Iraq

James Glassman: The Journalist Turned Journo-lobbyist's Bid to Be PR Czar

James GlassmanJames Glassman, the nominee for Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, probably won't have much of an impact on how the United States presents itself to the rest of the world.

For one thing, he'll only have 11 months in the post. For another -- as his predecessor Karen Hughes proved -- putting shinier lipstick on the pig of U.S. foreign policy doesn't do much to assuage widespread anti-American sentiment. Still, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's January 30 hearing on Glassman's nomination provided some insight into Washington's evolving view of public diplomacy.

Pre-emptive War, Pre-emptive Truck Maintenance

Source: army-technology.comFollowing a damaging Associated Press report that Blackwater Worldwide "repaired and repainted its trucks immediately after a deadly September shooting in Baghdad, making it difficult to determine whether enemy gunfire provoked the attac

No

It's the War, Healthcare and the Economy, Stupid

"Several of the leading presidential candidates have adopted 'change' as a campaign theme and have rushed to claim that they themselves are the candidates for change," notes Frank Newport of the Gallup polling organization. "But exactly what form that 'change' should take has been a little murky. Change is such a broad concept that -- like a Rorschach inkblot test -- an individual can read into it what he or she wants." To clarify things a bit, Gallup surveyed Americans to ask what type of change they wanted.

No

War, What Is it Good For? Electing Democrats in '08

Ryan Grim reports that the biggest and best-funded organizations in the liberal peace movement, primarily MoveOn and the groups in its Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI) coalition, are no longer advocating that Congress end the war.

No

Stars and Stripes Fights DoD Hype

"Top editors at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes are asking for full disclosure of the paper's relationship with a Department of Defense publicity program, called America Supports You, after disclosures that money for the program was funneled through the newspaper," reports Sara Abruzzesse. "The newspaper's two top editors have asked that the acting publisher, Max D.

No

The Taming of Al Jazeera

The New York Times reports, "When a Saudi court sentenced a young woman to 200 lashes in November after she pressed charges against seven men who had raped her, the case provoked outrage and headlines around the world, including in the Middle East. But not at Al Jazeera, the Arab world's leading satellite television channel, seen by 40 million people. ...

No

Tortured Reasoning for Destroying Evidence of Torture

Steve Benen writes that "As it turns out, the reasoning behind the CIA's decision to record interrogations on video, stop recording interrogations on video, and destroy the interrogation videos was all exactly the same: officials were hoping to avoid a public-relations nightmare." They were unsuccessful, of course, since the media reported widely on the destruction of the tapes and

No

Pages

Subscribe to Iraq