WASHINGTON, 9 August – Worried the US was increasingly perceived as out of touch with the Arab world, the Bush White House decided to develop a transitory effort to deflect Taleban disinformation about the Afghan war into a permanent "Office of Global Communications," aimed at relaying the administration’s foreign policy message and supervise America’s image abroad.

The new office was the idea of former senior Bush adviser Karen Hughes, who guided the administration’s efforts to ensure a uniform message on domestic policy. Although Hughes returned to Texas last month, officials say she will remain closely involved in the new operation. Charlotte Beers, the advertising agency executive Bush appointed last year to the State Department’s top public diplomacy job, heads the Office of Global Communications.

One of their first ventures is Radio Sawa, the new Arabic-language broadcasting service that began broadcasting to the Arab world last spring, and started a ‘streaming audio’ on its Internet site earlier this summer (www.radiosawa.com).

Run by the US government-funded Middle East Radio Network (MERN), Radio Sawa is modeled after Top-100 FM stations here, and aims to attract Arab listeners under the age of 30. It features news and music 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

Radio Sawa ("sawa" means "together" in Arabic) is a pilot project of the Voice of America (VOA), and is available to millions of listeners across the Middle East on medium wave (AM), FM and short-wave frequencies as well as on the Internet and through the digital radio satellite channels of Arabsat, Nilesat and Eutelsat Hotbird.

This fall, the service is expected to broadcast news, analysis, interviews, opinion pieces, roundtable discussions, sports, weather, music and features on a variety of political and social issues in five regional Arabic dialects, and targets the Gulf states, Jordan and the Palestinians, Egypt, Iraq, and North Africa.

The Washington-based staff includes Mouafac Harb, MERN’s news director who worked as Al Hayat’s Washington bureau chief, and as the general manager of radio and television at the National Broadcasting Network of Lebanon.

Harb, who is currently traveling in the Middle East and was unavailable to speak to Arab News, earlier said MERN was committed to producing "objective, fair and balanced" news.

Not everyone agrees.

"Radio Sawa is one element of a public diplomatic offensive that the US government is working on in the hopes that they can reach people in the Arab world. They want to win the ears, and through that, the minds and hearts of the Arab world’s youth," said Abdulwahab Alkebsi, director, Dialogue of Civilizations, for the Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy, a Washington-based think tank.

"They have told us that they hope to reach people in the Arab world, ‘by communicating with them, and not just by waiving a big stick,’" said Alkebsi, who said Radio Sawa hopes to achieve this through the combination of sanitized Arab and American pop songs, with pro-American news broadcasts.

Alkebsi said MERN hired Bert Kleinman to start up Radio Sawa. "His claim to fame is that he produced ‘Casey Kasem’s Top 40,’ and is familiar with what people want to hear.

"They did a great job of running surveys in the Arab world, what they like and dislike. So they pretty much know what Arab youngsters like to hear — for example, they found out that rap, hard rock, country, would not sell, but pop does." said Alkebsi.

"On the news side, they are going to fill the news with what American government wants the Arabs to hear. So it is a contrast: on the music side they will deliver what the Arabs want to hear, but will send the news that the American government wants them to hear."

Alkebsi emphasized this is being done from by people with the right perspective. "They are in the Department of State, and they want to win the Arab hearts and minds, which is good, especially when you compare this with some people in the Defense Department, who want American unilateralism, and who don’t feel they need to win anyone’s hearts," said Alkebsi.

"Although many Arab youngsters will listen to the music, it will not lead to a genuine dialogue between Arabs and Americans. Our fear is that it will be perceived as American propaganda. At best, it will not win the hearts and minds of the Arab people, and at worse, it will hurt, as many Arabs will perceive this as another attempt to corrupt Arab culture," said Alkebsi.

Daniel Nassif, who is an editor for the Iraqi section at Radio Sawa, dismissed the criticisms.

"Our aim is that the station will develop more understanding between American and Arab youth. We are trying to introduce American culture and values in the area, but at the same time, we want to sound very local to the Arabs," he said.

"So far, it has been very favorably received throughout the Arab world. We are continuing to conduct research as to what our listeners want in regards to news and music," said Nassif.

Regarding the news reports, Nassif said Sawa "covers Washington like no body else, and at the same time, we cover the Arab regions with up-to the minute reports for every capital in the Arab world, including Baghdad. We have 35 correspondents in the region."

Nassif shrugged off the idea that the radio is a mouthpiece for the US administration. "It is not a propaganda piece. If Bush speaks, we have to cover it, but that doesn’t mean its propaganda. We don’t run editorials, so I don’t know how we can be accused of running a propaganda machine.

"It is up to the Arab youth in the region to decide for themselves. And I think they will be fair in judging us, because I think they will like what they are listening to."

(Editor’s Note: Radio Sawa’s FM broadcast capability will be amplified at the end of this month.)