Somalia - PD Activities Update, February 2

UNCLAS NAIROBI 000115 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/RSA, AF/PD, AND AF/E ALSO FOR S/CT ZROTHSCHILD ALSO FOR IIP/CTCC MAUSTEIN AND JVANDEVELDE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV SO KPAO PTER MOPS SUBJECT: Somalia - PD Activities Update, February 2 REF: 07 STATE 116686 -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Per ref B, Post submits the following update for the first week of February 2010. End Summary. -------------- PD Activities -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Somalia Unit, including the Military Information Support Team (MIST) dedicated to Somalia, performed para. 3-5 activities since the last report:: ¶3. (SBU) Somalia Unit met with the Minister of Information to review progress on the Transitional Federal Government's (TFG) outreach efforts. We emphasized the need to react quickly and strongly to events like the recent hospital shelling, even using low-budget tools like emailed press releases. ¶4. (SBU) PAO met for an off-the-record discussion with a freelance journalist who writes for TIME Magazine to discuss an extremely negative blog article the journalist wrote on one of the PD section's small grants in Mogadishu. The writer appeared to appreciate the outreach, and was very interested in the PD work being done by the Somalia Unit as part of the overall policy engagement on Somalia. ¶5. (SBU) MIST activity: Continued audience analysis for a planned Islamic lecture series, possibly on Radio Mogadishu. Also began developing a robust set of themes around which to base future programming. The team also added a staff member, to be dedicated to Somalia, on January 26. RANNEBERGER