ASSESSING THE PRESIDENT'S U.N. SPEECH - SYMPOSIUM (W@TURTLE BAY, NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): Brett D. Schaefer, Heritage Foundation: 'The president's General Assembly speech was a rare opportunity to ... appeal directly to the people in repressed countries. ... It was a powerful message and a deft attempt at public diplomacy by an Administration that frequently seems incapable of communicating effectively.'
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWJlN...jJjMzRiNjgwOTM=

PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAKS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST - MARIO LOYOLA (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): Those who criticize the speech the President just gave before the UN General Assembly should consider that its purpose more than anything as an act of public diplomacy.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Z...jU3NDgwOTMwMTQ=
SEE ALSO
http://www.thepoliticalpitbull.com/2006/09...ress_to_the.php

WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY?: IN A WORD: BUSH JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): The remnants of the president's conservative fan club over at National Review, in the person of one Mario Loyola, hail Bush's oration at the UN as a triumph of "public diplomacy," but this kind of diplomacy is straight out of Bizarro World.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9720

CAN KAREN HUGHES CHANGE AMERICA'S IMAGE? SHE'S TRYING - MORTON M. KONDRACKE (LEADER -CALL, SEPTEMBER 18): When asked whether she thought the U.S. was losing the ideological war, Hughes said, "I'm an optimistic person. I think we have a long way to go. We have a lot more to do." Hughes and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seem to have persuaded Bush -- temporarily, at least -- to drop the label "Islamic-fascism" from his speeches.
http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local_st...rces_printstory

FAIR AND BALANCED? AL JAZEERA IS PLANNING TO BRING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NEWS TO AN AMERICAN AUDIENCE - ABIGAIL LAVIN (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 20): In public statements, Karen Hughes has embraced an end to this administration's "informal policy of ignoring Al Jazeera," and the Pentagon has offered AJI a seat in its briefing room. Unlike Al Hurra, the American propaganda channel widely regarded as a laughingstock in the Middle East, a good relationship with Al Jazeera could burnish the United States' image abroad.
Http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/publ...2udgca.asp?pg=2

AMERICAN MORALITY BACK IN PLAY FAREED ZAKARIA (BUFFALO NEWS, SEPTEMBER 19): Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: "Part of the war on terror is an ideological and political struggle. Our moral posture is one of our best weapons. We're not doing so well on the public-diplomacy front."
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060919/1007331.asp

IT'S TIME TO GET OUT OF IRAQ CAREFULLY - STEVE ANDREASEN (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, SEPTEMBER 18): Public diplomacy does not take place in a policy vacuum. To improve our "image" in the region, we will need an unprecedented degree of bipartisanship in Congress, and an administration committed to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/ed...al/15551775.htm

BUSH CLEARS TASK FORCE TO MEET WITH IRANIANS JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): The director of the Baker Institute, Edward Djerejian, who mentored public-diplomacy chief and longtime Bush adviser, Karen Hughes: "Despite the tragedy we see unfolding in the region on all sides, this crisis [last month's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah] does represent an opportunity to get on with the real core issues in the region, and this will require contacting and dealing with all the players. All the players."
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9721

THIS WEEK IN THE NEW YORKER (NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 9): Mike McCurry, who was Clinton's press secretary from 1995 to 1998: "Bill Clinton ... is delivering to us now a model of what he might have to do as First Spouse, as an emissary rebuilding America's reputation in the world, the premier overseas ambassador, the chief of public diplomacy."
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/press/..._press_releases

US: PR JOINS FIGHT FOR HEARTS AND MINDS: GOVERNMENTS TURN TO PRIVATE FIRMS: DAVID ROBERTSON (TIMES, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 18): The United States Government is thought to have earmarked at least $400 million since the terrorist atrocities of September 11, 2001, to enlist private companies to supply skills and ideas for an information war, covering propaganda and psychological operations (psyops).
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14122

BUSH DETAINEE PLAN FUELS DOUBTS OVER U.S.: POWELL REUTERS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091900038.html

TORTURE IS TORTURE: BUSH'S 'PROGRAM' DISGRACES ALL AMERICANS - EUGENE ROBINSON (SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1800995_pf.html

TIME FOR INTEGRITY: MCCAIN SHOULD STICK TO HIS PRINCIPLES - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19): The United States cannot conduct itself as its enemies have. We do not torture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1800994_pf.html

SOLDIERS VERSUS BUSH EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 18): Congress should pass an amended version of the Senate committee bill that does not subject detainees to the limbo of Guantanamo with no access to the courts.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...us_bush?mode=PF

BUSH'S PALTRY EXCUSE FOR SUBVERTING GENEVA CONVENTION - ROBERT S. RIVKIN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 19): President Bush claims to be worried that our CIA interrogators are confused by the rules that govern them. This claim is hogwash.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0919-31.htm
Salon mailing list
http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/salon

BUSH APPOINTEES ATTEMPT TO BROW BEAT SENIOR US MILITARY OFFICERS - U.S. ARMY COLONEL (RETIRED) ANN WRIGHT (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 18): The administration policy condoning torture and now the silencing of professional views of proposed policies concerning the rules for military commissions trying terrorism suspects undermine the 'good order and discipline' of the military and are dangerous for our country.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0918-25.htm

FIGHTING FOR OUR HONOR - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 19): Worse than what the U.S. is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is the danger of abandoning the high ground on the treatment of prisoners and giving in to moral decay at home.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...r_honor?mode=PF


_______________________________________________

INTO A MORAL DESERT - HAROLD MEYERSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): We've abandoned our own moral and legal norms, as the administration's determination to create a loophole in the Geneva Conventions makes unmistakably clear.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901440_pf.html

JUDGE, JURY, AND TORTURER - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 18): The best way to combat terrorism is to wrap accused terrorists in the cloth of the law they would rip asunder.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...orturer?mode=PF

CLARIFYING TORTURE: MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT PART OF PROHIBITING "CRUEL TREATMENT AND TORTURE" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? - RONALD BAILEY (REASON, SEPTEMBER 18)
http://www.reason.com/links/links091806.shtml

THE GOP'S TORTURED LOGIC: THE REPUBLICANS WHO NOW AGREE WITH THE PRESIDENT THAT THE WAR CRIMES ACT IS TOO VAGUE SAID SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT 10 YEARS AGO - MARK BENJAMIN (SALON, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/...nter/print.html

THE PRISONERS SPEAK [REVIEW OF FILMS ABOUT GUANTANAMO] - JONATHAN RABAN (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): Liberals, appalled by Guantánamo and all it represents, have cheered too early and too often when the Supreme Court has appeared to bring the camp within the sway of national and international law, only to see the administration wriggle out from under each new decision.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19356

RULES FOR THE REAL WORLD EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): Congress needs to pass an effective law on the handling of prisoners that not only provides for legal military tribunals but also deals with the wrongly imprisoned men at Guantánamo Bay.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/opinion/20wed1.html

PROPHETIC JUSTICE: THE UNITED STATES IS NOW PROSECUTING SUSPECTED TERRORISTS ON THE BASIS OF THEIR INTENTIONS, NOT JUST THEIR ACTIONS. BUT IN THE CASE OF ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS, HOW CAN AMERICAN JURORS FAIRLY WEIGH WORDS AND BELIEFS WHEN MUSLIMS THEMSELVES CAN'T AGREE ON WHAT THEY MEAN? AMY WALDMAN (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, OCTOBER)
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/waldman-islam

TORTURED BY MISTAKE: THE CASE OF MAHER ARAR SHOWS WHY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S SECRET DETENTION PROGRAM IS WRONG EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901547_pf.html

MCCAIN'S DUBIOUS HIGH GROUND: JOHN MCCAIN AND HIS BAND OF REPUBLICAN REBELS DEFYING PRESIDENT BUSH ON THE ISSUE OF INTERROGATION HAVE A STRANGE ATTACHMENT TO CONFUSED ARGUMENTATION - RICH LOWRY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjRiN...GJhYjQ0MDNhNzk=

HANG TOUGH, MR. PRESIDENT EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): President Bush rightly defines reasonable rules for interrogating terrorists.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...17-093228-6826r

WHEN MIRANDA MET OSAMA: WILL TERRORISTS GET LAWYERS THE MOMENT THEY'RE CAPTURED ON THE BATTLEFIELD? - BRENDAN MINITER (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER19): To keep up war momentum, the U.S. now needs to put terrorists on trial.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/b...r/?id=110008962

IRAQI JOURNALISTS CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE - AARON GLANTZ (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 19): The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders says the reporters being arrested by the U.S. military are just trying to do their jobs.
http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=9712

I WAS A PR INTERN IN IRAQ: IN THIS ASTONISHING CONFESSIONAL BY AN OXFORD GRADUATE WHO WORKED IN THE GREEN ZONE OF BAGHDAD, WE SEE THE PERVERSITY OF THE AMERICAN VERSION OF A 'FREE PRESS' IN IRAQ - WILLEM MARX (HARPER'S, SEPTEMBER 18/ALTERNET): The Baghdad Press Center was an office that the U.S. State Department funded to provide Iraqi reporters with equipment and to train them in journalistic ethics and professional conduct. And yet we were hiring these same Iraqi reporters to work indirectly for the U.S. military.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41479/
(scroll down link for item)

IRAQ: TRYING TO SPIN THE UNSPINNABLE - ASHRAF FAHIM (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): As electoral defeat looms, rather than portraying Iraq as a success story unheralded by the ambulance-chasing media (as was his wont), Bush now switches the topic to a proven winner, conflating Iraq with the "war on terror.?
http://atimes.com/atimes/middle_east/hi20ak01.html

701 of every 100,000 people are in prison or jail.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0920/p03s02-ussc.html

U.S. LOSES 7,000 TROOPS IN IRAQ WONKETTE (SEPTEMBER 19): It's hard to make any plans for getting out of Iraq -- or any plans for anything, ever -- when the Department of Defense has no idea how many American troops are in Iraq
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/us-l...iraq-201766.php
rate --

NO ONE DARES TO HELP: THE WOUNDED DIE ALONE ON BAGHDAD'S STREETS. AN OFFER OF AID COULD BE YOUR OWN DEATH SENTENCE, AN IRAQI REPORTER WRITES (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20):
Because this account of daily life in Baghdad reveals where the writer lives, his name is not being used to protect his safety. He is a 54-year-old Iraqi reporter in The Times' Baghdad Bureau.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines

DOUBTS INCREASE ABOUT STRENGTH OF IRAQ's PREMIER - EDWARD WONG (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): Senior Iraqi and American officials are beginning to question whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has the political muscle and decisiveness to hold Iraq together as it hovers on the edge of a full civil war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/world/mi...agewanted=print

more than 2 million inmates. It also has the world's highest incarceration

ARE WE WINNING IN IRAQ?: THE DEFEATISM IS UNWARRANTED - MACKUBIN THOMAS OWENS (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): We have broken the back of the Sunni insurgency, the main threat to the Iraqi government.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Njk4N...WZhMGMzYmU1OWM=
n, with

CHENEY: THE FATAL TOUCH - JOAN DIDION (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): In the apparently higher interest of consolidating the political advantage of war Cheney had made misrepresentations that facilitated a war in Iraq that promised to further destabilize the Middle East. He had compromised both America's image in the world and its image of itself.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19376

20): The United States has the world's largest prison populatio

DEJA VU ON IRAN - ARI BERMAN (NATION, SEPTEMBER 19): Is the Bush Administration mistaking Iran for pre-war Iraq? Recent events certainly sound eerily familiar.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=122903

WHAT WOULD WAR LOOK LIKE? A FLURRY OF MILITARY MANEUVERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST INCREASES SPECULATION THAT CONFLICT WITH IRAN IS NO LONGER QUITE SO UNTHINKABLE. HERE'S HOW THE U.S. WOULD FIGHT SUCH A WAR -- AND THE HUGE PRICE IT WOULD HAVE TO PAY TO WIN IT - MICHAEL DUFFY (TIME, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1535817,00.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

ISLAM IN EUROPE - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): In the relationship with Islam as a religion, it makes sense to encourage those versions of Islam that are compatible with the fundamentals of a modern, liberal, and democratic Europe.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19371

PUTTING A DIFFERENT FACE ON ISLAM IN AMERICA - NEIL MACFARQUHAR (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): This month, Professor Ingrid Mattson, a 43-year-old convert, was elected president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest umbrella organization for Muslim groups in the United States and Canada, making her a prominent voice for a faith ever more under assault by critics who paint it as the main font of terrorism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/nyregion...agewanted=print

THE RICH GET RICHER: GROWING INCOME DISPARITY DOESN?T PRESAGE A NEW LABOR MOVEMENT AT HOME ? BUT IT MAY SIGNAL MORE TERRORISM FOR US ABROAD - JAMES KURTH (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, SEPTEMBER 25): Only Islamism is now beginning to mount a serious threat to the security of the rich, and that threat is also directed at all the other groups and peoples that the Islamists despise as well.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_09_25/cover.html

JIHAD, THE LORD'S SUPPER, AND ETERNAL LIFE ? SPENGLER (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 19): There is no Grace in Islam, no miracle, no expiatory sacrifice, no expression of love for mankind such that each Muslim need not be a sacrifice. On the contrary, the concept of jihad, in which the congregation of Islam is also the army, states that every single Muslim must sacrifice himself personally.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI19Aa02.html

.listserve

A WISDOM AND JUDGMENT DEFICIENCY IN TERROR WAR - CAL THOMAS (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 20): The jihadists know nothing but intimidation and domination.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

TAKE IT FROM HIM: AMERICAN IS SAFER? TERRORISM, IRAQ AND THE POLITICAL USES OF FEAR FIVE YEARS INTO THE "LONG WAR" - FRIDA BERRIGAN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 19): Groups employing terrorist tactics are a threat to be countered, a problem to be addressed, but they are not a rival to American power -- unless we allow them to be.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0918-30.htm

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING - JOHN MUELLER, FOREIGN AFFAIRS (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 18): If it is so easy to pull off an attack and if terrorists are so demonically competent, why have they not done it? One reasonable explanation is that almost no terrorists exist in the United States and few have the means or the inclination to strike from abroad.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
SEE ALSO
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060901faco...ist-threat.html

BUSH'S USEFUL IDIOTS: TONY JUDT ON THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL AMERICA (LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 21): The alacrity with which many of America's most prominent liberals have censored themselves in the name of the War on Terror, the enthusiasm with which they have invented ideological and moral cover for war and war crimes and proffered that cover to their political enemies: all this is a bad sign.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n18/judt01_.html

CHENEY SAYS HOPES OF WORLD REST ON U.S. - TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19): Vice President Dick Cheney: "The war on terror is a test of our strength, a test of our capabilities, and above all a test of our character."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1900599_pf.html

HOSTAGE TO IRAN AGAIN? - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): W. has now put so many bad actors in the terror stew -- some of whom hate each other -- and has justified so many sketchy programs under the war-on-terror rubric, that the word ?terror? is losing all meaning and just becoming a marketing slogan.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/opini...agewanted=print

PAID SUBSCRIPTION

BUSH'S BRAIN FOUND LACKING: A SLEW OF NEW BOOKS ON KARL ROVE MAKE US QUESTION WHETHER THE PRESIDENT'S DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF IS TRULY THE MACHIAVELLIAN GENIUS SO MANY IN WASHINGTON CLAIM - WALTER SHAPIRO (SALON, SEPTEMBER 19): When it comes to Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, it is certainly easier to feel the gravitational force of Cheney's office than perturbations from Planet Rove. The best guess -- until we see definitive evidence to the contrary -- is that Rove primarily devotes his energies to the packaging and politics of global policies that others have decided.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/19/rove/print.html

FROM VENICE, A LESSON ON EMPIRE - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): How does a nation maintain a far-flung network of commercial interests without subverting its values at home? How does a nation have the benefits of imperial reach without the ruinous costs of empire? It's a debate that will widen as America moves toward its post-Iraq introspection.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901438_pf.html