Archives

USAID

FLASHBACK | Conservation International: Privatizing Nature, Plundering Biodiversity

"The terms “greenwash” and “corporate front group” seem inadequate to describe Conservation International. Perhaps, as the Papua New Guinean critique puts it, Conservation International is “no more and no less a ‘non government' organisation than is General Electric or Microsoft.” Perhaps it is time to consider a global campaign to expose this ‘green' giant's true colours and put a stop to its operations."

FLASHBACK | The American Plan: How to Destroy an Agricultural Economy in Haiti

As it turns out, CARE had become involved in what was a very deliberate undermining of the Haitian peasant economy, the cornerstone of a plan that the World Bank and USAID had designed. This is how it happened.

Protesta Popular Triunfa contra Presión de EEUU en Paraguay y Destituyen a Gloria Rubin

"La destitución de Gloria Rubin es una muestra más de la decadencia del poder imperialista de Estados Unidos en Paraguay, y un signo que por presión del pueblo los intereses regionales se afianzan sostenidamente en toda Sudamérica."

Who is Shaking Up Brazil and Why

"For example, on June 19 a photograph was published on the page of the Brazilian Facebook «Human Rights» community depicting the company’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg, holding a sign in English saying: «It’s not 20 cents! #ChangeBrasil!» It is well known that at the beginning of Zuckerberg’s entrepreneurial career the CIA established contact with him and financed his business. His working connections with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) are no secret either. So Zuckerberg’s incitement to protest after unexpectedly becoming alarmed by the increase in public transportation fares in Brazil is unlikely to be his own initiative."

USAID: A Front for CIA Intelligence Gathering

Public records show that USAID has long been a front for CIA intelligence gathering, as well as a conduit for CIA funding to foreign governments and agencies.

Nationalising Dignity: Morales’ Adios to USAID

"This recent “exercise of sovereignty”, as expressed by Morales, is consistent with the political trajectory of decolonising development since the indigenous leader came to power in 2006. The nationalisation of industries, the push for regional integration and repudiating Western intervention have been met with diplomatic aversion expressed by representatives of US foreign policy. Foreign aid channelled through USAID programmes, whether rendered directly to local governments or to non-governmental organisations, has been linked to destabilisation and insurgency efforts launched from such sectors of civil society as politicised trade unions, environmental groups and health networks."

Getting It Right: Hugo Chávez and the “Arab Spring”

"The new Libya has apparently placed racist atrocity in the pantheon of “human rights.” All those who wash their mouths with terms like “genocide prevention” have apparently left the room. With a new Libya come new spelling conventions: the correct way to spell “oppression” is now liberation. What part of this Arab Spring do you support?"

USAID’s Dubious Allies in Paraguay

"Researchers at the Paraguayan think tank Base Investigaciones Sociales believe that the reason for the additional USAID investments following Lugo's election was to prevent his policies from becoming too leftist—and to prevent his administration from becoming too close to Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador or Cuba. "The increased presence is not exclusively centered on bilateral support, but also includes more financing to a big diversity of actors, among them non-government organizations, business associations and cooperatives," they concluded in a report released last December."

How ‘Economic Hit Men’ Conspire to Impoverish the Third World with Aid (The Importance of Eritrea]

"Such leaders would grow immensely rich from kickbacks and amass political power particularly because unsuspecting masses ended up crediting them with initiating industries, highways, power plants, airports and dams. But their countries would end up with debts they could never hope to pay. Together with other “economic hit men”, Perkins helped to bankrupt such countries by making them remain greatly indebted. Consequently, the countries would become so vulnerable that they would readily accept such demands as dishing out military bases, voting along with the West in the UN, and giving the West unfettered access to natural resources."

FLASHBACK 2007 | Hijacking Human Rights | Human Rights Watch

"Indeed, HRW was created in 1978 as the Helsinki Watch (which later became HRW's Europe and Central Asia Advisory Committee) "at the instigation of Arthur Goldberg" with the start-up costs covered by a $400,000 from the Ford Foundation. Furthermore, as Bruce Montgomery (2002) observes their establishment credentials were fortified by Robert L. Bernstein (the founder of HRW) who "began by recruiting the establishment elite to give the cause clout and visibility."