US embassy cable - 04ROME4673

UNCLAS  ROME 004673 
 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y - TEXT 
 
FROM U.S. MISSION IN ROME 
 
STATE FOR U/S P MGROSSMAN, U/S E ALARSON, A/S PA RBOUCHER 
STATE FOR IO A/S KHOLMES, PRM A/S ADEWEY, IO/EDA, IO/PPC, 
USDA/FAS FOR U/S JPENN, MCHAMBLISS AND LREICH 
USAID FOR AA/DCHA RWINTER, DAA/DCHA WGARVELINK, DCHA/OFDA, 
DCHA/FFP, ANE/MEA 
NEA/ENA, AF/E, AF/PDPA, R, IIP, PA 
NSC FOR EABRAMS, JMELINE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KPAO, OPRC, EAGR, AORC, PHUM, EAID, PREF, SU, LY, XA, FAO, WFP 
SUBJECT: USUN-ROME CAPTURES GLOBAL AUDIENCE ON POSITIVE 
AMERICAN THEMES 
 
REF:(A) Rome 4582 (B) Rome 4620 (C) Rome 4621 (D) Rome 4624 
 
1.  Summary. Facing off in a world media environment 
dominated by themes like Iraq and terrorism, USUN-Rome 
mounted a month-long blitz that promoted a positive American 
story.  The Ambassador's tour through Sudan and Libya, 
coupled with several local successes in Rome, focused world 
media attention on the United States as a humanitarian 
leader that cares for the hundreds of millions of victims 
suffering hunger and oppression. 
 
2.  For two weeks in November, USUN-Rome's aggressive 
campaign gained international media attention on hard and 
soft news topics. Beginning with a visit to camps in Darfur 
and ending with a "hunger banquet" that garnered headlines 
worldwide, USUN-Rome reached targeted audiences in Europe 
and the Muslim world with the story of U.S. generosity and 
commitment to reaching internationally embraced development 
goals. Media coverage of the Ambassador's trip to Darfur and 
Al Kufrah, Libya (where he commemorated the opening of the 
Libyan corridor to food aid shipments) helped to spotlight 
the bounty of U.S. humanitarian aid flowing to the crisis in 
Sudan.  A unique approach to a Thanksgiving reception for 
diplomats elicited praise for creativity and compassion. 
Together, these efforts reflect the mission's goal of taking 
the offense to win hearts and minds by making the stories 
and bringing them to journalists - and not the other way 
around. End Summary. 
 
DARFUR - TAKING THE OFFENSIVE 
------------------------------ 
 
3.  Ambassador Tony Hall, on November 18-20, visited camps 
for displaced Sudanese in North, West and South Darfur to 
observe World Food Program operations and the devolving 
security situation there. USUN-Rome'S PA Officer worked to 
ensure that the Ambassador's party included journalists from 
The Washington Post, Cox News Service, VOA, The Economist, 
Sunday Times of London and Knight-Ridder. A press conference 
organized by the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum produced 
additional coverage by the Associated Press, Agence France- 
Presse, Al Ayam, Alwan, Sudan Tribune and Middle East 
Broadcasting Corp. 
 
4. Coverage of the Ambassador's visit to Sudan projected the 
U.S. image as a leader working to help resolve one of the 
world's worst humanitarian crises. The delegation was in 
Darfur just days prior to the shutdown of WFP operations in 
North Darfur due to the lack of security. Thus, Ambassador 
Hall's impressions of the security situation were the most 
often quoted. AFP wrote, "A United States representative to 
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Tony Hall, said 
people were afraid to return to their villages for fear of 
further attacks and that their women `will be raped and 
their men beaten and killed'". 
 
5. Arabic news services, such as Bahrain-based Al-Ayam, 
accurately conveyed the Ambassador's message about the 
worsening shortage of aid and his call to continue pressure 
on all sides of the conflict to cease violence and improve 
security. London-based Middle East Online, reported on the 
North Darfur state of emergency, and used Ambassador Hall's 
comments about seeing burned-out and abandoned villages. 
 
6. Knight-Ridder journalist, Sudarsan Raghavan, reported on 
the likelihood that Darfur would depend on humanitarian aid 
for many months to come. "Tony Hall, the U.S. ambassador to 
the World Food Program and other U.N. agencies who was in 
Darfur on a two-day mission to assess conditions, said he 
doubted the situation would improve soon. `We're going to be 
here a while, at least another 13 or 14 months,' he said." 
Newspapers picked up Knight Ridder's story, "Crisis in Sudan 
deepens as new violence prevents food deliveries" across the 
U.S., including the Philadelphia Inquirer and Kansas City 
 
 
Star. Other U.S. media outlets picking up Ambassador Hall's 
trip included the Miami Herald, Duluth News Tribune, San 
Luis Obispo Tribune and Bradenton Herald. 
OPENING A LIBYAN CORRIDOR 
-------------------------- 
 
7. From Darfur, Ambassador Hall traveled to Tripoli to greet 
the first U.S. food aid shipment transiting Libya on its way 
to Darfurian refugees.  In the town of Al Kufrah in the 
Libyan desert he met with Libyan government and World Food 
Program officials to witness the passage of a kilometer-long 
caravan of trucks carrying 6,540 metric tons of United 
States food aid to refugee camps in Chad. The event heralded 
a landmark agreement reached in August between WFP and the 
Libyan government that guarantees the safe passage of food 
aid and other humanitarian supplies through Libya to Chad by 
air, water and road. 
 
8. USUN-Rome PAO worked closely with WFP press officers in 
Rome and Nairobi to take advantage of the media potential of 
the Libya event. During a difficult time to attract "good 
news" coverage due to competing stories (Arafat's death, UN 
Security Council in Nairobi, a meeting of foreign ministers 
in Sharm al-Sheikh) the event nonetheless attracted 
journalists from BBC News, CBS, VOA, RAI TV (Italian state 
television), AP Photo, Radio France (NPR equivalent), LBC 
(Libyan Broadcasting Company), and TV Tripoli. 
 
9. Arabic and international news outlets covered the event 
with a positive spin. From the Panafrican News Agency: "For 
the first time, the UN World Food Programme is sending 
United States food assistance through Libya, along a 
humanitarian corridor across the Sahara desert, to reach 
nearly 200,000 Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad. `The human 
tragedy unfolding in Darfur and eastern Chad over the past 
several months has compelled us to respond,' said Tony Hall, 
US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture." 
All Africa.com web site and The Sudan Tribune picked up 
similar stories featuring the delivery of U.S. food aid 
through Libya. 
 
10. Wall Street Journal reporter Roger Thurow wrote: "The 
corridor also illustrates the huge challenge facing the 
international aid community in its efforts to help the 
people of Darfur, Sudan, one of the most remote regions of 
Africa. American sorghum, cornmeal, lentils, corn-soya blend 
and vegetable oil are arriving in the refugee camps as aid 
agencies confront the prospect of feeding nearly two million 
displaced Darfur residents for a least another year." 
 
11. Other international and U.S. media that picked up the 
passage of U.S. food aid through Libya included ABC, 
Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Washington Times, Reuters and 
BBC News. 
 
KEEPING THE STORY ALIVE 
------------------------- 
12. Once back in Rome, the Mission further broadened the 
outreach through three additional press gatherings done in 
cooperation with the bilateral and the Holy See missions. A 
digital videoconference (DVC) with USUN Geneva and Embassy 
Cairo gathered Italian, international and Vatican 
journalists to add further legs to our story. US Mission 
Geneva and USUN-Rome worked together with WFP counterparts 
to have two WFP senior officials in the room with 
journalists in Geneva. While online with Geneva, USUN-Rome 
also patched in a reporter with a leading Cairo-based Arabic 
newspaper, al-Ahram, to give an exclusive. 
13. A second DVC joined Ambassadors John Danforth and Hall 
with reporters at the Foreign Press Center in New York. The 
interplay among them broadened stories on Darfur written by 
New York-based journalists who often are more likely to 
focus on the shortcomings of the Security Council than the 
 
 
successes of WFP and America's role in promoting 
humanitarian assistance. 
 
14. Close to two weeks following our visits in Sudan and 
Libya, journalists continued to report on key points made by 
the Ambassador but not often covered by the media.  In 
"Darfurians Could Lose Land They Fled: Obscure Law, if 
Applied, Would Let Sudan Seize Acreage Abandoned for a 
Year," Emily Wax of the Washington Post, who accompanied the 
trip, quoted the Ambassador, "Even if you get the displaced 
to go home, they would not own their land anymore. They 
might have to rent it or be forever homeless. I think we 
would then see a conflict and death toll that would be 
horrifying.'" Other US papers reprinted her story. 
HUNGER BANQUET SCORES WIDE COVERAGE 
------------------------------------ 
 
15. On Thanksgiving Eve, the day after returning from Libya, 
Ambassador Hall hosted a reception that surprised us with 
the broad extent of world media coverage it generated.  The 
event was for permanent representatives to the FAO and 
visiting officials from Ministries of Agriculture who were 
in town for an FAO Council meeting. In an effort to 
underline the plight of the hungry and poor, USUN-Rome took 
the format used by Oxfam America to host a "hunger banquet". 
Guests chose color-coded cards upon arrival that separated 
them into three categories of wealth. The largest group - 60 
percent - stayed outside beneath a tent eating rice. A 
second group of about 25 percent ate rice and beans, and 
just a handful was served a full meal, complete with wine. 
After about 30 minutes, Ambassador Hall (who was with the 
group eating rice) gathered everyone inside to talk about 
the event and its impetus and then opened a traditional 
buffet. USUN-Rome PAO invited a small group of journalists 
to attend the event. 
 
16. International media picked up an Agence France-Presse 
wire story written by a reporter in attendance. The piece 
ran on page three in the International Herald Tribune and 
the front page of London's Daily Telegraph. The Ambassador 
spoke with several local and national BBC radio stations. He 
was interviewed by Spanish-based expatriate radio station, 
Radio Europe, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 
Stories mainly focused on the image of diplomats being given 
bowls of rice and asked to stand outside during a reception. 
The event was portrayed widely as creative and compassionate 
in thrust. 
 
17. Agence France-Presse reporter Denis Barnett led with "It 
was a Thanksgiving reception with a twist from Tony Hall, 
the US ambassador to the UN food agencies. and a zealous 
anti-hunger campaigner, Hall decided to try something a 
little different, even if it meant discomfiting his 
colleagues on the diplomatic circuit." 
 
18. David Blair of the Daily Telegraph wrote, 
"Distinguished diplomats were reduced to eating handfuls of 
cold rice yesterday when the American ambassador in Rome 
threw a Thanksgiving reception designed to remind the corps 
diplomatique of the scale of world hunger." Newspapers 
around the world, including the Sydney Morning Herald, 
Indian Express and The Age in Melbourne, Australia, picked 
up Blair's story. 
 
19. London's Sunday Times wrote a 1,400-word profile on 
Ambassador Hall and the Hunger Banquet. The Sunday Times 
mentions Hall's time in the Peace Corps, and writes 
extensively about a 1993 hunger fast in protest of the 
abolition of the Select Committee on Hunger, which Hall had 
helped to create and run. 
 
THROWING THE SPEARS 
------------------------ 
 
20. In a world where too often we end up taking the hits, 
 
 
this past month we threw the spears.  In concert with a 
coordinated media outreach plan, the Ambassador's activities 
in Sudan, Libya and Rome pushed forward U.S. foreign policy 
objectives - and met many of USUN-Rome's MPP goals. The 
Mission consistently reinforced the call for an immediate 
end to violence in Darfur with first-hand accounts of grave 
security failures.  We spotlighted the U.S. Government's 
role as a humanitarian leader in the worst of crises. At the 
same time we underlined the need for greater assistance from 
donor countries to support American efforts.  Most 
important, we succeeded in getting out a good story: the 
tremendous support of the United States for people in need. 
 
21.  Minimize considered. 
 
CLEVERLEY 
 
 
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 2004ROME04673 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED