ZunZuneo: USAID Funded 'Cuban Twitter' To Undermine Communist Regime 173
barlevg (2111272) writes "In a country where the government severely limits access to the world wide web, ZunZeneo, an anonymous SMS-based social network, drew more than 40,000 Cuban users at its peak, the Associated Press reports. On it, people shared news and opinions about music and culture. But what none of its subscribers knew was that the project was secretly funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), though a series of shell corporations and foreign bank accounts, and that its stated goal was 'renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society' in the Communist stronghold, hopefully leading to a 'Cuban Spring.'"
Oh goodness me, non-military means! (Score:5, Insightful)
How terrible the US government is, using the concepts of a free exchange of ideas to overthrow another regime!
Well, ok, to be fair in the US, most of those free ideas are scams, but it's still slightly better than bombs and poisoned cigars.
USAID (Score:5, Insightful)
USAID is suppose to be an aide organization. The moment they have to start laundering money they have gone off the reservation and entered CIA territory.
There is a place for clandestine operation to work against regimes we don't like, that is why we have a foreign intelligence agency, CIA. Our government is completely out of control and way to large this is just more proof!
Not only that it completely undermines the mission of USAID to have it associated with these type of shenanigans; its supposed to be about soft power, its supposed to be about building trust. Here we have one more department with in the government demonstrating laws don't matter, not ours and certainly not any other sovereigns. Shameful...
Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! (Score:4, Insightful)
How terrible the US government is, using the concepts of a free exchange of ideas to overthrow another regime!
I'm sure the Occupy movement would call them out on this hypocrisy.
Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! (Score:4, Insightful)
They hate us for our freedom. Underhanded manipulation of their local political system for our own agenda has nothing to do with it.
USA's attention to Cuba seems silly (Score:4, Insightful)
It's funny how butthurt they are about Cuba and how much effort they put into overthrowing Castro. It's like they don't have any bigger problems.
Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! (Score:4, Insightful)
How terrible the US government is, using the concepts of a free exchange of ideas to overthrow another regime!
I'm sure the Occupy movement would call them out on this hypocrisy.
Why? Occupy got it's message out.
Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:USA's attention to Cuba seems silly (Score:5, Insightful)
Batista was a U.S. puppet, and his cronies (who are now a significant voting block in FL) lost a lot of money and power when Castro came in. They want it back, and they want it back BAD. The U.S. will murder, commit terrorism, or do anything else to accomplish this goal.
The most shameful incident (IMHO) came in 1976, when a CIA agent [wikipedia.org] blew up a civilian Cuban airliner [wikipedia.org], killing 78 innocent people. And said CIA agent is still living free (and protected) in the U.S. to this day. The U.S., my country, openly committing terrorism for petty economic ends. Fucking pathetic.
Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! (Score:3, Insightful)
Not to argue, but it's not just our agenda. Freedom is the agenda of mankind.
Re:USA's attention to Cuba seems silly (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:USAID (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I hope this is BS (Score:2, Insightful)
If you've ever met anyone from America they will tell you that the outside world is nothing like what they are told on the news. How is that not propaganda?
I have met people from the U.S. Other than Fox News viewers-- most of whom, as far as I can tell, have never left the U.S.A.--many of them are reasonably well informed about the rest of the world, know people who have immigrated from other countries, and very often have travelled to other countries.
So I call BS on your post.
--on the original topic, I will say that I think that this is what the U.S.A. SHOULD be doing. Skip the CIA bullshit and the invade-other-countries bullshit and the sell-guns-to-groups-overthrowing-governments-they-don't-like bullshit. Support freedom of information? Yes, I can get behind that.
Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! (Score:3, Insightful)
Freedom to subvert using tax monies gained with no regulatory oversight within a foreign policy framework dictated by corporate interests?
Sign me up!