PoliticalWarfare.org

Anti-American operatives at VOA's Iranian service

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A music video mocking democracy and heaping scorn on the United States is the product of staffers for the Voice of America's Farsi language service to Iran. The VOA employees used several terrorist propaganda video clips showing IED attacks on American humvees and armored vehicles in Iraq.

The title of the video is "DemoKracy." (Click here to view the video if the YouTube image is not visible above.)

Produced by an obscure Swedish-Iranian band called Abjeez, the music video is themed in and around a TV newsroom, with the anchor and a reporter, played respectively by Safoura and Melody Safavi, mocking the United States and democracy.

The "reporter," shown at right holding the microphone in the first part of the video, is the VOA employee, Melody Safavi, whose married name is Arbabi. This blogger has learned that VOA fired her after an Iranian former political prisoner filed a complaint to Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, but her husband Saman Arbabi, who directed the video, reportedly is still on VOA staff.

The video includes pictures of civilian casualties, grieving women and wounded children, Iraqi and American coffins and funerals, and a weather map of the Middle East showing bombs dropping on every country in the greater Middle East, from Sudan and Egypt to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Three nuclear bomb-style mushroom clouds are superimposed over the part of the map depicting Iran. The video closes with an archival aerial photo of a nuclear weapon test in the desert.

Abjeez has produced the video in several languages, though viewer statistics on YouTube show few people worldwide have accessed the video. Nevertheless, the production raises questions about the editorial judgment of VOA personnel, and whether US taxpayers should have such individuals on the payroll to wage the war of ideas against Islamist extremism.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which governs VOA, has long denied problems with its controversial Iran services. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has been raising concerns for a year about the broadcasts to the Islamic republic, but the BBG and State Department were dismissive. Last spring, this blogger also submitted a set of written questions to outgoing Under Secretary of State Hughes at the request of a senior aide, and received a written response that ignored or evaded the answers. It's time for BBG and State to catch up with the new leadership at RFE/RL and tackle the larger problems of US broadcasting into Iran. 

Good news: Pakistanis' anti-terror musical movement spreads around world

Pakistan's big anti-terrorism pop music video is finally getting attention in the US. As this blog reported in March, a Pakistani Brit composed a "We are the World"-style song, in Urdu, against Islamist terrorism. The biggest pop singers in Pakistan got together and performed it, and the song became #1 in the country. Now it's been released in the UK.

This week, Fox News discovered the music video. Correspondent Greg Palkot reports from London: "Waseem Mahmood and his two sons, Khurrum and Khaiyyam, have made this statement via a song and music video. It is called 'Yeh Hum Naheen,' Urdu for 'This is Not Us.'  [For the video of Palkot's report, click here.]

"The lyrics say it all: 'This story that is being spread in our names is a lie. … The name by which you know us we are not.'

"Taking a page right out of the hugely successful all-star relief song 'We are the World,' the song is performed by top young singers in Pakistan.

"Juxtaposed among the shots of the singers are ugly scenes and headlines about terrorism as well as heart-warming scenes of Pakistanis singing along … with passion."

Yeh Hum Naheen isn't some CAIR-style propaganda operation designed to divert us infidels away from the subject away from Islamist terrorism. It's a privately-sponsored production designed to rally young Muslims to marginalize the extremists. (That's probably why CAIR and its ilk have ignored it.)

And it's becoming a formidable musical movement, according to the official website.

"According to video creator Waseem, extremists here have criticized the song, saying it should target governments they claim are responsible for the terror," Palkot reports, "not the terrorists. But that's the very twisted logic the song is trying to knock down."

The Mahmood family has only just begun to fight. According to Fox: "The next priority is an Arabic version of the song. Then an English version. Then a 'Live Aid'-style concert. And a few other interesting projects they don’t want to talk about yet."

In March, PoliticalWarfare.org posted a link to the original 'Yeh Hum Naheen' video in Urdu. Here's a new link to the UK-released version subtitled in English.

Masterwork: RFE/RL briefing on Iraqi insurgent websites

Here's a real masterpiece of research that deserves a lot of attention: A 70-minute briefing on the insurgent and terrorist websites in Iraq.

It's relevant scholarship at its finest. I received a sneak preview of this presentation last spring, and thought it so important that I arranged a live briefing for senior-level policymakers in Washington prior to the report's completion. Now it's available to the public.

"The greatest strengths of the Iraqi Sunni-based insurgency's media strategy - decentralization and flexibility - are also its greatest weaknesses," according to a report released June 26 by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

"The book-length report, Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War Of Images And Ideas by RFE/RL regional analysts Daniel Kimmage and Kathleen Ridolfo, provides an in-depth analysis of the media efforts of Sunni insurgents, who are responsible for the majority of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq," according to a release.

The 26,000-word report and a 70-minute audio briefing are available by clicking here. It's true to the highest standards of the old RFE/RL Research Institute and is one of the most relevant pieces of work to help win the war. I can't recommend this report highly enough.

Radio Farda reporter says US statements undermine cause in Iran

A reporter for Radio Farda, the US-funded Farsi infotainment station aimed at Iran, says that the Bush Administration's open statements about democracy in that country are counterproductive and undermine democratic forces.

The reporter, Parnaz Azima (pictured), was one of four Iranian-Americans imprisoned recently in Iran, and is the only one to have been freed. "The open announcements about funding democracy in Iran have angered the [Iranian] government, and now they have one goal - to crush those activities and to put pressure on the Iranian activists, especially those who are inside Iran," Azima tells WTOP radio in a report carried by AP.

After years of lacking an Iran policy, the administration came out strong to push for $66 million to $75 million for democratization programs in Iran. Democratic activists in Iran urged officials not to be so public, saying the statements would give the regime the pretext to clamp down - which is exactly what has happened.

The headline on the AP report appears to be the product of a careless copy editor. Today's Washington Post carries a headline that is flat-out wrong: "Iran Detainee Urges US to End Democracy Effort." In fact, Azima said she was urging the US not to be so public about its work in Iran.

Countdown to shutdown in Venezuela

A human rights group is counting the days and hours until Venezuela's doomed opposition television station, RCTV, is shut down on instructions of dictator Hugo Chavez. Thirteen days to go, as of this posting.

To track the count and take part in the action items, visit FreeRCTV.net.  In Spanish, it's RCTVlibre.com.

The sites are a project of the Human Rights Foundation.

11 former VOA chiefs oppose planned budget cuts

Eleven former chiefs of the Voice of America, reflecting the broadest political spectrum, have signed a joint statement opposing the Bush Administration's plans to slash or abolish VOA broadcasting in key languages, including Russian and English. PublicDiplomacy.org carries the text of the March 5 letter:

"We former directors of the Voice of America urgently appeal for a reversal by Congress of planned reductions in VOA that could silence the nation's largest publicly-funded overseas broadcast network in much of the world. Taken together, the cuts would seriously jeopardize our national security and public diplomacy. Further, they would deprive millions of people of access to a fully free and open media, a core value of what our nation is all about.

"The Bush administration has proposed to eliminate VOA English in every continent except Africa, abolish services in Cantonese, Croatian, Georgian, Greek, Thai and Uzbek, cease radio broadcasts in Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, and Hindi (to India), and significantly scale back programming in Tibetan and Portuguese to Africa.

"In view of:

• decisions by China, Russia, Iran, France and Al Jazeera TV to broadcast around the clock or increase airtime in our own language, English, spoken or understood by at least 1.6 billion people worldwide
• a 23 percent increase in Russia's military budget as Vladimir Putin muzzles his own as well as foreign news and information outlets
• new media restrictions and arrests or jailing of journalists in China, Tibet and Uzbekistan along with just declared martial law and an upsurge of extremist Muslim activity in Thailand
• the volatile situation in the Balkans as Kosovo moves toward independence, and
• VOA's proven cost effectiveness (more than 115 million listeners and viewers a week)

"We urgently appeal for an increase of the proposed $178 million VOA budget to $204 million for fiscal year 2008 beginning October 1. This would be mandated to cover programming and transmission of services listed above, 3.9 percent of the entire U.S overseas broadcasting budget. This is a tiny but essential investment. Surveys show anti-American opinion abroad to be at an all-time high. At this critical moment in the post 9/11 era, the United States simply cannot, for its own long term strategic safety and security, unilaterally disarm in the global contest of ideas."

Mary G. F. Bitterman
Robert E. Button
Richard W. Carlson
Geoffrey Cowan
John Hughes
David Jackson
Henry Loomis
E. Eugene Pell
Robert Reilly
R. Peter Straus
Sanford J. Ungar

March 5, 2007

WSJ: 'Al Hurra more like Al Jazeera'

With the arrival of a CNN producer to run Al Hurra, the US-funded Arabic-language satellite TV channel has become "more like Al Jazeera," Joel Mowbray writes in the Wall Street Journal. Founded in 2004 to counter enemy propaganda and provide a good face for the US and its causes, Al Hurra has worked hard to build credibility as an objective and reliable news source.

Word is that, rather than investigate the serious allegations, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes attacked them. If true, that would be consistent with her office's response to warnings from friends of the administration.

After coming aboard late in 2006, Al Hurra chief Larry Register, long of CNN, "lifted the ban on terrorists" appearing on Al Hurra and quickly allowed the broadcast, nearly in full, of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, according to Mowbray.

"The cultural shift inside the newsroom is evident in the on-air product. In the past several months, Al-Hurra has aired live speeches from Mr. Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, and it broadcast an interview with an alleged al Qaeda operative who expressed joy that 9/11 rubbed 'America's nose in the dust,'" Mowbray writes.

"While a handful of unfortunate decisions could be isolated, these actions appear to be part of Mr. Register's news vision," according to Mowbray, who adds that Register doesn't speak Arabic, so he has no idea of what is guests are saying. Many on the Al Hurra staff reportedly delighted to allow terrorists to spew their propaganda on US-funded TV into the Arabic-speaking world.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which runs Al Hurra and the rest of US government international boradcasting, is out of control. It has destroyed programming that would mount an ideological attack on Islamist extremism; it terminated broadcasting to much of the rest of the world, including VOA's Russia service; and recycles Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) propaganda back into Iran on Radio Farda.

Even Norman Pattiz, the former BBG member who dumbed down international broadcasting and replaced it with popular culture, is discontented with Al Hurra's new direction. He says in the Mowbray piece, "Simply handing a microphone over to a terrorist and letting them spew is not what I would call good journalism."

Update, March 21: We hear that the Mowbray report sent Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes, who is responsible for public diplomacy and international broadcasting, into a bit of a dither. Rather than investigate the problem, our sources say she went on a kill-the-messenger mission, convening aides to refute the report. Another reason why she has been unable to drag public diplomacy out of its hole.

Pakistani anti-terror song tops charts

Some of Pakistan's most popular pop singers have produced a new music video against terrorism that has topped the charts and is going platinum.

"Yeh Hum Naheen" is a "We Are the World"-style song by and for Muslims who denounce terrorism carried out in their name. Performed in Urdu, the six-and-a-half-minute music video shows Pakistan's top performers interspersed with stylized scenes of terrorist violence and media headlines, and everyday Pakistanis - from westernized urbanites to traditional fundamentalists - joined together in the "Yeh Hum Naheen" refrain.

The song is beautiful and catchy even to the non-speaker of Urdu. While westerners might argue that the video and lip-synching quality are not up to Hollywood standards, the point is that the audience isn't as finicky as Americans and Europeans, and, as the market response shows, thinks the production is just fine.

The attractive performers include Ali Haider, Ali Zafar (pictured), Haroon, Hadiqa Kani, Shufqat, Shuja Haider and Strings.

Prominent Pakistani lyricist Ali Moeen wrote the words and composer Shuja Haider penned the music; Waseem Mahmood of EUMBC Ltd., the UK subsidiary of Glevum Associates, was the producer. The production cost far less than similar US government-funded initiatives, and as the market response shows, much more successful.

No spin on no strategy

"In many parts of the world, America's Voice is becoming muted or going silent. . . . As far as I can tell, there is no long range, proactive strategic planning going on - based on solid research and calculated analysis of future political and economic realities."

- Myrna Whitworth,
Former acting director, Voice of America
Speech to Public Diplomacy Council
George Washington University, November 2006

'Silence of America'

"Now, with Russian President Vladimir Putin bullying his neighbors, manipulating the Russian media and throwing increasingly audacious anti-American tantrums, one would think US policymakers would have the sense at least to maintain relatively modest VOA operations in and around the Russian Federation," the Washington Post says in today's editorial.

"Yet President Bush's recently released 2008 budget proposal does just the opposite, cutting VOA programming for a range of post-Soviet states to finance programming expansion in other areas of the world."

Among the changes that the Post laments: cutting "the only direct contact Uzbeks have with the United States and the only unvarnished news in the region," and cutting broadcasts to Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

"The price of such programs is so low that federal financial constraints are hardly an excuse to kill them," the editors say.

What could the reason be, then? Might it have something to do with the fact that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member responsible for the former Soviet Union, D. Jeffrey Hirschberg, is a director of the pro-Kremlin US-Russia Business Council?