Improving America's image
Tom Paine
by John Brown
11/02/06
The bankruptcy of America's public diplomacy -- the effort to improve the nation's image around the world -- was in full display during the recent opera buffa involving Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. Interviewed on Al-Jazeera, where he has appeared frequently, Fernandez said in his fluent Arabic that the United States had been 'arrogant' and 'stupid' in Iraq -- a judgment with which a large number of ordinary Americans would agree. Fernandez's comment caused a firestorm at the State Department (and among right-wing circles). At first, the department said that its employee's remark had been mistranslated. After the media made it clear that this was not the case, Fernandez -- either as a loyal soldier or a pressured bureaucrat, or maybe both -- recanted his observations, announcing that he 'misspoke'...
http://tinyurl.com/ybe22z
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
by John Brown
11/02/06
The bankruptcy of America's public diplomacy -- the effort to improve the nation's image around the world -- was in full display during the recent opera buffa involving Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. Interviewed on Al-Jazeera, where he has appeared frequently, Fernandez said in his fluent Arabic that the United States had been 'arrogant' and 'stupid' in Iraq -- a judgment with which a large number of ordinary Americans would agree. Fernandez's comment caused a firestorm at the State Department (and among right-wing circles). At first, the department said that its employee's remark had been mistranslated. After the media made it clear that this was not the case, Fernandez -- either as a loyal soldier or a pressured bureaucrat, or maybe both -- recanted his observations, announcing that he 'misspoke'...
http://tinyurl.com/ybe22z
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
rudkla - 3. Nov, 18:20
