Santa Claus from Langley
Giver of electronic goodies worked for a CIA-run company, writer says
By Progreso Weekly staff
The American citizen arrested in Havana Dec. 5 for delivering communications equipment to as-yet unidentified Cuban citizens was working for a front company set up by the Central Intelligence Agency, says international-affairs analyst Eva Golinger in an article published this week on the Internet.
Golinger, a Venezuelan-American lawyer, researcher and writer, says the man "detained in Cuba – working for a CIA front company – was engaged in activities intended to directly harm and destabilize the Cuban government."
"[He] was detained while distributing cellular telephones, computers and other communications equipment to Cuban dissident and counterrevolutionary groups," Golinger writes.
"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 U.S. interests is clearly a violation of sovereignty and an act of espionage," the author says.
Golinger is familiar with Washington’s efforts to destabilize unsympathetic governments. Her book "The Chávez Code" deals specifically with U.S. efforts to topple the government of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.
To her, the CIA connection is clear. The man "works for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), one of the largest U.S. government contractors providing services to the State Department, the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)."
"Last year, the U.S. Congress approved $40 million to ‘promote transition to democracy’ in Cuba," she writes. "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 the U.S. 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 succumb to U.S. dominance."
Golinger goes on to describe how in August 2002 DAI gained a $10-million contract with USAID and opened an office in Caracas so it could fund "the same groups that just months earlier had unsuccessfully executed a coup against President Chávez."
Those groups included Fedecámaras, the Confederación de Trabajadores Venezolanos (CTV), and Súmate, "the principal opposition organization directing campaigns against President Chávez."
DAI also opened a local Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI), one of "USAID’s rapid response teams, equipped with large amounts of liquid funds and a specialized personnel capable of ‘resolving a crisis’ in a way favorable to U.S. interests," as Golinger describes it.
"Today the OTI funds more than 533 organizations, political parties, programs and projects, mainly in opposition sectors, with an annual budget surpassing $7 million," Golinger says.
The inescapable fact is that "Development Alternatives Inc. is a CIA front organization," the author says. "This organization, dedicated to destabilizing governments unfavorable to U.S. interests, has now made its appearance in Cuba, with millions of dollars destined to destroy the Cuban revolution."
"The detention of a DAI employee is a very important step to impede destabilization and subversion inside Cuba," Golinger continues. "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."
To read Golinger’s article in full, access www.chavezcode.com/
