Details continue to emerge on ZunZuneo, the notorious “Cuban Twitter” that was manufactured entirely by USAID as a US taxpayer-funded attempt at Cuban regime change. It keeps getting worse.
Far from just a social media network they figured would organically produce “democracy,” USAID actually went out and hired writers to come up with tweets mocking the Cuban government, and sent them around to Cuban users of the program.
USAID sunk $1.6 million into the program, which officially reached around 40,000 subscribers in 2012. They pulled funding that year, and the service disappeared pretty much immediately thereafter.
USAID chief Rajiv Shah defended the program as “critical democracy assistance” to Cuba, and confirmed that there are other similar programs targeting “a broad range of goals” in other countries, though he declined to name any of them.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D – VT), the head of the finance subcommittee for the program, dubbed it “dumb” when it was first revealed, and later declared it a “cockamamie” idea. Congress was never told about the program, and the money came out of aid earmarked for Pakistan.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ever a regime-change enthusiast, cheered the program, and condemned the media for “demonizing” it, suggesting it was exactly the sort of thing USAID should be doing.
It is a bad idea to systematically mix cia type operations with deplomatic missions and usaid. Only morons would run guns and revolutions out of an embassy or usaid. If you mix these togther to much you degrade the effectiveness of all three, aid, embassies and covert operations.
Methinks thou doth not understand the "real, non-public" mission of USAID…
For example, the Russians tossed USAID out of the country in 2012: "…On September 19, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused USAID of seeking to "influence political processes, including elections of various types, and institutions of civil society through the distribution of grants."
http://www.rferl.org/content/moscow-shuts-down-us…
One thing that stood out to me in this article was this statement: "USAID says it has provided "more than $2.6 billion toward Russia’s social and economic development" since 1992." $2.6 billion?? Imagine what that kind of money could have done here in the US. Seems to me there is a real disconnect between the leadership in this country and the needs of the people they supposedly serve.
Methinks thou doth not understand the "real, non-public" mission of USAID…
For example, the Russians tossed USAID out of the country in 2012: "…On September 19, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused USAID of seeking to "influence political processes, including elections of various types, and institutions of civil society through the distribution of grants." "
http://www.rferl.org/content/moscow-shuts-down-us…
One thing that stood out to me in this article was this statement: "USAID says it has provided "more than $2.6 billion toward Russia’s social and economic development" since 1992." $2.6 billion?? Imagine what that kind of money could have done here in the US. Seems to me there is a real disconnect between the leadership in this country and the needs of the people they supposedly serve.
This should surprise no one. If you read the comment section following most blogs (primarily those critical of Israel or US imperialism) you immediately recognize that a fairly high percentage of comments are left by trolls employed by the US government and Israel.
Here I was with the silly, naive notion that the Cass Sunstein "managed social media" was for domestic consumption only. Ha!