This article discusses the:

State Department's "speakers program," which sends U.S. specialists abroad or arranges for them to speak to foreign audiences via digital video conference... Nine officers from the New York City Police and Fire departments were dispatched abroad to talk about their moving 9/11 experiences, but none was sent to a Muslim nation...

Many of the speakers... have either publicly minimized the threat posed by bin Ladenism or criticized the Bush administration's anti-terror or Middle East policies. Advocates of these positions -- while legitimate in a domestic political debate -- are hardly the sort of messengers the administration should want to promote in its diplomacy abroad.

The author goes on to say that the speakers shouldn't just be shills, but at the same time they shouldn't give aid to the enemy. I somewhat agree, unless somehow these people who are sent are Useful Idiots to us in some way or another.

I also think the author puts too much emphasis on policy issues. I've got a phrase for ya: Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak.

While it'd be good to convince our enemies or those on the fence using well-reasoned logical arguments, and that might be the way to reach the Muslim elites, a smart selling of America as a brand would work wonders.