Bush 'greater threat than bin Laden'

September 24, 2005

A PANEL reporting to the US State Department has warned that US President George W. Bush is seen in some Arab nations as a greater threat than al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, a US newspaper reported today.

The report by the congressionally mandated advisory panel, which found that "America's image and reputation abroad could hardly be worse", has been seen by senior officials but not yet released publicly, The Washington Post said.
A fact-finding mission to the Middle East last year found that "there is deep and abiding anger toward US policies and actions", according to The Post.

The Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy cited polls that found that large majorities in Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia "view George W. Bush as a greater threat to the world order than Osama bin Laden".

Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, a longtime presidential adviser, prepares to leave this weekend on a "listening tour" of the Middle East.

The panel's report warns that televised images of US policy choices - such as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the invasion of Iraq - reverberate across the Arab media and will "long haunt the image of the United States", the paper said.

The committee recommended a series of steps, including increased funding and staffing, to rebuild efforts to promote US culture and ideas - an essential task that it said has been eroded through bureaucratic shuffling and indifference.
In much of the world, the report said, the United States is viewed as "less a beacon of hope than a dangerous force to be countered", according to The Post.

The advisory committee was created by the US Congress in 2004 and charged with advising the secretary of state on how to advance cultural diplomacy.

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