good PR moves

If you're wondering what the spawn of Satan looks like, look no further.

Colleen Graffy, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy has a different view of the three men who committed suicide while being held at Guantanamo. While Rear Admiral Harry B. Davis Jr. (from this point forward known as Harry Rear) called it "an act of asymmetric war against us," Graffy is calling it "a good PR move". According to Graffy, these men did not value their lives or the lives around them.

"Detainees had access to lawyers, received mail and had the ability to write to families, so had other means of making protests, she said, and it was hard to see why the men had not protested about their situation."

Let's see. Maybe being held for four and a half years without being charged for a crime has led them to question the validity of the system and, as a result, the value of lodging a formal protest?

Besides, how would Colleen know? It's not like she has spoken to the detainees. Head over to the Pepperdine University site, where she shares her wacky experiences as a big media star with no ability to speak in Arabic and the strong potential for becoming confused about who is saying what.

“My political background as former chairman of Republicans Abroad for the United Kingdom and my legal background in public international law has resulted in a significant amount of media work as there is intense interest in U.S. foreign policy,” says Graffy. She adds that she finds it intellectually challenging and stimulating to get complex points across in a five-minute interview. “Probably the most difficult is Al Jazeera (Iraqi) television because I have to work with two interpreters -- one translating from Arabic into English and the other translating my English into Arabic. When the conversation gets heated, as it usually does, it is hard to keep track of who is saying what as it is the same voice for three or four different individuals!”

Speaking of good PR moves, Colleen, who advised you on this one?