Afrasianet - USAID is collapsing and exposing a giant network of "independent" U.S.-funded media. It also reveals the funding of institutions that have no function but to destroy communities, families and social cohesion. 

An investigation published by Mintpressnews  by Alan McLeod talked about the relationship between the defunding of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the collapse of hundreds of media outlets around the world. He revealed the true agenda of USAID.

The Trump administration's decision to cut funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development  (USAID) has pushed hundreds of so-called "independent" media into crisis. Thus, he exposed a global network of thousands of journalists, all working to advance American interests in their home countries.

In late January, President Trump, along with the help of the head of the Government Efficiency Department, Elon Musk, began implementing sweeping changes to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on the assumption that the organization's promotion of liberal and progressive causes was a huge waste of money.

The agency's website and account in the X app have disappeared amid widespread speculation that it will cease to exist, or be integrated into the Foreign Ministry, which is headed by Marco Rubio.

The immediate halt in aid caused shockwaves around the world, particularly in the international media, many of which, unbeknownst to their readers, rely entirely on funding from Washington.

In total, USAID spends more than a quarter of a billion dollars annually on training and funding for an extensive network of more than 6,200 reporters in nearly 1,000 news outlets or press organizations, all under the rubric of promoting "independent media."

With funds unexpectedly cut off, media outlets around the world panic, turning to their readers for donations, thereby exposing themselves as fronts for American power.

Ukraine is perhaps the country most affected by this sudden change in policy. While Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Ukraine Institute of Mass Media, criticized the decision, she revealed that nearly 90 percent of the country's media is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, including a number of media outlets that have no other source of funding.

Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief  of the Kyiv Independent newspaper (a outlet that receives money from Washington), denounced the decision. Last month, she wrote that USAID's freeze "poses a greater threat to independent Ukrainian journalism than the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian invasion." Since then, the Kyiv Independent has asked its readers to support a funding campaign to keep pro-American Ukrainian media alive. Other large Ukrainian outlets, such as Hrommadsky and Pehus Info, did the same.

Cuba's anti-government media have slipped into a similar predicament. Miami-based CubaNet published an editorial asking readers for money. "We face an unexpected challenge:  the suspension of key funding that has supported part of our work. If you value our work and believe in keeping the truth alive, we ask for your support." Last year, CubaNet received $500,000 in USAID funding to engage "young Cubans through objective, uncensored multimedia journalism." However, skeptics may visit the website and see few anti-communist talking points.

Madrid-based newspaper Diario de Cuba is also in tatters. Last weekend, the executive director, Pablo Díaz Espé, noted that "aid to independent journalism from the US government has been suspended, which makes our work more difficult" before asking readers to subscribe. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the United States has spent huge sums of money funding media networks in an attempt to bring down the government. Between In 1985 and 2013 alone, the broadcaster Marty received more than half a billion dollars.

Around the world, the funding freeze has put media outlets at risk of immediate closure. Burmese organizations have already begun layoffs. About 200 journalists are believed to be paid directly by USAID. Wona Khawar New, editor-in-chief of Western News, told VOA: "We are struggling to survive. I can't imagine how people would get by without a salary to pay the rent."

A recent survey of 20 leading Belarusian media outlets found that 60 percent of their budgets come from Washington. Speaking about USAID funding stoppage, Natalia Belikova of the Belarusian Press Club warned that "they are at risk of fading and gradually disappearing."

In Iran, U.S.-backed media have already been forced to lay off workers. A BBC Persian report noted that more than 30 Iranian groups held a crisis meeting to discuss how to respond to aid cuts.

As in Iran, Nicaragua's anti-government media rely heavily on subsidies from Washington. The US-backed organization Nicaragua Investiga condemned Trump's decision, calling it a "serious blow" against media outlets that "rely heavily on the support they provide, financially and technically, by agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development."

Another country flooded with Western NGO funds is Georgia. On January 30, Georgia Today noted that USAID funding was a "cornerstone." She warned that a range of organizations would close their doors immediately and forever without a steady flow of funds.

Similar reports have emerged from Serbia and Moldova, and from Latin America. Meanwhile, social media users noted that a group of the most prominent anti-China voices on their own platforms had been "strangely" silent since the closure of the Agency for International Development.

Therefore, USAID's funding cut-off highlighted that the United States deliberately created a huge network of thousands of journalists around the world, each producing pro-American content.

Some USAID-backed journalists openly admit that its funding dictates its production and the stories it covers or doesn't cover. Leila Pekcić, chief executive of the Center for Investigative Reporting (a Bosnian organization supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development), admitted to the cameras that "if you're getting funding from the U.S. government, there are certain topics that you wouldn't seek to address simply because the U.S. government has its interests that come above everything else."

USAID influences global media and communications in much deeper ways than just sponsoring news outlets. In March, a 97-page document was obtained from USAID.

 The document revealed a wide-ranging process of censorship and repression of a number of social media, including X, Facebook, Twitch, Reddit, 4Chan, Discord and other sites, enabling users to build communities and develop opinions and perspectives that challenge official narratives of the U.S. government.

The U.S. Agency for International Development justified its decision to censor the platforms by saying they were seeking to stem the flow of disinformation. But the concept of "disinformation" means disturbing facts that the U.S. government prefers the public not to know.

The document makes it clear that its main concern is not China or Russia, but its local population.

But USAID isn't the only government institution trying to dominate global narratives, with the National Finance Foundation for Democracy (which is also said to be in Musk's crosshairs) sponsoring media outlets around the world.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department deploys a giant secret army of at least 60,000 people, tasked with influencing public opinion, and the majority do so through their own keyboards. A 2021 Newsweek report described the operation as "the largest covert force the world has ever known."

The X files revealed the Defense Department's mysterious actions. It showed how the Defense Department worked with the app to implement a Washington-run influence project across the Middle East, even as the app claimed it was working to shut down foreign-backed disinformation operations.

Investigations from MintPress News  revealed how the highest levels of social media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, TikTok and Reddit, are filled with former officials from the CIA, USAID and other national security agencies.

Some may wonder about the problem with receiving funds from USAID in the first place. Proponents of the organization say it does a lot of good around the world, helping to vaccinate children or provide clean drinking water. Given the organization's location (which no longer exists), one might assume that it is a charitable group that promotes progressive values. Explaining his decision to shut down the organization, Musk called it "a snake nest for far-left Marxists who hate America."

However, this is far from the truth. Indeed, since its inception, USAID has consistently targeted leftist and non-aligned governments, especially in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

In 2021, USAID was a key player behind a failed color revolution (pro-American rebellion) in Cuba. The foundation has spent millions of dollars in funding and training for musicians and activists on the island, organizing them into an anti-communist revolutionary force.

USAID has also created a number of clandestine apps, aimed at regime change. The most famous was the Zonzonio app, often described as "Cuba's Twitter." The idea was to create a successful messaging and news app to dominate the Cuban market, then slowly feed the population with anti-government propaganda and direct them to protests and "smart crowds," aimed at igniting a color-style revolution.

In an attempt to conceal its ownership of the project, the US government held a secret meeting with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to entice him to invest in it. It is unclear to what extent Dorsey contributed to the project, as he refused to talk about it.

In 2014, USAID's program in Cuba was again revealed. This time, the organization was running mock HIV prevention workshops as a cover for intelligence gathering and recruiting a network of operatives on the island.

In Venezuela, too, USAID has acted as a force for regime change. It was closely involved in the failed 2002 coup against President Hugo Chávez, funding and training key coup leaders in the run-up to the insurgency. Since then, it has consistently tried to undermine Venezuelan democracy, including funding proclaimed President Juan Guaidó. It was even at the center of a disastrous stunt in 2019 where U.S.-backed figures tried to drive trucks full of agency-sponsored "aid." U.S. International Development to the country, only to set fire to the shipment and blame the government.

In an effort to eliminate the threat of socialism, USAID agents are also known to have taught torture techniques to right-wing dictatorships in Latin America. In Uruguay, USAID's Dan Mitrion taught police how to use electricity in sensitive areas of the body, use drugs to induce vomiting and advanced psychological torture techniques. Mitterion wanted to experiment on living people, so he would kidnap beggars from the streets and torture them to death.

Guatemala's notorious police, complicit in the country's Mayan genocide, relied heavily on USAID for training. By 1970, at least 30,000 police officers had undergone counterinsurgency training, organized and paid for by USAID.

USAID was more involved in the Peruvian genocide in the 1990s. Between 1996 and 2000, Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori ordered the forced mass sterilization of 300,000 women, most of them indigenous. USAID has donated about $35 million to the program, which is now widely understood as genocide. No U.S. official has faced any legal accountability.

USAID's beginnings date back to 1961, when national liberation movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia were fighting for independence. Progressive revolutions, such as the one in Cuba, inspired the world, and communist states, such as the Soviet Union, were developing rapidly, challenging US hegemony.

USAID was established as a counterweight to all this, in an effort to support conservative and pro-American governments. Since its inception, the agency has worked alongside the CIA.

Ultimately, this information reveals that our media is not free, but dominated by powerful interests. The most powerful is the United States Government. For Washington, controlling public discourse is just as important as controlling the seas or skies. That's why the government is investing billions of dollars in doing so.

Uncovering USAID's funding of a vast network of journalists around the world, and shaping narratives in favor of U.S. interests, would highlight the fact that we are swimming in an ocean of propaganda, and most of us don't realize it. The United States is spending billions of dollars to advance its interests and discredit China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and their other enemies, all in an attempt to control our reality.

While USAID, as an organization, appears to have officially disappeared and subordinated to the State Department, Secretary of State Rubio said a number of its functions would continue as long as they were consistent with the "national interest" rather than "charity." As such, it likely won't be long before the tap of money returns to these pro-American outlets. Yet USAID's demise, at least, has had one good effect, exposing vast swathes of global media For what it is: imperialist propaganda projects of the United States.

The agency can continue with multiple tenders

USAID will prioritize LGBTQI+ organizations (i.e., organizations led by  LGBTQI+ people themselves, in which the majority of staff and board members make up the diversity of LGBTQI+ communities) and/or LGBTQI+  coalitions that lead regional/multi-country activities in countries where the agency is present. The Agency will consider applications from U.S. organizations and organizations based in developed and northern countries led by LGBTQI+ and/or organizations not led by LGBTQI+ in the absence of competing concept notes from a regional/sub-regional partner.

The Trump administration said the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has funneled huge amounts of money into diversity, justice and equality ( DEL) and LGBTQ programs into "waste" and "abuse" activities for decades.

In a statement Monday, the White House stated that USAID was "unaccountable to taxpayers while passing large sums of money" to "trivial — and in many cases, malign — projects of established officials," with minimal oversight.

The list of "waste" and "abuse" included $1.5 million to promote justice, equity and equality (DEI) in the workplace and business communities in Serbia, $47,000 for a "transgender" opera in Colombia, and $32,000 for a "transgender" comic book in Peru.

It added $2 million for sex reassignment, " LGBTQ activity" in Guatemala and "hundreds of thousands of dollars" of a nonprofit with links to "designated terrorist organizations" — even after an investigation was opened by an inspector general — were also included in the list.

She noted that the list "continues", adding that "waste, fraud and abuse continue.

It may be said that it could end now" under U.S. President Donald Trump. But it is certain that it will take other forms and in missions focused on sabotaging values and ideas that contradict the orientations of the American duo "  Trump-Musk".