WASHINGTON — The State Department said Monday it was reviewing some of its secretive democracy-promotion programs in hostile countries after The Associated Press reported that the nation’s global development agency may effectively end risky undercover work in those environments.
The proposed changes follow an AP investigation this year into work by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which established a Twitter-like service in Cuba and secretly sought to recruit a new generation of dissidents there while hiding ties to the U.S. government. The agency’s proposed changes could move some of that work under America’s diplomatic apparatus.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to elaborate on the plan Monday, saying it was “premature” because of ongoing deliberations. “We continue to believe we need to find creative ways to promote positive change in Cuba, but beyond that, we’re still assessing what any change or what any impact would be,” she said.
USAID’s proposed policy closely mirrors a Senate bill this summer, which would prohibit the agency from spending money on democracy programs in countries that reject the agency’s assistance and where USAID would have to go to “excessive lengths to protect program beneficiaries and participants.”
In turn, some of USAID’s high-risk democracy efforts would likely be moved under the State Department, according to government officials familiar with discussions about the policy who were not authorized to talk about the matter publicly. Other programs could shift to the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit group that receives money from the U.S. government.
The changes would prevent USAID from running programs such as the “Cuban Twitter” project, known as ZunZuneo. In that operation, the AP found USAID and its contractor concealed their involvement, setting up a front company, routing money through Cayman Islands bank transactions and fashioning elaborate cover stories.
The subterfuge put at risk USAID’s cooperation with foreign governments to deliver aid to the world’s poor. Last month, it pledged more than $140 million to fight Ebola in West Africa.
In a statement, USAID said it would continue to carry out democracy initiatives in “politically restrictive environments” and aim to be transparent. But it said the new rules would balance safety and security risks, which would align with the proposed legislation.
