State Department packs public diplomacy panel with controversial members

Secretary of State Colin Powell has signed off on a special public diplomacy panel packed with liberal opponents of the president – as well as with a Saudi-funded pollster and a former lawyer for a fundraising group shut down in 2001 for allegedly financing international terrorists.

The new 14-member Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World, a panel of the State Department’s U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, held its first meetings in secret July 8 and 9, without a public announcement of its members, the New York Sun reports.

Among the members: A former CNN official, donors to the Bill Bradley and Gore-Lieberman presidential campaigns, a dovish Israel Policy Forum figure, and two supporters of the Arab American Leadership Council Political Action Committee, which funded the campaigns of Rep. Jim “Sluggo” Moran (D-Va.) and former Reps. Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.) and Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.).

The membership was chosen to represent a “variety of different positions,” including Republicans, according to a spokesman, but some are concerned that the group may be politically biased against the president’s tough anti-terrorism strategy. Panel members need not file any federal disclosure forms.