US uses Arabs to promote itself on Arabic sites

The U.S. government employs a team of American-Arabs who monitor Arabic websites and act as a mouthpiece for the U.S. government.

The State Department's six-member 'Digital Outreach' team regularly checks major Arabic sites, blogs, and chat rooms and post comments to explain American foreign policy and communicate with detractors.

"We want to bring the U.S. and the Arab world closer," the program's founder Walid Jawad told AlArabiya.net, adding that all the team members are originally Arabs who now live in America.

Jawad said his team does not spy on Arab surfers and is not working for the CIA, as some claim.

"We write our comments under our real names. Nobody who works for the CIA would do that. We say who we are and what our mission is very clearly."

He said AlArabiya.net is one of the most influential websites that his team checks on a regular basis.

On the other hand, the team does not monitor Islamic extremist websites: "They are narrow-minded and are not willing to know the other. They have an age-old preconception that America is the enemy, and this is intolerant and superficial."

Emotional opposition

Jawad said that most Arab Internet users are against America to varying degrees, but he calls this "emotional opposition," meaning it is not based on concrete evidence.

Jawad denied that his team's aim is to "polish American policies" and said they offer objective facts and logical explanations.

As an example, Jawad said many people think America is victim to a Zionist conspiracy in the form of the Jewish/Israeli lobby.

"We tell them that American policy is open: everyone has the right to form their own lobby and try to convince politicians and lawmakers of their own point of view," Jawad said.

When asked about how important the team is for the U.S. if it already has media outlets that promote its ideas throughout the world, Jawad replied: "American media is commercial. Corporations like CNN or Fox News are after profit and have nothing to do with the government. We work for the government."

Jawad clarified that his team is part of the External Media Program and does not submit reports to any other agencies.

"We share those views with our colleagues at the State Department, and those views are integrated into the intellectual makeup of foreign policy, especially that we are Arabs and understand the Arab world."

In addition to the six Arabic-speaking members of the team, two speak Persian and one speaks Urdu, for Iranian and Pakistani sites.


(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).