U.S. envoy Hughes' message to Muslims: We care
Reuters
Date: 09-26-05
By Patricia Wilson
JEDDAH, Saudia Arabia, Sept 26 (Reuters) - U.S. envoy Karen Hughes knows how to stay on message and her message to Muslims is: We care. But it's not clear how many are listening.
When the sagging American image abroad needed a facelift, President George W. Bush turned to Hughes, a close adviser and communications guru who nurtured his own image through two election campaigns.
Her modus operandi then, and now on a trip to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, is remarkably similar: set basic talking points, stick to them, then keep rolling the tape.
Highlights include: Bush is the first American president to call for an independent Palestinian state. The problem in Iraq is the insurgents who kill indiscriminately. No one likes war. The United States is a democracy but it is not perfect.
But Hughes must compete for attention with a flood of news from the region -- a rash of deadly bombings in Iraq, Israeli missile strikes on Gaza, the trial of Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour and talks between Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
In Cairo, her meetings on Sunday with religious leaders, students and exchange scholars drew sparse local media coverage and a tough editorial from an Egyptian government newspaper.
"We in Egypt or anywhere else do not need a public relations campaign like the one America is conducting," said the al-Gomhuria daily. "Egyptians or Saudis or Turks will not suddenly like America ... but feelings may change if America changes its whole approach."
Hughes has stayed relentlessly on point even in the face of pointed questions.
Ask her, as did an American University student in Cairo why the United States is so intent on "interfering" in the affairs of other countries, she bats it away with: "Are you referring to the Millennium Challenge Accounts?"
When the young woman look mystified, Hughes explained it was a U.S. program tying American development aid to political and economic reforms in recipient countries.
Ask about the invasion of Iraq and the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and she responds that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein and now that the United States is there other countries should join in ensuring Iraq is stable and secure.
Ask about the Arab-Isralei conflict and the answer is: "We want the Palestinians to have jobs and economic opportunity and education and a bright future."
Ask what she hopes to achieve on this, her first trip abroad as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and her first visit to the Middle East, and Hughes explains how she simply wants to listen, then sets modest goals.
"I understand many of the differences are deap-seated and I'm probably not going to change many minds but if I make a connection ... with a person or two that I can keep following up with after I leave here, I will consider it a success."
Unlike most undersecretaries of state who travel rather anonymously, Hughes's entourage includes her deputy, Egyptian born Dina Powell, a spokesman and a traveling press corps of four U.S. television networks, four newspapers and the pan-Arab satellite television channel Al Arabiya.
On Monday, after talks with Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Hughes gave interviews to two Cairo television outlets and Dubai-based al-Jazeera television. Local press at a meeting with a Muslim religious leader seemed to be impressed with the almost 6-foot Texan's bearing.
"She's tall," whispered one technician as he raised the height of the microphone.
Independent newspaper publisher Hisham Kassim, who was among civil leaders and intellectuals who attended a lunch hosted by Hughes, wondered about her mandate.
"Is it democratization or public relations?" he asked. "It's interesting to me how public opinion can be budged. It's a colossal task."
Source
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