2005-02-20

American Aid: Who Gets It And Why?

Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid ($3 billion every year), not sub-Saharan Africa. The budget cuts and the austerity measures that plague domestic spending do not bother aid to Israel. Americans are obviously second-class citizens.

USAID stands for U.S. Agency for International Development. Andrew S. Natsios, the USAID Administrator says, “I believe America’s foreign assistance both serves to accomplish our foreign policy objectives, and expresses the deep humanitarian instincts of the American people.” The USAID Yellowbook provides some insight into how American aid is spent. The Yellowbook “is a comprehensive listing of those contracts and assistance instruments awarded during a given year.” Currently, only the FY 2001 version of the Yellowbook is available. Perusal of the data in the Yellowbook reveals that the U.S.-based Freedom House was granted a $1.7 billion contract running between 1999 and 2001. Want to guess where the USAID spent the nearly $2 billion of American taxpayer’s money? Famine- and AIDS-affected Sub-Saharan Africa? No, it was in Ukraine.

Freedom House received a USAID contract to spend almost two billion dollars in Ukraine

Israel is the largest recipient of US aid ($3 billion every year), not sub-Saharan Africa. Israel gets so much aid because … Well, Hitler persecuted JEWS. A lot of JEWS died in the HOLOCAUST. JEWS have been persecuted for centuries. I know it sounds crazy but then truth is often stranger than fiction. Israel gets a lot of money and nobody can give a proper explanation why. Maybe it is because Jews complain a lot. An important objective of the American aid is to keep the world’s only Jewish state financially solvent. For more, read the article US Aid to Israel: Feeding the Cuckoo by Paul de Rooij.
Egypt is the second biggest recipient of U.S. aid. Egypt is the only country that can seriously threaten Israel’s security. It takes a lot of money to keep Islamic hotheads down. Keeping politicians and the media secular is not easy. Jewish businessmen like Rothschilds have earned an unsavory reputation in the country’s history. And, their wholesale takeover and genocide in Palestine makes Israel an obvious target. Only large quantities of American money can guarantee Israel’s safety.
The fact that the late King Hussein of Jordan was on CIA payroll has not been a big secret; not even during his lifetime. Like Egypt, Jordan poses a big threat to Israel. Apart from million dollars of cold hard cash, the CIA also provided female companions. Interestingly, the current ruler of Jordan, King Abdullah has an American wife (as does Ukrainian leader Yushchenko). When he assumed the throne, it was commented in the American media that the new King was educated in the West and was more likely to have “friendly relations” with the West. However, the possibility of democracy in Jordan is still zero. Most Jordanians are sympathetic to the cause of the Palestinians and passionately hate the Israelis. And, the West are more than happy with their “friendly” monarch.
Every year, when aid to Israel is being allocated, American legislators fall over each other to make their pledges. The budget cuts and the austerity measures that plague domestic spending do not bother aid to Israel. Americans are obviously second-class citizens. Israeli and Jewish organisations fund the campaigns of many of these legislators but that is only part of the story. Legislators who question American aid to Israel are portrayed as “problematic” at best or “anti-semitic” at worst. Others who ascribe motives or document the meeting of minds are considered “whacko” or “loony.” When this does not work, a wide array of influential Jews in American media, business, and politics gang up on these troublemakers. Jewish money starts pouring in and a sustained slander campaign worry the dissenters until they leave the scene in defeat (Haaretz: Lobbying For the Pro-Israel Candidates).
The United States has troops in more than 120 countries. The powers that be in these countries have to be kept in good humour.
USAID does take part in AIDS relief but the amounts spent are nowhere near what the lucky citizens of Israel or Ukraine get. Under Andrew Nastios, the USAID has favoured prevention than cure. It has simply refused to spend money on antiretroviral treatment. Instead, it has programs that promotes “abstinence, faithfulness and the use of condoms.” Nastios opined that Africans “don’t know what Western time is” and thus cannot take antiretroviral drugs on time. According to Mr. Natsios, the problem is not with delivering antiretrovirals but that “there are no roads, or the roads are so poor.” Lack of roads have not stopped American prospectors from rummaging Third World countries for minerals but delivering drugs, yes, that’s a problem. He has also offered new medical evidence that antiretroviral drugs are “extremely toxic,” so that as many as “forty percent of people… who are HIV positive do not take the drugs… because they get so sick from the drugs that they cannot survive.”
It so happens that when the United States decides that a “peaceful” regime change is necessary in a foreign country, a lot of money flows into the coffers of opposition politicians, “free” media, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), terrorists, crime syndicates, drug traffickers, etc. Good examples of countries where the U.S. attempted regime change are Russia, Georgia, Belarus, Yugoslavia, and recently Ukraine. It is not known why Ukraine has risen so high in American foriegn policy priorities. The discovery of the huge oil reserves in the Caspian region could be one reason. Perhaps, Americans had a whiff of the oil much earlier than the Russians or the Russians deliberately suppressed the fact for a long time. Whatever the case may be, billions of American dollars are flowing into Ukraine. However, this largesse is unlikely accrue to ordinary Americans. American oil companies will of course be benefited, as oil prices are likely stay high forever.
A prominent feature of American-sponsored “revolutions” are election monitors, opinion poll personnel, journalists, politicians, and demonstrators, all of whom are “trained” by the U.S. embassy officials. It is not a wonder that they invariably support pro-Western candidates. The pro-Western candidates are also the obvious winners of their opinion poll and exit poll surveys. All of this undoubtedly unnerves the current rulers. The rulers then try underhand methods to win elections and use threats and assasinations to meet their ends. These activities are then greatly highlighted in the Western media. The amount of Western interference never gets a mention. When the incumbents do manage to keep their seats in an election, “independent” election monitors cry foul and “pro-democracy” crowd starts demonstrating.
The U.S. also gives aids to client states in Latin America to fight drug trafficking. These countries have traditionally used the aid money to fight leftist groups. There are insurgent groups supported by the U.S. or the goverment of the banana republic who also indulge in drug trafficking. But, the U.S. does nothing about them. In fact, money from this branch of drug trafficking goes on to support the clandestine operations of American intelligence agencies. Huge personal fortunes have been and are being made by American intel personnel and those working with them.
American prosties have been airlifted to several Latin American countries so that insurgents backed by the U.S. could have a good time in midst of their valiant struggle against Communism. I would have fought Communism if they had given me…
Sometimes, aid is given to a country if the money will go back to an American company. Arms manufacturers are one of the biggest recyclers of American foreign aid. Naturally, they are also the biggest sponsors of foriegn aid.
Foreign aid is sometimes used to create fake Utopias. One prominent fake Utopia is Chile. In 1963, Salvador Allende was heading towards victory in Chile’s presidential election. The then U.S. President John F. Kennedy encouraged US corporations to back his political stooge Eduardo Frei (late father of Chile’s current president, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle). U.S. corporations were encouraged to pour $2 billion in Chile through questionable business deals, for which the U.S. government arranged guarantees and insurance. Frei received millions of dollars, equivalent to half his election expenses, and won as a result. In return, American business ended up controlling more than 85 percent of Chile’s hard currency-earning industries. In 1970, Allende won the elections and was planning to nationalise several foreign-owned industries. The U.S. then put such a squeeze on the Chile that economy went into disarray. Having set the stage for turmoil, the US then deposed Allende in a coup carried out by CIA-backed Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The Chilean military later claimed that Allende had committed suicide but many suspect that he was secretly killed. After the coup, the military junta went to work and killed thousands of Chileans including those living abroad in exile. Having destroyed all opposition, Chile was run by a group of American economists who privatised social services, eliminated laws protecting workers and the environment, and virtually handed over the economy to multinational companies. When old age caught up with Gen. Pinochet, he was made Senator For Life so that he could remain immune from any future prosecution. When he went to Britain for medical treatment, an attempt was made by a Spanish judge to extradite him for crimes against Spanish citizens in Chile. The U.S. at that time claimed it was not trying to protect Pinochet but it did complain that prosecuting him could “hurt” democracy in Chile. Claiming soveriegn immunity, ill health and senility, the Gen. Pinochet escaped back to Chile, where the Chilean military continued to protect him. Recently, it became public that he laundered millions of dollars through more than 70 bank accounts he operated in North America.
Recently, the U.S. along with Britain has launched something called Vision 2020. It is notionally a plan for creating well-managed economies. In reality, it is a scheme for multinational companies to take over the world. To roll out the scheme in other countries, they have fashioned Chile as a showpiece Utopia where the scheme has already borne fruit. Behind the scenes, the Chilean “reforms” are being secretly bankrolled by the U.S. and Britain. The Vision 2020 scheme drawn by consultants McKinsey for India states that education and healthcare must be made available to everyone. Later on, they suggest that hospitals and universities be privatised and funded by “user charges” It pretends to extol small businesses but wants to “eliminate” the laws which defend them. It also wants replace small investors, who “lack motivation,” with “large corporations.” It claims that the scheme will “generate employment” in the countryside but nonchalantly suggests that over 20 million people be thrown off the land.
American aid is still at work in Venezuela, where it is being used against the popular President Hugo Chavez. In Indonesia, it is working to get the Aceh province separated so that Western mining companies can have better access to its rich resources. Their success in East Timor is a big inspiration. Communist Cuba is a big draw. Anti-Castro activities are a multi-billion dollar business, which makes Castro’s position even more safer. If Castro goes, these people will be out for a new job. Oh, I could go on and on like this. So, I will stop.

A visitor came from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which is supposed to be a hotbed of American “Neocons” including Richard Perle, Lynne Cheney (wife of U.S. Vice President), George P. Shultz (of Bechtel), etc. For more information on AEI, visit http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=American_Enterprise_Institute.