http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20051019/cm_csm/yhughes19_1
Spread messages of freedom against terrorist propaganda
By John Hughes Wed Oct 19, 4:00 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The image of the terrorist for many in the West is of a
hooded militant armed with an AK-47, or a suicide bomber with
explosives strapped around his, or her, waist.
But the reality is that many terrorist leaders are worldly aware,
calculating men who use violent militant action as an instrument to
achieve well-defined political ends.
That was the case in the Vietnam War where the leadership in Hanoi,
directing both North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, was clear about
the political aim - namely to undermine the resolve of the American
people, force the withdrawal of American forces, and open the way to a
North Vietnamese takeover of South Vietnam.
Similarly, Al Qaeda has a vision of the strategic political goal it
hopes to achieve by the use of militant terrorist tactics. This vision
was enunciated in a 6,000-word letter from one top Al Qaeda leader
presumed to be hiding along the Afghan-Pakistani border, to another in
Iraq. Written in July, the letter was obtained by antiterrorist forces
in Iraq this summer and made public last week by the office of the US
Director of National Intelligence, which said the US government has
the "highest confidence" in its authenticity.
Writing to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the elusive terrorist leader in Iraq,
Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, made it clear that
creating instability in Iraq is only the beginning of a plan to
establish a fundamentalist Islamic regime across the Middle East.
Intriguingly, he cites Vietnam as an example of how to conduct the
campaign in Iraq, with special emphasis on manipulation of the media.
"More than half of the battle is taking place on the battlefield of
the media," he wrote. "We are in a media race for hearts and minds."
Mr. Zawahiri counsels against attacking mosques, and targeting
"ordinary people." The masses do not understand or approve of such
strikes, he says.
In one extraordinary piece of advice, Zawahiri questions the public
relations impact of beheading hostages, suggesting that the image of
the Zarqawi terrorists might be softened by just shooting the hostages.
The US is as conscious as Al Qaeda of the two significant tracks in
any war against terrorism. One is the military track, of eliminating
terrorists wherever they can be found. The other track is using the
media to bring persuasive arguments to the public. In the West this is
called public diplomacy, and leading practitioners of it met here at
George Washington University last week to consider how it is faring.
There are pluses and minuses.
On the minus side is government neglect of public diplomacy since the
cold war's end. The happy theory was that with the destruction of the
Berlin wall the enemies of the US were in decline. Informing and
influencing foreign publics was no longer a high priority. The United
States Information Agency (USIA), the government's prime instrument of
public diplomacy, was disbanded, its remnants folded into the State
Department. That has proved to be an unwise decision.
Meanwhile, burgeoning foes like Al Qaeda have become more adept at
utilizing the improved technology of the day, such as the Internet,
blogs, cellphones, as well as television, to project their cause. Thus
the US is playing catch-up in the information war against a new and
sinister enemy.
The Bush administration has installed Karen Hughes, a White House
insider, as undersecretary for public diplomacy at the State
Department. She is a woman of breathtaking energy and has the ear of
the president, as does
Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of State. Both Ms. Hughes and Ms. Rice
have extensive travel plans to personally convey the president's key
message supporting freedom and liberty not only throughout the lands
of Islam but to other regions such as Latin America and Africa as well.
But the challenge is long-term. In the Middle East especially, it is
to reeducate the coming generation that has been bombarded with
negative views of the US. Resources available for public diplomacy are
slender. Time for the Bush administration is now short. Perhaps the
best one can hope for is that in its remaining months the Bush
administration can lay the foundation and start building the
infrastructure of a kind of successor to USIA that would be totally
dedicated to continuing and broadening the dialogue of future
administrations with foreign publics both friendly and unfriendly.
That is a cause not only in the national interest of the US, but a
sensible and selfless thing to do.
John Hughes, a former editor of the Monitor, served as associate
director of USIA, and assistant secretary of state for public affairs,
in the Reagan administration
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL
PROTECTED]
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.intellnet.org
Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has
not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of
The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT
YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods,
techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other
intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use
this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,'
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
