Uncle Sam's Makeover

...The effort will naturally require unceasing "dialogue" and involve lots of "listening...

...Another $17.5 million comes from the "Emergency Response Fund...

...While Beers has many detractors in the administration—even in the State Department—no one doubts that she has the full confidence of Colin Powell...

...He also promised that the Bush administration would continue reaching out beyond governments to moderate Muslim individuals—who, he said, "are the real focal point of liberal democracy and the true engines of change...

...Nihad Awad, for example...

...Why would the State Department conduct outreach to the Wahhabi lobby...

...As Beers recently told a gathering at a Washington think tank: "There's never been a time when a key group from the Islamic world has asked to see me—that I know of—that we've ever said anything but please come, we need to learn, we need to listen...

...All of this—emergency spending, redefining America, and the rest of it—comes as a direct response to the September 11 attacks...

...Beers is, in fact, putting out lots of pamphlets...

...You have to have sympathy for both sides and all of us in the world need to urge both of them—both Palestinians and Israelis—to try to stop the violence and come to the table...

...To accomplish that patronizing goal, Beers and her State Department colleagues have undertaken a "public diplomacy" campaign in the Muslim world...

...aid money pouring into the Middle East...

...But the Beers effort confuses, perhaps even undermines, that core message...

...Asani believes CAIR and other "right-wing Muslim groups" have elbowed their way into the public debate because they are outspoken and politically connected...

...Bush: After a beat, she continued to say that both Israelis and Palestinians are dying...

...For that reason, Asani says, he "could imagine that someone in the State Department would be saying, 'Who do we talk to?' and call CAIR...

...The initiative, to be unveiled in July, will offer an American vision of "a better tomorrow in the region," according to a senior State Department official...

...We must speak to the hundreds of millions of moderate and tolerant people in the Muslim world, regardless of where they live, who aspire to enjoy the blessings of freedom and democracy and free enterprise...

...There will be English teachers, "focused and augmented activities," and even "American corners"—multimedia rooms in "partnering institutions in target countries" to "bring an American environment to key audiences...

...After all, there are reasons that it has never been tried in earnest before now...

...Former FBI counterterrorism chief Oliver "Buck" Revell has called Awad's former employer, the Islamic Association For Palestine, "a front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants...

...Here is the paragraph directly following the quotation from Mrs...

...Mrs...

...But she is brand new to the world of public diplomacy, and critics say she has a lot to learn...

...There are two parts of our message to the Arab world," says the State Department source...

...According to a press release from the group, she asked for and received a "meeting to open a dialogue with Muslims on issues related to how America is perceived in other countries, particularly those with Muslim majority populations...

...For almost nine months, the administration, with some minor exceptions, has responded to September 11 with a strong message: We will punish our enemies and help our friends...

...CAIR warned that closing the foundation was an "unjust and counterproductive move [that] can only damage America's credibility with Muslims in this country and around the world and could create the impression that there has been a shift from a war on terrorism to an attack on Islam...

...Charlotte Beers is listening, but she's listening to the wrong people...

...This is the most sophisticated brand assignment I have ever had...

...And just five days before the September 11 attacks, when the FBI shut down Texas-based computer firm InfoCom citing its terrorist ties, Awad blamed the raid on the Bush administration's efforts to appease "Israel, a racist country and state...

...Still more will be drawn from the nearly $600 million in public diplomacy funding for 2003...

...First, we are going to destroy the terrorists...

...Beers, 66, had run two of the world's largest advertising agencies, Ogilvy and Mather and J. Walter Thompson...

...Doesn't using these groups in high-profile government outreach efforts run the risk of seeming to give them "a seal of approval...

...Over the course of her long career, she has persuaded Americans to buy everything from Uncle Ben's rice to Sears tools to Head & Shoulders shampoo...

...A Palestinian-American, Awad has repeatedly embraced Hamas, the Saudi-funded, Palestinian terrorist organization that has claimed responsibility for many of the recent bombings in Israel...

...Bush was exactly right, of course, on the substance of the question...

...The pair became acquainted while serving on the all-star board of directors of Gulfstream Aerospace in the mid-1990s...

...But visitors to the "Muslim Life in America" website are just one click away from CAIR's website, listed under "Selected Nongovernmental Organizations...

...There is no guarantee that the push for liberalization in the Islamic world will work...

...Administration sources say Beers is an active participant in the White House's daily conference calls held to shape the war message...

...He pointed to several recent examples of that budding alliance...

...But the story CAIR told isn't the whole story...

...If you clicked on the CAIR link at the State Department's website last week, for example, you might have been surprised to read, over the lead story, this headline: "First Lady Says She Can't Empathize with Palestinian Mothers...

...As it happens, in each one of those cases—whether it was Kuwaitis, or Iraqi Kurds, or Somalis, or Bosnians, or Kosovars, or most recently Afghanis—the people we were defending were predominantly Muslim...

...Strange, then, that Nihad Awad—along with the group he heads, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)—is prominently featured in the State Department's much-ballyhooed effort to win the "hearts and minds" of Muslims worldwide...

...The centerpiece of the State Department's campaign thus far is called "Muslim Life in America," and it marks a rather dramatic shift in the nature of U.S...

...Rather than embracing all Muslims, including CAIR types and the radicals they defend, Wolfowitz framed the battle as pitting the United States and moderate Muslims against the Islamists—a crucial distinction...

...In the last decade, the men and women of America's Armed Forces have gone into harm's way to defend people against aggression or war-induced famine...

...Even critics will acknowledge that it's too early for a complete evaluation of the results of Beers's efforts—she's been in the job for only eight months, and everyone concedes the challenge is huge...

...The money will be focused primarily in three areas: (1) marketbased economic reforms, (2) liberal education as an alternative to the anti-American schools that are increasingly popular in the region, and (3) a reinvigoration of civil society and promotion of the rule of law...

...Some of the programs will be roughly based on similar ones that worked in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, such as "enterprise funds" where cash follows directly to successful reform efforts...

...But if that campaign has the effect of crowding out Charlotte Beers's misbegotten effort to "redefine America," it will have succeeded in an important way...

...And while that directive could mean virtually anything, early reports from inside the State Department suggest that it's a serious and worthwhile effort...

...Several other radical Islamic groups that are given a platform in State Department literature expounded similar views...

...And we helped them not because they are Muslims, but because they are human beings...

...If Beers is developing her pro-America propaganda message by relying on groups that defend terrorism and sharply criticize life in the United States, why would anyone have confidence that she will show better judgment when it comes to communicating that message overseas...

...It is an excerpt from a much longer Associated Press story that leaves readers with quite the opposite impression from the one CAIR sought to create...

...The same day, the "News Briefs" section on the CAIR site also was highly critical of the Bush administration...

...Here is that story, in its entirety, as posted by CAIR: In her inaugural foray into the substance of international diplomacy, first lady Laura Bush turned her teaching experience to the problem of terrorism and young Palestinian suicide bombers, telling a Paris audience Tuesday that education can transform hate to hope...

...That same year, when Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes asked Awad if he supports the "military undertakings of Hamas," Awad told him, "The United Nations Charter grants people who are under occupation to defend themselves against illegal occupation...

...And CAIR's site gives visitors precisely the opposite impression from the one Charlotte Beers wants to promote: America doesn't like Muslims at all...

...And, importantly, she has Powell's ear...

...But also, and it's a message that we all have to say very clearly, we believe that open markets and societies will improve lives throughout the region...

...Its first stage is a top-down, bottom-up review of all U.S...

...The Texas native has a well-earned reputation for being blunt, even a bit sassy...

...And not just putting out pamphlets...

...Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...

...Uncle Sam's Makeover The State Department's answer to Osama bin Laden is to "redefine America BY STEPHEN F. HAYES Shortly after her confirmation as the State Department's top communications whiz last October, Charlotte Beers said she hoped to create among the world's one billion Muslims an "understanding that they don't need to kill us to get our attention...

...But as Powell predicted, she's doing much more...

...public diplomacy...

...Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made a similar case earlier this month in a brilliant speech to the World Affairs Council in Monterey, California...

...President Bush, when he met with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in March, announced that he had asked Powell "to launch a new initiative aimed at increasing both economic and educational opportunities throughout the region...

...That's a swell approach when the subject is cola, or soap . . . but it's condescending and short-sighted when it comes to possible global conflict...

...It is almost as though we have to redefine what America is," she said...

...The State Department has already had some help in pushing this line...

...Charlotte Beers did call CAIR...

...The problem with using Madison Avenue in the current conflict is that advertising exists to simplify...

...It's so easy to empathize with families in Israel and around the world who literally would be afraid to send their children to the grocery store or the bowling alley" for fear of suicide bombers, she said...

...CAIR changed the story's headline, too...

...When President Bush shut down a Texas foundation last December, citing a decade-long FBI investigation that turned up close ties to Hamas, CAIR once again ripped the administration...

...There will be pamphlets, CD-ROMs, public service announcements, a State Department magazine for young Muslim males...

...No...

...says an administration source familiar with the effort, citing the radical strain of Islam funded and promoted by Saudi Arabia...

...There are good Muslims and there are bad Muslims...

...Wolfowitz highlighted countries like Turkey and Indonesia as evidence that Islam is compatible with markets and democracy...

...We have to make these important distinctions and broadcast them to the world...

...At a speech earlier this month, for example, Beers repeatedly referred to an "Imam"—a Muslim cleric—as an "Iman"— like the model...

...Before he had announced his recruitment of her for the Bush administration, Powell seemed to offer a preview of his nomination of Beers when he testified before the House Budget Committee on March 15, 2001...

...This is especially odd given President Bush's clear warning to would-be Islamist sympathizers: You are either with us or with the terrorists...

...Of course, any time terrorists murder nearly 3,000 civilians, it'll get the attention of the United States government...

...Philip Van Munching, a columnist for the advertising magazine Brandweek, argued last fall that the approach was destined to fail...

...In a 1994 appearance at Barry University in Florida, Awad declared: "I am in support of the Hamas movement...

...A regular feature of the site is a running count of "anti-Muslim incidents" in America since September 11, along with an easy-to-use survey for individuals who believe they've been victims of racial or religious profiling in airports...

...The original could have been written by Charlotte Beers herself: "The First Lady Embraces the Teaching of Values as an Answer in Turning Hate to Hope...

...I'm going to be bringing people into the public diplomacy function of the department who are going to change from just selling us in the old USIA way to really branding foreign policy, branding the department, marketing the department, marketing American values to the world," he said...

...Asked if she had empathy for the other side in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, she answered with reflexive bluntness: "Can I empathize with a mother who sends her child out to kill herself and others...

...President Bush's response—we will hunt down and kill those who wish to harm us—avoided the namby-pamby, blame-America-first suggestion that somehow we brought the attacks on ourselves...

...And it demonstrates with remarkable clarity that one sure way to get our attention is to kill us...

...Who gets to represent the American Muslim voice is a very sensitive issue," says Ali Asani, a professor of IndoMuslim language and culture at Harvard...

...There are signs, however, that things may be changing for the better...

...The concept is simple and, at first blush, benign: Persuade the audience that America loves Muslims, then hope that Muslims will love America back...

...There will be trips, student and professional exchanges, focus groups, and polls...

...And it does so largely because of its failure to distinguish between good Muslims and bad...

...While no one disputes the right of CAIR and fellow extremists to voice their opinions, including their support for Hamas, some administration officials and many moderate Muslims question the wisdom of associating the U.S...

...But starting with the "Muslim Life in America" campaign, the early indications are not promising...

...government with their views...

...Some of the funds for these myriad projects come from a $15 million "Emergency Supplemental for public diplomacy...

...Beers, a top Madison Avenue advertising executive handpicked by Colin Powell to serve as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, summed up her task in an interview last fall with the Wall Street Journal...

...In short—as the president put it—punish our enemies and help our friends...

...to boil things down to a basic message, and to find cost-effective ways to communicate that message to a specific target...

...Then comes a reallocation of resources designed to tie funds more directly to political and economic liberalization...

...It posted excerpts of two stories suggesting the White House had publicized recent terror threats to counter political embarrassment over pre-Septem-ber 11 intelligence lapses...

...For implicit in the Beers construct is the notion that our dialogue will include even the distinct minority of Muslims who wish to do us harm...