International

The Lebanese American Council for Democracy, the "group that played a key role in the passage of the Syrian Accountability Act," retained 5W Public Relations for "strategic counsel and media relations." The group's goal is "to gain support from U.S.

"The State Department is looking for 'appropriate opportunities' to spend money inside and outside Iran," to "foster opposition" as part of "a more confrontational democratization effort." The Los Angeles Times writes, "The United States is already spending $14.7 million a year to broadcast Persian-language radio and television programs into Iran." The broadcasts include

The Bush administration will escalate "its information war against Islamic extremism" by beaming "Arab-language satellite-television broadcasts to Europe." Later this year, the Virginia-based, "U.S.-backed TV channel Alhurra expects to transmit 24-hour programming to European Muslim communities." The $3.5 million in start-up funding will come from the $81 billion supplemental military budget request.

Journalist Doug McGill has a new weblog called "Glocal Man," reflecting the "idea of glocal or worldplace news ... that every place on earth is connected by strands of mutual influence, interdependence, and direct causality." McGill writes in a manifesto style essay. "Because the geographical distances are so great, say between Rochester, MN and Brooklyn, NY and Warsaw, Poland, it's often easy not to see those connections.