Obama’s Public Diplomacy Katabasis in Poland President Obama may very well kiss the Polish American vote good bye after committing yet another public diplomacy blunder which gave Vice President Biden, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein and some Congressional Democrats plenty of reasons to be pulling their hair out in utter frustration over his insensitive behavior toward an important…
Scoring public diplomacy points, President Medvedev flew to Poland to attend President Kaczynski’s funeral, and the Poles used a plane to fly the bodies of Kaczynski and his wife from Warsaw to Krakow. The White House Blog The President’s Statement on Poland Posted by Jesse Lee on April 17, 2010 at 03:18 PM EDT The President releases a statement on…
Democracy Digest from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED): The Obama administration’s new approach to foreign policy has been more successful overseas than at home, Spencer Ackerman contends. Dignity promotion, initially derided as an attempt to dilute the Bush administration’s commitment to promoting democracy, has helped shift ownership of democracy struggles from the U.S. See original here: Promoting dignity –…
The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will attend Sunday’s state funeral for Polish President Lech Kaczynski, killed last week in a plane crash. Mr. Obama’s press secretary says he will travel to Krakow to express the depth of U.S. condolences to an important and trusted ally. More from VOA Sourced from: Opinia.US
April 11, 2010 America Mourns with Poland – U.S. Embassy Warsaw American officials and Americans around the world are expressing their condolences to Poland. After his phone call with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, President Barack Obama said, “President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was widely admired in the United…
International Broadcasting
Czech politician accuses U.S. of discrimination against foreign journalists
A member of the Czech Senate has written a strongly-worded letter to key U.S. senators complaining of discriminatory personnel policies aimed against foreign journalists employed by the U.S. Government-funded Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). U.S. taxpayer-funded RFE/RL has its headquarters in the Czech Republic and broadcasts radio programs to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and some of the former Soviet…
TedLipien.com, SAN FRANCISCO — One group of U.S. Government employees that has not received much media scrutiny in the aftermath of the failed terrorist attack are U.S. diplomats who had issued and failed to cancel Mr. Abdulmutallab’s U.S. visa. U.S. Consular Officers at the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Robin R. Sanders, and Foreign Service…
Russians lap up the tale of a shadowy spy couple – latimes.com Posted using ShareThis
FreeMediaOnline.org and GovoritAmerika.us republished this European Parliament press release to underscore the point that the Obama Administration has not protested the Russian police action and has been mostly silent on many other human rights abuses in Russia. Buzek: The EP appeals for the release of 2009 Sakharov Prize Winner Lyudmila Alexeyeva and other Russian human rights activists Brussels – 01/01/2010…
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, December 22, 2009, San Francisco — The BBG has long been considered one of the worst managed Federal agencies. The current Bush-era members of the bipartisan Board in charge of U.S. international broadcasting are expected to be replaced soon by President Obama’s nominees who now await confirmation by the U.S. Senate. (You would not know…
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — An article in the U.S. semi-official military newspaper Stars and Stripes suggests that the Obama administration’s plan for placing a limited number of Patriot missiles in Poland has no military significance and is being implemented largely for diplomatic reasons to appease Warsaw after President Obama scrapped President Bush’s far more ambitious anti-ballistic missile defense system. Stars…
International Broadcasting
Cleaning house at the BBG; former CNN CEO to manage U.S. international news programs
FreeMediaOnline.org, 
Free Media Online Blog, November 18, 2009, San Francisco — 
One of the worst managed U.S. federal agencies will have a new leadership. President Obama has announced his intention to nominate former CNN chairman and CEO Walter Isaacson, a Democrat, to chair the Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG,
TedLipien.com, SAN FRANCISCO — Speaking softly to dictators while insulting faithful allies seems to be the essence of President Obama’s confused diplomacy. The Obama administration has repeatedly offended Poland’s pride in recent months, making Polish officials extremely suspicious and anxious about foreign policy and military commitments of the new U.S. administration. First, President Obama made public his strong desire…
TedLipien.com, SAN FRANCISCO — In angry late-night phone calls to reporters last week, State Department diplomats were defending careless comments by President Obama’s new ambassador in Warsaw, Lee A. Feinstein, who revealed on Polish TV the content of sensitive negotiations with the U.S. about increasing the number of Polish troops in Afghanistan. Polish officials had good reasons to keep this…
Public Diplomacy
U.S. Embassy blames diplomatic gaffe on a Polish translator but a problem runs much deeper
TedLipien.com, SAN FRANCISCO — Bill Clinton might have asked what the “enhanced” definition of “to enhance” IS? The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is busy blaming a Polish translator for mistranslating U.S. Ambassador Lee Feinstein’s TV interview answer about Polish troops in Afghanistan, which caused a diplomatic uproar in Poland. In an interview broadcast last Saturday, Ambassador Feinstein thanked Polish prime minister and…