Egyptian state paper attacks U.S. envoy's mission (Karen Hughes)

[sabra]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-09-26T123652Z_01_WRI645357_RTRUKOC_0_US-EGYPT-HUGHES.xml&archived=False

Egyptian state paper attacks U.S. envoy's mission

CAIRO (Reuters) - A U.S. envoy trying to improve Washington's image abroad is bound to fail unless she can promise changes in U.S. policy in the Middle East, an Egyptian government newspaper said on Monday.

The new editor of al-Gomhuria daily said Egyptians who meet U.S. Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes should advise the United States to withdraw from Iraq and put pressure on Israel to withdraw from all of the West Bank, after leaving Gaza.

Hughes, appointed to polish America's image through public diplomacy, began her first foreign tour in her new post in Egypt on Sunday. She will also visit Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

"We in Egypt or anywhere else do not need a public relations campaign like the one America is conducting," wrote Mohamed Ali Ibrahim. "Egyptians or Saudis or Turks will not suddenly like America because it has set up a television or radio station ... but feelings may change if America changes its whole approach."

[louis-t]

1. Karen, you and yer boyfriend ain't foolin' anyone.

I expect Karen Hughes to be spending more time with her family soon.

[niallmac]

5. LOL! I love that phrase!

No one ever gets fired. They just decide to "spend more time with their family."

[Tempest]

2. And Egypt is considered one of our allies

I can imagine what the other Arab countries are saying.

[Ilsa]

3. Hughes should turn the education program around for a new target.

Hughes and company need to re-educate the millions of Americans who see Islam and Middle Easterners as all "terrorists."

[Judi Lynn]

4. If Bush gets too steamed at the lack of proper slavish bowing and scraping

from the Egyptians following Karen Hugh's visit to adjust their attitudes, he may discontinue sending his "detainees" there to be tortured.

See how they like THAT!

[54anickel]

6. Gotta love the "foot in mouth" from the last 2 paragraphs

regarding her call for the presence of international presidential election observers, meanwhile that call was denied in the US.

Karen, the spin machine is not going to work for you like it did so well here in the US...even here the tide is turning little by little.

[Javaman]

7. Yeah, right, "listening tour", She speaks they listen...

Just more bullshit from the crap factory also known as morons* admin.

[onager]

8. I've spent a couple of months in Egypt this year...

I'm ASSUMING that if this appeared in one of the Egyptian dailies, it's at least tacitly approved by the government.

Let me also state unequivocally that I don't have any inside knowledge of the relationship between press and government in Egypt. I'm just a working stiff.

Because I avidly read the local papers over there, every day, I can say that Bush frequently gets severely thumped on the LTTE pages of the Egyptian GAZETTE and the other English-language papers. Just as he does in this country. And I remember one GAZETTE editorial that, stripped of the diplomatic editorial language, said he didn't have a clue what he was doing in the Middle East.

There's also a great magazine, very glossy and slick, called EGYPT TODAY. It often roasts Dimson, and frequently runs controversial articles. One of the most interesting, if saddest, was a recent piece on the Jewish communities of Egypt. They still exist, but just barely.

I had several Egyptians come up to talk to me on the street and say some variation of "Bush no good." I always shook hands with them.