An article published in the December 12th edition of the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/world/americas/12cuba.html?_r=1) revealed the detention of a US government contract employee in Havana this past December 5th. The employee, whose name has not yet been disclosed, works for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), one of the largest US government contractors providing services to the State Department, the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The employee was detained while distributing cellular telephones, computers and other communications equipment to Cuban dissident and counterrevolutionary groups that work to promote US agenda on the Caribbean island.
Last year, the US Congress approved $40 million to �promote transition to democracy� in Cuba. DAI was awarded the main contract, �The Cuba Democracy and Contingency Planning Program�, with oversight by State and USAID. The use of a chain of entities and agencies is a mechanism employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to channel and filter funding and strategic political support to groups and individuals that support US agenda abroad. The pretext of �promoting democracy� is a modern form of CIA subversion tactics, seeking to infiltrate and penetrate civil society groups and provide funding to encourage �regime change� in strategically important nations, such as Venezuela, with governments unwilling to subcomb to US dominance.
DAI was contracted in June 2002 by USAID to manage a multimillion dollar contract in Venezuela, just two months after the failed coup d�etat against President Hugo Ch�vez. Prior to this date, USAID had no operations in Venezuela, not even an office in the Embassy. DAI was charged with opening the Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI), a specialized branch of USAID that manages large quantities of liquid funds destined for organizations and political parties favorable to Washington in countries of strategic interest that are undergoing political crises.
The first contract between USAID and DAI for its Venezuela operations authorized $10 million for a two year period. DAI opened its doors in the Wall Street of Caracas, El Rosal, in August 2002, and began to immediately fund the same groups that just months earlier had executed - unsuccessfully � the coup against President Ch�vez. The USAID/DAI funds in Venezuela were distributed to organizations such as Fedec�maras and the Confederaci�n de Trabajadores Venezolanos (CTV), two of the principal entities that had led the coup in April 2002 and that later headed another attempt to oust Ch�vez by imposing an economic sabotage and oil industry strike that crippled the nation�s economy. One contract between DAI and these organizations, dated December 2002, awarded more than $10,000 to help design radio and television propaganda against President Ch�vez. During that time period, Venezuela experienced one of the most viscious media wars in history. Private television and radio stations, together with print media, devoted non-stop programming to opposition propaganda for 64 days, 24 hours a day.
In February 2003, DAI began to fund a recently created group named S�mate, led by Maria Corina Machado, one of the signators of the �Carmona Decree�, the famous dictatorial decree that dissolved all of Venezuela�s democratic institutions during the brief April 2002 coup d�etat. S�mate soon became the principal opposition organization directing campaigns against President Ch�vez, including the August 2004 recall referendum. The three main agencies from Washington operating in Venezuela at that time, USAID, DAI and the National Endowment for Democracy (�NED�), invested more than $9 million in the opposition campaign to oust Ch�vez via recall referendum, without success. Ch�vez won with a 60-40 landslide victory.
To date, the OTI still remains in Venezuela, with DAI as its principal contractor. But now, four other entities share USAID�s multimillion dollar pie in Caracas: International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), Freedom House, and the PanAmerican Development Foundation (PADF). Of the 64 groups funded from 2002-2004 with approximately $5 million annually, today the OTI funds more than 533 organizations, political parties, programs and projects, mainly in opposition sectors, with an annual budget surpassing $7 million. Its presence has not only remained, but has grown. Obviously this is due to one very simple reason: the original objetive has still not been obtained; the overthrow or removal of President Hugo Ch�vez.
This organization dedicated to destabilizing governments unfavorable to US interests has now made its appearance in Cuba, with millions of dollars destined to destroy the Cuban revolution. Ex CIA officer Phillip Agee affirmed that DAI, USAID and NED �are instruments of the US Embassy and behind these three organizations is the CIA.� The contract between USAID and DAI in Venezuela confirms this fact, �The field representative will maintain close collaboration with other embassy offices in identifying opportunities, selecting partners and ensuring the program remains consistent with US foreign policy.� There is no doubt that �selecting partners� is another term for �recluting agents� and �consistent with US foreign policy� means �promoting Washington�s interests�, despite issues of sovereignty. Clearly, all DAI activities are directly coordinated by the US Embassy, a fact which negates the �private� nature of the organization.
The detention of a DAI employee is a very important step to impede destabilization and subversion inside Cuba. This episode also confirms that there has been no change of policy with the Obama Administration towards Cuba � the same tactics of espionage, infiltration and subversion are still being actively employed against one of Washington�s oldest adversaries.
Now that Cuba has exposed the intelligence operations that DAI was engaging in (recluting agents, infiltrating political groups and distributing resources destined to promote destabilization and regime change are all intelligence activities and illegal), the Venezuelan government should respond firmly by expelling this grave threat from the country. DAI has now been operating in Venezuela for over seven and a half years, feeding the conflict with more than $50 million dollars and promoting destabilization, counterrevolution, media warfare and sabotage.
In an ironic twist, currently in the United States five Cuban citizens are imprisoned on charges of alleged espionage, yet their actions in US territory were not directed towards harming US interests. But the DAI employee detained in Cuba � working for a CIA front company � was engaged in activities intended to directly harm and destabilize the Cuban government. The distribution of materials to be used for political purposes by a foreign government with the intent of promoting regime change in a nation not favorable to US interests is clearly a violation of sovereignty and an act of espionage.
Development Alternatives, Inc. is one of the largest US government contractors in the world. Currently, DAI has a $50 million contract in Afghanistan. In Latin America, DAI is presently operating in Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hait�, Honduras, M�xico, Nicaragua, Per�, Rep�blica Dominicana and Venezuela.
At least eight U.S. citizens were killed on a CIA operations base in Afghanistan this past Wednesday, December 30. A suicide bomber infiltrated Forward Operating Base Chapman located in the eastern province of Khost, which was a CIA center of operations and surveillance. Official sources in Washington have confirmed that the eight dead were all civilian employees and CIA contractors.
Fifteen days ago, five U.S. citizens working for a U.S. government contractor, Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), were also killed in an explosion at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Gardez. That same day, another bomb exploded outside the DAI offices in Kabul, although no serious injuries resulted.
The December 15 incident received little attention, although it occurred just days after the detention of a DAI employee in Cuba, accused of subversion and distribution of illegal materials to counterrevolutionary groups. President and CEO of DAI, Jim Boomgard, issued a declaration on December 14 regarding the detention of a subcontractor from his company in Cuba, confirming that, �the detained individual was an employee of a program subcontractor, which was implementing a competitively issued subcontract to assist Cuban civil society organizations.� The statement also emphasized the �new program� DAI is managing for the U.S. government in Cuba, the �Cuba Democracy and Contingency Planning Program�. DAI was awarded a $40 million USD contract in 2008 to help the U.S. government �support the peaceful activities of a broad range of nonviolent organizations through competitively awarded grants and subcontracts� in Cuba.
DAI also runs a program in Khost where the December 30 suicide bombing occurred, although it has yet to be confirmed if the eight U.S. citizens killed were working for the major U.S. government contractor. From the operations base in Khost, the CIA remotely controls its selective assassination program against alleged Al Qaeda members in Pakistan and Afghanistan using drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) Predator planes.
A high-level USAID official confirmed two weeks ago that the CIA uses USAID�s name to issue contracts and funding to third parties in order to provide cover for clandestine operations. The official, a veteran of the U.S. government agency, stated that the CIA issues such contracts without USAID�s full knowledge.
Since June 2002, USAID has maintained an Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Venezuela, through which it has channeled more than $50 million USD to groups and individuals opposed to President Hugo Ch�vez. The same contractor active in Afghanistan and connected with the CIA, Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), was awarded a multi-million dollar budget from USAID in Venezuela to �assist civil society and the transition to democracy�. More than two thousand documents partially declassified from USAID regarding the agency�s activities in Venezuela reveal the relationship between DAI and sectors of the Venezuelan opposition that have actively been involved in coup d�etats, violent demonstrations and other destabilization attempts against President Ch�vez.
In Bolivia, USAID was expelled this year from two municipalities, Chapare and El Alto, after being accused of interventionism. In September 2009, President Evo Morales announced the termination of an official agreement with USAID allowing its operations in Bolivia, based on substantial evidence documenting the agency�s funding of violent separtist groups seeking to destabilize the country.
In 2005, USAID was also expelled from Eritrea and accused of being a �neo-colonialist� agency. Ethiopia, Russia and Belarus have ordered the expulsion of USAID and its contractors during the last five years.
Development Alternatives, Inc. is one of the largest U.S. government contractors in the world. The company, with headquarters in Bethesda, MD, presently has a $50 million contract with USAID for operations in Afghanistan. In Latin America, DAI has operations and field offices in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
This year, USAID/DAI�s budget in Venezuela nears $15 million USD and its programs are oriented towards strengthening opposition parties, candidates and campaigns for the 2010 legislative elections. Just two weeks ago, President Ch�vez also denounced the illegal presence of U.S. drone planes in Venezuelan airspace.
Can you imagine what kind of Holy Hell-Fire there would be in America if it was known that a foreign Government was pouring millions of dollars into guiding our electoral process?It's beyond me why other countries would accept these CIA front groups.They have only one purpose,destabalization,and regime change.