"Suggestions that this was a covert program are wrong. Congress funds democracy programming for Cuba to help empower Cubans to access more information and to strengthen civil society," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday, adding that outlays for the project had been debated and approved by Congress.
An investigation by the Associated Press revealed Thursday that the US concealed its links to the project, which was apparently aimed at fomenting unrest on the communist-led island.
The service, dubbed ZunZuneo for the slang term of a Cuban hummingbird's tweet, was reportedly funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2009 to 2012, and appeared to have taken advantage of the thirst for information in the country, reaching 40,000 subscribers during its peak.
USAID reportedly kept the funding source of the service hidden from Cuban authorities by recruiting unsuspecting executives with no ties to the US government and using an offshore Cayman Islands bank account.
Cuban President Raul Castro lifted restrictions on the ownership of mobile phones in 2008. Since last year, a total of 137 public Internet access points have been opened on the island, but one hour online costs $4.50, while the average local salary is equivalent to about $20 a month.
USAID spokesman Matt Herrick on Thursday praised the agency's programs in Cuba and noted that their actions have been reviewed by Congress, which found that they complied with US law.
"USAID is a development agency, not an intelligence agency, and we work all over the world to help people exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms, and give them access to tools to improve their lives and connect with the outside world," he told AP.
[ria.ru]
4/4/14
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QUESTION: So was Secretary Clinton aware of this program and did she authorize it?.....
ReplyDeleteMS. HARF: Well, first, why don’t I make some comments about the overall story and then I’ll get into your specific question.
QUESTION: Okay.
MS. HARF: The first is that I do think that there – in this, I think, rather – no offense – breathlessly written story, there were a number of misconceptions in this story about what this program was and what it was not. I’m happy to go through those in detail today.
The first being, of course, the most important: that there was nothing classified or covert about this program. Discreet does not equal covert. Having worked for almost six years at the CIA and now here, I know the difference. So I’m happy to go into that in a little more detail as well.
In terms of why we undertake these programs, because we have been very clear, as has Congress, that it is important to support the Cuban people, to provide them with platforms for expression. That’s what we were doing. This was a platform. We were not generating political content of any kind on this platform. We were letting the Cuban people do that themselves. In these kind of hostile environments, for the safety of the people working on these programs, indeed for them to be effective, we believe we must be discreet in doing so.
In terms of your specific question, it is my understanding that this did not reach the Secretary’s office, either the previous Secretary of State. Obviously this ended before Secretary Kerry came in. He also was unaware of this program. It went through the normal USAID chain in terms of approval as well.
So I’m happy to dig into some of the details here if you’d like to ask them.
QUESTION: Sure. Well, I just want to say if you could first start out by characterizing what you say are some of the inaccuracies in the report.
MS. HARF: Mm-hmm. Well, the notion that this is covert or secret. I think you’ve seen a lot of reports picking up on your story today that say secret, covert action that we were running in Cuba. That is by far not the case.
Covert action, which you can find defined in Title 50 of the U.S. Code, includes among other things the fact that you can legally and you do legally deny it. That was not the case here. The documents associated with the contracting companies were not classified. If you asked directly the contractors or the people who were aware that we were funding it if they were working for the United States Government, they would have said yes. They would not deny it. Covert action by definition includes the ability and the need to legally deny it.
So I think the tone of this story that this was somehow secret, that this was somehow covert, is just not correct..........http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/04/224386.htm#CUBA
3/4/14