US efforts to improve its image among Muslims since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are "not performing" and lack direction, the White House budget office has concluded. "There is no broad overarch in U.S. government public-diplomacy strategy. Because of this lack of a plan, programs such as this one may not be the most effective, both in the long and short term," the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said. The criticism was made public on a website established by the OMB and praised by President George W. Bush on Wednesday as a way to see "whether or not a program is working." The website lists the State Department's public-diplomacy programs, headed by longtime Bush advisor Karen Hughes, under the heading of "not performing." "These programs have had difficulty measuring their impact," OMB said. "Frequently, there is anecdotal evidence that a program is achieving success, but there is no formal data to support those claims." "Few of the State Department public-diplomacy programs links budget to performance," OMB said.
