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Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 19:28:11 -0500
U.S. Creates News Agency
Unit to Coordinate Flow of Information Overseas
Associated Press
Friday, August 13, 1999; Page A23
The Clinton administration, dismayed by the success of anti-American
propaganda worldwide, is striking back with an information offensive of
its own: a State Department unit that will control the flow of government
news overseas, especially during crises.
The new International Public Information group, or IPI, will coordinate
the dissemination of news from the State Department, Pentagon and other
U.S. agencies.
"What this is intended to do is organize the instruments of the federal
government to be able to support the public diplomacy, military
engagements and economic initiatives that we have overseas," said David
Leavy, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.
In the recent Kosovo war, the Pentagon, State Department and White House
poured out information each day but no single agency tried to assemble it
so that the United States spoke with a coordinated message overseas.
In many respects, the new information group is a smaller, less-structured
successor to the independent U.S. Information Agency, which the State
Department will absorb in October.
U.S. officials say the group came about partly in response to the spread
of unflattering or erroneous information about the United States via
electronic mail, the Internet, cellular telephones and other
communications advances.
A new office of undersecretary of state for public diplomacy will run the
IPI. The current USIA director, Evelyn S. Lieberman, has been nominated
for the job.
President Clinton signed a directive April 30, in the thick of the Kosovo
war, that set out plans for IPI, although the White House did not
formally announce the group's existence or role.
An unclassified mission statement obtained by the Associated Press
described IPI's role:
"Effective use of our nation's highly developed communications and
information capabilities to address misinformation and incitement,
mitigate inter-ethnic conflict, promote independent media organizations
and the free flow of information, and support democratic participation
will advance our interests and is a critical foreign policy objective,"
the document said.
Joan Mower, director of Latin American and African programs for the
Freedom Forum, said she worries the coordinated effort may filter
information that should be broadly available to foreign reporters. "My
feeling is that the more information is out there, the better," she said.
The IPI will hold its first formal meeting this fall, said a government
official involved in the process. Clinton's directive orders officials at
the Pentagon, FBI, CIA and the departments of State, Commerce and
Treasury to organize the group.
Regular members will be senior diplomats and others in foreign policy or
national security jobs in Washington, according to the official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The rationale for IPI dates at least to the confusion and unfavorable
media reports surrounding U.S. intervention in Haiti in 1994-1995, but
the conflict over Kosovo is the best recent example of how the United
States needs to fight a propaganda war in concert with military strikes,
officials said.
"President [Slobodan] Milosevic has an extensive propaganda machine,"
Leavy said. "We've worked very hard to try to counteract that propaganda
machine, and make sure the people in Serbia and in Kosovo have access to
their own news--that they can make their own independent judgments."
Anti-American sentiment ran high during the 78-day air war, even among
Yugoslavs who did not support the Yugoslav president. Many Europeans also
were leery of the airstrikes, seen as a U.S. enterprise, and reluctant to
use heavy firepower against a modern European capital.
The air war that ended in June also produced one of the worst diplomatic
and public relations disasters in recent memory when a U.S. plane
mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on May 7, killing three
Chinese citizens.
Outraged mobs rushed the American Embassy in Beijing, trapping
then-Ambassador James Sasser inside for a time. The Chinese government
waited days before publicizing the official apology from the United
States, and the belated U.S. explanation was greeted with disdain by both
the Chinese government and rock-throwing street mobs.
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