In this post by Sabbah’s Blog, Heitheim Sabbah responded to doubters of the seriousness of the US State Department’s involvement in surveillance of Arab and Palestinian blogs. It is called, The U.S. State Department’s “Digital Outreach Team,” watching Arab Blogs, dated March 29, 2007.
Well, now it is official!
I wanted to post about this a week ago, but the technical problems kept me away from doing my daily business – blogging – which seems to be disturbing the U.S. State Department to a level that forced them to form a team to fight blogs speaking the truth about them and representing what you don’t see on CNN and Fox, such as my blog and many other blogs around the Arab world. We are now officially tracked, monitored and harassed by a special team from the U.S. State Department calling themselves the “Digital Outreach Team.”
Before going to that, let me share with you this:
A friend of mine republished my previous post about U.S. Department of State Watching Sabbah’s Blog, and shared a couple of interesting comments that followed the post.
The first comment reads:
Having worked at the State Department in technical support I can tell you that many of the people who work there drool on their keyboards. The help desk gets at least two or three calls a month to fix the broken cup holder attached to the PC. Many are not God’s most intelligent children, as you have documented so well here.
You might imagine the Department of State attracts only the best and brightest, which is true for the diplomatic types, but they are a small percentage of “the team” and they require many support services which are usually performed by the equivalent of Quasimodo. Most of the people who work for the State are not diplomats, but you already knew that.
Unfortunately these same people have an Internet connection through the same fire wall as the secretary of state. So I wouldn’t make too much out of it. The guy probably works in the motor pool.
It does make a good story though and makes one wonder if lightening bolts have reached this moron’s office yet from the real public affairs (propaganda) people.
Second comment reads:
I called Mr. Blaschke. He no longer works in that office. His new number is (202) 453-8398.
Three times he refused to answer when I asked him if his official role is to represent the United States government. He just wanted to know what I thought he said that isn’t factual. I didn’t want to kibitz with him about his statements, I wanted to know if it’s his job. Three times he refused to answer.Does the U.S. government pay people to interact with bloggers? He said yes. And he also claims to work for public affairs (PR). I think that’s a lie because he refused to answer my first question about his role before I asked him whether there is an official program. A good PR person wouldn’t start a rhetorical war with a U.S. citizen in the opening round – you’d hope. Maybe they’re scraping the bottom.
He said his comments to Sabbah were not “cleared” which means he’s just some asshole with an opinion and not an official government spokesperson.
I think he’s lying about his offical role and he may also be lying about whether the government funds (on the books) “public diplomacy” in the blog-os-fear.
If he was official he wouldn’t have been so evasive.
BTW I do think they monitor the blogs, but they’d never admit it. By law the State Department cannot fund public information efforts (propoganda) for use on the people of the United States. They can tell all the lies they want overseas, but they’re not supposed to play 1984 here.So if this guy really is being paid to “correct” the blogosfear then there’s a major scoop here.
If he’s just some guy with an opinion then the real Department of State needs to know about it.Interesting! More comments on my post can be found here.
Now, back to the official statement of US State Department, Karen Hughes, the State Department’s undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, hired a half-dozen Arabic speakers to surf international blogs and post messages that counter “propa- ganda and rumors with facts, she said. An interview with her here clearly shows that Bush diplomat hopes programs prevent further `anti-Americanism from taking root.’
It’s also why her office loaned the latest crop of State Department exchange students mini-camcorders. The students recorded their American experiences and will post the videos to YouTube.
“There’s an information explosion, and we’re competing for attention and credibility in the midst of that explosion,” Hughes said.
President Bush asked Hughes, one his closest advisers before she decided to return to Austin in 2002, to come back to Washington 18 months ago to help revive a national image battered by the Iraq war. The Middle East is a huge part of her portfolio….
“I believe it is vital to our national security,” Hughes said. “We are never going to win the war against terror in the long run as long as little boys and little girls around the world grow up hating or being taught to hate America.”
… We are working to make our exchanges more strategic. We’re inviting more people who have wide circles of influence – clerics – we’ve brought clerics over from Jordan and from Saudi Arabia, and teachers, journalists – because again the media has such an impact.
Is TV still the main outreach? Even beyond the Internet?
We just a few weeks ago, for the first time, engaged in Arabic on blogs. We have what’s called here a “digital outreach team” . . . that is actively going on the Arabic blogs and responding to misinformation and disinformation and propaganda and rumors with facts. And we’re very above board that it’s the digital outreach team of the State Department.
How many people are on the team?I think it’s about four or five, and they’re supervised by a foreign service officer. And they are all Arabic speakers that do that. Then we have one young man in the rapid response center who goes on the Web sites and monitors and watches and surfs. . . .
You asked me about measuring success. I saw a proverb . . . that talked about “planting a tree under whose shade you would not sit.” In many ways, I feel like that’s what I’m doing. Most of my work, public diplomacy work, is really long-term work.More about Arabic birds working for USDOS monitoring Arabic Net chats here.
So, watch your back, and you can easily know who is who and what is what. Not only comments by the “Digital Outreach Breach Team,” but by blogs run by them and forum threads to spread there lies.
The State Department team “recently began a thread” on egyptiantalks.org, asking, “Will violence end in Iraq if U.S. forces withdraw?” In another online engagement described by Curtin, participants challenged “accusations that the U.S. military is engaged in widespread rape of men and women in Iraq.” A team member explained, “I stated that, when there have been cases of misconduct by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi civilians, a legal process has been implemented. I also said allegations that such misconduct is widespread are untrue and unproven.”
Maybe referring to the famous argument between me and the ignorant USDOS staff. Poor man could not even convince himself or answer the basic questions we asked when all of this started!!!
It is inevitable to note that we could have saved everyone from this pain, if and only if, USA treat all with same scale of justice. It is unfortunate that millions are spent on such a stupid project called “Digital Outreach Team,” and billions are spent on such a stupid war they are running in Iraq and other billions supporting the racist state of Israel and its occupation of Palestine.
Perhaps the issue of State Department surveillance of Arab and Palestinian blogs is not beyond the pale, and possibly differs from the intent of what the CIA or FBI mignt be concerned with in the 9/11 world. Politics anyone?