed weapons and shoot and kill anyone by whom they feel threatened. Give the running of state prisons over to private corporations whose profits increase with the increase in inmate populations. See to it that a majority of prisoners are African-American. When possible, treat immigrants as criminals.

Deplete and underfinance a viable system of free public schools and give the education of children over to private for-profit corporations. Make college education unaffordable. Inject religious precepts into public policy so as to control women’s bodies. Enact laws prohibiting collective bargaining. Portray trade unions as un-American. Enact laws restricting the voting rights of possibly unruly constituencies. Propagandize against scientific facts that would affect corporate profits. Portray global warming as a conspiracy of scientists. Having subverted the Constitution and enervated the nation with these measures, portray the federal government as unwieldy, bumbling and shot through with elitist liberals. Create mental states of maladaptive populism among the citizenry to support this view. PHASE FOUR [:] If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, decide that the police of any and all cities and towns and villages have the absolute authority to strip-search any person whom they, for whatever reason, put under arrest. With this ruling, the reduction of America to unexceptionalism is complete. Image from

Hello, Martians. Let Moby-Dick Explain - Margaret Atwood, New York Times: Last night the Martians touched down in the backyard. They were oval and bright pink, with two antlike antennae topped by eyes fringed with sea-anemone lashes. They said they’d come to study America. “Why ask me?” I said. “America is farther south.” “You are an observer,” they said. “Please tell us: Does America have a different ‘flavor’ from that of other countries? Is it the center of the cultural world? How does it look to outsiders?” “America has always been different from Europe,” I said, “having begun as a utopian religious community. Some have seen it as a dream world where you can be what you choose, others as a mirage that lures, exploits and disappoints. Some see it as a land of spiritual potential, others as a place of crass and vulgar materialism. Some see it as a mecca for creative entrepreneurs, others as a corporate oligarchy where the big eat the small and inventions helpful to the world are stifled. Some see it as the home of freedom of expression, others as a land of timorous conformity and mob-opinion rule.” “Thank you,” said the Martians, after looking up “thank you” on translate.google.com™. “How may we best discover the essence of America?” “Through its literature, would be my choice,” I said, “but I’m biased.” “O.K.,” said the Martians. “What should we read first? Can we have marshmallows?” “Let’s start with two stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne,” I said. “ ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount,’ and ‘Young Goodman Brown.’ Here are your marshmallows.” Their pink antennae waved excitedly. They stored away the marshmallows as rare American artifacts. Then they read the stories, very quickly, as Martians do. “What do these mean to contemporary America?” they asked. “In ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount,’ ” I said, “some people having a fun party in the woods are disrupted by the Puritans, who consider them immoral. Both groups have come to America in search of ‘freedom.’ The Merry Mounters interpret ‘freedom’ as sexual and individual freedom, the Puritans as freedom to practice their own religion while outlawing the behavior of others. This fight is still going on in America: the same issues come up in every election. In my novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ ” I added modestly, “I’ve included them as ‘freedom to’ and ‘freedom from.’ ” “We took that in high school,” said the Martians. “What about ‘Young Goodman Brown?’ ” “So, in ‘Young Goodman Brown,’ ” I said, “this Puritan goes for a walk at night and discovers that all his neighbors and relations — including his young wife, Faith — are members of a satanic witchcraft group. He wakes up in the morning wondering if he’s had a bad dream. But ever afterward he distrusts the neighbors; and so do all Americans, because how do you know whether the neighbors are who they claim to be? Every once in a while America has a Salem-style witch hunt, during which hysteria takes over and people are tagged with the satanic label of the moment. Right now it’s mostly ‘terrorism,’ though in some quarters it’s ‘liberalism’ or even ‘evil-green-dragon environmentalism.’

”The Martians decided to eat one marshmallow each to see what it tasted like. Their mouths were underneath: they dealt with food by hopping onto it. “Can we have popcorn now? Orville Redenbacher’s?™ they said. “And a Coke?™” “How do you know about those things?” I said. “We watch American TV and Internet,” they said, “like everyone else in the universe. Though American cultural hegemony is slipping, we perceive: newly rich countries such as India and Brazil have developed their own mass media. Also, America’s promise of democracy and egalitarianism — the mainstay of its cultural capital, widely understood — is being squandered. America is viewed as riddled with internal contradictions, what with vote suppression, the economic inequality protested by Occupy Wall Street, the impact of the mortgage meltdown, and the public’s loss of confidence in political institutions. So, the popcorn? We can do the microwaving.” They took out their ray guns. “After you’ve read the next book,” I said. “It’s Melville’s ‘Moby-Dick.’ ” The Martians riffled through Moby-Dick at top speed. Then they consulted translate.google.com™ for an expression that would best convey their reaction. “Holy crap!” they said. “Does this mean what we think it means?” they said. “What do you think it means?” I said. “I’ll do the popcorn myself: you might get the wavelength wrong.” “ ‘Moby-Dick’ is about the oil industry,” they said. “And the Ship of American State. The owners of the Pequod are rapacious and stingy religious hypocrites. The ship’s business is to butcher whales and turn them into an industrial energy product. The mates are the middle management. The harpooners, who are from races colonized by America one way or another, are supplying the expert tech labor. Elijah the prophet — from the American artist caste — foretells the Pequod’s doom, which comes about because the chief executive, Ahab, is a megalomaniac who wants to annihilate nature. “Nature is symbolized by a big white whale, which has interfered with Ahab’s personal freedom by biting off his leg and refusing to be slaughtered and boiled. The narrator, Ishmael, represents journalists; his job is to warn America that it’s controlled by psychotics who will destroy it, because they hate the natural world and don’t grasp the fact that without it they will die. That’s enough literature for now. Can we have popcorn?” After inhaling the popcorn, they slurped up their Cokes™, then asked me to take an Instagram™ on their cellphones of them with the bottles. “Now we are going to Las Vegas to do some gambling,” they said, “because it’s a very American thing. After that we will buzz the Grand Canyon, and then we’ll go to the Boot Hill Museum in Kansas and get pictures of ourselves dressed as Wild West cowboys and honky-tonk floozies.” “I think you should be careful,” I said. “Why?” the Martians asked. “Forgive me for pointing this out, but you look a lot like diagrams of the human female uterus,” I said. “Complete with fallopian tubes and ovaries.” A human being might be insulted to be told this, but it didn’t seem to bother the Martians. Having looked up “uterus” on translate.google.com™, they said, “Isn’t the uterus a good thing? The life force and so on?” “In some parts of America,” I said, “the men are obsessed with uteri. They feel that having one is potentially demonic. It’s a hangover from ‘Young Goodman Brown.’ If they saw you hopping around — worse still, eating popcorn — they’d go completely berserk, and pronounce you pregnant, and put you in jail.” “Maybe we will go to Radio City Music Hall instead,” the Martians said. “Good choice,” I said. “You won’t stand out in New York, or not much. If anyone bothers you, accuse them of being specist. Throw in that you’re vegans.” “O.K.,” they said. “When we get back to Mars, we will start an American book club. We wish to read David Foster Wallace, not to mention Edith Wharton and Raymond Carver and tons of others. It is the writers who convey the inner truth about a nation, despite themselves, yes? Will you join us on video?” “A pleasure,” I said. “Any reader is a friend of mine.” Image from

A universal digital library is within reach - Pamela Samuelson, timescolonist.com: There are three promising strategies for removing barriers to a universal digital library: First, it should be considered “fair use” in copyright law for nonprofit libraries to circulate orphan works for their patrons for noncommercial purposes. Second, Congress should pass legislation to limit damages and injunctions for other reuses of orphan works. Third, the Copyright Office should explore a collective licensing program under which all in-copyright but out-of-print works could be made available, as some countries are now trying. Workable solutions exist to fulfill the dream of a universal digital library. Do we really want to tell our grandchildren that we could have achieved this goal but lacked the will to do so?

British WWII propaganda movies to view and download - Cory Doctorow, The British Council has posted a fabulous trove of CC-licensed, downloadable "cultural propaganda" videos commissioned during WWII to "refute the idea that ours was a country stuck in the past."

Inside Hitler's mind - cphys.org/news: A secret analysis of Adolf Hitler’s mental state which was drawn up by British Intelligence in April 1942 has been uncovered by a researcher, having apparently lain unread since the war. The document was found among a collection of papers belonging to the family of Mark Abrams, a social scientist who worked with the BBC’s Overseas Propaganda Analysis Unit and the Psychological Warfare Board, during World War II. Written just as the war was starting to turn against Hitler, it shows that British analysts had noticed signs of developing paranoia in his speechmaking and – chillingly – a growing preoccupation

with what he called "the Jewish poison." The paper came to light after Dr Scott Anthony, who is working on the history of public relations at the University of Cambridge, began tracking down Abrams’ peers and relatives. Abrams, who died in 1994, was a pioneer of market research and opinion polling. He was the man responsible for the ABC1 classification system, famously predicted the rise of the teenager in 1959 and was a key figure in Harold Wilson’s modernisation of the Labour Party. Overseas Propaganda Analysis began in 1939 and was later linked to the Psychological Warfare Division. Each week, its staff produced an analysis of all overseas broadcasts in Germany and occupied Europe. Abrams, already a world-renowned expert in the analysis of public opinion, believed that transcripts of the broadcasts could be close-read for propaganda and intelligence purposes. In an interview with his grandson, recorded in the 1980s and also included in the materials Anthony has helped the university acquire, he explained that doing so could reveal “latent content” – hidden, and almost subconscious insights into the enemy’s state of mind. By 1942, this highly successful technique was feeding directly into the work of Allied counter-propagandists.

AMERICANA

The American Way of Eating: Harlan Sanders and Clarence Birdseye, just like today's locavores, saw a meal as a way to improve people's lives - Henry Allen, Wall Street Journal: The selling of food seems to require hero-mascot-avatars: the Colonel, Betty Crocker, Ronald McDonald, Auguste L'Escoffier, Wolfgang Puck, Grandma Utz on potato chip bags, the cute little redheads symbolizing both Wendy's hamburgers and Little Debbie snack cakes in vending machines, the Jolly Green Giant, Aunt Jemima, Juan Valdez and his mule in the coffee ads.

It doesn't matter if they're real or not; they're what's known as "ingredient brands," tokens of the product, guarantors of quality and authenticity. But fine, fast or frozen, orgiastic or puritanical, self-righteous or vulgar, American food is so much better than it was. Image from article

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