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?