Is the USAID the New CIA? (+Info on NED)

[snappyturtle]

Plus: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/04/the-dangerous-absurdity-of-the-secret-cuban-twitter.html

Snip.....

Four decades ago, the C.I.A. launched a program in Chile to undermine that country’s President, the recently elected Socialist politician Salvador Allende. Part of the covert program included using the country’s main newspaper, El Mercurio, as a platform to besmirch Allende’s reputation and build opposition to his government. It worked. The C.I.A. also plotted with conspirators within Chile’s security forces. In September, 1973, amid gathering chaos, they made their move, going so far as to attack the Presidential palace to force Allende’s resignation. He committed suicide. Allende was replaced by General Augusto Pinochet and his right-wing dictatorship, and in the period that followed several thousand people died violently, from torture, summary execution, or both. In the Cold War logic of the day, all of this was seen as worthwhile, somehow, because Chile’s take down represented a blow to the spread of global Communism. Within the ranks of the C.I.A., the role El Mercurio played in helping bring about this state of affairs was regarded as a great success.

If ZunZuneo was meant to be today’s El Mercurio, what does that say about the evolution of U.S. foreign policy? The so-called Cuban Twitter is a step up from the darker and more absurd plottings of yesteryear, including C.I.A. schemes to kill Fidel Castro with exploding cigars or poisoned milkshakes, or to make his uniform disintegrate during one of his marathon speeches, leaving him naked in front of the crowds. But only just. Smart mobs—and then what? Was there a Cuban aftermath plan, if ZunZuneo had helped bring about what had eluded ten separate U.S. Administrations? Which private U.S. company would get the contract for that?

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The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) behaves in much the same manner as USAID. It is an NGO with Congressional 'backing' ($). Currently, the U.S. has 60+ NED programs running in Ukraine.

http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/eurasia/ukraine

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To me the activites of both USAID and NED are not unlike those of the CIA which in its infancy set up in Iran to destabilize the national support of Mohammad Mosaddegh to open the doors for the return of the Shah. WHEN will we learn?

[dlwickham]

1. I see no problem with the US government working against dictators like the Castro brothers

[snappyturtle]

5. It did damage....If you didn't have time to read The New Yorker article...take

a peek when you can.

[Mika]

9. I'm sure the goal is to bring freedom, liberty, and democracy to Cuba. Its what the US does.

[zeemike]

11. Before Castro corporations owned 80% of Cuban land

they want their land back...and that is the freedom they want for Cuba.

[RufusTFirefly]

12. And now 90% of Havana's fresh produce comes from local urban farms and gardens

Something has obviously gone horribly wrong there.

Perhaps USAID can organize some humanitarian air drops.



Don't worry Cuba! Help is on the way!

[Mika]

17. Obviously, Cuba has failed the Wall Street transnational food conglomerates.

[dlwickham]

15. Talk to some Cuban exiles

and they'll tell you anything is better than the current dictatorship

[Mika]

16. I talk to Cubans in Cuba. Lots of them.

My information comes from sources actually there - now - not to mention my own lyin' eyes.

If I relied on information from "exiles" then I'd believe that magic dolphins and angels and donato dalrymple rescued Elian Gonzales, and that he'd be working the fields in Cuba before Castro barbecued him for lunch.

You have no clue, if you suggest asking "exiles" about Cuba, now.

[dlwickham]

18. I'll believe those who were forced from their homes with barely the clothes on their backs

not the ones that are allowed to talk to foreigners

and certainly not people like you who are apologists for dictators

[Mika]

19. That's some seriously dark fantasization about Cuba you have there.

I feel very sorry for you. To live in such abject ignorance is a sad thing. So limiting.

I wish you all the best.

[RufusTFirefly]

2. Frankly, I always thought it was a distinction without a difference. n/t

[snappyturtle]

8. I think you're right! nt

[starroute]

3. The NED was created to do what the CIA no longer could

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/NED/Tibet_China_NED.html

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was established in 1984 with bipartisan support during President Reagan's administration to "foster the infrastructure of democracy - the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities" around the world. Considering Reagan's well documented misunderstanding of what constitutes democratic governance, it is fitting that Allen Weinstein, the NEDs first acting president, observed that in fact "A lot of what we [the NED] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA".


http://consortiumnews.com/2014/02/27/a-shadow-us-foreign-policy/

NED was founded in 1983 at the initiative of Cold War hardliners in the Reagan administration, including then-CIA Director William J. Casey. Essentially, NED took over what had been the domain of the CIA, i.e. funneling money to support foreign political movements that would take the U.S. side against the Soviet Union.

Though the Reagan administration’s defenders insist that this “democracy” project didn’t “report” to Casey, documents that have been declassified from the Reagan years show Casey as a principal instigator of this operation, which also sought to harness funding from right-wing billionaires and foundations to augment these activities.

In one note to then-White House counselor Edwin Meese, Casey endorsed plans “for the appointment of a small Working Group to refine the proposal and make recommendations to the President on the merit of creating an Institute, Council or National Endowment in support of free institutions throughout the world.”

Casey’s note, written on CIA stationery, added, “Obviously we here should not get out front in the development of such an organization, nor do we wish to appear to be a sponsor or advocate. … We would be pleased to make suggestions on the composition of the Working Group and Commission.”

[starroute]

4. And NED is chiefly funded by USAID

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_Democracy

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. non-profit soft power organization that was founded in 1983 to promote democracy. It is funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress, within the budget of USAID, the U.S. agency for development assistance, which is part of the U.S. State Department.[1] Although administered as a private organization, its funding mostly comes from a governmental appropriation by Congress but was created by The Democracy Program as a bipartisan, private, non-profit corporation.

[snappyturtle]

7. Thank you starroute....I couldn't remember where I read about NED

doing what the CIA had been covertly doing. Well, thanks for both of your replies.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. Obama, in his Prayer Breakfast speech, praised USAID and spreading Christianity around the globe.

Obama claims Christianity is "under attack."

Question is, is weaponizing Christianity a good thing, or a bad thing?!?!

[snappyturtle]

10. I didn't know that and now that I do, I am sorry to hear it. nt

[hibbing]

13. Confessions of an Economic Hitman

I recommend this book, it really opened my eyes to what some of these NGO's are really about.

Peace

[snappyturtle]

14. Thank you! nt

[malokvale77]

20. It's pretty much what I was thinking

Thank you snappyturtle. I really don't like knowing, what I suspected to be true, but there it is.

It is all such a shame on this country.

Kick & rec