Wikileaks, Internews, and USAID

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/wikileaks-reveals-us-spent-4726m-to-promote-covert-censorship-media-control-through-ngo/3476741

This linked article comes from a Turkish news source. As expected this Wikileaks revelation isn't getting a lot of coverage in the West.

Some are happy to see USAID collapse because of it ties to US intelligence operations. The article (in the AKP-aligned news outlet) mentions Soros and yet a closer read of the historical record reveals that far from being some agent of Internationalist Globalism or Socialism, George Soros was one of the American Empire's 'point' men in the 1980's and 1990's in Eastern Europe. As soon as the Berlin Wall came down, the US sought to consolidate power in Eastern Europe and worked with Soros and many others to subvert politics, create political parties, and spread money around to quickly shift the former Warsaw Pact nations into the EU and NATO. It was highly successful and played no small role in today's tensions with Moscow.

Yugoslavia proved problematic and the US would end up doing its part to foment a three-way civil war between Croatia, Bosnia, and the rest of Yugoslavia dominated by the Serbs - and later the final dismantling of the country and Serbia in particular. Soros played a role in this as well as the article indicates. From start to finish the dismantling and destruction of Yugoslavia was a US-sponsored project.

All that said, USAID is not typically involved in subversive operations - though at times it has been utilized by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, especially in Latin America (which ironically the American Right would support).

For the most part it is involved in humanitarian work but this is also misunderstood. It's not just money being given away - or thrown away as some see it. It comes with strings attached and in other cases the US Establishment understands that if a leadership vacuum appears it will be filled by someone else. And Washington doesn't want it filled by Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, or any of the states it is hostile to. The actual costs are peanuts given the leverage and footprint it affords the empire.

Some on the Left (and many Libertarians) celebrate the fall of USAID because it is/was an arm of US Imperialism. Again, this is true to a point.

Some on the Right (and many Libertarians) celebrate the fall of USAID because they view it as a fiscal waste and founded on misguided humanitarian ideals. The more extreme elements (such as within Trumpism) believe nations should simply submit out of fear. I question the motives of such aid but only the ignorant would see it as thrown away or wasted - that is from the standpoint of US power and interests.

For my part I do not lament the closure of USAID, nor do I celebrate it - especially knowing that in a Trumpite framework the motives are hardly pure or moral. I suspect in his simplicity, Trump sees it as a waste and yet has been manipulated by other elements within his administration - some of which have taken on a kind of hysteria when it comes to all things Soros, even though he has been and continues to be a US asset. That said, he has promoted Western Liberalism and as the American and European Right has abandoned Liberalism and is turning toward authoritarianism and outright fascism - it's not hard to ascertain the reasons for hostility. And again, with many of these folks, they don't believe in the 'humanitarian'-style imperialism that emerged in the 1990's. They believe in threats and force - what might be called a more naked imperialism.

Internews is a non-profit that receives its funding from all the big foundations that support outlets like PBS. It also receives funds from USAID. The great irony is that it supposedly supports 'independent media and journalism' but in reality the outlets it funds in places like Ukraine and Belarus are state funded - funded by the United States and other 'partners' in Western Europe. They are not independent and should they fail to toe the Western line, they would find their funds cut off. Internews is therefore something of a farce and a close cousin to Radio Free Europe and other US propaganda outlets.

The very thing these outlets condemn Russia for (funding state media and creating propaganda outlets) is the very thing they are doing - a point wholly missed in the Turkish article. Ankara's own record of media freedom and independence under Erdogan is pretty poor on this point. The fixation of Turkish media on this story drives one to wonder what kind of funding and connection the late Fethullah Gülen had in connection to these outlets - Internews and USAID? He was deeply involved in Turkish media and so it would make sense that USAID and Internews would work with him to subvert and undermine Erdogan's government.

And of course all of this is ignored by the corrupt and self-serving outlets that dominate Western media.

This latter point is of course a story in itself.