"Social media program in Cuba under investigation" by Jack Gillum and Desmond Butler | Associated Press July 18, 2014
WASHINGTON — The inspector general for the nation’s international aid agency is probing a once-secret Obama administration program that created a social media network in Cuba, the Associated Press has learned.
The review centers on the US Agency for International Development’s Twitter-like service in Cuba, which was meant to circumvent Internet restrictions on the island and undermine the government. USAID has been criticized for using the program to conduct overt political messaging and for not fully informing Congress about the scope of its work there.
They also collected all the data from the users.
The inquiry follows an AP investigation in April that revealed the existence of the ‘‘Cuban Twitter,’’ known as ZunZuneo. That report found USAID contractors deployed the primitive text-messaging service by hiding sources of taxpayer money and not telling subscribers it was backed by the US government or that it gathered private user data for political purposes.
USAID’s inspector general confirmed Thursday it was focusing on the Cuban Twitter program and that it’s examining in part whether appropriate management controls — including proper oversight of ZunZuneo — were in place. It said it plans to publish its findings when the review is complete. Inspectors general act as auditors within federal agencies.
The Obama administration has said ZunZuneo was not covert but ‘‘discreet,’’ and that it served an important, nonpolitical purpose.
What lying sphincters!
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Related: U.S. AIDed Attempted Coup in Cuba
That's why they turned toward the Russians.
"Russia eases Cuba debt burden" by Anna Andrianova and Bill Faries | Bloomberg News July 12, 2014
MOSCOW — Russia agreed to write off 90 percent, or almost $32 billion, of Cuba’s Soviet-era debt as President Vladimir Putin arrived on the Caribbean island on Friday to meet with President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel.
The agreement was signed into law by Putin hours before he landed in Cuba, 90 miles from Florida. The accord was passed by the lower house of Parliament July 4 and approved by the upper chamber two days ago. In 2010, Cuba and North Korea together accounted for more than half of all foreign assets claimed by the Russian government.
With Russia mired in a standoff with Ukraine, Putin kicked off a six-day tour of Latin America by offering joint ventures and throwing a lifeline to former Cold War ally Cuba, where economic growth has ground to a halt. In March, Cuba became one of 11 countries in the 193-member United Nations General Assembly to reject a US-backed resolution declaring invalid Crimea’s referendum to secede from Ukraine.
That can't be! My regional flag$hit paper and ma$$ media keeps telling me it was an annexation!
‘‘Cuba is one of Russia’s leading partners in the region’’ with which ‘‘we closely coordinate our foreign policy,’’ Putin said Thursday. While ‘‘our bilateral trade has slowed somewhat in the 1990s,’’ Russia is ‘‘ready to make up this lost ground.’’
Russia has been accused by Ukraine of stoking a three-month rebellion by pro-Moscow rebels in the east of the country after its annexation of Crimea in March.
Right back to distorting and lying less than two paragraphs later, huh?
Former Soviet republics Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia signed association pacts with the European Union last month, choosing closer ties with the 28- nation bloc in the face of possible economic measures from Russia.
Putin will also visit Argentina and Brazil. His trip is the second by a high-profile Russian official after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was in Cuba last year.
Raul Castro, 83, has vowed to step down after his term ends in 2018, while 87-year-old Fidel Castro is seldom seen in public.
Raul Castro has worked to diversify Cuba’s economy as its ally and benefactor Venezuela struggles with a faltering economy and antigovernment protests. Cuba took about 90,000 barrels a day of subsidized oil from Venezuela in 2013, according to state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
You can decide for yourself if the Globe's Venezuela coverage is adequate.
Under the terms of its deal with Russia, Cuba will pay back the $3.5 billion remainder of its debt during a 10-year period, transferring money to a special account opened by Russian state development lender Vnesheconombank, known as VEB, at the National Bank of Cuba. VEB plans to use the funds for projects in Cuba.
Two years ago, Russia struck a similar deal with North Korea, writing off 90 percent of its $11 billion debt that dated to the Soviet period. The remaining 10 percent will be settled via joint projects in health care, education, and energy, according to the Russian Finance Ministry.
During Putin’s visit, state oil producers Rosneft and Zarubezhneft plan to sign an agreement with Cuban company Cupet to carry out joint operations in Cuba’s offshore areas. Russian companies are also interested in work at the Mariel special economic zone near Havana, according to Putin.
A senior military official in Moscow said two years ago that Russia was in talks to set up resupply bases in Cuba after undertaking its biggest military overhaul since the Soviet era.
A new Cuban missile crisis?
Under the deal that ended the 1962 Cuban crisis, the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles on the island and pledged not to station offensive weapons.
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Related: Putin's Approval Rating Rising Worldwide
Yeah, right, he is real unpopular in Latin America and the world.
Also see: Malaysian Flight Shot Down Over Ukraine
Related(?): 9/11 Hijacker Heads Home
"American who hijacked jet to Cuba gets 20 years" by Curt Anderson | Associated Press July 18, 2014
MIAMI — An American who returned from Cuba decades after hijacking a jetliner to the communist island was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in a US prison but will be eligible for early release on parole, an acknowledgement by prosecutors of the years he spent behind bars in Cuba.
US District Judge K. Michael Moore imposed the sentence Thursday on William Potts Jr., 57, for the 1984 hijacking of the Piedmont Airlines flight en route from New York to Miami. Potts pleaded guilty to a kidnapping charge, which was substituted by prosecutors for a previous air piracy charge that would have required Potts to serve a minimum of 20 years.
This way, Potts should get out on parole after serving almost seven years. Assistant US Attorney Maria Medetis said that was the government’s way of giving Potts credit for 13 years he served in Cuba.
Potts apologized in court and said he is no longer the self-described angry black militant, calling himself ‘‘Lieutenant Spartacus,’’ who claimed in a note to a flight attendant that he planned to blow up the flight unless it was diverted to Cuba.
Potts returned to the United States last year hoping to resolve the case so he could spend time with his two children, who moved from Cuba to this country earlier.
And the U.S. threw him in jail.
Moore, who could have put Potts behind bars for life, said prosecutors made a major concession by filing the reduced charge to give Potts a relatively light sentence.
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Time for me to fly (‘‘Paying more is the new norm.’’).
